A Suddenly Social Weekend in Priego (Day 1)

As of Thursday we had no plans for this weekend. Then, we got an email from Christine, another English teacher from the states, inviting us to go to the peña flamenca. Peña is a term used for an intimate show/demonstration of folkloric music (it’s very common in Bolivia). Here in Priego, every Friday night members of Priego’s flamenco society go to the peña and sing flamenco songs. The place is a small bar underneath a house on one of the main nightlife streets. Low ceilings and white walls covered with flamenco-related pictures and flat sculptures give the place a really intimate feeling. The bar area is really small and very limited in selection. An old, greasy man owns and runs the bar. He wasn’t at all warm and welcoming, but you almost didn’t want him to be.



When we first arrived there were a bunch of people at a birthday party for the boyfriend of one of Cecilia’s co-workers (Mari Carmen). We said hi to her and she invited us to her house the following night for a birthday party she was throwing. Suddenly we had plans for Saturday night.

Also at the peña was a teacher from Christine’s school. Mari Cruz is in her 50s and is the girlfriend of the president of Priego’s flamenco society. She was so excited that young Americans were interested in flamenco and wanted to experience her culture. She talked to us about our lives here and in the states and all sorts of things. She bought us ham and breadsticks (a common appetizer here) because she wanted us to try them. There are many different kinds of ham in Spain and the one she bought us was one of the best. It was a nice gesture and I felt obligated to try some. I won’t be repeating that again soon: it was salty and greasy although not quite as much as deli ham.

Mari Cruz invited us to return to the peña Saturday afternoon for a professional show. A singer and a guitar player were coming from Córdoba to perform. Usually, the peña only has music on Friday nights, but this Saturday event was a special occasion. We gladly accepted the invitation and thus filled our social calendars a little more.

The actual music Friday night was really good, especially for “amateur” singers. Even though we didn’t understand 99 percent of the words in the songs, the emotion of the flamenco singers transcends words. They get so into the music and it’s really fascinating to watch. We sat across the table from the guitar player and the singers (the birthday party group had left and there were only two other tables being occupied). The intimacy of the setting was refreshing and it was nice to feel so welcomed by them. Part of flamenco is clapping to the beat, but it’s not nearly as easy as it sounds. You’re supposed to cup your hands a certain way and the other people there tried teaching us how to do it. (I have little sense of rhythm….but I tried).



After the show, we went to a bar with two of the guys (they’re both our age) and a bunch of Americans. One is a bullfighter, or at least he’s trying to be. Bullfighters need lots of sponsorship, both monetarily and in the form of an apprenticeship. So, he has to have another job alongside the bullfighting. The other, Juan, was the guitar player at the peña, which we later found out is own by his family.

The Gym and Some Notes on Spanish Fashion

My roommates and I go to the gym almost every day (Monday-Friday). We got a deal when we signed up as a “family” and we go each afternoon because: A) it’s warm; B) the showers always have hot water and great pressure (and we don’t have to pay for oil or water); C) we enjoy the classes. The gym also provides us with an interesting place to people watch.

First, let me back up, we chose the nicest gym in town. It opened in May and has tons of brand-new machines. There are stair masters, treadmills, walking treadmills, ellipticles and stationary bikes, and those are just the machines upstairs. Downstairs there are a few more machines and tons of weightlifting machines and free weights (I’d tell you about them if I knew what they were). There are also three rooms: one for yoga (it was awful; there were chairs involved), pilates and karate; another for spin class; and the third for aerobics, bosu, and toning classes.

Our instructors are hilarious. The woman who teaches some of the aerobics class (including step) is in her 40s, and her wardrobe is stuck in the 80s. She wears nylons under capri workout pants with tight little bra things. Her hair is kind of wavy and always all over the place. When we went to the gym party at a town bar she was dressed in all white: a little white stretchy dress, a white denim jacket and white boots. Another instructor, whom we refer to as “face piercing,” is partial to the single-color outfits as well. We gave her this nickname because she has a piercing through her face right above her lip. This is a very fashionable piercing here in Spain: one of my 5th graders has the same one. Today when we got to the gym face piercing was in the locker room blow-drying her hair and getting ready. We figured she was getting ready to leave the gym and go home. Oh no. She was blow-drying and straightening her hair to go give classes and hang out at the gym. She was doing all of this while wearing only a thong – no bra or top, just a thong. The third instructor teaches our spin classes along with some of the toning classes and the bosu ones. He’s less interesting because she usually wears all black.

The other Spanish people in our classes are also rather funny. One of the first days we were at the gym we saw a woman on the treadmill in pumps. Okay, the heel was only about an inch, but she was still wearing heels, and looking completely ridiculous. A few guys in our spin class wear hard-core biking outfits and make faces at themselves in the mirror. They’re really serious about spin. In the locker room, women go to take their shower wearing nothing but thongs. They’re naked under their towels (which they hold up in front of themselves), but they’re still wearing their thongs. Today, one woman in our spin class had on nylons under her workout outfit. That’s a pretty popular look: nylons under clothes (like shorts and capris). Kids wear capris and boots to school; you can see their tights or nylons in the four or five inches between the boots and capris. The other day we saw a little boy wearing nylons under his shorts. His younger sister was dressed the same way.

Relating lessons to Priego

In my second-grade science class, the students are learning about animals. This week they were discussing the different classifications of animals (wild, farm and domestic/pet). So, as an activity, I made a worksheet with animal pictures and names at the bottom and blanks where they had to write the name of the different animals in each category. For example, under farm animals they had to write “cow,” “horse,” “pig,” etc. There was some confusion as to what qualified as a farm animal versus a pet. This is due to Priego’s rural setting. The edge of Priego is about six blocks from my apartment (really, you’re never far from the town line). When I walked to the cemetery the other day, I walked past a house with horses in the front yard. It’s easy to confuse farm animals for pets when people have horses practically in the city. To solve this conundrum, I told them to think of pets as animals their moms would allow inside the house.

Even so, one of the girls was convinced that giraffe and elephants were farm animals. I asked her if there were giraffe or elephant in the countryside around Priego (where almost all of the farm animals can be found). She looked me straight in the eye and told me, “yes” these animals live around Priego. She refused to believe me when I told her that they were wild animals.

Today in fifth grade we were talking about Thanksgiving. I gave the students a reading assignment for class time: journal entries written by people on the Mayflower. They were short, simple passages about the Pilgrims’ lives. One of the lines was about the Pilgrims arriving on Cape Cod. To explain Cape Cod I told them that it was a region in one of the states. I equated this to the Súbettica which is the mountainous region in southern of Córdoba (where Priego is situated). I asked the students about the Súbettica and one kid looked at me and told me that it was where Cabra (a neighboring city) is. David just looked at the kid and told him he was wrong and I was right.

I try to make the lessons make sense to the students, but they still refuse to think. It’s really frustrating. Today, two 5th grade girls got yelled at by the vice principal/resource director. One had asked David if she could go to the bathroom (he said yes) and the other walked out the door when he wasn’t looking. It’s really hard keeping track of the students when they all run around the classroom talking to each other and throwing things out. Anyway, girl two went and followed girl one to the bathroom, except they didn’t go to the bathroom on their floor. They went upstairs and stood outside the 6th grade classroom making faces. Well, the vp/resource director caught them and dragged them back to their classroom where he proceeded to ream them out for having left their floor. After he left, David yelled at girl two for leaving without having asked permission. He then announced that no one would be allowed to use the bathroom for the rest of the class. Kids are not disciplined here. The teachers focus on individual students rather than the entire class, so it is possible that one kid (out of only 15) slips out of the classroom. After students answer a question on an activity or do anything, they want the teacher’s approval. They’re almost incapable of doing an entire worksheet without pausing to see if they’ve done number one correctly. Even if I do an example, they still won’t continue until I’ve checked number two, then number three and so on. I’m trying various methods of correcting papers. Today in second-grade English I made them do the entire activity and then we corrected it out loud. The other day in their science class I did the same thing. Slowly, I’m trying to change the way the classes I’m in are run. I can’t stand working when students are turned around talking to other students, or asking me to correct each problem/blank, or running circles in the classroom, etc.

Sunday wandering

Sunday morning (really early afternoon) we walked over to the market to get clementines and tomatoes. Cecilia and Erin really wanted to try churros and chocolate (fried dough and liquid chocolate which is warm). The chocolate is not like hot chocolate in the states, it’s much thicker. We were, once again, too late for churros. They’re really only available in the morning. After 12-1pm, you actually cannot buy them anywhere. It’s funny how here people have a set schedule and they actually stick to it. In the states, yes places have their schedules, but I’m much more used to being able to get food at all hours.



Sunday afternoon I walked around Priego to take more pictures. I wanted to get one of the Barrio de la Villa (the old part of town with white buildings) from below, which Lonely Planet describes as a “cake with white frosting.”



After that, I finally found the cemetery in town, which was not nearly as “scary” as David had said.

Paella with the prof.s

Saturday morning I walked around Priego by myself for a few hours. I went to a few of the overly decorative baroque churches and took lots of pictures. Shops are only open in the morning on Saturdays (and not at all on Sundays). Business hours in Priego are 10a-2p Monday through Saturday and 5:30-8 Monday through Friday. Some places, like banks, are only open during the morning Monday through Friday. This means that we don’t really have time during the week to go places because we’re at school all morning. During the afternoons we usually go to the gym because that’s when our exercise classes are.







I was somewhat surprised at the amount of people who were out Saturday. There were lots of people in cafes, at the produce market (which is really tiny), eating churros (fried dough), and at the castle. We still haven’t been to the castle or to the Carnicería Real (old meat packing business) because we’re waiting or our residency cards which grant us free entrance.



After visiting a the churches and wandering around, I met Cecilia and Erin at the Ayntamiento (town hall and central meeting place in Priego). We were then joined by David (English teacher) and Lourdes (secretary/music teacher). We went to a bar and met up with Sole (science teacher) and Guillermo (gym teacher). Maria Jose (principal) and Jose Maria (vice principal/resource teacher), who are married, arrived later. We had a drink and some tapas (this was around 2pm). The tapas were pretty good: lightly fried eggplant sticks, meat stew (I ate a carrot) and fried pinwheel sandwiches with ham in the middle (I did not eat these).

From here we went to a neighborhood restaurant (there are tons all over Priego) where we were joined by more people (Sole’s husband and Guillermo’s friend). Sole had organized everything and ordered paella ahead of time. Mine was seafood paella and everyone else had meat and seafood mixed. We were at the restaurant for about two hours and then went to another bar and had a drink and stood around talking. The Spanish like to take an event like lunch and drag it out to an all-day affair. The entire idea for this meal started because Lourdes asked me what we were doing this weekend and I told her we were going to go to the market and probably eat paella after. She decided she wanted to come and started telling other teachers and somehow we got a group of 11 people together.



It was a ton of fun to hang out with the other teachers and the paella was delicious. They are all interesting people and really funny. Lourdes tried convincing everyone that Portugal was shaped like a face (I think Lisbon might be the mouth or nose or something). We talked about difference between the US and Spain and various phrases that we use here or there.

Córdoba (again) and Great Teaching Methods

Tuesday we went to Córdoba, again. We’re still in the middle of getting our residency cards, which, by the time we get them, will have taken nearly three months. Last time we went to Córdoba to bring documents (police reports, letters of good health, copies of our passports, etc.). That time we had two days notice before having to be there. This time we were given five days notice and all we had to do was take a piece of paper to the bank and pay 10€ and then bring the carbon copy of that page with us to a specific police station which deals in immigration matters. Córdoba is 2 hours away by bus (if you take the shorter route). Last time we were there, we went to the Mezquita and the arab baths (spa).

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.

Our apartment (for mom)

Ok, so some have you have been asking (esp. my mom) for pictures of the apartment, which are on my facebook, but here they are again....

This is our kitchen. We have an oven which is rare in Spain (about half of the apartments have them, the rest just have cooktops/stoves). Our fridge is midget sized (I'm taller than it).



Our livingroom has been rearranged since this photo. We put a green table cloth on our table instead of the red one. The table has a space heater built into it.



This is our mint-green bathroom...



And, finally, my room! I have blue walls! And a pretty chandelier.