Cut and Cat, Beach and Bitch...it's all the same to the Spaniards

So it may seem a little curious as to why I'm posting so early in the morning my time, but I have a reason. This morning at five am I promptly knocked my glasses off my chair and heard what could possibly be the worst sound ever. I stumbled to find my glasses and found out that I had knocked the glass out of one eye, fantastic. A lot of things go through your mind this early in the morning when you have presumably ruined your day before the sun is even up yet. As I struggled to put the glass back in I tried to calm myself by repeating 'at least the glass didn't break', however, this doesn't settle the nerves completely. I spent about 15 minutes struggling to pop it back into place unsuccessfully. Now for many this might not seem like the end of the world, but clearly for me it was. I then had to decide how I was going to handle this: I could take them to the Rayban store on Goya but I'd have to wait until Friday at the earliest; I could call my wonderful eye doctor, but I would have a small window of time to do that in between jobs; or I could spend loads of money to send them home to have them fixed and then sent back, but that would take a month. Obviously, my stress was justified, not to mention it's just terrible to wake up to a dilemma like this. Seeing as my patience was already thin at this point, I did something out of character: I went for a run.
Yes, at about 5:30 in the morning on a chilly 0 degree (celsius) morning I dressed to go running through the streets of Madrid. Well, there wasn't a soul out yet which made the city seem so empty but peaceful at the same time. It definitely calmed my nerves as I passed through the same streets I walk every week. I found a new metro stop that isn't too far away, now I have a easier access to line 5. I ran to Calle Serrano which is the fashion district of Madrid, quite impressive. I'm by no means a fashionista, but I can recognize an impressive name when I see one. The street is filled with these such names but in the dark they look no different than the H&M's that litter my barrio. As my run came to a close somewhere around the seventh track on my Spice Girls playlist, I felt more at ease. I walked back into my apartment and straight into my room. This time my glass popped right back in, success. Problem solved and crisis slightly avoided.

Anyways, I'm clearly behind in posts so this will have to be a summation of last week. The previous Sunday was a great day for me. My co-worker in Rivas, Juanma, threw a small get together for a traditional Botillo de Leones. Essentially this is just meat, and more meat. He made some vegetables for me and Steve´s wife because we don´t eat that stuff. Gabriel, the music teacher at school, was also there and I finally feel comfortable around him now that we've actually had a conversation. The other guests included Conchi, his neighbor, Antonio, a subsitute from Rivas that now works at another school, and Steve and his wife Susannah. It was such a great crowd because it was small enough that everyone could share in the conversation. Antonio is Sevillan which means he´s quite dramatic in his ways At times it was a little hard to understand his accent but he´d act everything out anyways so I got by. The event went late so on Monday we all dragged, but it was worth it.
School in Rivas was nothing out of the ordinary, except the kids have now experienced my 'angry' side. Usually, I leave the discipline to the head teachers but last week I had just had enough. A few times the teachers left the room and the kids just went crazy, probably something in the water. So I'd count to five in my 'loud' voice and scare them half to death. Do they even know my father? They are getting off so lucky on this one. Yesterday I was asked by one of my little favorites why I was in such a bad mood after I raised my voice. Mary flat out told him it was because they were being 'maleducados' and it infuriated us. Its not an everyday voice but at times they talk so much that they can't even hear me speak to tell them to quiet down. It's funny though because no matter how mad you get, two seconds later they make you laugh until your side hurts.

Ok, this is officially the shortest post for all of you who complain that I write so much!

Negative: Thanksgiving away from home has finally started to settle in and there is nothing I can do about it.

Positive: Rocking out to "No Scrubs" in Raul's new car with Lisa and Emily.

If you speak Spanish, I'll give you a car

Such a beautiful day outside today, the weather is a decent 13 degrees and the sun is shining. I went for a nice long walk this morning to discover a new section of Madrid. The plan was to head towards Conde Casal where I catch the bus to Rivas but I was side tracked. Since the day Line 6 was closed on me I have been using the bus from Manuel Bercera to get to Conde. I decided to trace the bus' path on foot but ended up finding a new neighborhood all together. It was a very subdued area with lots of little shops and apartment buildings. From there I walked to the Atocha train station and found the hilly section of Madrid, who knew! I took some good photographs of my walk though, and since I've been slacking in that department I would say the off course streets were positive. I walked up Alonso XII towards Retiro and decided to spend another afternoon sitting by the water and people watching. The Fall foliage is really out and vibrant so I was in heaven. The park was crowded because the weather was nice so there were many things happening at once. I am wicked happy about the weather because it is one of the only weekends since I have been here that hasn't rained.

This past week was a little crazy for me on numerous levels. My adult classes have turned into a free for all. They've added new people to the classes so I have to go over a lot of the basics. One woman is in all of my classes Monday through Thursday, so now I can't use the same material. Usually what I could do in one day with the Tues/Thurs class would take me two classes to do with Mon/Wed. but now she's there so I can't repeat. This means a lot of extra work for me but it also means that one of the classes is going to miss out on some material. The other lady they added is quite special. I have already told the director that her and I are going to come to blows at some point. We're going to have problems because she is a disruption. She constantly interrupts the class in a negative way, whether it's that she answers her phone or she over talks other students, she is getting in the way. Also, she is not at the same level as the rest of class and it forces me to have to repeat my questions numerous times. Finally, the most problematic is that she expects me to translate everything for her; this is not my job. The director already explained this to me after one of my Friday students on the first day of class flipped out because I wasn't giving her the translations. Instead I am supposed to act things out, or work around them with other vocabulary to describe the word. I know this woman is going to get tired of this very quickly because she already spends a lot of class time speaking Spanish. I can just see this blowing up and it is not going to be pretty.

My little kids have been great for the most part. My Thursday tally was pretty funny: 2 kids hated me by the end of the day, and I made one girl cry. In my first class I made one girl leave her group in phys. ed. to join another so she got pissed at me, I laughed. In my second phys. ed class I made a six year old cry. She is always a pain no matter when I see her and on Thursday I had just had enough. This time she was taking the balls and hoops away from the other kids and not sharing. So, after 10 minutes of this and several warnings later I yelled at her to sit down. Oh boy, did the the water-works start! Finally I had Ricardo go over and explain to her that she has to listen to me and the rules of class otherwise she will no longer be allowed to participate. She came over and apologized so I let her play with her friends. Lastly in the final phys ed class of the day I had the eight year olds in 3C. Usually this class is pretty good but on Thursday everyone seemed to be acting a little strange. When it came time for the kids to get partners there was one boy and one girl left over. I forgot that at this age that is probably the worst thing to them in life and they both refused. I told the boy that he could either be partners with me or her, but I promised him that I'm pretty scary. He was still a little brat about it but he realized he had no choice. Then I continued on to explain what the kids were going to do for the class. As always I have to explain that if Elena or I am speaking and they are bouncing the basketballs they become ours. Well low and behold he starts dribbling as I'm saying all of this; I took the ball right out of his hand. By the time I walked back to Elena and turned around he was giving me the most hated death stare imaginable. Her and I just started laughing hysterically because I had just ruined his life: I made him work with a girl and I took his ball away. Man, I'm evil!
My 1B class has really taking a liking to me it seems. Whenever I'm not in class Maria, their teacher, says that they won't start class until they ask a million questions about me. Then when I do walk in they stop class to run up and hug me, so weird. Since when did kids start liking me? The other day on the way to the gym they had heard me say something to Ricardo in Spanish. Little David harassed me the entire way to the gym saying that he just wanted me to say apple in Spanish. I repeated the word only in English over and over again. So then he decided that he could bribe me. He offered me a car if I said apple in Spanish. He tried this tactic for a little while until his friend decided he had a better idea. Alvaro offered me his sister if I said "manzana"! I considered it but politely declined.
Finally, little Javi has a crush on me. He's the adorable "little monkey" in 1B that is too cute for words. On Wednesday I had arts and crafts with his class and they were working on still life drawings. I decided to make my own drawing because they were being really quiet and I had nothing to do. The teacher's desk is right near Javi's so we were talking. His English is pretty decent for a six year old, and he understands me very well. When he finished his picture he came over and stood next to me. Then I noticed him looking for a place to put his arm around me, and then as we talked I noticed that he had gotten to a point where he was practically on top of me. We continued talking about my picture and using English vocabulary, all the while with him leaning on me. Finally he got on his tip-toes and gave me a kiss on the cheek. It was adorable, my heart melted right there on the spot. So he ran back to his seat and I said thank you, to which he winked! This boy is absolutely hysterical.

I have yet to regret this whole teaching gig, which honestly scares me a little bit from day to day. Especially now that I know the kids pretty well and can read them I think we're all more comfortable with each other. Learning their names was key, but at the same time very difficult. Also, it's pretty funny when I say their names over and over again trying to get their attention and all the Spanish teacher has to do is say it once and they listen. They haven't figured out my accent yet, and especially with names they don't recognize how an American would say it in English. I try to pronounce them correctly but so far I haven't been that successful.

Negatives: Skipping over Thanksgiving and going straight to Christmas decorations.
Getting a racist lecture from an old woman in the line at the grocery store.

Positives: Booking my ticket to Porto for the few days before Christmas.
Finding an easier and faster route to work.

...But through all of this I was paid...in cash...in Euros...and twice!

So after much harassment I figured it was time to post again. In all fairness it has been a crazy few weeks for me. It all started when I got very sick two weeks ago and pretty much lost all hope of functioning like a normal person. I even left school early on Monday, I was that bad. I´m sure if you have been reading my blogs you understand how this is a very big deal for me considering I love being there. It took just about a whole week to recover from this little illness and I had many other things to catch up on as well. Also, to be completely fair, I neglected to write because I don´t want to have any incredibly negative posts. Unfortunately, my experiences that entire week were pretty terrible. I had an awful experience with getting a doctor´s appointment in the city, which is necessary to provide proof to my school that I´m justifiably sick. I went to three doctor´s offices all the while being miserable, and clearly I am not fluent in the language. I was yelled at numerous times for being in the wrong place and trying to explain what is wrong with you in another language isn´t always easy. Eventually, a very helpful nurse took care of everything for me, probably because she actually tried listening to me instead of writing me off as a foreigner. But I´ve moved on and will know for the future where to go and who to look for at the clinic.

For some fun stuff I should talk about Halloween here in Spain. Clearly it is not the same as in the States, however, over the last five years they have started to get into it more and more. The trick or treating aspect is lost on the city, but the costumes are enjoyed. My school celebrated Halloween on Thursday because they had Friday off from classes. Lisa, Steve, and I were given the task of creating a performance for all the kids to watch. We chose ¨Hansel and Gretel go Trick or Treating" and I was little Gretel. We made scenery and performed all day Thursday. I think in total it was about ten times in front of first through sixth, and they all seemed to enjoy it. Most of the time they yelled out things that we should and shouldn´t do (Example: we shouldn´t go into the candy house because the witch lives there, we didn´t listen). All of the children looked great in their costumes; mostly witches, ghosts, devils, and skeletons.
As for me, on Friday night I went out to see a Galician band play at a bar called the Irish Rover. Galicia is in the northwest part of Spain and has a lot of Celtic influence. Because of this, the band played a bagpipe for most of the songs. Now, unlike my graduation ceremony at good old AU, this bagpipe was pretty great. It fit into the songs well and it didn´t have that annoying feeling that is associated with these loud instruments. I really enjoyed the night because not only was the music fantastic but there were tons of costumes. The bar was packed solid with Spaniards trying their best of have a "Hachppy Hachloween" (try saying it out loud from the back of your throat).

Now on to politics: November 4th here in Madrid was decently abuzz with election chatter. All of the morning newspapers had information on how the election would play out as well as interviews with Europeans about who Americans should vote for that day. This was another reason from my disappearance from writing, I was quite upset about some of the things I read. First, I was a little perplexed at the misinformation Que decided to use, specifically when it stated that Rhode Island was a state that was definitely going to go for McCain. Now if you take a quick little look at our history we are the most Democratically consistent state. Even during the Reagan years we were not easily won over. The history of Rhode Island voting for a Democratic president is pretty steady so it was quite a shock to me that they reported it as "definitely McCain". Another article in Metro asked Europeans who we should vote for, most were consistent with Obama and gave various reasons why we should pick him. However, what really bothered me was the 26 year old Spaniard who said "[Americans] should vote for Obama, but McCain is going to win. Americans are racist and conservative." This infuriated me, and for those of you who have spent time in Spain can probably understand why; this country is quite racist themselves. There is hardly any diversity here other than Asians (whom Spaniards refer to as a whole as Chinos), Latin Americans, and a few Africans. These minorities are all treated quite badly and are never given a fair chance. The difference with me saying that Spaniards are racists is that I have actually lived here on different occasions. The majority of Spaniards have not been to the United States. So basically this guy was making an assumption about something that he has never seen or been apart of firsthand; very infuriating for me. Let me ask you a question, when was the last time Spain (or any European country for that matter) had a black person even run for President/Prime Minister?
On to better news, Obama won and the next day all the papers were filled with pictures and articles about the US. It was very exciting to be an American here because I got the sense that there was a lot of approval. No matter how anyone personally feels about Bush, you have to understand that being an American in a foreign country can be quite difficult with him as leader. Everyone associates me, the American, with him and his policies and often times that is met with anger. I completely understand that this is the role I take for being in a foreign country, however, it is not always easy to take criticism after criticism about someone whose policies I myself do not always agree with. For the first time since I´ve been abroad, including 2006, I am comfortable speaking English out loud in public places. I feel like I no longer have to work so hard to blend in because as of now there is a lot of support from Europeans. It is not something I can not completely explain because it is something you have to experience first-hand to really get a true sense of the feeling.

This is all for now because I'm getting on a negative spiral that does not truly reflect my time here. We'll chalk this up as my "culture shock" post and move on.

Negative: Taking a week out of my time here to be sick.

Positive: Making up new recipes for my continuing Pescatarian/Pescetarian lifestyle.