Yall take out your English books...

  All the English taught in Spain is British English, which I'm learning is very different from what is spoken in the States.  The materials for my students are made from Oxford University, so all the listening activities have very strong accents. Poor kids. Whenever I read the activities and then we listen to it on the CD, words are not pronounced the same. I'm finding myself trying to adjust the things I say so it'll match their books. I'll probably come home with some really strange sayings. Here are a few examples:
  British version = American version
-"Have you got any...?"= "Do you have any...?"
-"Can I go to the toliet?" = "Can I go to the bathroom?"
-The only answer to the question, "How are you?" is "I'm fine, thanks." Never "Good", or "Well", or "Great", or anything else. Only "fine".
-rubber = eraser
-bin = trashcan
-lift = elevator
-patio = playground
-pavement = sidewalk
-lorry = truck
-timetables = schedule
-trousers = pants
-biscuits = cookies
-spellings: favourite and colour
   Even though I don't think I have much of an accent, I am from the South and it's harder for the students to understand my instructions than their professors who were taught British Spanish. Plus, I have to try really really really hard not to use 'yall'. :)

Puente de Octubre

   Spaniards have several breaks throughout the year called "Puentes" (bridges). This one was the Puente de Octubre because we had the last days of October off. My friends, Caitlin, Angela, Amanda and I went to Northern Spain for the long weekend and we lucked out! Not only did we have a great trip, the weather was nice! We flew out of Madrid at 6am Friday morning and arrived to the sleepy town of Santander. This was a much needed break from the craziness of Madrid. We walked along the water and to the vacation house of the Spanish royalty. Along the way, we saw a mini-zoo with penguins and seals! That evening was cool and Caitlin and I tried our first roasted chestnuts. Our German roommate Angela couldn't believe we hadn't had them before! They're in our Christmas songs!

Santander: Dreaming we lived here...

Penguins in Spain? Who knew?

  Chestnuts roasting on an open fire....in Santander.

  The following morning we took a 1 hour bus ride to Bilbao. I won't write too much about Bilbao because we spent most of our time wandering lost. We did make it to the Guggenheim, so check on the list for being cultured! (although modern art is really not my thing.) Here are a few shots...

 Conquering Europe, one city at a time: Bilbao.

 G-Heim. Holler.

Huge artsy spider in front of the museum.

  Our final destination was San Sebastián. We loved this city! Famous for its surfing, we hiked to the top of Monte Urgull to get some incredible views of the beaches. That night we went out for "pinchos", the small servings of meat or fish on top of bread slices. Each one costs about a euro and so you go from bar to bar, trying one or two at each place. I like to call this "pincho hopping." Check it out:

 San Sebastián

 Views from the top of Mont Urgull.

 Pinchos galore!

The rain in Spain falls mainly.... never.

  For the first six weeks I was here, we did not have a drop of rain. Nobody seemed too concerned about it. Finally, a few days ago, we had our first day of rain. It was mostly just a sprinkle. But, I didn't have my rainboots (they didn't make the cut in my limited luggage space) so my feet were wet all day. The weather has rapidly changed from very warm to pretty cold almost over night. So the combination of the two has resulted in me getting sick. Bummer. And of course we have a break from school at the beginning of next week so my roommates and I are going out of town tomorrow. We're flying from Madrid to to Santander, in northern Spain. We're staying a night in Santander, Bilbao, and San Sebastian. Santander and San Sebastian are on the coast, but it's probably going to be too cold to go to the beach. Plus, you guessed it, it's supposed to rain. Really? No rain for six weeks and now it decides to rain all weekend all over the country? Oh well. We should have a fun trip anyway and I'm excited to see this part of the country. I've traveled a good bit in southern Spain because I studied abroad in Cadiz, but I never made it to the northwest. San Sebastian and Santander are supposedly very pretty coastal cities and Bilbao has the famous Guggenheim museum. When we get back to Madrid, we're celebrating my birthday and Halloween on the 31st! Although Halloween is not as popular here as it is in the States, people do get dressed up to go to parties in costumes. I've missed all our Halloween decorations and pumpkins- they're hard to find!

Food

  People are always curious about what we eat in Spain. I'll sum it up in 3 words: ham, cheese, and potatos. Throw in some seafood, eggs, and tons of bread and you've got a typical Spanish meal!
  From the outside it really seems like there's a ham obsession in this country. I can't really explain it so here are some pics.

   Ham hanging in the restaurants. Below, ham and cheese.
   Below- The "Ham Museum" A restaurant dedicated to ham!
Spanish tortilla. Eggs and potatoes. Probably has ham too.

Paella. Eat at your own risk. Octopus! Yikes.

Lately...

  So I haven't posted in a while. I started teaching two weeks ago and I really like my school! I work 9:30-4:30 at an elementary school right outside Madrid. I can take the bus or the suburban rail 20 minutes out to my school in Las Rozas. I teach at a bilingual school, so the kids take half their classes in Spanish and half in English. They take their science, physical education, art classes in English! (And English language, of course). Can you imagine taking science in a foreign language?? I assist professors in the classes taught in English, so I have a mixture of English, science, and art classes. My age group ranges from 1st-3rd graders, with a few hours a week with the little ones in kindergarden. The teachers are all great! The ones that speak English are excited to have someone to practice with, and I'm excited to be able to speak some Spanish to the ones who don't. However, the students are not allowed to know we speak Spanish. That way they're forced to practice their English. It's actually pretty hard not to immediately respond in Spanish when we can understand what they're asking! And it's pretty entertaining when they say things about/to us when they think we won't know what they're saying. Some even try to teach me how to say things like "hola", or the colors in Spanish. They are super cute, but highly energetic. Classes are much more noisy than we're used to in the States! But I'm adjusting and learning how best to work with the other professors to make their foreign language classes easier to understand and fun.
   Outside of school, I'm still exploring Madrid. I ran the Madrid 10k with some other Americans. The race went through all the main parts of the city and was a beautiful run! We started in the big park, Retiro, and ran down Gran Via (the most famous street in Madrid), past Sol (city center, like NYC's Times Square), Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace, the city hall/post office that looks like a castle, the Prado Museum, and back to Retiro. It was basically the perfect sightseeing tour. I tried to take pictures on my phone as I ran because I was just so amazed. Here are a few pics!

   

PDA

  Everyone knows Europe is romantic. People in Spain are much more affectionate in public than we're used to in the States. It's pretty humorous what I've seen thus far. I've compiled a list of all the places deemed appropriate for PDA:
-walking around, of course
-the metro
-Retiro Park (this is a big one)
-restaurants
-in line at the bank
-Cortes Ingles or other grocery stores
  I'm going to keep adding to this list as I see it!

Fiestas and Siestas

  Spaniards never sleep! At least not during the night. That's one thing I've had to adjust to. They eat dinner at 9:30 or 10:00 and then go out after. And it's not just the young people; it's totally normal to see families out and about at midnight, just walking around. Moms and babies too! The Metros and streets are packed with people at nights. It makes you think it's so much earlier than it is. The bares and discotecas stay open until 5 or later. The Metro closes at 1:30am and reopens at 6:00 so teenagers and college students normally stay until then so they can ride home. !! If you're wanting an early night, you're looking at 3. They don't believe me when I tell  them places in the US close at 2.
  It sounds shocking, I know. The only way they function is that they have breaks during the day to go home and rest. All the businesses and stores shut down from 2-5 to eat lunch and nap. They go back to work at 5 and leave at 8. As Americans, siesta time is really frustrating. You can't run your errands in the afternoon or go anywhere. I'm not a napper, so I try to run or be productive during the down hours. I start classes on Monday, so I'll probably be staying at the school during the siesta to work on lessons. Who knows, maybe I'll even learn to sleep during the day.... maybe.