Springtime in Avila?

These pictures were not taken a couple months ago. No, these pictures were taken this morning--April 29, 2013. 
"But Taylor," you say, "isn't April supposed to be Springtime?" 
Why, yes. Yes it is. Apparently Mother Nature is having a mid-life crisis. Because it has been snowing all day. While the snow is very, very pretty (as you can see), walking around Avila is not fun in the snow.


Today was unusual, but not entirely bad. The day started off with Leslie knocking on my door for breakfast. "Have you looked out the window?" she said in despair. I hadn't, so I opened my blinds. I was speechless. "Yep," was all she said as I locked my door and we headed for the dining hall. 

I taught science to the 4th grade first thing this morning. Of course all of the kids came in expressing their surprise at the snow this morning and it took them about 15 minutes to get fully calmed down, and even then, they were not ready to focus. Don't you love Mondays? Yeah, me either. The teacher, Gloria, had to leave at 11:30 so she could take her daughter to the doctor. This was perfect for me because I desperately needed to go to the Post Office to get my rent money that my parents had sent via Western Union. I've been trying to get the money for over a week now, and I am very much overdue paying rent. Thankfully, Antonio seems to be very understanding and has not been pushy about it. Anyway, Gloria was very nice and dropped me off at the Post Office since it was snowing. Though it took a good 20 minutes, I got the money! Hopefully Antonio will be here tonight so I can pay him. Then, I looked at my watch. It was only 12:30! So, like any girl with extra time on her hands, I went shopping. I got some new nail polish, but I also got some tissues, lotion, soap, etc. I also stopped in a little cafe and had some coffee and a pastry. I will never, ever get sick of European coffee! 

These last couple of weeks have been fairly uneventful, hence the lack of blog posts. But everything is still going well. This week, we have Wednesday and Thursday off for national holidays. I'm all about that! We are hoping to visit Salamanca on Wednesday--if the weather is decent. It looks like it's supposed to be a little nicer than it will be in Avila, so I'm all about leaving and visiting another city! The 4th graders are precious. I think so far they are my favorite group--though the first graders are a very, very close second. The thing I really like about the 4th grade group is they aren't as scared to try to speak English. In the other grades, they were very scared, and if they had the teeniest bit of doubt about what they wanted to say, they defaulted to Spanish. Which is okay, but it's so exciting to hear kids really trying their hardest to talk to you in English! I taught them a lesson entirely in Spanish one day, and I think it bonded us a little bit because we discussed how just like they are learning English and have trouble with it, I am still working on my Spanish and have problems sometimes too. Next week I'll move on to 5th grade, then 6th grade, and then I'm done! It's really hard to believe that I only really have about 3 weeks left. My last day at the school is May 22nd, and Leslie and I are going to do some more traveling after. We leave the 23rd for Dublin! We are incredibly excited. After spending about 4 nights in Dublin, we'll fly to London and spend about 4 nights there. I am very, very excited to travel some more. Then I fly back to the States on June 5th. This whole journey has been completely insane, and I can't believe that I have such a short time left!! 
Well, lunch will be soon and then I intend on taking a siesta today for sure. I'm exhausted!
<3

Awkward Moments, Laughs, and Attitude Changes

I've been having a rough time lately. I have been missing home this last week, and even though there have been some really fun times, my attitude has been less than acceptable. I think today gave me the attitude change that I desperately needed.

The first thing that is necessary to understand for the coming story to make sense is my Headmaster, Javier. He has the sweetest heart and clearly means well, but he says things sometimes that make everyone feel...awkward. haha He speaks little to no English and he speaks VERY fast; I'm constantly asking him to slow down and repeat, but he gets so excited about whatever he's talking about that slowing down never seems to happen. Quick story about Javier: the day after the terrifying bombings at the Boston Marathon, he came up to me on the playground, asked how I was doing, the usual. But then he said (in Spanish of course), "I'm sorry to hear about the bombs in Boston. How terribly sad, no?" I nodded and he leaned closer and said "Do you know what we call bastards like that here in Spain?" (Of course him using the word "bastards" threw me off a bit but it gets better.) I shook my head and he leaned ever closer, and in the scratchiest, roughest voice he could muster he said, "Hijos de puta." This phrase literally means "sons of a bitch." The other teachers just nodded their heads in agreement and I'm not entirely sure why that conversation made me feel better about everything, but it did. As comical as it was, now that I look back on it, at the time, I felt happy that there were actually people from Europe that were backing the USA. I've had a lot of people here tell me all about their opinions about the American people, and let me tell you, we are not good people according to a lot of Europeans. (And that's being nice.)

So--fast forward to today (Wednesday). We had a staff meeting that lasted until around 2:45, then the teachers said they were going out to lunch and invited me. I was happy to tag along--it beat eating at the Residencia! We drove about 10 minutes out into the countryside--it was absolutely beautiful. The last couple of days here have been perfect--in the 70s (Fahrenheit, of course. That means its been close to 30 Celsius) and clear and sunny. In retrospect, I should have gotten out my camera and taken pictures while we were driving, but I didn't want to be "that girl." haha We arrived at the restaurant and proceeded to begin our million course meal. The whole meal is a traditional Spanish dish called "cocida." It started with a bread soup, which was delicious, followed by another soup. This second soup tasted like it was in a type of chicken broth, and it had super skinny noodles. I really liked this soup! Then, we were brought a mixture of vegetables (mostly cabbage, I believe) and spices and garbanzo beans that were cooked with potatoes and carrots. Madre mia--it was SO GOOD!! I have never in my life liked cabbage or garbanzo beans, but this was so tasty. Then, they brought out a platter of various meats. This is where I got a little...nervous. I could tell what most of it was--chorizo (which I like well enough), blood sausage (yes, that means sausage that has been cooked in blood...I couldn't bring myself to eat it), pig ears (also couldn't bring myself to eat it--all I could think of was the pig ear dog treats we used to get Gracie), almost raw meat (I ate a bit of it before feeling a bit queasy, so I had to stop), and another kind of meat that is still a mystery to me (I swear I heard the word "testiculos" being thrown around, but that could have been my imagination). Along with this assortment of meat was little squares of fat. Yes, plain fat. Most of the teachers cut the fat up and put it on their bread; I tried it, but it did not taste good to me. Also important to note: bottles of wine are continuously being brought to the table and even though I continued to say that I had had enough wine, I was told that I was silly and needed to drink more. I went through almost 4 glasses before I think the teacher next to me (Ines, I love her) saw the "I'm starting to feel a little dizzy" look in my eyes and made the gym teacher (Antonio) stop giving me wine. haha! We were not done after the meat, though, oh no. The waiter came out and gave the list of desserts. I, of course, knew what none of them were, but I heard something with "cream" in it, so I thought that was probably what I wanted. But, alas, before the waiter could get around to me, the Headmaster (oh, Javier) said something to the waiter and pointed to me. He then leaned to the gym teacher (Antonio) and said something very quickly in Spanish. Antonio then looked at me and said "Javier has ordered your dessert for you. He thinks you will like 'leche frite' the best." I was like...alrighty then. Leche frite is fried milk. I was a little nervous for it, a bit jealous at everyone else who ordered the ice cream-sounding dish. ha! Then, Javier said something to everyone extremely quickly in Spanish and the table burst out laughing. They were all looking at me when they were laughing! I didn't know what to do! Javier kept repeating this one word over and over but I couldn't understand what he was saying. Finally, Ines (bless her, again and again haha) leaned over and whispered, "Taylor, do you know what the word aphrodisiac means?" It took me a moment to process what she said, but when it hit me, I could feel my face turn the brightest red. I nodded my head and she continued, "Javier is proud because he has ordered you the best aphrodisiac dessert in Spain." Everyone started laughing again and I just couldn't help but laugh too! I was highly embarrassed, but what else could I do? Javier was trying to be nice, I think. I just rolled my eyes as he cheesed it up and continued to repeat how proud he was of himself. It was a moment I will never forget. Before the dessert was actually brought out, a platter with very large wafers, mini chocolate cookies, and little shot glasses were brought out. Yes, you heard the last part of that correctly. Little shot glasses. There were 3 bottles sitting next to the shot glasses. Javier instantly poured me a glass of whatever the liquid was. (Note: the men were the only ones who filled up the shot glasses; the women insisted on just a tiny bit. But guess who got a whole shot glass with the men? This lucky girl.) Antonio said, "Okay, Taylor, this is good stuff. It is good for your health and digestion. I will show you how to drink it first." He turned towards Javier, they raised their shot glasses, said something in Spanish, and then proceeded to, you guessed it, take the liquid like a shot. I asked what was in the liquid, and Antonio said, "Well, I'm not sure what it is in English, but there is just a little tiny bit of alcohol mixed with the other ingredients. You won't even taste the alcohol." So, being the trusting person I am, I cheered with Javier and Antonio and took my weird-liquid-shot-thing. Antonio lied. I literally thought I was going to DIE. Not being much of a drinker, other than some wine now and then, I suppose that whatever that was could have tasted like it didn't have a lot of alcohol in it to someone who drinks hard liquor reguarly, but my entire body was on fire. I managed to get a smile out and say "Well, it isn't my favorite." I could see some of the teachers that I've become friends with cringe, knowing that I hated it. haha Javier then admitted that it was the worst "spirit juice" he had ever had, and told me to eat a large piece of the wafer. Thankfully, that did the trick; I no longer felt like my body was up in flames! Double thankfully, the desserts were brought out soon after. Leche frite is not my favorite dessert in the world, but it was pretty good. It was a bit rubbery, but it was covered in cinnamon, so that was good. :) After we all had our desserts, the waiter asked for our coffee orders. I was extremely happy to order some cafe con leche after the experience I had! All in all, the lunch was a success, and it took close to 3 hours! I had heard of long, Spanish lunches before, but hadn't ever experienced one. I'm happy to say that now I have :) 

It may not seem like that whole experience would have changed my attitude, but it did. All of those teachers were so gracious; I mean, they always are. Just the fact that they would ask me to come out with them, knowing that my Spanish is weak and they would have to talk slowly and explain the food to me, means more than they will probably ever understand. Not only that, but several of the teachers that I have gotten close to are becoming more and more like family to me. Ines and Laura (the first grade teacher), for example, are so sweet and are constantly reminding me that if I ever need anything to just phone them. I am still missing home terribly, but I know that when I get home, I will miss all of the people here too! I wish I could either bring them home with me or have everyone from home move here. I think that sometimes I've taken for granted their kindness towards me, and I'm going to make the best effort I can to be as appreciative and aware as I can be. After all, I'm not just teaching, I'm teaching to learn, right?

Ah, the Spanish Lifestyle...

The more I'm here, the more I'm loving the lifestyle. It really is something to sit back and relax for a few hours everyday. I'm used to always being on the go; I still am trying to get used to stores being closed between 2 and 5 everyday and being closed at other random times on the weekend. I'm so used to being able to run out quick at midnight to CVS to get some supplies I need for tomorrow's lesson or going straight to Target after school to pick up some snacks for tomorrow's lunch. That is just not possible. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to get used to it, but it's slowly getting easier. I might just like this lifestyle afterall! :)

On Sunday, Leslie, Amy, and I climbed the walls of Avila with my 2nd grade teacher, Vanesa, and her 3-year old, Jimena. In Avila, there is what is called the "old city," which is the part of the town that is still walled-in. You can now pay a fee to climb up the walls and on a clear day, you can see miles and miles of Avila. It was an absolutely perfect day on Sunday, and the view was gorgeous!

Beautiful Avila

Las Murallas (The Walls)

Amy, Leslie, and I on the walls-you can kind of see the mountains in the background!

Looking Down from the walls

 

 

:)

 

 

 I started with the third grade this week. This will be a challenging class! The majority of the students miss a lot of class, are way below grade level, and/or have other major behavior problems. One of the big controversial topics here, it seems, is the way to handle the Gypsies. Although I don't know much about the Gypsy culture, the general attitude towards this group of people seems negative. The children don't often show up to school and are usually two or three grade levels below where they should be. There is one girl in the third grade who is still working on understanding how to properly hold a pencil. The third grade teachers are clearly stressed out and spend most of their time yelling and trying to get students to just sit down and be quiet. There is hardly enough time to work on academics! And when they do finally get the chance to work on actual school work, the students have a really hard time understanding it. I'm sitting here blankly staring into the Science and English textbooks, completely unsure what I should do for tomorrow. It seems important that I continue teaching from the textbook instead of doing my own thing, like I did in first and second grade, and though I am happy to finally have some guidance, thinking about all the different types of students that I need to cater to is literally making my head spin. For all of the complaining that I have done about the American education system, I'm beginning to think that we're doing okay, especially when it comes to identifying problems and intervening. Do we always do it right? Absolutely not. But at least we're doing it. Here, students are simply expected to all be the same: come to school with textbooks and supplies, sit down, listen, and do the work. I can see that the teacher I'm working with is frustrated and I hope that I don't end the week wanting to pull my hair out. We'll see how it all goes!

Vacaciones y La Primera Dia con el Segundo

Well...since it's been over a week since I've updated, its going to be a long post. Ready? Here we go.
Last week was La Semana Santa (Easter Week), which meant no school! So, Leslie and I jetted off on a European adventure. We started off by going to Rome. Let me just say that Rome is absolutely AMAZING. I would go back in a heartbeat. It was beautiful. We stayed in a bed and breakfast run by a lady named Silvia.

Our room at the B&B

She barely spoke English and we didn't speak any Italian, but we managed to communicate using a little Spanish, a bit of English, and lots of hand gestures. She was extremely nice; she drove us to the train station each morning and picked us up whenever we returned. Figuring out the public transportation in Rome was a struggle at first, but I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly we got the hang of it. Our first day was Saturday, and we walked around the city (in the rain, unfortunately) to see some of the architecture. Despite the rain, it was a really good day. I was extremely proud of our ability to just wander around and find our way back at the end of the day! Sure, we got lost several times, and we found ourselves walking in circles at times too, but we also found a lot of stunning buildings and statues that we probably wouldn't have visited if we had been strictly following a map. Saturday was also day that we had our first taste of true Italian spaghetti. Putting this experience into words is nearly impossible. I was sitting on cloud nine for hours afterwards, that's for sure! Sunday was one of the most memorable days of the trip. We visited the Vatican and witnessed a sermon by THE POPE on his FIRST EASTER AS THE POPE.

El Padre!

 

Even though we were totally lost in the sea of people and too far to see much, we could hear him, and it was breathtaking. Despite not being Catholic, it was a powerful experience. The band played the Hallelujah Chorus before he spoke, and I was excited that I recognized something from the service! He spoke in Italian, so I didn't understand all of it, but he ended his speech with his wishes for the world. It was touching; he spoke about peace in war-torn countries, such as the Iraq/Iran/etc., those caught in religious battles, and those being torn apart by deadly diseases, such as Africa. The crowd broke out into cheers several times, and it gave me goosebumps. This may sound silly, but I felt like the city felt a little more magical since it was Easter.

Spanish Steps

For our remaining time in Rome, we ate lots of pasta, visited all the main tourist sites, ate lots of gellato, and did I mention we ate lots of pasta? Yum.

On Tuesday, we flew to Bremen, Germany. You may ask, "Why Bremen? That isn't a very popular tourist spot." You would be right. My answer? It was significantly cheaper than flying to Berlin or Munich. ha! Even though it isn't a super touristy spot, it was still a very pretty city. For the two days we were there, there was plenty to do, and it wasn't bad that we had a bit of down time to relax and recuperate from our Italian adventures. There is a statue in Bremen that has something to do with the Grimm Brothers (I never quite understood exactly what it was for) and it is EVERYWHERE.

You can't go into a store without seeing endless statues, tshirts, stuffed animals, key chains, magnets, etc., with this statue! The hostel we stayed in was actually really comfortable and the staff spoke nearly perfect English, which was a huge relief, considering neither Leslie nor I spoke a lick of German. 

At 4:30 am on Thursday morning, we hopped in a cab and headed for the airport, where we boarded a plane that took us to Amsterdam. We had a 5 1/2 hour layover in Amsterdam before getting on another plane headed to Paris. I want to go back to Paris so badly! Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to explore the city like we had hoped, due to several complications with our flight back to Madrid and our really crappy hotel we were staying in. haha But we managed to get on a tour bus that drove around to all of the main sights. I am hoping to get back to Paris before June, though, so I can actually get off the bus and explore some more! The Eiffel Tower was stunning. I can't even describe the excitement I felt as we drove up to it; seeing this gigantic monument has been on my bucket list since I was in like 5th grade. I was dying to get off the bus and go up to the third floor, but alas, we had no time.

One day, Tower, one day.

Saturday seemed endless as we hopped on a plan back to Madrid, then onto a train to Chamartin, then on a train to Avila, where we finally took a cab back to the Residencia. It was so good to be "home." Leslie and I promptly showered and relaxed until dinner, and after dinner? We crashed, hard. It was glorious. haha

Today was my first day with the 2nd grade classes at Santo Tomas. They are such sweethearts! I am amazed by the dramatic jump in maturity from 1st to 2nd grade here. I saw that in the States, too, but it seems like it is more dramatic here. The students are clearly eager to learn (most of them, anyway), and they were excited to learn about me. I am really looking forward to this week with them! Tomorrow I will be teaching them about the United States and Indiana. Hopefully it will be a smoother lesson with them than it was with the first graders. There is one boy in the class that is absolutely brilliant--reminded me a lot of one of my students back in the States. Unfortunately, he has a really terrible home life, and as a result, he has pretty severe behavior problems. The principal and headmistress have decided that it is best for him to sit isolated from the rest of the class, which makes me sad, but I understand that those measures are necessary sometimes. He seemed to take to me pretty quickly, and I think we'll get along just fine. He just needs a little extra attention, and hopefully I'll be able to make a very small impact on his life. 

One other thing that I have noticed, that doesn't really have much to do with my school. Europe in general is very accepting. On Facebook lately, there has been a lot of heated discussions and posts about the gay marriage debate. While I know that there are definitely opinions and debates that go on here, overall, people in Europe are so much more accepting of pretty much everything. It just makes me happy. I have seen so much hate in the States, and it is a breath of fresh air to see people who genuinely support one another, despite their differences. That is one thing that I will miss when I return in June.