Yuletide Posting

Well! It's been quite a week! School is out and I am currently sitting alone in my apartment on Christmas Eve (you may think that's a sad statement but it's the first time I've been alone in my apartment for more than a day and I plan on taking full advantage of that by not washing the dishes until tomorrow or maybe even the day after. I know: badass). 

The last week of school was hectic, but lovely. Lots of excited kids getting excited for Christmas! We actually had real class in science most of the week, but we spent basically every English class period making Christmas ornaments, Christmas cards, learning about Christmas in different cultures, and listening to English Christmas songs. I taught the kids the meaning of the words in "Silent Night," and that María is Mary in English and José is Joseph. I never thought about the fact that they would not know that, but it seems obvious once you remember, of yeah, they speak a different language! A couple kids made me Christmas cards, and one of them even spelled Merry Christmas correctly! That was not happening very often, let me tell you! Of course, And the kids got the paper they made back, so that was cool, too. (Actually, I don't remember if I said that they got to make paper out of newspaper pulped with water, but they did...). 

Thursday night Steve and I hung out at Triskel's for open mic night. Jesús, Pablo, Alex, and a new friend Tristan, came and drank and talked with us, and Jesús and Pablo and Tristan all played some, too. It was a really chill evening, but I was exhausted enough that I decided to leave early. 

Friday was full of Christmas magic fun times! We all went ice skating on a temporary rink set up outside of the Royal Palace. I can safely say I never thought I would be able to cross "Ice Skating in front of a Spanish Palace" off of my bucket list, but I can now! It was awesome, even if my feet were not happy in those crappy skates.

 After we finished skating, we all went to Melanie's to hang out, and we talked and drank and had some delish food (nachossss) and "watched" Notting Hill (it was really just background noise). 

Hannah, Julie, and I just got back from Granada today. We left Saturday afternoon and, after some drama finding our ride in the very crowded Sol Plaza, hit the road. It takes about four hours to drive from Madrid to Granada, and we got there around 6:30pm.
Our hostel was in an unmarked building on this road that was not even really a road, but it was probably the best hostel stay I've ever experienced. Very few other guests, beautiful view of the city, quiet, coffee, and wifi.

What more could you ask for? That, and it hosted an alley full of stray cats that were adorable to look at, even if they were too skittish for us to pet.

So, that first night we went down Calle Elvira and experienced some Granada tapa-ing. Considering we were on one of the most touristy streets in the city, I think we did pretty well with what we got. 

Sunday, we rose with the dawn (or noon...) and went to La Alhambra. Neither words

nor pictures

can describe the beauty of this place. It's one of those amazing human-made structures that is almost beyond fathoming,

you know, the ones people just say aliens were involved in because there's no way people could be that awesome types of buildings. An Arabic masterpiece palace and gardens that apparently Washington Irving spent some time living in, as we discovered when we saw his statue there.

I could have spent weeks in that place and I would not have even tapped the surface of all the beauty it has to offer. Definitely going back there before I die! Mostly because I was getting sick at that point and I'd like to enjoy it when I am well and capable of being awed properly. 

We met up with Julie's college friends Jana and Benin afterward, and went back to their cave apartment.

They actually really live in a cave in the side of a hill in Granada, complete with cactuses growing on top and a chimney coming out of the ground above. If I can't live in La Alhambra, I guess those caves could be a close second choice. After enjoying Jana's delicious homemade muffins and watching the sunset over the hill, they took us to some less touristy tapa bars and we had a true Granada experience, complete with fried eggplant in honey, which is just one of those things you have to try to believe how good it really is. 

Monday was not great for me just because of being sick, but we did get to see the Granada Cathedral.

This was one of those trips that was fulfilling enough to be satifying, but wanting enough to make you come back for more. Since I have basically decided that I want to go south next year, I will definitely have to experience Granada a second time. 

Today, we drove back with a lovely woman, Raquel, who it turns out is an English teacher in the south of Madrid, and likes Loreena McKinett (sp?). So now I'm chilling as the hour winds down to Christmas, spelling my hearty stew cooking in the kitchen and keeping myself good company. Happy Christmas Eve, everyone! 

Incredible! A Scandal! Beyoncé!

This week has been really good. Beyoncé gave us a reason to live again, I've been watching the lovely guilty-pleasure show Scandal, and of course, the end of the semester gives us all a little desperation to make us actually hang out with our friends and do things we should have been doing all along. So Thursday night, instead of going to Triskel's for open mic night as per usual, we ended up going to Naif Burger because Sam loves their burgers and nachos and we all wanted some hearty cheesy food. This would be the evening we discovered that the British, for once, say something in a less sofisticated way than the Americans do. Instead of saying nawchos and tawcos and whatnot, the British say nAchos and tAcos (like the "a" in cat). And it's disgusting. I mean, I really don't know what they're thinking. They aren't English words! You have to say them with the A the Spanish use! Ah! Getting to know British friends has involved numerous arguments over the pronunciation or usage or meaning of certain words and it's generally something we can just agree to disagree about. But this is ridiculous.

This weekend, I tested how much tv I could watch without melting my brain. Haven't hit the point of no return yet, so I'll continue experiments. 

On Sunday, Hannah, Julie and I went to a cafe to begin planning our Christmas holiday trip. I wanted to go to Morocco originally, but getting there is a little expensive when you leave it to the last minute, even if everything else is super cheap. That, and I'd like to be able to swim in the ocean when I go, so I'm thinking I might save that for spring break. So instead we're going to Granada, from this Saturday to Christmas Eve. We decided we want to be in Madrid for Christmas Day since most things would be closed anyway and we want to be somewhere familiar. But three days is plenty of time to see Granada, and we're really excited! 

Last night I watched the Incredibles with Sam and if you've forgotten how good that movie is, I'm sorry for you. So many great characters and lines! Apparently my friends are nervous when I write about them on here, but it was a fun night, even if I stayed up later than I should have on a school night. But it's the last week of school, so you gotta go a little crazy! 

 

Es la epoca

I always forget that Tuesdays are blog days. Well, at least until the end of the day or Wednesday. But this time, I remembered! Mostly because I actually have a decent amount to say!

So, I just spent a few hours watching Mulan and Hercules and writing Christmas cards. I got a bunch of Christmassy things at a little set up in Chamartin station where they were selling crafts made by (and to help support) mentally disabled people all around Spain. It was a really good, heartwarming atmosphere, and the crafts were honestly fantastic. Just gotta make sure not to buy anything too breakable! 

This last week has been pretty good. I am still working on deciding what to do next year (I know I want to do this for another year, and in Spain, but where?) and also editing my novel. Saturday, though, was Melanie's birthday. She hosted a Christmas party and had lots of traditional British Christmas foods, including Mince Meat Pies, which I'd never had before, and which I'm still not sure if I like or dislike, and a lot of other wonderful homemade baked goods. So, we all hung out there for a while and talked and watched Love Actually as it played in the background. I had a conversation with Kate about how, yes, American girls do find Hugh Grant attractive because he's awkward and British, and yes, that really is a thing. 

Julie, Hannah, and I went through Sol to get back home and eat dinner, and had a whole bunch of fun wading through the giant crowd that was gathered there. The weird thing is, there wasn't even aything going on! Just a ton of people! Sol Plaza is decorated, but I would never have expected it to bring so many people out, even on a Saturday. Of course, it was also a holiday weekend (Friday was Spain's Constitution Day... do we have one of those? Maybe in September?) Either way, it took us way too long to get to the metro, particularly since we had to go one further than we normally would have because the metro stop at Sol was just a giant stream of people exiting, with no room for people to get in. It was pretty crazy. 

But then the sun set and night came, and we all gathered again at Mad Dogs Tavern to hear Steve and Melanie perform for an entire hour (and a half, really), and it was so amazing! Melanie went to college for music, and her friend Joey (don't know how to spell that to indicate to you that Joey's a girl, but she is), was in town and played her saxaphone and flute for them on some songs, and another guy, Jeff, played violin for some other songs. Basically, it was just a nice, talented group of people sharing their love for music, playing their own songs as well as covers, and they did so well. I sort of designated myself photographer and perched on the mini fridge in the corner the whole time, so here are some results from that endeavor.

Melanie's beautiful smile, getting ready. 

Warming up as the audience gets settled. You can't tell, but ths room was TINY. There should not have been as many people in it as there were. 

Melanie and Joey. Joey was seriously an amazing musician, although I really love saxaphone so I might be biased. 

CONCENTRATE

This was as far as I could zoom out, and you can see how closely people are crammed in there! There were a lot of people that wanted to see these guys play! 

Steve lookin' pretty baller.

Melanie and Jeff with the fairy lights in the background. 

So that was my Saturday! Sunday consisted of my making tuna casserole and morning glory muffins to sustain me throughout the week, and yesterday went pretty much as usual. School was fine, and my private tutoring was great. Andrea and I played pictionarry and then when Daniel got there we made snowflakes, which they had never done before! It makes sense: it rarely snows in Madrid since the mountains catch everything, but still, I was appalled. What eight and six year olds haven't been like a million snowflakes by that age? C'mon! 

And today was good, too! I got to make snowflakes with the class where I help with art, and the kids loved it (duh). In English, though, I got kind of mad at one of the kids. It was probably the funniest reaction though, because they were supposed to write down a few sentences about their school. His read: My school is big. It has a teacher verry verry verry verry verry angry. It has 3 playgrounds. 

I basically bust out laughing and just said, Okay, but "teacher" is a noun, so it goes at the end of the sentence, after the adjective. And very is spelled with one R. So that was a funny experience. I hope he doesn't hate me. He was laughing, so I think that's a good sign. 

Anywho, I've been up too late the past few nights so I need to go to bed! 

Thanksgiving Month

It's been a couple weeks, and Thanksgiving is technically over (though not in my heart!), so I thought I'd update on what's been happening! 

School has been basically the same, I'm still very much enjoying myself and also considering returning next year. I found out last week that if I want to renew with CIEE, I should tell them I'm considering it by December 15th. Of course, I thought that this meant I had to absolutely commit to another year by then. Thankfully, as I found out today, that is not the case. I only have to give a noncommital nod. But the thought of having to decide this so soon has got me thinking. I really love this job, I love these kids, and if I keep up the good work, it is extremely likely I'll be placed with them again. I don't know how I feel about staying in Madrid, big city that it is, or about being out of the country for another year, but I do know that, since I want to travel in the summer and having a placement would make it easier to do that, it's something I need to seriously think about. So I'm making my mental pros and cons list and we'll see where that takes me. 

Because November is over, so is National Novel Writing Month and... I made it! Again! (Except I finished one day late because of Thanksgiving... shhh). So now to the editing phase. This is actually the first novel I've wanted to reread about doing it during Nanowrimo. The other two I could not even think about afterwards, I thought they were so bad! So that's a good sign, I think. 

And then Thanksgiving! Oh man, was that fun. I was in charge of roasting the "turkey" (chicken: they don't sell whole turkeys in Spain normally, and that's expensive anyway), and the pecan pie. First, the drama. Pecans aren't really a thing here. You have to go to the "posh" grocery store (like maybe a whole foods or something in the U.S.?) to get them, and even then, they're still in the shell. I don't know if any of you have shelled a cup worth of pecans before, but it is TOUGH! It hurts your fingers! And it's really difficult not to eat them all! Then, brown sugar (also really important for pecan pie) can only be bought at, apparently, Taste of America. (Actually, Steve found unshelled pecans there too, for 17 EUROS!) They also don't sell pre made pie crusts, or roasting baskets, and I had never dealt with a whole chicken before (at least that I had to cook). So all in all, it's a miracle everything wasn't ruined. The pie was decent, the chicken wasn't too dry, and everyone went home full and a little drunk. We met at Hannah's, Steve, Melanie, Sam, Begoña, Iñaki, and Hannah's fellow auxilar Shromsfionvsdf (don't remember her name). Hannah made pumpkin pie, green bean casserole, and garlic mashed potatoes. Steve made a killer sweet potato casserole (he also joined in the pecan brown sugar grief with me), and Melanie made stuffing and gravy that worked perfectly together. Sam brought the incredibly important vanilla ice cream and wine. Iñaki brought salad and wine. Begoña brought sparkling cider. We basically had enough bottles to each drink out of one instead of using glasses. We didn't, but we could have. 

So having all the traditional (except for the turkey) foods, even without the family, really made the holiday special for me. 

I went to the open market on Sunday and got some new shoe-bootie things and a black, suede slim jacket for like 15 Euro so. 

So this week in school we're starting to wind down with new work and review all the units we've covered so far. Today, I started on a Christmas mural outline that the kids will get to color in and put themselves onto. It's pretty awesome, as the kids watching me draw it kept telling me ;) 

So yeah! If I think of anything else important that happened in the last couple of weeks, I'll edit or something, but Thanksgiving pretty much covers it.