More Observations from Spain

     TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) classes started this past Monday. The walk from the hostel I'm currently at to the building where my TEFL classes are located is only 15 minutes, as opposed to the 45 minute walk from Ana's house to my classes in Argentina. Although, I'm moving to a home stay on Tuesday (more on that later.) The teacher, John Bousse, is really engaging, using a teaching style that captures my attention. He varies the mode of learning (group work, individual, etc...) as well as dramatizing the beginning of lessons to capture our attention. For example, he told a story of one of his teachers who rolled himself up under the desk, changed into a Superman outfit below the desk, and told the students he was about to do something the class would never forget. The teacher proceeded to “fly” around the classroom, out the door, into his car, and drove off! The students, unsure of what to do, waited a while before leaving the classroom. John made it clear that this would probably not be the best lesson plan (or lack thereof) these days, but, nevertheless, effectively captured the students' attention.

     The schedule's of the TEFL course is really rigorous. Classes start every day at 10 AM and end at 4:30, with a half hour for lunch and two fifteen minute breaks, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. The first week is all TEFL theory: listening, reading, writing. Our first assignment was to prepare a ten minute presentation on any subject we wanted. Since I gave my Spanish thesis presentation just last year, I translated the material to English and presented that. It felt weird giving the same presentation in English; I felt that it should have been in Spanish since that's the language in which I first gave it.

The presentations varied so much; one was about flamenco dancing, another about the aesthetics of shoes, yet another about the vitality of the Boston Red Sox to bostonian life. The presentation styles also struck me; I had an outline to which I referred while others gave the presentation without any notes at all. I learned after that the true point of the exercise was to get a better sense of time management when teaching; always prepare extra material in case you're under time and, alternately, know which sections of the lesson plan to cut if you see you're going overtime.

     We also learned about parts of speech, sentence structure and a bunch of other grammar subjects. It's insane how much English grammar I'm unaware of; since English is my first language, I don't say to myself “oh, that's a gerund phrase!” or “that's a modal verb telling the likelihood of an event!” (must, should, etc...) Before we learned all of this material, we had an initial placement test on grammar to see were we stood before learning it... Needless to say, the results were less than ideal when I got the test back.

     We have two quizzes each day based on the two chapters of reading we've done the night before. They're really short, ten minute quizzes. On one quiz, John asked us to write whose presentation we liked the best. This struck me as a bit odd as I didn't realize we were competing against each other for the “best” presentation.

     I also found out that, at least at the start of our teaching, five TEFL classmates will sit in on our teaching sessions (student and teacher, a 1:1 ration). This I was not prepared for. I feel as though I'll get real nervous teaching with the knowledge that five or so classmates are sitting in the back, basically evaluating me!

     While waiting at O'Hare Airport in Chicago for the connector flight, I met Emily, a girl who turned out to also be going to Madrid, teaching English as well. Last Friday night, we met up at La Latina, a metro stop in Madrid, with some of her friends. We went to a bar and a dance club. Her friend was from Great Britain, also in her program. I got back to my hostel around 4:30 AM after a great night out. This aspect of life in Spain is definitely like life in Argentina: dinner is at 9:30, thriving nightlife, siesta here as well, etc...

     The other day, I was in Puerta del Sol, the center of Madrid and, alternately, of all of Spain. As I was walking back, I felt a woman take my arm and say something like “hola, quieres pasar tiempo juntos?” (“Hey, do you want to spend time together”)

I looked up and she was, indeed, a prostitute... at 3:30 PM! She was very attractive and had high heels, all made up. I politely pulled my arm away, saying “no, gracias.”

Definitely not an everyday experience! That's definitely never happened to me in the states and I found it really bold and odd that a woman (or man) would walk up to a stranger in the middle of the streets and essentially put out like that. That's prostitution for you!

     There's a really quirky and funny guy at the hostel named Luke. He started referring to me as
“Senator.” Now every time we cross paths he says something to the extent of “What's new Senator” or, in the morning, “good morning, Senator.” At another point, there was a group of us in the kitchen listening to “Hotel California” by The Eagles. “Welcome to the Hostel Malasaña” (name of the hostel I'm at), he sang.

     The Spanish here is really different than the Spanish that I spoke in Argentina. Rather, it's the same language but there are certain nuances that differ. The biggest difference is the verb conjugation for “you.” In Argentina it's “vos sos” (you are), here it's “tú eres (you are, what is used in the majority of Spanish speaking countries.)

     Along the lines of the informal “you”, it seems that Argentine's are much less formal. For example, while in Argentina everyone told me to use the informal the majority of the time. You really only use the formal if you're speaking with the mother of your girlfriend, they explained to me. Here, people tell me to use “usted” (formal version of “you”) until the person says to use the informal version. Of course, if I'm speaking Spanish to someone around my age who I've just met, I'll use “tú.” Otherwise, it seems “usted” is the more usual from.

     More specifically, I've found there are various words and expressions that differ. In Argentina, “dale” meant “given”, basically saying you agree with what is being said or even just indicating you're paying attention. Here, it's “vale.” When I was meeting with the woman to set up the home stay, I kept saying “dale.” Eventually, she said “that must be from Argentina. Se dice 'vale' aqui.” Another difference is “de buena honda” in Argentina, “majo,-a” in Spain. The two are used to refer to an all-around great guy/girl.

     Last weekend, I went to the Plaza Segundo de Mayo with some friends around 11 PM. Although I was told that drinking alcohol outdoors was illegal, there were at least ten people walking around selling beer. What's more, there was a police car on the perimeter of the plaza... and they did absolutely nothing! Needless to say, the drinking laws seem less enforced here. Along similar lines, I never get carded when I go into bars (compared to the USA, where asking for an ID is more common.)

     I went to a Real Madrid game last week. Real Madrid is the local fútbol team of Madrid and, currently, is one of the best franchises around out of all sports. I was able to buy a ticket at the stadium and kept my wits about me and, similar to when I went to a fútbol game in Argentina, the passion the crowd showed for the game was amazing. To give an idea, fútbol (soccer) is here what football is in the USA.

     I also joined a gym last week. I arrived in Spain on the 18^th and hadn't done any form of exercise since then so my lower back was getting really stiff. The rooms at the hostel are pretty small and it's a multilevel building so there's really nowhere to do it here. In any case, I got a one week membership to a gym right near my TEFL classes and it's been great to be able to do yoga there.

     A one week gym membership... seems odd, Eli- wouldn't you at least get one month? This brings us back to the home stay. I'll be moving on Tuesday to the house of a local, Spanish family. There are two parents and one daughter and, while I'm there, I'll get free room and board in exchange for help with the daughter's English homework as well as generally speaking in English with the family. The sheet says it has to be at least 3 hours of English per day which totally fits with my TEFL course, hopefully this doesn't become too much when I start teaching.

     I also bought a local, pay as you go phone here.  It'll especially come in handy if I do decide to rent a "piso" (flat) in Spain.  In addition, potential employers will call me on my local, Spanish phone.  

     Surprisingly, there are a lot of Chinese people living in Madrid. In fact, there are these little convenience stores all around the city (what were called “kioskos” in Argentina) and all that I've been to have been run by these Chinese people. The other day, when I asked the man at the front desk of the hostel where I could get dinner close by, he mentioned that the “chino” (referring to the store) sold frozen pizzas. The man at the main desk is from England and he confirmed that other Americans couldn't believe how not politically correct this was but, as he explained, it's completely normal here.

I had my first paella last Sunday- it was amazing! Paella is rice mixed with seafood, some vegetables, and some meat, very well known throughout Spain. I'd heard of Paella back in the states but never tried it here. I tried to avoid the meat but found the dish to be truly exquisite.

     Yesterday, I went to the Prado with Fernanda, a friend from the hostel. Entrance is free the last two hours on Saturdays so we went then. With only two hours, clearly there's not enough time to see the whole. It's an enormous museum and one could easily spend the whole day there. Although I didn't get to see very much, I did see the famous painting “Las Meninas” (“the maids”.) It was a really astounding painting with so much attention to detail. I hope to go back when I have more time, although there are also two more museums forming a triangle with The Prado: La Reina Sofia and El Museo Thyssen Bornesa. I've heard the Reina Sofia has more modern art, more along my type of art.

     When Fernanda and I left El Prado, there was a huge protest against the economic conditions in Spain. I stood on the steps of the museum and looked out over a sea of tiny dots, easily thousands of people packed together against the devaluation of the Euro. We were sure to go around the protest so as not to get caught in the middle but it was quite a scene!

     On a final note, I'm still getting used to the Euro. For some reason, I continue to say “peso” (from Argentina) whenever I ask someone how much something costs. The conversion rate between dollars and Euros is somewhat confusing; I've been told you just take a third of the price in Euros and add that on to the whole price to get the price in dollars, I've also been told an easier way it to divide the Euro price in half, add it to the whole price and then just subtract a bit. In any case, the conversion was SO much easier with the Argentine peso: one dollar= four pesos. Although the classes are hard and my experience in Spain is different than that in Argentina in that I'm not studying about the country here, I continue to enjoy my time in Spain and am looking forward to having a more permanent living arrangement come Tuesday.

Plaza Mayor

Statue in Plaza Mayor

Arrival in Spain

            The lights shoot on, awaking me from a deep sleep.

            “Who’s in bed 4?” a woman says.  She points to a bed, one of my roommates says, “that’s me.”

            “Check out time was at 10 AM, it’s now past noon!” says the woman.

            Alright, perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit.  I had already been awake for 10 or so minutes when the lights came on.  In any case, I did find the whole scene kind of funny- it was like a scene from some crime movie- “Who’s the culprit?”  At least now I know the hostel takes checkout time seriously!

            I arrived in Madrid yesterday morning around 9 and took a cab to the hostel.  Right when I got in the cab, I heard “I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, that much is true.”  Yes, the cabbie was listening to “Don’t You Want Me” by Human League.

            After I settled in at the hostel, I took the subway to Plaza Mayor, a big, central plaza in Madrid.  Along the way, I asked a father and his teenage son whether I was headed in the right direction to get to the plaza.

            “Do you speak English?” he asked me.  When I told him I did, he said “oh, so you’re an American who actually likes to travel.”  I looked at him with a confused look, not totally sure what he meant.

            “Yeah, I suppose that’s me”, I answered.

            As it turned out, the father and son were from England and had come to Spain to watch Real Madrid play Manchester City.  Real Madrid is Madrid’s fútbol (or soccer) team.  The team is really well known and, from what I’ve heard, one of the best sport’s franchises around.  A group of people from my hostel, Hostel One Malasaña, went to the game; as I had just arrived in the country that morning and was really jet-lagged, I did not go to the game.  It would have been amazing, oh well…

            In the 24 hours I’ve been at the hostel, I’ve already met 2 Argentines!  One was a “porteño” (from Buenos Aires), the other from Córdoba capital (the city were I studied.)  Having been there myself, it was great comparing notes and hearing what they had to say about Argentina.  While in Argentina, I learned the word for "peach" to be "durazno".  Here, it's "melocotón."  It's interesting how one simple fruit has different words in various Spanish-speaking countries: I learned "strawberry" as "fresa", in Argentina it's "frutilla", "banana" is "plátano", in Argentina it's "banana", etc... 

            I’m staying in a room with 2 bunk beds in the room, so not too many people.  To put it in perspective, I stayed in rooms with 5+ bunk beds while traveling with friends in Argentina.  At this hostel in Madrid, they make dinner as well as churros with chocolate for breakfast.  So far, I’ve met people from all areas of the world at the hostel: one Swede, a couple of British, a few from Australia, one kiwi, a German, etc… at dinner last night, it was real great comparing notes on our respective cultures.  We were mainly talking about the differences between a British accent ad that of the USA.

            The one thing about the hostel that’s a bit of a drag is the luggage storage situation.  I have my computer bag, backpack, and main duffel in the storage; every time I want to get something from one of the bags, I have to come up to the front desk and ask the person to let me in, as he’s the only one with a key.  I always feel a bit bad for disturbing him…

            The TEFL orientation is on Friday and then classes start on Monday.  I’m not sure how often I’ll be blogging- not sure how much free time I’ll have once classes begin but will try to update it at least once a week.