Dumfries, Scotland

We arrived in Scotland Tuesday evening and took a train from the airport to the center of Glasgow. At each station, an announcement would come over the PA system telling us to “Mind the gap when alighting from the train.” It took me about five or six attempts to understand this message. (I finally had to read the screen instead of listening because I just couldn’t understand the announcements.) I’m still not really sure what alighting means or how else I could use the term. I did, however, mind the gap when I alit (alighted?) from the train.

Our train from Glasgow arrived in Dumfries, where Jess’s mom was born and her family lives, at around midnight. Her mom picked us up at the airport and drove us to the farm where we’re staying. We’re sleeping in her mom’s cousin’s house. There are two or three other houses on the farm belonging to the cousin’s siblings and mother. The farm is a working dairy farm and there are cows surrounding the house.

Wednesday we toured Dumfries with Jess’s mom. We went to an old church and to see Robert Burns’s grave. Burns is a national poet of Scotland. His grave was in the churchyard until some people decided to dig it up and erect a mausoleum. It’s a really strange structure because it’s white and the surrounding tombstones and buildings are all red sandstone. Actually, most of the buildings in Dumfries are made of sandstone. They’re picturesque: red buildings against green hills and blue skies. However, the stone is really soft and they don’t last long.

After lunch we went for a drive around the Scottish countryside with Jess’s granddad. We were trying to find these arches built by Andy Goldsworthy. We were able to locate a stone egg he constructed on a hillside, but the arches were too far down a winding road. The countryside is really beautiful: green, rolling hills, tons of sheep and cows everywhere you look. The houses all have at least one chimney; most are book-ended by a pair of them.

Our final stop of the day was a visit Tesco, a giant supermarket. I was delighted to find a ton of foods I can eat, including gf pretzels!!!! I stocked up on snacks and soy milk and cereal. Then we went back to Jess’s cousin’s house for a barbeque. Their barbeque is actually a tripod with a grate which can be raised or lowed to regulate the temperature.

Barcelona Round Two

I’m glad I returned to Barcelona. Jess wanted to do some stuff I had not done the first time I was there. We went to the contemporary art museum and saw some really interesting exhibits, many of which were American or even Argentine. I enjoyed Eleanor Antin’s 100 Boots: a series of photos of 100 boots in different locations. We also saw Edward Ruscha’s Every Building on Sunset Strip from 1966. He took photos from towns across the US and arranged them in an accordion-style book. I especially liked one from Argentina, by an artist name Munditas, which dealt with the legacy of the dictatorship. It was a series of photos of Buenos Aires during times of turmoil. Each photo was paired with another one showing that same location (or idea) in 2007.

We also went back to the Picasso Museum and the Barceloneta area. This time, however, I paid more attention to sculptures like the Lichtenstein on the Rambla that ran the length of the coast. In addition, we spent more time walking around looking at graffiti and buildings. This is partially because we were there on a Sunday and Monday was a holiday. Most businesses were closed and we had some difficulty finding veggies/fruit for snacks.

On that Monday, we went to see the Guadí apartment buildings and Park Güell. We also made a special trip across town to see the Mies Van Der Rohe pavilion for the 1929 World’s Fair. Jess was very excited about seeing this building because Van Der Rohe is considered the iconic Bauhaus architect. The structure is made of large planes of glass and stone. He actually cut the marble and repositioned it to form symmetrical patterns. It’s not a house, more like a representation of an art style.

After seeing the building, we went across the street and continued our architectural Barcelona tour. We were in the Caixaforum, a building which used to be a fabric factory and is not an arts center. The first thing we saw upon entering was a Sol Lewitt mural. He does large scale pieces of art, most of which are paintings, which are geometric series of lines or shapes in bright colors. This one was a series of bright squiggly lines. I imagined myself walking through the white line and it seemed like the wadi you must traverse when entering Petra. Jess thinks the paintings are very “high-energy,” which is probably why I like them so much. At the Caixaforum, we saw two more exhibits on architecture: one about Palladio, the Italian architect remembered for his use of symmetry and order, and another of works by Richard Rogers, a British architect famous for buildings like the Pompidou Center in Paris. The latter was a great exhibition because of its use of color and energy in the space. The room was white with bright-colored signs and neon-pink benches. It contained many models of projects and buildings which were never built. Some of the designs were meant for the US, but almost none of them ever came to fruition.

Tuesday morning, our last few hours in Spain, was spent at the Boqueria Market. Mom and I had gone there in April, but Jess and I spent much more time there. We walked around sipping fresh juices (which were more like pureed fruit). She has a raspberry one and then a strawberry-mango. I had banana-blackberry and then papaya. We also munched on some dried fruit and I bought veggies for dinner (I ate them at the airport). One of the produce stands had really interesting foods: wheat asparagus (asparagus, but as think as wheat), mini-cucumbers that looked like baby watermelon, huge mushrooms and tons of edible flowers. The market also provided some great people-watching, always a fun pastime.

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!