Bucket List: visit Morocco. Check!

2 June 2012

Throughout this year that I've lived in Spain, I've had the opportunity to travel to a lot of amazing cities throughout Europe. Each one has had something that made it unique. However, European cities are all basically built the same. Each city has a main plaza, a central cathedral, a castle/palace, a large park, etc. I love seeing palaces/castles as much as the next--especially since there is a dearth of castles in the United States--but I've become tired of seeing the same thing everywhere I go.


As I've traveled throughout Spain, I've seen many examples of Islamic-influenced architecture and art in cities like Granada, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Córdoba, and I've found it all fascinatingly beautiful. I've been interested in traveling to northern Africa in order to see how the original compares to how this style has manifested in Spain. 


This morning, I caught the bus to Valencia, met up with some American friends at the airport, and flew to Marrakesh, Morocco. 


After a slightly harrowing flight, we were met at the airport by a taxi driver who took us to our riad. A riad is a combination between a bed and breakfast and a hostel. They are usually pretty small. 




Our riad was located inside the medina--the historical part of the city. We were glad that we took the taxi since finding anything in the medina (at least the first time) can be extremely confusing. 


In no time, we were graciously ushered into the riad and offered tea on the rooftop terrace. In Morocco, hospitality is extremely important. It's customary to offer guests tea, and it's considered rude to refuse such an offer. 

On the terrace, we met 6 of the riads "pets." Six turtles wander aimlessly around the terrace--taking shelter during the worst of the heat and sniffing (?) and climbing over guests' feet the rest of the day. 










As we enjoyed our tea, we also took in the view our terrace had to offer. The roof had an amazing view of the rest of the medina. We could see into the souks and the mosque in the distance.

After settling down a little, we decided to leave the riad to find a place to eat dinner and explore the city a little more.




Our first stop was the souks--the open-air market located in the center of the medina. In the souks, people haggle for clothing, spices, food, and other items. A couple of my friends stopped and haggled for lighter clothing that will be more appropriate for our ride into the desert tomorrow.


Next, we walked into the main square--which was full of activity! There were vendors selling food and fresh orange juice. There were performers with monkeys and snakes. Once the sunset, there were also circles of people playing music.















For dinner, we went to a restaurant recommended by the man in our hostel. I had chicken couscous--which was pretty delicious. Later, we returned to the hostel in order to get some sleep before leaving at 7:30 AM to travel to the desert!

End of the Year Lunch!

1 June 2012

Since today is the 1st of June, the school day has officially become shorter! Instead of having class from 9 AM to 12:30 PM and 3:30 PM to 5 PM, we now just have classes from 9 AM to 1 PM. The Comunidad Valenciana  is the only community in all of Spain to have this odd schedule change. However, the director at my school is hoping that this will change next year, and they'll have the same, continuous schedule all year. 

In order to take advantage of the shorter school day, we had the teacher's end of the year lunch. As always, it was really fun to get together with all of the teachers to eat delicious food!

Of course, one of the main topics of conversation was the upcoming Hogueras (Fogueres in Valencian) which is the holiday celebrated for the feast day of Saint John.

I mentioned to a small group of teachers that I have a secret dream of wearing one of the traditional dresses that girls wear for this holiday. It's been my shameful secret all year since I saw one of these dresses at the Hogueras museum. I just love the skirts on the dresses--they're like bells that sway back and forth!

News travels quick. Not even two minutes after I had said this, another teacher from across the room approached me and was telling me how they were going to make this happen for me. I guess the idea of the americana in the traditional alicantina dress was something everyone wanted to see.

Over the course of the lunch, this became the inside joke.

One teacher told me that in order to wear the alicantina dress I was going to have to master a few skills. First, she asked if I had the wave down--so I showed her my best princess/Barbie wave. Then, she asked about my hips movement. I assured her that I could swing my hips and twirl the skirt of the dress to make it look like a bell. Lastly, she asked me if I knew the art of using a fan. Shamefully, I had to admit I didn't know how to use a fan and another teacher was "enlisted" to instruct me.

I'm not sure if I'll actually get the opportunity to wear one of these dresses, but I know that the teachers are doing their best to make that dream happen!

Tauromaquia

31 May 2012

There is still (at least) one controversial topic that I haven't yet written about in my blog--bullfighting.

It's been a prevalent topic in the news in the last week because a famous bullfighter, Julio Aparicio, rectnly retired from bullfighting. Two years ago, he was gored by a bull during a bullfight. Apparently, Aparicio slipped, and as he fell, the bull's horn pierced his throat. The bullfighter was rushed to the hospital, and doctors did their best to save him. The reconstruction surgery went well, and Aparicio was able to fight again. In fact, he fought again just 10 weeks after the accident.

Two days ago, after a bad fight, Aparicio asked one of his fellow toreros to cut his ponytail/braid in order to mark the end of his career as a torero.

Particularly in recent years, tauromaquia (the art of bullfighting) has become more and more controversial in Spain. This sometimes surprises people because when they think of Spain they stereotypically think of flamenco and bullfighting. But contrary to what outsiders might believe, the average Spaniard isn't a fan of bullfighting. 


I've talked to a number of Spaniards about the topic. The general consensus I've heard is pretty neutral. They appreciate the historical value that the tradition of bullfighting has in Spain. They can also see the beauty and art in the way that toreros fight. However, they also recognize that it is a cruel and violent sport in which the bull basically doesn't have a chance.  

Historically-speaking, bullfighting has always been more popular in the south than in the north of Spain. This is evidenced by the fact that bullfighting was actually outlawed in the community of Catalonia a few years ago. While I was in Barcelona in December, I saw that the bullfighting ring in the center of the city has since been turned into a shopping center.

Famous!

30 May 2012

Today, with my 6th grade classes, we played a game that I'm temporarily calling "Famous!" I don't really like the name, and I'm hoping I'll think of something a little catchier soon!

For this game, I wrote down a list of famous people on a sheet of paper. I tried to write down a variety of people as well as names of people that the kids would know. I picked actors/actresses, sports players, politicians (like Obama), inventors, scientists, singers, etc. I cut the names out into individual slips or paper.

I divided the class into two teams. One person from each team had to go to the board to write. I read the name of the famous person, and they had to write a sentence saying why the person is famous--using the past tense.

I reviewed all sorts of verbs with them before playing. However, we mostly ended up with "He was a famous ______." So I think next time I'll make a rule that they can't repeat verbs.

There were also people that I took for granted that the kids would know (or would know based on my American pronunciation) like Charles Dickens, Thomas Edison, Mozart.

The economic crisis in Alicante

29 May 2012

I've written various posts about "la crisis" (the crisis) here in Spain. The conservative government led by Rajoy is making cuts across the board in order to bring Spain out of the economic crisis.


However, I haven't written as much about the cuts being made here in Alicante and the Comunidad Valenciana. The government in Alicante has been doing everything possible to save money--some of these measures are a little strange.


A few months ago, the government announced that they were going to shut down fountains throughout the city as a way to save money. All the fountains in the city are only allowed to be on for one hour each day. So if you see a fountain running, it's your lucky day. This has been sad for me because there is a lovely fountain around the block from my apartment that I never see running anymore. Though I haven't read any figures about how much this is saving the government, I suppose shutting down fountains is better than firing someone--especially since Spain has the highest unemployment rate in Europe.


More recently, a second measure has been put in place--shutting down unnecessary traffic lights. I'm not sure how the government decided which traffic lights are unnecessary, but they've shut down a number of traffic lights (on one way streets) near where I live. The traffic light in front of my school was shut down for a number of days--though I'm not a 100% sure if it was due to this measure or just broken. Thankfully, there is usually a policeman around to direct traffic before and after school, but it was still alarming to think that there wasn't a traffic light working in a student zone. 

Make-up Day

28 May 2012

Since I'm going to missing a day next week (because I'll be in Morocco!), I went to school today to make it up. However, before going to my school, I stopped by an American friend's school in order to observe some of the similarities and differences between our English programs.

My friend was a Fulbrighter last year and continued working at the same school this year with the Ministerio de educación (Ministry of Education) program. She's invested a lot of time and energy into this program and I was curious to see what sorts of results she's had.

Her school's English program is rather unique in the Alicante-area. It's a English immersion program targeted at reading. However, the program starts in preschool--when the students are only 3 years old! These students are learning how to read in English before they ever learn to read in Spanish!

Furthermore, I would argue that they are learning to read even earlier than most American kids. When my sister was in kindergarten, she was learning to read simple sight words--like "cat," "the," "a," etc... However, these Spanish kids are learning to sound out some more difficult words. I think this is partially due to a difference in educational practices. In Spain, students learn to read at a younger age because reading in Spanish is straightforward. Each letter grouping only has one pronunciation--not like in English with words like "tough," "thought," "though," "through."

I had the chance to see the kids in action, and they were incredible!

The 5-year-olds were able to read books to me--even reading more difficult words like "caterpillar" and "butterfly." Their reading comprehension was also impressive.

There were a couple things that I noticed that did intrigue me--though these observations are based on just a short amount of time with the kids. First, I noticed that the kids tended to sound out everything and that they knew fewer sight words--like "the" and "a." I figure that part of this is due to the fact that their native language is still Spanish even though they are in an English immersion class. Second, the students do a lot more code-switching than my students. For example, when one student was asked if the book was too hard, she replied, "El libro era too hard." In some cases, the students use some phrases more in English than they do in Spanish, and so I heard phrases like, "Vienen de huevos like the dinosaurs." 


Later, I went to the 4-year-old classroom--where I got to see how it all works. At this school, they teach the kids to read using Jolly Phonics. The English language has 42 phonemes or distinct sound combinations. With Jolly Phonics, each phoneme has a little song and gesture to help remind the kids of how to pronounce the phoneme. They use these songs/gestures to help kids sound out words.  

Visiting my friend's school was an interesting contrast because my students are never taught how to read in English. This is part of the reason why even in 6th grade I hear the most appalling pronunciations like "bow-at" (boat) and "ga-may" (game).

I wish there were some way to combine these programs! I think that my students would benefit from a crash course in reading in English. I often hear from students, "Se escribe de una manera y se pronuncia de otra." (English is written one way and pronounced another). However, the real problem is that they don't view English reading and pronunciation as separate from Spanish. I've contemplated going to school one day and pronouncing everything in Spanish as if it were English in order to help them get the idea that English and Spanish reading and pronunciation are two completely different things.

Alicante: Día del alicantino de adopción

27 May 2012

Today, Alicante is celebrating día del alicantino de adopción with festivities in the Parque de Canalejas. The fiesta is meant to celebrate the diversity of the people living in Alicante, and the fact that Alicante's residents come from all parts of Spain.

El día del alicantino de adopción started at 12:30 with a parade. Later, when the festivities convened in Canalejas, there were different parts of the park dedicated to different regions in Spain--like Galicia, Castilla-Leon, Asturias, Murcia, etc.

Unfortunately, I missed the whole celebration due to some misinformation about the time and location of the event.

Instead, I went to a friend's apartment for lunch--where we enjoyed a rico Indian dish called chole saag. 

Alicia en el país de las maravillas

26 May 2012

I forgot to mention that yesterday my students performed the end of the year play! They performed an abridged version of Alicia en el país de las maravillas  (Alice in Wonderland). It was really quite amazing! I didn't realize how many of my students were little actors/actresses in the making!

One of the moms (or an after school theater teacher?) introduced the play in her role as a fairy, but the kids carried the rest of the show.

At the beginning of the play, some of the younger students--who played the flowers and cards--came on stage, danced, and sang a little about their role in the play. They looked so excited to be on stage in front of their classmates. One boy in particular is incredibly quiet in class. I hardly ever hear him talk. However, on stage, he couldn't stop smiling and giggling at the antics of the Mad Hatter!

The older girls did a great job in the roles of the Mad Hatter, the White Queen, the Red Queen, and Alice. The Mad Hatter was a good combination of funny, dispistada (absent-minded), and frantic movement. The Red and White Queen played the roles of two squabbling sisters perfectly. Alice was very sweet and peaceful.

The kids obviously worked really hard on the play! I'm really glad that I got the chance to see this artistic side of them!  

Bankia asks for another loan...

25 May 2012

The already troubled bank, Bankia, today asked for yet another loan from the Spanish government. Bankia said that it would need another 19 billion euros ($24 billion) more than it had originally anticipated.

This is much more than the Spanish government had expected to have to pay when they stepped in and partially nationalized Bankia earlier this month.

Part of the problem stems from the fact that Standard & Poor's (the credit rating agency) recently demoted Bankia's rating--basically giving it a junk status. Consequently, Bankia is having trouble borrowing money in order to stabilize the bank because no one wants to loan them money.

Unfortunately, now that the Spanish government has partially nationalized Bankia (and taxpayers now own 45% of shares in Bankia), the government can't let Bankia go under. The government has too much invested in the bank and the Spanish government doesn't want to appear unstable to investors or the European Union.  

However, the problem with Bankia is leading many in Europe to worry if Spain can resolve the banking situation without a EU bailout.

Spanish and American games...

24 May 2012

During my intercambio (language exchange) today, we talked about games that we used to play in Physical Education class as well as on the playground. It was interesting to find out how many games we have in common and which ones are a bit different.

We started by discussing ways in which team members are chosen or who goes first. Like in the United States, more often than not a team captain is chosen for each team, and they select members for their teams.

However, what interested me more is how they choose who goes first. In the United States, we often use choosing rhymes to decide who goes first. Everyone puts one (or sometimes two) feet in, and one by one people are eliminated. We use rhymes like: 
Eeney meeney miney moe, 
Catch a tiger by its toe, 
If he hollers let him go, 
Eeney meeney miney moe 
My mother told me to pick the very best one,
and you are not it. 


They also use another method for choosing who goes first. Two people stand a few feet apart. They have to walk towards each other--but with every step their heels must touch their toes. The last person who can take a full step is the winner. 


As in the United States, kids play games like Tag/Freeze Tag(juegos de pillar), Cops and Robbers (Policías y Ladrones), Hide and Seek (Escondite), and jumping rope (saltar la comba). 


I still need to ask the girls at school what sorts of rhymes they use for jumping rope, but I promise to write about it soon!

Tapas therapy

23 May 2012

Some days, you just need to unwind after a difficult day. Today, I definitely needed some tapas therapy with my friends.

My day wasn't actually that trying until after school.

Every Wednesday, I head to a café near my school--mostly to have a little down time and to plan some lessons. There, I have my merienda (snack), and I chill out for an hour and a half watching a program called Sálvame. This show is a cross between a talk show like The View and Jerry Springer.

The show mostly focuses on celebrity news (they seem to have a particular fondness for the bullfighter Jose Ortega Cano; they haven't stopped discussing his son's relationship with a woman 15 years his senior) as well as the lives of the personalities on the show.

I have to confess that the first time I saw the show I thought it was pretty ridiculous--admittedly I still feel that way. However, it's become part of my Wednesday routine.

My troubles began after I left the café and was promptly run down by a 5-year-old on a bike. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but this kid had either terrible steering or terrible sight because he just ran into me. Afterwards, I asked him if he was alright, he nodded, and biked away without a word or apology.

On the tram ride into the city center, I was reading a book and heard a noise that sounded like a gunshot. It turned out that someone had thrown a rock at the tram. It cracked a window, but thankfully the glass didn't break and no one was hurt.

I got home to my apartment and was ready to chill for the night. Unfortunately, I walked into the kitchen and found the typical mini-disaster that someone decided to leave for me to fix. Not everyone I live with is like this, but I do live with a couple of people who don't really know what to do when there is a problem so they pretend like it never happened. It's left to the rest of us to resolve these problems or call the landlady when it's a bigger problem. 

While these may not seem like big problems, after a long day at work, I felt like I was hecho polvo (beat). Hanging out with my friends and going out for tapas (Spanish appetizers) seemed like the best way to make the most of a bad night!

La educación no es un gasto. Es una inversión. No a los recortes!

22 May 2012

As I mentioned last week, teachers in Alicante are striking for 6 days this month in order to protest cuts being made in education. Today marked the 3rd day of said striking and it has been by far the most successful. When I arrived at school today, it was virtually deserted. The only people who were there were the teachers that had to be there to offer minimal services for the students who came to school. Neither of my host teachers came today so I used the time to finish up some projects that I'd put off.

For the first time, educators from all levels (from preschool to university) from nearly every Comunidad (Spain is divided into 17 comunidades) banded together to protest cuts being made in education.

Various forms of protest have taken place all over the country.

University and high school students in various communities staged sit-ins on their campuses. They brought sleeping bags with them and camped out overnight. In Catalunya, students were able to convince Ferrocarrils to not allow any trains to stop at the University of Barcelona until 11 AM. Of course, there were also many large protests in bigger cities such as Madrid (80,000 people), Barcelona (150,000 people), and Valencia. Alicante also held a protest against cuts being made in education.

The teaching unions estimate that an average of approximately 80% of teachers participated in today's protest. In Alicante, it's estimated that 60% of educators (55% in primary schools, 65% in secondary schools, and 50% at the university) and 80% of students are striking.

For the most part, the protests have been peaceful. However, there have been students and educators that have been detained.

It's estimated that around 7.5 million students were effected by the strike--with 6 million of those students being primary or secondary students.

Spanish banking woes...

21 May 2012

After the partial nationalization of Bankia earlier this month, the Spanish government was hoping that the banking crisis was going to turn around.

However, on Friday, the credit rating agency Moody's downgraded 16 of Spain's banks. Among these banks are two of the largest banks in Spain--Santander and BBVA. According to Moody's, the agency doesn't believe that the Spanish government has the resources necessary to provide adequate stability for Spanish banks at this time. They stated that during the 1st quarter of 2012 the Spanish economy was back in a recession and they did not expect this status to change (at least this year).

Bucket list: Learn to make a good paella... Check!

20 May 2012

Today, I had yet another opportunity to cross an item off my bucket list. Since I'm living in the Community of Valencia--home of paella--I've been wanting to learn how to make a good paella. Especially since there will be a dearth of paella when I get back to the States.

When I mentioned my desire to learn how to make a paella a couple of weeks ago, my language exchange partner told me that his mother would probably be willing to teach me.

So today we went out to the country so I could learn how to make a paella! It's a time consuming process and you have to have a lot of patience. However, it's definitely worth it!

I can't share the secrets of all that I learned. I'm hoping that with some practice I can make a paella that tastes like the one we ate today!

Bucket List: La isla de Tabarca... check!

19 May 2012

For a while now, I've wanted to visit an island located off the coast of Alicante. This weekend, some of my American friends and I finally went to the island of Tabarca. The ferry (the only one of the day until June) left Alicante at 11:15 AM and it only took us around 45 minutes to arrive on the island.

The island is technically part of the city of Alicante, and at last count, it has 68 inhabitants. Even so, this makes it the largest inhabited island in the Community of Valencia. According to our waiter at lunch, there can be thousands of people on the island during the summer, and during the winter there are typically only around 10 people (mostly older folks) who stick around.

Throughout the centuries, the island has served as a haven for pirates--such as the Barbary pirates. In the 18th century, the island was conquered by the king of Tunisia. He imprisoned all of the inhabitants of the island. However, they were later freed by Carlos III of Spain. Most of the inhabitants stayed on the island and Tabarca was converted into a military post.









The island was beautiful! The water is exceptionally clear and so you can see everything in the water. This is one of the reasons that Tabarca has been designated as a marine reserve. There are various protected species that live around the island such as sea bass, grouper, conger eel, gilthead.  

Since the waters are so clear, we wanted to go snorkeling to see what types of fish we could see. Unfortunately, the water is still a little too cold to be in for a long time, and we didn't have the right gear. However, I'm sure that we'll come back some other day to check it out.

Selectividad

17 May 2012

During my language exchange in the last several weeks, we've been comparing the Spanish and American university systems. One of the topics that has come up in these sessions (as well as one I've heard about from parents at school) has been Selectividad. Selectividad is the Spanish version of the ACT or SAT, and the test date is fast approaching.

Selectividad is taken by students who have finished instituto (high school) and plan to attend university. It consists of six 90 minute tests which are taken over the course of three days in either June or September. I remember taking the ACT and the SAT, and I thought those were bad! But Selectividad is almost three times as long!

The test consists of two parts. The first part is required of all students who take Selectividad and it tests all subjects covered in school--such as Spanish, English (or the foreign language that they took in instituto), history, Valencian/Basque/Galician (depending on the region), and whatever subject you want to specialize in. The second part (and non-compulsory) allows you to choose 2 to 4 specific subject tests. These tests can help students to increase their final score.

Before, students were graded on a scale of 1 to 10--as is common in the Spanish schooling system. The final score was the average of all of the tests combined. Now, scores are weighted depending on what the student plans to study at university.

I don't know much about the exam itself, but I've been looking at old English tests.

The English part of the exam is completely focused on reading and writing. The first part of the exam is reading comprehension. Students must answer some multiple choice questions, short answer, and true and false questions about the text that they are given. Then, they write a short response of 100-150 words about topics related to the text.

From what I've heard, the test can be a bit tricky because the texts that are chosen are a little random. I've read a few of the texts used in previous years and I found that the texts use language that is a little awkward. It's all technically correct (and from native English sources) but would be more challenging for a non-native speaker.

Such as the following quote: "I'd say myself that Glasgow is a crazy football city; there aren't many Glaswegians who don't support one or other of our two big professional teams, Rangers or Celtic. And the football results in the evening papers are a lot more important to many people that what's happening in the rest of the world.... Well, when the two clubs were founded they both had religious connections, which probably sounds a funny thing for football."

Huelga en educación

16 May 2012

Teachers here in Alicante are still fighting for an end to the cuts being made in education. Today, the teachers held the first of six days of strike this month.

In the fall, it was first announced that the teachers wages would be cut. Teacher's salaries are going to be cut by approximately 200 euros a month. They have to work more (since class sizes are also increasing) but get paid less. The government is also essentially freezing salaries. Before, teachers could take enrichment classes and attend conferences in order to eventually get a raise.

Considering teachers make around 1800 euros a month, this is a significant cut. In order to protest these cuts, in the fall, teachers decided to stop offer extra services such as field trips (with the exception of the trips at the end of the cycle). Parents were upset by this and (at least some) started to also participate in the teachers' weekly protests.

Since nothing has come out of these measures, the teachers decided to step it up and begin striking. Not all of the teachers are striking each of these days--since the will lose 200 euros from their salaries for each day that they strike! Today, around half of the teachers were out on strike and most of the teachers who did come to school were only offering minimal services (aka the kids played on the playground all day).

We'll see if these strikes have the desired effect.

More than anything, I feel bad for the kids. They are the innocent victims in this whole tragedy. I understand that the teachers are unhappy about the cuts--I would be too. Unfortunately, the Valencian government just doesn't have any money and so money has to be cut somewhere. I'm not saying it should come from education. In fact, I think that education and health care are the last two places cuts should ever be made.

However, it's the kids who are losing out on activities and class days.