Right now I would like to discuss the extremely relaxed attitude towards drinking in Spain. Unlike Americans, Spaniards never find it innapropriate to have a drink. In fact, I am currently in the teachers lounge of my school, it is 10:30 in the morning and most of the teachers have already enjoyed a nice drink. Of course they´re not lining up shots looking to get saucy, but since it´s Christmas time, one of the teachers brought in a bottle of holiday liqueur. When I walked into the room, the first guy I saw had a drink poured and said good morning by toasting me.
This is not the only time that I have experienced something like this. I have gone on a number of field trips with my students which have all been pretty fun and interesting. However, while in the U.S., for the teachers to drink during a field trip would be stongly against the rules, but no one seems to care here. In fact, they more or less encourage it. On one of the trips we were getting lunch and I asked for an iced tea and they brought me out a beer. Not like I was complaining, but just a little taken aback. It also surprised me how unconcerned the teachers were about the kids. We were in Cordoba at the ancient palace of the king and queen, and there was a tall guard tower. Apparently it was too small for all the kids to go up, so they all waited at the bottom while the teachers went up and enjoyed the view. Once again I did not mind this but it was still a bit of a surprise how they didn´t really care about the kids.
Also on the not of teachers drinking, we have a bar in our school. That´s right, there is a bar where we go to drink coffee and eat lunch. It is really just a small cafeteria for the teachers but there is a legitimate bar that serves beer if you want it. I have yet to see someone actually drink a beer while at school, but it is there if you want it.
So for those of you who´s interests include drinking all day and ignoring young children who you are supposed to be responsible for, come to Huarte de San Juan. Where there is always a cold beer waiting for you in the teachers lounge, and kids just asking to be ignored.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
9 is German for NO!
I would like to sincerely apologize for not writing a new blog for so long. I wish that I could say the reason for not writing was because I have been very busy and involved with many activities, but the truth is that I just got lazy. Plus there has not been any significantly crazy events that I have been involved in lately. So I will just try to summarize my last few months here.
Since my last excursion with Maria Isabel to the nursing home, I have been on a number of trips throughout Southern Spain. One day me and Gerald went to the beach just for the day. He had to renew his rental car in Granada and we decided to continue on to the beach because it was only about an hour away from Granada. Here we just relaxed and enjoyed a nice day of sun and sand. This was also where I first mentioned David Hasselhoff. I am sure that most of you are aware that David Hasselhoff, for some reason used to be extremely popular in Germany. While Gerald and I were swimming I asked him and he said that he was popular in the 90's but now he is just a severe alcoholic. He also mentioned how he is not a big fan, and this is when my obsession with "The Hoff" truly took form. Ever since then, I like to play David Hasselhoff songs for Gerald before we go out to get him pumped up. It's quite funny because he really does not like him at all. He keeps telling me that no one likes him any more but he was proved terribly wrong one night when we were out. We met up with another girl who is from Germany and two of her friends who were visiting. We were out at a pub when I broke out into a Hoff song as I often do when Gerald is around. I sang the first line of his song "Looking for Freedom" and from across the table, one of the other Germans continued with the second line without missing a beat. It was incredible because he wasn't even involved in our conversation and he just heard it and joined in. It made me so happy and I just turned to Gerald and laughed so hard right in his face. It really made my day because it simply proved that The Hoff was more popular than he made him out to be.
I have also been on a number of trips with the always entertaining Jillian Sakovits. She lives in Valencia which is a city on the east coast about 5 hrs from me. I first visited her a while back and it was a blast. I took a midnight train with a bed which was pretty cool. It was nice to be able to sleep comfortably for the long trip. Also, taking a night train allowed me 3 full days there. We had a great time and went to the beach, visited a castle in a nearby town and spent some time just walking around her city which is very nice. It has lots of old churches and buildings, but also has some very nice modern sites including some pretty cool museums. Her group of friends is also really fun and I got along really well with all of them. Later for Thanksgiving her and her boyfriend, another German named Phil came and visited me. It was nice to have someone from home to be with for the holiday. It was also nice because I was in charge of cooking the mashed potatoes and Jill was all over it which made it easier for me. I would also like to note that Phil and I took over the responsibilty of creating the gravy, which we both had no idea what we were doing, but we bought some random ingredients and mixed them together. While Jill was very skeptical, and will probably still not admit it, it turned out very good and we even got a few compliments at the dinner. We went to another teachers house and had a pretty decent traditional meal. Of course not everything tasted the same as it would have in the states, it was still nice just to be able to eat a semi-traditional Thanksgiving. The next day, Jill, Phil, and I left for Cordoba, a close city where the great KerryLynn Daly lives. We met up with her and although she did not go out because she had to get up early the next day, we went out with her roommates which was a lot of fun. The next day we did some sight seeing around Cordoba and when to La Mezquita which was really cool. It is an ancient Islamic Mosque which was taken over by the Catholics and converted into a Cathedral. It's really interesting because it has both Islamic and Catholic architecture and the whole thing is really beautiful. The next weekend I ended up going to visit Jill again because we had a long weekend I wanted to visit the city and everyone again. This was another nice weekend where we did some quality sightseeing, visited some museums and bought some souvenirs. Another day we played some basketball and I sprained my ankle, but don't worry, I was fouled on the play and still made the shot so it was totally worth it. We also went out one night and for the first time I actually watched a girl break a bottle over a guys head, it was wild. I don't think anyone is quite sure why it happened but I was just sitting eating some pizza in the Plaza and looked over just in time to see it happen, crazy.
Other than that, not much else has happened here. I finished my first book in Spanish, The Alchemist or El Alquimista, which is pretty exciting. However I am still a far ways away from being good at Spanish. Also, it snowed today in Linares. This is pretty big news because I guess this is only the second time in like 16 years that it has snowed here. Of course it only lasted for about a half hour and it is already melted.
Teaching in general is a lot of fun. It's not hard and I enjoy it because all the kids have a lot of personality. One particular story involves a boy named Alvaro. He is about 11 years old and hilarious. One day, the teacher called on a kid sitting near Alvaro, this particular student didn't know the answer, but Alvaro certainly did. While the other kid was thinking Alvaro had his hand as high as he could raise it and he kept oohing and ahhing hoping the teacher would call on him which he didn't. Finally Alvaro had had enough and he just starts talking, he also had his arm outstretched like he was singing or something and it was so funny. Then he got so excited that he just stood up and kept reciting the answer until the other students asked him what he was doing and told him to sit down. I couldn't help myself and I just started to laugh.
So once again I would like to apologize for the tardiness of the blog and hope next time I will write sooner. Until then remember, you can't shake the dog of the hand that bit you.
Since my last excursion with Maria Isabel to the nursing home, I have been on a number of trips throughout Southern Spain. One day me and Gerald went to the beach just for the day. He had to renew his rental car in Granada and we decided to continue on to the beach because it was only about an hour away from Granada. Here we just relaxed and enjoyed a nice day of sun and sand. This was also where I first mentioned David Hasselhoff. I am sure that most of you are aware that David Hasselhoff, for some reason used to be extremely popular in Germany. While Gerald and I were swimming I asked him and he said that he was popular in the 90's but now he is just a severe alcoholic. He also mentioned how he is not a big fan, and this is when my obsession with "The Hoff" truly took form. Ever since then, I like to play David Hasselhoff songs for Gerald before we go out to get him pumped up. It's quite funny because he really does not like him at all. He keeps telling me that no one likes him any more but he was proved terribly wrong one night when we were out. We met up with another girl who is from Germany and two of her friends who were visiting. We were out at a pub when I broke out into a Hoff song as I often do when Gerald is around. I sang the first line of his song "Looking for Freedom" and from across the table, one of the other Germans continued with the second line without missing a beat. It was incredible because he wasn't even involved in our conversation and he just heard it and joined in. It made me so happy and I just turned to Gerald and laughed so hard right in his face. It really made my day because it simply proved that The Hoff was more popular than he made him out to be.
I have also been on a number of trips with the always entertaining Jillian Sakovits. She lives in Valencia which is a city on the east coast about 5 hrs from me. I first visited her a while back and it was a blast. I took a midnight train with a bed which was pretty cool. It was nice to be able to sleep comfortably for the long trip. Also, taking a night train allowed me 3 full days there. We had a great time and went to the beach, visited a castle in a nearby town and spent some time just walking around her city which is very nice. It has lots of old churches and buildings, but also has some very nice modern sites including some pretty cool museums. Her group of friends is also really fun and I got along really well with all of them. Later for Thanksgiving her and her boyfriend, another German named Phil came and visited me. It was nice to have someone from home to be with for the holiday. It was also nice because I was in charge of cooking the mashed potatoes and Jill was all over it which made it easier for me. I would also like to note that Phil and I took over the responsibilty of creating the gravy, which we both had no idea what we were doing, but we bought some random ingredients and mixed them together. While Jill was very skeptical, and will probably still not admit it, it turned out very good and we even got a few compliments at the dinner. We went to another teachers house and had a pretty decent traditional meal. Of course not everything tasted the same as it would have in the states, it was still nice just to be able to eat a semi-traditional Thanksgiving. The next day, Jill, Phil, and I left for Cordoba, a close city where the great KerryLynn Daly lives. We met up with her and although she did not go out because she had to get up early the next day, we went out with her roommates which was a lot of fun. The next day we did some sight seeing around Cordoba and when to La Mezquita which was really cool. It is an ancient Islamic Mosque which was taken over by the Catholics and converted into a Cathedral. It's really interesting because it has both Islamic and Catholic architecture and the whole thing is really beautiful. The next weekend I ended up going to visit Jill again because we had a long weekend I wanted to visit the city and everyone again. This was another nice weekend where we did some quality sightseeing, visited some museums and bought some souvenirs. Another day we played some basketball and I sprained my ankle, but don't worry, I was fouled on the play and still made the shot so it was totally worth it. We also went out one night and for the first time I actually watched a girl break a bottle over a guys head, it was wild. I don't think anyone is quite sure why it happened but I was just sitting eating some pizza in the Plaza and looked over just in time to see it happen, crazy.
Other than that, not much else has happened here. I finished my first book in Spanish, The Alchemist or El Alquimista, which is pretty exciting. However I am still a far ways away from being good at Spanish. Also, it snowed today in Linares. This is pretty big news because I guess this is only the second time in like 16 years that it has snowed here. Of course it only lasted for about a half hour and it is already melted.
Teaching in general is a lot of fun. It's not hard and I enjoy it because all the kids have a lot of personality. One particular story involves a boy named Alvaro. He is about 11 years old and hilarious. One day, the teacher called on a kid sitting near Alvaro, this particular student didn't know the answer, but Alvaro certainly did. While the other kid was thinking Alvaro had his hand as high as he could raise it and he kept oohing and ahhing hoping the teacher would call on him which he didn't. Finally Alvaro had had enough and he just starts talking, he also had his arm outstretched like he was singing or something and it was so funny. Then he got so excited that he just stood up and kept reciting the answer until the other students asked him what he was doing and told him to sit down. I couldn't help myself and I just started to laugh.
So once again I would like to apologize for the tardiness of the blog and hope next time I will write sooner. Until then remember, you can't shake the dog of the hand that bit you.
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