Holy Toledo!!!

Last week was rough: a two day work week.  We only had school Monday and Wednesday.  Tuesday was Día de la Constitución, so myself, Lauren, Lauren's friend Rachel who is visiting from the states and Lindsay and I all went to Toledo for the day.  Toledo is about a 30 minute train ride from Madrid.  It is a UNESCO world heritage site and well known today for being a town of religious coexistence between Christianity, Judaism and Islam.  

The four of us wandered around the town taking in the sites and the change in ambiance from city life.  We picnicked in a park, walked through the streets, a synagogue (we always go into cathedrals) and museums. 

Beautiful Toledo

Toledo used to be a huge manufacturer of swords and daggers

Tommy, eres tu??

El Greco Museum (El Greco was a famous artist during the Spanish Renissance)

At the end of the day, we enjoyed a piece of chocolate and marzipan cake... marzipan is one of Toledo's most prized food products

My School!

It was brought to my attention that I’ve never posted about my school—oh, that small detail aka the WHOLE reason I’m here.  As I’ve mentioned before, I am an Auxiliar de Conversacion, which essentially means that I am an English Language & Culture Assistant at a school in Madrid—well, sort of.  While I am working in the Madrid province, my school is in a town 30km outside of the city center in Alcala de Henares.   My commute takes me about 1 hr & 15 minutes (one stop on the metro + train for 35 min. + bus 10 minutes (or walk 15 min.))  While that sounds like a lot, it’s pretty standard because Madrid is such a big city!

Anyway, MY SCHOOL.  I work at a bilingual colegio (elementary school).  Throughout the week I am in about six classrooms with kids ages 5-7 (kindergarten to 2^nd grade).   The kids—at least the 1^st and 2^nd graders—have Science, art and English in English and math, phys. ed., music, and Spanish in Spanish.  I mainly assist whatever the teachers need help with: passing out papers, helping kids with activities in their workbook, pronunciation, reading, etc.  I also present on American culture (holidays & traditions) and also often take small groups of kids into another room for conversation practice.

A lot of people have asked me what my favorite age is…and my answer is: ALL ages!  They are all so darn cute, and I feel like a rock star.  When I walk around the school grounds, kids run up to me saying “CRISTINAAA CRISTINAAA” and hugging, kissing and grabbing my hand.  It’s awesome.  I love how all my kids are affectionate, young enough to not be too scared to try to speak English and will go along with anything.  Little kids are really goobery though…it’s amazing how much food doesn’t end up in their mouths and instead on their face & hair, as well as how much snot can come out of one child.  Thank god for hand sanitizer.

The teachers are also really great at my school; especially the ones I work most closely with.  I usually look forward to school and feel like I am welcome.  I am always greeted with a "buenos dias" or "hola" and a smile.  I try to make myself present at recreo (a coffee break + breakfast...yes, it's awesome) and listen to conversations and try to participate when I can keep up.  I hope as the year goes on I will continue to form friendships with my coworkers.

All in all I really like my school and I feel really lucky because I’ve talked to a lot of other Auxiliares who haven’t been having such a good experience in their schools...hooray! Life is good ;)

halloween party...second graders

and again...

Ponle Freno 5K race

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, my friend Lindsay and I decided that we needed to work out more, so of course we did what any rational people would do and signed up for a 5K run (haha). 

During the time before the race, we made sure to eat lots of tapas and drink lots of wine only work out once of twice. 

Surprisingly we stuck to our promise and 10 euro entrance fee and ran the race (a couple of days after Thanksgiving).  It was pretty cool, because there were a LOT of people participating in the race (there was a 5k & 10k).   Also, the race went right down the street I live off of and Retiro park.  Although our times weren’t ideal, we were really proud of ourselves for sticking with it and actually running the race. 

 Linds and I hope to run more 5k’s in the future and hopefully a 10k before we leave…I guess first we should start working out more consistently…. ;)

(sorry, i don't have actual pics of Linds & I, because I lost my phone that I took pics on :( ...boo)

The name of the race: "Ponle Freno"  translates to "hit the breaks" or "put a break on."  The race was essentially a campaign to raise awareness for road/traffic safety (bicyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists, etc.

Thanksgiving/el día de Acción de Gracias

Although I’m living and working in a country where Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated, this year I felt that I celebrated the holiday more than I ever have at home!  First, at school I presented the topic of Thanksgiving to six classes (ranging from kindergarten- second grade).  Second, my roommate Lauren and I decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner, since we have the largest piso out of most of our friends!

We invited both American and Spanish friends.  We assigned all the signature American dishes to the American’s: sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and chicken (turkey is very hard to come by in Spain..and it’s quite expensive if you do find it) and even some homemade mac & cheese.  Our Spanish friends brought aperativos (appetizers like olives, chips, tortilla española) and of course, the wine!

As if it weren’t a big enough of a challenge to make Thanksgiving dinner (many of us have never made a Thanksgiving day meal in our lives thanks to our moms and grandmas), an added challenge was finding alternatives for ingredients that aren’t available in Spain. 

(my very first apple pie...i even braided it!)

For example, there were no french fried onions for the green bean casserole (MY FAVORITE), so instead I attempted to pan fry onions (it sort of worked).  I also made an apple pie and I didn’t want to make the pie crust, so instead I bought something called “masa base,” which is…well, I’m not really sure, but it did the trick! Our friend Allison made a pumpkin pie with crushed up white cookies and butter!  Our friend Lindsay was in charge of the cooking the chicken, and even though all she had to do was heat the chicken through, she almost burned the piso down.  I'm happy to report my piso is fully intact and the chicken was delicious!

(mac 'n cheese, green bean casserole & chicken!!)

All in all the food turned out great, but I think the thing that I enjoyed more so than the food was the company and the sharing of traditions between cultures.  English and Spanish were both spoken; American and Spanish foods were eaten, and we were all together:  six of us Americans and four Spaniards.  As customary, we all went around and said what we were thankful for: the food and wine, the company, being in Spain, etc.  It was truly a Thanksgiving to remember.

(leave it to me to mess up a perfectly good pic ;))

Bailey & Andy visit Spain!

Wow.  So I've been sort of lazy lately in blogging.  But I guess it's also true what they say: Time flies when you're having fun!  I've for sure been having a ton of fun!


So to help me catch up on my blogs, I'm going to just post the link to Andy's tumblr page; he did an awesome play-by-play of their week in Spain!  (you may have to scroll down a ways to find it) 


Basically Bailey (my best friend from childhood & still today!) and her friend, Andy from college took a week-long break from the "real world" (pffff! what's that?!) to visit Madrid.  We had a stellar time and here's how it went...


http://andrewwiech.tumblr.com/page/4


***Thanks Andy!!***