Fiesta del Membrillo

Saturady morning Cecilia, Erin and I took a bus to Carcabuey, a village near Priego. We were going on a walk for the membrillo (quince) festival. Our first stop was the center of Carcabuey where we had a breakfast of bread, olive oil and membrillo. The membrillo was good, the bread was way too soaked in oil for my taste. Then we walked along the olive trees to Zagrilla, another village). The walk took about two hours. Along the way, we were given free, bright yellow, t-shirts. When we got to Zagrilla we went to the festival tent where there was food (for sale), candy, homemade soaps and olive pate and jam. None of the food looked particularly appealing, so we ate the fruit we had brought with us. The problem was that we had to hang around for three hours because the return bus didn’t leave until 5pm. We made friends with a Spanish family. The daughter (who was in Sevilla) had done a camp program in the US and was placed in Sandwich, MA. Her mom was shocked that I had heard of the town and knew where it was. They live in Zagrilla but want us to go to their house or something (we have no way of getting there). We also were befriended by a British couple who live near Zagrilla. They bought a house four years ago and gutted the entire thing, had central heating (not normal here) put in and heated towel racks. We were invited in case we get cold in the winter. They go back and forth between Andalucía and England (80 miles from London) fairly often. On Tuesday they’re driving to Bilbao and taking a 36-hour ferry to the UK. While we were pretty bored during most of the fiesta, we amused ourselves by checking out the clothing on the Spanish people. One woman had red and white polka dot shoes and a red and white polka dot belt. The Spanish are very big on matching their shoes to their belt to their bag to their accessories. It can get really interesting, like when they match their umbrellas to their outfits.

We were pretty tired before our walk because we had gone to the gym the night before. We took a pilates class, which wasn’t that great and an abs/glutes/legs class, which was much harder and left us feeling sore. It was a free trial day at this very uppity gym. The locker rooms had a Jacuzzi, sauna, tanning booth, showers and tons of hairdryers. The gym had tons of machines and weights and stuff. Everything was new and shiny. There was also a bar, which had protein shakes, juice, coffee and, no joke, beer. I’m not sure if I’m going to join this gym or another one. I’m going to go to the yoga class to try it out, but I don’t know if I’m going to like it. I can’t seem to find any ashtanga classes here.

I’m also not sure if joining a gym is worth it because I can run on the streets. However, this is difficult because there is not a single flat street in Priego. Every street has an uphill or downhill part. The only semi flat streets are 5 houses long and not really worth running down because you get to the end of the block and have to run down a hill, or up a flight of stairs.

While at the gym on Friday, we saw one of the funniest sights….a woman was on the treadmill in heels. They weren’t very high, just some pumps. But still….she was wearing heels on the treadmill.

That brings me to a good subject: Spanish fashion. Men wear their hair in mullets, sometimes with a rat tail and other times just a mullet. Women match all of their accessories. Sunday Cecilia and I saw a woman with magenta boots on over her skinny jeans. She also had on a pink jacket, magenta scarf and she carried a pink bag. Children of the same family often match. It’s semi-nauseating actually. We also saw six children dressed in three pairs. Two girls had on beige jumpers over pink shirts. Two boys had on jeans with pink and navy rugbys. Two other kids (a boy and a girl) had on jeans and pink shirts with black and red writing on the shirts. The six of them looked hilarious. Twins at school always have on the same outfits.

Our shower.

We have a hand-held shower. The wall mount that was installed was useless because it made the showerhead shoot water out at a 90-degree angle (about 6 feet above the shower floor) aka above our heads. We had been showering by holding the nozzle and turning the water off between washing our hair and rinsing our bodies. This means that we only had one free hand to rinse the shampoo out of our hair, making it very difficult to actually get clean hair. On Sunday I used wire to put together my Halloween costume (I’m going to be a cat). The ceiling of our shower is a kind of openweave pattern that allows us to see through to the actually ceiling (there is an exhaust fan in between). I devised a system of rigging up the showerhead (using wire) and attaching the wire to the woven ceiling. This means we can now shower without having to hold the nozzle. My roommates were quite pleased at my handyman skills.

Another week of classes, and how I made some first graders shut up.

So, this was the actual first week of class everyday, Monday through Friday. I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot, even if the kids still don’t know what to say when I ask, “How are you?” Monday, I had “coordinación,” two periods of coordination/planning with other teachers. My first one was with Guillermo, the gym teacher, and Lourdes, the secretary/music teacher. Basically, the hour was designed to be a time for them to practice English. Next year, the bilingual program will expand so that gym classes are taught in English. I’m not sure how music plays into the program, but I’m sure in the future it could be taught in English too. My other coordinación was with David, the bilingual coordinator. He also teaches 5th and 6th grade English.

Tuesday I had the three-year-olds and second-grade science. For the three-year-olds, I had to sing “Mary had a little lamb” over and over again. We had a recording of it on a CD, but this was in British English, which was impossible for me to sing. She had me explain the song to them in English and Spanish. They’re so cute, they just sit there and stare up at me while I talk. In second grade, the kids were learning about the 5 senses (in English and Spanish). They had already covered the parts of the body, so I made a worksheet where they had to unscramble the body part (ie: “ear”) then draw a line from it to a picture of it (an ear) and then another line to it’s function (hear). I explained the activity in English and Spanish to make sure they understood their task. The activity took almost the full class time, and for the remaining five minutes, the kids wanted to review “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”

On Wednesday, I met with the science teacher for our “coordinación” period. She’s really nice and had lived in Priego for her entire life, except for her time at university. After that meeting I had second-grade and fifth-grade English. The second-graders are pretty well behaved. They listen to Ana and do the activities. The fifth-graders are not well behaved. The ones that I had on Wednesday are 5A, the better of the two. They’re just really immature. It’s hard to think they go to high school after sixth grade. They never bring their books to class and rarely do the homework and the teachers let them get away with it. The fifth-graders level of English is pretty low considering their ages. They have had English classes for a few years now and they still don’t understand the concept of third-person. We tried to play a board race game where I would say, “play” and “he” and the first student who writes “he plays” is the winner. The problem was that the students did not know how to spell “he.” This meant that the game didn’t really work and they didn’t really do anything. We also read a story. David (the English coordinator and their teacher) was going to play the recording of the story, but I suggested that each student take a box and read it. The boys told me they were not going to read and the girls were jumping out of their chairs to read. One boy, in particular, was not very good at reading (in English or Spanish according to the other students). David even said maybe I should skip him in the order. That, to me, seemed counter-intuitive. If a student is not great at reading, you should offer him more support rather than skip him in the order and figure that somehow at some point he’ll figure out reading. We read the story slowly and went through each part to make sure the students could understand what was going on. It seemed pretty successful: they understood the gist of it.

Thursday I had the first graders. Twice. There are only ten students in the class, but they are awful. Andrea, the adorable girl who is always very fashionable, is so badly behaved that she equates to 5 students. During one class, she took her safety scissors and tried to cut another student. She’s constantly hitting kids and finishes all of her work in two seconds because she just scribbles instead of coloring. Another student, Said, is pretty chubby and throws himself against teachers and students because he is so full of energy that runs around the classroom. We’ve seen him around town a few times. His mother and grandmother are pretty scary – they yell a lot and have really high-pitched voices. Said is constantly eating sweets. We saw him at the bakery, throwing a temper tantrum and refusing to eat a pastry he didn’t like. He made his grandmother buy him a new one (she did).

During Thursday’s science class, I made a sheet of foods and another with four “plates” each representing breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. The students’ task was to color and cut out the food and then glue it to the correct plate. This took more time than the allotted (45 minutes) class time, but the teacher thought it was a great activity. I walked around the classroom asking all the students what they had eaten for breakfast. Most hadn’t eaten much: they told me they had a class of milk or chocolate milk. Some had eaten hot or cold cereal, but not many.

During English class, the first graders were awful (again). Ana had to take Said to the principal’s office because he was yelling that Ana was hitting him (she would absolutely never do that). I think he had also done something during recess also. So, I watched the students in the stairwell for a little while and then we went to class. I couldn’t think of any good activity that went along with their lesson (red, blue, 1, 2, chair, book, desk, square, circle, triangle). I made a sheet with a farmer and a dog on it (for them to color) and taught them Bingo. I did most of the singing, but had them spell BINGO (while I pointed to the letters on the board). They absolutely loved it. I’m sure I’ll be repeating this song at least a few more times. During English, Ana had to leave the room for a few minutes to make some copies. The students immediately started taunting me by asking where Ana went and if I was alone with them. They figured I wouldn’t be able to control them. Andrea finished her coloring in two seconds and started wandering around the classroom. I made her sit up front next to me. She told me that she wasn’t allowed to because she had to sit in her own desk. Said wanted to go to the bathroom; I told him no way (he “goes to the bathroom” aka wanders the hallway). He started running around and grabbing this other kid (and dragging him around the class). I asked him about his time at the principal’s office and then asked him if he wanted to go back. Everyone stopped and looked at me. He shut up and sat down. When Ana returned, they were all coloring quietly. It was blissful…until they had to line up to go back to their class. They all started screaming and running toward the door, which meant they were crashing into each other and smacking each other. Ana couldn’t figure out who was supposed to be the front of the line so I said I was. They kids got quiet and looked up at me with big eyes. They then followed me, in silence, to their class.

Friday was my “easy” day. I had 5A for 45 minutes. I made bingo cards for the kids. They loved the idea of playing bingo, but were not great at it because they don’t study their words and don’t like to listen. I made them put everything away and sit at their desks. They were not happy about this: they like having their pencil cases out so they can play with stuff and not pay attention. When I told them the game didn’t even require a pencil, they were not pleased. It took a while to get through the game, but we did get a winner.

Yoga in Priego

Monday I went to yoga at this aromatherapy store. The class was taught in the basement where I was one of four participants. The teacher was actually a British woman who had come to Spain three years ago. She barely speaks Spanish, but gets by in class, and was happy to have me translate for her. I was the youngest person in the class and found it to be way to easy for me. I also wasn’t crazy about trying to pay attention to her broken Spanish. She said that moving to Spain for her retirement (she lives with her husband 10 minutes outside of Priego) was the best decision she’s ever made. Her two sons still live in the UK and she makes them come to visit her. In the three years since she left, she’s only been back two times. The other women at yoga were middle-aged. One arrived on time; one came ten minutes late and one 30 minutes late. We are in Spain, after all. The class was ok, I was somewhat bored and somewhat interested in seeing her style, which I didn’t really like. The other thing that bugged me was she had the overhead fluorescent lights on. I’m used to doing yoga in natural sunlight or semi-darkness. Bright lights are not conducive to relaxation. Luckily, the women at the store said they think there is a yoga place opening up in Priego, but they don’t know where it is going to be….I’ll keep my eyes open.

Granada

This weekend, Cecilia, Erin and I went to Granada, which is only 1.5 hours away by bus. Granada is a relatively small city, but still much larger than Priego. We got there Friday afternoon and found our hostel before heading out to explore. Erin and Cecilia were especially excited to go to Zara and El Corte Inglés. Zara is basically the H&M of Spain (it can be found all over the world). I like the store, but it was crazy busy and I couldn’t really find anything I wanted to buy. El Corte Inglés is a huge department store. We went to look at food that we couldn’t get in Priego (aka a lot of things). My tea supply is doing well, so there was nothing really that I needed to buy. (They didn’t have Cheerios or Life cereal…forget about Kashi.)

That night, we went out for tapas. Tapas are small portions which in Granada arrive free with drinks. The first place served us atún con tomate (tuna with tomato-a personal fave) on bread. The second one served potatoes stuffed with shredded beats, carrots, corn and sour cream. The potatoes were really also really seasoned. The third tapas place was where Jess’s boyfriend works. (She’s also teaching in Priego.) His tapas included pasta salad (which had some weird flavorless sauce on it), potato chips with spicy sauce on them and mini ham and cheese paninis. The bread and cheese was pretty good, the rest of the stuff was pretty bad.

Saturday morning we woke up early and ate toast and tea in the hostel. Then we climbed the hill to the Alahambra, which was a former palace for Muslim rulers. We started in the gardens and the summer house, both of which were lavishly panted and well-maintained. From there we walked around and went into the bath house, climbed a look-out tower, and then went into the palaces. Muslim architecture incorporates a lot of finely carved arches which are ornately decorated. Every surface has a pattern and many have color as well (although the color has worn over time). Ceilings were carved to look like cave rock formations. Water runs throughout the palaces and gardens. There were a lot of people there, but not too many which made it easy to move through the buildings.

After touring the Alahambra (for hours) we had shwarma for lunch (pita bread with chicken and veggies). Then we went back to the hostel to relax a bit before heading to the somewhat unimpressive Capilla Real (Royal Chapel) where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried in an underground crypt (which you can see). Next we continued our shopping excursion by visiting every kind of tourist shop imaginable. We finished our tourism overload by going to Plaza San Nicolas where the views of the Alahambra are superb. We got cold while waiting for the sun to set so we went to a café where the girls got chocolate caliente (hot chocolate), which is super thick and hard to drink. While watching the sunset, there was a party/public art project going on: people put paper flowers in their hair and danced around before trying to form a garden. It was lively and interesting.

After that we hung out at the hostel before heading out for more tapas. This time we went to a place where we could chose our free tapa. I had bacalao, which is a salty cod-like fish. It came in a little dish with potato and onion and spices. At the next place we got empanadas, which brought me right back to Argentina, except they were fried which was pretty gross. Next, the girls wanted croquetas-fried balls of mashed potatoes and ham (just as bad as it sounds). For our final tapa, we went to a third bar and had fried calamari. We went to bed (me feeling gross from fried foods).

Sunday we slept late and walked around the city a little more before having tea at one of the tea houses. I was dying to try the tea, but was let down by the experience because the food was not that great and the tea was rather weak and flavorless. My tabouli had barely any parsley in it and was made with couscous instead of bulgar wheat.

We liked Granada a lot and plan on going back, especially because it is only 1.5 hours away. I’ll probably go back when I need good tea.

A week (well 4 days) of classes/Some notes about school

So, I’ve been teaching for a week now. I’ve finally seen all of my students at least once and I’m getting a feel for how the classes are run (or not run). The Spanish school system seems a little more chaotic and unorganized than the American one. Students are not controlled as well here as they were when I was in school. They don’t behave well at all. I’m supposed to teach two 5th grade classes, 5A and 5B. David, the English-language coordinator and teacher of these classes, has decided that as “punishment” for 5B, I won’t be going to their class. He wants to taunt them by showing them that I go to 5A and not their class because they don’t behave well enough to have me there. The other day he was late to class and the other teacher left me with them (it was only 2 minutes). I managed to get them all into their seats and have them tell me the date and weather. When David arrived, they jumped out of their chairs and started acting crazy again.

While the students are poorly behaved, I’m convinced that part of the problem is David. He’s not a great teacher. Yes, the students do things like run across the classroom and talk at the same time as David or each other. However, he doesn’t establish enough rules or enforce them. It’s common for Spanish teachers to threaten the students and never follow through. Often the teachers tell them that they’re going to make-up wasted time by staying in during recess, yet this almost never happens. There’s no threat of being sent to the principal’s office because she teaches math and isn’t in her office much. Teachers are also fond of putting one student on the spot or yelling at only one student and telling them they are holding up the class. This generally gets no result from the student and others often laugh. When a class is loud, a teacher will take the eraser or some other object and smack it against the wall, board or desk until students quiet down. This usually works for a few minutes.

These are just general statements about teachers. The girl who teaches English (pre-school to 4th grade) is awesome. She’s only 24, but she gains control of the students with her 1-2-3-silence rule (she counts and they shut up). The woman who teaches science to 1st and 2nd grades is pretty good also. She maintains control and command of the classroom.

I like my students. The three year olds are hilarious and repeat words and talk to me in Spanish (I don’t understand half of it). One girl cried because she didn’t know me and was afraid of strangers. The first graders are awful. There’s only ten of them but they fight like crazy. They’re constantly screaming and using their safety scissors to “cut” each other. They steal markers and glue from each other and write on each other’s papers. One girl, Andrea, has such an attitude. On the playground, she’s pretty bossy, but in class she doesn’t do anything she’s supposed to do. She just does whatever she wants and ignores the teacher. She gets pulled out during the day for special classes. Erin and I love to check out what she’s wearing. She’s always pretty fashionable. Most days she’s wearing patterned tights with either a short skirt or shorts (tights and shorts are very fashionable here). We also love checking out what the twins in 5A are wearing. They’re always dressed alike and look adorable. However, the biggest fashion statement here is the rolling backpack. All the kids have them and it’s hilarious. Even the pre-schoolers have itsy-bitsy ones. They help each other carry them up the stairs.

La Mezquita and what to do in Priego on the weekend.

So we went to Córdoba which was not as exciting a city as we had hoped. The Mezquita was amazing. It was a mosque built on the site of a cathedral, which has since been converted back to a church (sort of). Its real beauty is the sea of striped arches which hold the building up. google it- they’re awesome. it’s a place I had wanted to go to since studying it in art history back at nvot. I’m glad I got to see it.

The Mezquita was actually stop number two for us in Cordoba. First, my roommates, along with three other English teachers, went to the gov’t building to drop off paperwork so we can get our residency permits. it’s a multi-step process so we get to go back to Cordoba in a few weeks. we didn’t get much time to plan this mini trip and we figured we might want to spend a few nights there. so, we brought clothing and stuff, but realized we didn’t need to spend more time there and paying for a hostel would have been dumb (and we couldn’t find a hostel with space in it).

after the Mezquita, we went to some Arabic baths (aka a spa). we put on bathing suits and relaxed in the hot and temperate pools (the cold one was just way too cold). there was also a sauna and we had massages. I’d never done anything like this, so it was interesting but not really worth the money. after our relaxation, we wandered around looking for food. it was 6pm so nothing was open. Spanish don’t eat dinner until 8 or 9. we found some places that were serving drinks but no food. we finally found a tapas restaurant overlooking the back of the mezquita (aka tourist central). cecilia ordered: fried calamari, croquetas (fried balls filled with chicken, ham and mashed potatoes); erin ordered: potatas bravas (potatoes in a spicy sauce) and tortilla (an omelet with onion and potato); I ordered pasta with zucchini and salmon and eggplant in honey sauce. I like the calamari and the potatas bravas, but didn’t like the eggplant- it was deep fried, but the honey sauce was great. The pasta was okay, it was supposed to be in black sauce, but it turned out to be more green than black. after dinner my roommates wanted ice cream and we had a hell of a time finding an open ice cream place (there were a million open when we wanted food). basically, eating in Cordoba was generally a frustrating experience. we were also in La Judería, Cordoba’s oldest neighborhood which resembled the old city of Jerusalem in that both are full of ridiculously narrow streets that don’t appear to have any sort of design to them.

so we wound up back in Priego for the rest of the long weekend. it’s Hispanic national day (aka Columbus day). Saturday we ran errands in the morning because we knew everything would close at 2 and not re-open until Tuesday. I went for a run during siesta hours. here’s the thing about Priego: many people have not left Preigo and, if they have, they haven’t ever met an American or don’t understand American customs. Running on the street, especially during siesta hours, is kind of an odd activity here. that can explain the people almost driving off the road at the sight of me. I got a lot of weird looks and confused expressions from people of all ages and genders. it’s also extremely difficult to run here because most of the city is hills. you almost can’t avoid running up or down a huge hill. we walk it every day to get to school and it sucks to come down it. after my run, my roommates and I went to a beer tasting/”festival” in a plaza up the hill. they both like beer and enjoyed the tasting. I had ½ a beer, which actually tasted pretty good. I think it was from Belgium maybe. Saturday night we went out. we went to two bars and had a pretty good time. the town was really active at two when we made our way down the hill to our apartment. Spaniards go out late at night. when we were going up the hill at 11:30, there were teenagers and even young children out in the plaza hanging out and having a good time. some people don’t even go out until after 1 am. it’s a similar lifestyle to Argentina, so I’m somewhat familiar with it. even so, I don’t love the idea of going to be at 2 or 3 am. also, going out is super cheap here. my roommates got beers for €1.50. I had sangria at home and didn’t order any drinks, which was fine because the bar tender at the 2nd place sent us free shots. one was called a lolly-pop and tasted just as disgustingly sweet as its name suggests. another smelled like cheese (Erin swears it was vodka). we met some locals and generally had a good time.

There is nothing to do in Priego on Sunday. literally. everything is closed. Cecilia and I went for a walk and we found the town pool, which, like most of the town, is under construction. She swam at college and wants to continue, but the pool won’t be ready until winter (at the earliest). it’s weird how there’s a lot of construction going on all over town but there are also a ton of for sale signs. they’re literally everywhere. new houses sit unoccupied in many parts of town.

after our walk, we watched the Sex and the City movie and vegged-out on our couches. We’re planning lessons for the upcoming week. I don’t actually teach the classes, but work with the teachers to help with pronunciation and talk to the kids. The bilingual schools here have us working in English classes and Science classes. So, I have 3 year olds (I haven’t been yet….we’ll see how it goes), 1st grade English and Science, 2nd grade English and Science and 5th grade English. I also have four scheduled meetings with teachers to help them plan and improve their English speaking skills. It’s been fun so far. I haven’t really had to do much because the teachers at my school are pretty dedicated and interested in what they do. They actually don’t give me a lot to do, which is different from other people in my program who are basically thrown at the front of the classroom from day one. My school is also brand new (just finished in January) and only has 180 kids from age 3-12. Each grade has one class except 5th grade which has two. My roommate Erin also teaches at my school (she has 4 and 5 year olds, and the 3rd, 4th and 6th graders). I’m looking forward to this week because I’ll actually see all of my classes. I’ve been finding some stuff online like songs and nursery rhymes to teach the kids. if anyone has any suggestions please send them my way.

On Monday (Day of Hispanic Heritage aka Columbus Day) we went on a two hour walk around town and practically saw every corner of Priego. No joke. This town is super small. The bull ring appears to be in the midst of construction, like the rest of the place. It was nice to get out for a little while. The rest of the day was spent reading and sitting around the living room waiting for something decent to come on TV (no such luck).