A lot to catch up on...

Two weekends ago, I went to Cáceres for an Irish music festival. One of my friends in Don Benito found out about it. Cáceres is only about 1 hr and 45 minutes from Don Benito by bus so it wasn’t a very intense trip. We went on Saturday morning and spent the morning walking around the old section of town. I kind of already did this when I was in Cáceres for orientation, but I really didn’t put much effort into it last time because I was so preoccupied by starting the program and very anxious to go to Don Benito. So it was nice to be able to go there again and really see it. The old section (“Ciudad Monumental”) was very beautiful. Its just a cluster of old buildings near the center. The music was supposed to start at 6:00. But ofcourse they were on Spanish time and the music didnt actually start until 7:30 at the bar we were at. That was more like a jam session, where who ever can play just comes and they improv it. Later that night were the actual concerts. The stage was set up in the old part of the city, so it was a very pretty setting. The first set was these two guys (I cant remember their names), they were pretty good, nothing exceptional. Then the “headliner” was an irish group called Dervish. Most all of their songs were in the Irish language. They were really good. They had some Irish dancers come out at times to dance during the songs. It was pretty cool.

Last weekend, I went to Trujillo for a day. Trujillo is only 45minutes from Don Benito, so it makes for a nice day trip. I signed up and went with a tour group of sorts from Don Benito. The trip, which included transportation to and from Trujillo and breakfast and lunch was only 10euros, which is really good. However, the lady from the travel agency told me that there would be a “charla” which is when we have to sit through a sales pitch of some sort, but we are not obligated to buy anything. I imagined that this sales pitch would be selling some type of local handicraft, like pottery of Trujillo or something..... but no.... the man was a mattress salesman. Mattresses?? How random This sales pitch lasted like 2.5 hours too. At first I was like, well I will pay attention and learn some new vocabulary, but after like an hour I was completely zoned out.

So after all this and lunch, we finally went to see Trujillo. The old section of Trujillo is very beautiful. It is the home if Pizarro, the conquistador. We went to the house where he was born and also to the old churches in the old section. We went to a Clothes museum that showcased the traditional clothes of many different areas in Spain. The sun was setting by the time we got to the Castillo (castle), so it was very beautiful. Castles are always situated on the tops of hills, so the view was amazing. We could see all around Trujillo... and with the sunset., it was perfect. So after all the mattresses and everything, it was a worthwhile trip.

Don Benito has set up Christmas decorations throughout the city. I am looking forward to seeing them all lit up once Dec. 8th rolls around.

So, me and my roommate have moved apartments... well almost. We have to go clean the old apartment tonight and then hand in our keys tomorrow. We wanted to live with a Spanish person, so we happened to find this girl, Irene, who just moved here who is in school to be a dental hygienist. So we had to move to a 3 bedroom. Luckily, our new apartment is right across the street from our old apartment. So it was a relatively easy move. I’ll put up some pics of our new place on facebook soon. I really love the new apartment. Its old, but has a lot of character. :)

Thats all for now. Thanks for reading my blog!

Past few days

I started working at my second school last week. It is a secondary school, but its more like our junior high. It has our equivalent of 7th-10th grade. But I teach the equivalent of 8th-10th. So this school combined with the primary school, I teach elementary, middle, and high school age levels. I guess that will give me a lot of practice with each level so I can decide which one I am best suited for, so when I come back to the US I can know what I am looking for.

I really like working at Sierra La Mesta (secondary school). I really like the age levels. The teachers here are really helpful and supportive. Even though my work is “easy” its pretty hard starting out because I just have no idea what they know and what they don’t. They have been taking English since they started school, but they still do not know a lot so I’m always asking whether they know this certain thing before I continue explaining. Because I don’t want to insult their intelligence nor do I want to leave them behind. I only work with each class once a week also so its hard to keep track of the exact level of each class.

This past weekend was pretty boring. I just stayed around Don Benito and there was really not much to do at all. I have three day weekends which is great for traveling, but I cant afford to travel every weekend, so when I don’t I just get really bored. I mean I do need time to plan my lessons, but not three days. :)

Also, Sundays are the worst because everything is closed. I cant go to the gym or the library or to grocery store or the movies.. nothing So, I watched some TV which is good on one hand because its in Spanish so at least Im practicing. I watched some local programming so I learned about the wine country around here and then about bullfighting. I cant help but wince when I watch the bull fighting. I don’t know if I could go to one and sit through the whole thing.

In all of my classes this week I am teaching about Halloween. I am already sick of it. But the professors here are all about some Halloween. I guess it is pretty interesting for the students since they don’t do that here, but its not that cool. I think there is way more interesting things in the US. But I do as I am told. I spliced together a little video from an episode of Freaks and Geeks where they go trick-or-treating so they could see what that is like. But, of course, their stupid operating system wont play it because I have windows (I did it on windows movie maker) and they use linex (sp?). Why would anyone use linex? Its so annoying and hard to use. AAAnnnd it wont play my fun video. I do my powerpoint presentations on google docs, because it wont work otherwise.

I had sevillanas and latin dance class tonight. I do love dancing. It was fun, but my feet hurt now. :)

Thats all for now.

Fiesta in Don Benito, Fiesta for my Birthday

This past Monday there was a national holiday in Spain. It did not really understand the explanations for why it was a holiday, but I think it was something to do with honoring the Patron saint of Spain, “Nuestra Señora del Pilar”. In Don Benito, the festival that took place was called “La Vela” (the candle) and it was to honor Don Benito’s patron saint, “La Señora de las Cruces” (the lady of the crosses). The statue of Señora de las cruces was brought in earlier in September and had stayed in the main church in Don Benito, Iglesia de Santiago. Sunday had a day of festivities and masses to celebrate the saint. In the afternoon children offered flowers. Then at night there was music and traditional dancing. The music and dancing was very Spanish, slightly reminiscent of Flamenco, but a completely separate thing.

On Monday, there was the pilgrimage. Whoever wants to do the pilgrimage meets in the Plaza at 8am and then the “camino” (the walk) began at like 8:20. My friends, who were supposed to meet me at 8, did not get there till 8:45... so we had some catching up to do. We hustled and it did not take us long at all to catch up with the group of peligrinos (pilgrims). This was mainly because a group of people have to carry the statue of the Señora de las Cruces, so naturally, they can not move that fast. Since it was fairly early in the morning it was not very hot yet, which made for a pleasant walk. The walk ends at the “ermita de las cruces” (chapel). It was about a 6-7 kilometer walk. The pace was pretty glacial because that Señora was moving so slow. We got there about 11:30, I think. Im not really sure. As soon as the statue gets there a mass begins. But none of us were really feeling the mass since it was starting to get hot and you had to stand in the sun for that. The sun here is pretty killer too. So we walked around and visited the different vendors, but we got drained pretty quickly, mainly because of the sun. So around 1:30 we decided we were going to get the bus back to Don Benito (there were buses running so people didnt have to walk back or make the pilgrimage at all– weak!)

We were not very prepared for our trip out there because we realized that everyone had brought picnic baskets and blankets to sit on and we had nothing. The food was way over priced, which is expected because it’s a festival, but we had no where to sit because we had no blanket, so we just decided to head back. We definitely felt dumb tho, because people were just arriving and were telling us the party was just starting, why would we leave?? Oh well. Next time we are in Don Benito for the festival, we will know what to do :)

Yesterday was my birthday. And it was a pretty nice day. I didn’t have to work, so I got to sleep-in and take it easy. I went to the city gym thing and signed up to take a step class. So, hopefully that will keep me in shape :)

Later that night I went out with my friends to a restaurant for dinner. The place was called El Museo because it is right next to the museum. We just got raciones (portions) of different things and all tried them. We ate patatas bravas (french fries with this spicy pink sauce), Croquetas de bacalao (little fried things with cod and cheese inside), berenjera con queso y beicon (eggplant with cheese and bacon), revuelto de setas y gambas (scrambled eggs with mushrooms and shrimp), and tonssss of pan (bread). They love their bread here The waiter accidently gave us a salad too. It was very interesting food overall, but I liked it mas o menos. My friends gave me some fun presents too. I got a hoola-hoop :)

Before I came to Spain I expected my birthday to be kind of non-existent because I didn’t think I would know anyone to celebrate it with, but luckily my friends here made it great!!

Oh, and my class sang happy birthday to me today. In English of course! :)

Thursday October 8th

Today is Thursday and I have been in Spain for about a week and a half now. I am really loving Don Benito. It has everything I need, and it’s a real friendly place.

I just signed up for Sevillanas classes. That is a dance originating from Sevilla. Its kind of similar to Flamenco. It was a pretty good deal. I start classes next Thursday and I will continue until I leave at the beginning of June.

I went to school for the first time on Monday and it was kind of overwhelming, but the students seemed pretty interested in me and the US. I taught my first lessons on Wednesday. I did one presentation about myself, my family, my university, and my hobbies. I showed them a video of NC State football because that doesnt really exist in Spain. I explained that it was kind of like rugby, but they get super confused because fútbol is soccer, so the words just mix them up like crazy. I was trying hard to get them all to love NC State by saying they were the best team. But I don’t think they really care. I was hoping to have like a whole school in Spain loving NC State so when they come to the US they know whats up :)

I also taught a lesson on the central nervous system. They just decided to make the school a bilingual school but its not going very well. They don’t really understand much English at all. But, I still thought the lessons both went pretty well. I definitely feel more prepared for this job than I thought I would be. Most language assistants have never had any teaching experience so I know I have it a little easier.

This weekend I am going to visit Guadalupe. It’s a small town north of here. A lot of people make pilgrimages there so it definitely has some value. The teacher I am working with is taking me so she can show me around. She used to work in that area so she knows what going on. I have off Monday because it’s a national holiday so I have a pretty laid back weekend ahead of me. Spain, you are so wonderful

First Few days in Spain

I’ve been in Spain for not quite a week. My flights over were terrible. Wind in Philadelphia caused a lot of issues. I got rerouted thru Lisbon and arrived in Madrid like 5 hours later than normal. Which all would no have been that bad except that my bags of course got lost in the process. But, luckily, they made it to me about 48 hours later. I have to admit I was nervous they would be gone forever. Spain did not instill me with much confidence. I started out the week in Cáceres for orientation. And the city was pretty nice, but I didnt try to hard to get to know it very well since I knew I was not going to be back again. The university in Cáceres is pretty famous and classes were about to start so the university students there were partying pretty much 24/7. It was really hard to walk through the Plaza Mayor. The old part of the town was very beautiful, but of course, my camera died before I could take even one picture... oh well.

Orientation, overall, was a little pointless, but it was good to meet all the language assistants of the region. Right now, there are six of us that are living in Don Benito. My piso (apartment) is really cute. It’s a two bedroom with a big living room. My room is pretty small, but I don’t really need anything big. I’ll try to put up pics later.

I met one of the teachers I am supposed to work with this year on Friday. She was pretty helpful and very talkative. She told me a lot about extremaduran specialties. I think I will learn a lot from her.

I forgot how frustrating the siesta in Spain can be. On one hand I love it because I do love naps, but on the other when I am trying to have a productive day, it is impossible because of those three hours. For those who don’t know, all the stores shut down from 2 to 5or 6. And then stay open till like 8. Restaurants stay open of course, but other than that nada.