Weekend Getaway to Portugal

Soon after coming to Spain, I began to hear about Porto, a city in Northern Portugal. Beth and I heard so many wonderful things about the city we decided to travel there ourselves! Here’s the highlight reel from my trip with Emmeline and Beth.

Day 1: All over the city Saturday

Highlights: I arrived later at night on Friday and met up with Beth and Emmeline at the airbnb where we were staying. This meant my full day in Porto was Saturday. We braved the misty rain to see the São Francisco Church (it was built around 700 years ago, it’s now covered in gold on the inside, and Napoleon used it temporarily as a horse stable), the Palácio da Bolsa (the old Chamber of Commerce building that housed Portugal’s stock market), and walked along the river in the Ribeira area. We got lost trying to find a port cellar on the other side of the river and took a taxi back over the river to get to the meeting spot for our walking tour on time. Emmeline made friends with our taxi driver and learned some Portuguese. The walking tour with The Other Side was fabulous and we saw so much of Porto! Later, we returned to the Livraria Lello & Irmão (I guess J.K. Rowling taught English at a school nearby and this bookstore inspired parts of Harry Potter). We also drank tea and coffee at Café Majestic. To end our day, we took the bus out the beach and had dinner overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Rainy morning

Had our picture taken by an over-zealous boat tour ticket seller.

Our first port tasting.

In front of Lello Livraria.

Café Majestic

View from the furnicular. The bridge was built by Gustave Eiffel’s student.

Our own Café Majestic stop.

Dinner by the Atlantic Ocean.

Day 2: Wandering and Taylor’s Port

Highlights: We got lost on the other side of the river again. The streets plus all the hills made it so hard to navigate! We made it to Taylor’s, the oldest port-making establishment, just in time for a tour… in French. We had been on a French and English tour of Palácio da Bolsa and figured the French tour would be better than the Portuguese tour. Yes, people say Portuguese and Spanish are similar and they are. I, however, can’t decipher much Portuguese. The English tour was in 40 minutes and we had to make it back to the airport for our flight that afternoon. The French tour was nice in that we got to see the cellars and taste port wine but we learned the most from the detailed English pamphlet they gave us!

Coffee crew

On our way to Taylor’s

Words can’t capture how beautiful the city is.

xoxo

Nona

Semana Santa: Sevilla

For the second part of my Spring Break, I went to Sevilla with Tess, Ally, and Sam.

The night before: Beth and I heard TONS of music and drumming outside our apartment. We went out to the balcony and saw a Semana Santa procession coming up our street in Madrid. This was a good preview for my three days in Sevilla!

Beth watching the procession from our balcony

Day 1: Good Friday Processions

Highlights: wandering the winding streets of the old city, chasing processions all afternoon and evening. We had to navigate the very curvy streets and decipher the procession schedule but we managed to see quite a few! One was a silent procession in which the whole street stopped speaking (very rare here in Spain) and ended with a choir singing and then a man on a balcony singing a “saeta.”

The pointed hoods are the typical nazarene garb and were later usurped by the KKK.

See the man wearing the tank top? He helps carry the giant “tronos” with the Jesus or Virgin statues. The cloth thing on his head and neck helps him carry it on his back.

In Sevilla, you only see the feet of those carrying the “trono.”

Look at how big it is! This one filled up almost the entire street and yet they were still able to navigate Sevilla’s curvy streets.

Each “trono” is followed by a band.

Little kids in the procession hand out candy to children in the crowd.

This was the second procession, which was silent.

Day 2: Sightseeing

Highlights: Kala showed us all around the city! We saw the Alcázar, the Cathedral (apparently pieces of Columbus are buried there), la Giralda (the Moorish tower that the Spanish incorporated into the Cathedral), a procession accidentally while eating gluten free pizza lunch, and Plaza de España. We ended the day with paella dinner at our hostel.

All of us inside the Alcázar

The Giralda and Cathedral

The entrance to the Alcázar.

Plaza de España

Day 3: Easter and more sites

Highlights: Processions were cancelled due to rain. We went to Easter Mass at the Iglesia de Santa Maria la Blanca, the Plaza de Toros, and the Torre del Oro (last surviving part of the Moorish city’s defense wall).

Torre del Oro

View of the Cathedral and Giralda from the Torre de Oro

We ended our trip with a trip to “La Abuela!”

For the non-Spanish speakers, “abuela” means “grandma!”

xoxo

Nona

 

Semana Santa: London and Oxford

For the past 11 days, I was on Spring Break! The first 6 days I spent in England. Here’s what I did!

Day 1: The Making of Harry Potter

Highlights: left Madrid on the 6:35 AM Ryanair flight to Stansted. It took FOREVER to get from Stansted into London. I had just enough time to get my bearings, check in, eat, shower, and take the bus to the Warner Brothers’ studio where they filmed all of the Harry Potter movies. I’ve stood in Hogwarts’ Great Hall so my life is complete.

Buckbeak!

Diagon Alley!

At number 4 Privet Drive!

One of the Hedwig owls.

 

“Cockroach cluster!” Let me into Dumbledore’s office, please.

At Hogwarts.

Day 2: Seeing Rachel at Oxford

Highlights: I got to see Rachel! Rachel showed me all around Oxford (the Bodleian, the Radcliffe Camera, All Souls, Christ Church, the Sheldonian Theatre, St John’s, and Blackwell’s). She made sure to point out which parts of Christ Church and the Bodleian were used to film Harry Potter. It was fantastic to see her on the other side of the Atlantic!

Will you take me to the Yule Ball? These steps were used in the fourth Harry Potter movie!

At Divinity School, which was used as the hospital wing in Harry Potter!

All Souls.

At Christ Church.

The Hall at Christ Church was the model for Hogwarts’ Great Hall in the HP movies.

The Great Hall at “Hogwarts” a.k.a. Warner Brothers.

Day 3: A little bit of everything

Highlights: The British Museum (seeing the Rosetta Stone, the first cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, the Ancient Egyptian collection, sculptures and friezes from the Parthenon, and pieces from the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos). Afternoon tea with gluten-free scones and cake at The Royal Horseguards. Wandering around Trafalgar Square. Seeing “Jersey Boys” at Piccadilly Theatre.

Giant horse from Halikarnassos.

The Parthenon Gallery.

A mummy in the Egyptian Gallery.

Tea at the Royal Horseguards.

Day 4: Bridges and Towers

Highlights: The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Shakespeare’s Globe, and walking along the Thames.

At the Tower of London, facing the Tower Bridge.

London Bridge!

Inside Shakespeares’ Globe.

The view walking along the Thames.

Millennium Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Ate dinner by the Thames.

Day 5: Church, State, and Museum

Highlights: Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Natural History Museum, drinking coffee and reading in Russell Square.

Big Ben.

Waiting in line to go into Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey.

In front of the London Eye.

Fun facts in the Natural History Museum Dinosaur exhibit.

Day 6: Leaving

Highlights: I had to leave at 11 AM in order to get out to Stansted and make my flight. I did wake up early to eat the delicious (and included) breakfast at my budget hotel. Afterwards, I grabbed coffee and sat in the sunlight in front of the British Museum. I used my last hour of site seeing to finish seeing the galleries devoted to Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece.

Adorable breakfast china.

My view of the British Museum while I drank my coffee.

Let’s catch you up

Ooops I didn’t post anything during March! Somehow, the month flew by and now it’s April. Here was March and the beginning of April in a nutshell:

1. Going on vacation, planning vacations, and meeting vacationers.

I went to Marrakech, Morocco on February 27^th and returned March 2^nd. It was my second overnight trip since moving here (the first was when I visited Tess in Northern Spain in January) and my first time on the continent of Africa. Highlights included delicious food, beautiful outdoor markets called “souks,” and riding a camel.

Sunset at the Jemaa el Fna and souks

Plaza Jemaa el Fna

Camel ride in “Les Palmeries”

Tess and her boyfriend, Nick, came to Madrid at the beginning of March. It’s been wonderful to see Tess every few months and it feels like we left Chile together yesterday, not two years ago.

Nick, Tess, and I giggling at Kaitlin’s camera antics

Arielle, one of my friends from elementary school in Michigan, visited Madrid for two days! We got to hang out for a little bit and it was super fun to see her after all of these years.

Arielle and I in front of the Caixa Forum

I planned out my Semana Santa, which translates to “Holy Week” in English. Basically, it’s my Spring Break and it’s the week before Easter. I have 11 days off and I really wanted to take advantage of that time to travel. I’ll be in London and Sevilla! Sevilla is supposed to have amazing Easter processions since Spain is a Catholic country and I’ve always wanted to visit London.

I’m also in the midst of planning some more sojourns to Portugal, Greece, and Turkey!

2. Planning my life post-Spain

Since the end of January, I’ve been hearing back from all the grad schools I applied to. The majority of their admitted students’ days fell during March. I emailed and Skyped with professors and students to try to find out as much as possible about the different programs since I couldn’t attend the visit days. It took a lot of thinking and weighing my options but I decided! I officially plan to start my MA/PhD program in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Fall 2014

3. Tutoring and extra work

In case you don’t know, I tutor for two different families to make extra money. One of the kids I tutor is also one of my seventh grade English and Social Sciences students. We’ve established a routine in which we chat, work on her homework, and practice English grammar (A lot of my explanations include me telling her that English has stupid rules but that we have to follow them, despite how terrible as they are). I also tutor her 10 year-old brother. He and I do lots of practice for the Cambridge Young Learners’ English Exam. He wasn’t the biggest fan of chatting with me in English and doing practice exercises at first. I think I’ve been winning him over with my choice of practice readings about fishing and roller coasters, which are two of his favorite things! I also tutor a teacher colleagues’ 17 year-old daughter. We haven’t met for a few weeks because she’s had other commitments. Chatting with her reminds me of chatting with Eve (albeit she’s a lot less blunt than Eve…but I would expect that from someone who isn’t related to me) and that makes it a fun job.

I’ve been working extra so that I don’t have to work the last week of June. Technically, my contract ran from October 1^st through June 30^th. I convinced my bilingual coordinator to let me work on Mondays and for an extra period on Tuesdays to make up those work hours in advance. It works out really well because the 8^th graders a.k.a. the 2^nd years have a mandatory government English test at the end of April. That means that I do test prep with the 2^nd year bilingual sections classes, the 2^nd year advanced program, and the 2^nd year program classes. I also do an extra History class with the 2A class. It’s been a neat way for me to connect more with the 2^nd years. I know the 7^th graders a.k.a. the 1^st years much better than the 2^nd years because I am with them in English and Social Sciences, whereas I only work with the 2^nd years in the bilingual section once a week in History. I do see the 2^nd years in the advanced program twice a week in English but man, they are super self-conscious! Seeing them for that extra hour in small groups seems to be helping them loosen up with me. My first Monday working, I ended up crying of laughter with a group of 2^nd year advanced program boys. Basically, they were really enjoying this question-and-answer speaking exercise and we had some great jokes going. I have one more Monday and extra period Tuesday before I’ve made up all my hours.

4. Plays and more plays!

 Beth and I have been busy seeing plays almost every week of March. Theater is a huge thing here in Madrid and we have to buy tickets a few weeks in advance or the show sells out! It’s a great way to learn more about Spanish culture and practice Spanish, not mention it’s super fun. We’ve seen:

•  “En el estanque dorado,” at Teatro Bellas Artes (an older couple spends a summer at their lake home and learn more about growing old together. Touching and funny.)
• “Pasen y beban,” at Teatro César Calderon (a trio of comedians acts out the history of alcohol. Hysterical!)
•  “La casa de Bernarda Alba,” at Teatro Español (a classic Spanish play by Federico Garcia Lorca. I read it in Spanish 202!)
•  “Amarte Cabaret,” at Teatro Rialto (full of nudity and singing, this theater production is all about loving yourself and others without judgement.)

Teatro Español

We also saw a Spanish movie called “Ocho Apellidos Vascos” this past Wednesday. Some of the theaters had a Wednesday movie deal where you could buy tickets for 3 euros. It’s a romantic comedy in which a Basque girl passes off this Andalucian guy as her fiancée to her dad. There were lots of jokes about both sub-cultures. The movie was full of rapid-fire Spanish jokes and I understood some of them but some went WAY above my head. It was very cute and I do recommend it. Some of my 7^th period test practice students also wanted to see it; since they would understand all the jokes, I think their approval carries some weight!

I’ll try to be better about blogging throughout April! I’ll at least post trip pictures.

xoxo

Nona

P.S. Miscellaneous photo updates:

An exhibit of the Terracotta Army is in Madrid! I highly recommend it.

I’ve been frequenting a gluten-free bakery/café that has excellent cupcakes and sweet breads. The name is a play on words. “Delicioso” means delicious and “celiaco” is someone who is allergic to gluten; hence, “celicioso.”

Of course, we had to celebrate St. Patty’s day… Irish bars are surprisingly popular in Madrid.

Sunny days mean time in Retiro park or other smaller parks around Madrid

Wait… Why are you laughing?

Disclaimer: if raunchy, sexual, and/or graphic humor isn’t your thing, this post might make you uncomfortable.

 

Humor is cultural. I first learned this in Chile when my host family would tell jokes and I would have no clue why everyone was laughing. So, I was prepared to be confused about Spanish humor. What I didn’t bargain for was how funny I would find Spanish humor…many times not for the same reasons the Spaniards were laughing.

Way back in December I went out for a girls’ night with some friends to Teatro La Latina to see “The Holes Show 2,” which has an English title but is all in Spanish. It’s a cabaret/acrobatic/comedy show. Bethany described it well when she called it “an erotic cirque du soleil.” While I could follow the story line and the comedy routines, I was at a complete loss for what the Spaniards in the audience found funny. I was laughing because through my cultural lens, it all seemed quite absurd. The short version of this cabaret was that while it began with the comedian/protagonist condemning love (interspersed with erotic dances and acrobatics) it ended up with him falling in love with this rat-woman. At one point, the comedian and acrobats invaded the audience and made everyone touch/grope their friends. We were glad we made it a girls’ night that started with wine before the show!

The ending scene of “The Holes Show 2” in which everyone simulates something sexual

At the beginning of January, Beth and I went to go see a Spanish chick flick, “Tres bodas demás.” The basic plot is that this Spanish marine biologist is dumped by her boyfriend because he’s not ready to be married. Then, she is invited to three of her exes weddings, one of them being the guy who dumped her a short time earlier. There were plenty of things that I found funny in the movie. Some things the rest of audience thought were funny but some things I found funny because I was an outsider looking in, so to speak. For example, the protagonist was named Ruth. This is a surprisingly popular Spanish female name but the “th” spelling is pronounced “t” by Spaniards, making it sound like “Root.” I kept giggling because of the pronunciation and because I have a 1^st ESO student named Ruth (side note: I now mispronounce her name so that she and the other students know who I am talking to!).

Impressive acrobatics from “The Holes Show 2”

“Tres bodas demás” was extremely funny and it was gratifying to be able to watch and to understand a Spanish rom-com. However, some things simply floored Beth and I. First, Ruth is at her ex-surfer-boyfriend’s wedding and is asked to slow dance by a 13 year-old boy. She obliges and the audience is then subjected to cheesy music, his happy face, and her confused expression for two minutes. Ruth then ends the dance and the boy has a boner. He gets all embarrassed and she has to help him leave the dance floor without anyone seeing. Because it’s a comedy, somehow this turns into a wedding conga line. The Spanish audience laughed SOOOO much. Beth and I giggled but only because the Spaniards thought it was so funny. Second, Ruth starts dating this guy she meets at the first wedding and doesn’t invite him to the second wedding as her date (that’s a long story I won’t explain). She runs into him at the second wedding and it turns out he’s married to a woman who is a paraplegic. She gets really mad because he made her “the other woman.” He then explains to her that he’s the reason she is a paraplegic and he stays with her because he feels sorry for her. The movie then flashes back to Valentines Day or an anniversary when his wife was walking and she offers to fulfill any of his sexual fantasies. It then shows them having anal sex … the rest is history. The audience died laughing and we just slouched in our seats and gave each other scared looks.

My most recent Spanish humor experience was this past Thursday. Beth and I went to see a play off Gran Via on their discount night. The play is called “Una semana nada más.” It was HILARIOUS. I laughed almost the entire time. It’s a three-person show. Pablo is dating Sofía but has decided he doesn’t love her anymore. He convinces his friend Martín to move in with them for a week in an attempt to frustrate Sofía until she leaves Pablo. Then, midweek Sofía and Martín start hooking up. Sofía then tells Martín that she doesn’t love Pablo anymore. She convinces Martín to stay longer to try to drive Pablo away. It ends up being a giant mess that left me rolling on the floor in laughter. Yet, there was one moment where Beth and I looked at each other and said “what is with Spanish butt humor?!?” We saw Martín’s butt multiple times during the play. The most memorable moment occurred when Pablo pulls down Martín’s pants and sticks a book up his butt crack. Whatever confused look you have right now is the look that was on our faces while we giggled.

Beth and I are definitely going to see more plays. I can’t wait to see more Spanish humor…surprisingly.

xoxo

Nona

Small Steps

My goal returning to Spain after Christmas was to find meaningful ways to occupy my free time. I’m proud to say that I’ve recently started to work towards that goal.

First, I finally built up the courage to try a Spanish yoga class. Yoga is something I enjoy doing in the USA and, while I could practice alone in my apartment, there’s something gratifying about taking a class. I like that it involves social interaction and the opportunity to improve my yoga practice. Two weeks ago I went to a yoga studio north of Parque Retiro and tried a class. Whew—was that a cultural experience! Turns out I tried a certain style of hatha yoga, known as “sivananda.” I thought I was going to try a typical class at the center but that was not the case. All first-timers at this studio are required to try a free beginner’s sivananda class and then enroll in a series of beginner courses. Our instructor told the class that each regular class consists of variations of 12 yoga poses and those are what you learn in the beginner courses because the regular class instructor can’t be expected to teach you these poses. I was pretty confused by this logic!

I’m going to try to give you a mental picture of my experience. The studio took up part of two floors in an apartment building. We had to exit the first floor and walk up the shared building staircase to get to the class space. I was in a studio on the second floor for the beginner class with five other students who were all at least 15 years older than me. The studio provided us with yoga mats. Our instructor was a short and stocky Spanish man in his 50s with a rumbling, gravelly speaking voice. On the positive side, I did learn some new Spanish body part words. On the negative side, this class was not was I was looking for in my yoga practice. We began in shavasana (if you don’t practice yoga, shavasana is when you lie on the ground on your back) and stayed there for a long, long time tensing certain muscles and then letting them relax. From there, we went into sun salutations but the instructor would only let us do his sun salutation modification. I got frustrated because it meant that the sun salutations required almost no physical effort. After that, we did shavasana again. The class continued in that rhythm. We did a pose. Then we did shavasana. I found out the hard way that this school of yoga is all about lying on the floor for as long as you do poses. That might be nice for some people. It drove me insane. I decided not to go back.

This past Wednesday, I worked up the courage to try another yoga class at a different studio. This studio is also north of Retiro and requires you to call or email ahead of time to reserve your space in the class. I emailed them and was pleasantly surprised that they emailed me back to confirm my reservation. In Spain, I’ve found that the best way to find anything out is to call on the phone or show up in person. It’s unusual for businesses to respond to their emails.

This studio also takes up two floors of an apartment building but has its own private stairway to the second floor. The receptionist is probably one of the nicest Spanish women I’ve ever met and insisted that she wait with me so that she could introduce me to the teacher. Turns out, I signed up for a vinyasa flow class that’s taught in English because the instructor is from the Netherlands. This class was everything I’ve ever wanted in a yoga class! We were all supposed to bring our own mats (yay!) and we moved through different sun salutations and other yoga poses for the entire class period, which left me pleasantly sore the next day. I’ve decided to keep attending classes at this studio and am so excited about it!

My second small step towards meaningfully occupying my free time is that I set up an intercambio with a Spanish girl. Intercambio is the word people here use to describe meeting for language practice. I used a website that I’d heard of through other auxiliaries called “tus clases particulares.” This site has a section for setting up intercambios. I responded to one posting from a Spanish girl who is 24 and teaches English at two primary schools. I met with her Sunday night and we ended up talking for two and a half hours! I’m really excited to keep meeting with her to practice my Spanish and to help her to practice her English.

Anyways, I’m happy that I’m finding ways to enrich my time in Madrid!

xoxo

Nona

Ramon finds us new roomates

The second reason that we saw Ramon almost every day for an entire month was because of the two vacant rooms in our piso. In Spain, it’s fairly common to rent out individual rooms in an apartment and that’s the case in our piso. It worked well for Beth and I becuase it meant that finding new roommates was not our responsability. However, it also

meant that Ramon had to do it. The calls started coming in as soon as Ramon (finally) replaced his stolen cell phone. At first, Beth or I would try to be home to meet the people seeing our piso. It soon became apparent that many of these people weren’t super interested so we stopped making an effort to be around when Ramon had them tour the place.

Also, it became a struggle to see Ramon every night.  Spain is nocturnal. The sun rises later here than any place I’ve lived recently (meaning New Mexico and California) and there’s the siesta/lunch break in the later afternoon. This means that it’s totally fine and culturally acceptable for Ramon to show our apartment to people as late as 9 PM. On the nights before my early work days, this became frustrating becuase that’s when I shower for work the next day (it’s cold enough that if I shower in the morning I have to dry my hair so showering at night saves me time). Obviously, I didn’t want to parade around our apartment in my towel in front of our landlord and a complete stranger. It got to the point where Beth and I would try to avoid the earlier times when Ramon would show our apartment but there was no way around avoiding the later times.

After showing our apartment for somewhere between two and thre e weeks, Ramon finally found people to fill the two rooms. Ramon did make sure to have us meet both of our new roommates and gave us a say in letting them stay. Now, we have a German girl living in Gabriel’s old room and a Spanish guy living in Karen’s old room. They’re both university students. We’ll see how this new living arrangement goes!

xoxo

Nona

Personal Power Outages: The first of many Ramon stories

Ramon is our landlord. He’s in his late 50s and is barely taller than me.  He is balding with a grey beard and works as a prepared foods chef for a Spanish grocery store chain. Ramon is very kind to us. Whenever he comes over to collect rent or fix things, he usually engages us in conversation and wants to make sure we’re doing ok. Last year, we saw him maybe once a month because we did not have any major apartment issues (except for the time the toilet broke).

Over the past month, however, he’s been at our apartment nearly every day. One of the reasons had to do with our electricity.

Our power broke during our first week back at work.  Beth and I initially thought that we had experienced a power outage. We re-set the circuit breaker and went about our business. It went off again and then later we were able to re-set it again. I was a little worried because the circuit breaker smelled smoky but nothing else was off (make that a lot worried—I whatsapped my parents and close friends with questions about power breakers because I was convinced the apartment was going to explode). The second time it occurred we noticed that the lights still worked in the building hallway and we realized it was a problem with our apartment’s power. When we went to re-set it the second night of no power, the circuit breaker spit sparks at us. TWICE. We then knew there was a problem.

The weird thing was that the power would only go out at night (when we needed it most to charge our phones and cook food). Tuesday night when the circuit breaker started sparking at us we went over to Kaitlin’s apartment to charge our phones. I called Ramon but his phone wasn’t taking incoming calls. I also texted and whatsapped him because I was really worried about the circuit breaker exploding and burning our home down. He called me about an hour later. Turns out Ramon’s phone had been stolen and he was just calling to check in with me about rent. He had not received any of the frantic texts or whatsapps! Ramon agreed to come over to our apartment the next day to check on the power. I really emphasized the “chispas,” sparks, but he didn’t seem worried. Beth and I got read for our first day back to work in the dark with flashlights (I’m still not sure how I managed to look presentable for school).

Ramon called me after work on Wednesday and told me the power had been fine after he re-set our circuit breaker. Apparently, he had stayed in our apartment for a half hour and it stayed on. Considering the circuit breaker had a known spark issue, I told him that he needed to call an electrician because it was dangerous. He still seemed nonplussed and wasn’t taking me seriously. Consequently, I stretched the truth. A good family friend had told my mom that circuit breakers should not spark and smell like smoke. So, I told Ramon that I had an uncle who was electrician and that he had told me that the circuit breaker most definitely was dangerous and should be fixed. Ramon seemed much more willing to try to fix our power after hearing that a male expert confirmed my crazy, emotional woman feelings.

A little later Wednesday afternoon, the power went out again. Ramon still didn’t have a cell phone so I called his house and talked to his wife who told him we had no power. He called me back and told me that he would come over later to deal with it. I didn’t hear from him for a few hours and called his house again. Antonia, his wife, informed me that he was on his way with her brother to look at the power. They arrived around 9 pm and re-set the circuit breaker. There was no way I was touching that thing again after it had almost fried me! They waited around for something to happen with the power. In the mean time, they fixed our sink and installed a new telephone to buzz people into our apartment building (the sink handle had been falling off and we could still buzz people into our place but the phone receiver was broken. Turns out our new phone doesn’t ring at a high enough volume to hear when you are more than three feet away…whoops!). Meanwhile, I plugged in all of our electronic appliances, trying to make the power go out. Of course, it didn’t. Ramon’s brother-in-law did tell him that our circuit breaker shouldn’t spark at us but it’s important to note he’s not an electrician. He builds furniture. Ramon agreed to call the electrician and to try to have him come over on Thursday. The electrician didn’t come over so it’s unclear if Ramon even called him that night.

We had no power problems until Thursday night. Thursday, almost as soon as Beth got home, our power went out again. The lights went out first and the outlets followed suit 30 minutes later, which had been typical all week long. This time, I braved the circuit breaker with rubber gloves. It was strange because only one of the circuit breaker levers was down whereas before two of them would be down. I put the one back up and the power didn’t turn on. I also re-set the main lever and nothing happened! I called Ramon’s house and no one answered. Since he still had no cell phone, I called Antonia. She answered and told me he had to call me after an appointment. Let me just say, it was so weird to have to keep calling Antonia and I apologized a ton. She seemed ok with it and told me not to worry.

Ramon called me an hour later and said he would come over in 30 minutes. He showed up an hour and half later. Beth and I were ready to leave to charge our phones (they are our alarms to get up for work so they’re important) and were very frustrated. Ramon flicked all the levers and the lights barely flickered on. His face lit up and he was ready to tell us there was no problem and then they all went out. He could not longer ignore the problem. Apparently, he had called the electrician on his way over and he couldn’t come to our piso until Saturday morning.

While talking over the power situation, Ramon looked at Beth and asked her why she looked sad. She told him it was because we hadn’t had reliable power all week. He wasn’t sure how to respond to that and said he would also check our utility room to see if there was a re-set switch in there. Beth went to the grocery store and I agreed to meet her on the street. I almost made it out but Ramon caught me. He proceeded to talk to me at length about the power issues and I was so over it. It seemed to me like he had ignored the problem because he didn’t want to spend money on the piso and he thought I was being a dramatic, over-reacting woman. Luckily, Beth swooped in, cut Ramon short, and we left.

Ramon called us later that night to tell us the electrician would come over the next morning and asked if someone could be at home to meet him.

The electrician came over while Beth was home and I was at work. When I got home, I saw that I had been correct: something had burned in the circuit breaker.

The fried circuit breaker parts

Doesn’t that look dangerous?

Later, the electrician returned to re-install part of the circuit breaker that he didn’t have that morning. We had a long conversation in which he explained to me that, as expected, the circuit breaker was not supposed to spit sparks and he should’ve been called immediately. I told him that I had called Ramon immediately and that Ramon, not me, hadn’t called the electrician immediately. He then showed me the two fried levers and part of the plastic around the circuit breaker that had melted because of the heat. I felt vindicated; I knew I had smelled something burning!

You’ll be hearing more about Ramon soon. That wasn’t the last we saw of him for the month of January.

xoxo

Nona

My students are definitely better than yours

Yesterday, my students made my day.  I suggested to Ricardo, the teacher who I assist in 2nd year history class with the bilingual section, that we have students do an interview project. Students were required to work with a partner and write a 5 minute interview with a historical figure. I came up with the project guidelines and Ricardo came up with the list of historical figures from our current unit.

Friday was the first day that students presented their interviews. Ricardo couldn’t be at school due personal reasons and I was completely in charge of class with 2A. Despite complaining that they had too little time to prepare the project, the interviews were very good.

The third-to-last pair to present completely surprised me, though! Kique (short for Enrique) and Sonia volunteered to act out their interview.  Kique got up and told me that he had to go change into his costume out in the hallway.  Costumes were not a requirement, by the way.  With a big grin, he said “we’re trying to be creative, like you said.”  He meant that I told them creativity was part of their grade when I assigned the project.

Kique dressed up as the artist Boticelli, complete with a wig, an apron, a cloth covered in paint, and the other excellent props in the photos above.  Sonia and Kique also wrote a hilarious interview script that left the entire class, the “profesora de guardia” (the stand-in for Ricardo), me laughing.  Not to mention, Kique kept saying “Botecello” instead of “Boticelli” and the whole class would yell “no, Boticelli” at him.

I love it when I have teaching days like Friday!

xoxo

Nona

Updates for the New Year

I’m trying to catch you up fast on my life in Spain. Things got very busy during November and December but now I’m starting to catch my breath.  Here’s what you need to know:

1) I turned in all of my applications to graduate school!

2) This means that I have way more free time and I’m finding new ways to fill it.  I’ve started doing some private tutoring and I’m researching other things to do regularly over the next few months.  Bethany and I have also started trying a new Spanish café every weekend. We might even start a blog about that.

3) Karen and Gabriel moved out.  Gabriel moved out because he wanted to live in a new apartment with his close friends.  Karen moved out because her superintendant revoked her leave of absence.  She started work again in New Jersey in January.  I think she made the best choice but I’ll really miss her!

4) This means we have two empty rooms to fill in our apartment.  However, in Spain, it’s common to rent rooms in apartments rather than the entire piso. That’s the case with our piso, which mean Beth and I don’t have to worry about filling the rooms.

5)  I went home for Christmas and New Years.  It was lovely to spend time with my family.  I barely had enough time to see two close friends, Morgan and Kali, before jetting back here.

6) My goal for 2014 is to write two posts a month. Now that I’ve finished my graduate school apps, I will (hope to) have more time to dedicate to my blog.

xoxo

Nona