Catch-Up Part 1

Well well well, it has been quite a long time since I’ve updated this blog. Therefore, this will probably end up being the longest post I’ve done; maybe I’ll try to post it in two parts. Anyways, to avoid further lengthening it, I suppose I'll just dive right in around Christmas.

Christmas time in Sevilla was quite a sight. In almost all of the main streets, there were thousands of lights hanging and it was reallys something to see.

 

 

Below was a pretty cool thing where they had a bunch of projectors on one of the buildings and played christmas music with different animations.

 

          Right before break I took a quick trip over to Estepa again for a “Secret Santa” type party which turned out to be really fun. Instead of buying gifts for a certain person, we all bought something for a few euros and put it under the small Christmas tree that my friends had in their house. Afterwards, we all picked a number and, corresponding with the number, went up to the tree and picked out a present. I ended up buying a spongebob squarepants coffee mug as my gift and left with this really creepy cat lol. It is a Chinese toy that swings his arm back and forth, but for some reason it doesn’t work right and stops swinging and then will start up randomly on its own. I have it on my desk now but I am sort of thinking about putting it somewhere else, possibly the trash, because it just starts waving at me randomly and sort of makes me uncomfortable.

The party in itself was a lot of fun. Of course, my trips to Estepa always turn out being pretty fun because a good friend of mine is there and I like the people that him and his roomates hang out with, but in the cultural sense it was really funny to see a party take place that needed some kind of organization. Directing the giving of the gifts and everything was a comical catastrophe because half of the people were from America and half from Spain, so almost everybody spoke at least a little bit of the others’ language, but when something is confusing to understand in your own language it obviously is going to yield some confusion in your second language. That being said, English and Spanish explanations were going back and forth and I’m actually surprised we all ended up on the same page haha.

 For the last day of school, I baked some Christmas cookies and brought them in. They actually turned out really good and the people loved them, but they were sort of a pain to cook. I think I was lacking something in the ingredients because the dough was sticky as all get out. And it is not just because I didn’t refrigerate it either, I did that for an entire night (unless that is what I did wrong). Luckily my friend found a cookie cutter in a shop around Seville a few days earlier and got it for me though (thanks Allie!) because I was sort of thinking about just shaping them with a knife when I couldn’t find the cutters. In hindsight though, that would have just been a disaster.

The last day at school was pretty fun because I wore my Santa Costume to a class and helped them sing “Santa Claus is coming to Town.” It was the youngest group so they all had a lot of fun. Something funny to note though is that I heard that they were teaching that song to a class so I thought, “Alright, that’s a nice slow and easy song they can learn.” Little did I know, the version they choose was by the Jackson Five though…haha. When I went to class, I sort of made the executive decision to use the original, less soulful, carol to make it a bit easier. The kid’s sang the chorus very well but I wouldn’t say they were ready for American Idol yet with the verses.

Lastly, I literally started laughing out loud when I walked into school a few weeks before Christmas and saw this tree. I don’t know anybody who wouldn’t agree that this is basically the real life version of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. To be fair though, as Christmas came closer the students filled it up more and it looked pretty nice.

Oh yeah, and there was an awesome Christmas party too! Luckily the school covered my bill so the dinner ended up being free for me, and it was amazing. It was with all of the teachers at school and was in a banquet type hall with a few other groups. It was cool to just hang out with the teachers in sort of an elegant setting, and of course ham was included. There was also some really good cheese, bacon roll-up type things, seafood (which I actually ate), and bunch of other stuff. After a few glasses of wine, and a few more, everybody started to get up and start dancing. Unfortunately I think I may have embarrassed myself a bit trying to dance a combination of my whiteboy dance with their sevillana dance, but nonetheless it was a lot of fun. 

  The next day, I went to get some Mexican food with my friends for my last dinner of 2011 in Seville, then packed up to go back to the U.S.A. the next for navidad (and by that I mean I sort of started and finished the next morning of course). My roommate drove me to the airport which was definitely helpful, and afterwards it was typical travel from there…horrible. Alright, that may be an exaggeration, but really, the trips between the U.S. and Spain don’t come super easy and I really am not a huge fan of the being on a plane for more than a few hours deal. Nonetheless, there’s really no other form of traveling between the two and of course, traveling internationally isn’t a problem I really should be complaining about.

Christmas in the U.S. was awesome; I got to see my friends and family (and animal friends), eat some good ol’ American food, and, you know, get engaged. Yep, obviously anybody who is reading this blog already knows  this, but for memories sake I’m throwing it in here. Although I’ll be sad leaving Spain behind, I’m obviously excited start that next part of my life when I get home.

The break went by so fast. Between landing in Detroit, heading to Woodhaven, proposing in Grand Rapids, Christmas in Woodhaven, then in Ann Arbor, back to Grand Rapids, then taking out of Detroit, my body wasn’t used to any certain bed. Once again though, it was worth the trouble because it’s always great to see my friends in both cities. Also noteworthy, two of my friends in Grand Rapids had just turned 21 so that was really cool to be able to see them and buy them a drink at Dr. Grins (comedy club).

Coming back to Spain was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I remember being sad leaving everybody the first time but I think with the excitement and new experience, I sort of had a bit of a numbing agent for the pain. This time I wouldn’t say that it wasn’t exciting, because I love sevilla and it’s beauty, but it was definitely on a different scale. After the long flight I was so jet-lagged I basically walked back to my house with my suitcase and hopped into my bed to watch “Jack Frost” (in spanish), then call it a night.

It’s important to find native friends when you’re in a different country trying to learn a language, but I would argue that it’s just as important to find some friends from the homeland too. Sometimes you just need to be able to spend time with people that you can talk to in your native language and “hang out” with. Every Wednesday my friends and I meet up to get these dollar mini sandwiches things at a local restaurant and it was super nice/comforting to see some friends after my arrival back. I think it really helped eliminate some of my nostalgia and shine a light on the charm of sevilla again.

After getting back into the swing of things, everything felt pretty normal. A new thing that has arisen is that I am giving private lessons now though. My teacher recommended me to a friend and now I am helping out her daughter once a week. It’s pretty cool because it doesn’t take up a whole lot of time and it gives me a little extra dinero for spending.

In the province that I live in, Andalucia, the accent has reputation for being quite difficult to understand. There is a point where it’s upsetting for someone who is trying to learn Spanish, but through this private lesson and at school, I’ve realized there really is no room to complain. I mean, sometimes when I’m speaking with my friends I don’t even know why I’m saying what I am saying. I was laughing really hard with a teacher on the train because I have been learning some spanish phrases and people always laugh when I say them, so I was trying to think of some in English ones and here is a few she told me: “You’re full of bolgna,” “Cut the crap,” and “throwing a fit”….I mean, what do those even mean in the literal sense? Lol. Even if you, a native speaker, can figure out some way to explain that, imagine how silly that sounds to somebody learning English. And those are popular phrases, try translating rap/ebonics. Take this song for instance:

 It’s almost comforting to be teaching English because I can take a step back and not waste too much time pitying myself with, “Spanish is so hard,” because I can see firsthand the difficulties of english that just come easy for me because it’s my language. At the same time I don’t feel too bad when the kids complain about  how “English is so hard,” because Spanish has its difficulties too and I can see that firsthand as well obviously. The thing about English that seems consistently complained about is the pronunciation and I never really thought about it until now. In spanish, even if you don't know a word, you can read it more or less correctly because every letter always has the same pronunciation. English jumps all over the place though. Think about it in your daily life. Here is an example I found online, but there are a ton more:

·  Bough and Plough are pronounced "OW" (as in "NOW").

·  Cough and Trough are pronounced "OFF" (as in "OFF").

·  Dough and Though are pronounced "O" (as in "NO").

·  Rough and Tough are pronounced "UF" (as in "CUFF").

·  Hiccough is pronounced "UP" (as in "HICCUP").

·  Through is pronounced "OO" (as in "TOO").

Another group of words that one of the teachers I work with and another friend said were hard to distinguish was better, butter, batter and barter. Lastly, before I overdo the examples, my friend from here has a book that I was laughing about called, “Ship or Sheep,” which is a pronunciation book. Ironically, I was talking with a spaniard about a week or two later and she was talking about what her father does and I confused the two; I thought her dad worked with ships but it turned out to be sheep (which is actually contrary to the common mistake of people not being able to say ship because the “I” in spanish is pronounced like “ee”, but I thought it was funny anyways).  

 

(Don't really know where this was going)

Anyways, to continue on with the timeline, at this point I hadn’t really done any traveling yet, so when I saw that my friend was going to this festival in Mallorca I decided tag along. That being said, it ended up being a really cool weekend.

She had lived there last year so she had a lot of friends that we got to meet and I got to practice a decent amount of spanish with them. It was also interesting though because they spoke something called Catalan too, which is one of Spain’s 4 official languages. Consequently, many of the signs and advertisements were in Catalan, which was sort of interesting to see because I’ve never really even seen the language.

(Can you spot anything in this picture?)

The first night the city set up a bunch of public grills in the streets and everybody brought their own meat and stuff to grill up dinner. Close to us was a stage that was playing music and I was introduced to this band below, which I guess is pretty popular.

One thing that I learned the second night is that I don’t really like the game Trivial Pursuit, especially in Spanish…We played with my friend’s old roommates and I felt more and more stupid every question. Even the questions that were sort of general, or possibly American, I had no clue what the answers were.

 

 

          To wrap it up, it was a really fun weekend. I headed home that Sunday and unfortunately the trip home was not as pleasant though. Everything was going good until we started landing and my ears wouldn’t pop. The problem got worse and after a bit my ears literally felt like they were going to explode. And to top it off, after landing I could barely hear out of my ears for hours. Luckily though, the biggest thing pushing me forward was this, little taste from home; Valveeta macaroni and cheese my mom gave me before I came back for Christmas.

When I got home I went straight to my closet to get the mac and cheese and started cooking up the noodles. Dying with hunger, I decided I was going to eat a little bit of the liquid cheese before the noodles were ready, just for a sneak peak. When I opened the package, the cheese looked a little less liquidy than normal, but I figured that it must have just been from the flight ride or something. After a few minutes I started thinking about it though and I looked at the expiration date on the box just in case; December 2010… With this being the only mac and cheese I had, I sat there, broken hearted and deaf, and attempted to make some homemade stuff with the noodles I just cooked and some shredded cheese.

The social life has been going good here still. Some of my good friends, a couple together, had a party at their apartment a few weeks after Christmas and it was nice to see everybody and catch up with them to hear about their breaks. I also ate my little ham heart out at a ham party a few weeks after Mallorca (something I feel like you can only say casually in Spain) and met some cool spanish people whilst doing so.

As you know, the Sevicis are the bikes that you can rent and ride around sevilla. The time has come, where I have fallen off one…I was riding home, sort of ran into some bushes, and it was all downhill from there. Luckily I don’t think anybody saw me but my pinky was pretty bruised for about a week. Additionally, on the topic of sevici, a really good friend of mine had never learned to ride a bike so we spent an afternoon with him in the park teaching him how to ride it a few months back. It had to have been quite the sight, because it was just like a father teaching his kid to ride; we were riding along side with him holding the handle bars and all. After a bit, he got a strong hold on it and he was riding all over and making not only right, but left turns too.

School has been going good too. I have to do better at writing down things that happen, but I don’t even know if they would be as funny writing on here. I know something that had been making me laugh is attendance. Primarily with the younger kids, this phrase, “It is I” became popular and they would say it instead of “here” when their name was called. I don’t know if I can describe it, but when it was happening it would crack me up because it sort of sounds like a dramatic introduction that you hear on a movie from a king like, “Yes, it is I, sir Castlelot.”

Hmmmm what else? This would be a lot easier if I just kept up with it, but oh yeah, Carnaval!

There is this thing called Carnaval in a city near us called Cadiz. Basically it’s just a big Halloween party out on the street. Since I already had a costume, I choose to go as no other but Papa Noel (Santa Claus).

So do you want the good news or bad news??

The good news is that the bus that we took had a contest for best costume and I won a trip to Gilbraltar! (southern part of spain, near Africa, part of Britain, sort of confusing). Buttt, I was supposed to go this last weekend and it ended up being cancelled…So this company offered a sangria excursion for me if I paid to go on one of the other trips to a different place. Even though that other place is farther away/better, going from a free trip to having to pay for a more expensive trip than it would cost me to go solo, because it’s through a company, just for a Sangria booze cruise doesn’t really sound too appealing for me; so I suppose I just gained bragging rights out of that.

 

 

Back at school we had this thing called “Semana Cultural,” which translates to cultural week, and was basically a few days of electives throughout the school. You could go and see a movie, watch the theater actors, play some soccer, play chess, and stuff like that. I got the chance to help out a bit with the piano for a song that a group of kids were singing and, being an aspiring pianist, I had a lot of fun learning it/playing it.

          They also had a bookfair, which just so happened to have great prices annnnndddd, the entire set of Harry Potter…lol. I knew I was going to eventually buy them and obviously now is the best time to read because I have a bit more time on my hands, so I scooped up the entire set for cheaper than I could even find it on Amazon. (After a couple weeks I’m already on the third book). The most exciting thing about that last day of Semana Cultural though, was that Amanda was coming to visit! So at about 12:00 or so I left Lora del Rio and headed back to Sevilla to meet up with her at the Train Station.

I went to the meeting spot and hoped that there wasn’t any delay’s because of the snow or the airplane strike that happened to be occurring that day, and luckily it all worked out. Amanda hopped off the bus and seemed naturally exhausted (but shinning with her ever glowing beauty of course) and we headed back to the piso.

I’ll leave you guys there since I have up to here done and it will probably be a little bit until I write the next bit, but I hope you enjoyed it and stay tuned for more! (to be completely honest it will probably be at least a few weeks for the second half)

-Jimmy

For Being So Close to Africa, it Gets Pretty Dang Cold Here.

So I believe I mentioned it in a previous post, but there are these things called “Intercambios” here. "Intercambio" essentially stands for “exchange,” and what happens is you meet with somebody learning English and basically talk in Spanish for half of the time and in English the other half, so both people get practice. It took me a bit to get into the intercambio game, but my friend had one and I was invited to meet with them the other day (referring to about a month ago now since I haven't posted in so long). It was a lot of fun because he had two other friends that came with him too, so there was a bunch of Spanish going on. Long story short, we met up, went to get some tapas, and spoke in Spanish the majority of the time. I didn’t have to work the next day but I was feeling pretty tired and it was raining outside, so after we ate I headed home when my friend did a few hours later that night, even though part of me wanted to stay to keep practicing.

                The next week, I met with my very own intercambio (Marta). She is a college student at the Univeresity of Sevilla and was pretty cool. We walked around talking for a while and before I knew it, it was already about 8:30; the time that I said I would meet with my other friend and her intercambio (Alfonso) again. So I invited Marta to join, and we all met up in this plaza. This time I was a lot more awake and ready to hit the town so I stayed out late with the Spaniards

                To immediately correct myself, saying I stayed out late would be an understatement since the whole bar scene is a lot different around here. Back at home, they stop serving at 2:00 or earlier, so I honestly can’t really remember being out much past then (no pun intended). Here, the party doesn’t really even pick up until 1:00 though. So long story short, my friend headed home as did my intercambio a bit later, but I held strong with Alfonso and some of his friends. It was a lot of good practice because nobody really spoke English but also a whole lot of fun because I met some really cool people. Afterwords, I hopped on my sevici bike, headed home, and laid down to go to bed around 5:30…

                The next morning, or rather afternoon, I checked my computer and saw that I had received an e-mail from marta inviting me to this party. Additionally, there was going to be a lot of people from different countries; so I basically couldn't turn down being the American representative. Long story short, I am very happy I went to that as well. It was a little different from the previous night because it wasn’t a small group and, consequently, it was a bit harder to meet a whole lot of Spanish people because they were all hanging out with their friends; but I met a few and got some good practice. I also met some English people that were easy to bond with and we spoke Spanish most of the time, so that’s about as good right?

                As a side-note, I think it’s funny because in classes, the kids prefer to hear the teacher speaking English sometimes rather than me because it is easier; I can totally understand that now. When I speak Spanish with other people who are learning Spanish, I feel like I rock at it, but then when it comes to native speakers sometimes it’s like, uhhh, wait what?

                After the party, we all headed to this central plaza type place and my English friends headed home; so I was alone with the Spanish once again (which is not a bad thing of course). My intercambio introduced me to some more of her friends who were really nice and talked to me for a bit.  I thought it was pretty cool because I could tell that one of them was talking a bit slower for me, so I think that helped me understand a lot better. Afterwords, we went to this bar type thing, and I have to say, I never thought I was such a good singer. In America I tend to become sick of the popular “club” songs pretty quick, but when they’re played here it’s pretty cool because I can sing it with a "perfect" accent. Afterwords, we started to head back home. I found a station for the sevici bikes and put on my headphones to get a breath of fresh English air. Then I rode home and went to bed at 6:30 thinking, “These Spanish nights are going to kill me.” Needless to say, the next day I took it easy.

I tried to explain the word awkward to a teacher at my school, so maybe I can use the same example for the intent of my message here too. Anyways, especially being a guy, you basically learn just never to ask a woman if they are pregnant…Not only to avoid telling them that they look fat essentially, but because nothing would be more awkward then them saying, “I’m not pregnant.” That moment after they say that, what would you say? Of course, you would eventually begin apologizing and backtracking like crazy, but there would be those moments immediately after where you would be just sitting there, speechless and awkward. Similar to those Snickers commercials that show an uncomfortable situation and then say, “Need a moment?”

I wouldn’t say that errors in Spanish would be to the intensity of telling a hormonal woman that she looks fat, unless you accidentally say something offensive. Nonetheless when you are learning a new language in a different country, it’s really hard to not have an awkward moment at least once a day where you are sort of like, uhhh, what do I say now; primarily when your humor doesn’t translate and people sort of just stare at you like “What?” Moreover, it’s hard to explain, or backtrack, if you did just say or do something weird.

 For instance, the other day a Teacher invited me out to breakfast with her and another teacher. Since everybody usually goes out for breakfast anyways, I was already planning on going so I was sort of like, sure (thinking that I would just meet them there). So I walked out of the room, got some water, and headed out of the school and to the restaurant. To my surprise, I was mistaken of the time and nobody else was there because it wasn’t break time yet. So basically the teachers invited me personally to breakfast with them and I just walked away from them to walk to the restaurant on my own lol. When I tried to explain to them that I thought people were already there and that we were all just meeting up, it didn’t quite work out, so I was like, “Alright, these teachers are going to have to just think I’m weird I guess.”

On the flip-side, at least at school, everybody knows I’m learning Spanish and when things like that happen I don’t think anybody really even thinks about it. Also, a lot the Spanish friends that I have met are learning English, which is great, because they totally understand how it is too. Nonetheless, it messes with my mind sometimes because I can’t totally be myself. Sometimes I’ll see the perfect opportunity to say something witty or funny, but don’t really know how to say it or even if it will translate in Spanish.

I was trying to think of how to ingrain some  awkward experiences within the explanation, but I think I’ll just list some of the bigger ones I’ve endured/the ones I go through every day.

-Teaching classes in a language where students can barely understand you.

-Having people talk to you on the street or in restaurants as fast as they would to a native; then making things worse by just nodding and acting like you understand them until they are just looking at you in silence for a response.

-Replying, “Si” to something when you don’t totally understand it, then having it be a question bigger than a yes or no answer, or you just agreed to something you didn’t mean to (like when my teacher was talking about how she is old).

-The initial meeting of Spanish people you don’t really know. This has the awkwardness of a blind date where you have to find something to talk about, but boosts it by putting it in a different language.

-Having to explain what I eat, and fulfilling the conception of America as the world’s most unhealthy eaters.

-Trying to help people with their English when you think that they want it, then almost offending them by doing so.

-Having somebody repeat something because you don’t understand it and then realizing that they were complimenting you on your Spanish…oh the irony.

-Asking a question in Spanish to people on the street, then having them try to answer in English that’s worse than your Spanish; thus a blind leading the blind effect and ultimately no answer.

-Sitting by somebody you sort of know on the train ride home, knowing you will have to strike up conversation in Spanish for an hour (Which actually turns into something cool if you do it successfully).

-Not knowing the answers to questions about English or America.

The other day I was quick enough to recover from what could have been an awkward and/or problematic situation too. As I was about to get off of the train for my stop, the ticket-checker guy was coming around. He must have had a bad memory because I had just showed him my ticket, in the same spot with the same bright white hoodie, on the same trip. I don’t know if he thought I was trying to jump off the train conveniently when he was around or what, but he was demanding my ticket. Luckily I was able to explain that I already had showed him it, because I don’t think I would have had enough time to grab it out of my backpack and wallet then weave through all the people before the doors closed and the train continue on. As another option, I don't think I would have had enough strength to fight him and the security if I would have just ran off the train either.

 I remember a professor telling me that you could live in a different country for 10 years and not learn the language; I can understand that. Learning a new language is extremely difficult in and of itself, but you really do have to put yourself outside of your comfort zone and lose all sense of embarrassment. In all honesty, these things happen but I think it adds to the experience and gives me a few funny stories later too. At the very least I’m raising the level of what would constitute humiliation for me, but more importantly it’s helping me learn. I mean, it’s nice here because you have a much better opportunity than just studying out of a book, so I always try to remind myself of that and take advantage of situations with other Spaniards if they arise.

To wrap up this post and explain the title, I am pretty surprised at how cold it gets here. That is to say, I expected to wear my hoodie a few times but I didn't realize how freezing it would be during the night/in the morning when I have to walk to school. It's funny because they have these table things here, with cloth draping over the sides and essentially a little stove coil underneath to use as a heater. I thought that the cloth would be the biggest fire hazard, but apparently I am the bigger fire hazard. As I was writing this my teacher looked under the table and said, "Jimmy, your shoe is burning!"      
            I know I keep posting this around this point in my blogs, but I am really happy with how nice my teachers are here. A fellow teacher helped me out a lot by giving me a winter jacket that her friend isn’t using anymore, and now I barely go out without it. I’ve also had home cooked lunches with some other teachers and tried Spanish Tortilla and Paella (both very typical Spanish food here.) I loved them both, and actually tried to make them at home on my own with some decent success. Finalmente, when I was eating lunch at my teachers’ house (they are a couple that work at the same school), they offered me an extra blanket/comforter for my bed. This was awesome too, because the two sheets that I had on my bed just haven’t been cutting it; even when I slept in a hoodie and sweatpants. So needless to say, snoozing at night is a lot more warm and comfortable now.

Sevilla was also hosting this international film festival type thing a while back, which was really cheap to attend, so my friends and I saw a few of those movies. It was interesting because one of the movies was Russian, filmed in the Middle East, with Spanish subtitles...try to digest that. Honestly, it was cool though because I could understand basically the whole movie.
            As far as movies go, every week I have been trying to watch two or three in Spanish to get extra practice (all the Harry Potter movies being the first of which I watched). Typically I have just been renting them from the library and watching them on my computer, but, my Spanish friend told me about this pretty popular website here where you can stream a lot of movies. This is pretty awesome because the library’s movies were starting to get limited, so I’ve been watching a decent amount on this website. The only downfall is that there are no subtitles, and typically I like to watch the movie with Spanish subtitles to assist with the audio in case I can’t understand what was just said. Anyways, its funny because there has been a few times where I will start a movie up and become pretty frustrated because I can’t understand what is being said at all. After a few minutes though, I start thinking, “Alright dude, I know more Spanish than this,” then realize it’s in Portuguese!

Lastly, I’ve been trying to learn how to roll my r’s with basically no success. I mean, it’s not totally essential, I know people will probably understand that I’m saying perro (dog) without rolling my r’s, but I think it’d be cool to learn how to do. These website’s and videos I’ve been looking at are killing me though. This is what one of the website’s instruction was… “Visualize the front of your tongue as a flag flapping in a vigorous breeze. Now try purring like a cat. If you've succeeded, you are approximating the RR sound.” Yeah, thanks for the help…not. If you haven’t guessed yet, this is one of those things that I only practice when nobody is around to hear me. 
            Although this is a city of about a million people, it's crazy how you can actually run into people you know on the street. A few days later I saw some of the spanish people I had met and spent some time with them. It was really bizarre, but cool to say the least, because the group this time was a huge mixture of diversity. There were people from Italy, Germany, Brazil, Spain, America, and I am sure at least one other country; all hanging out. It's been an awesome experience to be able to connect, or simply talk to somebody, when you never would have been able to without knowing Spanish. After those situations I always think, "Man, I would have never even be able to meet or hang out with this person if I didn't know Spanish" (redundant, I know). The whole idea of language is so interesting how it is really just a formulation of sound and, when that sound is made, some people understand it to mean something and the rest hear insignificant jibberish.

Well, enough rambling, I hope you enjoyed the post. Sorry it’s been a while since the last one. I have some more adventures on the way including thanksgiving, roman ruins, papa noel, and a cat in boots (accompanied by pictures) so I’ll try to write that up pronto. See you later!

-Jimmy

Halloween Shananigans

     

      Oh hey there, how are you? Well, a decent amount has passed since the last post so this may be a bit longer, but hopefully it withholds attention still. 

            So I met this one guy named Riley a few weeks ago at orientation. He was at the same orientation as me because he still lives in the province of Sevilla, but his piso is actually in a smaller pueblo a couple hours outside of Sevilla called Estepa. I offered him a place to crash if he was ever in Sevilla and a couple of weeks ago he took me up on that offer and told me he was heading down to finish up the application for his N.I.E. (Something you need to get as a foreigner when you live here more for more than a few months). So long story short, we met up with some friends that night and he told me about this little hike he was doing back home with a native there. So on a whim, I decided I’d head back with him and spend the weekend in Estepa.

            Honestly, the weekend was a blast. It was cool seeing the different lifestyle of a smaller city compared to Sevilla, and I met some really nice people. The hike was really cool too because it was essentially like a walking “intercambio” (when you meet with somebody who is learning English and “exchange” practicing the language you are learning). But yeah, Jesus was a really nice guy/tour guide, predictably so, and we walked for probably a few hours just talking. Later that night we went out and met more Spaniards and hit the small town of Estepa. We went to this little party then went to the bar for a little bit (where we ran into Jesus again). Afterwords we headed back to my friend’s house and chilled on the roof for a bit with his roommates, which was a bit windy, but very cool because the sky was so clear that we all saw at least 3 or 4 shooting stars. Anywho, all things must come to an end and I headed home that Sunday quite exhausted. Below, as well as the intro and concluding pics, are some pictures from Estepa.

 

 

            School has been going really well. I had to roll solo one day because one of my teachers was absent, but it didn’t go too bad. It definitely is easier teaching the younger and middle aged-levels I think. The older kids (around 16) are pretty cool but it’s easy to tell that it’s that age where school or participation doesn’t really rank extremely high in their priorities.

At the other side of the spectrum, I had my class with the youngest students who really do not know any English at all. Surprisingly, the class actually went really well. I thought it would be completely awkward because nobody would understand me, but it turned out that it was only somewhat awkward. At first I don’t think they knew what was coming though because the teacher introduced me to them in Spanish, and then I read a short passage out loud in front of the class in English. After a couple of sentences I had to stop and laugh out loud though. Many people use the descriptive phrase, “their jaws dropped,” as a hyperbole, but this literally happened with these students lol. I was watching one kid in particular and he just had the most hilarious “What the?” look on his face that I couldn’t contain myself. All this being said, even though they could barely understand me, I really enjoyed this class. They had so much enthusiasm and eagerness to participate I didn’t mind that most of the sentences exchanged were only a few words.

Lastly, the middle kids have been a lot of fun. As a “teacher” now, I think I would be lying if I said that I didn’t have favorites. Naturally, I don’t show this in class and I actually try to include the student’s that do not participate more than the other ones sometimes, but some kid’s just have this combination of intelligence, charm, and comedic effect that you can’t help but be happy that they are in your class. You know, probably like the way I was in school…Anyways, this one kid in particular comes to mind as I write this because he is one of the top speakers and hilarious at the same time, which I think makes the class pretty enjoyable.

I had a history class the other day, and the kids were in quite the silly mood. They were playing this game where, as the other teacher was reading, they would all just stare at me. I didn't really notice until I looked up for a second and  had about 20 pairs of eyes on me accompanied by giggles. Later on, they then started to ask me questions about my life, which of course had nothing to do with the lecture. Nonetheless, it wasn’t that big of a deal though because within language classes a change of subject for a little bit is alright if it’s done in the language you are trying to learn because, in all reality, you are still learning/practicing. They were trying to get me to sing the National Anthem and asked if I would sing it if they sang the Andalucia Anthem. I told them I probably won’t sing, but this didn’t change their minds about singing. So the entire class of at least 20-25 began singing in harmony to the direction of the one girl who had been asking me all of the questions. 
            Afterwords I thought it was pretty funny, but when I looked over my teacher had has face buried in his hands and could not stop laughing. There is no doubt that laughing is contagious, especially when you are not really supposed to be laughing, because at this point I sort of lost it and as he got worse I got worse too. It got to the point where the entire class was laughing, and he had to step out of the room because he was laughing so hard. When I turned around and faced the class this girl was like, “Jimmy, you crying you crying!” I think this is what they sang if you wanted to get a taste of it.  

As fun as teaching has been, the difference in levels makes it a bit tricky because I think I am always going too fast for somebody but too slow for other people. The school has a bilingual program and a non-bilingual program that you can be in, which makes organizational sense, but at the same time it has some downfalls because it sort of groups and stigmatizes the slower students. This being said, I think there may be some pressure to be in, or at least stay in, the bilingual classes. Whether this is true or not, there are a few students that are in the bilingual classes that cannot understand/speak very much English. Learning a new language myself, I know how hard it is and I can remember, especially when I was in the introductory classes, not being able to keep up when others seemed to understand the lecture fine. So it was sort of sad the other day when a girl broke down and started crying. I think it was sort of a combination of a lower level of English and a high level of timidness, but she would not respond when the teacher was trying to get her to just say a sentence or anything about what we had just talked about. After a few try’s I think the teacher may have still thought that she just didn’t want to attempt it and pulled out her grade book and that's when the tears started to form. From what I’ve noticed throughout the classes with the girl is that she is very shy and doesn't talk much, but I believe it may have been more that she doesn't really understand English and basically had no idea what we had just talked about.

The teacher’s have been extremely nice here. My coordinator for the program has been really nice as well and has helped me out a lot. I actually got my paycheck a lot earlier than I expected (I had read in many blogs and heard from other auxiliaries that the first paycheck takes a little longer to get). Additionally, other teacher’s have been inviting me out to breakfast during our middle of the day break and I have to tell you, I still haven’t got sick of those media tostadas (those bagel bread type things with ham I told you about earlier). The other day I was riding home with a teacher who was meeting up with a friend afterwords for lunch. She invited me to join them and I am glad I did because I had a lot of fun talking with them and trying different tapas (I even ate some lettuce with my chicken). Today I was helped out a lot too when it was pouring rain this morning and another teacher offered a ride from the train station to the school. I’m hoping this rain cuts out a bit because my shoes have some holes in them and aren’t very comfy whilst soaked.  

When I go out with the teachers they all get coffee obviously, so I’ve tried a few cups within the last few weeks. It helps wake me up but my head ends up hurting later on during the day; which isn’t too desirable since my brain is usually already aching from the constant workout of hearing a different language. So with that being said, I think I am going to stick with just some water on the side, which actually is really strange to everybody here. “You don’t want any coffee, ColaCao (chocolate milk) or anything, just plain water?!” 
            On the same page, my water bottle has seemed to be the topic of more conversations than I expected. I have seen a few water bottles here, but they are very few and far between. On top of that, I don’t think they really have the metal ones here like we do. So basically people think of it as a booze traveler. I remember the first day that I came to the school, the other language assistant, that has been here for a few years, pointed out my water bottle and talked about how the American last year had one just like it. Later on that day, another teacher was joking about how there is whiskey in there and I laughed and didn’t think too much of it. However, after a month or so, I have probably gotten at least 5 or so other comments about there being whiskey, tequila, or some other type of alcohol in it from different people in different places. And if it is not about alcohol, they ask if I have coffee in there or something because it is metal/it looks like a thermos. So I guess that’s just one of those things that probably makes me stick out a bit. 

On the topic of sticking out, carrying a pumpkin through the city of Sevilla, on the train, then a mile through the city of Lora del Rio, where my school is, will get you some looks too. Halloween is catching on here, but pumpkin carving still seems to be a rarity. Nevertheless, the school was having this carving competition for the students and I carved one just for fun to add to the mix and maintain a tradition from the homeland. I would say it was worth the gawks though, because I got to bake some pumpkin seeds and I received a decent amount of compliments on my pumpkin too. As a side-note, I was very impressed with how creative the students were with their pumpkins. There was some good carving, which is hard to do here because they don't sell those kits with the skinny knives, and also some very creative add-ons. For instance, I think there was a pirate with an eye-patch and knife in it's mouth, some pumpkins with crazy yarn hair, and a few with witches hats. 

 

As stated before, Halloween isn’t as big here but it is gaining popularity. I did a presentation for an English class with PowerPoint and got to show them some pictures of myself and friends for Halloween. I also concluded it with the Grand Rapids Zombie walk to sort of show them what my city does back at home. From the comments I’ve heard at school and from what my friend’s in the program have told me too, the general consensus is that you have to have a scary costume for Halloween; which probably explains why almost every Spainard celebrating Halloween seemed to be a witch or zombie. One of my teacher’s didn’t understand a picture that I put in with my friend dressed up as a Teletubbie and stated, “That’s not very scary.” So I threw in a slide explaining how you don't have to be scary and can really dress up as whatever you want (including a nun, fat princess, or an old man).

To my surprise, my friend from Estepa, Riley, decided to head down to Sevilla with a few of his friends for Halloween. We met up at the bus station then headed out to the supermarket to get some food and costumes. I didn’t go all out and basically just wore some sandals and my boardshorts to be a “surfer,” but my friend got a witch’s hat and broom and our other friends got some kid’s Halloween pajamas and wore those. From that experience, I’ve learned that three people walking down the street speaking English will get you some looks, but when one of those guys is wearing a witch’s hat and carrying a broom, kids will not stop staring lol. So the walk from the supermarket back to my house was pretty funny. The party we were heading to was an Auxiliares party that was sort of a putluck type thing, so we cooked up some grilled cheese tapas (with worms added) and bbq chicken (which was extraordinarily delicious) and headed on our way. 

Long story short, the trip to the party took a bit longer than we expected and we showed up about 3 hours fashionably late. Part of the reason is due to the fact that I usually ride the sevici bike to places and do not know the bus routes all that well, but part of it is also probably because I do not have a printer and keep making maps like the one below…Nonetheless, after almost throwing in the towel and just sitting down by the river and eating all of our food to ourselves, we eventually found the party and had a great time. A friend that came with me met one of my English friends and was speaking in an British accent before she even knew that he was from England. So after she found out that he was from England, she went into a complete British Mrs. Doubtfire like accent and I could not stop laughing. I really do not think it is that funny when I hear a British accent, but the impersonation of a British accent is the funniest thing and it reminds me of my friends who can do it really well back home. 

            As far as the life in Spain is going besides that, it’s going swell. Learning a new language is quite the roller-coaster though. I’ll have a conversation with somebody and have no problem, then a few hours not be able to even communicate what I want to say. Additionally, sometimes it’s a little unnerving when I buy stuff at the store and do not know exactly what kind of meat or product it is because I don’t know all of the words. I have to say I wasn’t seriously thinking it, but the first time I washed my hair with the shampoo that I bought here I was like, “That would really suck if this is some kind of hair-dye and not shampoo,” and likewise with laundry detergent being some kind of bleach. And I was nervous, but I’ve made the switch from Heinz ketchup to the local brand here because it is almost 2 euro cheaper and is really not much different. Lastly, I’ve sort of jumped on the ham bandwagon here and actually have more than one kind to choose from in my fridge now haha.

 

Well, as the saying goes, that's all folks.

-Jimmy

I'm Afraid to Go to Bed at Night...

      Well hello again, long time no talk. To kick things off, I've noticed that it is a bit hard to keep up with the posts every week, but I obviously have different thoughts and experiences so I don't want to cram it all together. That being said, some of these posts may refer to the past. So when I say things such as "It was my first week in school," it has already been a few weeks since my actual "first week" but I had already created the rough draft, so just roll with it if you could.

      This past week wasn't as action packed as some of the previous ones, but still good nonetheless. I've started to teach, which has been a lot of fun. It is a pretty cool experience to flip roles and be the person who knows the language that everybody is trying to learn in the school. This being said, I think I can appreciate it and be a lot more patient since I have been the person that is trying to learn a different language throughout college. It's funny because I remember being back in classes, always thinking that the teachers are talking really fast. Being in their shoes here though, I feel like I am talking in a action-movie, slow-mo voice and it is still is a little bit fast to them I think.  Furthermore, I have to try pretty-hard to cut down on the words; Like, Dude, Sweet, Cool, and all those other insignificant words that we say a million times in a sentence.
      The level of English that the kids know is pretty advanced. I was a little nervous when some of my friends said that their students do not know any English at all, except for a few words, because although it is good for the students to be hearing English and the pronunciation, that would probably be frustrating. I had a day off last week on Wednesday so I didn't meet my Wednesday students, but I think I have a class or two that do not know very much English on that day. I'm a little apprehensive to how that is going to be, but at least all of my classes aren't to that extreme.

      The first class that I gave was bright and early, and a little bit awkward. When we got there, my teacher said she had to make some copies or something, and left me in the room to make an introduction. So I said my name, and sort of drew the Michigan mitten and talked about where I was from. Then I was like, "Hmm...yep, sooo, any questions?" Since this was a class of 16 year-olds, it was basically blank stares. I believe that most of them could understand me, but I would imagine that it would be hard to be the first to try to ask a question, in a different language, in front of everybody; actually, I am sure of that. But I think that that is sort of the age where you don't want to look stupid or too geeky asking questions too; because the introduction in the class after that with younger kids went a lot better. Even though the same teacher, left me alone again in that next class, I think I had probably built up a little bit more confidence and the younger kids seemed a lot more eager to flex what they have learned as well.
      Little did I know, It seems that there is a huge battle between the Justin-Beiber party and Anti Justin-Beiber party here. When I asked if anybody had any questions, these girls asked if I liked Justin Beiber. This was the last question I expected so I sort laughed and said not really, and the class erupted unexpectedly. There were cheers and protests, but mainly laughs all around; so that was pretty funny. As far as teaching, the main theme that seems to be occurring within the classrooms is that I read something, then they read it and I help them with pronunciation, then we talk about words that they don't understand. And I am not supposed to speak any Spanish throughout the process. Everybody has warned me, including at the orientation, that the students are very "ruidoso" (noisy), but I haven't had too many problems. I think that it's a bit noisy, but not a whole lot different than what I've experienced back home in high school, because they basically are just kids. I've only done a few classes after-all though, so we'll see how my feelings about that are in future posts to come.
       I really don't know the status of what the United States does as far as teaching Spanish, but to me this program seems somewhat perfect. I'm sure there are negatives and potential downfalls to it, but it's sort of cool because it seems like everybody wins. The government pays me just enough to get by so I basically get a free ride, but at the same time I am just putting it right back into their economy. So they sort of get a free, native teacher essentially.
      People here are sort of surprised when they hear that I, or many other auxiliares, didn't go to school to become a teacher. I think it is one of those things that you don't really realize how it's sort of cool to get a free ride to Europe when you have lived here all your life; because whenever I have told anybody in the States what I am doing, the means of getting and living in Spain is far less interesting then the end of actually being here for free. Nobody really says, "You're going there to teach? Why would you do that?," it's more of a "That's awesome that you will be living in Spain," type thing. On the same topic, it's interesting because whenever I tell people my major in the U.S., people ask if I am going to be a police officer. Here though, when I tell them that my major was Criminal Justice they seem sort of taken aback at first and think I am or am going to be a lawyer, which I suppose makes literal sense from the name. I guess here it takes a lot less to become a police officer. I'm sure that there is some kind of academy or something that they must have to go to, but as my friend described it, you could go from working in a supermarket to becoming a police officer without any schooling. So maybe that explains the decrease in enthusiasm that seems to transpire when people here think I am a lawyer than I explain that I was going to be a police officer with my degree.

      The other teachers at my school have been really cool (rhyme unintended). I ride a train to the city everyday and had a teacher sit by me and talk to me the whole way there. She was really nice and is actually going to New York within the next week for her honeymoon. At school, I was invited to this little restaurant across the street where all the teachers go for the school's snack break. The teacher got me what everybody else was getting, which of course included ham, but it was really really good. It was basically like a giant bagel without the middle cut out, toasted, with a thin layer of ham on top. He showed me how to eat it too, which probably saved me from eating it in some weird way in front of all the other teachers and making a big mess lol. He took the ham off, put a bunch of olive oil on it (another very prevalent thing in Spain), cut it in half, then sort of made like a sandwich out of it. I was also talking with another teacher last Thursday, and was about to head home and she offered me a ride home in her car. It was cool because I got to practice a Spanish conversation, and she was an English teacher so she could help me out if I didn't know a word or what not.
      It's interesting how Spanish can be one language, but differ so much between countries; as can English of course. It's funny, because honestly there are even times when I do not know what my friends from the U.K., are saying because of the different accent or slang that they use. For instance, when I had a tea party with some of my friends the other week, my friend from the U.K. asked me if I wanted any Squash when I was in the kitchen with him, pouring a cup of water. I responded with, "Sorry, I don't really like vegetables that much." It was a bit random to me, but of course I was assuming he was talking about squash as in the vegetable or whatever. Little did I know, squash in England is a pretty popular syrup type of thing that you add to your water to make it sort of like kool-aid. So that was pretty funny when I realized he was talking about a vegetable and he understood why I was telling him that I don't like vegetables. Anywho, on the ride back my teacher was telling me about her experiences and how words can mean something totally different, sometimes actually vulgar, in different countries, which makes me laugh because It's always funny to talk to somebody else who speaks or is learning more than one language about there mistakes. I remember studying abroad a couple of years ago and trying to find a cheap alarm clock with Amanda. I tried to help out, but confused the words "Cheap" with "Expensive," so I was sort of like "what the heck," when the guy brought out this 30 euro or something alarm clock when I supposedly asked for the "cheapest" alarm clock.
      My bike card just came in the mail, so that has been an experience. The bikes are useful and a lot better than walking long distances, but they are interesting to ride. And by that I mean I will probably fall off one by the end of my trip. Some of the bikes have been good, but some of them have some wear and tear. It seems like the most popular problems are that the steering feels off, the gears don't really work, or there is no bike chain on it for some reason. There are a lot of bike lanes around here which is useful, but sometimes I have to get up on the sidewalk and use my bike bell to alert people that I'm coming through, with actually is probably a funny sight to see.
      There was this big rally here the other day, and I guess that it was worldwide too (I think it originated in Wall Street?). It was  against the 1% that control the 99% or something to that extent, and there were tons of people. It was pretty cool to see the streets so packed, and that it was a successfully non-violent march. (I tried to make a little montage, but it was way to frustrating to try to use Windows Movie Maker as an editing program, so I'll just post the stuff separately).

      Everybody says customer service really isn't as big here, which I can see and I suppose I don't really mind in the restaurants and bars because you don't have to tip in Spain, but there has been this one supermarket that I have been going to for food and the guy who works there always seems really nice. It probably is harder to be nice to people who obviously aren't from Spain/don't speak Spanish perfectly, but whenever I go into the store he always greets me and helps me out if I need it. The competing supermarket on the other side of the street and a bit down the road has to shape up a if they want my business, although I do go there for my meat because the meat butcher ladies are very nice and know just how I want my chicken sliced. Really though, sometimes it's frustrating when people give up on helping you. Obviously there is a point where if you cannot understand what people are saying, then you can't help them. But I see it here and in the U.S., whenever somebody realizes that it's not your first language, they just blow you off. I don't think people realize that it is just as frustrating for the person who is learning the language and can't get what they want as the person who is trying to understand it.
      I was in Mcdonald's the other day with some friends and I told the lady I wanted a cheeseburger with only ketchup and mustard (which I've done it many times before without problems when I was in Bilbao and a few times here, so I'm not just totally crazy). Mustard is mostaza and ketchup stays the same, but you still have to say it like "Kay-tch-upe." So I was saying that, and she just turned around and asked the lady behind her if she speaks English and she sort of made a gesture like just give him whatever. So then she said "Ok, a hamburger with just cheese."(this was all in spanish of course). So I shook my head and was like, no, cheese ketchup and mustard. And she was like, "Ok, a hamburger with just cheese." I mean really, no matter what accent I say it with, how many items are there in Mcdonalds that go on a cheeseburger that start with K and end with P, right? Ah well, hopefully that will improve, and if not I'll just B.Y.O.K.M.(Bring your own ketchup and mustard).
    Well, to conclude this post and put the suspense of the title to rest, I hate mosquitoes...I remember in high school, my English teacher read us a poem that a man wrote about his frustration with a single insect inside of his room. At this point I can't remember the exact words of it but right now I feel like whatever he wrote is poetry at it's best, because they have been driving me crazy. We keep our patio doors open here because there is no air conditioning, which is fine until nighttime comes. The problem isn't that there is a swarm of mosquito's coming inside, but somehow one or two make their way into my room and they happen to head straight for my ear! When I go to bed really tired I think I just sleep through it, but if I barely am asleep and it wakes me up, it is so annoying. I would almost venture to say that it is worse than somebody coming in and Crashing a Cymbal, because at least then I know it's over. With these bugs you don't know when they are coming back. If I was videotaped, I would probably look like a mad-man, because right when I hear it I swat all over the place, but the damage has already been done. When I see one on the wall, I hunt it more like a cat trying to eat dinner than a human trying to end an annoyance. And when I see one on the window trying to get out, I say to myself, "You want to go home eh? Oh I'l send you home..." I think when it gets a bit cooler it will be better, but until then I have been trying to limit my siestas (nationwide nap ritual) so I can sleep better. I might go on the hunt for some kind of spray or something if it doesn't subside soon, but hopefully it settles down a bit.

 -Jimmy