¡Ay, que cultura!

My apologies for already being a bad blogger! The internet confessions just might not be for me after all, but I’ll keep trying….

The past week has been busy with lots of cultural activities and social events. Thursday, September 20 I went to a free flamenco show at a Metro station – not sure if it was waiting for two hours in line before hand, but the company was good and the concert was very feel good (I’ve attached pictures/videos here – finally)! The next day, my friend Pablo (who is also my roommate Teresa’s boyfriend) came into town and the four of us flatmates had a few friends over for dinner. Very international and eclectic, as people who come through this house tend to be, but all in all a very enjoyable evening – I learned how to make tortilla de patata once again and eating out on the terraza, speaking in Spanish with everyone, was really very fun. Saturday night brought about La noche en blanco, a big cultural evening that takes place in all major European cities (Paris’s is this coming Saturday night, for example). All of the cultural venues, art galleries, music venues, parks, banks, theaters, etc. stay open until 7 AM with literally hundreds of works of art and street performances and plays and expositions going on at once. On a normal Saturday night, you can see throngs of people out on the streets in Madrid, but this was absolutely insane. After a few failed attempts at trying to see shows due to timing and rain delays, I decided to give up and meet some friends I know from my time spent here before to have dinner. We ended up walking all over the city until the wee hours of the morning, which was more fun than trying to rush from one place to another trying to see everything. I am thoroughly convinced now that art + masses ≠ a cultural experience; nonetheless, it was a successful night spent with friends. The picture on the left is just one example of how crowded the venues were!

This past weekend brought on more of the same - spending time with friends, shopping in Sol, preparing for the fiestas and celebrating my roommate’s 26 birthday (see picture here of a tarp we all painted for her during the party), hearing authentic flamenco singers at a place near my piso. I find my time divided between my roommates and my Spanish friends and the Fulbrighters, who are an amazing group of people. The only downside to spending time with them, though, is that we speak in English. After a full day of doing so, the guilt of not practicing Spanish for a few hours sets in! Of course, that being the most difficult thing in my life right now, I won’t complain.

Other than that, I have seen a fair number of movies this week – the Spanish “Color azul casi negro,” the Iranian film “Las tortugas también vuelan” (seen dubbed in Spanish, of course), and “Sliding Doors.” Tonight I’m headed to the Filmoteca, a great indie cinema to see the Ingmar Bergman film “The Passion” – not sure it will be the most uplifting way to start off the week, but never having seen one of his films, I think it will be interesting.

This week has definitely brought about a feeling of being settled in, having a routine, being very comfortable with my roommates, and having more confidence in my teaching skills. It’s all a matter of trial and error. For example, my very first lesson teaching first year students about Liverpool, England using a DVD failed miserably. With the second group, though, I was able to correct my mistakes and it was a success! My schedule has changed at the school two weeks into work (you gotta love the complete lack of organization in the schools here!) and now I only work Mondays – Wednesdays. I have a couple of extra tutoring jobs also, tutoring nephews and nieces of the professors at my school. The next order of business is trying to find some open French classes to enroll in and find a place for salsa lessons. It’s strange to have so much free time, but I’m pretty sure it won’t take long at all to get used to!

For now, I am going to get back to The Time Traveler’s Wife, which is currently occupying a lot of my attention. Hope you all are well. Please do write when you get some time!

"Teacher, why do they only show pictures of cave men?"

Have I really only been here a little over two weeks? It seems impossible that so much can happen in just a short period of time. It is interesting how easily a person can grow accustomed to a completely foreign environment (literally). Considering I met an entirely new set of people when I came here and am living in a previously unknown neighborhood, I feel right at home- almost to the point that I have to remind myself that I am actually living in Madrid and that this should strike me as unusual.

This past week marked the first work week for all of us English Teaching Assistants – and what different stories we all have! There are 25 of us in primary schools (6-12 years) and 13 of us in secondary schools (13-18). Here, school is only compulsory until you are 16 years of age, after which you can pursue a vocational career or two optional years of bachillerato, essentially the “college prep” track that allows you to enter university. While the majority ETAs (yikes, we are considered ETAs in Spain!) recount stories of cuddly kindergarteners, I revel in the awkwardness of my 12-15 year olds (a lot of whom are already taller than I am).

I am teaching 7 separate classrooms, which means that all of this week I gave lessons that would be appropriately titled “All about Monica” and “All about the USA” to eager and curious kids. “What kind of music do you like?” “Do you like the Simpsons?” and “How old are you?” were common questions. I am finding comfort in knowing that 12-15 years everywhere are awkward and uncertain. They are great! Their level of English is surprisingly good, particularly for the third years, who went through the Global Classrooms program (essentially the Model UN) in English last year. My task this year is to work with the second and third year students in the bilingual program to prepare them for the big conference in Madrid (and hopefully to go on to the international conference in NYC in the Spring).

I have a feeling I will have a lot of great stories to tell about these kids. They are so bright and inquisitive! For example, yesterday a little 12-year-old boy Nudin asked me during our social sciences lesson on the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages, “Teacher, why do they only show pictures of cave men [in a series of photos depicting the evolutionary process]? Weren’t there women back then, too?” Not only did I teach evolution on my first day of class, but I my students were introduced to feminist critique by their own volition. A man after my own heart!

There is so much to say about the schools here. As an educational policy nut, my mind races a hundred miles an hour while at the school, thinking of all of the differences between American schools and Spanish schools and the structural components of the bilingual program, etc. It really is the best experience for me right now and I leave school everyday on such a natural high, my mind still reeling from the days events. First, the schools are so disorganized, they make American schools look like greatly efficient machines. There are barely any posters on the wall and the style of teaching is much more traditional. Since the students are in a bilingual program regulated primarily by the British Council, there is tension between the very regulated national Spanish curriculum (something like 30% is mandated by the central government) and the English components. Teachers struggle to find quality resources in English that follow the Spanish curriculum. This problem is particularly acute for secondary schools, since there are only 10-13 secondary bilingual schools in Madrid total – not enough business for textbook companies to make it worth their while to develop quality texts.

One last important note about the schools – the teachers themselves! They are genial, a warm, welcoming group of dedicated individuals who nonetheless guard their coffee breaks with fierce intensity. The atmosphere at my school is very collegial and the teachers are very friendly and informal with each other (the relationship between teachers and students is also very informal). We go to have coffee (tomar una café) during the breaks and, without fail, someone offers to invite everyone else (a.k.a. picks up the tab), without a second thought. They seem to share ideas and resources, but have limited access to sustained, quality professional development. Though the schedule is really disorganized (still, one week into school), with teachers not knowing if they are teaching class or not or where their classroom is, somehow the system works and the kids actually do learn. Amazing!

I know that the year will prove to be a lot of hard work (despite the fact that I am only scheduled to be in school three days per week!) and rather interesting. At the very least, I seem to be getting my bilingual education fix here – and loving every minute of it!

Blogger extraordinaire?

So, I'm still not so sure how I feel about blogs, but as I wanted to stop spamming people with my ridiculously long mass e-mails, I thought it might be the way to go for this year. Only time will tell if I am good at keeping up with this (and if anyone reads it!) I am already feeling the blogging pressure.....

Also, to make this chronologically accurate, I'm going to add a few more pictures and the first few e-mails I sent when I got here....

September 6

I've reached Madrid safely and that it is as lovely as I remember it. Having not slept a wink on the plane, yesterday seemed like the longest day ever (as it was- by the time I went to bed I had been awake for over 40 hours) - overwhelming, exciting, and tiring all at the same time. But just one day later, I feel settled into my new apartment where I am now sitting with my new roommate Simona (who is Romanian but speaks Spanish like a native, having lived here for 7 years). The street below is just starting to fill up with people eating at the terrazzas (mind you, it's 8 pm), my neighbor is blasting my favorite opera song (Turandot), and our new visitor, the adorable kitten from next door who snuck in via the balcony is keeping us fairly entertained. How's that for ambience?

I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of time in the common room, actually, considering my room is about the same size, if not smaller than, my freshmen year Kissam single. (It's nice that I've grown and accomplished so much in these past five years, isn't it?) The perk is that I get my own bathroom, but there's a catch: it's about the size of my parents' walk in closet (actually probably smaller; I can't even stand in there with my arms spread out in any direction). You have to bend your knees a bit at the sink to accomodate the portruding toilet and the shower "stall" is little more than an elevated square of tiles and a handheld shower.

However, before you all start thinking how crazy I am, let me reassure you that my apartment is nice and clean, with a great view, in a superb location. I live, literally, across the street from the Reina Sofia (the Madrid modern art equivalent of MOMA in NYC), a hop skip and jump away from the Prado, and a ten-minute walk from the city center. I couldn't be happier. Plus, my roommates are nice - I have only met 2/3, because the other is on vacation, but get this: they are all vegetarian (or semi-vegetarian). No one cooks meat in the house, which is good for me, as my room is right off the kitchen. One is a social worker, one is a translator (she is Spanish, but born and raised in Germany) and teaches German classes, and the Romanian is a hippie liberal fly-with-the-wind artist who is also a social worker. How do I find these people? They are all really friendly and I think we'll get along swell.

I have also met the other Fulbrighters, some of whom I had been e-mailing and communicating with through the internet all summer. They're a great, quirky bunch so far and I'm having a fun time getting to know them. It's nice to have a support network built into place here and helps with transition- it doesn't seem nearly as lonely because everyone is in the same boat. Orientation begins on Monday, so I'm looking forward to learning more about our jobs, meeting the coordinators, etc.

So, with a rather belated and poor attempt at brevity, I will leave you all to do the vastly more important things you have to do than read about my madrilena musings. I hope this e-mail finds you all well - please do write! I will do the same and send pictures as soon as I have some. Also, please, please send me your snail-mail address so you can open your box one fine day to find something personal among the bills and crappy sales magazines!

September 18

In other updates, yesterday was my first day of school and I'm still reeling from the experience. The Spanish schools are very different here in their organization and the beginning of the school year (yesterday was the first day for the kids also) is always chaotic apparently. The school itself is physically lacking any sort of posters on the walls, though apparently we're going to try to change that. The style of teaching is also different. In the class I sat in on, the teacher actually had the students do dictation! In the world of pedagogy, that is so, so old school.

The teachers are very relaxed, but somehow it works, because the kids seem to speak English very, very well. I'm really excited about working at the school (though the commute is one hour door to door each way by train) and about getting to know the kids. They are adolescents through and through: self-segregated and awkward, but still wholly interested and lovable. Tomorrow is my first lesson ("All about Monica" and "All about the USA") so wish me luck….

Other than that, I have been enjoying the Spanish lifestyle. For example, this past weekend, we went walking around the city until 7 AM, then I woke up to go to have lunch with a friend (cheap Doner Kebabs, delicious!), went to the Reina Sofia again, sat in the court yard talking about art and books, went to my neighborhood's indie bookshop, walked around the neighborhood, came back to meet my fourth roommate, and went out that night for chocolate and churros. Sunday brought on shopping with all of my roommates for plants and house-things with my roommate at the Rastro (huge outdoor market), then lunch back at the house with them, then the Prado museum and walking around Retiro Park (Madrid's equivalent to Central Park -- here's a picture of my Fulbright amiga Rachel and her novio Alf in the park). Yesterday, my roommate Simona got the job of her dreams, so we celebrated with a bottle of wine and ended up inviting over our neighbor (who we started talking to because of his visiting kitten Lola) and Simona's friend Raul and just passed away the night with bread, goat cheese and brie, and wine and champagne. It was genial.

Today, I am going to Alcala de Henares, about 40 minutes outside of Madrid so that I can see the birthplace of Cervantes. Then some errands and lesson planning and grocery shopping (I am going to become quite the cook being here!) An example of my cooking-- a romantic dinner for one on my terrace...