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!