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.
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 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).
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
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