Thanksgiving in Madrid!

Hope you all had a wonderful time with friends and family!  Although I of course missed my family over this Thanksgiving (I did enjoy our Skype date though!) Thanksgiving in Madrid (x2) was really great!

This was really the first time that I took part in the Thanksgiving preparations. When you're in a country where pumpkin, pecans, and cranberry sauce are very difficult to find, and meat that's not ham is not so popular, preparations get interesting.  And when 2 of the 3 hosts of the dinner don't even have ovens, we get creative...

After pumpkin pie preparations on Tuesday, I arrived Thursday (with a carrot dish I was pretty proud of...) around 6pm to my friend Hannah's apartment. I watched her as she basted our 16 pound turkey with an icecream scooper (works pretty well) and learned the correct way to take stuffing out of a turkey. With macaroni and cheese on the stove, and sweet potatoes in the oven, we were on our way. Around 8pm, the rest of the food arrived: mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, more stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, brownies, pumpkin pie... and after we opened up one of our eight bottles of wine (8 bottles for 10 euro...thank you spanish grocery stores!) it was finally time to eat.

5 Americans, 4 Mexicans, 2 Spaniards, 1 Italian and 1 German sat down to eat Thanksgiving dinner. Definitely the most multicultural Thanksgiving dinner I have been a part of. There was so much food and it was all delicious.  In true Thanksgiving fashion, we all went around the table  saying what we were thankful for. For most of them, it was their first Thanksgiving and it was nice to be able to share it with them.

After finding out that no one besides the Americans understood what we were celebrating, and also that a friend written a Thanksgiving skit for school, the next logical step was to perform it for everyone. After our wonderful rendition of the first Thanksgiving dinner (I gave a riveting performance as 'Pilgrim Children'), everyone finally understood what we were celebrating.

After a danceparty to work off all of Thanksgiving food, I returned to my house very full and happy. Another perk? leftover on Friday. It does almost taste better on day 2...

Fast forward to Saturday night, another set of carrots, and another Thanksgiving dinner. This time, however, it was more of a Madrileño Thanksgiving. There were only about 4 Americans and 20 Spaniards. While we did have turkey and sweet potatoes and other traditional Thanksgiving foods we also had some croquettas, ham flavored lays potato chips and other Spanish foods. It was nice to have that mixture. Once again, we explained the meaning of Thanksgiving. Did you know that Squanto originally came from Spain? Look at all of the connections!

Then, in true Spanish form we went out until 6am...

Lisbon!

Hello everyone, it's been a while! First up, a short update from Madrid, then a weekend trip to Portugal! As of yesterday, I've been here 2 months! It's crazy because I feel like I both just got here and have been here forever. I've for the most part, settled into a routine. I have school in the mornings between 8:30-2:10 (depending on the week) and teach private lessons during the afternoons Monday-Wednesday. These kids are a lot younger than the kids I teach in school which is a nice break (although keeping the attention of a hyper 4 year old presents its own set of challenges...)

School has been going fine so far. It's hard sometimes because the strikes throughout the year have caused us to be behind in much of the material.  Many courses are still on units 1 or 2, and they have been in school for more than 2 months. There isn't much time for deviations from the curriculum.  Students can fill in grammar exercises, but questions like "What are the two people doing in the picture?" can stump even the 16 or 17 year olds. The kids are funny though.  Since I have every student in the school, every day I have 600+ kids yelling "hello Emily" from across the hallway. While I do recognize faces, I can't say I remember any of their names, haha.

 This past Sunday were elections here, and the Conservative party, PP, won by a landslide. It will be interesting to see what happens next in terms of the strikes, and life in Spain in general...

Now to Lisbon! How lucky I am that I get to take off on a normal weekend and go to another country! It's such a beautiful city and so different than Madrid.  First, they speak Portuguese, which when written looks like Spanish so I could understand some, but spoken is very difficult. I have to say I really missed Spanish! They speak English well there so we spoke in English the whole time. Though Spanish did slip out once or twice, and we when we met other travelers who spoke Spanish we took advantage...

We stayed at a really great hostel. The staff was so incredibly friendly and they essentially helped us plan our entire trip, down to every meal. At our first dinner we met two Italian girls sitting at the table next to us. We informed them that the food that was brought to the table was not free--and from that a bond was formed.  We spent a lot of the weekend with them which was a lot of fun.

First up: Friday- Our day was cut short because of the rain, but we spent the morning and afternoon in a small town outside of Lisbon, called Sintra. The town was beautiful, but my favorite part was a place called Quinta. It was an estate of a very wealthy man, complete with beautiful gardens and tunnels. At one point we were walking at the bottom of a well and ended up under a waterfall! It was really cool. We took a bus up to a palace with beautiful gardens, but it began to pour so we decided to call it a day.

Saturday- Our first day exploring Lisbon! We woke up early to take advantage of the day. (We were also home early the night before because rain scared everyone into staying home. I hadn't seen streets so empty at night in a long time!) We explored a large castle in the middle of the city, and got to walk on the walls which was pretty cool. In the afternoon, we explored a neighborhood called Alfama, which is the oldest neighborhood in the city. After an earthquake in 1775 destroyed almost the entire city, Alfama was the only neighborhood that was rebuilt in the same way as before. The streets were narrow and beautiful and as we got lost it was so hard to believe that we were in the middle of a city. It was nice that there weren't any tourists around and we could just explore. 

Golden gate bridge look-a-like, trams, hills, it's the San Francisco of Europe!

Sunday- Our last day we took a tram to Belem. We explored an incredible Monastery, visited a big monument, walked along the water, but most importantly, went to an amazing bakery.  Lisbon is famous for pastries called "Pasteis de nata". They're essentially tiny cakes filled with custard, but they're absolutely delicious. They are found in bakeries all over Lisbon, but there's one bakery in Belem that is one of the original makers of the pastries so of course we had to try one (or two or three...). Though chocolate desserts will always be number one in my heart, I'd say these came pretty close. So good! 

(My friend has the pictures of me eating my pastries, so google will just have to do...)

All of the sidewalks and plazas are made up of black and white tiles of all different patterns. Lisbon is also famous for its tiled buildings (seen above), two of my favorite things about this city!

And now I'm back!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you enjoy your time with friends and family! While it will definitely be weird not being home with my family, I am making up for it with not one but two! Thanksgiving dinners! I will share everything next week!

Pecans are too expensive here, so no pecan pie...eat some extra for me!

Amsterdam!

What a cool (and crazy) city! Just two hours from Madrid and the two countries are completely different! For starters, you're supposed to speak English there.  For some reason, whenever I'm in a foreign country and need to ask a question my mind switches to Spanish. I feel bad when I speak English in Spain, because I know I should be practicing my Spanish. In the Netherlands, however, the common language is English, and their English is very good. I constantly had to remind myself to speak English. 

Highlights from this trip!

1. The Heineken Experience-  What an incredible marketing tactic! This was not just a brewery tour but an 'experience'. In addition to a visit to the brewery, there was a video, simulation ride,  a bar, and even a Heineken lounge that showed Heineken commercials all over the walls. They definitely figured out how to reach the consumer.  The place was packed, and when it closed at 7, they were kicking people out.  It was a lot of fun though and the Heineken was good. I guess they did their job?...

2. Walking Tour-  On our second day we did a really great walking tour (it was also free-even better!). We walked all around the historical parts of the city, the canals, the markets, Dam Square, and our tour guide was really great. He also took us to the Red Light District (which I also revisited at night), but don't have any pictures because we were told if we took pictures we might get urine thrown at us...figured it was best not to risk that.   It was obvious the tour guide knew a great deal about the city, and he told us many interesting facts and anecdotes. He spent almost four hours with us and it was a really great way to get to know the city.  I like walking tours as opposed to bus tours because you really get to be in the action. 

 the narrowest house in the world! about 4 feet wide!

3.  Anne Frank's House-  I don't think I really knew what to expect.  The line to visit the house was over one hour long, and we got there at 9:15 in the morning. The annex was a lot bigger than I had anticipated.  Not that I would want to live there for 2 1/2 years and never go outside, but it had two floors, a couple of bedrooms, kitchen and living room.  All of the rooms were unfurnished because Otto Frank wanted the rooms left in the same way they were left after the Nazis raided the annex, so it was hard to really visualize what life was like there. It does amaze me, however, how young Anne Frank was and how much of an impact she had.  The diary of Anne Frank has been translated into over 60 languages--second to only the bible. She was only 13 years old and was quite influential.  It was hard to believe that I was walking through the place she spent so long and actually wrote her diary.

4. Van Gogh Museum- I didn't really know that much about Van Gogh but heard the museum was worth seeing. For an artist who only painted for 10 years, he had a lot to show! The line to get into this museum was also over an hour, and packed! He did have a lot of really cool paintings and it was easy to see how his work changed as his influences changed. There was also a funny giftshop. You could buy bags, t-shirts, even a bicycle with a pattern from his paintings (for example, almond blossom, the painting to the left)...but I guess we were in Amsterdam so that shouldn't have been too surprising.

5.  Food!- Although I love Spanish food, it was nice to get a break from it and eat food from many other parts of the world. While Amsterdam doesn't necessarily have its own cuisine, they are famous for their pancakes as well as french fries. They have sweet ones (banana and chocolate/nutella) as well as savory ones (ham and cheese, mushrooms, etc..,) and both were delicious. They also had a ton of french fries, and a chain called Febo- which is like a vending machine of fried food. While it wasn't my favorite thing we ate there, it was something we had to do. 

6.  Meeting People!- We went on a Pub Crawl our first night, and met people from all over the world. It's crazy the different types of tourists that come through.  Our last night, as we were looking for something to do between dinner and the rest of our evening, we went to a sports bar. While the Patriots were playing a less than stellar game, we ran into someone I had met on a summer program 5 years ago, who was with people one of my other friends went to High School with.  Small world...

I would call my first trip out of Spain a success!

A long week...

After 3 full days of getting up at 6:30 am for work, it is now time for…a weekend. Today is another strike, so I am gearing up for 4-day weekend, I live a tough life I know…

This past weekend I took my first overnight trip, to Ávila, another town about an hour from Madrid. I went with a friend for their big festival for Santa Teresa. We arrived Friday around 7pm just in time for their big flower offering procession. There were marching bands, military personnel, older women, children, and more, all with bouquets of flowers. They all left from the cathedral and walked to the main plaza to leave their flowers with a statue of Santa Teresa (above).  

After the procession, we left in search of some food. It was probably 9:00, about the acceptable time to start eating. We went in search of a menu (think restaurant week all of the time). It’s very popular in Spain, and for a set amount you get a drink, bread, first and second course, and dessert. Afterwards, we decided to try out the nightlife in Avila, and set out in search of a bar.  We were there on a Friday night, so the odds were good. We found one that was pretty busy. We sat for a while and ended up talking to some people for a while. I’m pretty sure we were the only Americans there, which was pretty cool. We moved to another bar a couple of hours later, and saw everyone from the first bar. It seems we found the two places everyone goes...

Avila is famous for the wall that surrounds its city, so Saturday morning we walked on the wall to get a view of the city. It was very beautiful, and interesting to hear about the history of the city.  We ran into a parade by accident when we finished with the wall and after a quick lunch, we were on our way back to Madrid!

Up next: The school I work at is involved with an exchange program with schools in Romania, Poland, Germany and two other countries I can’t remember. A week before I arrived, two teachers and six students went to Romania for a week, and this coming week, the Romanians are coming here. Because I speak English, I get to go with the Spanish students and professor as they show the Romanians around Madrid and Toledo, another city outside of Madrid. It will be very cool and interesting to see this cultural exchange, and the fact that I get to go for free isn’t too bad either.

Friday- Amsterdam! My first big trip! Will keep you posted!

I woke up this morning and all of the electricity was out.  In attempts to get some things done, I am currently at the one place I knew would have ‘free’ wifi—Starbucks. I guess by free I meant buying a 2.30euro cup of tea…the cheapest on the menu. I don't like coffee or Starbucks enough to be back here...any suggestions of good cafes in Madrid are welcome!!

A 'fun' fast?

Well, I wouldn't necessarily call it 'fun', but my experience with Yom Kippur was definitely an different one, and many parts of it were very enjoyable. For those of you who don't know, last Saturday was the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, where you fast and atone for your sins.  I went to services Friday night in a banquet room of a hotel. There were probably about 80-100 people there, which is extremely small in comparison to the hundreds I'm used to at home and even at WashU. While the service was done in Spanish and Hebrew instead of English and Hebrew, it was comforting how similar it all was and I thought it was so cool that Jews all over the world do the same things on the holidays.

After a delicious meal of mexican food, we began our fast.  I arrived at the hotel Saturday morning for services (more than an hour and a half late) and was surprised at how few people were there. The evening services were so much more crowded than the morning services, the opposite of what i'm used to (I don't even really go to evening services at home. When in Spain you stay up so late, it's understandable there isn't that much activity in the mornings, you've got to sleep sometime).  That afternoon I went on a search for bagels, not such an easy thing to find. I found myself at the American grocery store, and bought frozen bagels. They weren't like Finagle-A-Bagel from home, but they would have to do. At around 9:45pm we finally broke the fast (Spanish dinner time of course), filled with bagels, cream cheese and lox, salads, fruit, desserts and more.

The funny part of this evening came after we broke the fast.  We went to a 'post Yom Kippur' fiesta at a bar/club and I felt like I was at a bar-mitzvah. They played Spice Girls and Grease, a guy who likes taking pictures was taking pictures of everyone,  and occasionally we did some line dancing (did you know there was a Spanish Version of Achy-Breaky heart?) Every once and a while I would just have to laugh at the scene, reminding myself that everyone there was Jewish. I can't remember the last time I was in a room with that many Jewish people at one time and I don't think I've ever been with that many Jews from so many different parts of the world.

We left 'early' around 4:30am and decided to go get some churros and chocolate. One of the popular places to go, San Gimenez, was absolutely packed but very delicious! Nothing like a cup of melted chocolate at 5am...

After waiting until 6am for the metro to open, we all went our separate ways and I collapsed into bed around 6:30am. It's a good thing the sun doesn't rise until about 8:15am, I was able to fool myself into thinking it was still night time.



More pictures, this time of a medieval festival in Álcala de Henares, about 40 minutes by train from Madrid. It's the biggest festival of the year there, celebrating Cervantes, who was born in the town.  This festival had everything from crepes, to huge vats of olives, wine bottles in the shape of shoes, pony rides and much more.

Done with week one!

Before I begin, some pictures to prove I'm actually here...  These are pictures from my day trip last Saturday to Segovia, about an hour from Madrid. 

Ok! Let's get started here!

I have officially finished my first week of work! When my mom asked me earlier this week how school was going, my answer was 'fascinating'.... which as the week continued on, I still believe is an accurate statement.  In this post I will explain what I mean. I don't mean it at all in an negative way, but just that it really opened my eyes to a lot of different things.  Even in these first couple of days, I know I will learn a great deal. 

I am working at an instituto, (secondary school of 12-18 years old) in a town about 40 minute by bus outside of Madrid.  The English department is 5 teachers and they could not be more welcoming.  They really are very excited to have me, which has been very nice.  I am the first native speaker to be at this school, after those in the last few years have fallen through last minute. Although I am not sure they know exactly what to do with me yet, this will come in time when I get my schedule (hopefully early next week) and things have settled down here...

By settle down, I refer to the bit of chaos surrounding my instituto and the public secondary school system in general. I don't completely understand what is going on, but the gist of it is that the government adjusted the public school requirements. Teachers are required to work extra hours, are not getting an increase in pay. Because of budget cuts, at least 5 teachers from my school alone were fired in the past year. I thought it might be a bit awkward showing up at a school to work when 5 teachers had been fired, but I am grateful the teachers have been so welcoming. Because of these issues, many teacher are on strike. Tuesday and Wednesday were official teacher strikes, and because of this, the students didn't come either. I shadowed four classes on Tuesday, two of which had 2 students each, one which had about 6, and the last one had none, so we didn't go.  Wednesday, I was told not to come to school since there would once again be no students or teachers. Apparently something like 70% of public school teachers did not show up for work (the government estimates 40% and some media estimates as much as 80%). Tuesday afternoon on the way to the Prado museum, I found myself surrounded by probably hundreds of adults, children and teachers in green shirts that said something like 'educación pública para todos' (public education for all). It was a time I wish I had my camera. A pretty cool sight to see everyone together.

What I thought was especially interesting as well was today (Thursday) was a student strike. I was pretty amazed at the fact that the students were able to mobilize all at the same time.  I only went to one class today, which had 5 students.  I think the teachers were surprised that so many students carried out the strike. The student strike wasn't just at my school, but at many public schools across the greater Madrid area. I understand that teachers unions can organize these types of movements, but it's different with students.  I guess with social media such as facebook, it's a lot easier to organize these types of things.  I can't imagine 85% of the students from my high school just not showing up one day, but maybe we would if we felt the cause important enough? 

It's hard because everyone is suffering because of these strikes. The next strike day is some time in the next couple of weeks. I guess I'll see what happens next week. But before then, a weekend in Madrid!