La vida... una mezcla de vino, lengua, sol y alma

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There’s sunshine in the streets of Madrid these days and the rays work miracles on restoring my energy to enjoy life lived in the city.

I have been living in Madrid for six months now, and I can truthfully say that I no longer get nervous at the thought of having to hold a legitimate conversation with someone in Spanish. And while I can now actually pick up on humor, sarcasm and a sense of someone’s personality through the way the speak, as far as small talk goes, I’m still as terrible as usual. English or Spanish, it doesn’t matter. Trying to think of something to talk about in awkward situations, or perfectly normal situations for that matter, will be the end of me. You can’t imagine the kinds of purely elementary conversations I hold sometimes. It’s embarrassing. Haha

Once I learn a new word I hear it everywhereee and it’s shocking, and maybe even a little life changing, to think about how I could possibly have missed it so many times before figuring out what it meant.

I moved to a new apartment about a month ago and it’s changed my outlook on, well, pretty much everything. I now live with a Brazilian guy named Alex and the space I have created here makes me happy. There is a balcony that keeps my room bright and sunny, a giant framed photo of Marilyn Monroe on one wall, and my African painting on the other. Sometimes in the afternoons I sit in my room to study or, let’s be honest, take a nap, and I can hear the sound of flamenco music coming up through my window from one of the apartments below. Perfection.
Work at Santo Domingo still holds the ability to make me smile, shriek or shake my head at any given moment. Sandra got accepted to go on an exchange to teach and assist in Ireland for two months, and since she has been gone, things have changed a lot. I now work with a brilliantly witty guy named Miguel Angel for twelve hours a week and I think I both laugh and want to cry in frustration a lot more than in months past. The kids don’t always listen as well as they used to, but when their crazy, curious sides come out as a consequence of this, my days are even more interesting than they used to be. Here are a few occurrences I thought worth capturing:

Sometimes when the kids can’t quite find it in them to sit in something somewhat resembling a circle on the floor, one of the tiny boys in first grade never fails to yell out, “This is not a circle, this is a poe-tae-toe!” How in the world did he think of that? Haha

One day we were teaching the kids different types of food and when we couldn’t adequately explain what peas were in English without saying the word in Spanish, Miguel Angle decided to Google search a photo to show the first graders. Well, when he typed in the word “peas” and clicked on the images tab, Google automatically added an “o” to the end of the word and when images for “peaso” popped up on the big digital blackboard, the very first photo on the list was of a girl’s naked butt. Ooopsiesss. Apparently “peaso” is short for the word “piece” in Spanish and ummm, a piece of, well, a$$, showed up on the screen. Lesson learned on that one. We both screamed and the kids of course started laughing like hyenas, and then to top it all off, one of the little 6-year-olds turned around and said to me, “Eres tu, profe?” Nooo, that’s not me! Areee you kidding me? Haha

We’ve been practicing numbers and letters a lot with the first graders and “I, B C D E F G” seems to come up a lot. 13, 15 and 20 are tricky numbers to remember also, as I have learned. I hear “eleven, twelve, thursday, fourteen” and “17, 18, 19, 12” more than I would like. Haha

We have been practicing a list of questions with the second graders for their UK-based English exams coming up next month. When I ask “Have you got any brothers or sisters?,” one little girl in particular alwaysss answers, “Yes, I have got 2 sisters and 2 babies.” Hehehe

I also get the reply, “For breakfast, I had 15 bisquieeets and milk,” from one little girl, every single day. 15 biscuits for a second grader?? Good lord!

“Ok children, who can tell me, what’s the weather like today?” “Tuesday!” Mmm, not quite.

“Ok children, can anyone tell me the name of a toy that hasn’t got wheels?” “Lucas?” “TABLE!” Mmm, well, a table isn’t exactly the ‘toy’ I was thinking of, but you’re right, tables don’t usually have wheels… Haha

Sometimes we have one of the kids pretend to be the teacher and review the flash cards with the rest of the class. It’s precious to watch a little 6-year-old boy with owl eyes, sitting in the teacher’s chair with his feet dangling off, asking “What is this, chiiildren?” 😊

Some of my coworkers and I had a picnic during lunch the other day and just a 10 minute walk from our school is an amazing, amazing park with a view of almost the entire city. The weather was perfect, and the food and company fabulous. Que dura es la vida!

I have a language exchange with the head of studies at the school next to mine in Vallecas and in addition to practicing my Spanish with him, he’s shown me the arts and culture side to Madrid that can’t be found in a guidebook. I’ve seen art exhibitions by Lewis Hine, Juan Gatti and Odilon Redon and my favorite spot so far has been the Circulo de Bellas Artes in the center of Madrid, where from the rooftop terrace, you can see all of Madrid spanning out on every side of you. It’s a breathtaking place.

I finished my first Spanish resume the other day and am now working on gearing it towards finding a job in Spain for the summer.

I have been slowly but surely getting my economics courses out of the way and I have one exam left to finish Macroeconomics.

I went to Sala Heineken to watch The Wailers play a concert as a tribute to Bob Marley’s birthday a few weeks ago, and last night some friends and I went to see an amazing Spanish reggae band play in a barrio called Malesaña.

Two days ago I went to help my friend Sergio, and together we wrote the subtitles to his friend Mario’s short film. The film will be shown in Madrid sometime next month, I believe. 😊

Madrid’s Carnival took place a couple of weeks ago and in addition to the parade with some of the craziest costumes you’ve ever seen and people nonchalantly walking down the streets wearing all sorts of wild get-ups, there was a new and exciting air to the city for a week or so.

Next weekend, I am going to Las Fallas festival in Valencia to watch the community burn thousands of dollars worth of statues and sculptures constructed out of wood and cork, in a tradition that is thought to have been held since the Middle Ages.

At the end of this month I have work off for the Catholic Easter holidays in Spain and I’ve booked tickets to go to Morocco and spend some time drinking tea, sleeping in the desert and exploring colorful, ancient cities. Oh the life.

My Mom and Debra, and Kari and Kazia are coming to visit me in May and I cannot wait to see familiar faces and people I love, and to share life here with them.

Meanwhile, I’m missing you all.

Much love,

Cari

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