Feliz Navidad

So these last two weeks I have been teaching my students a little bit about Christmas in the States but I have ended up learning a lot about Spain and how they celebrate Christmas. In a lot of ways the Spanish Christmas retains a lot of the true meaning that often gets throw by the way side or can even seem taboo to relate to the holidays in the U.S. At times I have almost felt silly telling my students the most relevant parts of our Christmas. Of course every family has different traditions but these are the most common things my students have taught me about Christmas in Spain...

- Nochebuena: Christmas Eve is similar to ours. My students said some of them go to church but mostly their grandparents go to the mass that night called "misa de gallo" or the mass of the rooster. They have a big dinner with their family this night much like we do consisting of lamb and different sea food.

- Papa Noel: Father Christmas or Santa Claus exists in Spain but it's not the focal point of Christmas like it tends to be in the states. Some families open presents from him late on Christmas Eve while others open them on Christmas morning. Christmas day is another day of family for the Spanish where they have a dinner usually including pork.

- Dia de Los Innocentes: this is the Spanish version of April Fool's Day and it happens to fall in the midst of all the holidays on the 28th making it even more fun!

- Nochevieja: New Years Eve is also a night with quite a few traditions. The most notable tradition here (which the majority of my students assumed that everyone else does as well) is the eating of 12 grapes at midnight. The clock chimes 12 and they eat one grape every time the clock chimes which it does 12 times, meaning good luck for every month of the year. It's all about luck in new years. In addition to the grapes they also drink champagne and put a piece of "gold jewelry" in their glass for luck. The last tradition that my very modest students mentioned is that everyone must wear red underwear for good luck and it must be new, you have to buy it for this night... Did I mention that Puerta de Sol in Madrid is where all the chiming is happening? If only I was here for new years!

- Jan 5th: On this day they have a big "calbagata" or parade for the Reyes Magos in most of the cities and pueblos in Spain. The wise men all throw out candy to the children, probably like Santa's on a fire truck and allegedly even the old people act like kids with a piñata.

- Los Reyes Magos: The 6th of January is the most important day for all the children in Spain. Their tradition is that the Reyes Magos or the 3 wise men as we know them, bring presents to all the children almost exactly like we believe in Santa except that they ride camels and instead of stockings they leave their shoes under the tree to be filled with gifts. They even leave cookies and milk for the wise men and water for the camels they ride. However a few of my students mentioned that they leave an alcoholic drink for them, I had to clarify that according to these students the wise men drink alcoholic beverages at every house in Spain needless to say it got me thinking that both of our traditions may be equally farfetched. We have a fat guy in a red suit that travels the whole world in a night giving gifts while they have three smart men that get drunk and give presents to everyone in Spain...

- Turron de Los Reyes: This is a traditional Christmas dessert which is like a brownie cake with almonds. But there is always a surprise baked into this cake and if you're lucky enough to find the gift tradition says you get to pay for the cake next year!

It's been really fun learning about new Christmas traditions and having a fun last class with my students. Although it never ceases to surprise me how much of an American influence there is. I mentioned to one of my classes that I think Spain has more traditions than we do but we have many more stories in the US such as the story of Santa, Rudolph, Frosty, the Grinch, Scrooge just to name a few. They all replied well we have your stories too just in Spanish! Living here is a constant learning experience. Sometimes I like the European way of doing things but there are a lot of things that we definitely do right in the States and its amazing how much of an effect we have on the world. I can't explain how excited I am to come back home and be American for a little while!

Accion de Gracias

I know I have said it before but the only way to describe being here is: emotional roller coaster. Well to those who know me emotions aren't usually something I associate myself with. I enjoy being easy going and unshakable for the most part. However Spanish Lindsay definitely feels a little bit more, which has been good and bad. Some days I'm overwhelmingly blue and just overwhelmed with my life here. I guess I'm discontent with the program, it's just not what I expected but my classes this term are much more interesting and I am liking them a lot more because they are all in Spanish so I feel like I'm learning more. That's part of it too. I really want to be speaking more Spanish. I'm definitely learning from hearing my students speak, talking to my teachers, and the day to day conversations when I'm out and about. I just would like it to be more, which is why I am excited to begin my "intercambio" tonight. My roommate knew a girl that wanted to practice her English and I need to practice my Spanish so we are planning to meet every Wednesday and help each other speak in both languages.

Back to the roller coaster. Yesterday I was in a sour mood all day and nothing could snap me out of it. Today I was feeling a little better and ended up having a great day of classes. Wednesdays are one of my longest days with 6 classes but they went really well today. Even though I don't see my students near often enough I'm starting to get to know the individual classes and how I need to approach the class in order to get them to participate and/or behave. The last couple weeks were a struggle in my younger classes because I think they were almost testing their boundaries with me and seeing what they could get away with, which resulted in me having to yell, send them out, and tell their teachers and ultimately them not coming to their next class with me. None if this was fun but I think it's teaching me to be more firm at first and then fun in these classes. When it comes to my senior classes which I was at one point absolutely dreading I'm learning to be more understanding of their lack of participation. Most of them really do not understand me. I'm realizing that even though they may have the highest education in English grammar, their conversation and listening comprehension is below even some of my seventh graders. I'm trying to do a better job of keeping everyone on the same page and letting people have time to catch up in the conversation. They aren't bad students and most of them are really nice kids. I just need to teach more on their level and interest.

So I'm feeling better than yesterday, definitely focusing on staying positive. I'm learning that the process of moving to a new country, settling in and getting somewhat accustomed to being away from friends and family is not an easy one. The first hurdle is tomorrow. Thanksgiving. Yes I know it may not seem like the most horrible thing to miss but it's my first holiday away and it is my favorite holiday. I guess it's just hard to think about everyone all together and me not being there for the first time in my life. But it's okay because I will be home in 29 days and I am making sure that everyone I love knows how thankful I am for having them in my life, even if I'm an ocean away.

Por fin, estoy agradecido por esta oportunidad para vivir en un país nuevo y aprender sobre una idioma y cultura diferente. Pero la cosa más importante en mi vida es la genta que me quiero. Tengo muchisima suerte en mi vida y doy gracias a Dios por todo :)

Un buen dia (written October 25th)

*sorry I have been horrible at posting lately, I'm going to be better!

Today was a pretty good day. It's Friday so I start with Segundo Bachillerato (12^th grade) which is my least favorite usually just because it feels impossible to get them to do or care about anything. That class went okay I gave them people magazines my mom sent me from home and had them do a scavenger hunt. I had 2 segundo ESO (8^th grade) classes that went pretty well and I was dreading my biweekly Friday recreo (recess) duty. The past 2 times have literally been a torturous 30 mins of walking back and forth aimlessly and having groups of students pass by say hi and then talk about me or basically cat call me from the basketball court "Lindsay mira!" (Lindsay look!) today started out pretty much like that and I was guarding the wrong part of the area to begin with, until the other teacher came up to me and said "no, no, no" so I thought she was telling me I couldn't eat my peach when I was on duty but she was actually telling me I was in the wrong spot. So anyway I walked around for a few minutes and then a group of 4 junior and senior girls came up to me and we talked the whole rest of the recess. They were so sweet and it was nice to just talk to them because they wanted to talk not because I was badgering them to practice their English in class. They told me I should practice my Spanish with them but I told them I can't I'm there so they practice English, but they were still really sweet who knows maybe I will break the rules one day and speak a little Spanish with them ;) I don't think the girls realized how much they made me day just b talking to me and not staring at me like everyone usually does. The rest of the day went well I had a class of juniors that I couldn't help but just laugh at because they say the funniest things. I had a lot of fun with them though. I wish all the classes could understand that, that if you treat me with respect and participate we can have fun and I even let them study for the test they had next because in the beginning they put their notes away when I asked them to, it was that simple but I had a class the day before that refused to put their notes away the whole time. I struggle with it because I know they don't care about my class it's not important to them especially the seniors. The few who care about learning English listen to me but there's no use in forcing the ones who don't. Am I really going to change their minds and convince them that English is important? Maybe with those classes that's what I need to do, show them why learning English is worth their time...
So I'm getting into the groove with school and life it feels like. We've also had a lot of fun discovering the city. Just the other day I was running through Parque Retiro the famous park that is just a few blocks from our house and I literally ran into a garden of peacocks. I was adding a little detour to my run and I found myself in a beautiful garden with peacocks wandering around, that's normal right? Then on Saturday we all went there and took pictures and hung out by the lake, it was an absolutely gorgeous day.

So I’m a Teacher Now?

I can't believe I am already finishing up my fourth week of school. Every day I feel more and more comfortable at the school and in front of my classes even though at some points I was pretty sure I would never feel like I belonged there. But I'm into the swing of things and yes very exhausted but on Friday afternoon I feel good, I feel like I'm doing something I enjoy. That's my favorite part when I introduce an activity they really like or someone says "oh yes" after I try my hardest to describe a vocabulary word in English without giving in and just using the Spanish word, or when students come up to me after class and tell me something so proud to be using their English and especially every time that I have a conversation with the teachers Myriam and Begona.

I feel like I should start with the beginning of my day. I wake up at around 5:40 and every morning I literally set about 4 different alarms because I am scared to death that I am going to oversleep. My roommates don't start crawling out of bed till past 7 so I have to rely on my clocks! As much as I absolutely dread waking up that early I have been feeling pretty awake in the morning which is good. I usually grab a magdalena or muffin and leave the house by 6:30. I know some cities never sleep but trust me this one does, and you know when? Until about 8 am. It's weird to see the city so quiet and still when I leave in the morning, it's kind of cool. There aren't ever people on the metro, maybe 3 people in every car (when there is usually never an empty seat) not even business people approach the day early here. So I take 2 metros and go through about 15 stops and then walk about 5 minutes and I usually arrive at my school around 7:30 while the stars are still shining and I'm just in time to get myself situated before class starts at quarter to 8. The rest of my day is class after class I have from 4 to 6 classes a day. I work with the other English teachers and try to do some work out of their books that involve pronunciation, speaking and listening. School is different here because the morning lasts until around 2 and then the students either eat a school or go home for about 2 hours and then they come back to school for 2 more sessions. Usually primary school starts around 9 goes till 1 and then from 3 to 5. I'm lucky that I'm done at 3 at the latest. I'm not sure if I'd survive any more than that! They also have a half hour break at 11:30 called recreo or recess and all the students go out to the play yard for a half hour even the seniors. Recess duty is slight torture when I have it every other Friday I like overhearing them talking about me when they don't think I understand! Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I get to come home and when I am feeling productive I run to the park "El Retiro" which is a pretty amazing place and only about 15 minutes away from my house.

Lately we have been trying to explore our city and I think I have finally gotten my grasp on my surroundings. I never thought I would get on the metro and actually be 100% sure about where I was going but I finally am! This past weekend we tried the Spanish dish "Cocido" it's a meal that begins with a soup dish and is followed by a sort of potato vegetable plate and finally ending with a plate of various meat. And when I say various I mean I don't really know what the meat was. There was definitely some sausage and chicken which we ate. We even tried what we believed to be was a hoof (just to say we did it). There was also a questionable tongue looking object among other things we were too afraid to try. My favorite part of food in Spain is the tapas. Tapas are like a snack or appetizer that you order at restaurants. Usually when you order a drink the camarero or waiter will give you a free tapa. My favorite tapas are Spanish Tortilla (a mixture of egg, potato, onion), patatas bravas (potatoes with a spicy mustard and ketchup like sauce), and a plate of sliced meat with cured cheese. At our favorite tapas bar that we have been going to pretty regularly on Fridays or any free night they give us every possible tapa for free. I keep telling the waiters that we are going to be gorditas (little fatties) when we leave! But they laugh and pile the food on. They finally know that I am gluten free and even have bread for me! My Spanish has been improving as well. Most of my practice is in the restaurants and when I meet people because I am mostly speaking only English at school. We have met people from all over from Venezuela, Portugal, Peru, to Bulgaria. It's amazing how many languages everyone can speak. My roommates and I do our best to make people we meet only speak Spanish with even if they know English. It's only been a month and although I'm not speaking all the time I am definitely feeling more confident so I am hoping that after ten more months of this I will have a much better level of proficiency.

Here are a couple of notes I wrote after school but forgot to post!

Thursday September 23^rd

I feel like every day and in turn every week is a roller coaster when you are teaching. Yesterday for example was fine but not great. Nothing went wrong but I didn't have any moments where I was like wow I love doing this. But today even though I had by far the worst class I still had a great day overall. I know sometimes they are laughing at the way I say things or making jokes but I think that rather than being angry it's best to just bring the class back together and continue. If I let every single little thing bother me then I wouldn't succeed. I love when they ask me questions and when I tell them things and I see a light go on. I feel like such a real teacher to say this but I love when they are excited to learn! Also today I worked with Begona during my break period and we talked a little in Spanish and then I helped her with English pronunciation and phonetics. I have never thought about all the sounds we say but it really is difficult to learn all the variations of sounds. I also had desayuno with her, Paloma, Myrian, and Peter (other teachers from the school). I actually spoke Spanish with them and I think they were surprised especially Paloma she said " hablas muy bien el espanol" and I was like no no! Haha it's hard to jump into conversations with the teachers because they speak so fast and one on top of the other. But it's definitely good practice.

Monday September 27^th

I hate not knowing exactly how I should act and what my role is. Today a student I haven't had yet, he was probably like at least 3rd ESO, came up to me an introduced himself, with the double cheek Spanish kiss, clearly just to be the funny guy. It's hard because I am so much closer in age to the students than to the professors. The majority of the kids are respectful and I know they do want to learn from me, but there's usually a few that because their English isn't that good and they either just don't care or pretend not to; they ruin it for the others. Although I feel like there is a balance because for every class that I am on my last nerve with there is another that cooperates, wants to learn, and ultimately has fun in class as well. It's so easy to love the teacher's pets! I mean especially for me because they interpret for me when the bad kid is mouthing off too quickly for me to understand and they are just so eager to use their English. I'm not sure which kid I was in school probably closer to teachers pet, especially when I was younger, but then I'm sure I turned into one of those kids with the "I wish I was somewhere else" attitude most of the time. That's the other thing I was in high school 5 years ago so I really do know how my students feel. I guess that's what I have been trying to get across to them, especially the bacilleratos (the Juniors and Seniors). I want to relate to them so they feel like it's not un-cool to learn in my class. That's probably a lot to ask right? Haha well they only see me every other week so maybe they'll be okay with being a dork and actually learning something every once in a while.

First day of escuela!!!

Went pretty well I think. I know I'm not fooling most of them about speaking Spanish. It's hard I don't know if I should interpret things for them or answer their questions when they ask in Spanish. I kept catching myself wanting to say "chicos" and "escuchame". It's definitely the easier way to teach but I do realize it's not as effective. By the last class I definitely saw the students working harder to think of things in English because they knew I wasn't going to speak or react to Spanish. Although they also lean on the more advanced students to listen and just tell them in Spanish. It's going to be a challenge to get them to use mostly English in the class room, especially with the younger classes primero and segundo grado which is equivalent to 7^th and 8^th grade. I also tried to ask what things they like and what they want to learn about. I had to sorta push them to get ideas but it was mostly like famous people, movies, sports and music that got them excited.     

I'm thinking with cuarto (high school sophomores) and 1st and 2nd bachillerato (juniors and seniors) I will be able to ask more like parts of grammar and specific things they want to understand better. I thought it was funny too that the books they use have things in there that don't really sound correct and somethings that are just plain wrong. It's definitely all based on England English. It's weird that the English spell things differently. I'm kind of glad that I get to represent the US and our language, traditions and life to the students. My favorite part of the day was when in the first class they at first took forever to guess what country I am from Ireland, Holland, England, Spain, Russia and then finally the US. The other classes got it quicker. But second when they named off cities they knew in the states and I said that Philadelphia is my city they immediately said Will Smith! And "principe de bel air"! I had to laugh and say yes that is where I'm from. So for now I feel pretty good about it all. I know come tomorrow I will be nervous again but one step at a time and little by little as Myriam my favorite English teacher likes to say all the time. She makes me feel a lot better about everything. I need to make sure I engage with the other teachers and don't just hide up in my classroom Jose Luis because it would be easy to do just that. Hasta luego!

Settling In …

So I have officially been here for a little over 2 weeks now and its starting to hit me that this isn't a trip or a vacation but that this is my new home. It helps a lot that I have really good friends as roommates, it usually makes home feel not too far away. This week home was definitely feeling far way. I knew this experience would teach me a lot about myself and life it's just that some lessons are hard to learn. At first I doubted myself and what I am doing wondering why I wanted to do something so far away from everyone. But as this bout of homesickness is passing I guess I am really just being reminded of how much my family and friends mean to me. It may be cliché and obvious but distance really does make the heart grow fonder and I am grateful that I have this experience and opportunity J

Which brings me to my job! What am I doing here everyone wants to know and honestly when I got here I barely knew, and to be even more honest I still don't know all the way what exactly I am doing! I started my Master's Classes last Tuesday and I will have class every Tuesday and Thursday evening. So far the classes seem interesting and helpful for how and what to teach in our classes. Basically I am in a program through La Universidad de Alcala which is a university right outside of Madrid. The university has agreements with many of the schools in the Madrid area and supplies the schools with "Auxiliers" or English speaking students like us to assist in the school's English classes. My school and many of the schools that my classmates teach at are in an organization of schools called FERE - Federacion Española De Religiosos De Enseñanza which is an association for the Catholic schools in Madrid. Recently (in the past two years) there has been a movement here in Madrid to develop the schools into Bilingual schools this is called the BEDA program or Bilingual English Development and Assessment. The schools are fairly new with this program so some are beginning to teach numerous English classes and others are already teaching subject matter classes in English. This means that for example science is taught in English instead of Spanish. As Auxiliaries we are supposed to be utilized with this program and assist the teachers in different classes only ever speaking English in front of the students.

So that is what the program is but as for me it seems so far that my school will be giving me a slightly different role. I went to my school last Wednesday and they gave me my schedule. I will be the English Conversation Class teacher with my very own class room teaching grades 7 through 12! I begin tomorrow and I will ultimately teach every student in the secondary school. I have 25 different classes and will have half of each class at a time so I will essentially see every student only once every other week. The goal of my class will be to encourage the students to speak and use English conversationally with confidence. I met the 4 English teachers on Wednesday and they were extremely nice. Although when they realized I was 22 and have not only never taught before but that I didn't even study education in college they pretty much looked at me with these huge eyes that said to me "these kids may eat this blonde hair green eyed little girl alive." Needless to say I was a little overwhelmed at first. However they reassured me over and over again that I would be fine and that they would be helping me every step of the way. They also stressed to me that I would need to be strict at first and make sure the students understand that my class is important and basically get their respect right off the bat. I'm excited to get into the swing of things and learn my role in the school; it should definitely be an interesting first week!

 

http://www.ecmadrid.org/

http://www.ecmadrid.org/Pedagogico/Programas%20y%20Proyectos/Programa%20BEDA.html

Moving In: Step Numero Uno

Monday morning we woke up to our last morning at the Best Western Los Condes and were just a little bit excited to say goodbye to the shoebox of a room. We went to the bank with our fingers crossed and were able to take out the money we needed for our 4 months of rent forward payment. We signed the final contract and moved our suitcases in to our very own apartment! It seems though that having a place to live has only brought us more steps to finally getting accommodated into our new city.

Step 1 Getting the internet: Clearly internet is what we all want the most upon moving in because how do you live without it?? Well step 1 quickly leads us to step 2 which is setting up a Spanish bank account which you need in order to sign a contract for internet. So we got bank accounts at the local Barclays so that we can set up internet, get paid, and pay bills throughout the next 10 months. To make a long story short we will not have internet for at least 2 weeks. At first this was a big rain on our parade but so far in the mean time we have been getting to know our barrio*, trying to cook in our little cocina*, making friends and taking advantage of the free time that we won’t have when work and school start next week.

It’s been over a week since we got here and its starting to hit me that this is going to be my life. Everything we have done so far has been a little discouraging at times and has felt like such a process but overall it’s been the beginning of an adventure. It feels good to know that we have a home and are starting to get to know our surroundings. I am learning to accept that my American tendency of wanting instant gratification is not going to fly here so I’m joining the slower Spanish way of life and enjoying my siestas :)