Puppies!!!

So after a crazy week at school between the heinous tutoring kids with huge attitudes to being the first person to be observed by our supervisor, I needed a quite weekend at home. Which is exactly what I did! It was great, I slept in all weekend and had some great homemade food by my roomie, Gina.

On Friday night I met my friend Juan, from the cooking party, for a drink at this chill bar with some of his friends. I immediately found out that Spaniards are crazy for Formula 1 racing. This weekend was the big final race, so that was all I heard over the course of the evening. I met a guy who designs golf courses, which I thought Pat and Dad would love. Oh, I almost forgot the best part of the evening was when the bartender gave me a free beer!! I have never been offered a free drink by a bartender before.... I'm not sure whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. But anyway I was excited and immediately thought, Oh man THIS is going on the blog for sure. After a drink or two... I ran for the last train, thankfully I made it in time, I wasn't prepared to pay for a cab.

Saturday I woke up late, and as Jill would say, It was Glorious! Then Gina's mom and cousin came over for lunch, along with the Cuban couple from across the hall. I had a nice chat with the Cuban guy, unfortunately I can never remember his name, and its hard to pronounce, but anyway... the chat was about the difference between an acronym and an abbreviation. He used the example of NATO and UFO, but then he blew my mind, when he said that LASER is a word and an acronym. I probably sound pretty stupid at the moment, but I have a lot of those here cause I am constantly going between English and Spanish I get confused.

In fact today at school I called three kids in the same class the wrong name!!! I felt mortified because I didn't even recognize that I had done it, similarly I wrote the word "animales" on the board instead of "animals". The kids had a blast with that one! But I laughed too so I guess its ok then... i hope...

Ok, to continue... lunch was lovely as usual. Then I went up to the "surface" as Gina would say to do some errands. Then I came home and was a couch potato all night, but I watched some great soccer. Actually Barcelona played like dirt, but the game was interesting at least.

Then Sunday I was supposed to meet the group for a walk through the Botanical Gardens while listening to Bob Dylan, but instead I stayed home and played with a PUPPY!!!

OMG, Nana, like the dog in Peter Pan, is soooo cute!! I almost wanted one, but then remembered the responsibility it is having a dog. I think I remember signing some type of contract or something when I was younger, that thing faded away when Pat became attached to Chester. eh....

Anyway Nana, a golden lab puppy was the source of entertainment all day long, and we loved it! The proud owner, Carlos, is happy as a clam, and already slaves over her constantly. But Nana is his first pet ever at 30something years old, and he had to ask his parents permission! (only cause in Spain most people don't move out until they can by a whole floor, like a house). Attached I will include some pictures for you. We had a great time playing Monopoly too, and I did not go Bankrupt, yet I suppose.... We had to stop and take notes of where people were so that we can pick up the next time the gang comes over. It was a quiet yet extremely pleasant weekend that I hope to do again sometime soon.

Gotta run.. Love ya's

3day weekend... PARTY!!!

Hey peeps:
As I began to say with the pics, we had a 3day weekend here in Spain to honor Christopher Columbus discovering America. Well not to sound stupid, but it was, I did not know why we had it on Friday because I am used to having a day off on Monday, as you folks in the states had Monday off. Well I made a big fool of myself with my students because I did not know why it was on Friday here, the authentic day, when we just use Columbus day to get a day off from work, damn, we're lazy. Anyway as I began to say in the other post I had plans to go to Toledo this weekend, but ended up staying in town for a "relaxing" weekend, which ended up totally the contrary. Saturday night I joined a Spaniard at his house for a Supper club dinner. I was really excited because it reminded me of our Sunday night dinner's with Jill and Kimmie and Bethany. Well it was quite a different story here in Spain....
Top start off I had to wait for a bus at Plaza de Castilla to get to Juan's house. So I found the stop and proceeded to wait at the stop with a German girl, who spoke to me in English for thirty minutes before we realized that we had been waiting on the wrong side of the street the whole time. I figured that it picked up and dropped off at the same stop. Boy was I wrong. I felt super bad that I had told the German girl that she was in the right spot, only to find out that I had told her incorrectly. But hey it happens to the best of us. Then when I got of the bus at the last stop, I expected other people to be there since now I was a half an hour late, to find that it was just me and Juan. He immediately asked me what I thought we should make for supper, for ten people by the way. I was surprised that he had not had a menu planned, since that is what I am accustomed to, thanks to Martha, I mean Jill. SO we then trek to the Hipercor, like Shaw's in Brighton but three times the size for provisions. Well we finally come up with a Spanish Omelet of potato and onion, with the possibility of chicken with asparagus and lemon sauce. We totally made it up as we walked down every aisle. Once we had the menu we decided oh, well we need some beverages. Now Juan immediately said, "we must get Lambrusco for the girls, they drink it like water" Now Lambrusco, is this yummy concoction of sparkling wine but not a fizzy. Its really fantastic but I thought is a little presumptuous of Juan to say we would drink it like water, but I let it go.... Then he proceeds to the Beer case as his friends don't really drink wine. In my head I thought, WHAT! a thirty something that doesn't drink wine! what have I gotten myself into (only kidding of course)
We ultimately get back to Juan's apt to begin the preparation for the ten people he said were coming. Well we come to find out that oh, its only going to be 4 people including Juan and me. Now this got me a bit worried, as I was the ONLY girl present for the first hour. Boy oh Boy it was strange! I'll just leave it at that and spare the really really really boring details. Cindy Lauper is right, Girl Just wanna Have fun! not the boys.
Much to my surprise Megan decided to join us at the house and have a bite. It was such a relief, I must say. As I stated int the pics we managed on the tortilla and these really yummy green pepinos. But the cool thing was that the peppers were mixed so you had no idea if the would be spicy or not. Unfortunately Megan was unlucky and got the really spicy one, even after a glass of milk the poor girl was still suffering.
Moving forward a bit we decided to go out dancing, a new passion of mine, to keep in mind. As I have said earlier I was not planning on going out and therefore had sneakers on. As soon as Danny, the troglodyte, saw my shoes, he says, "Oh your wearing THOSE shoes?" Juan came to my rescue and replied, "Don't worry they don't care about the girls" Oh was Juan wrong. They completely wouldn't let me in the club. It was tooo FANCY i guess. I was ready to call it quits but Juan walked with me to an Irish Pub instead for a pint, which was much nicer actually. From there we moved on to a less fashionable club. That's where I was covered in fog machine smoke, yuck, but hey I did get to see a drag queen bust her moves on the stage. It was pretty fun but I don't think I'll go back there for a while. IT wasn't really my scene they played really old 70 and bad 80s music, sorry for those who like that stuff, just not my cup of tea, i guess.
Therefore on Sunday after I woke up at 1:30pm I was invited to go for some fresh air in Retiro park, my favorite weekend hang out spot, if you don't count the bars... hahahaha, just kidding...
We went for a leisurely stroll with some girl from the group. It was great because there were so many people out that day, plus the street performers were fairly entertaining too.
After the walk around the park we found ourselves in center of the park watching all these high hippies performing a drum circle.
Apparently its where all the hippies and musicians go to bang out their frustrations. It was actually pretty neat to see, and as you can see from the pics, there were some crazies out that day. The man on the statue was terribly funny, but you had to wonder if he was ok. There were a few tense moments, but I suppose that's life in Madrid, you never know what's going happen!
TO finish off the weekend, I joined Gina and her friends, Carlos, Hugo, and Monce for a movie, El Orfanato. Think the Ring combined with the Others for reference. I totally had a flashback of the Ring with Jill and I cowering behind my sweatshirt at Fenway. But I felt I survived this one ok. I didn't have to hide for very long, but there were some Shrill moments. Gina at one point looked at me and busted out laughing because I was covering my face. Great movie though, but kinda predictable. It was selected by the Spanish to go up for Oscar selection. If it arrives in Boston, you should check it out. But I only recommend that you see it in the daytime to avoid nightmares. But that goes for any scary movie for me...
I think I have said my peace for now. Have a great week and keep me updated.
Ciao!

A Crazy Week

Hey everyone,

Sorry for being so laxed lately I have been mad busy. I had a great weekend last weekend, I met with Lyndie, our program director to discuss how things are progressing in my school. Of course I had nothing bad to say, the school is great. Its just that I have trouble identifying language objectives with my students, but that is something that I have to work on personally. I am anxious to begin this stage, but I know that I will have to re-train my brain to think in a different way. Then I met Meghan to celebrate her birthday which was on Sunday but we chose to celebrate on Saturday because it was finally a good day, weather wise. We had a lovely lunch and then went for a walk around town. Following our long walk we had been invited to a Roman Party, by a friend of Maria's named Juan. We had a great time. Although we didn't get home til the wee hours on Sunday. But in my defense, That's how Spanish parties are. You don't even arrive at a party til 11:30 or so... and then the night goes on and on. On Sunday we tried to play baseball, yes I actually tried a sport, but the girls were making fun of me because I could hardly catch the ball let alone hit it. We had a good laugh about it. Continuing with our walking weekend we then walked to an Irish Pub to try and catch the Red Sox game on tv. However, it was quite the production to find a place that would actually have the game on, since it was the Ruby Finals that night. But we found it finally! We had to wait til 11pm after the Rugby match had ended. But it was worth it. Plus the Pub was pretty empty which was great.

So the school week was good. Each day gets better, but I still have a long way to go. I am getting better with the first graders. I actually played a song for them this week about the parts of the body, I can now sing the whole thing by heart of course since I heard it over and over again. But hey that's not the point! The point is that the kids LOVED IT! They were able to move around and shake off any excess energy they had. Plus they were so cute. The song identified different parts, like head, arm, body and feet. They got their groove on easily. They insisted on me playing it over and over again but I had other plans for them. The only thing was that the kids could do the actions but they could not produce the words. But hey they had fun, which is what counts.

I am conflicted at the moment, because Gina's friends just arrived while I am writing this so please excuse any weird words since I am hearing Spanish in the background. But I am glad to see them again, we had a great time playing Monopoly the last time they were here. Tomorrow is a Holiday, which I felt like a total idiot about.

So on Wed. the teachers were talking about the holiday tomorrow as the day of the Hispanidad. When I heard this I was really confused. but the teacher explained to her students that it is the day of Columbus. Well I of course said, Wait a minute, we just celebrated it in the U.S. on Monday, WHY is it different here. Thank goodness the teacher didn't know, because when I found out that we do it so we can have a three day weekend, I felt sooo stupid. Dad even thought that I didn't know what the day was for. Well of course I know why we celebrate it, but I was confused on the day! Oh well we always make mistakes.

Being that today is a holiday, I am heading to Toledo this weekend by myself, which I am very excited about. I hope I can travel the thirty minute AVE train alone. I'm terrible with sarcasm. I am currently charging my batteries to be able to take pictures. I have been there before but that doesn't mean I shouldn't go again! I think I need a break from partying this weekend. Its been tough keeping up with some of my cohorts, and I need to plan for the next few weeks of class.

Oh, and I just got another tutoring job with a student of mine, that is deaf! How cool is that!! To teach a second language to a deaf person is so interesting to me, and I spoke with the parents, who are pilots, by the way, and they are fantastic! They even asked if I know someone who needs a place to live, because they want an American to live with them, free of charge only that the person speak English with the boys at breakfast and dinner when they see one another. What a great deal huh? I hope I heard them correct but I'll check this week.

I am really excited to begin with him because he is a great kid. Plus he surprised the begeezes out of me today when he offered a sentence that I had them fill in about the seasons and what activities they do. It was awesome.

It seems like everyday a different person comes up to me asking about private tutoring, which is great, but I am running out of time in the day! I would love to have more tutoring jobs to get more money, but I have to keep some time to plan and have fun. I think I may take one more student after school on Mondays and Fridays, but I have to wait til next week to talk with the mom.

We'll just have to wait and see...

Give me a call or email when you get a chance, I feel like I haven't talked to anyone lately, but hey I guess that's partly my fault.

Another great week!

Hey everybody:
This week was a crazy work week, as this week we began the regular school day, which means that I am there until 5pm everyday. I thought that the day would seem like it never ends, but I was pleasantly surprised. Most of the children are able to continue their work fairly well. I think the long lunch break gives them a chance to unwind and therefore they are just as attentive after lunch than before. I don't think we can say the say thing for the US. I still struggle with the first graders, but as long as I have a song or something to break up the thirty minutes, they are tolerable. I am sooo happy with the other classes though. The second and third graders are great, and we have a wonderful time working together. If anyone has any ideas about short plays that I can do with the third graders, I would greatly appreciate it. I have them for drama each one day a week, and I am lost for material. I felt bad that I came in and they were so excited to have drama, but then I didn't have any plays for us to work on.
I have started to identify certain flavors with the second graders, and we even went over time today without knowing it. The director had to come in and remind us that it was time to go home for the weekend. I think that's pretty cool that we were having such a good time that we didn't notice that it was time to leave.
Socially I had a good week.
I had tutoring Tuesday and Thursday, which was ok. The kids are slowly loosing their concentration, but now that I have met with the mom and we have gone over her expectations, I think the subsequent weeks should go well. I was able to meet up with my friend Meghan on Wednesday for coffee, one vice that we share wholeheartedly. Then I got to hear about her week, which is leaving her drained. Not because of the students, but there is a girl in the group that is challenging to deal with. But I let Meghan vent so that she would feel better. Following coffee we went back to her apt and made a really nice supper. Daniella, the girl that works with Meghan had invited herself over for dinner, but it was even worse that she is a vegetarian and proceeded to hound us about the preparation for dinner. It was frustrating, but everyone deals with people on a different level i guess. After dinner we were supposed to go to an intercambio, or social exchange, at this cafe, Cafe Madrid, but after dinner we decided to stay in and chill. Plus its been raining all week, which does not help when Meghan and I had planned to start jogging through Retiro Park. We were pretty upset that we couldn't.
Then last night I met a majority of the group at a Tapas bar to have a drink. We had planned to meet at a nice Spanish bar, but then when we realized who many people were coming, we had to scrap the Spanish bar and go to the Irish pub across the street. We had a great time chatting about school and what people had been up to over the week. Unfortunately we have yet another person who is leaving the program. She was not able to come to a compromise with her school and was really unhappy. We are sad to see her go, but you have to do what is best for you.
I believe tonight I may hit a party with Meghan and her roommate, and then we were invited to a Roman Party tomorrow night. The guy mentioned that it is a costume party, but with all the rain, I don't think I will dress up. But it should be pretty entertaining. I am glad to have survived another week, without any glitches. Hope to hear you all soon to see what you are going these days.
Hear from you soon.

Birthday Wishes

Hey everyone! Thanks to all the fabulous people who called me on my special day. It was fantastic to chat with everyone and I hope that those who celebrated with Kate enjoyed themselves. I had a GREAT birthday, even though I was not able to spend it with all my friends and family in the states.
To begin the weekend, I spent the afternoon on Friday with a girl from the program at Retiro Park and we went for a walk around. The park is soooo nice and you can spend the whole day there and not be tired. Following the park we hung out in her "shoe box" of an apt. The best part was that she drinks just as much coffee as I do, and she had a coffee pot! It was lovely to have a steaming hot cup of real coffee. Here they drink their coffee like espresso so it was nice to have a large cup. The little things count for a lot.
From there we met up with her roommate, Southie, as she is called since she is from South Carolina. Her real name is Stephanie, and has a drawl to boot. Much worse than Bethany, if she's even from South Carolina. The three of us headed towards Sol to meet a friend of Southie's. Meghan, the girl from my group, knew of a great tapas bar near Sol, which was AMAZING. Even though we had to wait for thirty minutes to sit down, it was packed to the brim with people.
We ordered some traditional tapas, like paella, tortilla espanola (A potato omelet), croquettes, and some shrimp. It was sooooo good. Plus the pitcher of Sangria made everything taste that much better. We learned quickly that if a client enjoys their food, that you throw your napkin or chicken bones on the floor. The floor was covered in napkins and trash. From there I went home and got some much needed rest from a busy week at school. But Meghan and I planned to go to the Riena Sofia museum, which houses the famous Picasso painting, Guernica, on Saturday.
The museum was nice but as I have told some of you, I am not the kind of museum goer that can stand in front of a picture for twenty minutes absorbing the intent of the artist. That being said Meghan and I walked around for a bit and then to appease our coffee habit, went to a cafeteria to have a cup and chat. Oh, and I forgot to say that three other girls from the group came down from the Escorial district to meet us at the museum. We met up with them after the museum, to discuss what to do next. Now it may be that they are still on American time, but they wanted to have dinner at 6pm! Which is unheard of in Spain.
Well I had commented earlier in the day that I would really like to have Thai food for my bday dinner, so we Had to ask a tourist guide for suggestions. We found a place that was close to a metro stop, since the three girls would have to catch a bus at 945 to go home. Since we had time to kill, we walked a short distance to Meghan's apt to rest and have a snack.
Upon walking up the 64 steps to her apt, we had to sit down to rest our tired legs. Much to my surprise as I sat down, Meghan comes out from the kitchen with a small cake and candles, to celebrate my day. I was sooo surprised that someone I had only met for a month would be so sweet to do that for me. All the girls sang to me, and we shared a piece with coffee of course. To see pics of the weekends events, I will be forwarding the shutterfly link in an email.
The Thai restaurant was a big tricky because we arrived at the place at 8:45, which is still early for Spaniards to eat. Being the six of us we walk in to find a table, but unfortunately they could not seat us because we didn't have a reservation. We were about to scrap the idea, when the hostess, said, well we have another location, would you like us to reserve a table at the other spot for you. I thought that was above an beyond a normal hostess, so we jumped at the opportunity.
We hopped back on the Metro to get there on time, which was luckily really close to where we had been. This place, I must say, is better than Brown Sugar, in Boston, which I never thought possible. Many of the girls had never been to Thai food before so we asked the waitress for some recommendations. Of course, she recommended Pad Thai, but then we also got a beef and chicken dish to share. Oh it was DELICIOUS!! It was sooo flavorful and yummy. I will totally bring anyone there for a meal if people can come and visit.
Moving On... we made a quick stop at my house to change my shoes...
Thankfully Gina was awake so my friends were able to meet her and see my place. We had a really nice time chatting but shortly had to run back to the Metro so the girls could catch their bus back.
We were able to convince one girl, Maia, to stay in Madrid with us for the night and crash at Meaghan's house so we could go out dancing. Yes, I did say dancing. I know many of you cant believe those words came from my Suzy Homemaker, Grandma, mouth.
We got a bit nervous that Joycelyn and Jen would not be able to catch their bus, but thank goodness they made it.
We made our way through Sol simply by following the crowd. We ultimately found ourselves at an Irish Pub, O'Connells for the first round of drinks. This was a shack of a place, but full of people. We actually saw American Football on the TV, plus Rugby, of course. After a couple drinks, we decided it was now to time to go dancing. You always need a drink in you before you go to a club, or at least, I do, being so rhythmically declined.
Again we followed the crowd to this long line of people at a club called, Sweet. It was funny cause I think this was the first time I actually had to wait in line for a club, so I enjoyed it. Of course, I asked some random person in front of us to take a picture for me, which he did. And it turned out pretty good, actually. I have had many a photo taken by a stranger and it turned out crummy, but this was a young guy, and thus knew how to take a good photo.
The Club:
The place was jammed to the brim, thus why we had to stand in line. But in a good way. With the price of admission we each got a pass for a free drink, which was used right away. There were tons of flashing lights and great music. None of that 80's junk they play in Boston, sorry Kimmee I had to say it. We danced to our hearts content, until, 5:45 in the MORNING!! It was awesome, and I didn't even feel tired. No, don't worry I was still functioning, even though, Meghan was not. But hey that's the fun of it. As we stumbled towards the Metro it occurred to us that this would be a great time to go for Churros and Chocolate, a famous late night/morning eat. No Little Steve's for us! Well being that it was sooooo early in the morning, on a Sunday, no less, we were saddened to find that no such establishment was open yet, and proceeded to catch the 6:30am train back home to sleep.
No sleep for me, as I planned with Santi to catch a 1:30 bus to his house for Sunday lunch. But hey it was totally worth it.
Santi's house is amazing, I knew they were well off, but I had NO idea how much so. His dad actually has a squash court, in his house, and a basketball court. Not to be so materialistic, I met his entire family, grandparents included, right when I got there. Ironically he had just had his birthday this past Thursday, so everyone was over to celebrate with him.
Lunch was lovely. Of course, tons of food, and drink, but that's how Spaniards spend an afternoon, with nothing to do. I was able to understand most of what was happening, but must admit some was just white noise. After lunch the "adults" went to have a chat on the porch and enjoy the conversation while the children rested, no, still no sleep for me....
I ended up leaving his house at 9pm after the Real Madrid match on TV. It was a pretty boring game, but at least we won.
Finally I got home at 10:30 and was now ready for bed.
Overall it was a fabulous birthday, more than I could have imagined, being that most of the group had run off to Granada for the weekend, but I'm actually glad that not everyone was there so I was able to enjoy myself that much more with the company I had. I feel like if there had been more people there I would have hung around in the back, but thankfully that was not the case.
Again I want to thank everyone for the well wishes and phone calls/texts I received, its nice to know that so many people care about you. And not just on your bday, so thanks for calling daily/weekly too.
Some may joke that it took me leaving the country to finally call people, but hey we're all glad for that. Love you and miss you all.
Look forward to the pics, plus captions to boot. :0)