This time, all of the Americans in Priego had to go. We all took the same bus which left at seven a.m. and got there at nine. Some of the others had not paid their 10€ in Priego (we had), so they split off from us to go find a bank. We leisurely walked to the police station where we had to wait outside for 30 minutes. Luckily we had an appointment, meaning we didn’t have to get into “line” (aka a cluster of 20 people). Once inside we found ourselves in a room with about 20 Americans also working as English teachers. Most of them were from CIEE (the orientation program I did). The “organized system” was as such: when the women on the other side of the door were ready for us, they would open the door and ask for the next American to come in. It didn’t matter what time your appointment was nor did it matter what time you had arrived. Most of us already knew each other, so we made sure the order worked….except when the women working went on their break and didn’t tell us. They just left.
Once I got inside, I sat at a desk and signed a piece of paper and was fingerprinted. That was it. Now we have to go back to Córdoba in one month to get the actual ID card. We were only at the police station for a little more than an hour. Next we walked to the oldest part of the city (the tourist section), where we visited a synagogue which was built in the 1300s. All that was left was the main prayer room and the women’s gallery (upstairs, which was closed). It was similar in style to the Muslim architecture we had seen throughout Andalucía except for the Hebrew carvings.
After that we went to the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristanos. It was an old house with nice gardens and a tower with a good view of the city. After seeing the Alahambra in Granada, however, this structure wasn’t that great.
Mosaics from the 2nd or 3rd century. This one is of Medusa.
Then we walked around the old part of the city a bit before going to El Corte Inglés, a department store. We go to El Corte in each city we visit because the supermarket has tons of stuff that we can’t get in Priego. Unfortunately we couldn’t find anything for the Thanksgiving dinner we’re planning. We were looking for cranberry or pumpkin things. I bought some pretzels (for a change from those we have in Priego) and horseradish, which we don’t have here.
Afterwards, we went and had coffee at a café and then my roommates did some shopping.
Wednesdays are my busiest day of the week. I had a coordination period with Sole, the science teacher. Then I saw both 5th grade classes and the 2nd graders (for English). In 5B (the bad class) the students were supposed to be working on review activities for their upcoming test (it’s Monday). Several of the students did not have their books with them, which didn’t seem to bother David (the teacher). Instead of letting this girl Coroima run around the classroom, I copied two of the exercises onto a piece of paper for her to work on. She was pissed off that she had to do the work instead of slacking off. One of the better behaved kids seated up front looked at me and told me he liked my teaching methods. These kids are not used to having to do things when they don’t bring their books. They’re more used to slacking off and generally doing as they please. Later, in 5A, a boy had forgotten his book and was planning on doing nothing. Instead, David copied my method and gave the kid another book to copy into his notebook.
1 comment:
Jews in Spain???
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