Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Passover with 3rd grade=failure
Ana decided that I could only have 15 minutes to teach the third grade about Passover. This wasn't nearly enough time because 5 minutes was wasted on telling them that the language on the board was Hebrew (they were convinced it was Chinese). The kids weren't that interested in the material because it was 1:48 and school ends at 2. They just wanted to get out of there and had already sat through 48 minutes of Ana and I telling them a story about a butterfly who goes from the USA to go south in September because of migratory patterns. By November, Mora the Monarch is in Mexico. She's happy because she has butterfly friends there. I'm not sure if they learned anything, but I'm pretty sure they're going to bring it up with their religion teacher tomorrow....I wonder if I'll get any feedback from her...
Monday, March 30, 2009
Want to see a bunch of 4th graders get so frustrated they fall off their chairs?
Today in 4th-grade English I wrote Passover (Pesach) on the board in Hebrew. This caused a lot of distress among the students who couldn't figure out which English letters I was using.
Ana told them I wasn't writing in English, so they started to guess what language I was using. No, it wasn't Arabic (that was a really good guess though). It wasn't French either (duh! - the girl who said that never pays attention to anything in class).
They listened attentively as I explained Judaism, the Hebrew language and the meaning behind Passover (a very basic version). They had seen a movie (in religion class I think) version of the story so they were pretty familiar with the ideas in Spanish. We looked at picture representations of the plagues and a drawing of a seder plate. I tried to explain matzah, which, in this bread-obsessed country, caused a lot of gagging noises and horrified faces.
The lesson was pretty successful: I maintained their attention and was able to teach them something they would not have otherwise learned. Tomorrow, I'm going to repeat it with the third grade and do another version with the sixth grade.
Butano....
We heat our water and cook on our stove with gas (butane) delivered to our apartment by the "butano man" (okay, this is really just a guy who works for Repsol, the Spanish gas company). Our hot water heater runs out every three to four weeks. Our stove gas had been going strong since we moved into the apartment in October. We were worried that we might run out during our cooking extravaganza on Thanksgiving, but it kept going....until this week.
It ran out Friday afternoon while Erin was trying to make soup. We called to have the tank replaced, but they don't do deliveries Friday afternoons. We had plenty in our hot water tank, so I decided to try to switch the two. It's a really easy mechanism to get the hose off the tank, but when I tried to get the semi-full hot water tank to attach to the kitchen hose, I couldn't.
Cecilia and I spent at least 20 minutes trying to attach it (this is after I had already spent 30 minutes trying it myself...and googling possible solutions).
Christine came over to use our internet and popped the thing on in two seconds. She did the same thing Cecilia and I had been doing; she just seemed to have the right finesse or something. We were pretty pissed that we couldn't get this to work, but she did it instantly. (We were also really happy to have our stove back.)
Anyway, bright and early Saturday morning (we're talking 8:15 a.m.), the butano man came to our rescue and brought us another tank to attach to our hot water heater so our apartment could go back to normal. At least we're getting better at guessing when that one is going to run out (unlike that time Cecilia was partway through a shower....). Needless to say, all butane tanks are staying attached. Although, next time we run out on the hot water heater, I'm going to try again....I'll just leave the functioning tank alone.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Now it's your turn, mom!
Hey mom, this one is for you.
When I was home, my mother told me she wanted Chinese food because they had a "Chinese cooking demo" on the Today Show. What they did was take leftover rice, veggies, an egg and soy sauce and turn that into fried rice. Tonight, I decided to give it a try. I had made brown rice last night with steamed carrots and sauteed onions with garlic and ginger. I took the onions and some raw asparagus and put it in the sauté pan. I quick steamed/stir fried the asparagus (not letting it cook all the way) with the onion mixture. Next, I added the egg and stirred that around. Then I added the carrots and rice and kept stirring. Finally, I added a splash of soy sauce.
It came out really yummy. Okay mom, now it's your turn!
When I was home, my mother told me she wanted Chinese food because they had a "Chinese cooking demo" on the Today Show. What they did was take leftover rice, veggies, an egg and soy sauce and turn that into fried rice. Tonight, I decided to give it a try. I had made brown rice last night with steamed carrots and sauteed onions with garlic and ginger. I took the onions and some raw asparagus and put it in the sauté pan. I quick steamed/stir fried the asparagus (not letting it cook all the way) with the onion mixture. Next, I added the egg and stirred that around. Then I added the carrots and rice and kept stirring. Finally, I added a splash of soy sauce.
It came out really yummy. Okay mom, now it's your turn!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Jaen
Friday afternoon Maricarmen (Cecilia's coworker) drove me to Jaen where a friend, Jolinda, lives. We met at orientation; she works at an elementary school there (same job as me).
I got to Jaen at 6pm Friday and we went out for a walk around the "city." Jaen has a population of around 100,000, which makes it a small city, but four times as large as Priego. To me, this was a much larger place than where I live, so I thought of Jaen as huge. They have a train station (with service to Madrid, Cordoba and Sevilla), a Corte Ingles and museums/theater events/CULTURE!
We went to Corte Ingles where I bought chocolate soy milk (juice box sized for travel) and corn tortillas. We also went to Jaen's library so Jolinda could return, and take out new, CDs. Their library was small, but made Priego's look doll-sized. Saturday we went to a farmer's market and made soup during the afternoon. Then we walked around Jaen and tried to go to the hilltop castle. We never made it because it got too late (the sun was going down) and our Lonely Planet directions were pretty terrible. We spent that evening watching Mad Men.
While walking, we stumbled upon this group of people practicing for Semana Santa. During Holy Week, brotherhoods get together and parade through the streets with floats/statues on platforms supported by the people's necks and heads.
Sunday I went to a few museums and restored arab baths. The baths were cool, but looked like similar ones I had seen in the Alahambra (in Granada). The Museo de Arte Naif (Museum of Naive Art) was interesting because it had a small collection of paintings from the 1960s-1980s which were colorful, some even had purple mountains with pink trees. They looked like something a child would do. Additionally, there were framed cross stitch and needle work pictures on display, which I had never seen before in a museum. Another thing that struck me was that most of the art was donated to the museum by the artists rather than by donors or art collectors.
The other museum I went to housed a special exhibit of Eugenio Chicano's paintings. He takes traditional still life paintings and adds computer icons to them. In doing that, he mixes art history and modern technology. I really enjoyed the exhibit and asked the guards if there were any brochures with more information on the artist. They only had the exhibition catalogue (a decent sized-book), which they gave me for free! I was really surprised and excited about this.
One of Eugenio Chicano's paintings.
That afternoon, Jolinda and I went for a walk to a new park. Everything was really colorful: the track was red, blue and orange. Purple fences separated different play areas. It was very architecturally modern, but not so well-built. As we walked, we noticed the track was inclined slightly (literally we went downhill on onside and had to come uphill on the other). There were also exercise machines on either sides of the fountain (in the middle of the track). Next to the fountain was a big balance machine. It was almost like a bridge where people stood on one cable and held onto another. The entire contraption swayed depending on how the people organized themselves. Basically, adults and children were on either side of this contraption and could have fallen at any moment because people kept getting on and off shifting the balance. (This would never fly in the US.)
We stumbled upon a place serving "cerveza sin gluten" (gluten-free beer), which was odd for such a small city.
All-in-all it was a good weekend. I wound up eating healthier than I normally do because Jolinda is basically on a raw foods diet. She prefers to eat raw fruits and veggies, as well as sunflower seeds, only. She doesn't eat anything with preservatives because she doesn't like what they do to her body. I ate well, but had a big bowl of cereal for breakfast when I got home this morning!!
I finally tasted chirimoya, which was a pain to eat because of all the seeds (think watermelon seeds on steroids).
I got to Jaen at 6pm Friday and we went out for a walk around the "city." Jaen has a population of around 100,000, which makes it a small city, but four times as large as Priego. To me, this was a much larger place than where I live, so I thought of Jaen as huge. They have a train station (with service to Madrid, Cordoba and Sevilla), a Corte Ingles and museums/theater events/CULTURE!
We went to Corte Ingles where I bought chocolate soy milk (juice box sized for travel) and corn tortillas. We also went to Jaen's library so Jolinda could return, and take out new, CDs. Their library was small, but made Priego's look doll-sized. Saturday we went to a farmer's market and made soup during the afternoon. Then we walked around Jaen and tried to go to the hilltop castle. We never made it because it got too late (the sun was going down) and our Lonely Planet directions were pretty terrible. We spent that evening watching Mad Men.
While walking, we stumbled upon this group of people practicing for Semana Santa. During Holy Week, brotherhoods get together and parade through the streets with floats/statues on platforms supported by the people's necks and heads.
Sunday I went to a few museums and restored arab baths. The baths were cool, but looked like similar ones I had seen in the Alahambra (in Granada). The Museo de Arte Naif (Museum of Naive Art) was interesting because it had a small collection of paintings from the 1960s-1980s which were colorful, some even had purple mountains with pink trees. They looked like something a child would do. Additionally, there were framed cross stitch and needle work pictures on display, which I had never seen before in a museum. Another thing that struck me was that most of the art was donated to the museum by the artists rather than by donors or art collectors.
The other museum I went to housed a special exhibit of Eugenio Chicano's paintings. He takes traditional still life paintings and adds computer icons to them. In doing that, he mixes art history and modern technology. I really enjoyed the exhibit and asked the guards if there were any brochures with more information on the artist. They only had the exhibition catalogue (a decent sized-book), which they gave me for free! I was really surprised and excited about this.
One of Eugenio Chicano's paintings.
That afternoon, Jolinda and I went for a walk to a new park. Everything was really colorful: the track was red, blue and orange. Purple fences separated different play areas. It was very architecturally modern, but not so well-built. As we walked, we noticed the track was inclined slightly (literally we went downhill on onside and had to come uphill on the other). There were also exercise machines on either sides of the fountain (in the middle of the track). Next to the fountain was a big balance machine. It was almost like a bridge where people stood on one cable and held onto another. The entire contraption swayed depending on how the people organized themselves. Basically, adults and children were on either side of this contraption and could have fallen at any moment because people kept getting on and off shifting the balance. (This would never fly in the US.)
We stumbled upon a place serving "cerveza sin gluten" (gluten-free beer), which was odd for such a small city.
All-in-all it was a good weekend. I wound up eating healthier than I normally do because Jolinda is basically on a raw foods diet. She prefers to eat raw fruits and veggies, as well as sunflower seeds, only. She doesn't eat anything with preservatives because she doesn't like what they do to her body. I ate well, but had a big bowl of cereal for breakfast when I got home this morning!!
I finally tasted chirimoya, which was a pain to eat because of all the seeds (think watermelon seeds on steroids).
"Be Careful!" at Carrefour
In my fourth-grade English class, I was teaching the phrases "Look Out!" and "Be Careful!" When the students saw the word "careful" they screamed out, "Carrefour, Carrefour!" They were delighted because they thought they knew the word on the paper. I told them (in Spanish), "No, Carrefour is a French word which means intersection. This word, careful, is an English word and means 'ten cuidado.'" They looked shocked and horrified as they challenged me, "Carrefour is a store." I told them, yes, Carrefour is a French-owned grocery/department store, but it's name means intersection and, no, careful and Carrefour are not the same thing.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
semana santa
So, Spain is a Catholic country, which means we get "Holy Week" off. This is the week before Easter, except my school has interpreted "week" as Friday (the one before Good Friday) to Monday (the one after Easter Sunday), meaning I have 10 days that 11 days to do whatever I want.
While I was home I did a little research and figured out that I could use this time to go to the Balkans. I booked a flight to Barcelona (for Thursday night), then a Friday morning flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia and a return flight from Sofia, Bulgaria to Madrid for the 11th.
I'm planning on spending a few day in Croatia, then going to Mostar and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Belgrade, Serbia before getting to Sofia (where I'm sure I'll do a side trip outside the city).
And, the craziest/best news of all.............my mother is coming! I'm so excited because she's never been to countries where mosques are prevalent. She's only been to Western Europe before, and we're going to be in Eastern Europe!
I've been dying to get back to the Balkans since I went to Kosovo and Macedonia in 2005. It was an eye-opening experience for me and now I want her to have a similar experience. We're going to take trains and buses with locals and (from what I've seen in pictures) we're going to see a lot of beautiful things. So expect tons of pictures!
My mom is coming back to Europe!!!! Twice in one year....I must be a pretty cool kid to merit that.
While I was home I did a little research and figured out that I could use this time to go to the Balkans. I booked a flight to Barcelona (for Thursday night), then a Friday morning flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia and a return flight from Sofia, Bulgaria to Madrid for the 11th.
I'm planning on spending a few day in Croatia, then going to Mostar and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Belgrade, Serbia before getting to Sofia (where I'm sure I'll do a side trip outside the city).
And, the craziest/best news of all.............my mother is coming! I'm so excited because she's never been to countries where mosques are prevalent. She's only been to Western Europe before, and we're going to be in Eastern Europe!
I've been dying to get back to the Balkans since I went to Kosovo and Macedonia in 2005. It was an eye-opening experience for me and now I want her to have a similar experience. We're going to take trains and buses with locals and (from what I've seen in pictures) we're going to see a lot of beautiful things. So expect tons of pictures!
My mom is coming back to Europe!!!! Twice in one year....I must be a pretty cool kid to merit that.
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