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Published: October 14th 2007
Coslada
This is a shot of a park near the school I teach ... kind of Furman-esqueImprovise has become the catch phrase of the past week. It's gone by in such a blur. Improvising has been a lot of fun though; Txe, Nikki, and I have used it for meals, plans, transportation, trips, work, you name it. It makes things a lot more interesting and more adventurous and will remain the theme for a while I suppose.
This past weekend Txe went home to the Basque country and Nikki and I spent time with friends from her program. Saturday we ate lunch at this place called Maoz which is a serious competitor for Sprouts ... great messy falafels that we had, quite filling. yum. We later did some 'shopping' but it was more like browsing as I restrained myself from buying this dress I find fantastic for both Halloween and my birthday ... it's a little different, but I like it ... i'll go back later. We later met up with more friends at this random plaza tucked into the middle of the city for some wine and potato chips (free on the table, hard to stop eating once you start) ... I am a huge fan of these plazas. You can find them anywhere and
More park
i fell asleep on the benches while the sun glowed on me ... quite nice be able to buy the same wine, food, tapas, and olives from any of the restaurants that line their borders. You are also guaranteed to see children playing soccer or on the playground and the abuelas and abuelos either slowly strolling around, sitting on a bench discussing, or being rolled around in the wheelchairs. Very quaint and relaxing. We later met up with these friends again to go out for the night and since we didn't really have set plans we improvised. We had higher hopes for the place we were heading but these were shot down when the one person who knew where we were going waited until we were a block away to tell us the crowd at this discoteca tends to be an 'older crowd' leaving us feeling a tad awkward and young ... 30s-40s ... which actually turned out to be more like 35-50s ... but we dealt with those cards and had a decent time. The DJ was pretty skilled and his dancers (of which there were about 8) were all different shades and personalities throughout the night. They were probably the most entertaining portion of our late night. It occurred to me that night
Shake your bon bon
Little girl that entertained Nikki & I with her dancing in plz. Santa Ana that my acquaintence from the night before was right about thinking that Spanish people really like to dance. Be it something with actual steps and choreography to just jumping and jiving at this discoteca that played anything from green day to techno to coldplay+salsa. Fantastic! I was exhausted by 3 and we didn't leave until 545 .... long long long night. We were lucky the metro was open.
Starting Sunday, Nikki and I have taken everything at a very slow stride and very simply. We woke up late went into town to get some things and had a very late 6 oclock lunch in Plz. Santa Ana which might be my favorite so far. And then walked around some. We've become advocates of using the bus system b/c it's less crowded and we get to actually see the city and get to know it on a more personal basis. The week at school was very tiring but helpful in that I got used to my schedule and really got a feel for how each teacher approaches their classes and what exactly I can and need to do to help. These kids are really young so it's hard to not
Av. Mediterraneo
This is a shot up the street from where I'm staying right, kinda had good timing on my walk home ... overwhelm them and feel like they're not grasping anything you say. We were supposed to start 'teaching' the teachers on Monday afternoon but it's been pushed to next week as they had a meeting . I think this initial meeting and those following will be really helpful for Nikki and I to get across to them how to say a lot of things as well as understand how we can work better together to help the students. I have grown to like coloring a lot though as that has been my homework for the past couple of days. I am quick with a marker, I had forgotten all about that skill in college. We've spent some time with the teachers in a social setting joinging them for lunch and we take this time to practice learning new spanish words and idioms. It's been educational and helpful in getting to know them. I have also grown accustomed to siestaing after returning from school or during my breaks that I have at the school. We've found our fastest route to get there with minimal changing, but it still requires us to get up early ... I get tired .... oops
We
Marta
This is one of our favorite students, she's five and in first grade and probably knows more english that her entire class ... and then there's Pablo ... we're not such fans... have been cooking a lot in our apartment and we like experimenting and making new and random things. We had a delicious meal Tuesday with meatballs and this amazing salad Nikki picked up from a relative. My 'foreign country 15' should probably start showing itself in the next week or so .... I need to find a gym...soon. You would think all of the walking around, up, and down in the metro would be helpful and a good workout, but it mostly just leaves me sore and tired..oh well.
On Wednesday Txe, Nikki, and I made a most necessary trip to Ikea in order for them to decorate their apartment and obtain essential items for the kitchen and overall piso (I still haven't met the landlady and I'm actually going to go back to the place I have lined up tomorrow to check out the other room I will now be staying in ... if I move ... it's quite complicated). We went to a different store that's 'closer' to the piso, but it still took us a good 45 minutes to arrive. We left at 630 and got back home at 1030 .... LONG trip. However, we obtained
Voila
most delicious meal we've cooked up yet, yummy salad and meatballs rolled by me ... SO good many needed things as well as some fun decorations which have started to slowly go up. I am getting so comfortable here it's goign to be really tough to leave if I eventually have to, but it's so good to know that they'll only be a 10 minute walk away (and I will get to pass what we think is a 24 hour bakery which has already confiscated a good handful of my 1 euro coins ... i can't help my love for napoletanas). We had planned to go out for something that night but were so worn out from our excursion we stayed in, made a great meal, and watched a movie. Refreshing....even though I was still exhausted the next day at school and apparently had it written all over my face as all of the teachers kept asking me if i was alright ....
Last night we were planning to improvise to the fullest but we actually had a repeat from last Thursday in that we went to the same places ... we had a good time taking random pictures and catching up with some pals but it was not as thrilling as before. We left relatively
Ah Tio
got a little touristy the other night ... early and spent today just doing laundry, cleaning up, decorating and saving energy for tonight and the rest of the weekend. It's a holiday here today so we've stayed in as we've assumed most things are closed. This weekend is also the semi finals for the Rugby World Cup ... last night we went to an overly crowded Irish pub and shared our oxygen with many many many French and English people .... sadly France lost (Txe's still kind of down about it) but we enjoyed ourselves. Tonight we're going to try a different location in order to cheer Argentina on to victory against South Africa. It's so nice to watch some sports, as we don't have any sort of sports channel in our piso at the moment ....
On a side note, I must make an honest confession. This is especially for my family and most especially for my father. All of this cooking and whipping things up has led me to work on letting go of hesistations about particular foods. My two piso mates like tomatoes. I have had a negative relationship with them for the almost 23 years of life I have. I've given in.....I have
Pacha ... again
we went to the same discoteca, mostly b/c we could get in for free, but we spent our time well by taking pictures and people watching ... eaten small pieces of this fruit and not winced or spat it out or left it on my plate. I think the key is that I MUST have them with something else, pasta noodles or spinach leaves (which is how i've eaten them so far) .... but small pieces and cold. I have not tried the cooked ones and I'm not sure I will. I guess the next big step is an entire slice like on a sandwich or burger. Onions are a completely different story... no thank you. (Dad, I hope you know how hard it was for me to admit that .... love you!)
It's getting to be fall here which is nice but I know that that only brings on winter and I'm not too sure how I feel about that yet, guess we'll find out. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your fall over there!! I miss you tremendously!!! Hasta luego, Lina
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Jess
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You're amazing!
I love you and your blogs! Keep 'em coming! There are many people here who are living vicariously through you and I can almost taste the wonderfully yummy sounding food! Miss you babe....