flash photography prohibited

It's been some months since I bothered to write--longer if you consider my last entries were super image-heavy and extra light on actual words.  I could tell you it's because I've been busy, but I really haven't.  I could also say it's because I'm lazy or I've been procrastinating.  Although those things are true about me in general, it doesn't stop me from writing.  I haven't written here much (and what little I have written is just that, very little) because I don't want to.
I started this blog, although a bit begrudgingly since I suck at remember to keep up with it, because I was excited about my new experiences.  I wanted to share with others about the places I'd go, the people I'd meet, my students, the weather, the food, whatever amused me.  But I've found that I'm not really enjoying my time here as much as I'd hoped I would.  I'm not doing much traveling or even local tourism so i haven't got any stories to tell or pictures to share.
I don't feel fulfilled by this job anymore.  It's not the kids, or even the actual teaching that is a problem.  They can be annoying, but I do enjoy working with them most days.  What I'm not enjoying are the crazy politics of the school, the cold distance of my co-workers and the residents here and the loneliness of living in a big city.  I've been here for 6 months and only feel like I've made a connection with two people.  I live here but it's not home.  I will always be an outsider here.
It's my second day back after the Easter holidays.  My plans to visit London and Dublin during the break got canceled.  Instead of staying and watching the numerous elaborate processions of Jesus and his posse being carried through the streets surrounded by robed and hooded men, I bought a ticket to go home.  I spent 9 glorious days in Florida.  I got to see my parents and my sister and a few of my friends, but I really went home to see Clinton.  I miss my life with him.  I also had the chance to see Peter, my best friend from high school.  We hadn't seen each other or spoken for 6 years.  I nearly shit a brick when he contacted me.  When I found out he'd be in Florida, I made plans to see him.  I just wish I'd had more than a few hours with him.  Four hours isn't nearly enough time to make up for 6 years.
Anyway, I'm back in Madrid now, still exhausted from the jet lag.  I'm thinking of visiting Marissa soon, so I may write about new adventures in pie baking and Skittles tasting (did you know Skittle from the UK are different from Skittle from the US and that you cannot bring UK Skittles into the US?)  Leahnie is also wanting to plan trips to Sevilla and Barcelona.  Until then I am just counting down until my time here is up.  Only 86 more days to go!

Bonne année Paris!

We left Athens for another five days in (ok, near) Paris, France.  We stayed in the lovely home of my very good friend Florence.  It was a reunion of my ERASMUS friends from Huelva.  It was cold, snowy/rainy, or overcast nearly the whole time, my feet wanted to fall off from all the walking, and I was quite bored having to see the same monuments I'd already seen.  But it was worth it to get to see the girls.  There was good food, reminiscing, giggling and plenty of bad Spanish.  I hope to be able to see them again before I leave Europe.
On to the pictures...

More can be seen here.

Καλά Χριστούγεννα Αθήνα!

Merry Christmas Athens!  I spent five glorious days wandering the streets of Athens, Greece with Marissa with our former professor from USF as a sort of tour guide.
We saw many old rocks and breathtaking views of a city that seems to stretch on forever.  I'm not in much of a writing mood (as you can tell by the delay of more than a month) but I will at least leave you with some pictures.

As usual, you can see the rest over here.

Merry Christmas!

School is out for the holidays.  I have twenty days of freedom!  Five of those days will be spent in Athens and another five in Paris.  I will not be bored this year!  I may, however, be broke, but it is totally worth it!

The only reason I went to school today was because there was a Christmas carol concert this morning.  I got to listen to my kids sing unintelligibly and off-key.  But it was definitely cute.  Only the sixth graders bothered to learn a song in English.  I tried to take some video, but the lighting was awful, so it isn't worth taking the time to upload.

When I got back home from school, I found a note from the postman that I could go pick up my package at the local post office because no one was home when he came to deliver.  So after lunch and a nap, I set out in the icy rain to claim my present.  My awesome friend Brett baked me gingerbread cookies, decorated them, wrapped them up in bubble wrap and mailed them to me!

And now I'm back at home waiting for my laundry to finish (and hoping it will dry in time - I leave the 24th) so that I can pack.  I hope everyone else is enjoying their holidays!  ¡Feliz Navidad!

Snow day number two

Well, sort of.  Monday, December 21, 2009.  It snowed in the wee hours this morning before the sun came up.  After sunrise, once it started to warm up slightly, it stopped snowing, and started drizzling.


With the onset of rain, the snow on the ground started to melt.  By the time I left for work, it was like walking (or driving for some) through a Slurpee.  I had to be careful not to slip and fall in it.  I am so glad that my boots got here before the snow.

At school they had the play areas roped off so that the children wouldn't run around and hurt themselves.  And although I think that was a good idea in itself, it also allowed me to get some pictures of the school grounds covered in an undisturbed blanket of white.

Happy Winter everyone!

First day of snow

Monday, December 14, 2009.  Unlike other parts of Spain, the first snowfall here in Madrid was unimpressive.  We got less than an inch and all of it melted before mid-day.  I didn't have time before work to go find something pretty to photograph covered in snow, so you get my neighbor's dirty car.  It also snowed on Wednesday.  But as it was melting as it fell, it was not worth photographing.

Segovia

This weekend was a "puente".  Spanish for bridge, it is called this because Sunday was Constitution Day and today is Immaculate Conception Day, both of which are federal holidays.  We get the day in between off as well, the bridge day.  Many Spaniards travel during this long weekend.  Due to my extreme procrastination skills, I didn't make any plans.  Marissa came up to visit though, and we took a day trip to Segovia.

Segovia is BEAUTIFUL.  It's maybe an hour and a half north of Madrid, in Castilla-Leon.  It is in the mountains and is full of breathtaking monuments: a roman aqueduct, a 12th century castle, a gothic cathedral, and many other notable churches.  My favorite was the Alcazar, a castle that was previously an Arab fort.  It has spacious stone rooms, vaulted, elaborately decorated ceilings, breathtaking stained glass portraits.  Let's not mention the views of the countryside.  All I want to know is when can I move in?  There also happened to be a ceramic art show in town this weekend.  YAY shopping!

More photos can be seen at Facebook.

Holiday time

Holidays are always more fun with children.  Granted, any explanation I give to these kids about what any given American or British holiday is, will ultimately be forgotten because they aren't celebrated here.  But that doesn't make it any less fun.
For Halloween the first graders got to color different "scary" pictures to decorate the classroom.  The third graders learned a song about a witch and her cat and performed it for the younger ones.  They wore spider masks and played home-made instruments.  It was adorable.

Thanksgiving was better.  All the students made feathers for a collaborative art project.  We made a turkey, it's feathers brightly colored, full of all the things children are thankful for.  The third graders got a special treat.  I brought in a pumpkin pie for them to try.  In order to tie it in with their science lessons, we called it an experiment with the senses.  It was great fun.
Christmas should be interesting.  We've been asked not to bring up religion when talking about holidays.  We'll see how well that goes.

As far as what I did for the holidays...not much.  I donned a statue of liberty costume for school (no, there are no pictures).  I didn't feel like going out to a club to get drunk with strange people wearing bad costumes.  I went shopping on "Black Friday", but there are no equivalent sales here that weekend, I just need to shop for winter clothes.  The weekend after Thanksgiving I went down to Toledo to visit Marissa.  We spent all day cooking and eating.  Then we went out with her friend Maria for a beer.  Nothing like Thanksgiving at home, but still enjoyable.

You can see more of my school pictures on Facebook.

Oh yeah, I work too.

I've been working for more than a month now.  Make that more than two months.  I get distracted.  I told you my updates would be sparse!  Where was I?  Oh yeah, work.

I love my job.  Yes, it is great to only work sixteen hours a week and get the benefits of full-time work.  But it is far more than that.  I actually look forward to going to work.  It's fun.  It's challenging.  I get to sing, dance, color, and tell stories.  No, it's not perfect.  I have some children that enjoy making the teacher squirm.  But it is preferable to every previous job I've had.

My school this year is more than twice the size as El Lince was.  It has got a cafeteria, a gym/auditorium, a music room, and a massive courtyard.

So, yeah, sixteen hours split up across all five weekdays.  I'm only slightly annoyed by that.  It means I can't take long weekends as frequently, but it's okay.  I had four day weekends last year and didn't do many weekend getaways.  My time is split between the first and third grade classes.  That's about a hundred kids, give or take a few.  I've learned most of their names.  I get to lead the first grade class while I'm in there.  Their regular teacher, Nieves, enjoys letting me teach.  It lets her breathe for a bit.  In the third grade class, I mostly do one-on-one with some of the students that need a little extra help.

Day trip to Consuegra

I haven't done much traveling yet.  I had to conserve my funds the first month for frivolous expenses such as rent and groceries.  Working at 7-Eleven for the summer did not leave me with a pile of savings.

I did manage to make one day trip with Marissa.  We thought it might be both fun and educational to visit the Saffron Flower Festival in Consuegra.  So I dragged myself out of bed early, packed a lunch and a change of clothes, hauled ass across town, and nearly missed my bus to Toledo.  I seriously got the LAST seat on the bus...and only because I was traveling alone.



I met Marissa in Toledo and we caught the next bus bound for Consuegra, a tiny town in Castilla La Mancha.  It's famous for Don Quixote's windmills.  We wandered about the small town, with the help of the friendly employees of the two tourism offices, stopping to take pictures, and to have a beer. Marissa found a Simpsons toy vending machine and bought one.  We then proceeded to take pictures of Apu everywhere.  We had fun admiring the medieval costumes and watching them make a humongous Paella. We made sure to visit those famous windmills. The weather was beautiful.  Blue skies, warm air.  But by the time six o' clock rolled around, we had seen enough, and were ready to get on the bus back to Toledo.

There was just one small problem.  That bus never came.  We waited for more than two hours!  We went back to the tourism office to ask for help.  One of them was kind enough to drive us to the next town where we were able to catch a bus to Madrid instead.  It was well after midnight by the time we got back to my apartment.

As always, you can see more pictures at Facebook.

Welcome to Spain!

OK, so I'm a little late.  But anyone that has known me for any length of time, understands my devotion to the art of procrastination.

So, I live in Madrid.  I arrived September 23rd.  Wow, almost 2 months.  How time flies!  Obviously, as I am still around to write, my planes didn't crash.  And as scintillating as it was for me to sit for hours on end at Tampa International, and again at Toronto Pearson International, not to mention the trans-Atlantic flight...as exciting as that was, I'll spare you the details.

I took all of two days to find an apartment this year.  This is not because the process was any easier.  I decided that I would be less picky this year.  I settled on two requirements: firstly, I wanted to live close to my school; and secondly, I didn't want to pay more than 400€ per month (rent, utilities, internet, everything).
I took the first apartment I was able to visit.  It's two blocks, at most, from my school.  It's great.  I can walk there in less than five minutes.  It's also only 350€ per month.  Check and check.  The main deciding factor, what made me decide to live here after only a short visit, was not the apartment itself (as you'll see in a moment when I enumerate the problems).  Ana, the owner, was very friendly and very hospitable.  I've found that, no matter how seemingly perfect a home is, it will always have some kind of problem.  And if the owner is unfriendly and unwilling to help, it makes the experience that much worse.


So, home sweet home.  It's tiny.
I am not exaggerating.

The bathroom has a half-sized tub.  And you have to carefully maneuver around the poorly arranged sink and toilet to get to it.  The kitchen is a closet.  There is a sink, a gas range, a fridge and a microwave, but no oven.




The living room, which is also the dining room, is not large enough to hold the couch and table that both reside there.  You can only sit on one side of the table because it is flush against the wall, and if you are seated at the table, it becomes impossible to cross the room.

But I chose to live here.  I like it.  It's cute.  Nevermind that it is half the size of my apartment in Huelva last year (and nearly twice the price too!) or that I can't bake anything, it's my new home.  On the plus side, I have central gas and heating, so I don't have to worry about freezing this winter.  Have I mentioned it can snow here?

I also have two new roommates.  Mariana is 21 and Brazilian.  She is an ERASMUS studying architecture at the Universidad Politécnica.  She's blonde, cute and never stops talking.  This is also not an exaggeration.  Megan is 20 and she's from California.  She's here studying communications on an exchange program through the Universidad Complutense.  She's bubbly, plays the guitar and loves cheese.  If I remember, I'll get pictures.

On being shy

I openly admit that I am painfully shy.  I don't really like the concept of a blog.  To me, it is nothing more than a little place on the internet where one can cry out for the attention of others.  I'm not so comfortable with this idea.  I don't like to have others staring at me, invading every little detail.  I'm not an exhibitionist.  I like my privacy.
Which is not to say that I don't like to have friends.  Nor is it that I don't like to talk to them.  I just don't like to be the center of attention.  I'd much rather get a phone call, or a surprise lunch visit to catch you up on the events of my life.  This writing it all out and publishing it for the world to see, waiting for someone to want to come and read it just feels like megalomania.  My life is just not that big, that interesting, that glamorous that the world needs to know.
But yet, here I am, writing.  And here I am, publishing.  And here I am, waiting.  So my point is, if I have to make this effort, if I have to force myself to expose my life's details, I expect you to make it a little easier for me.  Just as you expect me to write, I expect you to read.  No, I expect more than that.  I expect you to be active participants.  I expect you to reply.  I expect you to ask questions.  I'm not here writing for my benefit.  I already know what is happening in my life.

Obligatory "first post"

I assume that if you are reading this, you know me, or at least have met me.  Why would you be here otherwise?  So I'm skipping the introductions.  I've been debating with both myself and friends for more than a year about the merits and detriments of starting a blog about my travels.  Yeah, well, you win.  But keep in mind that my layout skills suck.  And my camera drains the life out of batteries at an alarming rate, so even if I take it everywhere AND remember to pull it out of my bag to take pictures (which is not very likely) it may not work.  Plus I am the ultimate procrastinator, so even if I remember to upload my images, or type a new entry, I'll just not do it because I don't feel like it.  Let's not forget that my life really isn't all that interesting most days.
I could write more, but as I have wasted several hours of my afternoon just setting this up, I don't have the energy to recount any tales.