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!