Saturday, October 30, 2010

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

Well, not really...but close enough! I love Christmas. I mean, I really, really LOVE it.

Since I've been here, it's like I've been in a time warp. I know it's October (well, almost November), but it just doesn't feel like it. I don't realize that my birthday is only a week and a half away, or that Christmas is just around the corner. Or that Halloween is tomorrow. Its a weird feeling and hard to describe. But it just doesn't seem like fall/holiday time since I'm not home and things are just so different. Different weather, streets, language, pastimes, food, traditions, friends, house...all this adds up to "not home." And apparently, in my mind, "not home" means "not the holidays."

Again, I repeat, I LOVE CHRISTMAS. The music, the weather (well, the cold anyway), the decorations, the music, the present-shopping, the food, the music.....Normally by now I'm already in the Christmas mood. Listening to my favorite songs, planning my Christmas shopping, eating Halloween candy (I'm not sure how that relates to Christmas, but it just does), etc. But this year, I just can't wrap my head around the fact that its that time of year. I had a crazy summer, and have had a very different autumn. So I think my brain is just confused.

But today...oh, today. I started to feel it a little. First of all, its raining. I think this is the second time its rained since I've been in Sevilla. For an Oregon girl, this lack of moisture means summer, not autumn. So today I bundled up, grabbed a paraguas (umbrella) and went shopping. Then I unbundled because it was still like 65-70 degrees so I got really hot with all my layers on. But still, it was raining. After shopping, I got back and met up with Sofie so we could work on a project. This is where the good stuff started. Sofie had been to a tea shop a while ago that we walk by a lot. She said it was cute and had good tea, so we decided to go there.

I fell in love. This place is adorable. We got inside, and the employees were so friendly (which isn't so common here in my experience. A lot of them see that you're a "guiri" (foreigner) and don't really want to help you), and there were cute little tables and chairs and a nice warm ambiance. Then we got the menu. With like 20 different kinds of tea. And dessert. Ohhh dessert. I've never really had much of a sweet tooth. Then I came here. And now I can't eat enough sugar. Anyway, we ordered some roobois tea and an apple cake thing with caramel ice cream. Oh the ice cream. And ohhh the apple pie/cake. So. good. We just sat there, drinking tea, eating sugary goodness and listening to some soft jazz music while hearing the chatter of people at nearby tables. And also seeing a woman breastfeeding her baby. (What?) And being nice and warm and happy inside the tea shop while it was raining outside. And not really working on the homework that we were supposed to be working on.....

The combination of the jazz music, the warm cozy tea-drinking and the cold (ish), rainy weather outside made me feel a glimmer of the holiday season that is to come. And it made me happy. Oh, so happy. I really didn't want to leave, but I had to get back home for dinner. We walked back home on the abandoned side streets, while it was drizzling, cold and nearly dark. I almost broke out singing Christmas carols but I didn't want to scare Sofie or the neighbors. I think this rain is supposed to stick around for another day or two. That might just be enough time to really get me in the Christmas mood. Watch out people of Sevilla, here come the Christmas carols and Christmas-present-lists. There will be no stopping me and my Christmas spirit!!!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

adventures with Spaniards

I've been trying to hang out more with Sevillanos lately. 1) because they're cool. 2) because I need to practice my Spanish.

On the way back from Córdoba, I got a text from Gerardo asking about our plans for the night. Since we had no plans, Sofie and I planned to meet up with him later at a bar nearby our house. At about 10.30, we headed out and found the bar. Which was closed. No problem though, we waited outside for Gerardo to get there, and when he did we went to a different bar. After having a couple beers (NOT Cruzcampo, this bar had beer from Madrid! Although it wasn't much better), we headed out to find something else. He took us to a street we had walked down before in a historical tour of the city. We walked into the "market" area of this street and discovered the best place ever. We sat down (we were very lucky to get a table) and enjoyed. Gerardo ordered us some sweet wine. Best. wine. ever. It was like juice. But alcoholic. And we listened to some impromptu music. There were a couple guys with flutes, an accordion, a guitar or two. A flamenco singer. It was amazing. They just played music and we sat around listening, chatting, and drinking sweet wine. After a few glasses each, they had no more wine :( so we got some beer. (I should mention that this wine came from a box. Not sure what to think of that. But I don't really care since it was so good.). Oh it was so much fun! We just hung out until like 3am enjoying the night! Then we stumbled home and fell asleep. Until late the next day...

Later that week, we hung out with Gerardo again. We went to lunch with him and a friend of his at a little restaurant inside the Feria market. This market is where a lot of locals go to get their fresh produce and seafood. Good stuff there. We had a couple beers and some fried fish. We got boquerones, which we both have tried and like. Then there were a couple other kinds of whole-fried fish, a little bigger than boquerones but I don't remember what they were called. They were delicious as well. Then there were the fried fish eggs. Sounds weird, but it was amazing. I don't even know how they make it, but I don't really care. The most unusual thing we tried was fried squid eggs. The consistency is just about exactly how you would imagine it to be. Really squishy and gelatin-y. It tasted good, but it was kind of hard to get past the gelly-ness. We each tried it but left most of it for Gerardo and his friend to enjoy. Then Sofie and I had to head to a meeting (with a little buzz...).

On Wednesday, I met up with my Intercambio, Ale. CIEE sets their students up with Spanish students from the University. We meet up, we practice our Spanish and they practice their English. Ale (short for Alejandro) speaks near-perfect English with an Australian accent as he studied in Australia for a couple years. He is actually out of school and looking for work (which is extremely tough in Spain right now), but still likes to meet up with students to practice his English. He's really fun and has some great stories! We met up for coffee and just talked about all kinds of things for an hour or so. He asked me what "gotcha" meant (since I apparently say it all the time, and he's also heard lots of other English-speakers say it), saying "what did you say? Is it 'ketchup'?" Such weird things that we say...Anyway, we had a fun time!

Today, Sofie, Sarah and I, along with about 10 other CIEE'ers, went to an elementary school in Sevilla to help with Halloween festivities. We didn't really know what to expect when we got there, but we all planned to show up dressed as black cats. Although most of us couldn't find kitty ears, we wore all black and used some face paint to draw on whiskers. We had all kinds of activities to do with the kids (who ranged from 3 years to about 12 years old), including coloring, face painting, bobbing for apples, jack-o-lantern carving, chupa-chup ghosts, etc. The first class I went to was a class of about 7-year-olds. Again, I didn't really know what I was supposed to do but walked into the class armed with a bag of chupa-chups (lollipops), a package of kleenex and some rubber bands. They were making ghosts ("fantasmas") out of the materials. I walked in, introduced myself and showed them how to make the fantasmas. This isn't a very long or complicated process, so they were done with it pretty quickly. I talked to them a little bit about how we celebrate Halloween in the US (although you don't really learn much Halloween-y vocabulary in school...), including "trick or treat." Here in Spain they say "truco o trato" for this. After teaching them "trick or treat" and talking a little more, I was out of things to do. I ran and grabbed some coloring pages from the younger classrooms to pass some more time. They had fun coloring pumpkins, vampires, etc. I walked around and talked to them during the coloring and at one point one of the little girls asked me why I speak so weird. I said, well, I'm from the United States, so I speak English!



After the class of young kids, Sofie and I headed to a class of like 10-year-olds. We walked in and they were finishing a math test. With this class, we were to carve a jack-o-lantern. We had a little tiny pumpkin as well as a knife and spoon. We talked a little about pumpkins and how its different in the US, you go to a farm and pick them and they're much bigger. We demonstrated the pumpkin carving (well, Sophie did) while they asked questions. They asked if everyone dresses up, even adults. Why were are in Spain, etc. At the end, one of the boys asked if we knew any Halloween songs. For some reason the US doesn't really have any songs for this holiday! We do for everything else, but not much for Halloween. Not that we could think of anyway. Sophie thought of the "Monster Mash" song, but neither of us knew the words. Fortunately, this class was equipped with a giant (no, you don't understand, I mean giant. Normal projector-screen-sized) touch-screen computer on the wall. So Sofie looked up Monster Mash on youtube to show them. Sofie started doing the twist-type dance during the "Monster Mash" part of the song. I'm not sure if this is the actual move to this song, but it seemed right so I joined in. The kids thought we were crazy. But they wanted to learn this fancy dance! After the video was over, their teacher told them that they should give us a present too. So one kid starts playing "drums" on his seat, the other kids start singing flamenco-style, and best dancers of the group (reluctantly) started dancing flamenco. They tried to teach us.....but it didn't catch so well. It was so much fun though! They loved it, wanted to watch the video again, and just had so much fun talking with us and asking questions. Their teacher was fantastic (a male, not something we've seen a whole lot here-male teachers) and they adored him. We had to leave after that but we didn't really want to! Normally this age freaks me out, but this class was just so great! They were in the playground when we left the school, and we got hugs and "good-byes" when we were walking out.




Anyway, that's been my experience with locals in the last week! Lots of Spanish practice :) And I loved every minute of it!

Córdoba

CIEE, the program that I'm here in Sevilla with, organizes a lot of trips for us. (Which is great, since I paid them a whoooolllle lot of money to come here, they better give me something for it). They've taken us to Cádiz and Itálica, on a hike in Huelva, to a tour of castles nearby, we'll be going to Morocco and Granada and Aracena with them...

Well, this past weekend was another one of said trips. We went to Córdoba, which is about an hour and a half away from here on a bus. All of the trips through CIEE have guides, obviously, which usually consist of CIEE professors or staff and/or Spanish students who help out with things all over CIEE. The last two or three trips I've taken, one of the guides has been Ángel, who is the professor of my Spanish Novel and Cinema class. He's really fun and speaks really fast. Anyway, he was on the trip along with a few other cool CIEE-ers. Once we arrived in Córdoba, after a little nap, we all got off the bus and separated into four or five smaller groups. We were in a group with Ale as our guide, who is one of the Spanish-student-helper-guides. He is a history major and knows just about everything about everywhere. And he's nice to look at....

I didn't know much about Córdoba before arriving, besides the fact that they have some sort of building with pink-and-white striped arches. I saw it in Carmen (when we watched that in Ángel's class). Anyway, it looked pretty cool so I was excited to see it. We walked into the Mezquita (Mosque) and I was blown away. I didn't know it was so huge. Or beautiful. Or ornate. With so much history. It's a mosque, but also a cathedral. I may have been too distracted by the beauty of the building to actually pay attention to the history lesson given by Ale. Anyway, it was incredible. I didn't want to leave. Buuut, we had more to see.




Next up was the synagogue. It's one of only two historical synagogues left in Spain. It's not really much to see. A little tiny building that you could easily miss if you didn't know it was there. Its basically one little room with a balcony area. It was pretty cool, but we quickly moved on.



From there, we wandered around a little through the streets of Córdoba. We saw the old marketplace, which has a few little vendors in it selling homemade crafts. Then, we headed to the Alcázar. Pretty much every town we've been to has an amazing Alcázar (which is a royal palace). Sevilla's is beautiful as was Córdobas. Although Granada has the most famous and apparently most beautiful one yet. Anyway, we wandered around, saw the ancient baths and the mosaics. Then went to the gardens and ate our bocadillos. We had a couple of hours of free time after this, where we mostly just wandered around and got some ice cream. Then that was it, time to head back home! Another lovely trip!




(more photos here)

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Carmona, Carmela and Culture Shock

This past weekend was another busy one. There are a lot of little towns close by that I want to visit (but not enough time to visit them all). So when there is a free day or two, I like to go see them! I couldn't get anyone to go with me this weekend to see Carmona, so I had decided to go by myself on Friday. Although fortunately Sofie decided to join me. I don't mind traveling alone, but its much more fun with other people!

Carmona is a little town that I had heard was pretty, so I wanted to see it for myself. We planned to leave around 11am and catch the bus to Carmona (a quick 30-40 minute bus ride). We headed to the bus station, figured out where to buy tickets (on the bus), and waited. When we realized that all we had between us was 50 euro bills, we decided we needed change. Soooo we bought some chocolate. The guy we bought it from wasn't too happy that we paid with a 50, but...he still gave us change! With change for the bus (and chocolate to nibble on!), we sat and waited for the bus. We didn't have to wait long, and we hopped on and headed to our destination.



We weren't really sure what all was in Carmona, or where to get off the bus. So we picked a stop (where it seemed like most people were exiting the bus) and hopped off. My guidebook said that there was a Roman amphitheater and Necropolis in Carmona. So our first goal was to find these places. We walked around in circles for a bit before realizing that we had passed the amphitheater (it didn't look like much) and the Necropolis was on the other side of the road from it. We went to the Necropolis (which was under renovation of course, although a few spots were still open) and walked around. There were lots of people buried here (or their ashes were stored here) a long time ago. Now you can walk around in or peer into the areas where the bodies/ashes were kept. Pretty interesting.



After leaving the Necropolis, we headed to the historic city center. First, you enter through the ancient city gate in the city wall. Pretty cool. Usually these old walls are crumbling down and aren't really at the entrance to the city anymore. But this one is actually where you enter the city and is in pretty good shape. We mostly just wandered around a bit trying to figure out what there was to see. We ended up sitting in one of the town squares and eating my bocadillo (this time I got a tortilla bocadillo-soooo good), while watching a group of older ladies having a picnic there. So cute! After the snack, we wandered around some more. We basically got to the end of town, and went through another city gate. What a view! Lots of fields and open spaces. Quite beautiful. Then Sofie spotted some goats. Sofie loves goats. She couldn't handle just seeing them from a distance, so we walked over to them. On the way, a happy little puppy found us. He came running like a madman towards us, so excited to see us. He was jumping and biting and running in circles (hopefully he didn't have rabies...). After he ran away, we had arrived at the goats. Where we discovered that there were hundreds of them. Apparently we had stumbled upon a dairy goat farm. There was one lone little goat that was talking to us and following us. He didn't want us to leave :( But we had more adventuring to do.




We got back into the city center and went to the "market" area. This is a town square that is lined on all sides by storefronts (for food, etc.). Only a few of them were actually open. But the one we sat down at was amazing. We had walked by it earlier in the day and checked out all the food she had, telling the woman that we would be back later to eat. So when we returned and started looking at the food again, she asked us if we wanted to try __________ (I don't remember what it was called....or if I ever understood what she said). Said it was what everyone was eating that day. So we said sure! We sat down and she brought us a big ole bowl of soup. Calamari, potatoes, peas, carrots. YUM. She asked if we wanted anything to drink and we said we'd like some tea (she had dozens of Moroccan-style teapots). She asked, "Mint?" Again, sure!



Now, there weren't too many people around. There were basically two restaurant/bars open. There were two couples at Carmela's bar, and a group of people at the other one, in the corner of the square. While we were sitting down enjoying our soup and tea, the people at the other bar broke out into some flamenco singing. Amazing. We were eating some good food, sipping some incredible tea, enjoying the views and the ambiance of the town, and hearing flamenco. Best. day. ever. We didn't want to leave. So we had another pot of tea. And some dessert. She asked if we wanted anything else and we said that we wanted something sweet. She said she knew just the thing. And brought us something with neon green goop on it. Panna cotta with mint, apparently. It wasn't the best thing I'd ever eaten....but I ate it. We ate it all. And finished the second pot of tea. And realized we had to leave. We really didn't want to go.










Sofie and I have been lamenting over the fact that Sevilla just wasn't quite what we expected. We loved the small-town feel of this tranquil, quiet city. Where there aren't tourists (us) at every turn. Where town people converge in the little squares and nooks and crannies of the pueblo. Well we found it. Just not in Sevilla....

Don't get me wrong, I love Sevilla. It's just...bigger...or something, than I expected. I was expecting the Piazzas and music and markets and ambiance of Florence. Stupidly, don't know why I expected Sevilla to be the same as a city in Italy. And there are similarities. I just still haven't found "my" areas, where I like to go hang out and walk to. I still get lost all the time. And am getting tired of always having to speak Spanish (so I don't speak Spanish as much as I should). This is my version of culture shock I guess, just some tiny frustrations. But I have discovered the peaceful pueblos a quick bus ride away, am meeting awesome Spanish people to hang out with, am seeing a whole lot of this beautiful country (a lot of it on CIEE's dime, as they have all kinds of trips for us) and am improving my Spanish day by day (even though its not as quick of a process as I would like).

Now, if I could just find a good comfy pair of shoes so I don't want to cry every time I have to walk. Then maybe I could discover the parts of Sevilla that I've been searching for!

(más fotos aquí)

Sunday, October 24, 2010

laziness

I haven't made a real post in a while. So I'm doing that now...even though I should be doing homework. Dumb homework. Anyway, I've done a few fun things!

After going to Lisboa, the next weekend we decided to stay in Sevilla. There were some sights I still hadn't seen here, so I wanted to do all the tourist-y things. First up was the Plaza de España. It was built for the world exhibition in 1929 or something, and has each part of Spain represented. There are tiled murals and benches along with maps for each area. Very pretty! Right next to the Plaza is the Maria Luisa Park. Its a huge area of green within the city. Very peaceful and relaxing. Until you step in horse poo on your way to class after wandering around in the park...

Plaza de España


roasted chestnuts in the park? why not?!


Since we had October 12th (a Tuesday) off of school for Día de la Hispanidad, I decided to do some more touristy things that day. What I didn't realize was that every other person in Europe decided to do the same thing. Sofie and I headed over to the Cathedral/Alcázar in the morning to check them out. Only to find incredibly long lines when we got there. So while everyone else stood in line forever, we checked out the "Archivo de las Indias" Museum (India Export company museum/museum of Piracy). There were lots of pirate maps and documents. Pretty cool. When we were done, the lines were still long. So we went to a cafe. Finally by that time the lines weren't so long. We started with the cathedral (free for students yay!). We wandered around, climbed up the Giralda, and took lots of pictures. It's a huge church. Beautiful. The organ is amazing and the view from the Giralda is quite lovely. After we were done there, we headed to the Reáles Alcázares. This is the royal...something...of Sevilla. It is their version of the Alhambra. I didn't really know what to expect when we went there, but I was pleasantly surprised. It is so beautiful. The ornate decorations on the walls, the amazing garden, it's just wonderful! I've decided I may have to go back and make the Alcázar gardens my new study spot....good thing this is also free for students.

The Cathedral


Alcázar


Inside the Alcázar

The next weekend was a busy one. On Friday, we went on a "Medieval Castle" tour. We hopped on a bus to two closeby towns (Alcala de Guadaira and Utrera) where there are some castles. First up was Alcala, where is was quite foggy. The castle was pretty cool, but they are doing some restoration work, so that kind of hindered the view at times. Apparently there's not much else in that town, so after the castle we headed to Utrera. Our guide (who is also the profe of my cinema class) is from Utrera. So he had fun bragging about how great his town is, and running into family and friends during our time there. Utrera was a cute little town, with a couple pretty cathedrals, a lovely Castle and cute cafes with amazing pastries. After seeing the sights and eating some goodies, we headed back home.

Alcalá de Guadaira (this isn't even the castle...didn't get many
good shots of it)


View from the castle's tower in Utrera.


Our interest group met that same night, to learn about bullfighting. We learned a little bit of history then headed to the bullfighting "school" where the young toreros-in-training practice. They have their capes and swords, and also the horns of a bull which they use to pretend to be the bull. It was quite fascinating. It seems like a silly little boy's game, but they take it so seriously. They have the proper stance and posture, and the "bull" makes snorting noises and runs towards the cape (well, slowly walks towards it, its a very slow-motion-like activity). After watching for a bit we got our chance to try it out. The cape is surprisingly heavy and stiff. I didn't try being the "bull" but I got the gist of things. It was a really fun thing to do. I still don't want to see a bullfight (which I can't even if I did want to, as the bullfighting season in Sevilla is over), but I at least know a little more about it now!

Later that weekend we went on a hike! CIEE had a couple hikes earlier, but I couldn't go on them. So I was excited to go this time. I'm not normally much of a hiker, but wanted to see the countryside. This hike was along the Odiel river in Huelva. The river runs through copper mining land. Mining was done there for hundreds of years, and was actually just shut down 10 years ago. Because of the mining processes they used (including burning the rocks to get the copper out, which created deadly fumes and smoke which led to acid rain, etc), the river is so acidic that nothing can live in or around it. There is absolutely no life in the river, and the river banks are completely barren. There is one kind of plant that has learned to live in the acidic soil. But other than that its just rock and dirt. Sounds like it would be a pretty ugly hike, but the forest around the river and on the way to it was beautiful. I wish photos could capture smell. I was just drinking it in. Such a nice break from the smell of urine horse poop that so often invades my nostrils while walking through Sevilla. I wanted to bottle the forest-y smell to bring back with me. Our guides were really fun and knowledgeable about the area. One was tiny and knew all about the plants. The other was huge and knew about the history. I wish I had taken a picture of them together, it was so funny! One was probably 6'7" and his buddy came up to his chest. Pretty funny. I haven't proposed marriage yet to the tall one, but if I go on the next hike I will.....

Green water-not healthy.

Barren land.

Red water-even more unhealthy than green.




Well, that's a really quick wrap-up of the last few weeks. I'll post more about the last weekend soon! (For more photos of all this, go here.)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

supermodels

At the beginning of our time here, Sofie had to do a little research project for her grammar class. She had to find 6 or 7 Spaniards on the street to interview. So she would go up to random people and get them to take her survey. One of the guys she met was Gerardo. After taking her survey (which asked all about what kinds of drugs he had taken, etc....), they chatted a bit. She found out he is a photographer. He gave her his contact info and said if she ever wanted to hang out, to let him know. So weeks later, when her intercambios from the school weren't working out so well and she wanted to hang out with Spaniards and not just always Americans, she sent him an email. He responded immediately with, hey, lets meet tonight! So I went with her :)

We met him at a little park in town and headed to a bar where he was to take photos for their website. This bar was amazing. Not your typical bar. Lots of religious paraphenelia: statues, photos, etc. Quite a sight.



Then we went to another bar. The bar with supposedly the oldest bar (the actual counter-bar) in Sevilla. Gerardo tried to take a picture there but the barkeep told him that it would be six million Euros for a picture. Since none of us had that in our pockets, no photos.

Then we headed to a bar that is always super crowded. Its a tiny little bar that always has a huge crowd of Spaniards spilling out onto the street. There we met up with his friends Sergio and Carmen who were lots of fun.

Then we went to el Rinconcillo. The oldest bar in Sevilla. Its been open for hundreds of years. Like since 1670. Pretty amazing! Anyway, after a couple beers and a couple glasses of white wine, we were pretty loopy. Gerardo took some photos. Here they are!











Sunday, October 17, 2010

found my calling in life...

Phew what a weekend. Went to two nearby towns (Alcala de Guadalira and Utrera) to see Medeival castles. Went to a bullfighting school to see some bullfighters-in-training practice. Met Sofie's "friend" Gerardo (a guy she found on the street to take a survey for her for class), a Spanish photographer who took us to a couple local bars. We met his friends, had a few drinks, and had a grand ole time. Then we went on a hike to Odiel river in Huelva. More about those later. Because its late and I'm exhausted (I don't think my feet have ever been this tired. Definitely going to treat myself to a pedicure this week sometime), I'm going to share with you my new career path. Well, there are two options. I haven't made up my mind yet.


I could become a bullfighter. Look, the cape is even pink!




Or I could join this convent and spend the rest of my life making
delicious goodies with the adorable nuns.


Votes are welcome.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

some awesome people

Here are some people in Sevilla that I love:

The guy that owns the fish shop thing on the street on my way to school. He sells fresh seafood to all the locals and waves and says hi every time I go by. So cute!

The lady at the cafe by the school I volunteer at. She is so sweet and remembers what I order and calls me "mi amor" or "mi corazon" ("my love" or "my heart").

The monjas (nuns) at the convent that sell delicious, delicious goodies.

My phonetics and phonology professor. I have a crush on him. And he remembers my name. Yesssss! (aaaaand he may be married....)

Of course my adorable 4-year-olds. Oh I love them. Pablo found me at recess again today and was so sad when I didn't come into his class again! They didn't have school on Tuesday, so I skipped a day in their class. He just holds onto my hand for dear life and tries to drag me into his class :) But I love them all!

And there's my señora and her family. They are so sweet and fun!

Well, those are my favorite people. I would write about my adventures during the day off (Tuesday-día de la Hispanidad) when Sofie and I went to the cathedral and Alcázar, but that would require uploading pictures and writing a lot more and I feel like crap so I will do that later...

Saturday, October 9, 2010

snails?

Uhhh, I'm pretty sure I ate this today:



I think it's some sort of sea snail. That's all.

YYUUUMMMM.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

I fell in love. With Pablo, age 4.

Oh I adore him. This was the first week of our "practicum" for the Teaching Development Program. We will each spend 4 hours per week in a classroom at the Irlandesas school, helping teach English. The first five weeks will be spent "observing." We hang out with the kids, take notes on how the teacher ("seño," short for "señorita") does things, help wherever we are needed, and just have fun. I go in two days per week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) for two hours each day (12-2pm). Tuesdays I am in María's class, who is just wonderful and sweet and energetic and fun. Thursdays I am in class with Mari-Carmen, who is sweet and organized and lovely and has endless patience with her crazy kids (I think she got the class full off the super-rambunctious ones). Each class has about 30 or so 4-year-old kids. They are all so lovely and sweet and fun and beautiful and energetic and smart and just amazing. And I don't want to play favorites. But......there's Pablo.

Let's start at the beginning. I went to the school on Tuesday to begin my first "shift." My class starts at noon, and from 11:30-12 the kids are outside at recess. So if I get there early, I just am supposed to go play with them. The "playground" at this school consists of a fenced-in area filled with yellow-y sand along with some primary-color-painted tires half-sticking-up out of the ground. Pretty much the kids just run around and yell and have fun. I walked in the first day and they weren't really sure what to think. At one point, this adorable little boy came up to me and started talking. He spoke very quietly and wouldn't really look at me. With all the noise in the play yard and his super-soft voice, I couldn't understand what he was asking so I kept asking him to repeat it. At one point I figured out he was asking how old I was. After a few minutes of me asking him to repeat himself, he walked away for a minute. At that point, his teacher came up to me and told me he was deaf. Well. That made much more sense. He's not completely deaf. He can hear you if you speak loudly, right into his ear. Which is how the other students talk to him when they want to.

Anyway, he just wouldn't give up! He came back over and just kind of stayed by my side until it was time to go back to class. He kept asking questions, I kept not knowing what he was saying. But he was just so cute I kept trying to understand. The kids loved playing in the sand. They would bring me handfuls, then put it on my leg...at one point, one of the boys showed me a stick he found. I started drawing in the sand with it and they wanted me to draw more things. Well, I'm not an artist. So a smiley face, a heart and a rainbow was about as creative as I got. Anyway, by the time we were done, my hands were filthy and my jeans were tinted yellow from the sand (thanks for doing my laundry, Angeles!)

So then, it was time to go to class. Pablo grabbed my hand as we walked up the stairs to the classroom. The kids all sat down in their chairs as María played some classical music to calm them down. When everyone was quiet and still, she turned the music off and they moved to the corner of the room and sat down in a circle. I joined them in the circle (amongst the sand covering the ground that they had dragged in) as we played some games, sang some songs, and learned some English vocab. All the while, Pablo was sitting right next to me. Every time we moved, he made sure he was right next to me. After all the lessons, it was time to play again. Each child gets to choose the area of the room they want to play in. María calls them one by one, and they tell her where they want to play. When Pablo's turn came around, he just said he wanted to play with me. Oh it just melted my heart. So we played with some play-doh.

Today I went to the second class. The kids were playing outside again (though I didn't get there as early as I was hoping to avoid the filthy, sandy pants again), so I joined them. This time, I knew a little better who some of the kids were. The kids I didn't recognize, I knew would be in my class today. Again, there was another little boy who kind of latched onto me. José Joaquin. Super-cute. He was quite talkative. Again, hard to understand with all the noise going on. And my lack of fluency in his language. But he was showing off his knowledge of English to me, naming all the colors he saw. I met a few of the other kids in my class, then it was time once again to go in. But not before Pablo found me. He came running up so excited and grabbed my hand and started talking. We walked upstairs and got to the door of his classroom. He would not let go of my hand. I told him that I was in the other class today. That I would be back in his class next week. But he wasn't letting go. He just kept holding on until his teacher pulled him away. I almost cried. Not really. (But really.)

Now, like I said, all the kids are incredible. There is a little girl named Claudia who is just beautiful and who would just come up and squeeze me as hard as she could and kiss my cheek. There is Daniel, who is perhaps the tiniest 4-year-old I have ever seen. He's so little! There is Sergio, who is a little trouble-maker. There is a little girl who will not speak to teachers. She speaks to other students, but won't talk to teachers. And there are 50-some other kids who are just fantastic and who I can't wait to get to know better and teach English to.

But still, there's Pablo. If I come back to the states in December claiming to have gotten pregnant and given birth to a 4-year-old deaf boy during my four months in Spain, it's because I couldn't bear to leave him and I brought him back with me. Just be warned.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Lisboa.

Whew! What a week it's been. I'll try to make this not too long and boring :)

First of all, we went to Lisbon. Oh how I loved it. I didn't want to leave. Other than not understanding Portuguese at all, I loved every part of the city. It's beautiful, historic, fun, amazing...exactly what I want out of a European city :D We left Sevilla at midnight on Thursday. This is a crazy thing to do. Transportation between Sevilla and Lisbon is pretty limited. So our options (by bus) were to either leave at midnight on Thursday and get in Lisbon at 6am, or leave Friday afternoon and arrive Friday evening. Well, we had to leave Sunday morning, so we wanted more than just Saturday to spend there! So we opted for the early (late?) bus. When we finally got there after 7 hours of non-sleep, we headed to the hostel. We eventually found the hostel and were told that we couldn't check in until noon. It was 7am. And we were exhausted. Fortunately they did let us leave our bags there, so we just decided we'd find a pastry and wander around. We had read in a guidebook before going there that Lisbon has as many pastry shops as Spain does tapas bars. Which means about 10 per block. After wandering around a little, we found a pastry shop that looked amazing. Not only did it look nice, but the guide book said it was the best in the city. After being around for 181 years (!!!!), you better be on top of your game. And oh, were they. We were the first customers, had to wait about 15 minutes for them to open. When we walked in, we saw a case full of goodies. We all ordered something and sat down to enjoy it and plan our day.



After our delicious breakfast, we decided to do some more exploring. We new that there was an ancient castle in the city, so we decided to try to find it. It took a bit of wandering around in the tiny, curvy, uphill streets. But we eventually stumbled upon it. Wow. I've seen my fair share of ruins, but no castle-ruins! This place was magnificent. Huge. And ruled by cats. Gross cats.



But that's beside the point. We saw the moat. We climbed to the top of the walls (which was terrifying as the steps are narrow and there are no hand rails. I almost peed my pants a couple times) and just walked all over the giant castle, taking in the views from each new vantage point.







By the time we finished exploring, it was about time for us to be able to check in. So check in we did. Everyone decided it was naptime. I tried to sleep, but there was construction outside so I couldn't sleep at all. No matter how much I willed my brain to fall asleep, it wouldn't do it. I just laid there for a couple hours while every one else was passed out. Eventually Sofie also woke up, so we decided to go in search of some lunch. We walked around a little more and stumbled upon a cute little wine shop. Besides the typical Portugal cherry-liquor and Port wine, they had cheese, bread, jams, honey...all kinds of goodies. The lady spoke to us in Spanish with a Portuguese accent. Very hard to understand. But we left with a loaf of bread and some cheese. When we got back, everyone else was finally up. So we did some more exploring and later went to an Italian restaurant for dinner (where Sarah excitedly ordered a "glass of milk" off the menu, and got a glass of steaming-hot milk. Not quite what she was expecting).

Saturday was going to be a busy day. There were sill a lot of things in Lisbon we wanted to see, and I was determined to see Sintra. Everyone that has been to Lisbon before told me to go to Sintra. It's supposed to be like Disneyland, except in real life. Because it has a lot of beautiful sights, I wanted to make sure we got there in daylight so we could see everything. But first we had a cathedral/street market to go to, and some more sights in a different part of town. We left the hostel at about 8:30 and headed to the street market. Which was fantastic.

I so wish that Sevilla had one like it. I haven't found one yet, although I haven't been to all the markets. Anyway, we then went into the church which was amazing. Beautiful tiles covering the walls, an ancient cistern underneath, lots of dead people....and then we climbed up the tower to the top of the church. My goodness. Such fantastic views. The building was so beautiful in and of itself, but then on such a beautiful day, it was such incredible. Blue skies with white clouds, blue water with sailboats, white buildings with red roofs....just lovely!











After we had admired the view, it was on to Belem, another part of town where a bunch of major sights are: a huge, ornate monastery; contemporary art museum (bleh); famous statue...amongst other things. It was already about 3:30pm when we were heading to Belem. Sintra is about 45 minutes from Lisboa and I knew that everyone would want to spend a good amount of time in Belem. While we were waiting for the bus to Belem I was trying to decide if I should just head to Sintra myself since I didn't have any desire to go to the art museum and could have done without the other stuff, or just stick with the group. They all promised we could hurry through so we could all go to Sintra together. I figured maybe we'd get to Sintra with at least a few minutes of light left so I stuck with them. Should have trusted my gut. Don't get me wrong, the monastery was fantastic. Wish we had had time to go inside. And the Monument of the Discoveries was pretty cool.





But by the time we finished at the museum (again, bleh. I just do not get Contemporary/Modern art.) it was getting late. My group is amazing though and rushed through everything that they would have liked to spend more time at for me. So thanks bunches to all them. By the time we got to the metro station, took the metro to the train station, and got our tickets, it was getting close to sunset-time. We hopped on the train as the sun was going down. The guy came through checking our tickets and told us we had to pay more. Huh? He spoke no English. We spoke no Portuguese. It was interesting. Fortunately, some cute Portuguese boys translated for us: we were on the wrong train. Dumb. Soooo, we had to get off at the next stop and then board the correct train to Sintra (all in all, it didn't end up taking much more time, just cost an extra euro. We were going to have to change trains anyway if we had got on the right train). When we finally got to Sintra, the sun was gone. There were still a few little rays of sunlight left for a few minutes, but that was it. The main sights in Sintra are lit up at night, so at least we got to kind of catch a glimpse of them. We started walking to the historic city center, and passed numerous statues on the way.





Then we found a restaurant. It looked cute and not too expensive, so we ordered our meals. It was then that we realized this "restaurant" had no kitchen....just 4 microwaves behind the bar. Yikes. I couldn't imagine how they could make "baked" cod or anything else in the microwaves. But they did it. I ordered cod with "cornbread and cabbage." By "cornbread" I think they just meant "bread chunks" and by "cabbage" they meant "spinach." Well, it tasted good anyway. Despite the microwave issue. After dinner and some wine, we left. Since there really was no point in going to the sights, we just headed back to Lisbon. So sad. Basically we paid 6 euros for a train ticket to eat dinner in another city. Oh well. It was a funny experience anyway.



When we got back to Lisbon, we went to bed and got up the next morning to head back to Sevilla. Sadly. Although it was raining when we left, so that made it a tiny bit easier. Lisbon definitely moved into the top part of my "favorite places on earth" list. I'm not sure what number it's at, but its up there. I'll have to actually compile a list of my favorite places someday...

Anyway, Sevilla is no Lisbon. I guess Lisbon is no Sevilla, either. Sevilla has its great points. But it doesn't have the architecture, the castles, the beautiful tile-covered buildings, the pastries (well, it has pastries, but not of the same caliber), the street markets, the Brasilian lemon tart, the elderberry lemonade, the statues and sights or the overall ambiance that Lisbon does.











I would love to return before this trip is over, but don't think I'll make it. Too many other places to check off the list. Plus I could do without another 7-hour, overnight bus ride.


Oh, and check out how Portugal celebrates 100 years of being a republic. We stumbled across this one night while walking home. It's projected onto the other side of this: