So I said my next post would be about school. So far, it's been pretty great (read: kids = awesome, school organization = meh). It's interesting seeing what English words are challenging for the kids to say correctly...Tuesday and Thursday sound so much alike that I've seen a few invent a new day, "Thuesday".
I think I'm going to carve a pumpkin this week to initiate a little bit of cultural sharing with the kids in the classroom. Unfortunately, it looks like a version of Halloween has made it's way over here already, so I'm not sure how much of this will be new for them. But...
One of the best things a teacher can do is learn student's names as quickly as possible. I mean, I think we all attach a good amount of our personal identity (whether we know it or not) to our names. Unfortunately, I only see each classroom (3rd - 7th grades) once a week, which means I would probably be getting comfortable with their names by April. Fortunately Spain is flexible, and by flexible I mean you don't have to go through annoyances like asking permission to take photos of the kids in school (though I asked their teacher).
I asked the kids to each write their name in big letters ("MUY grande por favor!"), hold the name up near their face, and give me a big "sonrisa". Here are some of the cuties I get to work with (names have been changed to protect their identities...kind of):
1. Everything is closed on Sunday. It's interesting getting used to at first (no Sunday late-night runs to get milk before Monday's breakfast), but overall I really like the fact that it encourages sabbath rest.
2. Perambulators/Prams are back (thanks Lauren for the addition to my vocabulary)! If you have a kid under the age of 2 here, the bigger the better. These things are like the Hummers of baby strollers. The best one yet looked like this:
When I was that age, what we got was this:
3. Banks are open from 9am - 2pm, Monday through Saturday. How a working person gets banking business done is beyond me, but I'm figuring it out.
4. A plastic keyboard cover. Though it's really nice to have wireless outside, pigeon poop in between computer keys is a stinker. And yes, that's right, Mr. Sitting-across-the-plaza-throwing-breadcrumbs-to-the-pigeons man, this evil eye is for you.
5. Hot water is made most quickly with hot fire. Fire that often goes "whuuump" when it lights.
6. Cádiz has become a recent port stop for cruise ships. If I see 80 people in one day wandering as (one) group around the city, Nikon cameras strapped to their necks, one has recently docked.
7. More pictures of family, friends & familiar places. You all are missed.
Before we started this video, I told Lauren I wanted it to be less than 90 seconds long.Ha.Be prepared for 4 minutes, 32 seconds of the corniest video you will probably ever see.My apologies.Also, Lauren requested that I include a disclaimer/apology – roomie, I’m sorry I didn’t zoom out at the end. The dishes are mine this week :)
And now, the reason we will never, ever, make it to Hollywood:
Unfortunately the inter-webs make postings like that unsafe.But!It is beautiful, and I promise to have a video tour up soon…including shots from the roof, where you can watch a beautiful sunset and, were you a good parkour-ist, you could get across the city faster than it takes to walk the non-gridlined streets.
Cádiz is beautiful.I thought the same thing of San Fernando when the train dropped me and 3 others there last Friday and Lauren and I (ok, so maybe more I) had some slightly panicked moments of “how-will-we-contact-each-other-from-separate-cities-in-Spain-oh-my-gosh-will-this-work?”.But overall, Cádiz is where it’s at.We’re living in the old part of the city, a place with a bit more European charm and less Miami-beach feel than the new part of the city (which claims one of the best beaches in Europe, la Playa Victoria), and we love it.
Also, I get to write posts from a nearby plaza where we can connect to free WiFi (pronounced wee-fee here).This makes Skype calls interesting, as they must always be somewhat public.I try not to talk (or laugh) too loud, but inevitably you get weird stares (especially from the old people who haven’t really gotten into the computer thing…like the old guy who walked up to me and asked if I was talking to myself – “No, sir, I’m talking to my mom.No, I know, the computer is not my mom.”)
School has been going interestingly too.We were warned that while the schools should be expecting us, they may not know exactly what to do with us especially if they were just beginning their bilingual program (which mine is).The first day Abby (my co-CIEE teacher at the elementary school) and I sat in the office for 2 hours while they figured out our schedules and what we still needed to do (residency cards, etc.).The second day I was in class, and asked to help with some lessons by pronouncing things for the kids.They are learning British English, however, so I am also a learner in that things like an oven are now a “cooker”, and the kids do things like tell me “I have a cousin in England!”, thinking I am from the UK.It’s cute.I’m sure they can’t distinguish my accent from one in the UK, just like most of us probably couldn’t distinguish a Spanish accent from a Chilean one if we were first learning Spanish.
Ok, time to sign off for a bit.Congrats if you made it through this entire post.
One of the many things I’ve had to get accustomed to (and will continue getting accustomed to) is how time works in Spain.In the states, we know phrases like “customer service” and “the early bird gets the worm”.In Spain, everything has its own pace…not a slow pace, depending on how you look at it, but it’s own pace.
Take, for example, going out to eat.Once Lauren & I have a place to live (hopefully by tomorrow – pray!), I won’t be doing this as much, but it’s an interesting example of cultural difference.In a plaza, you sit down at the outdoor tables, and eventually the waiter will come to you – usually within a minute or two of sitting down.You order what you want (tapas y cerveza are a pretty cheap dinner option, agua if you want to go even cheaper), and the waiter leaves.Drinks come about 3-5 minutes after that, and you might wait for your food about 15-20 minutes or so.The biggest cultural difference, however, is the bill.Spaniards coming to the U.S., I think, would feel it rude that our waiters and waitresses bring the bill so soon after eating or that it’s brought at all without being asked for it (which they don’t seem to do often either…this has befuddled me – how do they eventually get the bill without even asking for it?).In Spain, food is a community event – something, like the food, to be savored a bit.Nothing should be rushed – the only place I consistently see clocks are in places like bus & train stations.Americans here who are stuck “waiting” for the bill because they can’t stand not moving onto whatever’s next, are going to have to ask for the bill.Multi-tasking is almost non-existent here too, I think.
Part of me really loves this idea of time.The UofM class-starts-10-minutes-late thing really messed me up for being on time pretty much for life.When it comes to social events in Spain, you are expected to arrive later than the event starts (hey!What my Spanish teachers told me in high school is actually true!).I love the fact that I don’t feel the stress of being rushed to be at any particular event at any particular time.You just get there when you get there (I know some of you all would love this too).Other parts of me find this slightly difficult.
For example, I was waiting at The Phone House (Radio-Shack type store) the other day to buy my prepaid cell phone (I wanted to avoid getting one for a bit, but in case of emergency they are good to have.Also, it’s virtually impossible to search for pisos, or flats, without one).I waited behind one couple who was also getting a phone contract for about ½ hour before finally being greeted by the sales rep.There were probably 5 people in line behind me, including one couple with a mildly cranky toddler, who didn’t seem to be aggravated at all.The couple in front of me seemed to have endless questions of the sales rep, but weren’t apologetic about how long they were taking – they probably didn’t even notice the people in line behind them.But, that’s the way things work here – I’ve been told numerous times that getting huffy & puffy about stuff like this really won’t solve anything.I don’t think in Spain that “the customer is always right”.Pretty much, you just have to be ready to wait anywhere you go, and to not think about it as “waiting” – it’s just downtime.There isn’t a focus on having “efficient” systems here – if a system works, and eventually gets everybody through, then what needs to be fixed?
I start teaching tomorrow. Should be some interesting stories about the kids (and adults) coming up.
5 days in Sevilla, and we’re already liking it a bit more than Madrid. Or as Spaniards would probably say, they are just different. Madrid had more of the city feel – narrow streets, late night-life, too many Starbucks, cars honking. Don’t get me wrong – if given the chance, I’d go to Madrid again in a heartbeat. But I think I like much more the feel of Sevilla – probably because it’s more like home in that it’s smaller and more manageable in the course of a couple days (kind of).
Training has been full, but CIEE has been really good about allowing us afternoons and evenings to explore the city. Tonight we went to a flamenco show, and I feel a bit guilty after they explicitly told us not to record video (even holding up a sign in English), but here’s a 10-second clip at the end of the show when they said we could take still photos. This isn’t even the really good stuff – you’ll have to come here to see that.
entities...kind of):
