Frohe Weihnachten!

That's Merry Christmas in German, and as my mother may remember, it was a spelling word in 6th grade! I just came back from freezing cold Germany. We had snow, we had ice, we had negative temps. (although that is in Celsius...) but the mountains were beautiful!!

The best part was definitely the Christmas markets, the Germans are crazy about Christmas markets. Each town we visited had a Christmas Market set up with food and decorations and sweets. We travelled through a few places, centralled around Frankfurt--one of Europe's largest and also most modern cities--and Heidelberg, where our friend lives and goes to school. Frankfurt has been mostly rebuilt and remodeled entirely since WWII and is now a huge financial capital of Europe. We spent a few hours there, walking through the skyscrapers and plazas and the slush! Heidelberg had the University feel to it, there was a river, and a castle, and mountains. Beautiful.

Most of our time we spent outdoors, touristing the towns we went through, eating at the Christmas markets, visiting the cathedrals and bridges and mountains. A very nice time spent with friends and exploring southwest Germany! Definitely good to be back in Madrid, it's a little warmer here...

Christmas Eve tomorrow, Feliz Navidad to all!

i ate Milan

Spent the past weekend in Milan, Italy...It was awesome! The main attraction was definitely the food...pastries and cappucino for breakfast...pizzas for lunch and dinner, gelato in between...we were so busy eating pizza, we didnt have time to try any pastas! Besides that, Milan is the fashion capital of the world. Dolce & Gabana, Prada, Chanel were all around. We weren't allowed in, but you know. it was there. It is also the home of Leonardo da Vinci...The Last Supper is there, but you have to book months in advance, so we didnt see that. We did see his painting San Giovanni Battista which is on loan from the Louvre. There were some canals and shops, a riverboat playing Italian music, people with accordians, pigeons, old churches, mopeds, all things Italian that you typically think of.
The best part was definitely the Duomo...the large central cathedral of milan, and the biggest gothic cathedral ( i think...or maybe the biggest in italy). The inside was beautiful...but the main attraction is that they let you walk on the roof! So cool! You're walking around between the spires and looking down on the central square and up at the golden Madonna on the tallest spire. It was amazing!

by the way...ive been meaning to mention this for awhile now...the song "chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." actually has meaaning. In europe, chestnuts roast on an open fire on every street corner, and have been since november, and people sell them! i havent tasted any yet..but they smell good.

last week of work for awhile! the spanish take their holiday-ing seriously, and dont want me around until january 11...
Thursday i'm off to Germany to visit our German friend (we met her in Madrid, she was doing a translation internship--she's amazing, speaks German, Spanish and English fluently) . its going to be cold, wish me luck!

Espiritu de la Navidad

Not many lessons this month...basically a month of fun and travelling, and I am reminded how lucky i am to be here following my dreams. this has been absolutely amazing so far what with the people ive met through my class and through work, and being in beautiful Spain. i enjoy my work and my students, i am learning as much from them as they are from me, i get to travel, and im living again in Spain. I made this happen for myself, and i'm very happy about it. A friend of a friend was visiting last weekend and was completely blown away by our lives here--we work few hours a week but make enough to pay rent and enjoy living here. the culture is so much more relaxed compared to the states. don't get me wrong, the spanish are opinionated, loud, and irritating. but i love them. they are a passionate people. a marathon was going on in Lisbon when we were there, and we stopped to watch for a few minutes. there was a group of spanish people standing near us singing and chanting loudly , wearing spanihs flags like capes. i love to laugh at them and make fun of their bizarre ways, but it is only because i love them. their language is beautiful, and their ways admirable, even if different than mine. at first siesta time everyday is irritating (everything in the city shuts down for 2-3 hours each afternoon) but you get used to it. some days all the shouting and the lines for the lottery (theyre obsessed with the lottery!) and the woman with briefcases on wheels make me so angry, but other days i smile and laugh, because its spain.
Our explanation for anything bizarre here has become "well..its Spain." A random toilet in the middle of a street..."It's Spain" or restaurants not opening for dinner until 830, people wheeling their kids in strollers around well after midnight, people trying to sell you socks and used containers of shampoo at the market, an hour wait at the grocery store because they only have one person working checkout...all of these things have a simple explanation. I'm in Spain...and the Spanish are crazy.

Feliz Navidad! just 2 days of work this week(tomorrow and Thurs) and then off to Milan on Friday...where i will be stuffing myself with pizza!
Ricardo brought Shaz and I a weird pudding cake type thing from Northern Spain , i'm eating some now..its ok, kind of sweet and milky.

ciao!

LISBOA

Still vacationing for the next 2 days after a great weekend in Lisbon, Portugal! THe city is located on the water...very beautiful with lots of sites--cathedrals, castles, watch towers...the city is built on 7 peaks and so there is many different levels and look out points. it sort of reminded me of san francisco because of the steep slopes and there was a bridge that easily could have been the golden gate bridge, except for the huge Christ statue on the other side. Shaz says they have built the same statue in Brazil as well. it also rained the whole weekend,adding to the SF feel.
We just spent the weekend touristing around, walking up and down and eating portuguese pastries--they are very famous there. the language is bizarre, looks like Spanish but sounds more like dutch or something.
today it is also raining in Madrid, so im just passing the time getting reorganized for my last couple of weeks of classes before christmas! the job is going well, and i am so happy to be doing this, to be making this possible.
a friend of a friend of mine was visiting last weekend and was so impressed with our lifestyle and the opportunities we have...working little, but making enough to travel a little and enjoy a new city and culture. i also enjoy teaching and my spanish students so much more than i could have imagined and im happy knowing that this is exactly what i want to be doing.
all for now...enjoy the pics!

weekend tranquilo

feliz dia de accion de gracias to everyone! a roundabout way to say happy thanksgiving!! I worked thanksgiving day, but the next day we made a big thanksgiving feast. i was in charge of green beans and sweet potatoes...for those that know me, i dont cook, so i was happy with the results. anyway, we did it right. there was plenty of food. we also had 2 british in our midst so we educated them on the feast. and they liked it!
another good thing, all the christmas lights came on this weekend! it loooks amaazing! everyone was out last night looking at them, and the christmas markets in plaza mayor opened. they sell very weird things...wigs, halos, masks, general junk. supposedly germany has amazing christmas markets, and i will conveniently be there right before christmas!
this city gets really excited about the holidays; last night had a really great energy--then again, i always like the vibes here. everyone is relaxed--tranquilo if you will--and the spanish are so annoying and bizarre in such an endearing way that you just have to love them. for example, even a big city like madrid partakes in the siesta hour (or hours!) for the most part. its frustrating, because you cant get anything done between the hours of 2-5 (or 14-17). i have a nice break at that time on tuesdays and thursdays that ive generally used for a quick siesta on a park bench. now that its getting properly cold in madrid, im going to find something else to do. find a cafe to hang out in. actually i do like coffee here.
shaz's friend is visiting this weekend so we have been around feasting on spanish food...churros con chocolate and good queso manchego.
today theres a big football game (soccer!) real madrid vs. barcelona. we're going to watch it later along with the rest of spain. fingers crossed for real madrid...

last day of the month tomorrrow...meaning i get paid this week! other than that, just a typical busy week of teachign and METRO-ing...bah humbug.


all for now...

spanish children

Another beautiful weekend in Madrid! The city keeps putting up more christmas decorations...there is a big tree in Sol now and another one thats red on Paseo del Prado. I met someone the other day who has a temporary job prepping the city for the season. They really are going all out! hard to believe its the end of november. the weather has been amazing, the leaves are just now dropping in the park (it looks so beautiful!..i'm still trying to spend as much time there as possible, which seems like everybody else in the citys idea as well) and the time has been flying! next weekend we are here in Madrid, then the next 3 i'll be away: Lisbon, Milan, Heidlburg (Germany), and then Christmas, and then the sibs...and we are going to Barcelona! So quite busy.
Anyway...before i get too far ahead of myself...
the week was good, the weekend has been wonderful and relaxing. My spanish classes are going well, its good to revisit the forms of the different tenses and things. im hoping between the classes for formal, technical learning, and my students for colloquial, street language, i can master this. we'll see...
ricardo speaks great english, but his wife and kids dont, so i have them to practice on. not that the kids sit still long enough for me to talk to them...theyre usually terrorizing me, one another, or their poor mother...
which brings me to my main focus for this post: last night a little birthday party was planned for Ricardo. (he turns 40 tomorrow!) his wife had been cooking and cleaning all weekend. shaz and i had gone out to do some shopping and came back for the party yesterday to find that the younger boy had swallowed a coin and they had to take him to the hospital! of coures, the party must go on, so Maru stayed at the hospital with the boy, while we all enjoyed all the food she had prepared. Ricardo's friends were mostly computer programmers like himself and spoke very good english, so it wasnt a very good opportunity to practice my language skills. the older boy who hadnt swallowed a coin took advantage of his brothers absence to be star of the show and hide under various tables, dress up in various costumes, and run around witha sword stabbing people. these children have no discipline...they stay up late (you will see people leiusurly pushing a stroller around the block at midnight !) im pretty sure theyre all like this, not just the ones in this house.
anyway, after the party, ricardo left immediately to trade with his wife at the hospital. they came back today around noon. fun fun!
a busy week ahead, ive picked up some exam proctoring hours, so will be keeping busy. all for now, ciao!

Cordoba!

Cordoba was tiny and beautiful. The weather was absolutely amazing and Cordoba was a typical Spanish town with lots of green and little parks. The Mesquita, which was built when Spain was under Arab rule centuries ago lived up to my expectations. It is now a Cathedral--the Spanish built a Cathedral right in the middle of the mesquita when Fernando and Isabel reconquered Spain, so it is very interesting--an intense mix of arabic and catholic architectures. i thought it looked like candyland--the columns of red and white stripes were endless.
we also saw a flamenco show--andalucia (the southern region of spain) is the best, most traditional, place to do this. the dancers were beautiful.

overall, a wonderful weekend!

ciao.

Christmas?

Madrid is going to be lovely at Christmas time! they've already started stringing lights all over the place, and they're not your average lights, most of them ahve some short of shape and hang in clusters over the streets. they havent started lighting them yet, but each night i notice more are hung up. i wonder when they will start lighting them? they dont have thanksgiving as a guide.

things are usual around here, and the weekend uneventful. we spent a little time at the Prado museum. the museum is huge! we made it through most of their goya exhibit and their temporary exhibit of a recently uncovered Spanish painter, mainz, i believe, before becoming exhausted. we also did a little shopping because we officially got paid for the very first time! very exciting after 2 months. haha.

this weekend, we are headed to cordoba, a place i've never been! its in the south of spain, very lovely and traditional, most famous for the mesquita, which is left over from Muslim rule, although it was later converted to a cathedral, but the origianl architecture remains. it sits right on the guadalquier river. not sure i spelled that at all right.
its getting dark so early now, before 6. very depressing, and mkaing me tired. i cant wait til december 21 when it starts turning around again.
time for lesson planning and bed!

ciao

tengo prisa!

busy week. loving the new place, i've been running in the park and cutting through it on my way to and from places as much as possible. it really is the best place in the world, so its nice to have it so close. i started my spanish classes on monday, and ive got another tonight. its hard to focus when they are so late at night, but its the only time i have time to go! i finished my classes for the day, and the parents of my last lesson dropped me off at home, which was nice of them. they live on the outskirts of madrid, so when we were driving in the car i saw a lot of places i had never seen before (i travel so much underground--i dont actually know whats around!) theres a huge cemetary, one of the biggest ive seen right near the highway. they were speaking to me in spanish and i couldnt keep up at all. certain days i can talk to anyone about anything, then other days i dont understand the simplest things. its like i switch on and off. either way, i am absorbing a lot. another friend of mine moved this weekend so last night we all got together at her new house and made some spanish food --tortilla espanola with lots of veggies! thursday night we are having a mexican night!
well, thats about all i have time for now! its basically the weekend after tomorrow, and a 4 day one at that (they have another holiday on monday...they are always having holidays...usually i would think this is great, but when you get paid by the hour...the holidays every other week get a little old!) but regardless, i will enjoy my long weekend and the corresponding short week to follow.

a halloween picture: the shaz band (because it rhymes with "jazz" and my friends name is shaz! brilliant, i know...)

Retiro Home, Halloween, 2 month mark

2 months that I've been back in Madrid. Crazy! Already I'm nostalgic for Spain in the fall. It's been so beautiful, when will I be here for it again? the past 2 months have been challenging and amazing. i've learned so much, met so many wonderful people, and tried a lot of new things, really pushing myself. it's completely different than studying abroad because so much is up to me and so much is on my own. I am so grateful for the friends i have met, we are all so different but we have madrid and adventure in common and because of this have become a solid family. i am daily writing emails in spanish, having conversations in spanish, and teaching classes about English. I love the opportunity to get to know so many Spanish people of all ages and from all around the city. i'm so happy that i am here and feel amazed when i actually stop for a minute and think about it. i came back to madrid, i made this happen. this is exactly what i wanted since i studied abroad. its a really incredible feeling.
last week i picked up some hours proctoring an English exam at a huge company where all the money for Spain is made. it was very high security and very fancy. in order to get a job there, applicants must pass a high-level English exam. My job was to ask the questions for the oral part of the exam in one-on-one interviews and then evaluate the students level. i felt so bad when i had to fail people, knowing that a job was on the line.
today i moved into my new home near the park. here is the address for those who which to mail or visit me: C/ Valenzuela 10, 2D Madrid Spain 28014 .

its a beautiful home, and my friend shaz is here with me. there are 2 small children who are actually very loud, so we will just have to see how it goes. ricardo, the man renting us the rooms, speaks some English and is very nice. He is a surfer. his wife, maru, is from Peru.

besides that, it was halloween weekend, so we went to a party with our teaching academy. I'll post pictures, we looked great!

better get to lesson planning, more later!

BRRRR

Hace frio in Madrid! They turned the heater on in my building today. It's officially cold. Time is flying...
Between classes, I have a lot of time to wonder around. Madrid is a great place for shopping. Zara, Mango, H&M...shoe stores, too. Madrid has the best shoes. Only window shopping right now, because I only worked one day of September and therefore have only been paid one time! I found an English 2nd hand bookstore/coffeeshop. Very cool, they also have a big selection of books for teaching English.
I was walking around near my old neighborhood, arguelles, because one of my classes is over there. To me, that is Madrid. That is what I knew. The parque del oeste, the Templeo del bod, casa de campo (which, by the way is a 455 acre park that edges up to the city and is otherwise completely nature--theres even a lake, apparently!-, making Madrid, an otherwise not very green city, one of the greenest capitals in Europe) the avenue of high end shopping. I still know my way around so well over there, its all so familiar, even though its closing in on almost 3 years ago that I was here before.
And I am moving AGAIN, next weekend, its coming up so fast!To a spot near the central park of Madrid--Retiro. very excited about it. A friend of mine from my TEFL course is moving in there as well. Next weekend is also HALLOWEEN, so i think i will do some halloween-themed lessons for my kids classes. I just found out for some of my business classes I have to give them an exam once a month, so i will also be working on that. the job is interesting for me though, it gives a very unique opportunity to learn about spanish people, much different than studying abroad, because i have more interaction, and often my classes are in the homes of my students. I am teaching English, yes, but i am learning a lot as well, and really enjoy most of the people i have dealt with.
wednesdays are nice days for me becaues i am done by 6:30, when all the other days i am not done til 8, and often not home til 9. considering all my travel time, i have the opportunity to read a lot and have burned through several books already! i force myself to not read at home, so i can save the stories for the metro when i need them most. i've been taking advantage of the free time tonight by doing absolutely nothing (too cold to go outside!) and eating principes (really cheap cookies that come in packages of 3 rolls, each roll with about 12 cookies--we live off those things)
hopefully for the weekend i can find something more exciting to do.

Granada y mas

This past weekend, I visited Granada, a city in Andalucia, Spain. It was beautiful, and well worth the early morning 5 hour bus ride. A friend of a friends here in Madrid is studying in Granada, so we had a place to crash. Granada is famous for La Alhambra, and we managed to get tickets for 8;30 am on Sunday. It is on top of a mountain overlooking Granada, the climb up was cold that early in the morning, but again, well worth it all. We spent several hours there, because there is so much to see. We also made a trip to the beach, which was about an hour bus ride from Granada. It was amazing swimming in the Mediterranean in mid October. All in all, enjoyed the get away, there is lots to see in Granada and a culture much different than Madrid's as much of their architecture and heritage is still influenced by the Arabs who were in power of Spain centuries ago. Because of this, they have many shops and tea cafes (teterias) that were a lot of fun to explore.

Besides that, still teaching, still enjoying it, besides the long metro rides everywhere. I use that opportunity to read a lot and to listen to spanish podcasts, so hopefully my spanish is improving. So i'm definitely busy!
anyway, as always, i have lesson planning to do, and an early morning lesson tomorrow!
hasta luego

Toledo and the Bank Holiday

This was a 4 day weekend (which means this is only a 3 day week!) It turns out that the Spanish celebrate Columbus Day as well, but they call it something else. Anyway, it's kind of a big deal, and there is absolutely nothing open today. Most of the Spanish take the opportunity to travel somewhere, but not us poor English teachers. we stay home and plan lessons. Despite this, I did have a nice weekend. We took a day trip to Toledo, which was the original capital of Spain. It is about 45 minutes south of Madrid. The streets are all cobbled and winding. It's very touristy, but well preserved. It is surrounded on three sides by a river and large stone walls separate the old part from the new part. It is also a city that has managed to live in religious peace for centuries. There was 7 seven churches, including a very large cathedral, a monastery, 2 mosques, and a Jewish synagogue. That was the first Jewish temple I have ever seen in Spain as most of the country is Catholic, and much of the architecture is muslim, particularly in the South, from when Spain was invaded and controlled by the Arabs. Anyway, it was a beautiful day, we packed lunches and galletas (cookies or biscuits? a big discussion among my American and British friends) and spent the day there. Yesterday we spent in Retiro, watching the perfomers and participating in the drum circle. People play drums and others dance. They were singing some song about Zapatero, who is the Spanish president. I'm not sure if it was a good song or bad.
Tomorrow I've got lessons, so it's time to get back to work!
Saludos!

Working Woman

It's go time now...I am officially done with all schooling and education for the time being and have turned the tables...I am now the educator. I am still working on filling up my schedule with classes, but last week I started teaching some teenagers, and today I started my job at Rolls Royce. Yes, I am teaching Rolls Royce Madrid English. Today was just the first group, and I have a new group of students tomorrow, but both groups are totally basic. We practiced saying "hello, how are you?" and "what's your name?" today. It was fun, definitely better than kids classes. Anyway, so the plan is to fill up the rest of my hours, and then I will be a successful working woman. It's harder than that though ,as last week I spent runnign around to interviews, emailing people in Spanish, having Spanihs people call my cell phone, sitting in front of my computer waiting for emails, and all mostly in vain as most people want the same window of time.
Besides that, Madrid has started taking down the 2016 Olympic signs. A big party was planned for Friday, but did not happen. The weather has been excellent lately, so between interviews and running around I have enjoyed some time outside. Some friends and I went hiking a little outside of Madrid on Saturday--La Pedriza was the area, lots of mountains. We also made a very Spanish meal (tortilla(egg, potato, and onion), and bread with olive oil) and ate it at a very Spanish time (10pm). We also made hummus, and I am never ever going to buy it again becaues it is so much cheaper and tastes better made fresh ! I have become quite a cook over here because grocery shopping is very inexpensive.
time for lesson planning!
hasta luego!

"Come to the edge," he said to them.
"We're scared, we might fall"
"Come to the edge," he said to them. They came.
He pushed them...and they flew.

Salamanca

Salamanca was lovely--great fall weather, very sunny. Even the bus ride was nice--we got to see the mountains and pueblos of Spain.

Graduation Day

Today I graduated my course with honors. It was a nice day, they did a certificate presentation and said something nice about each of us. They told us on the first day that it would be the longest and shortest month of our lives, and I have to say that I agree. I put a lot of work and time into that place, but it flew! end of September already, and the course that i've been preparing for and anticipating since February is over. weird.
Anyway, now it's time to find a job. I have two interviews on Monday, so hopefully i can start filling my teaching schedule (the brits would say SHHEDOOL). I need about 20-25 hours a week to live a comfortable life.
But before all that, they are taking us out tonight! Fiesta!

Bon Dia

Well, bon dia is actually portugese...but it is a lovely day today!!!! It has been since Saturday, actually, perfect fall weather, and the leaves are changing, too! The weekend was wonderful! Saw live music performances both nights, the second night being part of La Noche en Blanco which was a great festival in Madrid. They shut down a lot of the major roads to cars, so people were just walking around, going to various culture and music events. The museums were open most of the night, and Gran Via was lit up in colored lights. In different plazas different street performers, food, and art were set out. My friend lives with a Spanish musician and we went to see his band play. They played at 1 in the morning. I thought that was crazy, because not only was everybody ok with it, the city had set it up! Apartments all around, but nobody cared, probably because they were all out. The band was amazing, no lyrics. He is a very quiet introverted person, so it was fun to see him really jamming on his keyboard.
During the days we spent time in the market, retiro park, and the plaza mayor because the weather was great, lots of sun, studying outside.
Tomorrow is my final! It's funny, because when you graduate college you think there won't be any more tests and studying for awhile. Well, i studied harder than i studied for any of my classes in college for my restaurant job this past summer, and now here i am studying daily to keep up with my TEFL course. It has been incredibly rewarding, however. I really enjoy teaching, and I enjoy my students. With the more advanced students, i have done discussion based classes, and they really enjoy learning the idioms and jargon we use in our speech. I have one last class, tomorrow after the test. Thursday and friday will be easy days (I hope) and Saturday I am taking a bus trip to Salamanca as a reward! I visited Salamanca on my last trip to Spain, it has the largest university in Spain and the oldest, biggest, Plaza Mayor. It is very beautiful and a very Spanish town.

Anyway, time to study! hasta luego!

I love Madrid

I love Madrid.
Here's how I know:
The people here drive me crazy: they smoke cigarettes in the running track and in the metro entrances. They walk down the street slowly, with no notice of anyone else or having to be anywhere, always stopping suddenly, wheeling these awful looking briefcase on wheels type things. They are always shouting, into their phones, in the street, everywhere, they are shouting. There's no such thing as customer service here, or air conditioning, or personal space. they have an annoying lisp and say things like "plaTHa" and "haTHer"

That's all ok, because everyone hangs their laundry out the window into the blue Spanish sky. In certain parts of the city, you can make out the mountains that surround. The whole city spends Sunday afternoon in retiro park, laying on blankets, paddling in the pond, sitting around playing guitars and drums, eating ice cream cones. The people are welcoming and generous and colorful. people sit out in plazas, plazas so old & cobblestoned with street artists and pigeons, socializing, late into the night, they have more holidays than any other country. nobody ever sleeps, but stays up all night salsa dancing and eating churros. everyone walks everywhere and knows their neighbors and buys fresh bread and fresh produce near daily.

it's all ok with me, because i love madrid. I can't help it.

At school...

I am next up for teaching, so thought i'd write a quick blog while I wait. School is in busy mode, with less than 2 weeks left! We have a huge project, 2 more teaching times (after today), and an exam to get through.
This weekend I went to the Retiro park with friends to study. We also saw a photography exhibit at the instituto de cervantes. I looked at a house near the Retiro park, practically in Plaza de Cibeles, and I will (hopefully) be moving there at the end of October. It's a beautiful house. You can see the park from the windows and the back of the plaza and fountain! amazing location! i am quite lucky! I also went to the pool on Sunday with Marie, the lady i live with. I was supposed to be practicing my spanish, but her friend that we went with spoke English as well. there was also a fiesta for english teachers in puerta del sol, the city center. i met people who have been teaching here for awhile which was nice. and downtown is as beautiful as ever, the street performers in plaza mayor, the lighted signs in sol.
The weather is cooling down here quite a bit, last night i slept with my windows closed, no fan, and a sweatshirt. its good runnign weather, about 70 today, although, of course, they use celsius.
it is somewhat refreshing to slow down from an American lifestyle to a Spanish one. My cell phone is usually turned off (mostly because it's expensive--my friends here and I communicate through skype to make plans, but also because it is in Spanish and i don't know how to turn the ringer off), people are expected to be late, the lines in the grocery store can take 20 minutes and no one is complaining or panicked. No one wakes up at 4 in the morning to "get ahead." I think they're on to something.
next weekend madrid is celebrating "el noche en blanco"--or the white night--it is a day of free music, museum exhibits, etc. i am already looking forward to that, as i don't have much to look forward to this week. just trying to keep my grades up...
i am meeting a woman who wants me to teach her 4 daughters tomorrow...

thats all for now,

megan

jajaja

Believe it or not, EVERYBODY is wearing these pants in spain right now. let's hope that doesn't catch on in the states...

Viernes...finally

A long week of teaching. It went well. And today is finally Friday, just get through class today and I can relax for awhile(or...2 days)! If anything else has been going on in Spain, I wouldn't know about it. But I guess I am here to teach, so I might as well be good at it.

I'll do something fun tomorrow so I can write about it, I promise.

Landing on my feet

A friend of mine said that the other day to describe her transition to Madrid, and I can't possibly think of a better way to put it. As far as transitioning goes, everything has been smooth and i completely was able to hit the ground running--i've already met many people and learned so much. I spent a wonderful weekend OUTSIDE after a long week in a small classroom. I found an outdoor track to run on, spent Saturday afternoon in Retiro park with a group of friends and discussed worldly things and travel. Today we went to the Rastro, an open air market downtown, and now it's time to get back to lesson planning. I teach tomorrow afternoon for the first time! My lesson is on the past simple tense and how to use "ago".

RUBBISH

Most of the teachers at the school are from England and are teaching British English to the Spanish people. The resource room is full of British English workbooks and its quite ridiculous. "Quite ridiculous" is quite British, really. Everything is rubbish. Z is "zed," they pronounce "garage" wrong, and have expressions that they are teaching these poor Madrilenos such as "she could talk the hind leg off a donkey." WHAT?
Tom doesn't speak much Spanish at all, so I do much of the translating in the household which is fun for me. The older woman, Carmen, particularly gets a good laugh out of Tom. She says to me, "Tom told me he was waking up at ochenta (80)'oclock" or "Tom told me FELIZ NAVIDAD" today (I think he was trying to say simply that he was happy). So the language dynamic is very funny in the house. Carmen's only english phrase is "kiss me please." Marie speaks a bit more, but like i said, we only speak spanish, which i enjoy. They tell me my hairs going to fall out if I don't start cooking for myself (i mainly eat peanutbutter sandwiches).
Besides the ladies, I have been spending most of my days at the school. It is challenging, but tomorrow is Friday so I will have a little break. Yesterday, I met up with my friend Katie, (the one who recommended me to TTMadrid) and we went down to Sol. It was the first time I had been downtown since being back so it was very exciting! It's all very much the same, which is great. Tonight, since I have finished my very first project (due tomorrow), some girls from the class and I are going out to explore for a bit. So thats all for now!

Cheerio!

Cansada

Today was my second day of class. The class is exhausting, we are there all day 9:30-6:30 and essentially in the same classroom with the same people all day. By next Monday we will be teaching from our own lessons, so this weekend I will be writing lesson plans! This week we are mostly learning grammar, getting instruction in how to deal with students, etc. It is a lot of information. The instructors are all great, and the school is just a few minutes from my home. I also live very near the soccer stadium--I can see it looming over the apartments and shops when I leave my building. After class, I will generally come home to do homework and prepare for the next day's class. At least I'm not spending any money--no time for that!
The ladies I live with are wonderful and my spanish is already improving from speaking with them each day. On Sunday they prepared tortilla espanola, gazpacho, and fondue, to welcome Tom and I. Today they bought me a fan for my room because it is still very hot in Madrid and there is no central a/c.
There are students in my class from England, Ireland, Australia, and South Africa--I'm going to make friends with those, as that is top on my list of places to visit!
Back to work, turns out being an English teacher takes effort,
Megan

Back home again in Madrid

After dreaming of this day for 2.5 years, I'm back in Madrid. My flights went smoothly, my bags weren't overweight (though I sure couldn't lift them!), and I have my very own room in a part of Madrid I've never seen before.

I arrived around 6:30 yesterday, took a cab to my home, where the landladies were waiting for me. They are a mother and a daugher and very kind, though I am mostly guessing about what we spoke about. We chatted for awhile and they sent me to my room, which is tiny, but great. I have doors leading to a small terrace overlooking the street. I have one roommate, Tom, who is arriving today. Last night I met a British girl who used to live in this flat and who did the TTMadrid program in April. She only made me more excited for the upcoming months!

Today I am going to wander around with my map and find the school and maybe do some grocery shopping. Then I need to get to work on my suitcases and my course prep.

Adios!

Goodbye America, Hello Spain (tomorrow)

In just a few minutes I am leaving for Chicago. Madeline is moving in at Columbia today, and I fly out of O'Hare at 10pm. A layover in Copenhagen, then arrive in Madrid at 6pm Saturday (Spain time...that's about noon EST).

This is my blog for my year abroad. My class starts Monday, so I'm sure this weekend will be quite busy with adjusting and preparing for my class.

You can reach me on skype: megan.janicki, email: meganjanicki1@gmail.com or mjjanick@indiana.edu, aim, and facebook. My phone number is the same, but I wouldn't recommend that. Address upon request.

Gotta finish packing!

Next time in Madrid,

Megan