To old friends, new friends, and a new year! Feliz 2009

New Year’s in Madrid pretty much solidified my opinion that Spain is the greatest place in the world. Dramatic? Probably, but the night was that fantastic that I can’t say any less. The tradition here in Spain is to eat twelve grapes at midnight as the clock strikes the first 12 seconds. It symbolizes good luck for each month of the year. However, it may sound simple enough but in fact it is much more difficult. Chewing and swallowing twelve grapes in twelve seconds is near impossible with little experience…so I’ll have to try again next year. Anyways, the city of Madrid pours into Puerta del Sol in the exact center of the city and country for that matter. The clock tower is there and the city becomes even more alive. Our goal was to get there to experience all Madrid had to offer for the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009.

Around 7pm Britney and I set out looking fantastic and carrying our little can of pre-packaged 12 grapes. The goal was to find some tapas and beer and get to Sol early enough so that we could experience everything. One problem, all my tapas places closed down due to the ‘holiday’. Eventually we made our way into Sol because there had to be at least one bar open to eat and drink. After some searching we found a place called Cañas y Tapas (beer and appetizers). I was politely told that the kitchen was closed and we would only be getting beer. Fair enough, drinking on an empty stomach is always a great idea. As we’re standing there these two guys ask us to translate the menu for them. Easy enough, but a little curious that we couldn’t get food and they were going to be allowed. We found out that they guys, Vincent and Luca, were Italian and in the city for four days. They bought us beer, we never did get food, and the four of us tried to communicate in English, Italian, and Spanish. As the bar closed around 9pm we parted ways to get food but said we’d meet up in Plaza Mayor around the corner.

Britney and I went across the street to Pans & Company for some quick sandwiches and a chance to figure out where to next. We were without beer and didn’t know where we were going to find an open bar if everything seemed to be shutting down in preparation for the celebration. Then I remembered something genius: in Madrid, Burger King sells beer. Yes, this is not a joke you can actually buy beer at any BK in Madrid for less than two euros. To Britney this was intriguing and unbelievable, to me this was why Spanish people are the way they are…ridiculous. We waited in line for what seemed like hours but left with two Grande Cervezas BK label and all. So we took our beers and our cans of grapes and headed up to Plaza Mayor. We didn’t get very far before we found our Italian friends standing under an awning drinking Museo del Jamón wine and eating as well. The four of us wandered again for a little bit trying our hardest to communicate, basically a lot of gestures and childish mimes. The way I look at it though is if our main goal was to communicate we were hugely successful no matter how ridiculous we looked or sounded. We eventually found Moor’s open and parked ourselves there.

Inside Moor’s we made friends with a young Spanish couple that clearly demonstrated why PDA is over-the-top here. The Irish guys next to us, convinced that Americans have the softest skin, gave us their phone to time the couple…ridiculous. We enjoyed a few beers before they closed at 1030 and picked up another couple on the way out. This Polish couple joined us because they were also just visiting Madrid and didn’t have anybody else to party with, clearly we looked intriguing. So that brings the count up to two Americans, two Italians, and now a Polish couple, fun fun fun. Still having time before midnight I took us to the one place I knew would be open, Dubliner’s. Along the way Vincent bought bottles of champagne from the chinos and we all had a nice little ‘cava’ shower. Dubliner’s was of course open but was only really sitting people for dinner, oddly enough. We schmoozed the bouncer (same guy from two years ago) and he let us go to the back and get drinks. We lasted there until about half past eleven and then made our way to the main Plaza. More champagne was picked up along the way and we kept our grapes tucked safely away.

Our trek to the clock was pretty successful considering the massive crowd of people trying to do the same thing. We found a nice little space and waited for the countdown. In all fairness I remembering asking what time it was and it was 10 minutes until and then the next thing I know the fireworks were going off like crazy. HAPPY NEW YEAR!! We never heard the clock chimes so we all just started eating our grapes. About three in I realized this was a mute point and decided a throwing them was more fun. That night we all ended up with grapes in too many places to count! We yelled like crazy and I’m pretty sure I even ended up dancing and jumping in a huge group of Italians. Absolutely amazing!

Clearly the night was not over so we wandered the streets a little bit with no direction at all. We picked up two French girls at one point but I’m not sure what became of them the rest of the night. We made our way back to Dubliner’s but with a 10 euro cover we decided next door at O’Connell’s was a better choice. Trying to get in the door I looked up to find my roommate and her friends trying to do the same. After some ridiculous yelling and myself being lifted off the ground we finally made it in. From here the night gets a little out of control so suffice to say that Britney and I ended up back at my apartment asleep around 8am. All the makings of a complete night!

What I learned from the night? Italians say "changing the water" when they have to pee and I'll never be able to learn Polish.

Negative: Bruises. end of story.

Positive: Starting what looks to be a great New Year.

Huelva...my substitute home for Christmas

I left Madrid at midnight on December 23rd headed for Andalucia in the south of Spain. A few weeks back my coworker, Juanma, asked me to spend Christmas with him and his family in Huelva. Clearly I could not turn down this opportunity. I had nothing planned for Christmas and it would be nice to spend the day with a family if I couldn't be with mine. I originally thought I'd float by during the holidays but as it got closer I did start to feel like it would be too much even for me. So when Juanma asked I knew this was a great chance to be with a family and to experience a traditional Spanish Christmas. I came in from Oporto, unpacked, repacked, and hopped on a bus. It was an overnight bus because the trip takes seven or eight hours. I slept a good amount of the time but the kid next to me literally cuddled up to me because he was too big for the seat. After one stop in Sevilla I finally made it to Huelva at 730am where Juanma was waiting for me. It was nice to see a familiar face.

We drove through the city to his parents' apartment. His mom was awake when we got there so she made us some coffee before we both took naps. I had had a bumpy trip and he had been out the whole night before, we needed the rest. The thing about the region of Andalucia is that the accent is very strong. They speak very quickly and leave off letters, similar to my Rhode Island accent. He had warned his family that my Spanish is not fluent and that they needed to slow down. His mom's reaction was to mimic what she was asking of me, adorable. His father's was to just repeat things three times at the same speed and figure I'd get it eventually, comical. When I woke up from my nap I was greeted by his adorable father who then proceeded to tell me about the great shrimp and ham that Huelva is known for in Spain. From there we went off to see the city center and get more coffee. We stopped in at his sister's store so I met Lourdes, the younger sister. It was kind of busy so we didn't get to talk but I could tell she was just as intimidated by my English as I was of her Spanish. We left there and figured that since it was after 12 having a ca ña (little beer) was completely acceptable, I mean it was Christmas Eve and all. (Keith always says: Soda and beer, after 12)

Next, we met up with some of his friends at one of their favorite spots, we had more beer and tapas. They all tested their English out on me which was hysterical because they know ridiculous expressions. (For example, "Need money, my friend is in jail") A few of his friends own a kite boarding shop on the beach, which we later tried unsuccessfully to find, and are the eccentric type. Great people to talk to and be around because the laughter never stops. We bar hopped for a little and then went to his aunt's house. I met his older sister Rocio and her family. She admitted that she and her husband will speak in broken English around the two young boys when they don't want them to know. His nephews, Ale and Alvaro were scared to death of me. Apparently they'd never met someone that wasn't fluent in Spanish and they didn't know what to make of me. For the entire week that I was there they would just stare at me nervously as if I was an alien, hysterical.

Christmas Eve is a bigger holiday than Christmas Day, especially since of Three Kings the following week. So dinner on Christmas Eve is this huge get together with more food than I can even remember. It was at his sister Rocio's house with the family and then I think their neighbor's family and the landlady. Juanma and I were literally the kids because we stayed outside playing one-on-one on the patio while they prepared the food in the kitchen. His nephews even went inside before us because they were getting bored outside. (For the record I did ask if I could do anything) Dinner was great because of the wild conversation, the great food, and abundance of wine. We stayed there until about midnight and then headed out for the bars. The city wasn't too open but if you're with people who know where they're going then it all works out. We met up with his friends and had a great night that ended at 7am the next morning.

Christmas was a struggle, one that I swear consisted of absolutely no alcohol for either of us. (Even though I know when I tried to tell my family they didn't believe me) It was just the family this time and was held at his parents' home. Seeing the family dynamics was great because it reminded me of home. Cultures and countries may be different but family is always family. After another dinner of too much food we played a hundred games of Mario Go-Kart with his nephews. I think this is when I finally got them to trust me, probably because I was winning! Mad skills...haha. The rest of the night was pretty calm because I was exhausted from the night before. We went to Lourdes' new apartment to check it out, pretty sweet bacherlorette pad in my opinion and then came home for an early night. I did whip out my brand new Patriots deck of cards to teach him poker and Egyptian Rat Screw (ERS). For those of you who don't know ERS don't worry about it because you will never be successful. I have mastered this game down to a science and I rarely lose. Problem is that its a fantastic game and very addicting. Because of this I then had to teach his friends the next day and we played it quite a bit over the next couple of days.

The next day we went to Punta Umbria which is a very popular beach in Huelva. However, since its the winter we had the beach to ourselves and went for a long walk. The weather was great, not too hot nor sunny but perfect for being on the beach. It was surreal to be on the beach at this time of year because usually I'm braving the cold like everyone else in New England. Honestly, this was a nice change, but I'm sure I'll miss snow...eventually.

The next couple days before I left usually consisted of the same thing: coffee in the morning, walking around the city, beer and tapas for lunch, and then meeting up with friends to go out at night. We were usually out of the house for the whole day just walking around, enjoying the weather and conversation. I have to say that the food was amazing starting from day one. Christmas is usually a time for a lot of seafood so that worked out great for me. I also tried a lot of new things like a weird version of squid and choco. The tapas were all amazing and its always a great environment to be eating and drinking around new friends.

I had an amazing time and if I couldn't be around my family for Christmas I think this was a perfect second choice. Juanma's family was so inviting and wonderful to me the whole time. They made me feel extremely comfortable and welcome in their home. I will always be appreciative that he asked me to Huelva because it's an experience I will never forget.

Negatives: The guy next to me on the bus home.
Leaving.
Not getting a group picture to share from Christmas.


Positives: New family and friends.
Choco.
My increased confidence in my level of Spanish.

"Your English is better than most Portuguese people."

As any normal school I was given a winter vacation that lasts about three weeks. To be honest, because I've been so go-go-go, I didn't really have time to sit and wait for this vacation. I planned to leave the Saturday after my last day of school and head to Oporto in the north of Portugal for a little rest. However, it all seemed to sneak up on me because I was enjoying my time at school and in Madrid (maybe even a little too much because my last Friday was spent living it up in Rivas, and as usual packing the morning before my flight). Well Saturday morning (the 20th) comes real early when you have to get out to the airport, but somehow I managed. For the first time in my traveling career I flew Ryanair. They are great in theory because they have wicked cheap flights, but they have very strict regulations on luggage and that can cause problems. I anticipated a smooth two hour flight so I wanted to take advantage of naptime...however, the lady across the aisle had different plans. For the next 15 minutes she proceeded to pitch a fit because her luggage was too big and needed to be stored, so we took off late. Wonderful.

Even though take off and landing are my favorite parts of the flight I wasn't able to keep my eyes open for either. The next thing I remember is waking up already on the tarmac. Smooth transition at the airport because I only had a back pack and I didn't have to go through customs. From the airport I caught the metro out to my hostel in the center of the city. Traveling so much has made me immune to transportation woes so finding the metro and figuring out the system took all of about 2 and a half minutes. It is a relief because I was watching some people struggle and was even asked for help, so I guess I have an air of control about me when I travel. The commute was only about a half hour so I just stared out the window at the Porto countryside, pretty nice. Once in the city center I did have to get a general sense of direction because I still didn't have a map. My choice of people to ask? Two elves on Segways...I am not joking. So these two young women had me follow them, on their Segways, and they brought me to where the street was, the whole time dressed as elves. Fantastic! My hostel checked out fine, great location and clean. I dropped my stuff and then went off exploring. When I travel alone I usually just walk everywhere I possibly can. That first day I walked all over the city and down to the river just taking pictures and taking in the atmosphere.

For me this vacation was just that, a vacation. Usually, I am an "up at seven and out the door until midnight" kind of traveler. However, this trip was more about relaxing for me. I think a picked a great location because unlike Lisbon there is not as much to do as far as tourist places. I completely avoided any museums because nothing was really that interesting to me and I'd rather walk around in the great weather. I did make time to GO TO CHURCH and go to a Winery, but those were the only places I went that were inside. My time was spent wandering the back streets and sitting down by the river. Everyday consisted of getting up, finding a new path down to the Ribeiro River and being out in the sunshine while reading my book. One day I even fell asleep on the bench for an hour because everything around was so peaceful. I did enjoy two great traditional Portuguese meals, one of Bacalao (Cod) and the other Peixe cocido in these great little hidden restaurants. I will say that the smell of Oporto was incredible because everyone was always cooking something and it spread out into the streets. In the end it was the perfect vacation because I don't feel that I missed anything and I took some amazing pictures all the while getting a break from my intense schedule.

I did enjoy Oporto greatly but four days was enough alone time for me so I was wicked excited to get back to Madrid. My plane ride home was smooth per usual but when I saw the Sierras I felt a weird sense of comfort, like everything was normal again. Once I reached Goya again a half hour after landing I felt glad to be back in my city and ready to start my next adventure.

Oh and about the title, a girl at the airport asked me to watch her stuff in broken Portuguese so I asked if English was a better language for her (it was). To which she thought she'd compliment me on. Too funny.

More to come on how fun it is to get home by plane in the afternoon and leave by bus again that night for a new adventure.

Negative: Finally remembering my Portuguese the third day in Portugal.

Positive: Two new, fantastic pairs of earrings.

We guish you a Merry Christmas...oh, and Mary had a son named Baby JayZOOUS!

Christmas in Rivas...what a wonderful time of year. Festivities at school are as follows: Thursday was Elegance Day/ Three Kings and Friday was the Christmas concert. Nothing I can say will ever completely capture the true essence of these events at little old Hans Christian Andersen, but I will try.

Elegance Day/ Three Kings
In Spain presents are exchanged on January 6th, El Dia de los Reyes Magos, the Day of the Three Kings or Wise Men. Some gifts are shared on Christmas but that is from American influence, the major holiday is in celebration of the Three Kings. Because of this my school has three of the teachers dress up as the kings and pass out little gifts all day to the children. They position themselves on the stage and the kids come up one by one, like sitting on Santa's lap, and tell them if they were good or bad. They get their gifts, pose for a picture, and then take off. The young children are great because they are stunned and behave really well. The older children feel the need to annouce to everyone that these people are not the real kings because they saw the real ones on the internet or because its too early. All in all its a funny thing to witness and most children are estatic. Now as many people may remember I don't feel very strongly that Spain is past racism, and my feelings were confimed by the fact that they still do BLACK FACE! Seriously, the person who is supposed to be the black king will paint his face pitch black so as not to confuse the children! I completely understand that is normal here, and that their history is not the same as ours, however, it still just blows my mind. They reason that the children expect it and would be confused if there was no black king...amazing.
But seriously Spain I have one thing to say: don't call my country racist and then do this.
Since the Three Kings were at school the children were supposed to wear their 'sunday's best'. The teachers also dressed up quite nice and the school looked fantastic. Since I'm a huge fan of the fact that we can dress down at work, I took the kids off guard showing up in a dress and makeup...the things I do for these little cherubs!

Christmas Concert
On Friday the kids hard work for the last couple of weeks was finally put to the test. In the morning the Infantil children performed their Christmas performance for their parents and it was spectacular. They were all dressed up as little kings, reindeer, angels, or farmers and looked amazing. They sang songs in Spanish and English, since we are a bilingual school, but clearly it was challenging. Later in the day the older kids put on their performace for a new set of parents. Each age group did something in English and Spanish as well. They all put a lot of effort in and were quite happy to show their parents. My only job for the day was to gawk and take pictures so I could totally enjoy every moment.

In summation everything about Christmas time at school was a hit and very impressive. I spent most of the day laughing at/with the children and teachers and couldn't have been happier. After, school ended early so the majority of the teachers went out for drinks and lunch in Rivas. Let's just say that we are a crazy group when we all get together outside of school and leave it at that. Although I will say I never thought I could experience that much fun in little of Rivas!

(I updated a ton of pictures in my link)

Negative: Leaving my children and not seeing them for three and a half weeks.

Positive: Leaving 752 children and not hearing them for three and a half weeks.

Ladies and Gentlemen, We have vomit!

Well, today was quite interesting to say the least. Casualty count: 1 girl fainted, and 1 boy puked. Fantastic! I think the girl has an eating disorder so I'm not getting into that unpleasantness...however, the boy I will. I walked into my 3A class per usual and noticed little Javi was awfully quiet, usually he's mocking me. I excuse him to get some water and to use the restroom twice when he tells me that his stomach hurts. Third times the charm: he finds me in the classroom and says "Melanie, I don't Me duele, MELANIE!!" So we run out the door together but unfortunately he pukes all down the hallway! Again, I repeat, Fantastic! I practically carry him to the boy's room where he continues to get sick. Well bad news, it gets everywhere and the poor thing is hurting bad. Good news? I just pushed off being a mom probably another five years. I took care of everything, don't worry, but I'm not looking for this to be a regular occurrence. And I thought I was going to make half the year vomit free...
(Mary, Lisa, Steve, and I)
On to more positive news: the Hans Christian Andersen Christmas Party!! So Friday was our adult dinner at a restaurant near Atocha. Lisa and I arrived in stunning fashion to an already filled room. Here's the thing, Spaniards are never on time, never. But, apparently for one night only they show up exactly as scheduled and we look like idiots...Pues nada. There were many courses of delicious food but everyone was more concerned with the endless supply of wine. Right about the time that the dinner came (I had delicious Bacalao with pisto) everyone was getting antsy. Most people were up and taking/posing for pictures. My camera ended up in the hands of Gabriel at one point and the end result was priceless. When they brought out the shots chaos ensued, some sort of thick clear mixture and another that looked like Mountain Dew. Whatever they were, they were strong and wreaked havoc on many later in the night. From the restaurant we moved cross town to Lemon which is near the stadium. (Me and Elena in the photo). Parking took forever but apparently we knew someone important and skipped the entire line of about 35 people. Sweet! We then partied upstairs in a roped off section with our own bar for the rest of the night. A pretty amazing night if I do say so! Everyone danced, sang, and drank the entire night through until about six am when we all wandered off home. I would like to say my first work Christmas Party was a huge success! (...and I am looking forward to next years?)
(Me, Maria, and Laura)

This is probably my shortest post to date...only because I have to censor! Spaniards can get pretty crazy!

Negative: Small fiasco trying to get a new phone, probably shouldn't wait till Christmas time when they're all out.

Positive: MY FREAKIN N.I.E.!!! (I'm finally legal in Spain)

My mom Skyped me to put up the Christmas Tree

Today I'm celebrating the Day of the Immaculate Conception, and by celebrating I mean that I'm doing laundry and catching up on all things I was supposed to do this weekend. This weekend has been what is known as a 'puente' (which means bridge in Spanish) because there was a holiday on Saturday and one on Monday, they are 'bridged' together by Sunday. Usually, these holidays fall during the week so everyone in Spain gets some serious time off from work. However, all the puentes this year fall on the weekend more or less. I think this one was the only one that will work for me because it gives me Monday off, whereas the others only give me Friday which I already have off. Either case, I've been done work since Friday (when my adult students didn't show up). Bad news about the weekend though is that it rained pretty hard most of the time. On Friday I went out with Lisa to find a new coat and her a dress for our Christmas party this week, both of us were hugely successful. That was actually the last day of sunshine for the weekend. We got coffee and then walked around Gran Via because all the stores were in Holiday discount mode. On Saturday night I went out with Caitlin and her friend Amy in the Ruben Dario area of Madrid. Before I continue I must explain the term 'pijo': a rich or snooty person. I knew going in that this neighborhood was very pijo because my neighborhood tends to be pijo and the two are very close. However, nothing could prepare me for the sight I witnessed all night. It was a scene straight out of NEWPORT! I couldn't believe it, down to a T everything was the same as the mansion kids, pearls, salmon colored everything and so on. What's funny to think is that the rich people in Spain dress exactly like the rich people in Rhode Island, freaky. Anyways, we started at this little hole in the wall bar called "Michael Angel Bar" that looked like someone's house. Since it was the puente it started slow but soon filled up with a ridiculous crowd, mostly pijos. After we moved to "El Confidencial" which was a little bigger and had an interesting mix of music. The three of us spent a lot of time discussing Spanish ways and how the words "excuse me/perdona" are really just for show, not for actual use. After a few drinks here we moved to "Fortuny" which I thought was fantastic. You enter through these rustic doors into this beautiful courtyard (I can't wait to go back when the weather is nicer and warmer) and then up the stairs into the place. There are high ceilings and a spiral staircase leading upstairs. It could have just been the large red Christmas tree or the fact that it wasn't jammed packed like the other two places or the fact that a guy gave me a free drink ticket, but I would say it was my favorite. When we went to the bar I was in awe of this group of six very tall men. The thing about Spain, which clearly doesn't affect me at all, is that the men are short. On average I would say most men are around 5'9'' which by guy standards is petite. These men all towered somewhere around 6'5'' and upon talking to them discovered they were from around Barcelona. When you've spent that last two and a half months seeing only guys under six foot, these men were very impressive. After about an hour or so and taking a picture in front of the tree we decided to head to another bar. This bar however was charging a thirty euro cover which would be waved for us girls but not the guys we were with, not worth it. Somewhere around 6 in the morning we all headed home to recover. One fun night, and one large bill later, I was in my bed fast asleep.

I should probably back track and talk about Thanksgiving here in Spain. On Thanksgiving Day I had a field trip with the Segundos to an adventure park out in some little pueblo. We left at the start of school and took this awesome double decker bus about an hours drive from Rivas. I only see two of the three 2nd grade classes for phys.ed. so I was not looking forward to having little control over them. Once at the little campsite the monitors took the kids to the different stations and the other teachers and I went into town for coffee. It just so happened that the weather was sunny but the temperature teetered around 5 degrees! It took me all weekend to recover from the cold. The kids did a scavenger hunt, zipline, human foosball, a rope course and my personal favorite archery. Why my favorite you may ask? Well, obviously because the kids were given actual bows and arrows. Not some fake tipped arrow, but the real, pointy kind. Spain loves to give 7 year olds things that could potentially maim them. Oh, and the zipline was cool because the way the kids stopped was by a monitor pulling another rope tight. If he didn't do this they would crash into the unpadded tree that was a foot or two away. Fantastic! I digress.
I left Rivas on the later side because I just wanted time to relax, this of course made me late for my adult class which was still going on as planned. After class I went to the American University sponsored Thanksgiving dinner, same thing I did when I was abroad. The food was the same mush but it was better than nothing. To be honest the company was bad because the students are egotistical little brats and have no respect for the hard work that went into getting a restaurant to cook them a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in Spain. My table was full of my friends that had had this experience with me before so that was good. I came home and skyped my family who had already packed everything away and were ready to leave, but it was still nice to see new faces. On a sidenote: We always play this card game called "May I?" on the holidays at home. There are two things that are pretty consistent, my Uncle Roland will win the last round and screw over a lot of people and my dad will come closer and closer to reaching four digits. Well aparently this holiday my cousin won and I've heard about it 5 times now. No lie, every time I've talked to my parents I hear "Did we tell you who won cards?" Apparently, change is not accepted in the Lawton house!
My second Thanksgiving dinner was much more interesting. On Saturday there was a dinner at our friends' house that was more my style. We all brought a dish, mine was the mashed potatoes (read: Aunt Gloria, you're jealous!), and enjoyed a great meal. There were five Americans, five Spaniards, two from England, and one from Scotland, quite the group. For many it was their first Thanksgiving so it was nice to see how much they enjoyed a little part of our culture. The dinner was great because everyone made a little piece of home and we continued the tradition of eating until we were stuffed. The conversation was a mix of Spanish and English, which provided a great opportunity to practice.
As great as all this was, nothing beats being home for Wednesday night trivia at Brickhouse, dinner and cards with the family on Thursday, movies at night, and any type of last minute shenanigans on Friday and Saturday. Fact.

The kids are still great. Still hysterical. And still lacking in discipline.
Oh and I was corrected on my English pronunciation by a six year old. In case you needed to know it's pronounced "Booofalo".

Negative: Discovering my bed can not fit the other way in my room after moving everything around becasue I was convinced it could.

Positive: The lights that are now up over my street.

It's Christmas Time in the City...

Negative: It's freezing.

Positive: It snowed in Rivas!!