La Alhambra, as seen from Mirador San Nícolas

Palacio de Carlos V

River along main Road in El Albayzin

View of Granada from La Alhambra

Granada

 Last weekend, I took my first trip outside of Madrid to Granada. After a five-hour bus ride directly south from Madrid, I arrived at Granada at 7 PM (or 19, as it is here.) It was somewhat humorous as the day I was on the bus was Thanksgiving in the states. I stayed at the same hostel in Granada as the one I stayed at when I first arrived in Madrid, Hostel One. I figured that since I had such a positive experience in the Madrid Hostel One, I'd give the one in Granada a go.

The first night I was at the hostel, it was a ghost town: me, my Australian roommate, and two Canadian girls were the only four people staying there that night. Needless to say, the first night wasn't real busy, I just got acclimated to my surroundings, did a little walking around, then hit the hay.

The next day, I went to La Alhambra, a famous Islamic palace in Granada. The palace was beautiful, both the architecture and intricacy of the buildings and towers as well as the gardens interspersed throughout. One of my favorite parts of Alhambra was Palacio de Carlos V, the emperor's summer home. When I went inside, I was standing in the middle of a huge, stone circular structure with no ceiling (what I imagine a bull-fighting ring would look like.) The Nasrid Palace also had amazing architecture. The views from the palace were astounding as well, looking out over much of the city of Granada.

The next day, I went to El Albayzin, a mountainous area of Granada that is very hilly and runs perpendicular to La Alhambra, so has great views of the palace. To be honest, I enjoyed Albayzin more than Alhambra. At the very top of the hill was a lookout point named after San Nicolas (Mirador de San Nicolas.) Although the trek up to this lookout point was steep and very windy, the spectacular view was totally worth it. I spent at least 2 hours admiring the amazing view and exploring what was around the plaza. Eventually, I got lunch at a cafe nearby and sat on the wall overlooking Albayzin, Granada, and La Alhambra. Throughout Albayzin, the moorish influence on the small town was omnipresent.

That Saturday night, there were a lot more people at the hostel. Thus, we all went out to a local bar and got tapas. I had always known that Spain was famous for its tapas but, up until this point, I honestly didn't see what was so amazing about these little dishes; you put one type of food on top of another, serve it in small portions, and it's a tapa... okay. Not until I was in Granada did I truly grasp the concept of tapas. In Madrid, I'd always had to pay for the tapas. However, in Granada, the tapas come along with any drink ordered. It didn't even have to be an alcoholic drink: as long as you ordered a drink, a tapa came along with it... with no extra charge! These were legitimate tapas too- octopus, french fries with sauce dabbled on top, croquetas (croquettes), etc... Only when I came back to Madrid last Sunday did a friend take me to a bar where free tapas were served along with a drink.

One more experience of note while I was in Granada occurred on the way to Albayzin walking through an open-air market. I noticed a fair amount of people gathered around a board, many signing and writing messages on the board. I got closer, read some of the messages people had written, and saw that is was an anti-domestic violence campaign. The people running the campaign saw me and proffered me a pen. I took the pen and wrote something in Spanish along the lines of “we cannot put up with any type of violence, especially domestic violence.” After I'd finished writing, a worker handed me a shirt and pen with the insignia of the cause written on both. The shirt is black with a palm on the front (stop signal), across it is written “no a la violencia de genero.” The woman also pinned a little purple bow to my jacket, showing I'd supported the cause. It really doesn't sound like much now that I write it out but it felt great to show my support of a cause in another country in a foreign language. I left Granada on Sunday and started teaching again the next day.

On a similar note, I have now reached the 20 hours necessary to receive my TEFL certificate. I've passed the theory, children, and business courses as well as written a reflection paper towards the end. Now that the 20 hours are complete, the 20 lesson plans just have to be approved by someone at TEFL then I will be eligible to receive the certificate. Wednesday was the last lesson with my adult student. I will have one more lesson each with my four children students next week.

I leave for Barcelona on Saturday, December 8^th and then will continue on to Paris on the 13^th, travel through Italy around the 19^th and then come back to Madrid on the 28^th so that I can spend New Years with friends I've made here. I look forward to completing my last classes and further exploring Spain outside of Madrid.   

Powerful Sign

Left: My dad went to work so as to not lose his job.

Right: My dad didn't go to work so as not to lose his dignity.


A sign hanging in Puerta del Sol.  As Fernando explained to me, if a worker went on strike, he didn't get paid and it took a day off his vacation days.  On the other hand, each individual guild encouraged the workers to go on strike so as not to "lose their dignity"

Graffiti after Paro General that speaks for itself (can't read what it says below)

Museums, Open-Air Markets, and More

 Last Friday, I went with Andrea to see “Skyfall”, the newest James Bond movie. It was dubbed in Spanish so I had to pay real close attention the entire time to follow the plot line. I actually was able to follow a fair amount of the movie. There were points when I was a bit confused but, overall, it was a success. Javier Bardem was amazing as the villain!

The grading system in Spain is so different than it is in the states. Here, the lowest passing grade is a 50 (out of 100)! At first when we were doing evaluations for the observed classes of our peers in the TEFL program, I felt odd putting, say, a “six” for one of the criteria- in the US, that would be failing!

Last weekend I went to el Museo Reina Sofia, one of the three famous museums in Madrid (along with the Prado and Thyssen-Bornemisza.) I got there around six and, once again, the museum entry was free. The museum itself is huge: I got lost multiple times going through its huge arches and rooms. “Guernica” by Picasso is housed in the museum as well as various paintings by Salvador Dahlí. Standing in front of such a famous painting was incredible; I've seen Guernica in movies and ads as well as on postcards but seeing it with my own eyes was great. Unfortunately, you were not allowed to take photos of it, but at the least I'll have the memory of seeing this beautiful piece of art in person.

In another room were pictures of military dictatorships throughout Central and South America and Spain: Perú, Argentina, Chile, Spain, and a couple others. I was particularly drawn to this room given that I wrote my thesis on the desaparecidos (“disappeared ones”) in Argentina during the military dictatorship. In this exhibit, I saw signs of many of the topics I wrote about. Most prominent were pictures of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo holding signs, pictures of their loved one's faces emblazoned on the surface. In the same room were photos recreating the repression in all these dictatorships: naked bodies piled on top of each other in every which way, another of four naked people with their back towards the photographer, palms against the wall as if the individuals are being held up. For those who know Spanish and are interested, here's an article on the exhibit:

http://vozpopuli.com/impresion/16229-el-reina-sofia-exhibe-600-obras-de-arte-contra-la-represion-en-america-latina/tipo-Noticia

The other day, I went to a pub with Andrea and Andres (flatmates) to meet up with some friends of Andrea. Some of them were from Spain, others from Portugal, a few from Mexico. We were chatting in an area towards the back when a man came in and started talking to all of us. He had this little toy where you fold it one way and another and it ends up looking exactly like it did before it was folded at all. I'd never experienced these solicitations of people selling random stuff in privately owned restaurants. Rather, it happened all the time in Argentina but this was the first time I'd seen it in Spain. After he left, everyone there noted that he was from Argentina! It's weird that I didn't pick up on the accent, especially given that it's so distinct.

Many of the students I've met through Andrea are here on an Erasmus scholarship. From what I understand, Erasmus is a program in all EU countries that sends college students to other countries within the EU. I suppose it makes sense that such a program doesn't exist in North America as the majority of the citizens speak English. In any case, it seems like an amazing way to gain more intercultural understanding.

Last week, I met with Lawrence, a friend of a friend back in the USA. At this point, Lawrence has lived here fourteen years and now works doing translations between Spanish and English. When we met for coffee, he kept telling me how there's a better quality of life here. One aspect of Spanish life he mentioned which I found particularly interesting was Spain's notion of citizenship. He explained that, if an individual is in the country for more than... I think it was 5 years, the Spanish government embraces that individual and will grant him citizenship. I'm sure it's not quite that simple but that's the gist. Quite different than immigration reform and the continuous debate surrounding the issue in the USA, where officials will deport “illegal aliens”, as it were, in a heartbeat.

There's a famous open-air market every Sunday called “El Rastro” in La Latina, the neighborhood where my flat is located. I've gone the past two Sundays with some friends and it's really cool. Both Sundays we've gotten there towards the end so the stands were closing up. However, the tostas in this one particular shop are definitely worth has slipped my mind. Regardless, the line is always out the door. Although it is a housed restaurant, it is only open when the Rastro's going on. Tostas are essentially bread with various toppings: anchovies, brie cheese, jam, meat, whipped cream, the list goes on. Both times I've gotten a tosta with brie cheese and homemade jam- SO good! Perhaps I'll branch out and try something else soon (to be fair, this is made somewhat harder given I don't eat red meat.)

On Tuesdays, I teach two siblings, one ten, the other fourteen. The lesson is an hour total, I see each for half an hour. I make two lesson plans as a four year gap makes quite the difference in terms of EFL classes. This past Tuesday, while in the middle of teaching the ten year old brother, his mom came in and told me that the older sister was speaking with a teacher at school. Thus, I would be spending the whole hour with Agustín. In the TEFL course, they taught us to always prepare extra material in case the lesson goes faster than anticipated. Luckily, I did bring extra material... but not enough for half an hour! Another tip I got from the TEFL class was to always “milk” an exercise—approach it from all angles (speaking, reading, writing, listening) so as to maximize it's use. Luckily, I was able to fill the 30 minutes.

Last weekend, I went to a discoteca, the first I've been to here in Spain. The discoteca was called “Joy” and it was actually pretty cool. It was essentially the same as the boliches I went to in Argentina: a raised platform with a DJ, huge crowd on the floor dancing or mingling about, a bar towards the entrance... Just as in the states, girls got in for free while guys paid a cover. As in Argentina, much of the music played was pop songs from the USA.

This past Wednesday there was a huge paro general not only throughout Spain but in Portugal and Greece as well (the countries in which the economic crisis is the worst.) The paro on the metro system about a month ago was nothing compared to the one yesterday: the majority of shops were closed, metros ran every half hour and many people were marching at various points during the day.

I didn't actively march, however I did see the effects of the manifestaciones afterwards: beside each ATM, people had written such words as “culpables” (“guilty”) or “asesinos” (“assassins”). In a particularly powerful piece of graffiti, someone had drawn a stick figure hanging on a noose. I also noticed the effects of the demonstrations when riding the metro: people were should to shoulder. To give you a sense of how packed it was: usually there's always a rail within reach for people to hold onto if standing. Yesterday, however, I had to push the palm of my hand against the roof of the car in order to stabilize myself, since all the handles were out of reach. I watched the news later that night and it showed huge crowds of people congregating in an area I had walked through earlier that afternoon.

A new flatmate moved in earlier this week. Her name's Maria and she's from California as well- small world, indeed. She's here on the auxiliares program, an arrangement between the US government and that of Spain to have native English speakers from the US come to Spain and help in English classrooms. She seems really nice and I'm looking forward to getting to know her better.

At this point, I have taught a total of 15 hours with my three clients out of the required 20. I have three lessons next week and then four the next week, so I'll be finished by the end of the month. I'm taking a long weekend next weekend to visit Granada, Spain. Granada is famous for “La Alhambra”, an Islamic palace built in the mid-10^th century. I'll be leaving Madrid this coming Thursday (no clients on Friday), returning Sunday afternoon. No doubt I will have much to say about the palace upon returning as well as a handful of photos.

Salem or Madrid?

 Soon after my last post, there was a subway paro. Although, the strikes here are much different than those I've experienced in the states. For example, I remember when the supermarket cashiers in LA went on strike, strikebreakers came in so that the markets could continue to operate. Also, the strike occurred for several weeks. With these subway strikes, it only happened during peak hours and only on certain days: it was only one the Monday and Friday of last week and the same two daysthe week before that. So the metros still run, just less frequently- every 20 minutes as opposed to every five minutes. Believe me, it makes a difference. One friend who's been here longer than I have told me that, during a previous paro on the metro, she was shoved off the metro car due to lack of space! Luckily, nothing that crazy happened to me. I have a client on Mondays from 6-7, the paro didn't stop until 8, so I had the good fortune of experiencing it right at its peak.

The metro continues to be my primary transportation. The whole system is second nature to me now. One point worth mentioning: the larger subway stops are so intricate. To transfer at “Cuatro Caminos”, for example, I spent 10 minutes going up a stairwell to then walk three minutes down a hallway just to take two escalators down, followed by another walk (some subway stops have people movers), went up again, etc... It made me wonder about the team of architects who created this whole maze. It would be amazing if, someday, Los Angeles could get on this metro bandwagon and have a functioning system, not only in downtown and Hollywood, but through all neighborhoods of the city.

When buying a ticket for the metro, you can either just get a one way ticket, a ticket with ten trips for twelve euros ($15.50), or an abono mensual (essentially a monthly pass for as many metro rides as you like.) However, these passes are not that easy to come by. To make things even more difficult, the metro system was in the middle of changing the entire abono process when I began my quest to get one about a month ago. Before, the old abono ended when the calendar month ended, regardless of the date it was purchased. Now that the change is being implemented, the abono mensual runs out a month from the date you buy it.

In any case, everyone was telling me I just had to go into any estanco shop (estanco= “tobacco”, these little shops are on every block in Madrid.) I went into multiple estancos, however, as Madrid was in the midst of changing the abono, they all gave me a number to call to set up an appointment to go and get the abono. I called the number twice, both times the person on the other end hung up on me.

Eventually, I went to an estanco and the woman behind the counter kindly called the number for me and helped me set up and appointment. Thus, last Thursday, I went to the Moncloa subway stop and met with a representative from the company who sells the cards. Finally, after multiple phone calls, a couple of pieces of paper with the same number on it, and persistence, I successfully got the abono.

Rewind to when I first mentioned the tobacco shops: smoking is so prevalent in Madrid, I would say equal if not more prevalent than in Argentina. While the woman at the estanco was helping me make the calls, people continually poured in to buy a new pack of cigarettes or some other form of tobacco. I noticed that, on the lid of each cigarette pack, was a warning: “perjudicial a su salúd” (harmful to your health.) Not to be deterred, a steady stream of people continued to come in and out of the tobacco shop.

Another reflection on living in Argentina versus living in Spain: you can drink the tap water here. In Argentina, my host mother Ana had a water filter in the house and made sure I always used that water. There was also a gallon of purified water every day at my school in Argentina. On the other hand, I can go into any restaurant here with an empty water bottle and ask for “agua del grifo, por favor” (“tap water, please”).

Finally, I've noticed more language differences between the Castellano spoken in Argentina versus that spoken in Spain. In Argentina, “che” is a very common word used when speaking with friends or when joking. Here in Spain, “hombre” (literally, “man”) is used instead. In addition, Argentines say someone is “de buena honda” if he's an all around great guy. In Spain, they say “majo,-a” instead.

It's beginning to get really chilly here. I woke up the other morning to take a look at the weather on my phone: 0 degrees celsius (32 fahrenheit.) It's warmed up a little since then but I was talking to my roommate who's from Spain, he said this weather will last until at least early January.

About a week ago, I finished my washer cycle and, as we don't have a drying machine, hung out the laundry to dry on the clothesline outside. It had been drizzling a tiny bit earlier in the day but had finished when I was hanging my clothes towards late afternoon. The weather was great for the rest of the day. I woke up the next morning, however, and it was pouring! There was really nothing I could do at that point, as my clothes were soaking wet on the clothesline, so I went to a nearby store and bought a tendedero (indoor clothesline.) Later that day, the rain stopped and I was able to put my damp clothes on the tendedero. Of course, there's not enough space in my room to put the indoor clothesline, so I have to leave it in the common area. Luckily there are only guys in my flat...

On certain days, the rain has been really heavy. Earlier this week, I left my flat in the morning with a light drizzle outside. As it wasn't pouring, I figured a raincoat would be fine. After all, I did go to school in Salem for four years! What I forgot to think of was that, while at Willamette I would only be walking 5 minutes from the University Apartments to Ford Hall, here I'm walking from the metro stop to the client's household... which is not always that close. I had a client that afternoon and, on the original sheet I'd gotten with their information, it said I could get off the gray line at Legazpi or the orange line at Delicias. Prior to that day, I'd always taken the orange line to Delicias. This day, however, I figured I'd mix things up a bit, try the other route. How bad can it be?

Long story short, I ended up walking around in the rain for half an hour, trying to find where the actual street was (remember, I was coming from another station). Eventually, since my shoes had long since soaked through and the jacket sleeves below my raincoat were starting to get wet, I hailed a cab to take me to the correct address.

About a week ago, I was walking down to exit our building and heard shouts, occasional horns, and the like, outside. I asked the doorman what was going on, he informed me that there was a fútbol game between Spain and Portugal later that night, so the Portuguese team and fans were marching towards the fútbol stadium, a pep rally of sorts. Although, it was more than just a march- there were police escorts at both ends to ensure it didn't get out of hand.

Recently, I went to Palacio Real (Royal Palace) with my flat mate Luis. El Palacio Real is the official residence of the Royal Family but, nowadays, it is mostly a museum, the Royal Family opting to live in a suburb of Madrid. The palace had amazingly beautiful architecture and you could go into many of the rooms of the palace, a brief description of what that room served as in each one. In another part of the palace was tons of armor that the Spanish army used from the 1400's onward. The designs on the shields and armor were so intricate. There was even armor on display for the horses ridden in the wars, also very intricate. Luis and I got to the palace with an hour left to spare until closing time so, unfortunately, we had to take a quick tour through the rooms. Nevertheless, it was definitely worth seeing, a brief insight into the history of Spain.

Last Friday, I went with my Italian flatmate Andrea to a pub where we met some of his Italian friends. Although there were not only Italians; there were two women from Mexico who met us there as well as some Parisians. I was struck by the plethora of languages being spoken; although I don't speak or understand Italian or French, this melting pot of languages all being spoken at the same time interchangeably by one large group of people was great.

The next day, I met a friend on Calle Gran Via who I'd met at the hostel I stayed at when I first arrived. As I was walking towards our meeting point, I began to hear drums banging and bunch of commotion.  Approaching Gran Via, I saw that police cars were leading and bringing up the rear of a protest against the current economic crisis in Spain. The protesters took up two solid blocks and, as I walked along Gran Via, I saw that certain perpendicular streets were closed and policemen were directing traffic. The protest definitely made it a bit more difficult to find my friend but we did eventually find each other and headed off.

That night, I went to Mercado San Miguel with the same friend. This market is famous in Madrid for its good food and amazing architecture. It's an outdoor market housed in a see through structure with many little stands to get paella, ice cream, tapas, and really anything else you can imagine. The market has a few tables but people tend to just stand around the perimeter and enjoy their meals or snacks. In fact, this seemed to be part of the charm of Mercado San Miguel. The paella I ate there was great, I hope to go back at least once more before leaving Madrid.

Daylight savings happened last weekend as well. Thus, it now gets dark a little after six PM. The four children I teach all have their lessons in the late afternoon, so it's now dark when I get out.

As I've been walking around the streets of Madrid, I have seen many shops with a big sign saying “Museo del jamón” (literally, “museum of ham”). When you walk in, there are at least twenty dead pigs just hanging from the ceiling. As I don't eat red meat, I find the sight quite disturbing, smell's pretty bad too. As one of my flatmates explained to me, the waiters simply have to cut a slab of the animal off any of those hanging from the ceiling and serve it up. You can get food other than ham there but it is quite the sight to see all these dead animals just hanging above the customer's heads.

I have one new client since the last post who I've now seen twice. Her name's Cristina and she is 32 years old. She works for a consulting firm here and has an intermediate level of English but wants to better it for work purposes. At this point, I'm tutoring four children (only two lessons- the kids are paired up with a friend or sibling) and Cristina but hope to pick up at least one more client.

Halloween is not celebrated here to the extent it is in the USA. Only as it got dark did I see some people dressed up. I did see a fair amount of costumes on the subway when I got on around 11 PM. I ended up going to an Irish pub where one of my friends from the TEFL program works. The bar was all decked out with rubber bats, cobwebs, and the like, many of the patrons dressed up.

Although, yesterday was a Federal holiday in Spain, All Saints Day. Since it fell on a Thursday, Spaniards take today off as well. When a holiday falls on either a Tuesday or Thursday, Spain takes this puente (literally, “bridge”). Rather, the holiday is on that Tuesday or Thursday but then the Monday or Friday is taken off in addition, thus acting as a bridge between the holiday and the weekend.

That's it for now, Madrid continues to be amazing, I will write when I next get the chance.