Guillermo cuts his hair in class.

October 25, 2011

On Tuesday I worked with the first graders in their English class. We went over flags from different countries. In the middle of the lesson I look over and Guillermo has a handful of hair in his hands. He then throws it at the girl in front of him. I then see him grab part of his bangs and cut it off with his scissors. I immediately go over to him and ask him what he is doing and he just looks at me like I’m crazy. I then take his scissors away from him and put them in my pocket. He takes his ruler and tries to saw his hair off next. I then take his ruler away. His poor classmate comes up to me and tells me that she has hair all over her. I help her dust Guillermo’s hair out of hers. Ugh. Towards the end of class I give him back his scissors and ruler and he immediately takes the scissors in hand and cuts his hair again and throws it at one of his classmates. His chair is surrounded by hair. The bell rang signaling the end of class so I just couldn’t deal with it anymore. I told the professor about what had happened (since he was too busy disciplining the rest of the class) and he just shrugged and told me that the kids never behave. Like I don’t know that already. I just felt bad for the girl that had black hair thrown at her.  

Le Catholic Kids

October 21, 2011

                Claire and I volunteered with a group of catholic children today. You know, just being a good citizen. One of the professors Claire works with at the elementary school invited her to help out with the kids for a bit to practice their English. Apparently every Friday they have something for a group of kids whose parents work often. The teacher, Ana Maria, wanted us to teach them a Christmas song in English. So, we taught them ‘Jingle Bells.’ It was actually really funny though because the lyrics they were singing didn’t really sound too much like ‘Jingle Bells.’ They really only caught onto the chorus but they were around 7 years old so what are you going to do. They made us cookies, I'd say that's a win.

Intercambio

October 18, 2011

On Tuesday our group went to an ‘intercambio’ with one of the English classes at the University of Salamanca. It was a really great experience… but kind of awkward at first.  All 23 of us pretty much just walked into this class full of Spaniards and they just told us to talk to them. I ended up talking to a group of 5 Spanish students and it was really neat. Their English was really good. It was nice to actually meet people our own age who are from Spain. We exchanged numbers and hopefully will get a chance to hang out sometime. It’s a really neat experience though for both sides because they are given the opportunity to practice their English with native speakers and we are given the opportunity to practice our Spanish.  Yay for Spanish friends.

October 13-16, 2011

Notice: [this post may be a little unorganized because we went so many places and I'm too lazy to break it down into more than one post. sorry bout it.]

Last weekend we went to Andalucia (the province in the south of Spain) to visit Granada, Cordoba, Sevilla, and Merida. 

Granada:

          The first city we visited was Granada. Here we toured the Capilla Real which is a mausoleum where Isabel and Ferdinand are buried as well as Juana la Loca and Felipe I. (Spanish monarchy).  We also went to the Cathedral of Granada which is attached to the mausoleum. It is architecture from the Spanish renaissance.

          Later that night we went to dinner and a flamenco show. There were four flamenco dancers: 3 women and a man. The theater where we saw the show was located in this sort of cave and it was really neat. The singers were also really talented and it was a really great show. After the show, we walked around a Moorish neighborhood called El Albaicin and had this really crazy tour guide who kept telling us that we shouldn't stray off because we wouldn't have a good night. His English was something else. Apparently the neighborhood is a World Heritage Site.

Flamenco dancer

Balcony in the Moorish neighborhood.

The next morning we visited the Alhambra which is a Moorish palace and fortress built in the 14th century. After the reconquista (when the Christians took back parts of Spain from the Moors) by the Catholic monarchs in 1492, it was used by the Christian kings and Charles V even had a palace built in the midst of the Alhambra. It is surrounded by many gardens and fountains. The Alhambra is a World Heritage Site. 

Alhambra

This is the room where Washington Irving wrote stories for his book "Tales of the Alhambra."

Gardens outside the Alhambra

Alhambra

Córdoba:

     On Friday we made it to Cordoba where we visited La Mezquita (mosque-cathedral) built in c.785, another World Heritage Site. It was originally a pagan temple, then a church, a mosque and then a cathedral. It was really interesting because inside it looks like a mosque and the architecture is very Islamic. However, in the middle of the building there is a Catholic Cathedral built in a plateresque (very ornate) style which was added after the Reconquista. 

La Mezquita

The Cathedral inside La Mezquita

For dinner that night we went to an Italian restaurant. I wasn't too big of a fan because I think they used five pounds of salt in the food. However, dessert was awesome. 

Sevilla:

Los Reales Alcázares

Saturday morning we left for Sevilla. The first place we visited was los Reales Alcazares which is another royal palace that was originally a Moorish fort. The palace was surrounded by gardens and fountains and we were given free time to look around. There was even a maze in the garden constructed of bushes. It was fun at first, but then i got tired of it so Abby and I cheated and exited back through the entrance. 

Al Alcazar

Garden Maze

                                                                 

We also went to the Cathedral of Sevilla which is third largest church in the world and the largest Gothic cathedral.   It was completed in the 16th century. Christopher Colombus as his son are buried inside of the cathedral so we were able to see their burial sites. 

Burial Site of Christopher Columbus

The cathedral has a tower which you can climb (it was painful to climb 31 floors... At least there were ramps and not stairs). You could see a perfect view of Sevilla and you could also see parts of cathedral better. This was also where the church bell was located.

View of Sevila

La Catedral de Sevilla

Merida:

Merida is a city that was founded in 25 BC by the Romans. It is a World Heritage Site and houses remains such as a amphitheater and theater. It was very hot outside when we went which was actually really nice since its going to start getting a lot colder in Salamanca. After touring the ruins we were free to roam the city which actually was pretty small. I grabbed lunch with Katherine and Olivia and walked around a bunch of the shops.

                                                               Amphitheater                                                                       

                                                                            Theater

                                                                      Statue in the theater

Artsy picture with Olive

                                                           floor tile remains of a house

                                                            

Well, this post ended up being a novel.

The end.

YEAHHHHHHH...

bought a plane ticket to amsterdam. wooooooo!

Segovia, Spain

October 8, 2011

We took a day trip on Saturday to a town called Segovia. First we saw El Palacio de la Granja which is one of the residents of the royal family of Spain. It was built in the 16^th century. It is inspired by the royal Palace of Versailles in France.

 The palace is surrounded by gardens which are filled by fountains which are inspired by biblical stories. The fountains still contain the same system as they did in the 16^th century which uses water running down the mountain from melted snow. Unfortunately, they only turn on the fountains about 3 times a year now since once the water runs through the fountains it is not renewable. Kind of a bummer. 

                We also walked around an old Jewish neighborhood in the city before we had a little bit of free time to explore on our own.

Next we went to the Aqueduct of Segovia which is estimated to have been built between the 1^st and 2^nd centuries by the Romans. Parts of it were later reconstructed during the reign of Isabel and Ferdinand.

Alcazar is another royal palace that we visited in Segovia. However, before being a Spanish palace it was a Moorish fort. It was neat to see a palace that the catholic royalty lived in that had Quranic writings all over the walls. Kind of surreal. I got to see the thrown of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand as well as their bedroom.  The gardens surrounding the palace were so intricate and well-kept.

We later went to an Italian restaurant after arriving back in Salamanca. IT was a 3 hour meal. Good food, but we were all ready to kill each other by the end of the meal.  Nonetheless, I’d say it was a successful day.

Birthday Fun

October 10, 2011

BIRTHDAYYYYYYY. Birthdays on a Monday are actually more fun than you would think. It was a good day. I had a few classes but didn’t have to go to the elementary school, which was a birthday present in itself. Claire bought me some coloring books, a bottle of wine, and two wine glasses so that we could drink some wine before going to dinner. So basically we sat in my room and listened to “waka waka” and drank a bottle of wine. Then we went to dinner. Claire and I told our Madre that we were going to go out to dinner for my birthday so we didn’t end up eating dinner at home. We met Haley at this restaurant near the school called ‘Cuatro Gatos’ and we got tapas and sangria. It was a wonderful birthday dinner.

                Next, we met a few people in the Plaza de Anaya and sat on the steps of the school for awhile and drank a little bit of wine. Wine is so cheap and delicious in Spain. One euro for a bottle. What a bargain. I had told everyone in our study abroad group that I would be under the clock in the Plaza Mayor at 11 if they wanted to meet up and go out with me for my birthday. A big group showed up and it was really awesome! It made my night that so many people came out. We went to a few bars and I think everyone had a really good time. I probably stayed out too late but it was my birthday so I feel like it was acceptable. I even made the decision to not set my alarm clock. Good thing my first class on Tuesdays isn’t until noon. (Technically, I have the niños at 9:55 but I made the ultimate decision that I just couldn’t deal with them that morning…. That is my one responsible skip. Sorry bout it).

            I would say I successfully rang in 22 this year. Gracias to everyone who partook in the celebration.

                                                         My birthday present from Olivia.

                                           Friends/one of the only pictures I took that night.

Birthday Tarta

October 9, 2011

                My host Padre made me an apple tart for my birthday! My Madre said I could have no more than 4 friends over to eat it today. It ended up being Claire, Haley, Olivia, Kelsey and me. I felt like we were having a tea party. We sat around the round table in the living room and my Madre served us tea. Then my padre comes into the living room with my tart lit with candles on it! They sang happy birthday to meeeee. The apple tart was so so so good. They made us all eat 2 giant pieces and then made us eat candy as well. I feel like I’m always being hazed in the form of food. I guess it could be worse.

                The conversation was hilarious to listen to. My padres sat around the table with us and it was pretty much just a show. The things that come out of my Madre’s mouth are hilarious. She kept asking all of my friends why they didn’t have boyfriends yet. Claire and I have already had to answer this question on more than one occasion. My Padre has already told me that I’m running out of time because I’ll be 22 soon.  Meh, I’m okay with being an old maid I guess.  Words of wisdom/concern  from my Madre:  “In my day you had to wait for the boy to approach you. However, you girls can just go up to a boy and tell him you like him and then he’s your boyfriend. What’s the problem?” Well damn. Meanwhile, she also kept trying to force feed my friends. She is a professional hazer. We finished that whole apple tart.

  

Los Rostros

October 9, 2011

Since we didn’t go out late last night, I woke up at a decent hour this morning. Claire and I decided to do something before lunch and we decided to check out the ‘rostros’. The ‘rostros’ are basically a bunch of booths set up as an outdoor market every Sunday. It ended up being a 40 minute walk from our apartment which wasn’t bad at all considering the weather was perfect today.

It was an experience. There were clothes, shoes, jewelry, scarves, and pretty much anything you needed. It was kind of chaos. I enjoyed just walking around and looking at everything. Everything was so cheap and probably was made in some sort of sweatshop. I don’t even know. I ended up buying scarf though for only 3 euros. Bargain shopping. I also found this really unique and kind of tacky necklace that I kind of am embarrassed (not really though) to say that I love. It’s gold and has fake pink crystals in it with a watch that hangs down. Claire ended up buying it for me as a birthday present. Best. Roommate. ever.

The only thing about the rostros I don’t like is the whole bargaining thing. I really just can’t argue over prices. I’m just not assertive or argumentative enough. Oh well. Claire ended up bargaining a sweater for 2 euros cheaper. Win.

Apparently they have the same thing in Madrid but better. I can’t wait to gooooo. Three more weeks until Madrid and fall break. It’s going by so fast!

It ended up being a pleasant Sunday morning (sans hangover)…. This is the best kind of Sunday morning.  

my old man friend and death by lasagna.

October 3, 2011

I hung out with my old man friend Manuel again. I ran into him on my way to class this week and he asked me if I wanted to get coffee on Friday. It was nice. He showed me this really pretty garden that I had never been to behind the cathedral. I’m probably going to start going there to read.  He also showed me some more buildings in Salamanca and explained to me their architected. (i.e. La Casa de los Muertos). We also went out for tapas and wine. We went to this little bar that is right below where I had my intensive class. I had no idea there was a bar below the school. Only in Spain. Come to find out he is a retired professor from the University of Salamanca. He used to teach history and art history classes. He was telling me that he bought a book that claims to teach ‘English in 15 days.’ He said that he has always wanted to learn English and he suggested that if he starts learning more he would try to speak to me in English and I could speak to him in Spanish so we could both practice our languages.

On another note, I think my host padre tried to kill me. I was the only one home for lunch because my madre was getting her hair done and Claire had class late. He gave me a piece of lasagna and it was perfect. At first he tried to give me more before I was done with the first piece and I told him that I was full so he sat back down. I was like ‘yeah, Ricardo is on my side. Hes not going to force me to eat more than I can handle like my madre does.’ The next thing I know he is scooping a five pound piece of lasagna on my plate. I almost cried. I literally ate my weight in lasagna. I had to take a nap afterwards it was so bad. I hate lasagna day.

The niños make me frazzled.

October 5, 2011

     My internship at the school hasn’t gotten much better. Every time I teach with a new teacher they tell me that they thought I was going to be a boy because of my name. It's kind of funny. The children are horrible. A few of my teachers have me take a few kids at a time out of the classroom to talk to them in English. They don’t listen to me. They hit each other, scream, throw things, and make me yell and threaten them. I'm often tempted to just start cussing at them because I doubt that they would be able to understand what I am saying. A few of the children are fine and actually make an effort to listen to me. However, the majority of them are hoodlums. Yesterday was probably the worst day I’ve had so far. I was working with a science class and the teacher had me take four kids at a time out of the classroom. They were third graders and I wanted to cry afterwards. I literally bought a 40 (which was room temperature… mmmmm) and a chocolate bar and went down to the river to read afterwards. I was so frazzled. I’m never having children.

Valverde

September 24, 2011

Saturday we went to a ranch called Valverde which is about an hour from Salamanca. We rode horses around the ranch and it was kind of terrifying at first. I was really paranoid because the horse kept acting like it was going to try to run. It finally chilled out though and it was really relaxing. My horse ended up being a slow walker which I didn’t mind at all.  (Until one of the people at the ranch came behind me with his cowbell and told the horse to hurry up.) Rude.

There was also a mini bullfight at the ranch. It wasn’t really a bullfight though because it was just a couple of guys running around chasing a young bull. The main “torero” was dressed in this glittery costume that was way too small for him and it actually ended up ripping in the middle of the fight. Weak. They didn’t hurt the bull or anything; they just danced around and waved a red flag.

All of the madres also came with us to the ranch and made dinner for everyone. I ate way too much. It was neat to see who everyone’s madre was because we are always sharing funny/strange stories about them.

It was a good day. I would go horseback riding again.

First day of my internship with the niños.

September 27, 2011

Today was also the first day of the internship class I am taking where I work in an elementary school. Chaos is the only word to describe the class I helped with. I think the kids in my class were 6 or 7 but I’m not quite sure. They were hellions. The class period I helped with was English and the poor old professor couldn’t control them. He said he was used to teaching the 12 year olds. They were screaming, throwing things, hitting each other, erasing things off the chalkboard, and no one would sit down or shut up. Pretty much the entire hour involved screaming at them to sit down. There was only about 5 minutes of semi-good behavior when he put on an English cartoon. He should only show cartoons in class I feel like. Other than that he has every child come up the front of the class and say “hello my name is…” in English. There are probably 25 of them and I maybe remember 3 of their names. He also had them ask me a few questions about the United States. He asked them if they knew what the flag of the USA looked like and they all knew that it had stars on it and the colors. I was very impressed. Smart kids. There was also this eager learner who went up to the professor and rambled about four questions in a row without breathing such as: what money do they use, how many people live there, how far is it. Smart boy. There was also this Asian child named Guiermo that sat in the front row who would not sit down.  Somehow I got him to sit and his seat and be quiet though. I don’t even know how that happened.  At one point, I was standing in the front of the class and he got out of his seat and held my hand. I was like “okay boy as long as you’re not running around throwing things I can deal.” I am really bad with kids. They’re freakin’ weird.  It is the first week of classes though so I’m hoping that things get a little better and a little more disciplined. Later this week I am helping with an art class as well as a science class. I’m not sure if it will be the same group of kids or a different group but I kind of hope I get to deal with the older kids. I’m really just not good with children. Oh well.  

Found Ze River.