Leaving Priego

I've left. I'm no longer in Priego. I no longer live at Avenida de América, 4, 2C. I got sad at school and cried a bit with Lourdes and David in the office. The first graders made Erin and I cards with tons of pictures inside them. It was so touching. The only reason I didn't cry then was because Erin and I were handing out ice pops to the kids and we had to go to other classes.

Jess had gone to do some sighseeing around Priego, so I grabbed my check from school and ran to the bank. I was actually able to deposit it in about 10 minutes (this is a record for me at the bank). Then we walked around the old part of Priego and I went back to school for my last class (3rd grade science/social studies).

After that, I got a bit teary. I left school and went home to finish packing and have lunch with Jess. We took the 5:30 bus to Granada and looked absolutely ridiculous walking to it. All we have are backpacks. We have five of them. Plus we had a food bag. We calculated that our baggage allowance is pretty much equal to my weight. I'm sure we're carrying a little more than our allowance (we're banking on them not weighing our carry-ons). This means the amount of stuff we're carrying weighs more than I do. We don't have a lot for a person who has been here for a year. We do have a lot for two travelers.

Jess is in Spain!

Thursday I rushed to Córdoba after school to meet up with Jessica. We went to the Mezquita (my second time there) and walked around it for a while. It was originally a church. Later, when the Moors invaded Spain, they built a mosque on lop of the church (you can still see some of the mosaic floors below). It's one of the only mosques in the world which does not face Mecca. No one really knows why. After the Christians re-conquered Spain, they built a cathedral inside the mosque, but left the Quibla. They put chapels around the perimeter and turned one part into the treasury. The cathedral isn't particularly large, but it's a bizarre sight to have a cathedral inside a mosque. The iconic symbol of the building is the series of red and white striped arches. They constitute the entire interior of the space.

After the Mezquita, we walked around Cordoba, then went to the Corte Ingles for some dinner/snacks before catching the bus to Priego.

It's strange to have Jess here in Spain. In some ways it feels like I haven't seen her in forever and somehow it seems like we were still at Tufts yesterday. I'm also still in shock about this trip. It's something we've talked about for almost five years. I can't believe we're actually doing it and that we're leaving today! (Okay, she left earlier, but I'm leaving Priego today).

I'm also having trouble grasping the fact that I'm leaving Priego. In November, I never thought this day would come. Now that it's here, I'm sort of sad. I'll definitely miss the kids and some of the teachers, but I will not miss the smallness of Priego. It's a nice town and I like that I've been asked for directions twice this week - I've been able to help both times and didn't really have to think about it at all because I know the town well enough.

Thursday's Field Trip

Thursday, Antonio (4th grade homeroom, 3rd and 4th grade Science/Social Studies teacher) and I took 4th grade on a field trip walking around Priego. We went to the Royal Slaughterhouse (an old building with a courtyard and basement (which was used for slaughtering). Then we went to the Castle, but couldn't get in because they're working on reconstructing it. Finally we walked through the old part of the town and visited a church.

Each child had to memorize a sentence about the places we were visiting. In class, we had practiced the sentences and made sure the kids knew what they meant. I was really proud of the kids. They did a great job. Almost all of them knew their sentences. Along the way, we asked them about some of the vocabulary, and they knew that too.

The kids behaved really well (for the most part). We took tons of pictures along the way. The trip wound up being much longer than we thought. We left school a little before ten and had planned on returning by 11:30 (in time for recess). We didn't get back until 12:30 and I had to leave school at 12:45. This meant that I missed my last class with 6th grade. Oh well. I was sad about that, but I really enjoyed watching the field trip happen (we had talked about doing it for two months).

Two days left

This week has been going pretty fast. I've been taking my camera to school and trying to record every moment.

Monday I sung "One, two, buckle my shoe" with the five year olds. They are such a great group of kids and I loved singing/dancing this song with them. They do the numbers and I say the words. And we jump up and down at the end, which is their favorite part (until we "do it again" ... you know, "nine, ten, do it again!").

I also went to fourth-grade music and taught them "Wheels on the Bus." I love fourth grade. It's a huge class (25 students), but the kids are so nice and have such defined personalities. Their level of English is the highest in the school, so you do tons of fun activities with them.

Tomorrow, their teacher and I are taking them on a walking tour of Priego. Each child had to learn one or two sentences about the places we're visiting. On Monday, I took small groups to the teacher's room to practice their sentences. I think this is one of the faults of the teachers in my school: they rarely have me working with small groups of kids. This is the third time this year that I've taking kids into the hallway to work in groups or individually. It seems to work really well. Yes, we should do activities as a class, but sometimes kids are more comfortable talking in front of fewer people. Also, they think it's fun and different to be hanging out in the hall or teacher's room. It's like a game or something and they don't realize they are actually learning at the same time.

At the end of the day, Ana and I took fourth grade to the computer room to play some online games about sports. These kids seriously need a designated computer class. Half of them don't have any idea how to turn the computer on. The rest are so excited they start touching every single button. It's generally pandemonium. I had found some links for "fun" games and others for vocabulary games. There was one vocab game in particular that the kids were prepared for (the words were ones we had covered in class). I wanted them to start with this and then move onto the "fun" games, which were essentially video games.

Ana had written the link wrong and no one could seem to get to the vocab game. I quickly figured out how to find it, but she was busy directing the kids to much harder games. She didn't realize what she was doing and the kids were totally confused. I tried to explain it to her, but she didn't seem to care. So, I had to go around to all of the computers and pull up the correct game one-by-one. By the time I got to the last computers, the first groups of kids were already finished and wanted to move on to the "fun" games. The rest of the kids saw this and wanted to follow suit. It was slightly chaotic.

Tuesday I did a speaking activity with sixth grade. It actually seemed to work pretty well. I wrote out each kid's name on little slips of paper and put them in a plastic bag. I also wrote out questions involving the future tense and put those slips into another bag. Kids came to the front of the room to pick a person's name and a question. They had to stand in the front and ask their question. Then the kid answering had to come up and ask the next question. It worked really well at the beginning because a lot of the kids' names were still in the bag. Towards the end, no one paid attention because they had already gone.

Ana and I also took third grade to the computers. We did the same activity as fourth grade, but this time I was able to correct her improperly-written link. Some of the kids really enjoyed the vocabulary games and barely played the "fun" games, which made me really happy. Ana screamed at this class for most of the hour, which was annoying, as usual. I'm not sure how she gets her voice to go as high as it does.

Wednesday was my "light" day. I had a coordination period with Antonio, the science/social studies teacher for third and fourth grades. He and I have been planning this walking field trip around Priego. We lined the kids up in the classroom and made them practice their sentences. One kid would say his sentence and the kid across from him in the line would translate it. Then they would switch tasks. Some kids were really good at it, and others had a lot of difficulty. They were a little crazy/off the wall, but mostly they did a good job.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we'll go on our walk. I'm not sure how this is going to work: it's just Antonio and I with 22 (three are punished and not allowed to come) kids.

Last week.....

The last week of school starts now....updates to come!

Gibraltar!

Thursday morning, I woke up really early to catch a bus with Christine’s school. They were taking a field trip to Gibraltar and graciously allowed me to join them. When I arranged all of this, I thought they would be going straight to Gibraltar, or at least Algeciras which is 30 minutes away. In reality, they were first going to see Roman ruins and a beach an hour west of Algeciras in a remote location where no buses go. For me, that would have meant not getting to La Linea, the Spanish border town where I was staying, until late Thursday evening.

Along the drive, we went through Malaga, Marbella and Estepona. The highway was practically in the water and all the buildings were summerhouses and apartments. This part of Spain is known for being home to many British and German expats. All along the highway, signs were in English. There were also tons of Asian restaurants (Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Indian) and the radio was even in English. It was actually kind of ugly and un-Spanish.

We stopped in a town because a student had to use the bathroom. I realized that there were bus stops all along the way and figured one bus had to go to Algeciras. I got off our bus and went into the gas station café and asked people if there were any buses to Algeciras. They said no, but there were buses to La Linea. I was shocked! I hadn’t realized exactly how close we were to Gibraltar. I had to wait about an hour, but I was able to catch a bus (for only 3 euro) which took me straight to where I needed to go! During my wait, I poked my head into an English bookstore. It took a lot of will to not buy the entire place, but I reminded myself that I already had a book to read and purchasing another one would mean having to carry it.

I arrived in La Linea at 1:30, a pleasant surprise considering I hadn’t planned on getting there until at least 8 pm. I immediately crossed the border to Gibraltar and joined a tour group going up the rock. They were an American family from Pennsylvania. Groups are generally seven people and they were six (Mom, Dad, 2 daughters in their mid and late 20s, a 22 year-old son and his girlfriend). We took a taxi/van up the rock, stopping first to enjoy the views of Africa from Jew’s Gate. Then we continued up to St. Michael’s Cave, which was amazing. It’s an underground complex of rocks and incredible formations. It was actually carved by water, so it’s more of a grotto than a cave. There is a theater inside, where concerts are sometimes held. Next we stopped to see some of the apes (Barbary Macaques) who live on Gibraltar. They’re used to tourists taking their photos. One ape had a baby it was feeding. The little ape was really cute and didn’t have all of its hair yet. Our final stop was to visit the Great Siege Tunnels, a British defense system used in the 1779-83 siege.

The Brits have controlled Gibraltar since 1704, Spain attacked in 1779 because it wanted (and still wants) the land. Gibraltar is in an interesting place because it’s connected to Spain, has views of Morocco (it’s about 14 miles across the strait), and is located near the spot where the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean meet. Its location is important for military purposes and trade. Now, Gibraltar is a tax-free zone. There are only 25,000 people living on the rock, but there are tons of businesses there. These range from financial firms to online gambling companies (there are 200 in Gibraltar). Gas, cigarettes, perfume and alcohol are all cheaper, and many people cross from Spain to purchase these items. It’s like a big duty-free store.

While up on the rock, I saw Baleigh, a conversation assistant from Ronda who is friends with Christina (the girl from Tufts – see Ronda entry). She was there with her students. I saw them again as they were leaving Gibraltar. After touring the rock, I wandered around the shopping area, going first to Mark’s and Spencer. I knew it was there, and I was planning on seeking it out. Mark’s and Spencer is a British department store with an amazing grocery store full of high-end prepared foods and sauces. I knew I couldn’t buy much because I’m leaving Spain soon. Luckily the food section was small. I did buy some marshmallows though. I wandered Gibraltar town looking for some of the five synagogues. Most were small – all I could see was a door.

I ended up at Casemates Square, another shopping and café area. I went to the Gibraltar Crystal Glass Factory (the only product made on Gibraltar), but they were about to close for the day so there were no glass demonstrations. After that, I walked back to Spain and settled in for the evening. At night I took a walk down the eastern coast of La Linea to see the rock.

Friday morning in went to Morison’s, an American-style (it used to be owned by Safeway) grocery store in the western part of Gibraltar town. I was very overwhelmed. It was a lot like Super Stop and Shop in Harwich. Inside I found tons of stuff you can’t get in Spain like crasins and fresh salsa, as well as an entire section devoted to allergen-free foods. I bought some more marshmallows and some ginger-coconut cookies and lemon cookies.

I walked around Gibraltar town some more. I had to go to the bank to change some pounds my dad had given me. Gibraltar has its own pounds, but they accept English ones also. My dad had given me some English pounds from the 70s or 80s. They were still usable, but many shopkeepers didn’t recognize them and wouldn’t accept them. (Morison’s did.) The bank changed them into newer English pounds.

From Gibraltar town, I headed south toward Europa Point – the tip of the Rock. Along the way I stopped at Trafalgar Cemetery where there are graves of sailors who died during the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. I also visited the Alameda Botanical Gardens. I usually don’t like botanical gardens too much – they can be pretty, but to me, it’s just a bunch of plants. These were really peaceful and there was a small wedding party celebrating in a clearing.

Europa Point is three miles south of the border with Spain. It was really hot out and I was pretty tired when I go there. I went to the Shrine of Our Lady of Europe, a church which houses a 15^th century statue of a virgin. It was originally a mosque, but in 1492 the Spaniards converted it into a chapel. In 1997, the Muslim community on Gibraltar built a new mosque at Europa Point; it’s called Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim Mosque. The other structure at the end of Gibraltar is a red and white striped light house. While I was there, I asked a British guy to take my picture. His kids (who were probably five or six) asked me if everyone wanted to take my picture. I tried to explain that I wasn’t traveling with my mommy and daddy, so I needed other mommies and daddies to take my picture for me.

From Europa point I took a bus to town. I walked around a bit more, stopping at a Kosher grocery store where I bought candy corn!! It was imported from Brooklyn and cost a fortune, but I couldn’t not buy it.

I took another bus to the eastern part of the rock to go to a beach. It wasn’t that nice of a beach and was only about 15-20 feet wide (between the water and a hotel). That part of Gibraltar is being reclaimed by the water. While I was sitting in the sun, the water came in suddenly. I managed to get my camera, backpack and shoes into the air, but my pants (I was laying on them) and magazines got soaked. I moved to a different spot (behind a rock) and sat there until my pants dried.

On the bus back to the border area, some tweens sat behind me. There were four girls, who were speaking Spanglish. People on Gibraltar speak English (with a British accent) and Spanish (with an accent from Cadiz, Andalucia). More often, they speak a mixture of the two: they’ll say one clause in English, then “porque” (because) then another clause in English. Shopkeepers would speak Spanish to each other, then English to me. I would answer in Spanish and they would speak English to me again. There was never a pattern. I found that some of the bus drivers seemed to prefer Spanish, but one almost didn’t speak any Spanish. The Jewish community seemed to do most of its business in English (in the grocery stores and at the synagogue), but there were people speaking Spanish also.

Speaking of the synagogue, I went to Nefusot Yehudah Synagogue for Friday night services. The building was from the 18^th century and ornately decorated inside. There is a large Jewish community on Gibraltar because it was one of the places where Jews were granted asylum during expulsion from Spain. During the day, I had asked people where I could go to services. I had seen many families walking around and there were several Kosher grocery stores. They told me to go to this particular synagogue. I hadn’t remembered that services would most likely be conservative. I had to sit in the women’s gallery and try to follow along in a book that was written in Hebrew and Spanish. They spoke really fast and it was quite difficult. Luckily a woman helped me. At first I was up there with an 8-year-old and we were both completely lost. Then, as this woman came, and helped us follow along. I thanked her afterwards and we chatted about teaching; she tough many years at a Jewish school in England.

Walking back from the synagogue, I was worried that it would start raining. I didn’t have my raincoat and felt a few drops. When I was half-way between the border and the synagogue, I looked up and saw a full rainbow over the rock. It was incredible. The sky behind me was red and the rock was glowing in the blue-purple sky. The colors were really spectacular. I made my way toward the border, but an airplane was arriving. The Gibraltar airport runway crosses the only street into the rock. When a plane is arriving or taking off, airport officials close the gates on either side and pedestrians and cars are forced to wait until the road is cleared again. When there is no air traffic, people walk across the runway to get into and out of Gibraltar. I had already crossed the airport five times without having to wait for a plane. I really wanted to see on land or take off and was really glad to have arrived at this time. The sky was also red, which made for a great photo. As I was taking the photo, a young guy started to talk to me. I knew he had been at the synagogue because I could see him from the women’s gallery. I also picked up on his accent right away: Israeli. He lives in La Linea and works at an internet gambling company in Gibraltar. He said there are about 60 Israelis working at the various companies on the rock. We chatted as we walked across the border.

Saturday morning I woke up and took a 7 am bus to Granada. We had to get off and change buses in Marbella because of a mechanical problem. Then we stopped on the highway because the new bus also had a mechanical issue – some part of the engine wasn’t hooked up properly or something. So, we had to wait for our third bus to arrive. Amazingly we were only 20 minutes late arriving at Granada.

Once there, I had Indian food with a friend for lunch and we walked around the city. He showed me some plazas I had not seen and we got tea before returning to Priego.

Saturday evening, David, his girlfriend and the Americans came over and we hung out. I spent Sunday packing, cleaning, cooking and hanging around the apartment. Our internet hasn’t been working and we’re not really sure what’s going on…we need to cancel it soon (Cecilia called), but we don’t know if the company canceled it on us or if they’re just having technical issues.

Northern Spain pictures....

.....can be found on facebook. I didn't have the patience to fight with blogger.

The end of my Northern Journey

My final stop up north was to visit Burgos, a city in Castilla-Leon. I went there to see the cathedral, which is massive and awe-inspiring. Inside, the chapels were ornately decorated. The window above the nave looked like a snowflake. The chapel of the Constable, behind the altar, was three-stories in hight and was equally ornate. I think I strained my neck looking at all the decorative details. Below the cloisters (it was two levels) I encountered an "interpretation center" which showed the different phases of construction and their artistic characteristics. One of the rooms housed a digital representation of the town and building throughout its construction. The Spanish are obsessed with these digital representations of how their towns used to be. Everywhere I go there is a digital exhibition or digital interpretation center where you can watch a Sims-like world and imagine you are there. I'm getting really sick of it....

After the cathedral, I took some pictures of its facade before climbing uphill to see the city from above. Then I went to the Museo de Burgos, another combination archeology-art museum housed in an old palace, or actually three, connected palaces. The rocks were boring. The art was mostly religious. At the end there were some modern pieces, but they weren't that great either. The walls of the palace had been plastered-over and I couldn't really see the structure well. Also, the guards followed me around because they really didn't have anything else to do.

Next I walked back across the river to the older part of the city to wander the pedestrianized streets. On the way, I passed some signs directing tourists to hotels in Burgos (these are common in Spain). Two hotels were listed and then the sign said "otros hoteles" (other hotels) with an arrow. I was somewhat puzzled because the sign was not specific. Are all other hotels located in one area? Are these all other hotels in Burgos? Castilla-Leon? Spain? Europe? The World?

In the old section, I walked by a statue of El Cid, an 11th century military leader from Burgos who fought against the Moorish troops and is a Spanish national hero. Behind the statue was the start of the shopping area, in which I could see Claire's....yes, the same store I shopped at when I was a tween. Disgusting.

After wandering for a bit I went to the Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, a modern art museum. A German artist, Martin Assig, had an exhibition of paintings and sculpture which I didn't really like. There was also an exhibition by a Swiss artist named Ingo Giezendanner. He does black and white ("it's enough for me") drawings of cityscapes, some of which are large, mural-sized, while others could easily fit in a small sketchbook. He came to Burgos to do some sketching before creating a large-scale piece about the city. He likes to incorporate the local atmosphere into his work.

After the museum, I made a grocery store run for some dinner and fruit to last me through the weekend. On my way back into the old part of the city I saw a man digging through the garbage. I thought, great!, I can give him the rest of the deli turkey I'm not going to eat (there were six slices, too much for me for one dinner). However, when I finished eating, I couldn't find him. I went on an hour-long quest to find someone who was either homeless or hungry, but had no luck. Earlier in the day, women were begging for money, but at 8:30, even though it was bright out and crowds of people were walking the streets, no one was begging. I even followed two men, but one went into a candy store and the other entered a bar for a beer. It's actually quite difficult to find a homeless/hungry/poor man in a crowded Spanish town because many of the older Spanish men look so disheveled that I couldn't tell if they were poor or just unfashionable. I certainly didn't want to offend anyone. I couldn't even find a stray dog to feed.

At 9 pm the main plaza began to fill with people. I had seen signs all over town for a demonstration called, "Tomorrow they could kill you." I didn't understand what it was about, but figured I would go anyway. (Hey, I like a crowd!) A woman explained to me that the demonstration was more of a memorial. A 20-something bar bouncer was killed (I think he was beaten) by two drunk guys who wanted to get into the bar. The bouncer would not let them in because of their drunken state. As she was telling me this story, she made sure to note "and they were all Spanish, too." As if this somehow made the story sadder or more ironic. It was as if she was surprised about the lack of immigrants involved. It was shocking to her that Spanish could do this to another Spanish person. People gathered in the plaza to light candles and then marched with the candles to the spot where the guy was killed. We were supposed to march behind a banner and organizers did a good job of keeping people in place. I quickly discovered that my camera meant I could do whatever I wanted. I jumped right in, alongside the newsmen: a guy with a hand-held, but professional video camera, and a photojournalist. Because of my "professional" camera I was allowed to be in the thick of things and the organizers never told me to step aside or anything. They never asked me where I was from either. Clearly not the brightest lights: what self-respecting photojournalist would wear army-green, parachute, snapped up capri pants and carry a Longchamp? Really?

On the way back to the bus, I bought 11 cents worth of dark chocolate and called it a night. It was a great trip. Northern Spain is quite a bit different from its southern half. I noticed things like grocery store prices were higher the further north I went. I attribute this, the higher cost of living, to the fact that Northern Spain has a better economy than Southern Spain: Andalucía's unemployment numbers are about 1.5 times the Spanish average. At least that means my rent is so cheap I could easily afford this trip! I didn't think I would make it to the north before leaving and I'm really glad I did. It was worth spending three nights on buses to experience and see all I did. I know it was a quick trip, but I got enough of a feel for each place and have no regrets.

Vitoria: Basque Capital

My final stop in Basque Country was an inland city called Vitoria. The old part of this city is shaped like, and called, an almond. I started outside the almond, walking through the Plaza de España and Plaza de la Virgen Blanca. The first one was a typical, Spanish, colonnaded plaza, similar to other ones in Madrid, Córdoba and Salamanca. The latter was an open plaza. In it, I found a demonstration - people wanting to be paid more.

I went to the tourist office where I found out that I had to call the cathedral (Catedral de Santa Maria) to arrange a visit there. I called and was told that the only open space was on a tour leaving right away. This meant I had to rush from one end of the almond to the other. I arrived five minutes late (I missed some of the digital reproduction video), but was able to join the group as they entered the cathedral. This was a really interesting cathedral because it's under restoration. Since 1994, the cathedral, which was built in the 12th Century, has been closed. The construction team began restoring the cathedral in 2000 when they built a series of metal walkways and staircases through the structure. This allows tourists to visit the space and watch the men at work (I was there on a Friday). It was cool to see the process and hear about the difficulties. They try to use authentic materials, but in some cases have had to rely on more modern technologies. For instance, it take too long for lime and sand to set, so they had to use concrete instead.

After touring the cathedral, I wandered around the old part of the city, stopping into a culture center. I saw a small exhibit of university-level student work, which was unimpressive.

I left the almond and passed the Basque Parliament House while on the way to a park. The park led me to a wide street where the center was pedestrianized. It was both tree- and mansion-lined. The old houses were unlike most I had seen in Spain. These were clearly more European in style than the large houses in Cordoba and Granada.

While walking back toward the center, I stumbled upon a health-food store which stocked the gluten-free pretzels I like. These were easy to find in the Balkans, but have been nearly impossible to find here in Spain where pretzels are not a typical snack food. I was really excited to come across them. Then I stopped at a grocery store for some dinner.

Saturday morning I set off to walk around the almond, but wound up going to an Archeology Museum instead. I don't usually like archeology museums, but this one was intriguing because the building was opened in March. The structure was made of glass and steel. The three galleries were connected by a glass staircase. The galleries had dark-paneled walls and dark floors. They were lit primarily by five white fabric rectangular prisms containing vertical florescent bulbs. These prisms, which were mostly trapezoidal, went from floor to ceiling, except on the first floor where three hung suspended above the floor. To light cases and specific pieces, sensors turned on small, recessed lights. I wasn't too interested in the exhibition in this part of the museum.

I realized that the museum actually had two parts. The other was housed in an old palace across the courtyard from this new building. It contained an exhibit on the history of playing cards. Apparently Spanish cards are made in a factory near Vitoria. The exhibit showed how cards used to be made (the actual presses used), as well as old cards from Spain and the rest of the world. The Japanese and Indian cards were among the most interesting. As were some British cards with proverbs on them (you had to match the words from the proverbs to form groups of cards). Additionally, there was a room on tarot cards which included some Kabalah cards from Barcelona. These combined Hebrew and Spanish, for example, la rueda de la fortuna (the wheel of fortune) was the letter resh; el diablo (the devil) was nun; la luz (the light) was bet; and la fuerza (the force) was kaf. [I know my brother and grandmother would have loved this exhibit.]

San Sebastian: the beach

After Bilbao, I took the bus to San Sebastian, a beach resort in Basque Country. I walked from the bus station into town, passing the cathedral and a lot of ritzy shopping streets. Because San Sebastian is close to the French border, it has had a lot of tourism for a long time. It's got beaches, but they're mostly concrete beaches - they have sand and tons of hotels lining the promenade. The first thing I did was walk that promenade to the other end of the cove. I took a funicular up to the top of a hill to see the view of the city from above. Luckily it didn't rain while I was walking over there and on top of the hill. From up there, I could see the entire city, which isn't that large, and the green mountains off in the distance.

Back at the hostel, I made some rice for dinner and ate an asparagus omelet with it. I chatted with the other guests before showering and getting some sleep.

Friday morning I woke up to sunshine. I gathered my stuff and ate breakfast. By the time I was ready to leave, it was raining again. I walked around the old part of the city trying to find a museum, which was closed (the building was under construction). I walked by the water and would have kept walking except the rain was coming down harder than I had expected. So, I headed to the underground market. This market was quite interesting because it was under a glass structure and at the entrance to a supermarket. I wandered around taking pictures of seafood (more goose barnacles!) and stopping at a health-food store to stock up on soy milk.

When I went back upstairs, the sun had come out. I crossed the river and walked to a beach where I dipped my hand into the Bay of Biscay. The water wasn't too cold, but I was not about to go for a swim (it was windy and damp).

For lunch I went to a bar and had some pintxos. These are the Basque version of tapas. They're smaller and come on a piece of toasted bread (which I did not eat). I chose a place recommended by the New York Times. I had crab salad (basically crab, mayo and paprika) and a large sardine with blue-berry jam. The blueberry one was surprisingly good. I had not thought combining fish with fruit jam could taste good together, but they do. Then, I went to the market again and got some veggies and fruit for a snack.

Walking from the hostel to the bus station, I passed at least three or four health-food stores, which is a lot for such a small city. I guess it's the tourist and surfer/hippy influence, but I certainly appreciated their presence.

Guggenheim and Basque Country

I woke up Thursday morning in Bilbao. I got a map at the bus station and set off toward the old part of the city. Somehow I wound up walking through the immigrant neighborhood, which was refreshing. In Andalucía there are some immigrants, but they try to blend in or keep to themselves because they aren't really accepted (especially not in Priego). In this neighborhood in Bilbao, restaurants with Jamaican flags painted on their facades were next to African hair stylists who were next to Chinese grocers. It was great to see such diversity in a small, Spanish city. It made me realize how much I miss New York and Boston (okay Somerville/Cambridge) for this reason. It was also refreshing to see a "gritty" neighborhood. Spanish seem so obsessed with old, charming architecture, which I do like, but after a while, it gets somewhat boring. Bilbao has plenty of that, but it also has modern buildings and working-class areas. Even middle-class areas of Granada look like they're trying to be something more. This wasn't fake.

In the old section of the city, I saw the San Antón church and bridge. I also went to a market, which wasn't anything special, and walked around the seven original streets of Bilbao. Then, it started to rain. In the drizzle, I climbed some steps to see the old part from above. I couldn't get a great feel for what it would have been like to live there when this was the only part of the city because now it's full of designer boutiques. Leaving the old part of the city, I crossed the river and came face-to-face with a protest....my first in Spain!! People had gathered to promote May 21st as a day off from work (they want their employers to pay them more because of the economic crisis). It was a peaceful protest, a few people, a bullhorn, lots of flyers.

I walked past an art nouveu train station and crossed the river again to see the ayuntamiento (town hall) which is housed in an old palace. In the dampness, I crossed the river again, this time using Santiago Calatrava's Zubizuri pedestrian bridge. He constructed a glass and steel bridge which looks like it's twisting as you cross. I sought out this bridge because I like another one he did: the Women's Bridge in Buenos Aires's Puerto Madero neighborhood....yes, I am that big of a nerd. (I also saw his Puente de Lusitania in Mérida in April.)

Finally, back on the main side of the city, I went to the Guggenheim. This was my main impetus for coming to Bilbao in the first place. It was definitely worth it. Frank Gerry is amazing. The building is huge and was built on an awkward piece of land: it actually has a (car) bridge going through/above it. Also, it's along the river which is somewhat lower than the rest of the city. When I entered the museum I was in a three-story high gallery which had glass windows in front and behind me. This space was used as a gallery: eight, white sedans were suspended from the ceiling with flashing red tube lights through them. Off to the side, Jenny Holzer had another light installation. This one was a series of panels (the little red dot lights used in advertising) with words about life and love. She had the words in English and Spanish on one side of the exhibit and in Basque on the other. You could see these lights from upstairs and they reflect off the metal walls of this gallery. The other large exhibit on the first floor was Richard Serra's The Matter of Time. Serra is a genius...mathematically at least. I had seen his work at the DIA: Beacon in NY. He takes ovals and stretches them, then puts them into spirals and other forms. He then turns them into large-scale (10-foot-high) metal sculptures which you can walk through. You loose sense of space and direction inside them. It's bizarre. If he's got an exhibit near you, go.

I ate a salad for lunch at the museum's cafe. Upstairs, I encountered two more exhibits. The first was Murakami's "From Private to Public," a retrospective of the Japanese artist's freaky/colorful/cartoonish art. It combined sculpture, paintings, wallpaper, carpets, video, and Louis Vuitton bags. He has certain characters that he has created. He repeats these images throughout various media. The final exhibit I saw was by Chinese Cai Guo-Qiang. It was called "I Want to Believe." Cai designed the fireworks at the 2008 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. Videos of his fireworks displays were on view in one part of the exhibit. For the Olympics, he created a series of footsteps across the sky. He also had sculptures and paintings on display. One of the sculptures was called "The Age of Not Believing in God." It was a series of wooden religious statues, suspended from the ceiling with arrows in them.

At the end of a video exhibition, I encountered a room with books on installation art. I didn't stop to read them because I had already read most of them in doing my research for my communications project last year. It was strange to see them in the museum. It made me think of last semester at Tufts and hunting these books down at the BPL.

Jeff Koons had two pieces at the museum. In the back, he had a bright series of tulips. This was similar to the works he did on the Met's roof last year. In the front, he had a puppy made of flowers. It was like a large, colorful topiary terrier; a nice contrast to the metalic facade of the museum.

Bilbao has a bad reputation for being an ugly city with not much to see. I think this might be true of the old Bilbao, but everywhere I went, I found streets and buildings under construction. The museum has given life to the city. Tourists are there and the people are working to make their city nice. It's doing well: they've got some parks, the river looked decently clean, there's a bike path, there's a metro system...I could live there.

Santiago de Compostela

On Wednesday, I took a 1 am bus from Córdoba to Madrid, arriving at the airport a little after 6:15. From there, I took a shuttle to my terminal, checked-in and took a plane to Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia in Northwestern Spain. From the air, I could see the region was much greener than Andalucía.

Many catholics come to Santiago on a pilgrimage because it's known as the place where St. James was buried. I figured any church/city worth walking to must be worth seeing. (Also, a lot of people told me to go to Santiago.) I arrived in Galicia and was immediately met with new sounds....they speak Spanish, but most people also speak Galego.

I got to town at around noon, stored my stuff at a cyber cafe and went to check out the cathedral. Inside the cathedral, I found a mass already in progress. The signs said not to take pictures during the masses, but I did anyway because there is a mass every hour during this time of year. (The two times I went into the building there were masses going on.) The masses are to welcome pilgrims to the church and city. The cathedral was interesting because it had a part where you could go up (a few steps) above the altar, cross it and come down on the other side. I had never seen this before. From above the rear part of the altar, I was actually behind the priest and could look out at the people at mass.

Outside the cathedral, I walked around the medieval city, looking at the architecture. The cathedral has three plazas around it. The biggest is the Praza do Obradoire, where the ayuntamiento (town hall) and Parador (state-owned hotel) are located. The parador used to be a hospital and hotel for early pilgrims. In the Praza de Quintana, I saw the "holy door" which is only opened certain years.

After the cathedral, I went to a market where I bought some fruit. They didn't really have much food for lunch, so I went with a Lonely-Planet-recommended restaurant (not something I usually do). El Gato Negro (the black cat) is a small tavern where locals go for seafood. I sent a text message to Luis's (Lourdes's boyfriend) sister who told me about the place. I ate crab, which was a pain to get out of its shell, and something called percebes. I didn't actually know what these were where I ordered them. In English they are called "goose barnacles," they have a shell and a flexible, mesh tube attached to that shell. You split the tube from the shell and eat the rubbery cylinder inside. At the end of the cylinder is what looks like a mini-shrimp in size and shape, but not color.

After lunch I stopped into the Colexio de Fonseca, a school, where I saw its unimpressive patio and an exhibit on writer Valle Inclán. Last week was the Galician "Week of the Book," so this was the first of three writer-related art exhibits I saw that day.

I went to Alameda Park where I could climb up a hill to see the cathedral and sky-line from above. Then, as the rain started, I went to some free museums. First, was the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea (Contemporary Museum of Galician Art). Here I saw an exhibit by Maurizeio A. Quarello, an Italian artist, who took known works of art and changed the subjects to animals. The works were part of a book he illustrated called "Caderno de animalista." I liked them even thought they were somewhat childish.

Next I walked up a hill to another park called Bonaval and saw the cathedral from the other side. Back below the park, I went inside the San Domingo de Bonaval Monastery to the Museo de Pobo Galego (Museum of Galicia). It focused on the folklore and cultural history of Galicia. In addition there was a photo exhibit of local celebrations, an exhibit about the printing press, and an exhibit about water. The water one was meant to teach people about water usage and how to better conserve water. The building itself was well-worth the visit. It had a triple-spiral staircase. I am a sucker for spiral staircases and to see three spiral staircases in the same space was dizzying.

After having very little sleep, I decided I needed a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. Instead of caffeine, I chose sugar: gummy candies. I went to a store called Pecados de Santiago, "sins of Santiago." I thought this was an appropriate name considering the town is a religious-travel destination. Sugared-up, I headed to the Museo de las Peregrinaciones y Santiago (Pilgrimage Museum). I liked this museum least of all. The wall-tags were in Galego. They had booklets in English, but there was so much text, my brain couldn't handle it all. One thing I did learn is that people found a seashell near to St. James's body which is why pilgrims bring back seashells from Santiago.

For dinner, I followed another recommendation from Luis's sister and went to Os Concheiros, a pulparía, or "octopus house." The octopus, cooked in olive oil and paprika, was delicious, but my dinner was lacking something...so, I went to a veggie store and bought a tomato, cucumber and some celery. I needed my veggies.

Getting onto the bus, I chatted with a woman who had done the "camino" (pilgrim trail). She thought I was Argentine and was surprised I only went to Santiago for the day. I would have liked more time in Galicia, but one day was perfect for Santiago. I felt a little like a fraud though: everywhere I looked were people who had walked or biked to Santiago. I took the easy way out...

The bus ride was quite interesting....we switched drivers at around 3 am. The new driver then informed us that this was his second time doing this route and asked if someone could help him get from the highway to the bus station in two cities along the way. I took some Tylenol PM and let the Spanish deal with it. From the bus, I caught a glimpse of the cathedral in Burgos (which I saw on Saturday).

Cordoba Patios

For the past 10 days the city of Cordoba (capital of the province in which I live...same name) has been holding a contest to see who can best decorate their patio. Many traditional houses here in Andalucía are built around a central patio which allows people to spend time outside and be in the shade (the walls of the house protect the patio from sunlight). Each year, people open their patios for visitors and contest judges.

Tuesday, Lourdes, Guillermo, Cecilia, Erin and I went to Cordoba to see some patios. We started in the touristy section of the city where some hotels and government buildings had also decorated their patios. These were nice, but nothing like the patios in the residential part of the city. People go all-out: flowers cover the walls, floor and every other surface. Some patios have wells. Some are large, with many houses connected to one space, while others are more intimate. The winning patio is actually a mini-city; it's more like a series of walkways connecting many houses and shops. It was interesting (in a voyeuristic manner) to see other people's houses, and the patios were really pretty, but it was all a bit over-done for my taste.

Field Trips

My students have been going on more field trips than I ever thought possible. This past week various groups have gone to see a theater show, a music show, some have gone to a "teaching farm" and pre-school went to the bakery. Next week, 6th grade is going somewhere, but I'm not sure where.....

I got to tag along on the music show trip. It was called "Songs of the Earth" and taught the kids about traditional music from around the world - including Irish, Peruvian, Mexican, Balkan, African, North African, Greek, American, Argentine and Asian music. The kids really enjoyed it and I had a good time, considering that I had been to more than half the places they were learning about. I was quite surprised that the Virgen de la Cabeza kids were really well behaved. Cecilia was with her school and those kids never stopped talking. The people who put on the concert also gave each kid a booklet with information about the different places.

Ronda

This weekend I went to see a Tufts friend, Christina, in Ronda, another small town in Andalucía. She's a conversation assistant, just like me, except her school is located outside of Ronda and she has to commute four days a week. Christina lives with some Spanish people and an American girl, who was away for the weekend. Friday and Sunday we hung out and didn't do anything touristy.

Saturday we walked around Ronda to see the sights. Ronda is famous for its bullring, which is one of the oldest in Spain (the first fight was in 1785). The father of modern bullfighting, Pedro Romero, is from Ronda. We visited the bullring, which was really interesting. I'm not going to make it to a bullfight, and I'm okay with that. Part of me has these Hemingway-esque ideas of bullfights, but more of me thinks that I would not be able to handle it, emotionally.

It was interesting because they had a museum on the history of bullfighting, which included costumes and posters advertising fights. Also, there was an exhibit of firearms (aka rifles older than the USA!!!!). These aren't used in bullfights. I think the collection came from the same people who operate the ring. Because the ring was not in use (the only fights are in September), we were able to walk around the area where they keep the bulls. It was somewhat disturbing. They have a system of pulleys to open the doors containing the bulls in their cages. A person can stand on the second level and look down to make sure the bull is in position to enter the ring. We also walked around the actual fighting space, which is large in proportion to the space for spectators.

The other tourist draw in Ronda are the bridges. Three bridges stand above the El Tajo gorge: they are called the "Old Bridge," the "New Bridge" (still older than the USA), and the "Arab Bridge." The New Bridge is by far the most impressive. It's extremely high above the gorge (which is basically dry).

The New Bridge joins the oldest part of Ronda with the newer parts of the city. The former is similar to various parts of Cordoba and Priego. Because of tourism, the new part of town has stores like United Colors of Benetton and McDonalds.

I liked Ronda. It's better connected to other parts of Spain and slightly larger than Priego. It's also quite a bit flatter.

Power walk

It's warm here, so I decided to go for a walk this afternoon. I left the house at around 5:30 pm, just as siesta hours were ending and people were starting to walk around again. That turned out to be a huge mistake because I saw at least ten of my students and seven teachers. I was wearing shorts, a sports bra and a tank top. Everyone looked at me like I was nuts for wearing shorts. It was about 75-80 degrees and the Spanish were still wearing jackets (some had scarves). I'm not walking at this time anymore because I really don't want to run into that many of my students again.

Angry with Ana

I'm sick of working with Ana. Thursday her father drove us to Cordoba (she had hurt her eye and could not bring her car last weekend). He was asking what my role at the school was. Ana told him that I'm not a teacher (okay, so I don't have the proper credentials), and my main job was that of a helper. "I'm the teacher. It's my class," she told her father. "Rachel is only there to help me."

She is ridiculous because she constantly asks for impossible things like finding a song about giraffes, monkeys, toucans, penguins, snakes, bears, and tigers, which is appropriate for five-year-olds. When I find a song which only incorporates some animals, but also includes others (not from the awful book), she tells me we can't use it. Sometimes it's "too hard" for the kids, other times she forgets that she asked me and tells me we don't have time (we usually have plenty of time). So, I've stopped wasting my time helping her. She doesn't respect Erin's or my time at all.

A gift for me

Mom, I also bought myself something in Madrid. My mother always comments on how I never buy myself gifts. This weekend I did. I bought a copy of this week's Economist. I happily read half of it on the bus.

Madrid weekend

This past weekend I went to Madrid to see Meagan and Amy. We had studied abroad together in Buenos Aires in the fall of 2006. They went to Northwestern, and I hadn't seen them since. They are conversation teachers, like me, in the suburbs, but they live in the center. Everyone in Spain had Friday, May 1st off from work because it's labor day.

I arrived late Thursday evening and went straight to their apartment. They live with four other people in a dorm-style apartment meaning they have no livingroom and every person has a lock on their bedroom door (from the outside). Their housing has its pluses though: they are not responsible for replacing their butane (for hot water).

Friday morning Meagan and I (Amy was away in Italy trying out to be an extra in the next Twilight movie) went to the bus station to buy tickets to Salamanca. They were sold out so we had to wait until noon. This gave us two hours to kill in downtown Madrid. We walked around by the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), national theater, Plaza de España and Moncloa areas. We stopped off at Starbucks for some caffeine (we had gotten up pretty early).

Arriving in Salamanca, we wandered towards the older part of the city. Salamanca was made famous because of its university, which is one of the oldest and best in Spain. We were there to see the cathedrals and the university facade which has a frog carved in it. Legend says students who find the frog will pass their exams. We easily located the amphibian because tour guides were using lasers to point it out their groups. It was really small and located on a skull on a column at the side of the facade, which was ornately carved.

We also visited The Museo de Salamanca (Salamanca Museum), which we initially entered to use the bathroom. The museum was housed in an old palace. On display were works collected from monasteries and churches around Salamanca - the usual assembly of statues and paintings depicting saints and other religious figures. However, this was only true of most of the rooms. There was one room, the very last one we visited, which housed a modern art collection. It was such a strange to see these paintings after having walked through rooms of religious paintings, especially since the modern art room had old-fashioned window alcoves.

The best part of the trip to Salamanca was the museum set up in the tower adjoining the two cathedrals. Instead of building a new cathedral on top of the original one, Salamanca built its newer cathedral next to the old one. There is a tower in between them. We climbed the tower, which had entrances to the upper parts of both cathedrals. In the old cathedral we looked down on a wedding in progress. Then we kept climbing and entered the newer cathedral. Inside this one, we walked the width of the building while looking down from a two-foot wide balcony. Then, we climbed up higher and got an outdoor panoramic view of the city. It was incredible to walk from the upper balcony of one cathedral across to the other one. I had never done anything like this. The view of the city were not that great because the cathedral is a promenent part of the skyline.

We also visited the Casa de las Conchas (House of Shells), a palace covered in carved shells. Inside, we were able to see the patio. Its upper level has a photography exhibit dedicated to bicycling: people on bikes, parked bikes and bike trail maps (including NYC!).

Meagan and I spent the rest of the day walking around, stopping into some churches. There were many attached to convents. In one church we even saw the nuns praying (behind a screen).

For dinner, we didn't want to spend money, so we went to the grocery store and bought cherry tomatoes and a tortilla (egg, potato, onion omelet). We ate our meal in the main plaza, where many people were enjoying more portable foods like ice cream cones. Eating outside, both physically outside and outside the normal food "schedule," is considered taboo here. That meant we were basically "freaks" in the eyes of the Spanish. The plaza is considered one of the most beautiful in Spain. We were somewhat underwhelmed.

On the way back to Madrid, the bus drove through Avila, a walled town which was lit up at night. The wall in nearly completely in tact and it looked great lit up. Back in Madrid, we went to bed, exhausted.

Saturday morning we woke up and spent time catching up with Amy. Then, the three of us headed off to the bus station to go to Toledo. This time we had no trouble catching a bus because they leave every 20-30 minutes. We arrived at lunchtime and had strawberries and bananas to satisfy our hunger (I also ate a tomato and they had ice cream).

First, we headed up to the city, which was quite a feat. Toledo is built on a hill and to visit it, we had to go up and down several times. We tried to find an old mosque, but it was closed. Then we headed to the cathedral, which was another fantastic gothic structure (like the one in Salamanca). We were hungry so we stopped into a grocery store for gummy candy and watermelon. I usually travel with a spoon because it means that I can eat many foods (like salads and yogurts) for lunch or a snack instead of sandwiches. We used the spoon to carve bits of watermelon out of its skin. People gave us the most ridiculous looks, one woman even commented on our snack. We heard her and told her it was delicious. That made her shut up; she didn't even think we had heard her.....

Next, we went to the Sephardic synagogue, which has been turned into a museum. The building had been worked on between 1336 and 1357. In 1492, the Jews were kicked out of Spain. At this time, the building was converted into a Christian church. In the 19th century, it was used by the military. Now, it has been restored; its walls are covered with Hebrew carvings and Moorish designs. Most of the exhibition space was dedicated to the history of Jews in Spain and Jewish ceremonies and customs.

From the synagogue, we headed downhill, passing another synagogue and a monastery, on the way to the Roman bridge. Finding the bridge was quite a challenge. Most of the roads leading down to it were under construction. When we finally found it, it wasn't that impressive. Next to it was a sign describing the many routes of Don Quixote, one of which passed through Toledo. In fact, we found many small green signs marking the route.

While Toledo was pretty and interesting because of its history and combination of cultures, we were somewhat let down because it was overrun with tourists. The stores in the center only sold crap and the food there was overpriced and not worth eating.

We returned to Madrid and made some stir-fry for dinner. We also made popcorn on the stove and hung out for the rest of the night.

Sunday morning we woke up and went grocery shopping. (The only reason the store was opened was because it was closed Friday.) Their small grocery store had drinkable soy yogurt, which we can't get here in Priego. I was shocked and jealous. I haven't even tried it, but I appreciated the diversity there.

We took our snacks and headed toward el Parque del Buen Retiro, Madrid's Central Park. I was only able to stay for an hour, but we soaked up some Spanish sun and enjoyed people-watching. Then, I headed to the bus station to catch my five-hour bus back to Cordoba where I met Ana who drove me back to Priego. Even though my friends spend more than half of their paycheck on rent, and they spend at least an hour traveling to school each day, I would still rather be there than here. There is tons to do in the city and they can get to other parts of the country more easily than I can. Oh well, only four more weeks here.