The Sardine is dead

This week may have been one of the longest yet to date. Besides the fact that I ended up working all five days in Rivas, it took me forever to recover from Cadiz. I even subjected myself to the endless comments about my glasses after deciding to wear them three days in a row. That's how tired I was.

I haven't mentioned my night classes so I figured now was as good a time as ever. I've cut down my classes to just three days a week. I have a group class Tuesday and Thursday, and then an individual class on Wednesday. My group class is made up of three people from last semester and two new ones. At first I was a little hesitant with a large group because many times the levels don't match up, but I love this class. We've actually been having some pretty awesome classes these past few weeks. I introduced them to an edited version of the "Never Have I Ever..." game. We were practicing the present perfect and past simple so it worked in quite well. They got a huge kick out of it and we spent a great deal of time laughing at each other from some of their crazy things. Most recently I started the 20 questions games with them and its caused some arguments. I told them can fight all they want as long as they do it in English! My individual class is with a fifty-something year old man who just had his first child at the beginning of the month. He hasn't been getting much sleep but still manages to come to class all energized. We are supposed to do grammatical stuff but he just loves to talk. Usually I get him started on one topic and we spend the rest of the class just talking about it. Recently, I learned that he's nervous that his son his going to turn out like him as a child because he was a little trouble maker. Him and his twin were known throughout their village for causing trouble. His stories are great and its nice to get paid to just sit, listen, and laugh at great tales. I'm really enjoying this semester at Mosaic a lot more because I actually like my students and I'm not as overworked.

Now, about my dear little school in the vast desert land of Rivas. On the way into school on Wednesday one of the teachers asked us if we were sad. She said some other words as well but since her English is terrible Steve and I decided to ignore her. (This sounds harsh but we have some issues with her, not to mention the next day she tried to correct our pronunciation on 'Hasta Luego' which is another story within itself) Anyways, upon entering school we noticed that most of the children were wearing black. I fortunately hadn't done laundry in about 3 weeks so I was wearing nice dress pants and a black sweater, so I fit right in. Upon investigation we learned that the giant paper sardine in the front lobby that the children had decorated would be burned right after lunch. So many things go through your head when you're told that there would be sardine sacrifice to symbolize the end of Carnaval. Where am? Who possibly came up with this idea? You're joking, right? But no, this was reality. This is my reality, I work at a school that has bonfires after lunch.
I'm veering, as promised we were led out to the sandpit playground on the side of the patio along with all 752 children. Everyone waited patiently until we heard it, the sound of the drums. The crowd looks in the direction of the main doors as 8 sixth graders carry the doomed sardine out on handles. Following them are four of our teachers playing the death march by saxophones and drums. If you still remember who I am and how I react to ridiculousness like this, please applaud me for keeping my composure. I fought back laughter during the whole procession because I feel it would have been inappropriate. Just when I thought the seriousness from the musical number was going to do me in, the students put the sardine on the skewer to be burnt. Goyo, being ever so handy, lit the poor 15 foot paper fish and there it went. Flames devouring ever last part from head to tail. After about five minutes of bonfire glory the children chanted to extinguish the flames. So let's see, how can we keep this in true Spanish fashion? Oh yes, use an extinguisher that once sprayed is taken by the wind and blown in the face of all the six year olds sitting down wind. I had to hear for the next couple of days that my students were not fine, they were feeling quite sick because if I had seen correctly they were the ones whose faces filled with hazardous smoke. How dramatic. How Spanish. How I love my life.
(for the record, if you doubt any of my stories from Rivas I have many available references.)

Oh, and the other exciting activity for the day? If you remember a few weeks back I had to show my 6 years olds about Valentines day and all its glory. Well in class I like to color with them and made my own picture. On Wednesday I finally finished the picture during my free time before lunch and decided how fitting the picture really was for the English room. I proceeded to assign us all characters that fit our personalities in one way or another. The end result? The picture is now online and the original copy is laminated for all to see. Negative: Grocery shopping at Carrefour on a Saturday morning, it makes you hate people.

Positive: Going out for sushi with everybody at school on Friday.

Cadiz 1, Melanie 0

So as previously mentioned I went to Cadiz to celebrate Carnaval this past weekend. Cadiz is one of the best places in Spain to go, along with the Canary Islands. It is original and quite popular with Spaniards. With this being said I made the easy choice of going with some friends, who had been before, down south. I left Thursday night and traveled by bus to the farthest point from Madrid. Seriously though, we were told many times that the distance from Madrid to Cadiz is the furthest distance from Madrid to anywhere else on the Peninsula.

So here is the summation of my trip:
Yelled at by the woman in front of me on the bus because SHE had put her seat back all the way into my lap.
Could not sleep on the 8 hour journey and wasn´t in the best of moods.
Arrived to our hotel in San Fernando to be told that we couldn´t check in for four more hours.
Wandered around until the doors to our amazing room were opened.
While taking pictures of the place discovered I was out of battery in my camera.
Upon checking my luggage realized I brought the wrong battery charger so there would be no pictures to capture my experience in Cadiz.
Did some sightseeing in the city that was pretty fantastic.
Had a great conversation over some delicious tapas for dinner.
Woke up early just to eat a buffet breakfast and go back to sleep.
Dressed as a gangster for the night.
Took a bus to the city center with a bunch of study-abroad-ers.
Danced and drank in a small plaza.
Admired many great costumes that took a lot of effort and creativeness.

Here´s where the story gets tricky. After many conversations on the subject a conclusion has been reached that something was put in my drink that made me really sick and my night ended there.

My overall impression of Cadiz as a city is that I must go back, it is some where that I need to experience again under better conditions. My impression of Cadiz at Carnaval is that it is too dangerous. I can not express how unsafe I felt trying to walk through the main plaza with people throwing glass bottles and everyone in mass chaos. I do not think that I will return to Cadiz for Carnaval next year because in all honesty I did not enjoy the end of the night.

I do have to state that Lisa was amazing the entire night. She took me back to the hotel and braved the shards of glass, the stampede, the two hour wait in line for the train, the hour wait to buy a ticket, and the crammed train heading back to San Fernando. What a night!

Oh, and for the record I´m not telling my school where I´m going anymore because there are just too many questions. I particularly like the teachers who just said to me today, ¨You´re face says it all...¨ Fantastic.

Negative: Losing my hot pink suspenders and revolver.

Positive: Getting to recline my seat all the way back on the bus ride home.

Al fondo y arriba

This past Sunday I decided to throw a traditional 'Lawton style' brunch. After realizing that it would not be healthy for me to go through two boxes of Bisquick myself over the rest of my time here, I decided the best solution was to share. (how very non-only child of me). However, a few things are different about brunches in Spain and in my household. For starters when I invited some of my Spanish friends they didn't understand the concept that brunch starts at 1130ish or 12 at the latest. When you go to a place here that offers 'brunch' usually that means 130 or 2, and the place doesn't even open until then! The other thing that is a little strange here is pancakes, not popular at all. Knowing all this, and the fact that I was going to cook, I somehow managed to convince a group to join me.

With the exception of my roommate Liz everyone else was work related. Lisa, Juanma, Raul with his girlfriend Gloria, and Steve brought his wife Susannah. All together there were eight of us cramming into my tiny little apartment. The menu included an excellent fruit salad (Keith would be jealous), eggs, bacon (I didn't cook it), and my fantastic pancakes. I also stopped by the local bakery and picked up this amazing fresh bread to serve with the eggs. Something that was different about my brunch (that I recommend highly) was the mimosas. I would say that mimosas definitely made the brunch a lot more exciting, especially since the Spaniards had never had them. All of the food turned out excellent and everyone was quite pleased with the spread. I have to be honest, I was wicked nervous earlier in the week because I do not have a lot of cooking space. However, after finding a griddle (una plancha) I was able to calm down and enjoy the brunch a lot more.

After brunch we headed to two of the restaurants/bars on my street for some cañas. The first place was more of a food atmosphere so we left after only one. The other place is actually attached to my building and is always crowded. I've been meaning to go in for some time now but I never do it. No matter what time of day I walk by there is always people packed in tightly and having a great time. The place is also super loud and energetic. Finally, after five months, I went inside and as expected had an amazing time.

After beer we picked up some rum and vodka to continue the fiesta up in my apartment. Steve and Susannah had brought some great appetizers so along with that and snacks we hung out listening to music. The party ended somewhere around 9 when everyone finally realized that it was a Sunday and we all had work the next day. We lead great lives.

In the end, I must say that I am very proud of myself and ecstatic that everything turned out well! Maybe I can actually do this adult thing...

Negative: Fontaneros (plumbers) destroying my apartment.

Positive: I´m leaving tonight for Cadiz to celebrate Carnaval!!!!

Eres una WAR-EHH

Ok so let´s start this off with a warning: I am writing on a Spanish keyboard and the keys are different. I will be making mistakes and I will not catch them. This should not reflect upon my great typing skills so I don´t want to hear any complaints. Nor do I want to worry that you think I write horribly. That is all.

It has been quite awhile since I´ve posted but I have been extremely preoccupied. I will try to group this by what has happened and what has been asked of me.

Obama
Per request I have decided to write a little about the election and Spain´s views. Let me just say first that it was very upsetting for me to not be in Washington D.C. for the inauguration this year. I was there in 2005 when I started my freshman year for the other president´s and it would have been nice to be there for this one as well. I was definitely jealous of all my friends still living in the area and how they talked about the city for the last 5 months. I can´t say that being in Spain was a disappointment either. All of Europe took this election seriously and mostly everyday there was something in the newspaper about it. As mentioned in the past I still consider Spain to be racist and with the election of a black president there were numerous editorials about how this term would fail. Unfortunately, this probably happened everywhere. Once Spain got over the color of our new president´s skin they did what EVERYONE else is doing: put total faith in the fact that he MUST do something to help them. Spaniards look to Obama as a way to save them from the crisis. While I agree that when the economy in the US does well there will be a domino effect and all other economies will start to change, I do not agree that it is the US/Obama´s responsibility to fix them. Being abroad has made me realize just how much other countries think we will save them. Countries look to us to fix all their problems and, if we can´t, we are horrible and to blame for everything. Specifically for Spain, the election of Obama is a trial run for whether or not they will speak highly of the US. The younger generation is similar to ours, they are expecting a change and see this change in Obama. The older generation is a little more apprehensive because they lived under a dictator. Spain´s politics are still a little uneven and this can sometimes affect their judgment. When Obama was elected in November I was met at school by teachers and students alike with applauding and cheers. Everyone wanted to talk about it and how it made me feel. I believe on a whole most people are excited for this change. The other president was not well received in Spain because of a few ´disses´. The other administration never seemed to put any confidence in Spain or feel that they were a country that needed to be in on European affairs. Whether you agree with it or not, the Spaniards certainly do not and thus they wanted change. After the inauguration all newspapers had full page spreads of the event. They discussed the future and what Obama has the potential to do for them. As stated their most pressing issue is the economy/crisis (I swear, if I hear one more teacher say ¨Pero, hay un crisis...¨). I hope this answers some questions about the issue. I can say that the night of the inauguration there were celebrations in Madrid that made me feel a little closer to home.

Pueblos
The last two weekends I´ve taken roadtrips to little villages on the outskirts of Madrid. The first was to a village a half an hour past Rivas called Chinchon. Lisa, Johan, Juan and I just walked around seeing what there was to see and ate. The most important thing to do in a pueblo is to eat and drink. Usually, its incredibly cheap and delicious. It´s a nice change from the fast pace of being in Madrid because on the weekends everyone is relaxed and just enjoying themselves. The atmosphere isn´t hectic and people are generally nicer. Chinchon was beautiful because it overlooked a great landscape. The drive there was amazing because I haven´t been on a long drive in awhile and I was able to see the countryside. Along the way we passed many little villages that just looked so peaceful placed inside the hills.

On Valentine´s Day we went to two pueblos near to Toledo. The first pueblo, Torrijos, was our main destination because we needed costumes for CARNAVAL! Juan knew of a great little costume shop there so we drove down for the morning. A success, but more on that when I get back from Carnaval. After that we went to another pueblo called Fuensalida to eat. Immediately getting into the village you feel that you must eat because you´ll never find food so authentic. This village is known for its shoes so while we waited for all the stores to open back up (siesta time remember)we grabbed some cañas and played cards. I finally learned a Spanish card game called Cinquillo. Spanish cards are different than what we are used to so unless you have a deck its hard to explain the games.
I like these roadtrips because not only are the pueblos great but just driving through Spain is a great experience. I see a lot more of Madrid too as we drive through to get to the highways. Since I haven´t taken a roadtrip of the US, other than RI to DC, its nice to get one in every now and then.

Kids
They are still simple minded and hysterical. I recently taught them Dodgeball in physical education and they couldn´t be happier. I even got my 3rds to play Lisa´s 2nds and got to play a little myself. I really do enjoy these kids and when you throw in a game that I love, well life is just grand.
Big controversy to report was who I was going to give my Valentine to last week. I was trying to do an arts and crafts project with glorious little 1B in celebration of Saturday and no sooner did I start speaking did they get all anxious. The only thing they could concentrate on was knowing where my Valentine was going to end up. Oh how they crack me up, I told them it was for my friends in the English room.

Closing notes
I´m writing on a Spanish keyboard because I´m at school and most of my classes were canceled. The first and second graders are going on an overnight field trip to the farm from today until tomorrow and therefore I have nothing to do. I would have loved to have gone to the farm but I´m realistic and understand that spending a night with the children may have fried my brain.
I recognize in my writing that I sometimes translate things from Spanish. Don´t worry, I´m also doing this with my English speaking so its not that I´m an idiot, it´s just that I´m confusing the languages.
Por fin, the other day on the metro I was sitting next to two young school girls who were discussing the new Spanish-English translator one girl had. After explaining to her friend how she just types in a word and the English word pops up she says ¨Eres una WAR-EHH¨ or so it seemed to me. I couldn´t for the life of me figure out what English insult she was trying to use, then it hit me: You are a whore. I love Spanish children.

Negative: All things British: getting accosted by my students after Spain beat England in futbol, the decorations/flags in the English room, and being taken for British by the new teacher.

Positive: Getting to draw the water cycle (my favorite thing from Science) about 80 times on a white board for my students.