"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