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.