In my ever-growing pool of knowledge and self-awareness, I recognized an interesting phenomenon occurring to me here in Madrid: My friends are everything but Spanish.
Outside of our three original Spanish roommates and the people at school, I haven't really made any Spanish friends. I've befriended people from other random parts of the world (Australia, Germany, Columbia, Venezuela, the UK, even Iceland), but no one from Spain. This concerns me slightly because it makes me feel as though it removes me further from my goal of really getting into the nitty-gritty of the culture. Plus, if all of the people I know aren't from here, how am I supposed to find the cool places to hang out and buy stuff? I've been looking for an arts and crafts store for a while now to no avail. Damn the Spanish and their need to have a different store for everything...
In any case, I spent the weekend meeting loads of new people (mostly non-Spanish). Amy has a French friend whom she met in Argentina who has a sister who took us out to dinner in La Latina on Friday. The three of us were nervous as hell to meet this girl because she's what we call a "real person" -- she has a job, a house, a real life in Madrid. Her piso (Spanish for apartment) probably has a living room, too, unlike ours.
The chick was super-nice and not much older than us, and she brought her Spanish boyfriend along (finally! a Spaniard!). We made the usual awkward conversation, I asked loads of questions that made sense, loads of questions that were completely random (Marcy-style), and some innocent questions that were answered rather awkwardly (for example: I asked, "Where did you two meet?" They glanced at each other, did lots of "umming" amd "emmming" before saying "at the gym...").
For dinner, she suggested we order "huevos estrellados" which I've always thought was just scrambled eggs. Pero no. Here in Spain, huevos estrellados is a typical dish consisting of an egg (sunnyside up) served on top of a plate of fried potato chips (which were not totally crispy) and ham. They would have gone super-well with some salsa Valentina, but the Spanish don't believe in "salsa picante." Grr...
After dinner, nice French girl and her Spanish boyfriend took us for a short joyride through the streets of Madrid. The ride was awesome -- I loved seeing the city streets and buildings all lit up at night. Traveling around loads of roundabouts at fast speeds, with multi-colored lights flashing past the windows was a fantastic feeling I hadn't experienced in a while. Man, I miss cars...
We hung out with the French girl and her Spanish boy for a while before heading over to Meagan's friend's roommate's goodbye party (phwew). The party consisted mainly of a bunch of Americans working as Auxilliares (the same program I'm in) who were chatting it up with a bunch of Germans (friends with the departing roommate). Boy, do I love America, but man I hate Americans. Or at least a good chunk of people from this bunch -- they were the exact picture of the type of Americans that make me cringe on the Metro. They talk too loudly, attract too much attention to themselves, and are just generally obnoxious. If everyone on the train is in their own world, minding their own business and doing their thing, why do you think you can make an ass of yourself and people won't look down on you, annoying Americans? Why can't you take a page from the Spanish books and just chill in the Metro? Additionally, making the assumption that people won't understand you if you speak in English is an asinine thing to do -- just ask the obnoxious American dude riding the Metro who thought we had no clue what he was talking about on Friday night (as he made googly eyes at his sister. Or much-older girlfriend. But I digress...)
In any case, if you are to take anything away from this random rant, please let it be this: I have a new goal of making Spanish friends. When and how this will happen, I do not know yet, but rest assured, it will happen.
And I'll work on making my rants more meaningful, or at least more organized.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Finally the Spain I imagined
These last few days have been somewhat difficult for me, not because I'm homesick or having trouble adjusting but because I've come to the realization that I've been here about a month and I haven't had a "moment" yet. What I mean by a "moment" is that minute period (a nanosecond or so) where time stops and you realize the gravity of the moment/place/situation you find yourself in. It's almost like some type of euphoria, or a transcendental experience where your being is both in your body and outside your body at the same time. Your heart stops beating, you stop breathing, and suddenly its just you and the world -- its almost an indescribable feeling.
I remember the first time I had one of these moments in Chicago -- it was freshman year, and I was embarking on my first trip downtown by myself. As I came out of the Red Line train stop, I found myself on State and Washington. Macy's was to my left, I could see the Chicago Theatre sign. A few feet in front, the El train made a stop on its route around the Loop. I remember standing there, taking it all in: the cars whizzing by beside me, people walking around me, the homeless man with his cardboard sign, the smell of the city, the mannequins on display. I just realized, "Man this is it, this is Chicago. This is life, this is my life for now."
I remember having these moments in other cities as well. I recall going home to Denver and seeing the Rockies erupting from the earth in the distance; I remember walking down Bourbon St. in New Orleans and getting shivers as I heard jazz and Mardi Gras revelers having a great time. I even remember having a "moment" in San Antonio my last night there as I looked out to the city lights from the top of the Tower of the Americas with some new friends.
It's not to say that I'm miserable in Madrid; I'm not. I'm starting to meet more people besides my two Northwestern friends, I'm starting to familiarize myself with the city streets and the Metro system, and I'm definitely feeling very much a part of my school. But its not what I expected -- not by any stretch of the imagination -- and I sort of feel cheated. Where is the culture shock? Where is the life-changing experience? Sure smoking hookah at a park at midnight with an Australian chick isn't something I'd be doing back home, but I'm not sure that its going to be something I cherish for the rest of my life (although it was quite fun). Then again, perhaps I'm just seeing the world presently with a narrow vision and I'll be singing a different tune in 12 months.
In any case, what I intended to write about (instead of whining) was my trip to Toledo today. Erin (the Australian chick) and I took a bus about 50 minutes south of Madrid to Toledo, the religious capital of Spain. Within this tiny, ancient town, there are about half a dozen Catholic churches built in the 15th century, as well as 2 synagogues and a Mosque built in 1090-something.
Toledo is everything I expected Spain to be like; full of culture, history, and beauty at every corner. The streets of Toledo are cobblestone and narrow, some so narrow I could almost touch both sides of the streets when I extended my arms. The whole city is situated on a little hill in the valleys of the Castilla-La Mancha comunidad (like a US state). The city dates back to the 8th century, and it was used as the capital of Moorish Spain (or Iberia, as it was called then). Parts of a protective mural built in the Middle Ages still stands, complete with a gargantuan wood and iron door.
In spite of its ancient structure and history (anyone up for a tour of Medieval torture devices? Only 8 Euros!), downtown Toledo is full of modern stores, like Bershka and Springfield, that lie a block from the city's Cathedral. And speaking of Cathedrals, HOLY GOD was it magnificent. While I only saw the inside of the Cathedral from a fenced-in quarter (I refused to pay 7E to go to church), the intricate details, statues, stained glass and ironwork did not go unnoticed. The main altar is full of statues, masterfully crafted and very well preserved. On the outside, statues of popes and cardinals rest alongside saints and apostles. Above the main arch of the Cathedral, carved in marble and stone, is a copy of The Last Supper.
The detail and amount of work that went into creating the Cathedral is breathtaking. I wasn't able to visit the mosque and the synagogues this time, but I will most certainly be back to Toledo. I absolutely fell in love.
AND if the religious history wasn't enough, Nada Surf was totally playing a concert there tonight. If my rent wasn't due on Monday, I would have made Erin stay for the show and return to Madrid tomorrow. But alas...
I remember the first time I had one of these moments in Chicago -- it was freshman year, and I was embarking on my first trip downtown by myself. As I came out of the Red Line train stop, I found myself on State and Washington. Macy's was to my left, I could see the Chicago Theatre sign. A few feet in front, the El train made a stop on its route around the Loop. I remember standing there, taking it all in: the cars whizzing by beside me, people walking around me, the homeless man with his cardboard sign, the smell of the city, the mannequins on display. I just realized, "Man this is it, this is Chicago. This is life, this is my life for now."
I remember having these moments in other cities as well. I recall going home to Denver and seeing the Rockies erupting from the earth in the distance; I remember walking down Bourbon St. in New Orleans and getting shivers as I heard jazz and Mardi Gras revelers having a great time. I even remember having a "moment" in San Antonio my last night there as I looked out to the city lights from the top of the Tower of the Americas with some new friends.
It's not to say that I'm miserable in Madrid; I'm not. I'm starting to meet more people besides my two Northwestern friends, I'm starting to familiarize myself with the city streets and the Metro system, and I'm definitely feeling very much a part of my school. But its not what I expected -- not by any stretch of the imagination -- and I sort of feel cheated. Where is the culture shock? Where is the life-changing experience? Sure smoking hookah at a park at midnight with an Australian chick isn't something I'd be doing back home, but I'm not sure that its going to be something I cherish for the rest of my life (although it was quite fun). Then again, perhaps I'm just seeing the world presently with a narrow vision and I'll be singing a different tune in 12 months.
In any case, what I intended to write about (instead of whining) was my trip to Toledo today. Erin (the Australian chick) and I took a bus about 50 minutes south of Madrid to Toledo, the religious capital of Spain. Within this tiny, ancient town, there are about half a dozen Catholic churches built in the 15th century, as well as 2 synagogues and a Mosque built in 1090-something.
Toledo is everything I expected Spain to be like; full of culture, history, and beauty at every corner. The streets of Toledo are cobblestone and narrow, some so narrow I could almost touch both sides of the streets when I extended my arms. The whole city is situated on a little hill in the valleys of the Castilla-La Mancha comunidad (like a US state). The city dates back to the 8th century, and it was used as the capital of Moorish Spain (or Iberia, as it was called then). Parts of a protective mural built in the Middle Ages still stands, complete with a gargantuan wood and iron door.
In spite of its ancient structure and history (anyone up for a tour of Medieval torture devices? Only 8 Euros!), downtown Toledo is full of modern stores, like Bershka and Springfield, that lie a block from the city's Cathedral. And speaking of Cathedrals, HOLY GOD was it magnificent. While I only saw the inside of the Cathedral from a fenced-in quarter (I refused to pay 7E to go to church), the intricate details, statues, stained glass and ironwork did not go unnoticed. The main altar is full of statues, masterfully crafted and very well preserved. On the outside, statues of popes and cardinals rest alongside saints and apostles. Above the main arch of the Cathedral, carved in marble and stone, is a copy of The Last Supper.
The detail and amount of work that went into creating the Cathedral is breathtaking. I wasn't able to visit the mosque and the synagogues this time, but I will most certainly be back to Toledo. I absolutely fell in love.
AND if the religious history wasn't enough, Nada Surf was totally playing a concert there tonight. If my rent wasn't due on Monday, I would have made Erin stay for the show and return to Madrid tomorrow. But alas...
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Spanish children are sassy
One of the things I find the most interesting about the Spanish education system is the children, and just how mouthy they can be. Here's an example:
Nacho, a third grader, is sitting at the front of the classroom, already separated from the rest of the class for something grave he's done within the first hour of school. As the hour continues, so does Nacho's acting out. He picks a fight with young Pablo next to him, then he throws his pencils off his desk and does other disruptive things. While the teacher is trying to tame him without giving him too much attention (which is clearly all the kid wants), he begins to talk back to her, telling her he will not comply with changing his card (a system put in place to check behavior issues)and even going so far as to curse out loud (hearing "joder" come out of an 8-year-old's mouth wasn't something I was preparing to experience).
Additionally, all of the children are allowed to get up and do whatever they want pretty much whenever they want. While the teacher is lecturing them because they can't seem to be quiet for longer than 3 seconds, someone inevitably gets up, sharpen their pencils, blow their nose, or does something else nonsensical that has nothing to do with the task at hand. Now, I know I've been out of the third grade for some time now, but I don't recall ever being allowed to just get up and walk around the classroom without permission, and much less in the middle of a lecture when the teacher is visibly seething with rage.
In any case, this is the situation I have been dealing with over the last week and a half of teaching at La Encina. I help teach both third-grade classes at the elementary school every day for an hour, and I also help teach the science classes twice a week. I also spend 90 minutes teaching 5-year-olds, who are cute but find me quite unique. The first day I went to help with the 5-year-olds, one of the little boys turned to the girl next to him and asked her in Spanish, "Is she from Africa?" The following day, in another classroom full of kindergarteners, a little girl came up to me, gave me a hug, grabbed my arm and started stroking it, telling me at the same time that I was quite "morenita" (tan). Yes, all of this from children that are 5.
The irony of the situation is that the first kid who called me African looks Philipino himself, and the second girl who called me "morenita" was amongst the most tan in the classroom. Both kids are among the few that make the school look somewhat diverse, considering that the majority of heads I see on the playground have blonde or light brown hair and blue/green eyes. Ana, the coordinator and actual teacher I work with, told me that Las Rozas is one of the more wealthy suburbs in the area, which I could tell by the amount of gated communities I see along the bus route I take to school each day.
From speaking to other teachers about the behavior of these third graders, I came to the realization that they are indeed, spoiled brats. Their fathers are lawyers, their mothers stay at home, and they get whatever they want, whenever they want it. Because Mommy and Daddy treat them like princes and princesses at home, they feel as though they have the right to do whatever they want in the classroom as well. And worse, the parents are so aloof that they don't seem to want to help deal with the behavioral problems some children have at school. One teacher told me that once she kept a student after school because of his behavior. After about 30 minutes, the students' father burst into her classroom, demanding to know where his son was. After the teacher explained she kept the student after school as a form of punishment, the father yelled to his son -- and in front of the teacher -- "Well when these assholes let you go home, call me so I can come pick you up."
I know better than to paint everyone with the same brushstroke, and I'm sure there are parents at that school who are more than involved in their child's education and who do discipline their children. But I find it very interesting to reflect on my education in the United States and how it differs from the education given to students here in Spain, and even to the one I received while living in Mexico for two years. Never can I recall a student sassing back to a teacher, and if he/she did, they certainly were not applauded by their parents for doing so. It was disrespectful, and if nothing else, the issue was something taken up in private. The parents themselves were much less likely to be outwardly rude to the teachers, and even less likely to do it in front of their child -- Monkey see, monkey do.
Even more interesting is that parental involvement and a child's behavior isn't at all related to the income level of parents, much to my surprise. I'd always heard that children were better behaved when their parents were better-educated, but I guess I didn't have to look so far to disprove that theory. I mean, I did spend my senior year of high school obsessed with watching The OC. Those kids were rich and snobby, extremely spoiled and they did pretty much whatever they wanted. In Spain or in the U.S., rotten children are just rotten, and no silk stockings will ever change that.
Nacho, a third grader, is sitting at the front of the classroom, already separated from the rest of the class for something grave he's done within the first hour of school. As the hour continues, so does Nacho's acting out. He picks a fight with young Pablo next to him, then he throws his pencils off his desk and does other disruptive things. While the teacher is trying to tame him without giving him too much attention (which is clearly all the kid wants), he begins to talk back to her, telling her he will not comply with changing his card (a system put in place to check behavior issues)and even going so far as to curse out loud (hearing "joder" come out of an 8-year-old's mouth wasn't something I was preparing to experience).
Additionally, all of the children are allowed to get up and do whatever they want pretty much whenever they want. While the teacher is lecturing them because they can't seem to be quiet for longer than 3 seconds, someone inevitably gets up, sharpen their pencils, blow their nose, or does something else nonsensical that has nothing to do with the task at hand. Now, I know I've been out of the third grade for some time now, but I don't recall ever being allowed to just get up and walk around the classroom without permission, and much less in the middle of a lecture when the teacher is visibly seething with rage.
In any case, this is the situation I have been dealing with over the last week and a half of teaching at La Encina. I help teach both third-grade classes at the elementary school every day for an hour, and I also help teach the science classes twice a week. I also spend 90 minutes teaching 5-year-olds, who are cute but find me quite unique. The first day I went to help with the 5-year-olds, one of the little boys turned to the girl next to him and asked her in Spanish, "Is she from Africa?" The following day, in another classroom full of kindergarteners, a little girl came up to me, gave me a hug, grabbed my arm and started stroking it, telling me at the same time that I was quite "morenita" (tan). Yes, all of this from children that are 5.
The irony of the situation is that the first kid who called me African looks Philipino himself, and the second girl who called me "morenita" was amongst the most tan in the classroom. Both kids are among the few that make the school look somewhat diverse, considering that the majority of heads I see on the playground have blonde or light brown hair and blue/green eyes. Ana, the coordinator and actual teacher I work with, told me that Las Rozas is one of the more wealthy suburbs in the area, which I could tell by the amount of gated communities I see along the bus route I take to school each day.
From speaking to other teachers about the behavior of these third graders, I came to the realization that they are indeed, spoiled brats. Their fathers are lawyers, their mothers stay at home, and they get whatever they want, whenever they want it. Because Mommy and Daddy treat them like princes and princesses at home, they feel as though they have the right to do whatever they want in the classroom as well. And worse, the parents are so aloof that they don't seem to want to help deal with the behavioral problems some children have at school. One teacher told me that once she kept a student after school because of his behavior. After about 30 minutes, the students' father burst into her classroom, demanding to know where his son was. After the teacher explained she kept the student after school as a form of punishment, the father yelled to his son -- and in front of the teacher -- "Well when these assholes let you go home, call me so I can come pick you up."
I know better than to paint everyone with the same brushstroke, and I'm sure there are parents at that school who are more than involved in their child's education and who do discipline their children. But I find it very interesting to reflect on my education in the United States and how it differs from the education given to students here in Spain, and even to the one I received while living in Mexico for two years. Never can I recall a student sassing back to a teacher, and if he/she did, they certainly were not applauded by their parents for doing so. It was disrespectful, and if nothing else, the issue was something taken up in private. The parents themselves were much less likely to be outwardly rude to the teachers, and even less likely to do it in front of their child -- Monkey see, monkey do.
Even more interesting is that parental involvement and a child's behavior isn't at all related to the income level of parents, much to my surprise. I'd always heard that children were better behaved when their parents were better-educated, but I guess I didn't have to look so far to disprove that theory. I mean, I did spend my senior year of high school obsessed with watching The OC. Those kids were rich and snobby, extremely spoiled and they did pretty much whatever they wanted. In Spain or in the U.S., rotten children are just rotten, and no silk stockings will ever change that.
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