Birthday Weekend!

Well this past Sunday was my birthday, the 2nd that I have spent in Spain. So on Saturday night, a whole bunch of friends and myself had a Mexican themed tapas party at one of my friends apartments. There was also another birthday girl, her birthday being on Friday and she had invited friends too, so I didn't know everyone there. Besides Americans and Spaniards, there were people from Portugal, Belgium, England and Norway. It was a lot of fun; there was food, alcohol, music, a candle lit terrace and even home-made birthday cake with candles!! Around 1am, we headed over to Kapital, one of the biggest clubs in Madrid, with seven floors of music. I don't know how I haven't been yet, but it was my first time there and I absolutely loved it! They have everything from Spanish pop, hip-hop, reggaeton, techno and more. I didn't end up leaving the club until 6:15am.

So on Sunday, my actual birthday, there was a huge concert in the center of Madrid. The European MTV Awards were in Madrid, so they had a pre-concert, for free! The headliners were Katy Perry and Linkin Park, but I just went for Katy Perry since I don't like rock music. There were tonnnssssss of people there, and police everywhere. So while the opening band was performing, Kanye West made a guest appearance! I'm a huge fan, so I loved it. Then Katy Perry performed, and it was good, except for the fact that she was lip synching! But I guess that's just the standard nowadays. After her performance, I left to go to a bar to catch the big soccer game between the two Madrid teams: Atletico Madrid vs. Real Madrid (the equivalent of Yankees vs. Mets). In New York, they call it the Subway Series, but here in Spain its the Derbi Madrileño [Madrid Derby]). Apparently for the past 12 years, Atletico has lost to Real and this year was no different; Real Madrid won 2-0. Overall, it was a great birthday weekend.

So on Monday morning, being super tired from my birthday weekend, I arrive to my first class to find out that my teacher is not there. Now remember, I am just an assistant,(though of course to the kids I am a full fledged teacher). Technically, I can't be alone with the students, so I had different teachers with me, just sitting in the back of the classroom while I actually teach. My teacher wasn't in today either, so for the past two days, it's been just me, teaching all day long. I actually had to discipline them and threaten their recess time in order for them to be quiet and pay attention! That seemed to be the only thing that worked. All I can say is, thank goodness I'm only an assistant, because I don't think I have the patience to discipline three classes of 4th graders everyday...

Busy, Busy, Busy

These past two weeks, have been crazy. As you all know, Halloween was last week. Since I am a "cultural ambassador" for these students, the other four assistants and myself were responsible for turning the library into a haunted house. Now anyone that knows me knows I don't really like Halloween, because I never celebrated it as a kid. I have only celebrated Halloween two times, and that was the past two years, because in college, you're lame if you don't dress up and go to the parties. So I thought I would hate to do this, but I actually really enjoyed making the haunted house. We had scary music,carved pumpkins, amazing decorations and made tunnels out of boxes and the kids loved it. Some of the youngers ones were so scared that they had to leave before it was over!

So like most of the other assistants in the program I'm in, I too am giving private English lessons. English is very much in demand here. So, last week I started mine. Once or twice a week, I give lessons to the principal's husband, Victor. She had asked me if I would like to do it and of course I said yes. Most of it is just conversation, but I also make grammar worksheets for him to do for homework and then we go over them at the next lesson. At first, I was really nervous, because I have no teaching experience, just an English mother tongue. But I like it because I can talk about interesting topics like politics, Spain and traveling. Victor works for an airline, so he's been all over the world (someday I wish I can say "I've been all over the world"). His English is actualy really good, he just never has the opportunity to talk to someone for more than 5-10 minutes in English.

This past week was also election day in the states and the following day, Obama was on the cover of many newspapers. I find this interesting because in NY, the president of Spain wouldn't be on the cover of the NY Times (or any other newspaper) after a Spanish election day. I had a few people ask me about what's been going on politically in the U.S. and I love to enlighten them. It's crazy how many Spanish people actually know about our government, whereas I know absolutely nothing about the Spanish government. Maybe now I'll start learning about it since I'll be here for a while.

Last weekend was also another holiday, so I had a four day weekend instead of the usual three day weekend. So I went to Cuenca, a neighboring town, about two hours east of Madrid. It's a very old city and the old part has these "casas colgantes" or hanging houses. The houses don's actually hang off the cliff, but it's still pretty cool. I climbed all the way up to the highest point of the city and the view was breathtaking. Pictures coming soon...

BEST NEWS EVER!!

Well I just received the best news since I've arrived: Spain is FINALLYYYYY banning smoking in bars, cafes, and restaurants, among many other public places (effective January 2, 2011). Apparently, smoking is the #1 killer of people here in Spain, so the government has finally made their threat law. No longer will I have to worry about people accidentally burning me with their cigarettes (which has happened to me before!) or come home having my hair and clothes smell like an ashtray!! I usually love countries for their differences and embrace them, but smoking is one thing I can never get used to.

This news just made my day! =)

Work, Work, Work

So after my two day work week last week, it was wierd to actually be in school this week for my usual four days. (So hard, right?) I still can't believe that I actually get to live in Spain for the exchange of 16 hours in the classroom per week. To me, it's not even work because I absolutely love what I do. I would say the hardest part of my job is just not being able to speak Spanish to the kids that I teach. Their teachers told them that we know no Spanish whatsoever, so we must always always always speak English to the kids.

So on Wednesday of this week, one of my teachers had called in sick. I had four 45 minute classes with two different set of kids, so their was a sub for each class, but I ended up teaching all by myself! The sub was there because officially, I'm not allowed to be in the class by myself. At first I was super nervous, but by the second of the four classes, I was glad I had the opportunity to teach all by myself.

Even though I have such a lax schedule with my school job, every afternoon (M-F), I play and work with my kids from home. Since I've been here for over a month now, the three of them are really used to me and I am to them as well. But at the end of the week, I'm soo tired! Thank goodness I have Fridays off from school to just relax and get things done. Speaking of which: I FINALLY opened a bank account! I have been trying to do this since I got here, but every bank I've been to wouldn't let me because I still don't have my residency card.

So this weekend, I yet again went out like a Madrilena. I left my house a little after midnight and then caught the first metro back at 6am. I went bar hopping from one end of town to the other, without even realizing it! Every time we left one bar, we would just walk, stumble upon some other bar and before the night was over, we were right in the center of the city. It was a lot of fun, meeting random Spanish and international people who always want to practice their English with us. I didn't get home till about 6:45 so I slept pretty good today. =)

Tomorrow's Sunday, so I'll be somewhere watching soccer. I love that no more than 2 or 3 days go by without there being soccer. Between all the leagues (Champions League, Spanish League, La Copa del Rey, Europa League) I always have something to watch!

Dia de la Hispanidad

So as I previously mentioned, it was a five day weekend for Dia de la Hispanidad (aka Columbus Day). Apparently here in Spain, October 12 is also the Festival of the Guarda Civil (local police/military) so there was a huge military parade here in Madrid on one of the busiest streets.
Once I got off the metro, there were hundreds of people lined up on opposite ends of the streets. The miltary band played for a while, and apparently the King and Queen of Spain were there too, but I didn't spot them. It was a really cool experience: people were waving their Spanish flags everywhere, chanting random stuff about their government and what not. They even had jets and helicopters flying overhead for a mini air show! The only thing that could have made it better if it was a parade for the Spanish soccer team!




Red and Yellow for the colors of the Spanish flag!


Apparently, Spain has some sort in snow/ice military. These guys wore snow gear and skis on their backs!

Five Day Weekend

So I'm still loving my job and the kids, even more so because Spanish students are always having some holiday that doesn't require them to be in school, so this was a five day weekend for me. In America, it's called Columbus Day, but here its called Dia de la Hispanidad, acknowledging Spain's influence in South and Central America. So on Friday, I went out to a club for the first time here. Unlike in NY, their metro doesn't run all the time: it closes at 1:30 am an then opens up at 6am. So the young Spanish people leave their houses to catch the last metro at 1:30 and then party hard till 6am! I was sooo skeptical at first, but when in Spain, right? So after having a good time at the club with friends (besides almost dying from the continuous smoke all around me) we ended up leaving around 5am, only to wait for an hour for the metro! I don't know how long I'll be able to do this for, these Spaniards are hard core partiers!

So on Sunday, I ended up going to Segovia, a town about an hour and a half north of Madrid. It was gorgeous! They had a huge castle, cathedral and ancient Roman aqueducts from the Roman influence in Spain thousands of years ago.I absolutely love seeing things like this throughout the world and it's made me so interested in history, which I never liked before. Segovia is also full of tiny narrow streets, which I'm still shocked as to how cars fit. Maybe because their cars look like this!



Here are a few of the many pictures I took of the beautiful Segovia:

First Day of School

Well since I've last written, the day long strike in Spain has ended and transportation is working just fine. =) On Thursday, I ventured out a bit more, but called it an early night since Friday I went to meet the staff of my school and what not. So after about an hour and ten minute commute to my school, I get off in the smallest town I have ever seen in life. I think the whole town of Meco has maybe a 10 mile radius. On the way there, you can see the town as nothing bus grass and open land surrounds it. All the houses look exactly the same and it's just soooo small town. So I knew the school wasn't far from the bus stop, so I stopped at the first place I saw, (a photocopy shop) for directions. The lady was so nice, she walked me all the way out to the end of the street and told me exactly where to go! Since the buses to Meco only run at certain times, I was an hour early so decided to walk around and see what was around. After 15 minutes of walking and seeing nothing but a few school and houses galore, I stopped in the bar down the street from my school for a cafe con leche. While reading the newspaper, I recognized another girl from the program who happened to be teaching at my school too! So we chatted for a while and then headed to the school. After going to the opposite end of the school, we get buzzed in and introduced to the principal, secretary and some other teachers. Then we had a brief informational meeting with the language assistant coordinator. Speaking of language assistants, I am one of five at my school. There is an Irish girl, and three Americans (though one girl was born in Venezuela) and myself (with only one boy). We got to pick our grades and I picked 4th grade which is 9 and 10 year olds. I will be teaching with two teachers in three different classes in the subjects of English, Science and Art.


So after we met our prospective teachers, the five language assistants decided to go out to lunch in Alcala de Henares, a neighboring city between Madrid Center and Meco. As it was my first time there, I had no idea what it would be like. It was absoluetly gorgeous! It's like a mini-Madrid with the local charm. Here are pictures of Plaza Cervantes, named after the author of Don Quixote. We went to this amazing restaurant with a great atmosphere, packed with people and the food was great too!

On Saturday, I met up with one of the language assistants from my school for yet another day of exploring. We walked all around another neighborhood which I absolutely loved. It's right in the center of the city, yet has all the local necessites, like a grocery store, clothing stores, banks and bars! Store after store, I wanted to buy everything. I've never really been into fashion, but I think living in Spain might just make me more into it after seeing all the great clothes they have!

Yesterday, Sunday, I met up with a new friend, from Peru but now living in Spain. We went to El Rastro, which is Madrid's weekly flea market which has everything from clothes, shoes, produce, linens, jewelry, Spain souvenirs and anything else imagineable for dirt cheap. I wanted to buy almost everything I saw, but I only ended up buying a purse and a pair of shoes for 15 euros(about $20)!!!! It was huuuugggeeeeee and everything was sooo cheap! So I definitely have to go back when I'm actually in the mood to shop. After that, we went to her apartment, in yet another part of Madrid (I've seen so much already!) for a great Peruvian lunch. Since everything here is closed on Sunday, the big stores are only allowed to open on the first Sunday of every month. So we went to this outlet mall that had everything! All the fashionable stores of Spain, plus international ones as well. I went in almost every store just to check it out and it was great! I didn't get home till 9pm after being out allll dayyyy longgggg.

So today: my first day of working!! I was half excited/half nervous because 1. I've never been a teacher before and 2. kids can be very judgemental and say whatever so I was skeptical as to what they would say. Unfortunately for me, I have to arrive an hour early to work everyday because there's only a bus that leaves at 7:15 or 9:05 and I have to be at work at 9am. So I arrived at 8:00 but don't start classes until 9. As I previously mentioned, I teach three 4th grade classes. Classes are only 45 minutes long, so I bounce from class to class to class until 2pm (1:15pm on Tue/Thu) with a break at noon while the kids have recess.

So, of my three classes, one all stared at me as I walked in and started bombarding me with questions: What's your name? Where are you from? How old are you, etc. The teacher had to tell them to be quiet so she can introduce me. They were all so inquisitive they were great. The second class has already had an assistant from NY so I guess I wasn't that interestig to them, but they were still inquisitive and asked a bunch of questions. The third class was great too, a little unruly, but good. I work with two teachers and both had me involved already! There was a spelling test today so I recited the words and helped correct the tests. I also helped to check homework and also with an activity on the digestive system. The teachers love having an extra pair of hands and also someone to help them pronunciate their English. So, all summer long I have been preparing for my first day and I have been collecting stuff from and about NY. I had NY maps, a ton of postcards (Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Adirondack Mountains, etc) my metro card, some money and a little more. Only with one class was I able to do my NY presentation as the other two had tests and needed to cover material today. So I talked about NY for a while, showed them where I was from, asked them what they knew and they were soooo quiet because they wanted to hear everything I had to say! But once, I pulled out my bag, they could not sit still. I passed out all my stuff for them to look and they were in awe! One boy even started crying because he didn't get to see the $1 bill, which eventually got passed around to see. I didn't think my metro card would be that great, but one boy wanted to keep it! I told him he could have it once I did my presentation to the other classes. Even the brochures of the MET and other NY stuff they were super interested in and asked me tons of questions about everything they were looking at. At the end, I had Silly Bands for them: Hannah Montana for the girls and Superman for the boys. The girls practically fell out of their seats when I said Hannah Montana and one girl already had a HM backpack. All in all: they loved it. They all said thank you a thousand times each and some even gave me hugs! At the end of class, one girl gave me a hand drawn picture of the Statue of Liberty which she copied from the postcard. I forgot how cute kids can be sometimes.

Analysis after day one: I LOVE MY JOB!