Hello again, friends near and far!
(link to photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/mary.dellenbach, also listed at the top of the right-hand column)
As you can see from my rather ancient (as the internet goes) previous entry, I did not anticipate having the chance to update this blog with any more aventuras madrileñas. But a large stroke of luck and some very dear friends had me heading back again to Spain for 12 marvelous days in mid-January. Yes, I said January, and yes, I know that was 10 months ago. But my current job is an indirect result of that trip: I now find myself back again in Madrid for one more year and a whole new set of adventures teaching English!
I will make some pathetic attempt at chronological order for this long-overdue update. Back in January….
El sushi manchego
Two of my old Madrid roommates, José and Yuko, were married in January, and I flew over for their wedding. For the first time, upon landing in Spain I was able to go directly to someplace I already considered home. Despite all the craziness of wedding planning and friends visiting from near and far, they welcomed me back into their apartment, and it was like I had never left. My first meal back in Spain was, naturally, a Japanese dish (cooked by Yuko). The first couple days passed in a jetlagged blur as I met with old friends from NYU, my host families, and former professors. Of course, the camera came out as I wandered around town, taking all the photographs I had never gotten around to the previous year. I also discovered a traveling parade of cows (Minnesotans: they’re like the Snoopys and Charlie Browns around town)—see the Madrid 2009 photo album. I happened to be visiting Rosa, my former host mother in Madrid, the day of President Obama’s inauguration, so we watched it together. If not for her, I would have forgotten about it completely!
The weekend of the wedding itself was without a doubt the highlight of the trip. It took place in Ruidera, a small town near a string of lakes in the middle of La Mancha (it’s sort of a National Park kind of place). I drove down (about a 2.5 hour trip) with a couple of cousins, and on the way we saw all these strange bonfires on the side of the road. The towns were celebrating… something (the end of the growing season?)… by burning the old grapevines from the vineyards. The fires were just starting to die down when we pulled into Ruidera at around 10 p.m.—just in time for supper.
The dinner was a delicious and rather hilarious blend of Spanish and Japanese food, as was only right and proper for such an occasion. Tortilla de patatas, jamón serrano, local wine, and sushi. Yep. The first time I ever ate sushi was in the middle of La Mancha. Now, I admit that, even after living with a japonesa for six months, I still can’t use chopsticks properly, so I’m hardly one to talk. But it was a riot watching dozens of Spaniards fumbling with chopsticks (at least I didn’t feel so alone!) before finally deciding to simply spear chunks of tortilla and rolls of sushi through the heart. It had Yuko and the Japanese guests in stitches. Dinner was followed by what I believe was the first Naives Out concert in Spain. (Naives Out: Jose, Yuko, and Pasquin. JP and his violin joined in for the occasion.) Dancing and a trip to a bar down the street rounded off the evening; I think the locals were rather bemused by the sudden influx of city people, not to mention the foreigners! (I was the only American there, but was joined by people from Japan, England, France, Czechoslovakia, and surely at least one more country I’m forgetting.) The night ended around 4 the next morning.
The new day began with a trip to the Lagunas de Ruidera, the system of narrow lakes just outside town. We all piled into a few cars, most everyone complaining about the cold. I was thrilled with the weather: the lakes were open, not iced over, and no one around me even understood what -20 could possibly feel like. Heaven! It was a foggy day, which made for fabulous pictures, if not fabulous views of the lakes. But just knowing there were respectable bodies of water in the middle of Spain made me beyond happy. Good Minnesotan that I am, I had always missed my lakes while in Spain. But no more! Before heading back into town, we stopped at a cave that appears in one of Don Quixote’s adventures (la Cueva de Montesinos). After clambering around and probably scaring a poor little bat, it was back to the hotel for lunch and a siesta before the main event.
The wedding took place in an auditorium. Picture the novios onstage, with immediate family to one side, Japanese and Spanish flags behind, and Jose’s father giving his speech—when Yuko cracked up. Quick digression: I should mention that Jose had forgotten his suit at home, and his poor sister Pichu had to turn around and fetch it the night before. Well, now it was Yuko’s turn. She had forgotten the rings! Luckily, they were in the hotel rather than all the way back in Madrid. As several people offered to loan their rings to the couple, someone dashed back to the hotel, returning victorious just in time for the ceremony itself. I’ve never witnessed so much laughter at a wedding before… have a look at the photos (album: el sushi manchego). They speak for themselves. The reception was a blast. Friends singing one of the Naives Out songs with reinvented lyrics, an uncle telling me to marry one of the cousins so I could stay in Spain, lots of dancing, wine, and laughter…. It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a wedding.
We attempted to go back to the bar around three or four in the morning, but oddly enough it was closed. So about a dozen of us who really didn’t want the night to end crammed ourselves in one hotel room, and were regaled with silly stories by Alberto (a friend of Jose’s who really could be a stand-up comedian if he wanted) until close to 7 a.m. I laughed so hard I think I was crying.
The rest of my all-too-brief stay in Spain passed by in a flurry of visits and dinners, including a delightful last meal at the Japanese restaurant Yuko was working at (so my entire stay in Spain ended up being framed by Japanese food!), and one interview, which I’ll get to in a minute. And then it was time to leave, and I told myself I had been lucky to return, and now it was time to let go of my second country and make the goodbyes last for who knows how many years…. Happily, I was quite mistaken.
call me “Teacher”
The interview I had during my brief stay in January was with UCETAM, an organization of several dozen colegios concertados (the closest equivalent I can think of is charter schools) that are trying to move in the direction of a bilingual education. It’s a pretty new system (I’m reluctant to use “organization” any more than I have to, because that word is a bit of an oxymoron!), only a couple years old. Each year they hire auxiliares de conversación, which is what I now am. We’re supposed to be in the grade school classrooms to speak with the students, help them learn English, and help with the “bicultural project” that UCETAM promotes in its schools. I work 17 hours a week, get paid more than enough to cover rent and expenses, and I have medical insurance (which has already come in handy!). But the position isn’t quite what I expected…
I teach 2 classes of kindergarteners, 2 classes of 2nd graders, and one class of 5th graders, and I also sit in on a couple art, science, and gym classes. Yes, I said gym class. Those of you who knew me in grade school have permission to fall off your chairs laughing. Rest assured I have politely but oh-so-firmly turned the gym teacher down on his oh-so-generous offers to let me run laps with the students. The school I teach at is in Majadahonda, a suburb of Madrid, so I have a bit of a commute each day. Majadahonda is a bit like a Spanish Woodbury, only with more apartment buildings and chalets and expensive-looking townhomes, rather than big houses. The school gives me free lunch, and it’s good food. I get along very well with the other auxiliares and the teachers. Granted, they kind of threw us into the classrooms and said “Go ahead, teach!” without warning or preparation. I never expected to have to plan my own lessons from the very first day! But they seem to have capitulated to our contracts and have stopped trying to leave us alone in the classrooms with the niños... at least for now.
As for the students... well, there’s all kinds. Some of the kindergarteners give me hugs and say they love me; others sleep, show me their mucus, and throw crayons. One class of second graders won't shut up; the other has a challenging boy named Juan who's both epileptic and hyperactive. Yikes. And I don't know the 5th graders very well yet, since we only have class once a week, and the first couple weeks almost all of them were out sick. I currently have them with me for recess, both as punishment and to practice a Halloween dance to “Ghostbusters”. The result so far has been me deciding to buy a whistle to see if that will make them shut up. Lovely, no? Oh, and one last detail: I can't let on that I speak Spanish. Makes it a bit challenging, especially when the professors don’t speak English!
A few amusing anecdotes from the kiddies:
-- Spanish schoolchildren are apparently obsessed with snails. At least three different classes asked me if there are snails in Minnesota. (Or wolves. Or lions. Or ants or rabbits or scorpions or birds or... One class really knew its animal vocabulary!)
-- One little girl keeps confusing rubber (British term for eraser... boy does that take a little getting used to!) with rabbit... very enthusiastically, might I add.
-- One 5th grader apparently heard "Venezuela" instead of "Minnesota" (and ignored that whole “United States” thing) when I was explaining where I'm from. So all you Minnesotans who haven't learned Spanish yet, time to shape up! You now live in Venezuela.
… and now, the rest of the story.
Aside from work, which I’m sure I’ll get used to eventually, and getting sick twice (stupid kids and their stupid colds…), things have been going fabulously. I arrived in Spain just in time to spend a little time with Jose and Yuko before they moved to Japan at the end of September. They held a giant farewell party with astounding quantities of homemade tortilla and falafel, and I spent a bunch of time making a send-off video, which you can find on Youtube if you’re at all interested (just search for Jose and Yuko… I’m sure it’s the only one that will come up).
I’m still in the process of reconnecting with old friends, but I have a great new apartment—thanks mainly to Jose. His friend Lidia, who I knew from my previous stay in Madrid, needed new roommates, and I’m lucky enough to have great timing. So I have a new apartment, just south of the city center, and Lidia and I found a third roommate, Micaela, an engineer from Barcelona who happens to speak perfect English (with an American accent, no less)… She startled the heck out of me a few days after she moved in, when she asked me something in English. I’d had no idea! So I love my new place, and my new roommates, and even my new neighborhood. I haven’t gotten myself lost yet, the owner of the fruit store down the street already knows me, and I can find everything I could possibly need within walking distance. Even a tapestry store. And yes, I do appreciate how lucky I am. My parents keep saying they should bring me to the casino; I’m beginning to agree.
I’m teaching a couple individual English classes, with hope for one or two more on the horizon (again, thanks to Jose). I also worked orientation for NYU when I first arrived, which pretty much took up my first week back in the country. But extra cash is nice.
And now I’m all settled in, starting to get in the swing of things at school, and waiting to get well enough to get back out and enjoy my city again while the nice weather still holds. (Speaking of which, all you Minnesota people have my deepest sympathies… in between bouts of hysterical laughter, that is!)
Hope all is well in your corner of the world!
un beso,
Mary
ways past Puerta de Toledo to an overlook where I could take some quick pictures of the evening sky. Well, I ended up at the Palacio Real instead, and from there ambled down to Plaza España, and then to Sol, and finally back home again. All of which means nothing to those of you who don’t know Madrid, but let’s just say it was a vigorous walk with a result of 200+ photos. The picture here is actually not from that particular hike (haven't sorted through the photos yet), but I wanted to prove to my Dad that Spain does indeed have beautiful sunsets. Of course, he'll just say I faked it in Photoshop! (It's actually from the Retiro in October.)
bananas, for under $5. Hooray for fruterías! The picture is one of the 4 fruit stores within a 4-block radius of my apartment. And they already know me there...
