Dos semanas de diversión (A Fortnight of Fun)

This update begins two Tuesdays ago. I was going to blog but ended up just ranting on Facebook, where I posted the following message:

My first three classes were great, only minor behavior problems that were solved by getting their attention or in one case having a girl sit in front of the class by herself. In my fourth class, they were out of control from the beginning. I tried to introduce myself, then do my activity, then go over their homework , but nothing worked. They continued to shout across the room, toss paper and pens across the room, get out of their seats for any reason. I might be hoarse tomorrow from trying to shout over them. Even the students who were interested in learning about me simply have not learned how a classroom operates and instead of raising a hand would shout or come up to the front of the class to ask me something. At any rate, it’s literally not in my job description to have to deal with that. I left the room, fully composed mind you, and got their teacher, then talked to the principal who is going to talk to my advisor, and hopefully I will start working alongside the teachers like I’m supposed to instead of in place of them.

Sure enough, my classes on Wednesday and Thursday were better. The teachers stayed in the classroom with me and helped answer questions and translate when necessary. I've also learned the levels of my classes much better. One problem of being alone my first couple of days is that I didn't know how little English they actually knew. So, instead of telling me that they didn't understand, they preferred to just act up.

On Wednesday night, I went to a Spanish lesson offered through Couchsurfing at Adrian's house, where I had been before. So, I figured I could get to know other people, and I'll take an opportunity to speak Spanish and not spend the whole day cooped up in my piso (apartment). I invited Bryan, and he came, too, making it me, him, and a Turkish girl named Ozlem. Adrian is starting with the basics. We talked about letters and numbers, but in doing so we had some interesting conversation and learned some things that our Spanish books might have skipped over.

Thursday's fun activity was Ben's birthday party. Ben is another auxiliar from Cambridge, and his sister was here on "holiday" to visit him. Most of my other auxiliar friends came, too, and a couple of the girls gave him lemon cupcakes that tasted amazing.

I spent Friday night with Bryan and Saraí at Saraí's apartment at what was supposed to be a music rehearsal for the coming Sunday. However, Esmeralda, a crucial part of the worship team, couldn't make it, so after talking music for a while, the conversation turned to Italy and Bryan's ganas to return.

Whoa! Too much new information! Things to know to have a good grasp of the previous paragraph:

• Saraí (pronounced "saw raw EE") and Esmeralda (i.e. Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame) are both students from Mexico who live here and lead worship at church.
• Bryan has Italian heritage, has visited Italy twice, and is now quite possibly addicted.
• Ganas are what you have in Spanish when you feel like doing something and what you don't have when you don't feel like doing it. For example, I didn't have the ganas to blog today, but I decided that I should. Hopefully if you're following this blog and don't know Spanish, you'll pick up on the most useful Spanish phrases and start using them yourself!

So, during our "rehearsal," we found cheap plane tickets to Rome and decided to fly there for Christmas. We'd fill in other details later.


Saturday for lunch the three of us met up once again and ate at Peggy Sue's, a quaint 1960's American Diner, complete with burgers, fries, and shakes.

That afternoon was the Saturday Bible Study, after which I met up with a guy I met through Couchsurfing who was looking for some intercambio, language exchange. There was a concert going on in Casco Viejo, and we got some drinks and pintxos while alternating speaking in English and Spanish. He was with three of his friends from Durango, and they were all enthusiastic about testing their English skills. Later, they and I met up with Saraí and Bryan, we all talked for a little outside of the Corte Inglés, and then I went with Saraí and Bryan to Bryan's piso where we watched The Social Network. 


Bryan's piso, by the way, is an entrepiso, meaning "between floors." It has a low ceiling, but it's not nearly as low as those in Being John Malkovich. Nevertheless, being there makes one feel like a giant. Bryan got incredibly lucky and was connected with his landlord through the school where he's working. He's paying half what rent would normally cost in exchange for giving him English lessons.

We were going to go our separate ways after the movie, but then I got a call from Jessica Chandras, another auxiliar, looking for a good time in Casco Viejo. So, we went to the nearest metro stop to head over, and it was backed up by several minutes. Eventually we arrived and had Doner Kebab with Jessica and Pinky (Remember? Irish Debbie). Doner Kebabs are the fast food of Spain where you can get kebabs and gyros for really cheap. Apparently they're all over Europe, but this was my first experience in one. I got plain old chicken and rice, but it was pretty good.



Sunday I spent most of the day thinking about what I would talk about at church, since I was asked the week before to "share" something. So, I shared in Spanish about the dichotomy of fear and love, and the role it has played in my life. I got some good feedback afterward from those there who speak English, but I was worried that my Spanish didn't make any sense. Luckily, a litter later I was told that it did. It still surprises me when this language actually "works."

Monday I went with auxiliar friends to Gernika (You might call it Guernica) in the heartland of the Basque Country for its final market day in October. There were stalls of merchandise up and down the street, and at least half of them were cheese --all kinds of cheese you can imagine, except American and cheddar, of course. I'm not a big cheese fan, but I still sampled quite a few Eucharist-sized bits of it.

Hitler used Gernika for practicing "blitzkrieg" before attacking England. He chose to do so on a market day when there would be the most people out and about. Several innocent Basque people died that day, and the brutality is permanently depicted in Picasso's famous work.

Me and Pinky in front of a copy of Picasso's "Guernica"; The original is in Madrid.

Gernika, therefore, is like a hub of Basque culture, and the people there are very proud of their "Basquitude" (as Kata says). Historically the most hardcore Basque people want autonomy for the Basque lands, which gave rise to the famous Basque terrorist group ETA and caused tension between the Basque Country and Franco. Basque leaders used to meet here and make decisions under a special tree, which now symbolizes Gernika, peace, and autonomy. The original tree has since died and its trunk is on display, but one of its saplings lives on, furthering its father's legacy.

The Original

The Sapling

The Symbol

Basques are also known for their cidra, or cider, which must be poured at a distanced to make it more bubbly. A native passed as we were practicing pouring it and shouted, "Más alto!" (Higher!)

And then my weekend was over. I made final preparations for classes that night and dove into lessons the next morning. That week I was finished with giving introductory material about myself, so I talked about Halloween. I had them fill in the blanks in a handout about trick-or-treat and carving pumpkins, and I taught them various Halloween words that we used to play BINGO. Most of the classes went well. When I returned to the class that I walked out of, and found that they had a lot of learning issues. Giving directions as clearly as possible as many times as possible seems to be the key, but no matter how many times I do, someone still doesn't understand. I managed to coax several classes into participation by using candy as incentive.


Tuesday night, Bryan and I returned to Adrian's piso for another Spanish lesson over nationalities. Then we stretched our brains by playing Scattergories, basically.

Wednesday after work, I made chili, using a recipe that Elizabeth, another auxiliar, posted on her blog. It took nearly all night because I cooked the black beans the slow way. Saraí and Bryan came over to enjoy some of it, but my kitchen quickly got crowded on the one night I had people over, so we took it to-go, and ate it at Saraí's piso.

I stayed up too late on Wednesday night and was tired all day on Thursday until after my siesta. I did, however, meet up with Saraí and Bryan for lunch at a little bar near the Arenal (place name). After the siesta, I returned to Dubliners, the bar where they have weekly intercambio. I met several English-speaking expats there, but spent most of the time talking in Spanish with a guy named Diego, who apparently reads my blog now.


Friday I went shopping with Tony's secretary, Aingeru (yeah, I know, Basque names are weird). The previous week, I mentioned to Tony that I needed to buy some shoes, but that I didn't want to get ripped off by paying too much or paying too little for poor quality. He said that Aingeru would know more about where to get good deals than he would, so he and I met up for lunch. We went to an amazing all-you-can-eat buffet, and afterward, he showed me the best shoe store to go to, along with four clothes stores with affordable prices. By the end of the afternoon, I'd bought shoes and a jacket. 

That evening, we met up at the church for worship rehearsal, and afterward, Bryan, Saraí, and I were starving. I suggested we go to the free cooking class that I went to before. We did and ate free delicious Mexican "tacos" (more like burritos) and hot dogs.


Saturday brought another Bible Study, followed by a trip to Casco Viejo, where Saraí and I met the former auxiliar of Bryan's school and some of her friends and pintxoed it up.


Sunday I had lunch, or "meal," soon after I woke up. I met Bryan at the meetin' spot and then we went to Tony's portal. From there we walked to a nearby mall's food court which included a Burger King and McDonalds among other things. I opted for other things, mostly because they were less expensive. The whole church went out to eat because there was a couple visiting from Reynosa, Mexico and a family visiting from Asturias (another part of Spain).

After our long lunch, we had church. Worship was awesome, led by our budding worship team. In addition to Tony's preaching, we heard testimonies from Ulises (from Reynosa, Mexico) and from Gisela (from Asturias) and her daughter Luana, and it was touching to hear all the things that God has done in their lives. It was also a workout for my ears, because I heard within a short period of time the three major extremes of Spanish accents: Spanish, Mexican, and Rioplatense, spoken around Buenos Aires. Gisela was raised near Buenos Aires, and it was refreshing to hear a "familiar" Spanish accent.

After church, Bryan and I worked on ideas for classes while Bryan borrowed my washing machine. Then we met up with the other auxiliares in Casco Viejo for Jessica Norris's birthday. They were all dressed up for Halloween, but I was lame and didn't plan ahead, so I had no costume. They eventually went to the Erasmus Halloween party, but I wasn't feeling it, so I went home.

Yesterday was a day of planning and chilling. Bryan and I also went to Tony's for dinner. Mª Luz makes incredible food, and I shocked Aitor and Anne with how much I ate.

That brings me to today, Tuesday, the beginning of my work week. I planned several activities to choose from for my various classes of various levels. On Tuesdays, my last class is the bad class --the one I walked out of (It will forever have that label). The class went by slowly. They were somewhat better behaved, but it´s possible that they were just quieter. Their level of English is so low that I have to bring it down for them more than any other class, translating just about everything. And even then, I get a million questions. The first activity was to simply ask your partner what he/she did this weekend, and then tell me. When I asked one boy to tell me what he what his partner did, he said "No quiero." (I don't want to.) I reminded him that the whole class was doing it and it was not difficult, and eventually he said something very basic, like "He went to ______," or "He celebrated Halloween." As I was leaving the room, one kid was on the ground and other kids were play-kicking him; another boy was sobbing because someone had hit his head. The kids in that class just hit each other to make a point, and I have no idea what to do for anything to change. I feel really sorry for the kids who want to learn in that class. They're all getting shortchanged.


And I've been chilling and blogging the rest of the day, except for a few hours just now when Jessica C. texted me. I met up with her, Claire, and Pinky for a lovely evening together, topped off with Doner Kabab for dinner.