Alicante Adventure

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already been more than a week since my last entry. It was a busy week but I’ll try to recap the things worth noting as quickly as possible. As far as school goes, it was a rather uneventful week. I’m finally working one-on-one with the students in all of my classes so yay! However, that may fluctuate depending on the new factors to the equation who arrived this week: the helpers. These helpers come from Scotland and Wales and are retired folk who volunteer in the English classes every year from the end of October till the end of the school year. So far they have been in different classes than me, but apparently we may cross paths from time to time, meaning there will be three English teachers (the actual teacher and two native assistants) for just one class. I guess in these instances, the helper will work with the students individually and I’m supposed to stay in the classroom and do who knows what. Awesome. Hopefully, there won’t be too many times where we end up together.

On Tuesday, my coordinator at the school told me something quite surprising. Apparently the assistant for another school in Mula couldn’t come after all, so a new assistant had just arrived to take the position. Anyway, the crazy part is that he’s from Omaha, Nebraska. I honestly thought I was most likely the only Nebraskan participating in the program. At the very least, I thought that if someone else from Nebraska was in the program, the odds are they would be in a different region of Spain. Murcia is one of the smallest regions. So it is super crazy that two people from Nebraska not only ended up in the same region but in the same town! I mean what are the odds? Loco, simply loco. We’ll have to meet up sometime and talk about the homeland.

Since I have to speak English at school and my nanny job, and at the flat we all tend to use English most of the time, I’ve had to go out looking for Spanish-speaking opportunities. I mean I get some practice in during the carpool to work and in the teacher’s lounge and the grocery store and so on, but it doesn’t feel like enough. So I’ve been doing conversation exchange with two Spaniards for the past two weeks now. Their names are Maria and Pilar and it’s a very laid-back sort of experience where we hang out together (walk, get yogurt, browse shops, etc.) and talk in English some of the time and Spanish the rest of the time. They both are really nice and it’s been fun so far; however, I’ve decided that from now on I can only meet with one a day. I meet with them separately, and this past week both were only available Friday. So I met with Maria from one to four-thirty and with Pilar from five to eight. Not that I didn’t have a good time,  but it was a little bit much on my poor brain to do the Spanish-English switch for practically six and a half straight hours. 

On Saturday I traveled to Alicante, a city a little over an hour away in the neighboring region of Valencia. I spent about five hours there, and really didn’t do a whole lot, but it was more relaxing that way. I visited the Santa Barbara Castle which is situated on a large hill in the city along the Mediterranean coast so the views were as gorgeous as ever. Apparently the castle was hosting an exhibit that consisted of someone’s private Star Wars collection. Although I’m a fan of Hans Solo, I was stingy and decided against paying to see a bunch of figurines. Instead I wandered around exploring the grounds of the castle and taking an excessive amount of pictures. That’s really quite a bad habit of mine. I take two steps and think the view has improved so of course snap another picture, only to take another two steps and again feel the view is better and on and on it goes spiraling out of control. Then I put the pictures on my computer and find myself staring at literally hundreds of similar photos. I feel like I should become a member of a photo-snappers anonymous group. Hello my name is Emily and I have a problem.

View of the city from the castle

View of the sea

Santa Barbara Castle

All that photo snapping made me hungry so I soon found myself sitting in a lovely cafe on the castle grounds with a beautiful view of the sea and eating tortilla española (potato omelet) with bread. So good. After satisfying my stomach, I set about with renewed vigor snapping photos, which included taking a photo for a dude from Colombia. I seized the opportunity to have him take a picture for me, since I find most of the time when I try taking pics of myself, I end up blocking most of the pretty background, defeating the purpose. The Colombian was rather talkative so I found out he had been studying in Barcelona and was visiting Alicante for the first time and was then going to return to Barcelona to begin hunting for a job. Seeing as I was sight-seeing on my own like him, he invited me to join him on his excursion to a Chinese art exhibition. As tempting as the offer of seeing Chinese art was, I told him that I was regrettably leaving in a couple hours and couldn’t accompany him. I’m sure he was a nice guy, but better to be safe than sorry. Plus, I really didn’t have much time left at that point before the bus I wanted to catch, so it was a legit reason to turn him down. 

Hello!

I eventually left the castle with my camera’s memory card a couple hundred pictures fuller and followed the long winding road back down to the city. The temperature was in the eighties and I couldn’t resist the temptation to stop at a frozen yogurt shop. As I was thoroughly enjoying myself I noticed that there was a ship resembling the type from Columbus’s era sitting in the marina. So I wandered over to take a look and sure enough there was a huge ship that from what I could tell was being used as a restaurant. I snapped some pictures (surprise surprise) before making my way back to the bus station for my return journey to Murcia. 

Ahoy matey!

Sunday, I didn’t do all that much, but it was nice. It was the end of daylight savings time and that extra hour of sleep was very enjoyable. I’ve been going to the noon Mass at San Miguel’s and it is the Baptism Mass. So far without fail, every Sunday there’s been at least one Baptism. Last Sunday was the newest record for most Baptisms with a total of five babies but this Sunday wasn’t too far behind with three. I feel like I’m transported back to the fifties when I see the babies in their super long christening gowns and bonnets and being pushed in adorable baby carriages. Carriages, not strollers. The type with ribbons and lace. Seriously, if I ever have kids someday, I’m gonna buy all my stuff from Spain cause everything is just so precious it’s unreal. Okay well I think this entry has run on long enough so cheerio mates. 

Rock Bands and Other Mostly Random Happenings

This entry is going to be short because I can easily sum up the highlights of this week in a paragraph or two. (Just kidding somehow this became a lot longer than originally anticipated) Classes went well for the most part. Two of the teachers are having me work one-on-one with the kids and I think that is my preferred method. It helps me better get to know the students, and is good for them since they have to make more of an effort to speak English when they are by themselves. The other teacher I work with has me just sort of assist on occasion in the classroom, mainly by helping with pronunciation or writing things on the board. I feel like I get to accomplish more using the other method and am glad that two out of the three teachers have me doing it that way. Who knows maybe the other teacher will change things up soon and I can work on an individual basis in every class. Keeping my fingers crossed. 

On a side note, it is always interesting to hear the things the kids come up with in class. The other day, one student was absent due to illness and then the kids started joking that they were all coming down with ebola. Leave it to eight-year-olds to find that funny. 

I felt like having soup on Thursday, so I went shopping and then assembled the easiest possible version of corn chowder that I could find on the internet. It actually was pretty good if I do say so myself and with some crackers to thicken it up it was positively enjoyable. Thank goodness for easy recipes that even someone as inept at all things cooking-related as yours truly can manage to do with some measure of success. I was partially motivated to cook after some conversations I’ve had with colleagues at school where they were shocked to think I would go home after school and eat a sandwich and consider that satisfactory. I should clarify that in Spain, lunch, which happens between two and three, is the biggest meal of the day. Thus the surprise of my colleagues that I was eating merely a sandwich for the most important meal. Now I consider my sandwiches to be relatively substantial; however, I like variety as much as the next person so I’ve been trying to put a little more effort into meals at least a couple times a week. 

Corn Chowder!

Friday I went to a concert with my flatmate, Cecilia. It was interesting to say the least. We thought we were actually gonna be arriving a little late, but in typical Spanish fashion, the concert began later than anticipated and when we arrived we were so early that we had our choice of seats. By the way, the concert took place in the plaza de toros, or in English the bullring. Only in Spain. Nothing like the juxtaposition of listening to modern rock music while chilling in a place inundated with cultural and historical significance (also quite controversial nowadays). The first band to perform after the deejay set was rather horrible. They were known as The Crime and it felt sort of like a crime to permit them to go on singing. The next band to perform, Izal, was a big improvement and their voices were quite good. We left around eleven to check out a bar and meet up with some people before going back around midnight to catch the last act of the concert which consisted of a Swedish rock band known as Mando Diao. The band was a little strange. Among other things, the white scarf/cloths they waved about and the unusual lyrics to most of their songs, definitely gave the impression of drugs being involved. Thankfully I only paid five euros, because it probably wasn’t worth more than that. 

Mando Diao

As we headed back to our flat we couldn’t resist the tantalizing aroma of churros. Nothing like a late-night, or actually early-morning, snack of yummy, sugar-coated, unhealthy goodness. As if the concert didn’t have its fair share of strange occurrences, we had a weird encounter with a group of musicians dressed in medieval-looking garb hanging out on a street corner on our way back. As we were passing, they started questioning us and I think they were probably drunk, because if they were speaking in Spanish I couldn’t make it out. However, when we didn’t respond one dude started asking us if we spoke English and where we were from (in English) and when we didn’t acknowledge him he was like “Are you from Denmark?” Seriously, Denmark?! What?! Needless to say, it was a strange ending to the night. 

This weekend I didn’t do much, which was nice after traveling the last two weekends. However, the lack of beautiful photos to display is rather sad. I did go shopping and bought some cute boots that I may never wear because they have heels and those who know me, know that heels and me aren’t the best of friends. I just couldn’t resist them though. They were only fifteen euros which is pretty cheap for boots, so it won’t be too much money gone to waste if I don’t get a lot of use out of them. 

My impractical boots

This entry has, in typical fashion, carried on for an unnecessary length of time. So without further ado, I bid everyone adieu until next week. 

Introductions and Discoveries

I made it through my first week of classes! It was mostly good, although there were some awkward/uncomfortable moments mixed in. On Tuesday I was all set to give my powerpoint about myself and wouldn’t you know, the school’s computers were the 2003 version and my computer couldn’t save a version any older than 2009 so yeah that was a fail. Thank goodness I had the foresight to bring some photos of myself, family, and pets and I passed those around for the kids to view and ask me questions about. The questions they asked ranged from favorite foods and sports to whether I had a boyfriend, was married or had kids. Big families aren’t very common in Spain so there were many exclamations of surprise and excitement when they found out how many siblings I have. I will be working with about 200 kids, so in a week I only have two repeat classes and the rest are all different, which meant this week was introductions in every class. Answering questions about myself over and over and over…

Wednesday and Thursday were more of a success because I changed my powerpoint to a pdf file and that worked on the school computers so I could actually show those classes more about myself and things I liked etc. The kids were particularly excited when I showed them a picture of a tornado in a slide about Nebraska. They asked if tornados really existed, whether people would fly in one, and whether basements have oxygen. That last question was strange, but basements aren’t common in Spain, so going below ground is kinda weird for them. The second year class (age seven) drew pictures about things I presented on and their interpretations were really funny and cute. A lot of them drew my house, some drew me, or a cat and a bunch of them wrote I love you on their pictures which was kinda precious. That sort of elevated them to my favorite class at the moment. Oh and right after I came in to the class, Loli, one of the students, came up to me and gave me a picture of the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz that she had colored! She didn’t have a clue that I was a big fan of the movie/books. Apparently they had studied the Wizard of Oz last year so that’s kinda cool. 

Loli's picture

Okay, well enough on school for one blog post. I made chocolate chip cookies! They were a bit of a failure. In terms of U.S. chocolate chip cookie expectations, that is. My French flatmate said they were great, but myself and my American flatmate were in agreement that they didn’t quite measure up to our accustomed standards. Just to clarify in case anyone is concerned, I will be eating them, have no doubt of that! The chocolate is their redeeming quality so they won’t be wasted. But the texture was not quite normal and the flavor was a bit off. Everything tastes different in Spain that’s all there is to it. Sometimes it’s an improvement, sometimes it’s not so great. Like the milk. The milk here is definitely a downgrade from the U.S. as is the beef. But Spanish bread wins every time and they know how to make tortilla de patata to die for here. 

My cookies. They looked better than they tasted.

So on Saturday, I went on an outing to Puerto de Mazarrón which is a town/city right on the Mediterranean. It has tons of beaches! I believe I saw five in the course of the morning/afternoon I spent there. I discovered it is a very popular destination for British to have vacation homes. I probably saw just as many retired-aged British people as Spaniards and heard just as much if not more English than Spanish. I picked a cafe to eat lunch at and after I’d placed my order (in Spanish) the British invasion happened and I found every table around me quickly occupied with bearers of that quite distinct accent. Seriously if I closed my eyes I could swear I was listening to Angela Lansbury and Michael Caine. The poor waitress was struggling with getting orders down in English and in the course of things ended up using English when she returned to my table because everyone around me didn’t speak Spanish so she forgot I actually did, much to my disappointment. At least the British accents were enjoyable to listen to, so that sort of made up for my losing out on a Spanish real-life application experience.

With cute little white houses on the beach, who wouldn't want a vacation home here?

Overall from my day at the beach, my favorite spot was this lookout called Cabezo del Gavilán that I happened upon. It took a good amount of walking to get to that beach and I didn’t realize when I headed in that direction that there was such a lookout, but thank goodness I did because the views were breathtaking. It definitely was worth seeing and I went picture crazy a little bit there. Another memorable part of my excursion was actually at the very end when I was waiting for the bus to head back to Murcia. This little old Spanish man came and sat down next to me and started up a conversation. I learned that he is originally from Castilla-La Mancha, he now lives in Murcia and his favorite region is Madrid because of the women. He asked if I was married and when I replied no he said then that’s why I’d come to Spain, to find a boyfriend. Yeaahh, that’s the reason. It was an entertaining way to pass the time and also good Spanish practice. 

Doesn't get any more gorgeous than this.

Well I think that about sums up this past week. Oh and I started my second job (Nanny Speaking) and so far I think it went very well. I spent an hour playing with (but also teaching) two adorable little Spanish girls and they did very well with English. Almost too well, because by the time the hour was up I was completely out of all my activities I’d planned and all the extras as well. Now I know to come more prepared for next time. Okay, this is me saying over and out until (hopefully) next week. 

First Few Weeks on Foreign Soil

Hey everybody! I have been living in Spain for three weeks already and I’ve decided that now is as good a time as any to start one of those blog things. I’m not much of a writer, so my apologies in advance if some entries are boring or if there are long gaps without an entry. This is basically a blog for two purposes: to help me remember my awesome year in Murcia and to keep family and friends updated. 

Okay, now to quickly recap what I’ve done in the last two and a half weeks. First of all, getting to Murcia was a time-consuming and slightly stressful process. It was easy enough to get to Madrid, but finding the hidden little doorway to the train platform for Murcia was a major nuisance, especially when lugging around my giant suitcase and humungous-can’t-believe-I-got-away-with-it carry on. (I actually almost didn’t get away with it, because I sort of snuck past the person checking the carry-ons when I saw that mine was not gonna fit in the tiny little measuring thing). Anyhow, I made it onto the train for Murcia and then had to deal with finding a place to stash my luggage. This was no easy matter as the compartments meant for this purpose were completely full. However; the ticket checking dude took pity on me and let me leave my suitcase sort of in the aisle/exit so it was all good. At last I made it to Murcia and Alicia, a teacher at my assigned school, was there to greet me and take me to her home in Monteagudo which is right outside of Murcia. Needless to say, pretty much the first thing I did once I was shown to my temporary room was crash after the full day of traveling.

Shrine of the Virgin of Fuensanta

I stayed for a week with Alicia and her daughter Bea and their cute little dog Saya and was able to enjoy the awesome view from their place of the Christ placed on top of the hill the town surrounds. Alicia showed me some cool places in Murcia, like the Shrine to the Virgin of Fuensanta, and we went to a festival in Mula where we witnessed a procession and later enjoyed some Spanish dishes which included my personal favorite, tortilla de patatas. Thanks to Alicia’s help, I found an apartment in the city center fairly quickly and bid farewell to Monteagudo.

The Christ of Monteagudo

It took no time at all for me to move into my little room and promptly make a mess. I like to think of it as organized chaos. I spent the first week in my new home getting to know my three flatmates: Inés and Lisa from France and Cecilia from Minnesota. They are super nice and I think we will all get along splendidly. It’s been fun switching off with making food because I’ve already had a couple of legit French foods: ratatouille and crepes. 

I also was pretty busy going to the Oficina de Extranjería (Foreigner’s Office) to get my TIE (foreigner card of residence) as well as getting a bank account set up. The Extranjería wasn’t too bad of an experience but it took most of a whole day because I had the wrong size photos and had to take a bus back to the city center, get my picture taken, then catch another bus back to the office. After getting my temporary TIE, the next thing on my agenda was to open a Spanish bank account. I had heard good things about EVO so I opened an account with them and so far I haven’t regretted it. There was a little bit of an upset with them putting in my email wrong and I had to go back and straighten it out, but now everything is good and I already received a debit and credit card and transferred some funds. I can take out money from any ATM in the world without fees so hip hip hooray! 

This entry is becoming much longer than necessary so I will sum up anything else of importance in as short a manner as possible. I went to Mula (carpooled with some very nice teachers) only on Wednesday (Oct. 1st) and I just observed so it was exciting to meet the kids but not very eventful on my part. I sat down with the teachers I will be working with and we determined my schedule to be Tuesday through Thursday. Oh did I mention I turned 23? Yeah, that happened. I’m getting old, end of story. Anyway, I went to a long and boring orientation on Thursday so I didn’t go to school. Over my long weekend I did a number of things including an after midnight churros and chocolate run, a visit to Salzillo Museum in Murcia and a trip to Cartagena. Cartagena was really cool! I walked around a lot, and felt the effects the next day, but it was worth it. I saw a huge Navy Arsenal, visited a Mediterranean marina, saw hundreds of palm trees and snapped way more photos than necessary. 

Cartagena Mediterranean Marina

That pretty much sums up the last three weeks. Oh yeah and I got another job. I will be participating in Nanny Speaking, which will involve me going to families’ homes and doing educational games and activities with the children to help them learn English in a natural way. So far I will be teaching two little girls on Tuesdays and Thursdays and three little boys on Mondays. Well I’m relieved to say I’ve finally come to the end of this entry. I promise the next one will be shorter! Hasta luego.