Toledo

Saturday, me and my friends, Andrea and Andrew, went to Toledo. With classes being over, we thought we deserved to go on a day trip...Toledo is just a 30 minute train ride from Madrid and it is this gorgeous town situated on a mountain. Toledo was once the capital of Spain until King Philip II moved it to Madrid. So for being a small town, it has lots of history. Also, the Cathedral, the mosques, and the Jewish area were definite signs that many different people have lived here.

We had pretty bad timing on this trip. We arrived in Toledo at about 11. None of us had any breakfast so we decided to enjoy a nice desayuno. By the time we actually started going to see the town, it was already around 12:30. We first went to Museo de Santa Cruz and looked at a very small collection of art. We then went to Alcazar (an old fort/castle), but it was closed for construction. We wanted to see the El Greco paintings, but the Casa-Museo de El Greco was also closed that day. By the time we got to the next tourist spot, it was already siesta time. Even the mosques and synagogues we wanted to see were closed for siesta. So our options were very limited. In the end, we just walked around and got lost in the narrow streets of Toledo. It was very cute and romantic...except I was with a girl and a gay guy.

Despite our bad luck, Toledo was still great. It felt good just to get out of the city. It was nice just walking around the entire city, soaking in all the tourist sites...and the freezing cold (I really wish I brought a jacket!). Plus, I love train rides and small towns in Europe. It reminds me even more that I am in Europe.

I finally took some pictures of Spain. When I can, I will definitely post them on here. Hopefully, I'll know how to do it!

Toledo

Don't laugh but I am officially a teacher!

Some of you might be asking about the new job. It is located in El Molar, which is a northern suburb of Madrid. To get there, I have to take a train and then a 45 minute bus ride. I went there on Thursday and it's definitely in bufu. It's a super small town in the mountains. I will be working for 5 hours, Mondays to Fridays, and I will have the job until June. I will be teaching at a training center for people who are currently unemployed and are trying to be reintegrated back to the workforce. The center is government funded, so this is basically part of their unemployment benefits. I am a little bit nervous about it because I will be teaching beginners...I haven't had good experience with beginners. No one speaks any English, not even my contact person. Also, the 5 hours will not be broken into a few classes. I will be teaching the same 10 to 15 people for 5 hours straight. I'm not quite sure how that would work yet. I don't know if I'm capable of keeping people that interested and attentive for that long. So it will definitely be a challenge.

Although it seems like a work and a long commute, people have been saying it's a pretty good deal. Most English teachers here have to travel a lot to get to the teaching sites. Most teachers also teach at multiple places so they end up traveling even more. Having this one job will make things less stressful for me. I might try and pick up a few more hours somewhere else just to supplement my income a little more, but we'll see. Our trainer suggested that 25 hours a week is good because with all the preparation involved in teaching, more than that would be too stressful. But I personally feel like working 25 hours a week seem weird. I'm so used to working so much more. So I think I'm going to test it and get some more hours. I can always quit whenever I want.

I really can't believe I'm going to be a teacher (Ma, can I hang up my certificate next to my diploma?!). The thought kind of freaks me out a bit. I am literally responsible for people's learning...creepy! I'm assuming it's like having a baby...except I get to leave them after several hours (thankgod!). I really hope they learn something. I'm going to feel like ass come June when all they can say is, "Hello, my name is Maria!"

Well, next on the to-do list: get an apartment!

Happy One Month Anniversary To Me!

I have officially survived my first month in Madrid and I'm still loving it. You're all probably sick of me saying that, but I really do love it here. In one month, I have earned a certificate in teaching English as a foreign language; I have made a few friends (both Spanish and foreigners); I know a few more words in Spanish, and; I got a job. Yes, I miss a few things from home: my family, my friends, Joy Yee's, Burrito House, Kitsch'n, a long hot shower, a coat, etc. But for the most part, Madrid has been very good to me. I can't really complain. I think I will like living here for a while.

A Day in the Life of Fran (Teacher in Training Version)

My day starts at about 8:30-ish, when I start to wake up because I hear Juan moving around. But I actually don't get off the futon until about 9. Then I run around the house so I can be ready in twenty minutes. By the time I am actually ready, it's about 9:30. I then take a 5 minute walk to the Metro Stop. My stop is called Alonso Martinez and on my way to Linea Diez (10), I smell the wonderful smell of pastries (yes, there is definitely a bakery in the Metro). I am always tempted to stop, but I'm always running late so I don't.

After a 5 to 7 minute train ride, I get off Nuevos Ministerios. I walk through this stop for about 10 minutes (it's a big ass metro stop!) just so I can exit on Calle Orense. Once I emerge from the underground of Madrid, I take a 5 minute walk to my class at EBC.

At 10, teacher training class begins. We talk about language skills, grammar, vocabular, etc. We take a ten minute break at around 11:30. This is usually my favorite part of the day. Me and my new friends usually go to Bar Delfin and get coffee. We've become such regulars at Delfin that they don't even ask for our orders anymore. I love it!

At 1, we break for lunch, my biggest meal of the day. (NOTE: Lunch is typically the biggest meal for Madrileños. Breakfast is very little, and dinner, at 9-ish, consists of tapas). We try to switch it up everyday, depending on how much money we want to spend. There are days when we reward ourselves and indulge, and then there are days when we realize we are poor and need to save. Lunch is about an hour so we usually end it with more coffee. Of course, you just can't end a meal here without coffee. Sometimes, I just like to take a walk so I can check out the hot men in suits. The area where my school is located is the financial district of Madrid.

So I'm pretty much in class from 10 to 5. Everyday is pretty similar except we practice teach on Thursdays and Fridays. My nights are pretty boring. I go home, work on my lessons, eat whatever I can find for dinner, talk with Juan, maybe do a sing and dance with Juan, and I go to bed at about 1.

And there you go. Hopefully, my life gets a little bit more exciting once my class ends. Two more days!!! Yay!!!

Week 3 (The Icky Week)

Week 3 has not been so good to me. I had to deal with some personal bullshit and then I got sick (fever, cold, cough - you name it, I got it). Everyone in my class was sick and I was the last one to get the virus. I tried to do a preemptive strike and went to the farmacia to get some drugs recommended by everyone. It was called Frenadol. It's like Emergen-C, except it's purely medicinal and it tastes like ass. So I drank one packet and almost vomited after every swallow. Within 20 minutes, I felt the effects. It was a really bad legal high I did not expect - and being legally high is just not as fun as being illegally high...except when you're in Amsterdam. That stuff knocks you out. I fell asleep at 9 and woke up 12 hours later. It was pretty disgusting. I vowed never to take it again. Result: preemptive strike did not work...just like Iraq.

So, I'm gonna be all Tom Cruise on this one and not take any drugs. I have, however, been drinking a lot of tea, which is very very unusual. I feel very Asian...maybe I'll re-discover my Asian roots here in Madrid. Who knew adding a little honey in tea makes it taste like candy. Hopefully, this natural thing will work.

But despite all this, the fact that I'm in Madrid makes me forget all my problems (emotionally and physically). If I was in Chicago, I'd probably be a horrid beast, especially with the snowstorm... that did not sound fun. And thankfully, my classes went well. Apparently, I teach a lot better when I'm sick. Go figure!

So now I am spending my Friday night getting some rest and drinking some good ol' chicken noodle soup...mmm! I really wanted to watch movies or some 30 Rock and Office reruns, but NBC.com and Netflix creepily knows that I am not within the 50 states and would not let me watch anything! Bastards! Big Brother has got to go!

RCD Espanyol vs. FC Barcelona

This weekend I went to Barcelona to hang out with Kevin and his friends. On Saturday, after hiking up what felt like multiple mountains all day (in non hiking boots, mind you!), we decided to go see a futbol match.

It was never planned of course. We walked up to Park Montjuic and proceeded to check out the Olympic Stadium (Barcelona held the '92 summer games). As we walked around we noticed that people were lined up to get tickets. The game was going to be pretty big because it was two Barcelona teams playing. None of us have ever been to a European futbol match and we knew it would be an experience of a lifetime. We hesitated at first because it was a bit expensive (I will not even disclose the amount b/c I myself can´t believe I paid that much for a game), but we just had to do it. How often are we in Barcelona????

So we found a British scalper from Manchester who sold us tickets at face value. Of course I was freaking out because I thought it´d be fake or just really crappy seats. When we got in the stadium, I could NOT believe we ended up on the 2nd row! It was pretty amazing. Here I am sitting on the 2nd row in one of the coolest Olympic stadiums ever watching one of the biggest games of the season. It couldn´t get any crazyier than that!!!

Oh but it does! I have to say I have never been to such an intense sporting event like this one. Granted the sporting events I´ve been to only includes Loyola Rambler games, a few MLB games,, and a couple of MLS games, but I think it is safe to say nothing is ever as ridiculous as watching a European futbol match.

Let me just set up the scene for you a little. The Olympic Stadium is home to the Espanyol, so of course the entire stadium is full of Espanyol fans (we were sitting among them so of course, we became Espanyol fans as well...no one really wanted to be killed that night). On the upper bleachers across the stadium from us was a section of Barcelona fans. In one corner section (Puerta 8), there were about 30 to 40 Espanyol fans surrounded by a fence (almost like they were caged in). These people seemed really hard core. I can only assume that they are the ¨hooligans¨. At one point, they raised a sign that said, ¨No discriminacion a Puerta 8¨. It just made all things more interesting.

Minutes before the game began, a mini fire started in the Barcelona section. All these security guys in neon green vests started running around with buckets of water. About 3 minutes into the game, about 20 feet above us, a screaming match began somewhere in the crowd. I´m assuming there was a Barcelona straggler that somehow ended up on the wrong section. Then Barcelona makes a goal! The Barcelona section goes crazy and the mini fire erupts again. More buckets of water. Twenty minutes later, we see something being thrown from the Barcelona section to the Espanyol fans sitting below them in the lower bleachers. What did they throw you ask? A flaming piece of something...a stick, a flare, who knows??? But it was on fire! The crowd gets even crazier and people start throwing shit at each other (not in my section at least). Puerta 8 fans start running towards up the stairs and I assume they were running to go to the Barcelona section. In seconds, you see riot police come out and surround the Barcelona section. Darn, no more flaming projectiles!

And all throughout the projectiles (flaming and non-flaming) and all the fans going nuts, the game just kept going. It almost seemed like it was all so normal. Because of the police presence, everything became relatively calm. But things were still pretty intense. You constantly here the words, Puta!!!, being said or sung or whatever. Even the ten year old girl behind me was singing Puta ole ole blah blah (whatever they were chanting)! So I started shouting puta (when in Rome, right?)!

I don´t quite understand all the futbol rules, and yet when you´re at one of these games you can´t help but get so into it. I didn´t even know either team (I was initially gonna go for Barcelona just because Ronaldinho plays for them and he was the only one I recognized), but by the end of it I was rooting for Espanyol. And in the end, they tied the game...woohoo!!!

It was amazing!!! I am officially a futbol fan! I can´t wait to go to a Real Madrid game! PUTA!!!!

Week 2

My second week in Madrid was a pretty long one. Fun but long. So I´m going to break it up a bit and write a few posts in one day.

School is starting to get a bit easier. I am starting to get the hang of this teaching gig. It´s still pretty challenging (I´m starting to run out of good ideas), but I didn´t panic as much as my first week. My class on Thursday was awful. I found myself looking at students who looked back at me with ¨confused¨ written all over their faces. If they had tomatoes, they probably would have thrown them at me. Nevertheless, it was a learning experience and my Friday class was a lot, A LOT, better. My last two weeks at school are going to be pretty tough. I have to write 16 lesson plans total. It´s going to majorly suck and I can´t wait for it to be over.

There are 5 people in my class. November is apparently the low month for TEFL courses. No one wants to come here right before Christmas...I wonder why. I´m really glad it´s a small class. It makes the class more fun. There are 3 1/2 Americans and 1 1/2 British (one boy is half and half). There are two of us girls, and three boys. I really like all my classmates. They are all fun and super nice. Not to be stereotypical or anything, but they are the type of people I expected to meet - very well traveled people. One of the things I love about traveling is meeting people that are from all over the world and so different from each other, but somehow we all bond because of our love for traveling. I can listen to all of them all day about their experiences. One studied in Jordan and another has visited every continent but Antarctica. Just really cool, amazing people!!! I love it!

Everyday, I feel more and more at home here in Madrid. I survived my first trip to the market. I was a bit confused at first because I didn´t know what I was doing and people just got more confused with my broken spanish. But in the end, I got my huevos, my queso, my pan, and a copy of Juan´s apartment keys. I also have a cellphone now...and it´s a cellphone I can actually text with! Having a Spanish phone with a Spanish number has definitely made me feel more settled.

Next on the to-do list: getting my own apartment!