I had a good, productive week in Madrid after coming back from Galicia. It was a great week at school; I feel like I'm finally getting to know some of the students personally, which feels really great. I had some particularly good classes this week- the older students were really talkative during our conversation classes; they got really into the debate, which made me feel very proud and accomplished (we were discussing issues of gender equality/inequality).
Also, as it was the week before Halloween, i did a Halloween class with my younger students, which they really enjoyed. I told them about the origins and history of the Holiday, we talked about the current traditions in the US and here in Spain, and then I read them a scary story, which they really enjoyed. Next, they all worked in pairs to write their own scary stories, and I was really proud with how well some of them turned out. They really enjoyed class that day, and used their imaginations a lot, which made me happy, since it sometimes seems like they don't have enough opportunities to be creative at school.
To celebrate our good week at school (and our new paychecks), Noel, Kelly, and I went to a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant on Thursday night...it was definitely a nice change of pace and a fun girls' night. Friday, my day was both productive and relaxing- I finally got my NIE card (which is the national residency/identification card for foreigners), which I'm excited about. Its just much easier now that I have one, because I can use that as identification and proof that I'm a student, instead of having to get strange looks when I show my drivers' license or passport. I also ran some other errands, which is suprisingly hard to do here in Madrid, given that there is a separate store for every specific type of thing (to buy envelopes, you need to go to a paper store, to buy stamps you need to go to an estanco, to make photocopies, you need to go to a locutorio etc), so I felt accomplished when I got some of that stuff done. At night, I ended up staying in and watching Thelma and Louise with Ruth (which I had actually never seen, so that was fun!). We both wanted to go out, but this weekend the weather is really crummy- its cold and rainy, and once we got comfortable on the couch, we just decided not to move ;) Anyway, it was nice to have a more tranquil night for change, especially since I was really tired and have a bit of a cold. It's still really gross out, but I do want to go out tonight for Halloween, so hopefully it won't rain too much!
This morning I went to a really cool cultural/ art exhibit at theis place called La Caixa Forum, which is basically a cultural center that has art exhibits (for free!). There was this really great photography exhbit by a wonderful photographer named Isabel Munoz. The exhibit, called Infancia, was about children from all over the world, and was organized because of the anniversary of the UN Convention for Children's Rights. The exhibition showed how, despite supposedly having all the same rights, children/adolscents from different regions/countries lead dramatically different lives. For example, there was the Japanese boy who was the best in his class at his elite high school, was a virtuoso violinist, and planned to attend Harvard. Then of course, there were the young African mothers whose babies weighed less than one kilo, or orphans in Central America whose parents were killed by gangs (and many more diverse examples). It was a really moving, impressive exhbit. And...what was really weird and very coincidental, was that the ONE kid from the US (at least the only one I could find), was a young boy, a child of Indian immigrants, who lived in Summit, NJ, which is literally 10 mins from my house!
At the center, there was also a cool exhibit on the Italian film director, Federico Fellini, who is most famous for the film, La Dolce Vita. There was also another interesting exhbit on the personal and intellectual/artistic realtionship between Federico Garcia Lorca and Salvador Dali, which I also enjoyed. I was planning to continue my day of cultural and artistic exploration at the Prado Museum, which is right near the Caixa, but I decided that I was too tired for that, and would have to go another day! (or several days, given how big the Prado is!). So, now I'm just back at my apartment relaxing... Tonight, hopefully I'll do something fun for Halloween with friends...and then I still have two more days of the weekend left (no school on Monday becasue its All Saints Day). And of course, eventually, I'll have to do some work to prepare for classes next week...but that will probably come Sunday and Monday :) Anyway, thats it for now.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Pulpo, almejas, almendras, vino...y una catedral en Santiago!
This past weekend I went to Santiago de Compostela with my friend Noel, and we had a wonderful time! But before I get into that---a short update about what happened since my last post, before I went away for the weekend. The previous weekend, I went to lunch at Sara's house (the girl who lived with my friend Sharon years ago in the US). I got to meet her husband and her adorable little 2-year-old David. Sara's brother and girl friend (who I had already met) were also there. It was a really fun day- a nice change of pace to be in a family environment and just have a nice, long lunch and conversation with friendly people. David was so cute, and had a fun time saying my name repeatedly over and over again (he had no trouble with my name!).
Also last weekend, I went to a party with Ruth, where we both met a lot of new people. One of her friends was having people at his house, but neither of us knew anyone except for him. So, that was also a nice change of pace...just to meet new people and be in a slightly different environement. Last week at school was pretty busy and hectic, and there was a fair amount of confusion about our lessons, becasue some of the teachers were away on a field trip. However, today, we cleared up a lot of the confusion, and I think we will be planning more ahead of time from now on (which makes me very happy and less stressed!). This week, I get to teach the young kids about Halloween, which is a lot of fun. I also found a fun scary story to tell them (which they loved!) and I'm having them write their own scary stories to share with the class, which they also really seem to enjoy.
Anyway..back to Santiago. For those of you who don't speak Spanish, the title of this blog translates to "Octopus, clams, almonds, wine...and a cathedral in Santiago de Compostela." So, as you can probably tell- Santiago is known for two things- food! (especially seafood) and it's religious importance. Santiago is a city in Galicia, in northern Spain, that is the end of a very well-known religious piligrimage called the Camino a Santiago. Every year, millions of people make this pilgrimage, which goes all the way to Rome and through some of France. Of course, Noel and I made a different kind of pilgrimage, a much easier one, on a Ryan Air flight from Madrid! Still, we got to see a lot of the peregrinos (pilgrims) and enjoyed the religious monuments of the city.
So, Thursday night, we flew from Madrid...had a bit of a delay, but otherwise, the trip was pretty smooth. However, once we arrived in Santiago, it was rather difficult to find our hostel. We had forgetten to find a map online, and there were no maps available in the airport. We did know the adresss of our hostel and the relative location, but we had to ask five different people before we actually found it. By the time we got to our hotel, it ws alreayd 11:30 and we still hadn't eaten any dinner. Luckily, we had Noel's favorite Spanish chips (Ruffles Jamon haha) in the airport...that was the only thing keeping us from being absolutley starving. Still, we were quite hungry! Of course, we quickly found out that, despite the late dinner hour in Spain, most bars, while still open, stop serving food around 11 or 11:30. We were starting to think our trip was off to a bad start when we finally found teh perfect place- a bar that was quite crowded, that was still serving food (which looked quite delicious!) We had a great meal- a traditional Spanish empanada, and a tostada con tomate, chorizo, y queso (an open-faced sandwich with tomato, sausage, and melted cheese), and some really great white wine called Albarino. The place itself had a great ambience; visitors wrote notes on the napkins and posted them on the wall, and put coins on the floor and on the walls. It was a great place to start our adventure in Santiago!
On Friday, we had a nice breakfast at our hotel and them walked to the seminary called San Martin Pinario, which was right next to our hotel. We went inside adn saw some beautiful artwork, an elaborate church, some really cool old stamps, and some old chemistry materials. We then walked to the cathedral, which was quite the sight to see- really different than any other cathedral I had ever seen before. It was absolutely beautiful! We even went inside while they were having a mass, which was pretty cool. Next, we had a great menu del dia (a three course meal) at a lovel restaurant. The first course was cazuela de gambas y pulpo (shrimp and octopus in an olive oil sauce), arroz con mariscos (paella more or less), and tarta de santiago (which was a delicious almond cake that a specialty in santiago). I'm still stuffed just thinking about that meal!! It was sooo delicious though! We couldn't stop talking about how good the food was all weekend long..it ws sort of the theme of the trip!
Next, we walked around some more to an old convent and seminary and saw some beautiful views. We walked by a pastry shop where we got free samples of three different types of traditional Galician pastries (yum), and did some window shopping. We were tempted to buy some pastries, but finally resisted. At night, we went back to that same bar from Thursday night, just because we loved it so much. We then ended up at a second bar, where we got a drink and met some natives, who told us where to go out at night in Santiago. We ended up chatting with them for awhile and checking out some of the typical Santiago nightlife (what they called a "paz" which is sort of like a mini discoteca. We had a fun, late night, and eventually made our way back to the hotel.
Saturday, we had a late start to the day, as we had gone to bed pretty late the night before. We had another great meal- cald gallego (a great soup with potatoes and cabbage), and shared what I think was probably the best tortilla de patatas i have ever had (and I've had a lot!). Then, we walked around a bit, through these really cool old gardens, did a bunch of window shopping, and saw the University of Santiago. We also saw a really cool jewelry gallery, with hand-made jewelry by local artisans. We stopped at a cafe for coffee and lunch, and then walked around a bit more. Finally, we had another great meal; this time very traditional Galician seafood. We ate pulpo (octopus), almejas (clams), and pimentos padrones (a special kind of peppers), and another great glass of white wine. All the food was amazing!! Again, we couldn't stop raving about the amazing food. After dinner, we went back to the hostel and called it a night..we were pretty exhausted from the night before!
Sunday, we woke up early, had our last meal in Santiago (just a simple breakfast this time), and headed to the airport. We made our way back to Madrid- first to the airport, then to the metro, then eventually home. We came home and had some work to do for school the next day, but it was certainly worth it to have to work on Sunday, for it was an awesome weekend! And, I even ended up having time to go out with Ruth and some friends at night for dinner in La Latina, the typical Sunday night spot :) What a great end to the weekend!! This week I'm quite busy with work again, but getting there poco a poco...
Anyway, thats it for now!! :)
Also last weekend, I went to a party with Ruth, where we both met a lot of new people. One of her friends was having people at his house, but neither of us knew anyone except for him. So, that was also a nice change of pace...just to meet new people and be in a slightly different environement. Last week at school was pretty busy and hectic, and there was a fair amount of confusion about our lessons, becasue some of the teachers were away on a field trip. However, today, we cleared up a lot of the confusion, and I think we will be planning more ahead of time from now on (which makes me very happy and less stressed!). This week, I get to teach the young kids about Halloween, which is a lot of fun. I also found a fun scary story to tell them (which they loved!) and I'm having them write their own scary stories to share with the class, which they also really seem to enjoy.
Anyway..back to Santiago. For those of you who don't speak Spanish, the title of this blog translates to "Octopus, clams, almonds, wine...and a cathedral in Santiago de Compostela." So, as you can probably tell- Santiago is known for two things- food! (especially seafood) and it's religious importance. Santiago is a city in Galicia, in northern Spain, that is the end of a very well-known religious piligrimage called the Camino a Santiago. Every year, millions of people make this pilgrimage, which goes all the way to Rome and through some of France. Of course, Noel and I made a different kind of pilgrimage, a much easier one, on a Ryan Air flight from Madrid! Still, we got to see a lot of the peregrinos (pilgrims) and enjoyed the religious monuments of the city.
So, Thursday night, we flew from Madrid...had a bit of a delay, but otherwise, the trip was pretty smooth. However, once we arrived in Santiago, it was rather difficult to find our hostel. We had forgetten to find a map online, and there were no maps available in the airport. We did know the adresss of our hostel and the relative location, but we had to ask five different people before we actually found it. By the time we got to our hotel, it ws alreayd 11:30 and we still hadn't eaten any dinner. Luckily, we had Noel's favorite Spanish chips (Ruffles Jamon haha) in the airport...that was the only thing keeping us from being absolutley starving. Still, we were quite hungry! Of course, we quickly found out that, despite the late dinner hour in Spain, most bars, while still open, stop serving food around 11 or 11:30. We were starting to think our trip was off to a bad start when we finally found teh perfect place- a bar that was quite crowded, that was still serving food (which looked quite delicious!) We had a great meal- a traditional Spanish empanada, and a tostada con tomate, chorizo, y queso (an open-faced sandwich with tomato, sausage, and melted cheese), and some really great white wine called Albarino. The place itself had a great ambience; visitors wrote notes on the napkins and posted them on the wall, and put coins on the floor and on the walls. It was a great place to start our adventure in Santiago!
On Friday, we had a nice breakfast at our hotel and them walked to the seminary called San Martin Pinario, which was right next to our hotel. We went inside adn saw some beautiful artwork, an elaborate church, some really cool old stamps, and some old chemistry materials. We then walked to the cathedral, which was quite the sight to see- really different than any other cathedral I had ever seen before. It was absolutely beautiful! We even went inside while they were having a mass, which was pretty cool. Next, we had a great menu del dia (a three course meal) at a lovel restaurant. The first course was cazuela de gambas y pulpo (shrimp and octopus in an olive oil sauce), arroz con mariscos (paella more or less), and tarta de santiago (which was a delicious almond cake that a specialty in santiago). I'm still stuffed just thinking about that meal!! It was sooo delicious though! We couldn't stop talking about how good the food was all weekend long..it ws sort of the theme of the trip!
Next, we walked around some more to an old convent and seminary and saw some beautiful views. We walked by a pastry shop where we got free samples of three different types of traditional Galician pastries (yum), and did some window shopping. We were tempted to buy some pastries, but finally resisted. At night, we went back to that same bar from Thursday night, just because we loved it so much. We then ended up at a second bar, where we got a drink and met some natives, who told us where to go out at night in Santiago. We ended up chatting with them for awhile and checking out some of the typical Santiago nightlife (what they called a "paz" which is sort of like a mini discoteca. We had a fun, late night, and eventually made our way back to the hotel.
Saturday, we had a late start to the day, as we had gone to bed pretty late the night before. We had another great meal- cald gallego (a great soup with potatoes and cabbage), and shared what I think was probably the best tortilla de patatas i have ever had (and I've had a lot!). Then, we walked around a bit, through these really cool old gardens, did a bunch of window shopping, and saw the University of Santiago. We also saw a really cool jewelry gallery, with hand-made jewelry by local artisans. We stopped at a cafe for coffee and lunch, and then walked around a bit more. Finally, we had another great meal; this time very traditional Galician seafood. We ate pulpo (octopus), almejas (clams), and pimentos padrones (a special kind of peppers), and another great glass of white wine. All the food was amazing!! Again, we couldn't stop raving about the amazing food. After dinner, we went back to the hostel and called it a night..we were pretty exhausted from the night before!
Sunday, we woke up early, had our last meal in Santiago (just a simple breakfast this time), and headed to the airport. We made our way back to Madrid- first to the airport, then to the metro, then eventually home. We came home and had some work to do for school the next day, but it was certainly worth it to have to work on Sunday, for it was an awesome weekend! And, I even ended up having time to go out with Ruth and some friends at night for dinner in La Latina, the typical Sunday night spot :) What a great end to the weekend!! This week I'm quite busy with work again, but getting there poco a poco...
Anyway, thats it for now!! :)
Monday, October 11, 2010
Becoming a Madrileña
So...for those of you who don't understand the title of this blog, a "madrilena" (for some reason i cant put the tilde in the blog, so I'll have to mispell that from now on), is just someone (female) from Madrid. Of course, I will never officially be a madrilena, but I feel like after living here for 6 weeks now, life has basically become routine. Of course, I'm not calling my life here typical by any means, but Madrid basically feels like home, for now at least. For sure, there are still many parts of the city with which I'm not familiar, and many sites that I have yet to see, but I'm pretty settled into my routine- going to school and teaching, giving English lessons, working at home in my apartment, going to the gym, going grocery shopping, cooking, watching tv with my roommate, taking the metro, meeting up with friends, going out on the weekends...basically all the things we all do wherever we live. And overall, its a nice place to live :)
Of course, there are a few comforts and conveniences of home that I miss from time to time- like being able to find a bank that is open after 2pm or on the weekends (and not having to pay to make a transfer or deposit a check!), or being able to go to a store at 3 pm, going grocery shopping on sunday, or eating lunch at 1 instead of 3:30! And of course...I miss the convenience of talking to people at home, because its hard to find a time that works, given the time difference. I miss talking to my friends, most of all, since they are often working or studying when I have free time (and I'm sleeping when they do have time). But...mostly, I can't really complain.
Of course, this is not to say that I don't appreciate that, while this year is not a vacation, but a year living in Europe...I'm still pretty lucky to be living in Europe for a year. After all, its not every day I can just go visit a huge 16th century palace/monastery for a day, right? And in fact, that is exactly what I did on Friday, when I went to El Escorial with a friend of mine. The public transportation system is really great here- there are a lot of nearby places that you can go, within an hour or two, for very little money, especially if you have the Madrid monthly metro pass (which I do have since I use the metro sooo much). Also, its not every day that your roommate's friend from Bilbao visits and offers you a room in her apartment in Bilbao, whenever you want to come and visit. And indeed...this also happened to me this weekend. Ruth had a friend from Bilbao visiting and the three of us spent most of the day on Saturday together. She was really great and invited me to come stay with her in Bilbao for a weekend! I'm definitely going to take her up on the offer--its always great to have housing in a new city, and to have a host/friend to show you around and give you advice about where to go!!
Also, its pretty typical here to be told, at 4 or 5 am on a friday or saturday night that "its so early...how can you possibly be going home already?" Another group of phrases I hear a lot...."you're American? I never would have guessed...why do you speak Spanish so well? How do you speak Spanish so well? Can you teach me English? I thought you were Italian....and..what did you say your name was? Ivana? Yolanda? Elena? huh?? hahaha." I'm also getting quite familiar with the advances of Spanish men- which has been a bit of a mixed experience, to say the least. But, its all part of the cultural experience I suppose- so just trying to learn as I go and keep an open mind. Anyway, that's my bit of insight for now...more to come!
Of course, there are a few comforts and conveniences of home that I miss from time to time- like being able to find a bank that is open after 2pm or on the weekends (and not having to pay to make a transfer or deposit a check!), or being able to go to a store at 3 pm, going grocery shopping on sunday, or eating lunch at 1 instead of 3:30! And of course...I miss the convenience of talking to people at home, because its hard to find a time that works, given the time difference. I miss talking to my friends, most of all, since they are often working or studying when I have free time (and I'm sleeping when they do have time). But...mostly, I can't really complain.
Of course, this is not to say that I don't appreciate that, while this year is not a vacation, but a year living in Europe...I'm still pretty lucky to be living in Europe for a year. After all, its not every day I can just go visit a huge 16th century palace/monastery for a day, right? And in fact, that is exactly what I did on Friday, when I went to El Escorial with a friend of mine. The public transportation system is really great here- there are a lot of nearby places that you can go, within an hour or two, for very little money, especially if you have the Madrid monthly metro pass (which I do have since I use the metro sooo much). Also, its not every day that your roommate's friend from Bilbao visits and offers you a room in her apartment in Bilbao, whenever you want to come and visit. And indeed...this also happened to me this weekend. Ruth had a friend from Bilbao visiting and the three of us spent most of the day on Saturday together. She was really great and invited me to come stay with her in Bilbao for a weekend! I'm definitely going to take her up on the offer--its always great to have housing in a new city, and to have a host/friend to show you around and give you advice about where to go!!
Also, its pretty typical here to be told, at 4 or 5 am on a friday or saturday night that "its so early...how can you possibly be going home already?" Another group of phrases I hear a lot...."you're American? I never would have guessed...why do you speak Spanish so well? How do you speak Spanish so well? Can you teach me English? I thought you were Italian....and..what did you say your name was? Ivana? Yolanda? Elena? huh?? hahaha." I'm also getting quite familiar with the advances of Spanish men- which has been a bit of a mixed experience, to say the least. But, its all part of the cultural experience I suppose- so just trying to learn as I go and keep an open mind. Anyway, that's my bit of insight for now...more to come!
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