La vida diaria/La huelga general

Alright, so I warned everyone that my posts would become less frequent as I got into the day-to-day (la vida diaria) here in Madrid. I still haven't started with work yet (my first day is on Monday), but I did go and visit the school. The program is in its beginning stages, and so we aren't quite sure what we'll be doing yet, but it should be a fun year nonetheless. Remember when I thought I'd be teaching high schoolers English? Well, that plan has changed. I will be teaching high schoolers, but in Spain, "high school" starts at the sixth grade level... so I'll be teaching 11 and 12 year-olds. A little different than expected. In addition to English, I'll also be teaching art, technology and natural science. It's good to know what I'll be doing (finally!).

Things at the apartment are becoming a little less "getting to know you" and more just "hanging out." We've become accustomed to watching American TV on sidereel.com (thanks Cat!) and trying to decipher the Spanish translations of American shows on Spanish TV. A favorite of mine is La Ruleta de la Fortuna (Wheel of Fortune), where I actually am a little better than the people on TV at figuring out the Spanish puzzles. We cook dinner every night, and have had homemade mashed potatoes, salsa, tacos, campfire stew, pizza, and all sorts of other culinary creations (which are always accompanied by a giant jug of wine). We have our doubts about this "family dinner" tradition continuing once we start work, but since the Spanish don't eat dinner until 9 or 10 PM, I feel like we can make it work.

Today, Spain is observing a huelga general... or a general strike. Around midnight last night, our game of Would You Rather? was interrupted by commotion in the street. We ran around to the different windows in the apartment trying to see what was happening, and then decided to go down to the street level to find out. We expected to see a giant organized march or protest, but instead, it was just a handful of  drunk Spaniards banging on pots and pans and yelling into megaphones. There are posters and ads everywhere about the huelga, but according to Spanish news reports, the Metro system is only operating at about 75% of its regular capacity. We'll see if this strike has as much of an impact as predicted.

My days have been consumed by trying to get my life together here. My Metro pass, my NIE card (basically, a legal alien card), and other adventures have taken up a lot of my time. I've also visited the botanical gardens, the park, and explored around the center of Madrid. I'm enjoying it for now, but we'll see what happens once I start work. Orientation is tomorrow, which I've heard is really just 10 hours of banging your head against the wall, but we'll see (I hear we get food!).

This is probably the earliest I've been up since I've arrived in Spain, and I'm feeling my first siesta of the day coming on (we estimate that the Spaniards nap 2-3 times a day). I need to start work so I'm not so lazy!

Piso Success

Tengo mucha suerte. While some language assistants have looked at over 15 pisos, I decided to move into the very first one that I found! It costs 430 Euro a month, but all utilities are included (wifi, cable, electricity, gas, water...). Pretty nice! My room is large, although my bed is small... I'm making it work. I have a desk, an easy chair, and 2 wardrobes as well.

My roommates, Tina and Will (I know, I know) are great, and we've already had family trips to the grocery store, Spanish IKEA (not much different than any American IKEA), and last night, we cooked a huge dinner with parmesan tortellini, tomato sauce with jamón (ham) and carrots, bread, salad, and wine. And it all cost less than 10 Euro for the three of us! We even had leftovers.

Today, I plan to go to El Corte Inglés to buy a fan, an alarm clock, and some groceries that we forgot to buy yesterday. Tomorrow, I have a meeting around noon at my school with all of the teachers in the bilingual program! I'm excited to get a schedule and be able to see if I can get some private English classes going. The going rate around here is about 25 Euro/hour, so that's not too shabby! That will give me some extra money to travel.

I'd better get going. I need to stop getting my day started during the siesta (which I have yet to observe). I also have a lot of American TV to catch up on... after all, this is season premiere week (that should be a national holiday)!

The One With the Spanish Keyboard

Oh, Spanish language keyboards. How I haven´t missed you. The awkward apostrophes, the "Alt Gr" button to get @ and #...ugh.

My hostel has an internet connection that is similar to the dial-up that I had in 1996, so I found an internet café to try to check my email.

Madrid is just how I remember it. I´m actually shocked that I can recall a lot of the geography of the city, and I´m becoming very familiar with my neighborhood. All of this should change tomorrow, because I am taking a look at the piso (apartment/flat) that I really want then... then I´ll have a new neighborhood to become familiar with.

Living in a foreign city is already different than visiting a foreign city. There´s not much pressure to do so much... and this is making feel weird sitting in my hostel. I feel like my sloth is met with stares of "why is that guy still in bed?"... but that´s okay. I´m not a tourist, I´m a madrileño.

Although I´m not a tourist, I´ve done my fair share of touristy things. I went to Toledo, checked out some stuff there, and realized that I hate the calles that go up at a 45 degree angle. I went two days ago, and my calves are still screaming.

I also went to the Museo del Prado today... and it´s still as boring as it was last summer. Luckily, I was with some teaching assistants (including my co-worker, McKinzie) who were just as bored with it as I was.

My internet café time is almost up, so I´m going to run. Hasta luego!

Racing against the death of my computer battery

Okay, so I'm here in Madrid. I'm also on my bunk bed, awkwardly leaning on one arm and typing because there's nowhere else to write a blog. My computer is dying, and plugging it in with all of the converters will take too much effort.

Here's what happened today:
1. Flight was okay, got very little sleep, watched a lot of movies and stared into space a lot.
2. Met up with Laura (another language assistant) at MAD and shared a taxi into town. The driver was really nice---until he tried to charge us 117 Euro for the ride. We refused, and talked him down to 50, but it was still too much. I was too tired to deal with people trying to rip me off.
3. Checked into the hostels, and then went in search of cell phones. We found them (pretty cheap)... and mine's a touch screen. I'm satisfied.
4. Ate at a restaurant with bocadillos (little sandwiches) for a Euro each. Nice.
5. Awkwardly typing this blog entry as hostel folks come in and out. A shower was AMAZING... I kind of want to take another one. It's so hot here!

Posting this before it's too late...

Leaving on a Jet Plane (blog title cliché)

Alright, the time has come. On February 16, 2010, I started my initial application for the North American Language and Culture Assistant program in Spain. I didn't know where I would be, or what kind of students I'd be teaching. I was completely in the dark.

Throughout the year, I waited for a placement... until May 25 (5 minutes before my orientation for the Master of Education program at Ohio State was slated to begin), when I found out that I'd be teaching in Madrid...MADRID! I was ecstatic. This was so much better than a tiny pueblo in the middle of nowhere, or even another large city. I'd be in the center. Of course, there are a lot of other great places to be, but I was going to be in the middle of it all. This initial euphoria was then curbed with the realization that I might not actually be in Madrid, but I could be placed up to an hour and a half outside of the city. More waiting followed, which was filled with many "what ifs" and metro time calculations to the far reaches of the Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid.

Finally, on July 1, I found out that I would be teaching at Instituto Juana de Castilla, a "high school" which is pretty darn close to the city center... which means that living anywhere in Madrid would be okay, but living near the Parque del Buen Retiro (one of my favorite spots in the city, where you can rent a rowboat on a lake) would be ideal. What did people do before Google and Facebook? Between then and now, I lined up an apartment showing and found someone to share a cab into the city with me.

And now, on September 13, I'll be flying from Cincinnati to Philadelphia to Madrid (much less complicated than last summer's Columbus to Detroit to JFK to Dublin to Madrid 30-hour extravaganza), and I will be in Spain again.

I won't really know what I'll be doing between now and October 1, which is my first day of school (I will try to remember to take a picture), but whatever it is, I'm sure it will involve long walks in the park and probably a lot of bocadillos (little sandwiches), cañas (cheap Spanish beer), and tinto de verano (not too classy, but red wine and lemon Fanta).

Yeah, it's 5 AM, but I guess my feelings right now could be summed up by this kid from an old Disney commercial...