Holidays and trip to Florence

I know it's been a long time since my last post, but a lot has happened, so this one may end up being pretty lengthy! We just had Thanksgiving and obviously the Spaniards don't really have anything to celebrate so my roommate and I hosted our first Thanksgiving for several of our international friends - a few Irish, one Italian and one Venezuelan. It was a huge success. Of course one of the Irish boys wanted to make the mashed potatoes, but we made two chickens (turkey is too big for our oven), green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. We had to go to an American Store here for the canned pumpkin. Those are pretty cool. We only stopped by one, but apparently there are several throughout Madrid and they have things from the States that you can't find here. For example, bagels - and with all the carbohydrates these people eat, I can't believe they haven't caught on to bagels. They also have things like Ken's Ranch dressing, KC Masterpiece rubs and barbecue sauce, boxed cake mix, etc. I bought a York peppermint patty when we were there and I was so excited until I bit into it and literally couldn't. I guess things aren't that fresh there, but it's comforting to know it's there. I guess cranberries aren't very big here either because we looked all over our big grocery store for dried, fresh, frozen or canned and ended up settling on the last box of frozen mixed berries. It was still quite delicious! Our friends loved all the food and were so excited to learn a little more about our culture, which was pretty cool. My roommate and I were both a little sad to not be at home with family and friends for Thanksgiving, but it turned out very well. We had a lot of fun being hostesses as you all know I learned quite well from my mom!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, Madrid has turned on all their Christmas lights at night. About two weeks ago was the first night they turned them on and Sol (where I live) was a bit crazy. Everyone was in the Christmas spirit though! We actually got to see a choir in one of the plazas nearby. They sang a lot of songs in Spanish, but they sang White Christmas and Deck the Halls in English, which was a lot of fun for us. :-) I love how excited everyone gets here for Christmas! We probably won't decorate our apartment too much just because of cost, but I've already been listening to Mix101.5's broadcast over the internet so I can hear all the Christmas music in English. I'll post pictures of the street lights soon.

Pictures I'm posting today are of my trip to Italy! I went to Florence a little over two weeks ago to visit a friend. It was my first time traveling anywhere completely by myself and I still can't believe how smoothly it all went. I had to take a two hour plane ride, one hour bus and three hour train, but it was all so worth it. The city was beautiful and the food was delicious. Florence is such a historic little place and the people there are so proud of their culture. We saw several churches and museums, ate pizza and gelatto and did a little shopping as well.

This was my favorite building we went to in Florence. It's the baptistery and is famous for it's giant gold doors. The ceiling inside was nothing short of spectacular. My favorite site, by far! The pictures I took hardly do it justice, but you can see some of the biblical stories depicted here. Each level follows a certain theme or person from the Bible: Jesus, John the Baptist, the book of Genesis, etc. It was just amazing to take time to look and see each of the stories that were painted on the ceiling of this church thousands of years ago.

This is arguably the most famous church and building in all of Florence. It's called the Duomo and is probably some of the most elaborate architecture I've ever seen and is actually colorful, which is quite a change of pace from all the other European churches I've seen so far!

This is me in front of the Ponte Vecchio. Lovely view!

Just a couple of pictures showing the view of the whole city.

With my friend from North Carolina that I stayed with while I was in town. She's studying abroad for the semester and let me stay at her apartment for the weekend.

Okay, so this is just a replica, but I did get to see the real David while I was there! You just weren't allowed to take pictures of the original. I don't think pictures can really do it justice anyway.

I actually got the opportunity to go to Barcelona this past weekend and will be posting pictures of that trip hopefully at some point this week. I just wanted to give everyone a quick update. I'm getting really excited to come home this month for a few weeks, but I'm so excited to come back to Madrid in January so I can continue all my adventures here! Just as an idea I'm most likely going to London and/or Paris when Jarrod comes to visit me in the spring. I also have a friend that's coming for a couple weeks in February and we have yet to concretely decide where we're going. And everyone keep praying on my parents selling at least one house so they can come travel around some with me when I get done with school in June!! Teaching is still pretty much the same. I'm pretty ready for a break at this point, but I'm still enjoying it overall. We are going to a friend's Christmas party tomorrow night, so that should be fun. I'm guessing it's going to just make me want to hurry up and get home to celebrate with everyone I haven't been able to be with for the last few months. Can't wait to see everyone in just over a week!!!!!

Holy cow, I've already been here for over a month!

Only eight months left - already?!! I can't believe the last month has gone by so quickly. It's definitely had its ups and downs, but I'm continually reminded that this is where I'm supposed to be. Halloween has come and gone and the kids at school (as well as myself and the other assistants) had a blast. I don't think American schools do as many Halloween activities as we did. One of the other girls I work with, who is actually from North Carolina as well, took pictures and is sending them to me so I can share them with you. We had so many decorations that the kids made and we taught our fifth and sixth graders how to make mosaics, which was tons of fun. Lots of the younger kids in my school along with a few of the teachers dressed up on Friday. It was kind of funny because they all dressed up as witches, devils or zombies with few variations. Halloween is a much newer holiday here, but I have been told it continues to become more and more popular every year. Kids in more residential areas, like the one my school is in, go trick or treating, but in Madrid we just saw kids walking around in costumes with their parents and young adults dressed up on their way to clubs.

The day after Halloween was a little challenging. I was feeling extremely homesick, so my roommate and I decided to go to an American used bookstore/coffee shop for the afternoon that I had found online. It was exactly what I needed. Honestly, just hearing people speak English in a public place was very comforting. I also found a couple of new books and had the best cup of coffee (with Splenda!) that I've had since I've been here. They also have what is called an "intercambio" two nights a week where I can go to speak in Spanish for a while with a native Spaniard and then in turn, speak in English for a little bit with he or she so we can both practice our speaking skills. I cannot tell you how many times I've told people here that I understand a lot more Spanish than I can speak, so this would be a really good opportunity for me to improve and to meet some new people.

I finally made a trip outside of Madrid yesterday to a small town called Segovia, located to the north-northwest of Madrid. It was beautiful! It took about a two hour scenic train ride to get there, although we took the speed train back, which only took around 25 minutes. Here are some pictures:

I had to take a picture of the view from our train on the way out there. My roommate and I both brought books and our iPods for the train ride, but didn't need them because we were so enthralled by the view.

Here's another picture from the train. I was so excited to finally see some leaves changing colors! Not as pretty as North Carolina, but I was so happy to see that not every tree in Spain goes straight from green to brown.

This is a Roman aqueduct that was built around the 1st or 2nd century and is still in use today.

Next we visited a gothic cathedral (Catedral de Segovia) built during the 1500s. I wish I could have taken pictures inside - Mom definitely would have appreciated the massive pipe organs!

Then we made our way over to the Alcazar Castle. I've never seen a castle, much less been inside one, so it was quite the experience, and the views from the top were beautiful.

My knight in shining armor!  :-)

We climbed 150+ stairs to the top of a tower in the castle, but the view was definitely worth it. The stairs were a bit of a challenge though!

View from the top of the tower.

So, that's it for now. There's a good chance we will take another day trip this coming weekend, but I will keep you posted!

E-mail

For those of you who haven't been able to post comments on the blog or would prefer to contact me directly, feel free to e-mail me at lwbest6@gmail.com . I'd love to hear from everyone!!

Teaching, traveling and Halloween

Week three in Madrid and I've finally started teaching! The last week or so has been kind of crazy because two of my teachers were sick and I've already been thrown into teaching a couple of classes completely on my own (by the way, I've had zero teaching experience before now!!). It's had its ups and downs so far, but I think the kinks will work themselves out soon. The teachers I'm working with are very open to any suggestions I have with teaching materials and methods of learning in the classroom, which is awesome. I teach first graders four times a week with two different teachers. At the start of every class I get them to tell me the day of the week, the month, the date, the year, the season and the weather. Then I usually take between one and three students out of the classroom and ask them questions in English such as, how old are you? and where are you from? I like this time because I get to know the kids on more of a one on one level and can assess their English speaking skills. A lot of what first graders do is just regurgitate to you what they have been told. Something must be going right though because my fifth graders are very, very smart! The large majority of my time is spent with both of the fifth grade classes. One is well behaved, whereas the other class is a little more rowdy, but they both treat me as if I'm another teacher, which is about all I can ask for. They are working on present tense right now. As in every class, some have picked it up rather quickly, while some are taking a little longer. I have a student in one of my classes that spent two years in an American school in Spain and goes to the States every summer for camp that speaks English just like you or I would. He is so helpful!!

Right now, I'm trying to figure out activities for the kids to do for Halloween. It's not as widely celebrated in Spain, but it has gotten more and more popular in recent years. So, if anyone has suggestions in that department I would love to hear them. One of my teachers wants me to put together a big poster to hang in the classroom so I've been thinking about getting kids to draw and color jack o' lanterns and then I thought about maybe making masks out of paper plates or something similar. I wish I had It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, but unfortunately, I don't have enough time for my mom to ship it to me. I can't wait to show them the Christmas video though!!

Teaching, along with my one hour commute to and from school everyday, has kept me pretty tired, but I think the weekends will be great for sightseeing. Last weekend, a couple friends and I walked around Madrid through a couple of parks, the Royal Palace and some of the busier shopping areas. I also made it to a park that's about a fifteen minute walk from our flat called Retiro Park or El Parque del Retiro. It is beauuuutiful - unlike any park I've ever seen in the States. We finally got a converter so I can charge and use my camera now too, so pictures will be up soon! I'm hoping to make myself run over there some while I'm here. Nearby the park there is an art museum that I've been wanting to go to. It's free every weekday for two hours each evening, but I may just break down and pay to spend a day there. This is when my nerdy side comes out because there are paintings there that I've learned about in several classes at NC State and it's so cool to actually get to see the things that you've studied. :-)

Everyone thinks I'm crazy because I'm already planning a trip to Florence, Italy, but I have a friend that's studying abroad there for the semester. I can only go for a long weekend with my work schedule, but flights around Europe are extremely cheap, so it's not that big of a deal. Figuring out the train situation between the airport and her flat has been kind of a hassle though. The only other location I've decided I definitely want to go to, that's outside of Spain, is Switzerland. I've been looking into hangliding over the Alps. There are so, so, so many places I want to see while I'm here, but I don't have the time or the money to make it everywhere! So, those of you who have traveled around Europe before please give me some must-see places because I'd love the advice.

Other than that, I'm still not loving the food, so my roommate and I have been cooking a lot. Nothing fancy, but it's a lot cheaper and probably a lot healthier than eating out anyway. By the way, it's pretty interesting to me that when you eat out here wine and beer are almost always cheaper than water and sodas. I guess that's mostly because everything is bottled. I haven't found anywhere that serves tap water yet and I have yet to see any kind of soda machine. Ha, anyways, I miss everyone like crazy so, I'd love to hear from you guys!

Hooray for American football!!

It's my second week in Spain and I'm officially starting school tomorrow. I went to my school this past Thursday to familiarize myself with the layout of everything, I got my official work schedule and I got to meet several of the teachers I will be working with (I'm not the primary teacher in the classroom, I am an assistant to several different teachers at my school). As far as my schedule goes, I don't work Mondays and go from about 10 am to 2 pm Tuesday through Friday. I'm teaching first and fifth grades in English and Science, but it will all be taught in English. I will also be helping the teachers with their English every Wednesday afternoon for a couple of hours after school. I'm working on the prospect of teaching English for a few hours every week outside of school as well to make some extra money - I don't get my first paycheck until the end of the month! If you're interested in seeing the school I'm working at the link is:

http://www.educa.madrid.org/web/cp.dulcinea.alcala/ingles/index_e.htm

I will try and get pictures up soon so you can see the inside and everything too!

Just in the first day of being at my school it is very clear that the Spanish education system is quite different than that of the States. Teachers dress very casually, jeans and flip flops are completely acceptable, and children address them all by first name. The kids, in general, are very loud and I have been told I will be spending a lot of my time trying to get them to be quiet in the classroom. For those of you who don't know, I have no intention of being a teacher when I get back home, but I really wanted the experience of it. And, who knows? I may end up loving it and decide that is what I really want to do.

I'm currently in the process of finding a time and location in or around Madrid where I can take the GRE. I took it a few months ago at home, but would like to take it again to improve my scores in enough time for me to apply to graduate school for next fall. Right now, I'm looking into a Spanish translation program at UNC - Charlotte, but I will keep you guys posted on that as well.

As far as where my apartment is, I've finally had a chance to actually get out some and learn my way around the area that I'm living in. Things are usually pretty busy except for Sundays. We actually heard guys walking through the streets the other night around 12:30 or 1 am singing victory songs after RealMadrid won their game. People are craaazy for soccer (futbol) here!! I can walk to pretty much anything I need around my apartment as well. There's a metro station about two blocks away and a massive department store called El Corte Ingles that has everything from groceries to housewares to clothing, etc. Last night we actually found an Irish pub that's not even a block away that plays NFL on Sundays!!!! Spaniards couldn't care less about American football so we were pretty much the only people in there, but it was so exciting because I've been missing football like crazy already. Especially my wolfpack!!

Church yesterday was pretty interesting too. We had a meal where everyone brought a covered dish and we all sat around a big table to eat and hang out together for a few hours. Again, I'm not a big fan of the Spanish cuisine, but I tried several things and the dessert was very good - not that you can go too wrong with chocolate. :) Anyways, I think church is going to provide a really good opportunity for me to work on my Spanish comprehension and speaking skills. I speak English all week with my roommate, other Americans in my group and at school. But at church, people who speak English do not speak very much and they are more than willing to help me with my Spanish. Right now, listening to them speak and understanding everything they say is pretty difficult for me, but I think the more I listen and the more I practice, the easier it will become.

I guess that's all for now. Again, if I'm leaving anything out that people are curious about just let me know! I miss all you guys and I hope to hear from you soon!!!

First week in Spain

Hello to all! Sorry it has taken me so long to make my first post, but our first week here has been kind of hectic. First of all, we missed our flight to Madrid Thursday night, due to air traffic in JFK from Obama's administration leaving after the UN stuff during the week in New York. The next flight was exactly 24 hours later, but thankfully we were able to stay with friends and made our flight the next evening. So we finally arrived to Madrid about 7:30 Saturday morning. We made reservations at a hotel very close to the school I will be teaching at and quickly discovered that I would want to live somewhere more toward central Madrid.

Alcala de Henares is where my school is located (for those of you who like Google maps). It's a very nice place, but seems to be more residential, whereas the center of Madrid is closer to everything. They say it's like the Times Square of Spain. So fortunately, during my orientation for school, I met a girl who had an extra bed in her apartment right in the middle of Puerta del Sol, which is at the very center of everything that goes on in Madrid! It's very small and we are sharing a room, but I couldn't ask for a better location. It will be a little less than an hour commute to school taking the metro and train, but I will only be working 4 days a week so hopefully it won't be that bad.

As far as my job goes, I don't have many details as of yet because I haven't actually started, but I'm really excited. Technically, I'm only working 16 hours a week, but it will entail much more than that -- kind of like teachers in the United States. At school, I'm only allowed to speak English to my students. The education system in Spain is moving in a direction in which many, many schools are bringing children up bilingually, which I think is awesome!!! I'm not sure exactly which age group of kids I am teaching yet, but my school goes from about age 3 up to the sixth grade. I'm supposed to bring things for my kids that shed light on my culture back in the States so if anyone has suggestions on what kinds of things I could get my Mom to send me when she gets back home I would love to hear them!

Also, we found a very small church that is about two miles away from my apartment (so I can walk to it!!) that seems pretty similar to my church back at home. My mom and I went this past Sunday and we were overwhelmed with the generosity and kindness of everyone there. I really think they are going to be like a second family to me while I'm here. There are about 20 or 25 people that attend the church and only one can speak much English. He and his wife invited us over for lunch last week with their family, which was probably the best food I've had since we've been here (I'm not too keen on the Spanish cuisine, in general). We spent most of the day over there and had a great time getting to know the family. I also met a girl who is around my age, maybe a little older, who is not working now and offered to show me around Madrid, grab a coffee or just hang out. She speaks almost no English so getting to spend time with her should help my Spanish tremendously and she seems very sweet.

I guess I will quit blabbing now. I had a hard time for the first several days because things weren't really going too well, but now I'm so excited to see what Spain has to offer and I think I'm going to grow in so many ways while I'm here! If anyone has any questions or comments please feel free to leave them and I'll try and respond as quickly as possible. I'm sending my parents my address and I will get them to give it to whoever wants it as soon as we can. Can't wait to hear from everyone and I will keep you posted on things coming up!!