Monday, October 31, 2011

Chulísimo and Riquísimo

28 Oct 2011

I received the compliment of the day from one of my second graders. Today, students were finishing up coloring their coloring page of the witch's house and adding vocabulary words. Once they completed this, they could color and cut out some Halloween flashcards. These flashcards included 6 Halloween pictures (like pumpkin, witch, spider, etc) and the 6 corresponding words. Students were supposed to practice the vocabulary by matching the picture to the correct word.

The teacher asked me to show the kids who were done what word matched with what picture so that they could play with them. However, once I finished showing them the word/picture pairs, they wondered what to do  next. Just matching the pictures and words isn't that much fun--so I showed them how to play a modified version of Old Maid.

We didn't have a card to serve as the Old Maid, but the students had to try to match the picture and word to make a pair. We took turns drawing (they called it robbing) a card from another people to try to make pairs. They were absolutely delighted by the prospect of "robbing" cards from other students, and I don't think they realized how much they were learning! Obviously, they had to have the word/picture relationship down pretty well in order to make pairs.

Another student came up to our group and asked us what we were doing. Before I could reply, one of the students said that we were playing a chulísimo (super cool) game and that he should get his cards so he could play. He proceeded to explain the rules to the new student.

After school, I met up with a few friends for some riquísima (super rich or delicious) food. We finally tried the Greek restaurant that is near my apartment. We haven't had the chance to try it because it's hours are limited. However, it was well worth the wait! We ordered three different plates to share--Sutsukia (Greek meatballs), Kotopoulo Souvlaki (a kebob), and Mousaka (Greek lasagna). All these main dishes were absolutely delicious--but by far the best was the Sutsukia! It had such a rich flavor! Then, we shared three desserts--baklava, cheesecake, and a chocolate cake. The baklava was divine! I'm a little worried knowing that the restaurant is so close! I feel like I'll need a little baklava every day!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Joys of Teaching... Part II

27 Oct. 2011

One of the other joys of teaching is hearing your students correctly use something that you've taught them without prompting them.

In language classes, there is sometimes a tendency to turn students into mini-robots. You want to teach them the target language, but you can teach them everything at once. So you start with something like, "How are you?" At this point, maybe you only teach them one response "I'm fine. Thank you." However, when these students are 5th graders, I feel like I'm not really having a conversation with a real person.

The whole point of learning a language is to communicate--to be able to tell someone how you are feeling and why you are feeling that way. For this reason, one of my first lessons with my older students was to teach them other responses to the question "How are you?"

I kept it pretty simple, but we covered a range of emotions--like happy, sad, angry, good, bad. I told them that I never wanted them to tell me that they were "fine" because I could never be sure if that was a reflex answer or legitimately how they were feeling. I was really interested in getting them to really communicate.

Today, I was doing a Halloween activity with my students. It was a version of 20 questions where students had to pick a Halloween object and the rest of the class had to guess using only yes or no questions.

One student got mad that another student spoke out of turn and guessed before he had the chance to answer. Out of the blue, he said, "I'm sad." Surprised, I said, "Why are you sad?" He replied (IN ENGLISH!), "I wanted to ask the question... I'm angry."

Of course, I felt bad that he was sad, but I was excited that this student was able to articulate his feelings because I taught him the words to do so. I didn't prompt him to tell me that he was sad. He just said that he was sad.
On a day to day basis, sometimes, it's hard to see how students are improving--especially when you have 27 (IN JUST ONE CLASS!). I see probably around a hundred students a day! How can I keep track of how they are all doing? But, this is the type of moment that tells me that my work with the students makes a difference.

Jornadas Part II

26 Oct 2011

Even though I had a rather long day at school, I decided to go to another session of the jornada (if you haven't been reading, this jornada is a conference on getting children excited about reading). This presentation was supposed to be given by Michael Grejniec, the author of A qué sabe la luna? (What does the Moon Taste Like?)

Unfortunately, Mr. Grejniec couldn't make it to his presentation. Apparently, he missed his train, and so he'll be coming to Alicante another day.

However, the organizers for the jornada had a guest speaker come forward to tell us the story of A qué sabe la luna?. This story is absolutely precious. The animals of the earth want to know what the moon tastes like so they try to reach it. The turtle can't reach it on his own so he calls the elephant--who calls the giraffe, who calls the lion, etc. I won't give away the ending here, but you can see and listen to the story here.

The speaker who took his place, Alonso Palacios, was also a good presenter. He focused mostly on oral tradition as a cultural reference for children. He talked about things like fingerplays, fairy tales, rhymes, proverbs, sayings, etc. as the way in which children learn about their culture as well as the way in which children learn how to read and write. He meant this in the sense that it is through stories that children learn that everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end. If children don't know this, they'll find it very difficult to write or tell others what is happening in their lives.

Throughout the presentation, he would randomly say some of these well-known phrases, rhymes, and fingerplays. I tried writing them down when I could, but I often couldn't write fast enough. So here are just a couple:
 This is a tongue twister.
Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo
en tres tristes platos en un trigal.
En tres tristes trastos en un trigal,
tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo.


This is what parents say when kids have a boo boo. 
"sana sana 
culito de rana
si no sanas hoy 
sanaras mañana"



Halloween begins

25 Oct 2011

Even though Halloween isn't for another week, Halloween has begun for me! I only meet with a majority of my classes once a week. So, in order to talk to each class about Halloween, I have to start early--especially since next Tuesday there isn't school.

For my 5th graders, I reviewed Halloween vocabulary with them. I was pleasantly surprised by how many words they remembered!

After reviewing, we played the game "Two Truths and a Lie." As the name suggests, in this game, students have to write three sentences--two are true and one is a lie. I asked my students to write Halloween themed sentences using the phrase "I like..." since this grammatical structure is what they are currently working on. Then, they worked in partners--asking "Do you like...?" until they found the lie. This enabled them to work with both 1st and 2nd person.

Next, I asked for volunteers to come to the front to demonstrate. After each person shared, I would ask the class, "What doesn't he/she like?" and "What does she/he like?" This allowed them to practice the difference between 3rd person singular and all the other forms--which is really key at this level. They are just starting to learn that 3rd person singular carries the -s.

I was really surprised to find that there were students that were practically begging me to let them have a turn. They were standing up in their chairs with their hands raised as high as they could.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

More interesting words/phrases...

cero zapatero--it literally means "zero shoemaker." It's a common rhyme used here when referring to the number zero.

flequillo--bangs

capucha--comes from the Latin word for something that covers the head; in Spanish, it means hood of a jacket

twitear--this is the verb used to say "tweet."

nana--lullaby

la hucha--piggy bank

luchar contra los molinos de viento--this phrase literally means: to fight against windmills. It comes from Don Quijote in which Don Quijote tries to fight a windmill (which he thinks is a giant). In Spanish, the phrase is used to talk about fight an impossible battle.


The beginning of the jornadas...

24 Oct. 2011

This week, the Jornadas de la animación a la lectura begin. A jornada is a conference or a workshop. This one in particular is about getting children excited about reading.

Last week, one of the teachers at my school showed me a poster with information about this conference, and I was really excited about the prospect of attending! During the summer, I've worked at a public library as a Summer Reading Program (a program that tries to keep kids reading during the summer) aide. Part of my job has included helping with story time for toddlers and preschoolers. Consequently, I'm very interested in children's literature, and I wanted to know more about children's literature in Spain.

My teacher recommended going to the first day of the jornada because the presenter, Federico Martín Nebras, is quite the character. She told me that he was a little crazy (in a good way) and would turn the presentation into a spectacle. She did not exaggerate.

He looked kind of like the captain from Moby Dick. He had one of those strange grey beards that was just on his neck, and he was wearing a funny little cap. Check out a photo here.

He was really entertaining--joking that every time the microphone stopped working it was because he was saying something wrong.

But he had some deep ideas to share about what it means to read. I'll share just a few of the tidbits he imparted.

  • Read versus story-telling. Federico talked of the importance of the act of telling a story. Through telling a story, the narrator finds his or her voice. 
  • The point of story-telling is so that they say, "Again! Otra vez."
  • It's when I am lost that I am most me. This reminded me of the philosophy of Thoreau--who says, "Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations."
  • When we are in the "other," we are so close to the "other" that we become the "other." 
These are just a few snippets of things I jotted down, but they don't really do justice to his words. 

Sunday, October 23, 2011

A different way of living...

22 Oct. 2011

Since I'm going to have two weekends of traveling coming up, I decided that this weekend I would take the time to relax and get caught up. Even though I had planned to relax this weekend, I'm struck by the fact that "relax" is a relative term (at least for me).

In the United States (or at least in the rural part of the US), if I were going to have a relaxing weekend, it would probably mean that I would stay in my house for the weekend. I might rent a movie, read a book, or go for a walk.

However, in Spain, the pace of living is so different. It's much slower but also more full of activity. Part of this difference stems from a culture that values the act of enjoyment. For example, since lunch is the biggest meal of the day here, people are given a longer break to relax, eat lunch, and take a nap if they choose. In fact, stores will close at 2 or 3 PM for lunch and a siesta and re-open at 5 PM.

Another difference between life in the United States and Spain is that people spent most of their time outside of their apartments (because they tend to small), and people also stay out much later. Since dinner isn't until 9 or 10 PM, it's not uncommon to stay up until 1 or 2 AM during the week. On the weekends, people stay out until 5 AM or even all night. 

That's a lot of time to fill up!

In the US, I think of relaxing as getting the chance to be by myself and do some quiet activity. Here, my "relaxing" time is always spent with other people outside of my apartment.

On a typical evening during the week, I'll meet up with someone at a café (coffee shop) or go out for tapas. Most days, I leave my apartment at 8 AM and don't go back until 8 or 9 PM.

As I mentioned before, I planned to relax this weekend. While it has been a relaxing weekend, it's also been so full of activity I wouldn't consider it relaxing in the US.

Today, a friend and I started out by going out for breakfast. We had some delicious freshly squeezed orange juice and toast with chopped tomato on top. Then, we continued on to the Market to buy produce and vegetables.

Later, we decided to go shopping because I'm trying to find a nice pair of boots--but I'm picky so it's been hard to find just the right pair. We went clothes and shoe shopping from 1 PM to 8 PM (with a break for lunch in the middle)!

In reflecting on my day, I thought about the idea of place and the role that it plays in how you live. The day that I just described is not a day that I would find relaxing in the United States. However, some aspect of living here in Spain influences how I look at relaxing.

This makes me wonder how I would find living in a city in the US. I'm sure that some of my experiences living in a city in Spain would be common to living in a city. However, I'm sure that there are some aspects that are uniquely Spanish.

The end of ETA?

20 Oct. 2011

The awaited announcement from ETA appeared today in a Basque newspaper called Gara. In this letter, ETA said that it would be definitively cease its armed activities. What is more interesting about this letter is what ETA doesn't say. ETA doesn't say that they will dissolve their organization, and ETA doesn't say that they will give up their arms.

Over the last couple days, I've been following this story in various Spanish newspapers, and the reactions are mixed.

The current president, Zapatero, has taken an optimistic view--calling this the end of ETA. In a statement, Zapatero called the announcement a "victory for Democracy" and a "definitive triumph without conditions."

However, the problem with this announcement is that it puts the Spanish government in a tough situation. A Catch-22. With ETA making the announcement that they are willing to stop armed activity, the Spanish government has to be seen as making the effort to forge a peace agreement.

However, in negotiating with ETA, it will be more difficult to see this organization dissolved in the future--especially if negotiations do not go the way ETA would like. Furthermore, the government is giving ETA exactly what they have always wanted--a voice, political power, and in a sense, legitimacy.

Friday, October 21, 2011

The start of "fall"

19 Oct. 2011

It's finally starting to get a little chilly here, and I've noticed that everyone has suddenly switched to wearing winter clothing. I think the weather's beautiful, and I continue to wear what I've been wearing. I guess when it's as warm year-round as it is here, there has to be a moment in which you just decide it's time for winter clothing.

Today, I gave up my planning period to work with a 6th grade class. They have a test next week--so the teacher asked me to prepare something to help them practice the grammar. I decided that we should play "Two truths and a Lie." As the name suggests, students had to write three sentences answering the question, "What do you want to do?" Two of these sentences had to be true and one of them a lie. Then, they talk with a partner to discover the lie of their partner. Next, we had groups come to the front of the room to demonstrate. I asked the class about what we discovered about each group with questions like, "What does she want to do? What doesn't she want to do?" It was really good practice for them because they had to work with both affirmatives and negatives. With their partner they worked on first and second person (singular), and with the whole group, they got to practice third person singular.

 I've said more than once that I think that I have one of the best, most beautiful commutes. Today, I decided to take pictures to share what I get to see every day.


<--This is the Explanada--one of Alicante's most recognizable features.
 This is a view of the port. -->

















The beach near my school!





Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The joys of teaching...

18 Oct. 2011

One of the best parts of teaching is seeing the excitement and joy on students' faces and knowing that you've made their day.

In one of my teacher's classrooms, we have a daily routine with each class. All the students sit down (hopefully quietly) at their desk. Then, the teacher decides who is going to pass out the folders (and if you are in 1st grade, the pencil cases!). However, the teacher doesn't just choose ANYONE to do this important task. It's always the quietest and best behaved students.

Those two students have the "honor" of handing out the folders and ordering the other students around in English.

One of my 1st grade classes has a student who has a lot of energy and has trouble sitting still. He's super smart and a hard-worker (when he has something to do). Otherwise, he's sort of all over the place. As you can guess, this type of student isn't often chosen to pass out the folders because its hard enough just trying to get him to sit down in one place.

However, today, this student was sitting ever so nicely in his seat and not making a sound. The look on his face when he heard his name called was priceless--a look of pure joy! He was so surprised that he asked, "¿Yo? Me?" He was a perfect little helper--trying really hard to get the English phrases right!

I just wanted to share this little story that makes going to school to work with students worth it!

Yet another controversial topic: ETA

17 Oct 2011

ETA has once again made headlines in Spain--this time for a proposed complete disarming.

For those who are not familiar with ETA, I'll give you a short description of what I know about this group. Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) is a Basque nationalist group created in 1959 that has fought the Spanish government for independence of Basque Country from Spain. Since its inception, ETA has been responsible for nearly 900 deaths. While there have been ceasefires over the years, no real progress towards peace has been made


However, the latest news is that ETA may be permanently disarming. Today, a peace conference took place in San Sebastian--with leaders (and former leaders) like Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein and ex-United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan present. The conference issued two statements: one to ETA, asking them to disarm permanently; the second to the French and Spanish governments, asking them to be open to talks with ETA to resolve the conflict.


Many people are skeptical of talk of a ETA disarmament. ETA has initiated ceasefires in the past and failed to keep their word. Even if they promised to stop the violence, there is no guarantee that it will last.

Others wonder how all these international figures think that they can comment on the situation here in Spain. In fact, I read a number of editorials that criticized these foreign leaders. These ex-leaders see the surface of the problem--that there is this conflict between ETA and the Spanish and French governments. However, they don't really know the history, the general opinion of ETA in Spain, or the victims of ETA. If you know Spanish, you should definitely read this article. It's pretty scathing! Here's a little segment:
  • "Los mediadores... han venido a España como quien va a una tierra sin ley y sin orden, a proponer una solución indigna a lo que han llamado conflicto, y han tenido la desfachatez de dedicarse a dar consejos rimbombantes y vacíos, que, ¡oh casualidad!, favorecen las estrategias de ETA para una desaparición tan falsa como gloriosa, y que resultan conformes con los ilusos y cobardes planes de paz del zapaterismo, de un Gobierno desprestigiado, roto y sin autoridad alguna."
  •  The mediators... have come to Spain like he who goes to a land without law and order, in order to propose a humiliating solution to what they have called a conflict, and they have had the audacity to dedicate themselves to giving grandiose and empty suggestions, that coincidentally, favors the strategies of ETA for a disappearance as false as it is glorious, and conforms with the naive and cowardly plans of Zapaterian peace, of a discredited government, broken and without any authority."


Others are saddened and angered by talks of an agreement with ETA. These are the people who have lost a friend or family member to ETA. They want to see the ones responsible for their pain held accountable.

At this point, ETA has only offered an end to the violence. However, people expect ETA to respond to this statement from the peace conference within a week.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Lazy Sunday

16 Oct 2011

Since I didn't really do much today, I thought that I'd write about a topic I've been meaning to write about for weeks--regional languages.

Spain recognizes a number of languages as co-official languages. Among these languages are Valencian/Catalan (spoken in Valencia and Catalonia), Galician (spoken in Galicia), and Basque (spoken in Basque Country and Navarre). Along with having their own regional languages (and arguably because of these regional languages), these regions have always fought more for self-governance and independence from Spain. 

One ongoing issue has been that of languages taught in schools. By language, I mean regional languages that are spoken in schools in addition to Castillian (castellano) Spanish. I'd just like to share my observations about the power/politics of language in Spain.

As I wrote weeks ago, there are a number of options for language immersion schools in the Community of Valencia. I thought that it was great that there were so many options for language immersion. Parents can choose to do complete immersion, to start in Valencian and introduce Spanish (as well as the reverse), etc. As time has passed, I've gotten to hear from teachers at my school how problematic the Valencian language is. At my school, valenciano is only used to teach science classes.

For this reason, in my school, there are mixed feelings about the use of valenciano. More than one teacher has told me that they think that students could be taking science in another language--such as English or Chinese. The other problem is that valenciano is just not as widely used in Alicante as it is in the rest of the Community of Valencia. In fact, other than at school, I haven't heard anyone using the language, and at school, (I believe) many of the teachers are not fluent in valenciano--partially because not all of the teachers are from this Community.

This is just one perspective on Valencian in one school in Alicante. I'm sure that there are a number of other opinions. However, more polemic is Catalan in the region of Catalonia.


Catalán (a language that is a combination of French and Spanish) in the region of Catalonia has had a considerably different role than Valencian or Galician. While Franco ruled Spain, the use of regional languages--like valenciano, catalán, gallego, and euskara--was suppressed to the point that these languages were nearly lost. After Franco's death, there was a resurgence in the use of catalán, and in a sense (in my opinion), catalán became almost a vehicle or justification for Catalonia's desire for independence from Spain. 

When I was in Spain two years ago, catalán was a controversial subject because Catalonia had passed a law that enabled instruction to be in catalán for even more of the school day. Furthermore, in September, there were protests because a national tribunal had told Catalonia that school couldn't be exclusively be in catalán, and that they had two months to ensure that Spanish was a vehicular language (instructional language) in the classroom. One person responded with, "La máxima autoridad en nuestro país es el Parlament de Catalunya; no hay otras autoridades que puedan venir a decirnos como se tiene que enseñar." This translates to: The highest authority in our country is the Parliament of Catalonia; there are not other authorities that can come tell us how we have to teach."

I don't have any right to dictate how a region decides to teach its students. However, I do ask myself what's best for the children. I think it's important to preserve a language that has such cultural importance. In my home state, oppression of Native Americans has nearly decimated a number of tribal languages. In fact, there are only approximately 10 fluent speakers of Dakota left. While there are programs that are trying to revitalize the language and teach it to young people, it seems to be an uphill battle.

On the other hand, not all students will stay in the region of Catalonia for their whole lives. I wonder if the government should really impede students' access to the official language of Spain. Supporters of the current system argue that students ultimately speak both languages fluently and do just as well as other Spanish students on exams. However, I do have to wonder what they lose when Spanish is treated as a second class language in school. This may be a controversial statement to make, but... Are schools in a sense indoctrinating students against the Spanish language (and perhaps perpetuating Catalonia's never-ending quest for independence from Spain)?

As I said previously, I go back and forth on what I think about this issue. I hope that some sort of middle-ground can be found that places value with BOTH Catalan and Spanish.

Monday, October 17, 2011

I love you castle?

15 Oct 2011

Another Fulbrighter from Valencia visited us today, so we decided to finally make the trip up to the Castillo de Santa Bárbara (Castle of Saint Barbara)!

The Castle of Saint Barbara is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe! This castle was originally built in the 10th century by the Arabs. However, it was conquered by Alfonso el Sabio (Alfonso the Wise) in 1248. It was named after Santa Bárbara because he conquered the castle on her feast day. Having visited the castle, I imagine the battle was intense! The castle is situated on a hill--approximately 544 feet high! On one side, there is a steep drop with the beach down below. Strategically, it wouldn't make sense to approach the castle from this side. The other side is a little less step, but you still have to contend with the fact that the castle is so high up.

Rather than take the stairs (because it's still pretty hot even though its October), we took the elevator up to the castle--which was a little nerve-wracking. We were all packed into the elevator, and I had visions of us plummeting to the ground from the top floor.

The castle was beautiful! Since it sits on top of a tall hill (or tiny mountain), it had a wonderful view of the city, and we were able to pick out different monuments around the city--like our apartments, the Plaza de toros, the sports stadium, the ruins of the other castle, etc.

View from the Castle! You can see the Plaza de toros in the middle and the sports stadium in the upper left corner!
Part of what made the visit unique was the group of about 10 Spanish children who followed us around. Once they heard us speaking in English, they started yelling out random phrases in English--such as "Hello. I'm Sergio." or "Happy Birthday!" At first, it was adorable to see them trying so hard to impress us. However, as they followed us throughout the castle, it started to get a little annoying.

 At the beginning of the trip, we grabbed a map of the castle in Spanish. Unfortunately, our castle-specific vocabulary in Spanish isn't very large. This meant that we did some creative guessing of what some parts of the castle were. For example, the picture below and to the left was the source of a couple silly guesses. We posited that it was the bath for the castle--which we immediately refuted because it doesn't look like it would hold water well. From there, the guesses only got more ridiculous--such as the idea that it held pizzas delivered to the castle. :) When we tracked down an English copy of the guide, we discovered that it was once part of the bakery!

What do you think this is?

Tapas, Mariachi, and Rain...

14 Oct 2011

After a long day at school, getting together with friends made for a fabulous evening! We started the night early--mostly because I get so hungry after school and it's hard to wait until 9 or 10 PM to eat. So we headed to a tapas bar for a "snack."

The tapas bar was kind of quirky. It had funky art on the walls--apparently all done by the same artist even though they were all stylistically very different. There was also a ceramic hand that came out of the wall to hold a light. The tapas bar also had very fresh, delicious tapas. You could practically see them making the tapas in the kitchen so you knew they were going to be good. During a lull, the bartender/waiter sat down with us for a while to chat with us.

That's one of the things I've noticed about Alicante. The people in restaurants/shops are super friendly. Everywhere we go, the waiters/employees take the extra time to talk to you and find out your story. This is just so different from what we're accustomed to in the US--where a waiter's earnings depend on their tip and how fast/efficiently he or she can move people through the restaurant. Here, the tip is included in the bill so waiters make a decent wage.

Around 10 PM, we went to a Mexican place for dinner, and it was quite the experience. The food was pretty decent, but it was actually the atmosphere in the restaurant that made the evening. We were seated in the back of the restaurant--next to a group of people celebrating a birthday.

There was also a mariachi band that went from table to table--playing requests. The weird part was that all the Spaniards seemed to know all the lyrics to all of the songs. I would never have expected or assumed that Spaniards would know the lyrics to songs from Mexico. When it was our turn, we struggled a little to think of a song that we might know--La cucaracha and La bamba being the only songs I think we knew. We decided on La cucaracha, and I think we were all a little surprised by the lyrics--because there is a clean version and a vulgar version. Although frankly-speaking, we didn't really know the lyrics to begin with. The extent of our knowledge of the lyrics was basically: "La cucaracha. La cucaracha. Na na, na na, na."

After we left the restaurant, we discovered that it had rained while we were inside. I was sad to have missed this because it rains so infrequently here. I'm not even sure that it really rains here at all--or at least that's what I've joked. Before leaving the States, I had read that there are on average 20 days of rain in Alicante a year. I call it "stealth rain" because I never see it actually rain, but it's obvious that it has rained because it is wet outside.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

My little bit of paradise...

13 Oct 2011

As I've written about previously, at the beginning of October, the school schedule changed to make the school day longer. Instead of going to school from 9 AM to 1 PM, now students are in school from 9 AM to 12:30 PM and then 3:30 PM to 5 PM. Or so I thought...

In reality, students are basically in school from 9 AM to 5 PM. Originally, I thought that a majority of students went home for lunch for the three hour break. However, in talking with one of the English teachers, I've learned that actually only a small percentage of students go home for lunch.

The rest of the students stay at the school and there are classes and other activities planned for them. Students get a longer period of time to eat than students get in the States as well as some time to play out on the patio. During the rest of the time, they have what I would call a study hall--which is good for them. I've gotten the impression that they get more homework than I think students in the US get. They also have classes in technology, music, etc...

Apparently, in other Communities (by Communities I mean other Autonomous Communities), the schedules are different. In one region, school goes from 9 AM to 2:30 PM. I've talked to a number of teachers who think that such a schedule might be better for the students. Since the school day is so long, students are exhausted by the time afternoon classes begin. I know this because I have two classes of 1st grade on Thursday afternoons. It's hard to motivate them to learn in the afternoon, and they are often crabby and prone to getting into arguments with other students.

However, since I don't teach any classes during the break, I have started going over to the beach--just 10 minutes away from the school! It's a really beautiful beach. It's pretty small, but it looks like a small bit of paradise. Usually, I bring a lunch from home and I sit on a bench in the shade of a palm tree (so I don't get burnt or get sand all over me). I'll post some photos of the beach soon!

American Breakfast!

12 Oct 2011

The 12th of October marks an important day in Spain for two reasons. First, the 12th of October represents the "Día de la Hispanidad" (Day of Hispanic-ness), and more contemporarily, is also referred to as "Fiesta Nacional" (Day of the Nation). It commemorates the accomplishments of the Spanish-speaking world and is celebrated in other Spanish-speaking countries. In Madrid, typically, there is military parade that the royal family, important Spanish officials, and leaders of other Spanish-speaking countries attend. Part of the holiday celebrates the "discovery" of America on the part of Christopher Columbus. In a sense, it celebrates all that Spain was at that time--when it was a world power and a force to be reckoned with.

However, the holiday has gotten more austere in recent years because of the economic crisis. Furthermore, another holiday has begun to overshadow Día de la Hispanidad. In fact, when I was talking to the teachers at my school, they all said that we had the day off because it was Día de Pilar.  

The "Día de Pilar" (Day of Our Lady of the Pillar) honors the patroness of Spain and the Guardia Civil (Civil Guard). According to what I've read, she appeared to the Apostle James when he was in Spain--trying to convert people to Christianity. In his despair, he prayed for help, and the Virgin Mary appeared to him with a pillar/column. She instructed him to make a church where it stood and promised that the site would endure there until the end of time and that many miracles would be worked there.

Since all of us had the day off, the other Fulbrighters and I decided to make a big American breakfast. We made eggs, pancakes (with chocolate chunks!), bacon, and potatoes. I told one of my teachers about our plans. Unfortunately, I think we have inadvertently reinforced the stereotype about what Americans eat for breakfast every day!

I've never actually made pancakes before--so I quickly learned how to flip pancakes without burning them or flipping them too early and getting misshapen pancakes. We were able to enjoy our potatoes with American style ketchup. Here the ketchup is generally a little sweeter. I don't really care for it--so I was glad that we were able to find ketchup like we get at home.


 After eating breakfast, we decided to do something more relaxing so we could digest all that delicious food! We went to a nearby movie theater to see the movie The Debt--which was a thought-provoking movie. The movie features Helen Mirren, Ciarán Hinds, and Tom Wilkinson. They play retired Mossad secret agents who, when they were young, were sent on a mission to capture a Nazi war criminal (the Surgeon of Birkenau). The movie goes back and forth between the present when they are retired and the past when they were tracking down the Surgeon of Birkenau. Part of what I liked about the movie was the fact that it sparked an intense discussion between the three of us afterward. It left us with questions that have no real answer--which I think is what the best movies do.

While walking back to our apartments, we discovered that there was a special diversity event taking place on the Explanada. All along the Explanada, there were booths with representatives from different countries and minorities with information about their organization or their country/minority group. Interestingly-enough, there was a booth that was working to help better the situation for Gypsies. I can't speak to the situation for Gypsies in other places in the world. However, in Spain, Gypsies are a highly discriminated group. Some people will tell you that they are thieves or bad people. In fact, last time I was here, my host mom told me to be careful on the metro because Gypsies might try to rob me. At school, I've heard students make negative comments about other students with ties to the Gypsy community. However, the whole point of this diversity event was to dispel some of these stereotypes and gain more acceptance for these groups.

In the bandstand on the Explanada, different groups performed dances from their country. We saw some people doing a dance from Mexico, and a group preparing to do a dance from Argentina.      



Interesting words/phrases

For those of you who speak Spanish (or appreciate linguistics!), I'm going to be randomly posting words/phrases/colloquialisms that I find interesting. I'll include a translation and the situation in which I heard it if applicable.

ver las orejas al lobo--literally: to see the ears of the wolf. Basically, it means to foresee danger. I've read that it's comparable to the English phrases to "see storm clouds on the horizon" or "see the writing on the wall."

disfrutar--literally: to take the fruit. It means "to enjoy." One of the speakers at Fulbright Orientation pointed out the origins of this word. I think it's interesting to consider the idea of enjoyment in such a concrete way. It's difficult to explain the exact connotations that this word has in English. However, for me, it highlights the attitude of enjoying the simpler things in life--like eating a good meal, or reading a good book.

pijo/a--snooty

tiquismiquis--literally: for me, for you. Apparently, it originally comes from Latin. It is used to refer to someone as being picky. I think that it specifically refers to someone who's picky about the way in which things are done. For example, if you are a person who is kind of a perfectionist and wants every little detail to be taken care of. 

Y vivieron felices y comieron perdices...--literally: and they lived happily and ate partridge. It is used at the end of stories to say "and they lived happily ever after."

solapar--my dictionary translates this verb as "to overlap." However, my teacher used this word in class to mean something more specific than "overlap." She asked me if there were an equivalent in English. I told her that I didn't know the word and she explained that it meant "to fold the corners together." I had to admit that I couldn't think of a discrete word that would capture that meaning.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Preparations!

11 Oct 2011

Tuesday felt like an incredibly long day, but that could have been due to the fact that tomorrow is a holiday! School itself was great! I planned a fun activity for 5th grade and I think they really enjoyed it. Since they are studying activities to do in Wales with the question "Do you like...?" I thought that we should play the game "Find someone who..." With this activity, I made a list of activities, and the students had to find someone who liked that activity. It was really interesting to watch them do the activity because I think it underscored one cultural difference.

Since class sizes are so big here and the general teaching style is different (at least based on my experience so far), students aren't typically allowed to leave their seats. For this activity, I asked students to stand up and find other students to talk to. However, because students are accustomed to getting to leave their seats, a number of students were trying to yell across the room or they tried to move as far from their seats as they could without actually leaving their desk.

After school, I met up with the other Fulbrighter to go shopping for food for our American breakfast! Since we don't have school tomorrow, we talked about the idea of cooking a big American breakfast. Here breakfast typically consists of toast (with jam on it or chopped tomato) and fruit. However, shopping for the ingredients was a little difficult. For example, (at least at Mercadona) we couldn't buy any maple syrup. Oddly enough, on the back of the pancake mix, they recommended that you use chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, or strawberry syrup with the pancakes. We found all of these syrups next to the mix in the supermarket, but we couldn't find any maple syrup. I'm a little horrified to think that people actually believe that Americans eat their pancakes with chocolate syrup!


Anticipation for Halloween!

10 Oct 2011

Given that I missed two days of school last week because of various meetings, I decided to go to school for the morning--even though it's technically my day off. While at school, I got the chance to work with two 5th grade classes and help one of my teachers work on a Halloween bulletin board.

Even though Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays, I'm finding that I'm inordinately excited to celebrate it this year. I'm not entirely sure if this is because I'm representing the US here in Spain, and I feel like I need to get students excited about American culture. Or, if it has more to do with the fact that this is my second time out of the country for Halloween. It's possible that I'm just more sensitive to the fact that Halloween is so different here. I'll write more about that closer to Halloween.

After school, I went home to do my usual list of things for Mondays--running errands, cleaning, and the occasional waiting around in an office. My goal for today was to apply for my carnet joven (young person card). However, like most things here, I'm finding it difficult to find information about the office and its schedule online. When I went to the office after lunch, I unfortunately discovered that the office closes at 2 PM. So I'll have to wait on this until next Monday. 

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Festival! Día de Valencia!

9 Oct 2011

Unbeknownst to me, today was an important holiday here in Alicante. It's Día de Valencia or Valencia Day. The holiday celebrates the autonomous community of Valencia--which comprises Valencia, Alicante, and Castellón. This meant that there were a lot of things going on that were out of the ordinary.

Before we found out that today was Valencia Day, we decided to head out in search of churros con chocolate. I'm not going to lie. I'm pretty sure that churros con chocolate are probably one of my most favorite things about Spain. However, churros here in Spain aren't like those that you might find in the States. They don't have sugar on them--unless you add it--which frankly-speaking is actually too much sweetness. The chocolate is much thicker than the hot chocolate you get in the States--more like the consistency of hot pudding. In short, churros con chocolate is basically Heaven on Earth. However, here in Alicante, most places don't serve them except for on the weekends or just for breakfast. I personally think they're good anytime.

Chocolate, yum!



After finishing our churros con chocolate, we decided to continue on to Lucentum--the Roman ruins located outside of the city. However, as we were walking up the Rambla, we passed the Fogueres Museum and there were all sorts of fogueres (paper-mache figures) outside of the museum. Fogueres is a special holiday in Alicante. It takes place in June, and people from all over the city make fogueres. Sometimes these paper-mache figures make fun of public figures and sometimes they commemorate something special in the city. However, every year, people vote on two of them to save. The rest are burned as part of the festival. I haven't seen this museum open often, but it holds the two fogueres that are saved each year, and we were invited to come in.

These fogueres were outside of the museum


I think that we should find costumes to wear for the festival!
The museum was really neat! There were some really weird fogueres and some really beautiful ones! One of my favorites had a copy of the statue of Gabriel Miró that is in my favorites. The one to the left was also really neat. If you look at the bottom by her fin you can see that it has the design of the explanada on it!

After visiting the museum, we journeyed to La Albufereta. I've been hearing for weeks about the fact that there are Roman ruins near the school. I thought maybe my teachers were exaggerating a little bit and that they were somewhere in the suburb. But when they said near the school, they meant it! The ruins are basically behind them!

Since today was a holiday, we got free entry into the ruins of Lucentum. The ruins were pretty neat! We could see where the gate to the city once was as well as where the governmental buildings were. One of the most interesting parts were the graves taht were found in the city. Apparently, the city was largely abandoned by the Romans. In later periods, Muslims (and one Christian) were given burial rights over the ruins of the city. Of course, my favorite part of the ruins was the mosaics. There were only two, but they were still beautiful in their simplicity.

 <--This was a tower that had a bull engraved into one of the stones.
 This was one of the mosaics! SQUEE! -->

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Oh, Benidorm...

8 Oct 2011

Benidorm is a city located just about an hour (by TRAM) north of Alicante. This city has gotten a (admittedly well-deserved) bad reputation as being a British tourist town.

Nevertheless, we decided to check out Benidorm today to do some sightseeing and some shopping. We started out our day trip by visiting the commercial center of the city. The other girls found some cute outfits to buy. I had less luck, but it wasn't for lack of trying! I found a cute dress at one store, but it was a little tight in the shoulders and another size didn't fit quite right.

Eventually, we stopped for lunch at a Galician restaurant--which had phenomenal food. Then, we started the sightseeing part of our trip by walking down to the beach.   
















There was a really neat bridge that had locks on it. Apparently, people buy these locks, write their names on them and put them on this bridge as a sign of their love.

Eventually, we ran into the British part of town--which was full of bars and cabarets. We could see bars full of people singing along with tribute bands to different English artists. This part of town left me feeling sad and a little disturbed. It seems a shame to me that these British people (admittedly not all British people) come to Spain, and then spend all of their time in a British barrio. Part of the point of traveling is to experience new things and learn about different cultures. How can you do that if you basically haven't left?

Spanish nobility continued.

7 Oct. 2011

I wrote about the Duchess of Alba yesterday, but news associated with Spanish nobility continues today.

While today was rather uneventful, I did get to see some of the preparations for the Volvo Ocean Race. This event, which starts in Alicante, is a sailing race around the world. The actual race doesn't start until the end of the month, but today the Prince and Princess were here to support the Spanish team. Apparently, the Princess was named the godmother of the boat in a special ceremony.

If you didn't know (I actually didn't know this until I studied abroad in Spain 2 years ago), Spain has a constitutional monarchy. I'm going to give a brief description of the events that lead to this change. However, this description won't really do justice to the complexity of the transition to democracy in Spain. I actually took an entire course that was just devoted to the Spanish Civil War.

After the Second Republic fell in 1939 and a bloody civil war, Franco ruled the country as a dictator for nearly 40 years. During that time, he pushed for Spanish unity and nationalism through curtailing regional autonomy and prohibiting the use of regional languages. After Franco's death, Juan Carlos (the son of the former king) became the king of Spain. It was assumed that Juan Carlos would follow the doctrine of Franco. Instead, Juan Carlos made the push for Spain to transition to a democracy. This transition was not without bumps in the road. However, it was relatively peaceful and continues to this day--which given all the turmoil in Spain in the last few centuries is hopeful.

As a result, Juan Carlos is a figurehead and symbol of Spain. Based on my experience, he's really popular with Spaniards because of his role in the transition to the democracy. Polls show that people have more confidence in Juan Carlos than they have in the monarchy itself. So this leads some people to question what will happen to the monarchy when Juan Carlos is no longer its head.

He's maybe best known in the US as the guy who told Chávez to shut up when he interrupted President Zapatero at a Ibero-American Summit. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Kzbo7tNLg.

Part of Juan Carlos' job is to serve as the personification of the monarchy as well as the nation. In fact, last week, Juan Carlos made an appearance at the meeting of the Spanish Congress. He was asked to comment on the economic situation in Spain, and he was rather honest (and really blunt) in his response. He said that the future would require many sacrifices. While most people think that Spaniards have made enough sacrifices, I got the impression that people respected the king for not trying to feed them propaganda about the economic situation.



Auxiliar meeting

6 Oct. 2011

Today we had yet another meeting for auxliares de conversación (conversational assistants). Thankfully, this meeting was in Alicante all the auxiliares from the province of Alicante were required to come. So this was an opportunity for us to meet auxiliares here in Alicante with other programs. There were basically four groups of people here for the meeting. First, there were the auxiliares that are funded by the Ministry of Education. Then, the auxiliares funded by the Community of Valencia. Of course, there were the Fulbrighters--all three of us! Lastly, the teachers.

The meeting lasted most of the day. However, a good portion of the information didn't pertain to me as a Fulbrighter. We broke up into groups and the coordinators talked to each group about topics such as the procedure for insurance, getting paid, and the NIE process. Nonetheless, the Fulbrighters have a different insurance and we receive our stipend from a different source. Later, a Spaniard talked about how she uses her auxiliar in the classroom. This information was mostly directed at the teachers who had accompanied their auxiliar.

During lunch, our topic (i.e. obsession) for the day was the Duchess of Alba. She is one of Spain's wealthiest people as well as one of the world's most titled nobles (she's got at least 40!). In August, I had read an article about her on CNN.com. At the time, there was a little bit of a scandal because she was planning to remarry. She's 85 years old and she was planning to marry a man 24 years her junior. However, this wasn't really the scandalous part of the article. Apparently, her children were "worried" that the man was just with her for her money (and they wouldn't get their inheritance) so they made her sign over her money. Apparently, a lot of the people in her family disagreed with her choice. One of her children didn't even come to the wedding because she disagreed with her mother's decision to marry someone who is untitled.

Well, yesterday, the Duchess of Alba got married to the younger man. She "embarrassed" her children by dancing the flamenco in front of cameras.

You can read an article about it in English here: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Duchess/of/Alba/ties/knot/for/third/time/at/85/elpepueng/20111005elpeng_6/Ten

After lunch and a visit the park (where we saw the most adorable baby turtle), we headed back to my apartment for a few hours to rest before going out for tapas and later a movie. We settled for something not serious--The Three Musketeers dubbed in Spanish. We chose it mostly because it promised to be lighthearted but also because I've seen a ton of posters for it in the city. The movie itself was alright. It was really dramatic, fairly predictable, but it made me laugh so I can forgive its faults. I felt like the movie was so ridiculous (and didn't really try to take itself seriously) which made it awesome!

The best days are sometimes also the worst...

5 Oct. 2011

I've had both one of the best, most rewarding days as well as one of the worst. I got to prepare more activities to do with my students, but I also had one of my worst teaching nightmares come true.

My day started well enough working with the 6th graders. Last week, I mentioned in this blog that I was planning to do Charades with the 6th graders. This turned out to be a great success with with them! They liked acting out the different vocabulary words, and they enjoyed seeing everyone's acting skills in action.

Then, I went to work with the 2nd grade class, and there was just one student who was out of control. He didn't want to participate and was hindering the other students' ability to learn. Between the other teacher and I, we were constantly trying to get this student to stop disrupting the other students, but with little luck. This sort of situation makes the day tough because it's hard to feel like you actually are making a difference by being here.

Since we are working with the longer schedule, I actually had the option to go home for lunch today--which I gladly took so that I would have a chance to recharge.

During the afternoon, I had a 3rd grade class as well as another 6th grade class. We had a blast and the students enjoyed the practice! The 3rd graders are learning prepositions (in, on, behind, under) and so I thought that we could review a little and then play Simon Says. They absolutely loved the game! Every time that I "tricked" the students, there was one boy that kept saying, "Eres muy buena!" In other words, he kept telling me that I was really tricky.

The 6th graders in my second class were even more into playing Charades. One girl asked me if she could act out one of the vocabulary words. She actually asked me in English if she could--which really impressed me. Generally, most of the students make requests in Spanish and you have to remind them that they are capable of doing it in English.

All in all, today was a very rewarding day. My students were able to not only enjoy themselves but also learn and grow.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Check-in

4 Oct 2011

Since we've been working for a couple weeks now, the Fulbright coordinator thought it would be helpful for us to meet to talk about our experiences so far. Given that most of the Fulbrighters in the region of Valencia are in the city of Valencia, it was decided that we would meet in Valencia.

Since I live in the city of Alicante, this meant a total of four hours in a train. Unfortunately, there are a limited number of trains going between Alicante and Valencia. Basically, we could take a train that would get us to the station at the same time as the meeting--meaning we would be 20-30 minutes late. Or, we could take the train that would get us there around 1:00.

Getting there around 1:00 meant that I got to try Valencian paella in Valencia for the first time! For those of you who don't know, paella is a rice dish that originated here in the region of Valencia. In fact, just last week there was a paella cooking competition in Valencia in the City of Arts and Sciences. It can be made with any number of things--seafood, chicken, vegetables, etc.

I've eaten a lot of paella while I've been in Alicante--in particular, because it is one of my favorite dishes. However, when I was in the city of Valencia a few weeks ago, I was disappointed to not have the opportunity to eat some traditional paella.

The restaurant that we ate at today was really amazing. We had the menú del día (menu of the day). This is a popular (and cheap) option offered at lunch here in Spain. Most restaurants offer some sort of menú del día in which you get two plates, dessert, and a drink. For the first plate, usually you get to choose a soup or a salad, but sometimes there are other options. For example, at this restaurant, I ordered bravas--which are fried potatoes with ali oli (garlic mayonnaise) and brava sauce. The second plate is the main dish and most menus offer paella as an option for this plate. At this restaurant, I had one of the best paellas I've ever eaten. It had a lot of flavor and the vegetables were so fresh! Lastly, dessert can be composed of a number of options. Of course, you have your traditional desserts--like ice cream, chocolate cake, and flan. However, you can also get coffee or the fruit of the day. The fruit of the day is sometimes my favorite option because they tend to be fruits that I don't usually buy for myself--like pineapple and melon. The melon here is simply delicious and not like anything you can get in the States! It's almost like honeydew, but it's much sweeter and has a fuller flavor. Today, I didn't go with my usual choice of the fruit of the day--mostly because I saw some other customers eating a delicious-looking chocolate cake. Of course, I had to have the chocolate cake, and it was glorious!

I also had some time to do a little sightseeing with some of the other Fulbrighters!

 




Monday, October 3, 2011

My horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day: Part II

If you've been reading my blog, you've heard my talk a little bit about the NIE (Número de identificación de extranjeros). In short, this is my foreigner identity card while I'm here in Spain. Anyone who stays in Spain for more than 6 months has to apply for this card. Last week, I went to TWO different offices trying to apply for my NIE without any luck. They each gave me an address for some other place to go. Today, I finally ended up in the right place. Although the government's website doesn't say this, there are specific places that you can go depending on your situation. For example, my roommate can go to the first station I visited last week because she is from Germany which is part of the European Union. Since I'm here on a student visa AND I'm American, I had to go to the office I went to today. Of course, I couldn't find any of this information on the internet and the phone number for the station doesn't work
.
Today's visit to the police station for my NIE was once again a disaster. Not quite as bad as last week, but
this week the bureaucracy of it all made me cry. The first step was to find the police station--which is really out of the way. It's north-ish of where I live and far enough away that I had to take the bus to get there. However, the bus doesn't tell you what stop is next so you have to be familiar with where you are going so you know when to get off. I followed our route on my map and I still got off one stop too late. Fortunately, I ran into someone on the street and she helped me figure out where to go.

Once at the police station, I only had to wait for two people in front of my before I got to talk
to someone. That's when my trouble started. First, the employee points out that I don't have a Spanish stamp on my visa (which would mean that it technically wasn't active). I told her I didn't have one there because I entered the European Union through another country so I have a Polish stamp on
another page. There was some discussion before we cleared that whole thing up. Then, she told me I needed to make a photocopy of that stamp and go to a
bank to pay the NIE fee.

Since this office is in the middle of basically nowhere, that was a little hard. After walking about 5 minutes in one direction, I managed to find a bank were I could do the fee transfer. In Spain, most things
are done by transfer. You go to a bank and say that you want to deposit X amount of money in Y person's account. So if you owe someone some money, usually you'll just make a transfer. Or, if you need to pay your rent, you just transfer the money to your landlord's account. That's basically what they here do instead of writing checks. In fact, I haven't seen any checks here--other than the one that Fulbright wrote to us. While wandering around, I also managed to find a place to make photocopies and I was ready to apply for my NIE!

Only that's not how it turned out. I went back to the police station and waited in line some more--which I didn't mind because I thought that I would be done soon. When it was my turn, I talked to another employee and she looked at my documents and wondered why I didn't have a letter from the university.  I tried to explain that I'm here on a student visa but I'm not taking classes at the university and that I'm studying through teaching English. Then, she told me that I needed a letter that had my school's address on it and that the Fulbright letter I had wasn't enough.That's when I hit the wall. I was exhausted by all of this bureaucracy and I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I started to tear up in the office. I've been to 3 offices, wasted 2 days off, I've had to go back and forth so many times, and I was just sick of jumping through hoops.

So I told the employee that I would have to go to my computer and print out the right document and I'd be back. I think she just wanted me to leave before I really started to cry. I went back to the place where
they made a photocopy for me and I basically begged them to let me print something. The employee was super nice and sympathetic and helped me out right away! Soon, I was on my way BACK to the police
station where I, of course, had to wait a little longer.

When I went through the doors, the fingerprinting guy asked if I had gotten everything resolved. He had seen that I was upset before and just wanted to make sure I was alright--which I thought was super sweet!

This time I sat down with yet another employee. She started to tell me that the letter I had just printed wasn't necessary. I just about lost it then! I went to all that trouble to print the letter and she was telling me I didn't need it anymore?!?!?! I explained to her that someone else had JUST told me that I needed because I needed a document with my school's address on it. When I pointed this out, she realized that I did indeed need the document--apparently she hadn't read all of the Fulbright letter I brought.

Then, it was FINALLY my turn to be fingerprinted. I have to go back in a month to pick up my actual card, but I have my ID number!

Lesson learned: Bureaucracy sucks, but Spaniards are nice and willing to give you a hand when you need it.

Playa de San Juan! The good beach!

2 Oct. 2011

I'm going to keep this post rather short--mostly because I didn't really do anything exciting today. I ate lunch a little earlier than normal so that we could go to the PLAYA DE SAN JUAN!!!

This beach is a little further away and we needed to take the TRAM to get there. Unfortunately, we got to the TRAM platform just in time to see the train we wanted pull away. This is mostly unfortunate because TRAM trains only come every 30 minutes. However, basically all the TRAM trains go near the beach so we were able to catch another line 5 minutes later. After about 15-20 minutes on the TRAM, we made it to the Playa de San Juan (Beach of Saint John)!

This beach is arguably the best in the Alicante area. It's much bigger than the beach near my apartment and there are far fewer people there.


I was really able to relax at this beach. At Playa Postiguet (the beach by my apartment), I'm always a little worried that someone is going to try to steal my stuff because it's so touristy. Here, I actually fell asleep! The phone rang and I had to try to remember where I was! All in all, a good way to start the week... :)



Squee! Museo arqueológico

1 Oct 2011

Alicante is fortunate to have a really spectacular archeological museum within the city limits. Ever since I heard about the museum I've been dying to go--especially since the museum currently has an exhibit from the Hermitage in Russia. This exhibit will leave Alicante on October 16th so I wanted to be sure to go to the museum before it was too late to see it!

Before I go into too much detail about the museum, I want to warn you that I completely nerded out at the museum. It was really an amazing museum and I was fascinated to see how these artifacts relate to what I already know about archeology in Greece. While in college, I took a course on the archeology of Greece which examined Greece from the time that there were people to the time of Homer. We covered the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Minoans, and the Mycenaeans. In particular, I studied the pottery found in Greece and how this pottery developed and changed over time. So part of my enjoyment in the museum was the how what I saw in the museum related to what I learned in my archeology class.

The museum only costs 3 euros to enter (1.50 euro if you have a student ID or you're a senior citizen)! The musuem itself has two parts: the permanent collection with artifacts from the area of Alicante and a visiting collection--which happens to be from Russia.

The permanent collection has a variety of galleries--dating from different periods. The first gallery has prehistoric artifacts from the first people to inhabit the area of Alicante through the Neolithic period. These people were hunter-gathers and so you can see the progression in their ability to make arrowheads and other weapons. The next gallery focused on Iberian culture and was probably one of my favorites. The term "Iberian culture" is mostly used to refer to the tribes of people who lived throughout the Iberian peninsula prior to the Roman conquest. The Iberians had come into contact with the Phoneticians and Greeks by the 6th century BC, and I could see evidence of this contact in the pottery. Not only were there pots that had been imported from Greece but there were also pots were I could see that the Iberians had tried to imitate the designs and construction of different ceramics.

The third gallery (another of my favorites!) contained findings from the Roman ruins of Lucentum in Alicante. In fact, the Roman ruins are right near the school were I work! This gallery had a lot of remnants of Roman buildings. However, the best part about this gallery was that it had some Roman mosaics! I absolutely love Roman mosaics--which I saw in Spain for the first time two years ago at the ruin of Itálica. I really excited to get the chance to visit more Roman ruins here in Alicante. I think we're planning to go to them next weekend so look for a post on that!

Next, we wandered through the gallery about the Middle Ages. This gallery focused on the tension between Muslims and Christians during this period. Spain was ruled by the Arabs off and on from 700 to 1492. The Christian reconquest began in 1085 with the conquest of Toledo. However, it was not until 1492 with the Spanish Inquisition that Muslims were officially expelled from Spain, and Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism. This conflict between Christians and Muslims has created some of the most beautiful architecture in Spain. Whenever one group conquered a city, they would take the church/mosque and turn it into their own house of worship changing the building to better reflect their beliefs. As a result, there are some amazing churches/mosques that contain elements of both religions.

The final gallery that is part of the permanent collection has modern artifacts. This gallery was a little less interesting to me--mostly because it had such a random assortment of artifacts because it covers such a large period of time.

Once we finished with the permanent collection, we moved on to the Hermitage exhibit from Russia. Like the exhibit, I felt like I had enough of a historical background to feel really excited about some of the findings. While in high school, I took a Russian history class--which meant that I recognized some of the places that the artifacts came from and what was going on in those places at the time.

Unfortunately, as we entered the exhibit, we misunderstood the guide and went through the exhibit backwards. I won't go into nearly as much detail about this exhibit as I did the other, but I will say that it was worth the visit! It was interesting to compare the motifs that were popular in Russia versus those in Greece or here in Alicante. In Alicante and Greece, the bull plays an important role in art and ritual. However, in the Russian artifacts, I noticed that depictions of elk were far more common--which is really interesting.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

My favorite thing about Spain: Tapas!

30 Sept 2011
Like yesterday, I mostly observed in my English classes today--so that I have a feel for the way the classes work and the level of the students. However, starting next week, I'm going to be doing a lot more planning of activities! I'll be planing activities for 3rd and 6th grade. The 3rd graders are learning about the structure of the question "What's he/she doing?" While the 6th graders will be working with "What does he/she want to do?" Since these are more active questions, I'm thinking that maybe we can do some type of charades game with the students. Using the vocabulary from this section, students can act out what they are doing or want to do. Then, students can guess what other students are acting out. In this way, I can also try to incorporate the 2nd person "you" form and the 3rd person "he/she" form.


However, the best part of the day by far was going to a tapas bar. Tapas are one of my favorite Spanish traditions. Basically, you go out with friends to try out a bunch of different appetizers! The word tapas comes from the word tapar which means "to cover." The etymology behind this word is disputed, but according to some theories people used to put tapas over their drinks to cover them from getting fruit flies or dust in them. A slight derivation of this theory says that people used to have to eat tapas standing up and so the only place you could place your tapas was on top of your drink. Another theory says that tapas were eaten to cover up the taste of a bad wine.

There are a lot of different options when it comes to tapas. Depending on the restaurant/bar you are in, you can get Spanish tortilla (not to be confused with Mexican tortilla; Spanish tortilla is more like a potato omelet), croquetas, bread with different meats (like chorizo, Iberian ham, etc.), and many more! The place that we went to also had little mini hamburgers and fries. We ended up ordering some croquetas, bread with egg on it, and little sandwiches with chicken, cheese, and tomato. At this particular restaurant, you could get a tapa with a drink for only 3 euro! Since we were still hunger after three rounds of tapas, we decided to try a ración (ration). This is a bigger portion of some typical tapas. We ordered bread (with tomato on top) and Iberian meats--which is delicious! The meat here is very different from home. It's got a much richer flavor than anything you can find in the US.