Pais Vasco..food, wine, and beautiful scenery!

Hola!! Last weekend I visited a new part of Spain I'd never been to before, the Basque Country, or as it's called in Spanish, Pais Vasco. As you can see from the picture to the right, Madrid is in the center of the country (this map is missing Portugal, so it looks kind of oddly shaped) and Pais Vasco is directly north of it, and west of Barcelona. My friend Kit, who I studied abroad with in Sevilla, was visiting the area, so I took the train to meet her in a coastal town called San Sebastian. I got in around dinner time, so we went out to eat a traditional Basque meal which consists of tapas called pintxos and a white wine called txakoli. As you can see, the spelling of the words doesn't look like typical Spanish, because they also speak another language in the Basque Country called "Euskara." It's unrelated to any other language in the world, so it's apparently hard to learn.

So, back to the food! San Sebastian is known for it's gastronomy and has the most Michelin Stars per capita than any other city. Kit is a foodie, so she had researched different "tabernas" or bars we had to visit. It's common when going out to dinner at night, to move from bar to bar where you order a drink and one pintxo. Pintxos can be served hot or cold. The cold pintxos are usually a slice of bread covered by toppings such as ham, eggs, fish, etc. They are sitting out on the bar counter and you ask for a plate, and then take the ones you want. It's based on the honor system, because when you're finished you tell the bartender which ones you had. Here are pictures of some:

A variety

Bread, Spanish ham, and quail eggs...yum!

Hot pintxos are usually some type of meat or vegetable like mushrooms. The bottom picture was my favorite! And it only cost about 3 euro!

Pork, caramelized onions, potatoes, and quail eggs.

All in all, I stuffed myself on the trip! Definitely a highlight. Apart from food, San Sebastian was incredibly gorgeous! It's usually rainy in northern Spain, but we got lucky and had 60 degree, sunny weather. I'm used to rainy, cold Madrid so it was a pleasant surprise! The city is pretty small with an old quarter where our hostel was, and a beautiful beach called La Concha. The city surrounds the beach and it makes for beautiful pictures:

We also took a funicular to the top of a mountain and had amazing views of the city and beach.

Here are some more photos of the city:

The next day we took the bus to Bilbao to meet up with my roommates and Bethany. Unfortunately the weather was a lot worse that day, but we still had a good time and got to walk around the city and go to the world famous Guggenheim Museum. Everyone told me before I left that the museum is more interesting from the outside than inside, and they were right. The exhibits were pretty boring, but I'm glad we got to experience it regardless.

The city

Views over the city

The Guggenheim

The famous spider statue outside the museum

Puppy made of flowers outside the entrance

Overall, I had an incredible time and definitely suggest people visit the area if they're ever in Spain. It's not a well-known destination for foreigners, but it would definitely be worth a look.

Next posting I'll try to put up some pictures of school! Hasta luego!

Return to Sevilla/Spain

It's been forever since I've written! One of my New Year's resolutions is to update more! I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I spent my holidays in the United States visiting my friends and family. It was great to be back home and see everyone. Speaking in English and eating American food was also plus! I got back to the US on the 21st, but didn't make it home to Charlotte until the 22nd! Basically, I left Spain in a snow storm and came back in a snow storm. Here's what happened (I'll make it short and sweet). So, the day I left Madrid I woke up to snow. Since Madrid isn't really accustomed to snow, much like NC, the whole city freaks out. My train to the airport was late, but I finally made it and discovered my plane was 2 hours delayed. I was lucky though, because I was flying direct from Madrid to Dallas, Texas which meant that our delay wasn't too bad compared to people who had to fly through another European city first. Most of Western Europe had been hit by the storm as well, so the airport was jammed up with people whose flights were canceled. It was a madhouse! My friend Jessica was leaving the same day, but had to fly through Amsterdam first. After waiting 4 hours in line, she was rebooked on another flight TWO days later!

After a 10 and a half hour flight(!!!!) I finally made it to Dallas right at the time my flight to Charlotte was leaving. It was ok though, because American Airlines put me in a fancy hotel for the night and I made it back to Charlotte the next morning without problems!

Coming back from the States was even crazier because I had to fly through Geneva, Switzerland and when I landed I discovered that my flight to Madrid was canceled due to ANOTHER snow storm in Madrid. I was rebooked on the next flight which was of course delayed, and ended up leaving oh, only SEVEN hours later! And since I don't really sleep on planes, I was exhausted. I also discovered that my bag was lost so I had to wait in line another 45 minutes in Madrid to file a claim. On the bright side, I did get to take these beautiful pictures of Geneva out the plane window and my bag finally showed up 2 days later.

It feels greats to be back in Madrid and see all my friends again! I also came home to a completely remodeled bedroom. Before break, I began to notice mold on the wall of my closet. My landlord figured out it was coming from a leak from the kitchen of the apartment above us. Luckily it happened at the perfect time because they were able to work on it while I was gone. I have a brand new dresser now, and the room looks great.

It was also great to see all the kids again. Work has been going well. Before the break, the kids were getting ready for Christmas and the Epiphany which is even more important here than Christmas. Each year they have certain traditions at the school. On my last day there, they did a card exchange where two classes of two different grades meet one day and exchange Christmas cards. I missed it, but on the last day of school, the kids have a big show where each grade prepares Christmas carols to sing in front of the school. I got to go to music class with the 1st graders and watch them practice for the show. They sang jingle bells and a Spanish carol about a train, so they all had to line up and walk around as if they were a train. It was so cute, I wish I could have seen the final performance!

Another New Year's resolution of mine is to travel more! Next weekend I am meeting one of my college friends in the Basque Country, a region in the north of Spain. I am really excited to see my friend, as well as a new part of Spain that I've always wanted to go to. I am also going to a city outside of Barcelona called Girona, in February. Can't wait! Before the break, I traveled to Sevilla with my friends. Since I am so bad at updating, I'll go ahead and put up some pictures now. It was great to be back where I studied abroad three years ago (I can't believe it's been so long!) and see all the places we used to love to go to. However, as much as I love Sevilla, the trip made me realize that I made the right decision to live in Madrid this time around. For me, Sevilla was an amazing place to study, but Madrid is better for living and working.

Girls in front of orange trees

Jessica and I in front of the cathedral

Plaza de Espana

Magical tinto de veranos

Carriage rides

Sunset over the river

So that's all for now! More updates to come! Besos!!

Waffles and chocolate....

Finally I am back to make another post! Nothing too exciting has been happening since my last post. Just continuing to enjoy my time here in Madrid. It's been a great couple of months! I am really, really loving it. School is going well. Getting to know the kids better and better every day and feeling that I am really a part of the school and teaching. A few weeks ago I got to go to the planetarium with the 3rd graders which was fun. I'm also getting to know all the teachers at the school. I mostly hang out with the other girls doing my program, as well as two Spanish girls who are my age and are working as full-time teachers at the school. They really help make the day go by quicker!

Thursday was of course Thanksgiving, so my roommates and I decided to cook a big dinner for a few friends that we invited over. We cooked stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, roasted chicken (instead of turkey since it's expensive and hard to find here), and pecan and pumpkin pie. It was interesting cooking because we had to improvise for some ingredients such corn syrup for the pecan pie which is impossible to find, as well as canned pumpkin for the other pie. Despite the obstacles, it turned out great!

I also went on my first trip outside of Spain last weekend with Leona, one of the British girls I work with. We found a super cheap flight to Brussels (46 euro...I don't know how airlines do it here) so we went for the weekend. We visited Bruges as well, which was only an hour away by train. I definitely enjoyed Bruges more because it was very picturesque with canals and cute little shops everywhere.

Entering Bruges

Leona and me in front of a canal

Belgian waffle!!

A convent

Although Brussels wasn't as quaint, there was still a lot to do although we were sad we missed their Christmas markets by 2 weeks! Here are some pictures of Brussels:

European Parliament

Royal Palace

A pretty park

The famous Manneken Pis

Market Square

The Atomium, a structure built for the 1958 World Fair which was held in Brussels. It's now a museum.

Inside the Atomium

So all in all, it was a great vacation and I am getting excited for my next vacation to Sevilla this Friday! We have 2 days off the following week, so we decided to go back to the place where it all began! I am so excited because it'll be our first time back since study abroad. Will update when I get back! Hope everyone is doing well!

Holiday weekend

Hola! This weekend was what they call a "puente" here in Spain, which literally translates into "bridge" but basically means a three day weekend. We had Monday off, so I am only going to have a 2.5 day work week! Hooray!

Saturday, Jessica and I did a big shop at Ikea and it was fabulous. We bought a ton of stuff for the apartment. Most of it was practical stuff like more silverware and bowels, but we also bought some picture frames, vases, candles, and flowers to make the place feel a little more homey. It's awesome that it came fully furnished and they provided us with towels and sheets, but it still sometimes feels like it isn't fully ours since it's not all our stuff, so it is nice to finally hang up some pictures.

On Monday Jessica, Allison, and I took a day trip to a city called Aranjuez which is about an hour south of Madrid. Above is a picture of the royal palace which is the main tourist attraction, as well as beautiful gardens. The palace was really beautiful (they wouldn't let us take pictures inside!) and the best part was that we got to see the queen of Spain's wedding dress as well as her two daughter's and the current princess'.

The city itself is also really cute and is known for it's strawberries. They're so distinct they even have a different name in Spanish. "Fresas" are regular strawberries, and those from Aranjuez are called "fresones." We had to stop and get some "fresones y nata" or "strawberries and whipped cream" which they sell all over the city. The other food they're known for are frog legs...we decided to skip out on that one...

Below are some more pictures of the gardens and palace.

The old well in Spain!

The only picture I got in the palace.

Lots of fountains

Field trip time

I thought I'd go ahead and post a picture of my school. The school is basically composed of different buildings based on grade. This picture is of the main building which houses the library, the office, staff lounge, and cafeteria. As you can see, it's a relatively new school, maybe 20-25 years old.

On Tuesday, I went with the first graders on a field trip or an "excursion" as they're called here. We went to the Guadarrama Mountains which are north of Madrid, about 30 minutes away from my school. First, we took a charter bus to a nature museum where the kids watched a movie and went on a tour of the gardens and learned about the different plants and animals that live in the

mountains. Then we drove a little further to La Pedriza which is a mountain range that is known for its distinct, rocky surface as you can see in the picture. Hiking is really popular there, so we took the kids on a hike and ate lunch in the woods. It was surprisingly a pretty long hike, especially for 1st graders! Since the ground was really slippery and full of rocks, the kids were falling all over the place at the beginning, but luckily after awhile they got the hang of it! It was tough keeping them all together because they all wanted to walk over every rock and stop and play, but overall I had a really good time! I told the kids that when I am in the mountains I speak Spanish (so they wouldn't think it was going to be a common occurrence) so I felt like I really got a chance to get to know them. They're all so funny and sweet and I finally feel like I know all their names now! It's hard learning 42 different names, much less Spanish names, and there are tons of repeats!

As Javi said, I have a little fan club of a couple of girls who loved walking with me and holding my hand. During the hike, I'd always have 2 girls per hand which made it a little difficult to walk around! It's much more common here for students to hug their teachers and hold their hands, so now whenever they see me on the patio (the playground area where they line up for class) they love to come up to me and give me tons of hugs.

The 3rd graders are obviously a lot more grown up and their level of English is really high. They understand almost everything we say, but they still have a tendency to speak to us in Spanish. The teacher, Eva, doesn't seem to mind so maybe it's part of the learning process. Despite this, they still have a much higher level of fluency than most American kids.

This week I only have a three day week because tomorrow is a holiday here in Spain. It's basically like their Columbus day as well as a Saint's day. My roommates and I are planning on taking a day trip to a castle south of Madrid. Can't wait!

School...Spanish style

Hello! It's been ages since I've written anything, but I haven't had internet in my house for awhile but we finally got it installed this week and I finally have a free minute to write. Before I go on, I noticed that the pictures of my apartment weren't showing up on the last post. I just fixed it and they should be visible now.

The past two weeks have been busy to say the least. Last Monday we had orientation with all the other people who are doing this program. The orienation was a day and a half and was surprisngly very well organized. We had various workshops where we learned about different things such as the requirements of our position, how to get our residency card, what kind of insurance we have, what we should expect at the schools etc. It was actually very helpful and it was nice to get to meet some other people in the program.

On Thursday of last week I started my job. Like I said in a previous post, I am working in a small town outside of Madrid called Tres Cantos. I took the train to the school and was met by the principal and another girl, Amelia, who is doing this program as well, but through the British government. She's from London and is in her 3rd year of college there. I'm glad I am not the only assistant at the school because it's nice to have another English speaker around and we really get along well so it's nice having a friend to share the experience with.

We were given our schedules and I'll be working primarily with 1st graders and Amelia will be with 2nd graders. Occasionally we both have a couple of 3rd grade classes as well. The Spanish school schedule is also very different and a bit of a pain. The kids go to class between 9:30 and 1:00 and then they have a 2 hour break and come back at 3:00 until 4:30. Unfortunately, I have classes after the break which means I have to stay around the school for 2 hours which are unpaid hours. One of the hours we spend eating lunch and lunches here are serious business. The teachers don't eat with students, they eat in the staff lounge and there is tons and tons of food provided. The cafeterias here make home cooked food with multiple courses. And the best part is that the principal told us we could have free lunch if we agreed to teach English to the teachers for one hour a week. It's perfect because I have an additional free hour each day where I am doing nothing, so I can just fill it with that.

The best part about my schedule is that I work all day Monday through Wednesday and then Thursday I get off at 1:00 and I have all of Friday off!

I'm really enjoying teaching the 1st graders. Madrid has started an immersion program in their public schools so starting in 1st grade, the kids take all their classes except Math and Spanish in English. My school is pretty small and there are only 2 classes per grade so they switch out between the different English-only and Spanish-only classes. The teacher I work with is named Javi. He's super nice and young so he really lets me do a lot with the class and teach lessons. We'd been warned some teachers don't let you have much of a teaching role in class, rather they just let you read stories, etc., but Javi's been really great and I am thankful because I'd be really bored if not!

It's been interesting though because I have zero teaching experience so I am kind of making it up as I go, and I only try to speak in English which is hard because the kids know almost none. So there is a lot of pointing and repeating. Of course I could speak to them only in Spanish, but that would ruin the point of immersion. They always talk to me in Spanish of course and I just reply in English.

Overall, I've found the teaching style to be very different here than in the States. It's a lot of straight out of the book teaching and classrooms can be sterile with very little color and posters on the wall. Also, kids here are given a lot more freedom to run around and be louder than they are in the States. In general, discipline here is a little less strict, but the kids are really well behaved overall just a bit nosier than American kids.

This is a really long post, so I am going to write more later about my classes, the kids, and the field trip we took this week!

Hasta luego!

Lots of updates...

I haven't updated in awhile because the past week or so has been such a roller coaster. Basically all we did was search around the city for apartments which we discovered was much harder than we thought. First, it was hard to find many 3 bedroom apartments in neighborhoods we wanted to live in. Then, once we found something many landlords were unwilling to sign a 10 month lease instead of a year. Our work contracts only last until the end of June so we couldn't afford a whole year.

About a week ago we found a place we absolutely loved. It's in the city center, right next to the Plaza Mayor which is a big tourist site in Madrid. It's also close to a lot of nightlife which is good because we won't have to take as many taxis. It's also only a couple of minutes from a grocery store and the metro which is awesome. However, the landlord took awhile deciding if he wanted to lease it to us, but in the end he did and we're so excited to be here! I've been living out of suitcases in hostels for the past 12 days, so it's nice to have my own bed and to unpack everything.

Here are some pictures of the apartment before we moved in.

My 1/2 bath

Bathroom we all share

Corridor

My bedroom

Living room

Kitchen

Now we just have to get everything set up like internet, gas, electricity, etc. This has definitely been one of the harder things that we've had to do since we've been here, but it's been a learning experience and once we have everything figured out, we can relax.

Other than that, Jessica, Allison, Bethany and I have been having a lot of fun going out and getting to know Madrid. But we're all getting anxious to start working so we can start on some type of daily schedule.

Will have more soon!