Science Fair

The Science Fair has come and gone and it was a success! I lectured for weeks on variables and hypotheses and the Scientific Method, and I had no idea how things were going to turn out given the fact that none of them had done anything like this, ever. But regardless of their inexperience, the children all brought something in and it was evident the amount of pride each of them took in presenting their experiments. They wandered excitedly around the room asking questions, showing off their work to visitors, and checking out which were the coolest experiments.



Most were incredibly simple (the fourth place winner did a project about melting ice) but many were incredibly well executed. The winner made three boats of different materials and raced them.



The most popular experiment was from the kid who made a cannon from vinegar and baking soda... or maybe some other ingredients, I don't know. I pretended to be the Omnipotent One because I was the facilitator of the event, but in all honesty, I find it hilarious that a liberal artsy, language-loving student such as myself happened to be the go-to gal on these projects. Perhaps that is why one child actually showed up with a homemade hourglass. His Project Question: How do I make an Hourglass? I nearly died.



The winners (1st-5th):



I also taught the kids the meaning of the phrase 'look sharp'. Here is one of the winners of the Best Dressed competition:

skiing in jeans...

This has been one of the most pleasant weekends of my year thus far in Spain. Friday morning I got up headed to the train station went up to the mountains for a day of skiing! I read the weather forecast beforehand, and after seeing the report as sunny with minimal wind and about 43 degrees, I decided that it would be a nice day. Given my preparedness for mountain excursions (I brought a windbreaker with me... snow equipment is stored at home in California)I figured I'd get by with my jeans and some sunglasses.

Of course weather reports are always wrong when you really need them so you can imagine our surprise when we arrived at train station at the mountain to find clouds and snow and 23 degrees. Brrr.

To get to the actual mountain we decided to follow some older folks, a Spaniard and a German, with a snowboard who quickly became our friends (because people are so nice once you get outside of the city!). However, I'm not quite sure how things got so out of control but before we knew it we had abandoned the paved, plowed road and had begun to scale the side of a mountain covered with fresh snow in sneakers because one of them said it was a "short-cut".

With frozen feet yet high spirits we arrived at the lodge and set about the task of renting equipment. Mike actually broke the clasps off of 2 pairs of ski boots before he finally found a pair that he could use (that still had the velcro strap broken, but the guy who kept having to take the boots back assured him that the boots would be just fine). Through our laughter, Mike said (in Spanish) "I guess God just doesn't want me to ski today." It was just a figure of speech until later as we were paying for the equipment the Spaniard asked us if we were Christians and invited us to a Christian rock show... oh man. At the end of the day we shared the train home with them and were absolutely stunned when we heard him start speaking fluent Chinese with another girl on the train... people never cease to amaze.

Anyway, I taught Mike how to make turns on his skis and then switched to a snowboard for the last hours of the afternoon. The hill was small but there was some fun to be had. I was freezing and looked ridiculous, but it felt so great to be back on my snowboard. Oh how I miss living in the mountains.

We got a lovely sunset for the train ride home and then there was birthday karaoke in the evening- all the ingredients of a wonderful day. Not to mention the weather is finally taking a turn for the better here in Madrid; the entire weekend was really nice.

In other news, Saturday night I broke one of my own rules and got on the back of a 'moto' to ride with my roommate to see 'Les Miserables'. Being on the back of a motorcycle in an urban area with crazy drivers everywhere is terrifying (and not to mention FREEZING) so I took the metro home at the end of the show... what a wimp!

Global Classrooms

One of the highlights of this month has been my participation in the bilingual high schools' Model United Nations conference. Basically, all of the Fulbrighters who teach in the secondary schools have been prepping their kids for this event since September. (On a sidenote, I have to say that the elementary teachers kind of get jipped in this deal- prepping kids for standardized tests from Cambridge is not nearly as fun.) The Fulbrighters made up the Dais, or council that presides over the meetings.

It was a two-day event but I was only there for the second day as a judge of the Western European Conference. There were five conferences- Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Latin America. For some reason the Western European conference included countries like the US, Turkey, Israel and New Zealand, I guess they didn't know where else to put them(?) Anyway, each country had 2 delegates that came from the same school and who had worked together to write position papers and research their selected country to debate the topic of Access to Education, with an emphasis on Women's rights.


The kids took it really seriously and it was fantastic to watch. The spoke in English the entire time, they stayed on task (ALL day long, even when I was ready to have a siesta on the Dais table), and they really tried to represent their countries honestly. Their intentions, while at times naive, were quite honorable and they had all kinds of countries working together to make a better educational environment for all. It really was a special day.

At the end of the day we had an awards ceremony at the Assembly of Madrid and the kids were just ecstatic to win anything. They all cheered for their friends and other kids who had been in their conferences. It was a nice break from my daily routine and it made me happy to think that some of my elementary school kids could be participating in just a few years time.

(some of the notes that the delegates passed to each other in the effort to write resolutions during the conference)

Carnaval!

While the Spaniards leave a lot to be desired when it comes to Halloween, they definitely compensate for it with Carnaval. On Feb 17-19 we headed south to Cadiz, Spain, for a good time in celebration of all things Carnaval. Renting a 9-passenger van was actually the cheapest option and I, being the only one eligible to drive given my age and knowledge of manual shifts, piloted the party bus through floods, road closures and giant sand banks in the middle of the freeway. Apparently, Seville had seen quite a bit of rain before we got there and it had no intention of stopping for the duration of our 6 hour drive.


We made it into Cadiz around 2 am and moved our party of 8 into an apartment for 5. Actually we were quite comfortable. The following 2 days were a mix of partying, costumes and tourism. We wandered our Cadiz, which is a tiny little city, checking out the cathedrals, the ocean and the old city during the day. Then at night we all got into costume and wandered around the city with thousands of other folks in interesting costumes.


Oddly, everyone wore the exact same costume when they were in a group together. I saw 8 Elvis(es?) running around in the same costume (I still have a pair of their glasses to prove it haha), football teams, avatars, ghostbusters, matadors, and there was even a Baywatch troupe except they were complied completely of hairy men all dressed like Pam Andersen... they were still my favorites though. Anyway, our costumes were well received, we were Alice and Wonderland.


This was my goal for the night and consquently, my favorite picture- they even had people with them dressed as cows... quintessential Spain :P

Just keep swimming

I've joined a Master's swim team here in Madrid. We practice weeknights at 9:30 pm. It's a bit late for me considering I'm used to practicing at midday so I can get the best tan (not to mention I could easily be asleep in bed by that time), but the group is a lot of fun and I've really been enjoying the workouts. They've even got me going to their competitions, monthly events that resemble the meets from my rec-swimming days, complete with poor organization and human timers carrying stopwatches and event cards. In two weeks I'll swim the 800m freestyle because I decided that if the late 50-something woman can do it with the largest breasts I've seen on a 5'o tall woman, then I can too.

There are quite a few younger people on the team that like to go out dancing after meets and on birthdays. Here, it is a tradition that if it's your birthday YOU are the one who provides all the snacks to celebrate. The last birthday after swim practice we had Spanish tortilla, empanada, beer, fanta, cured meats, cheese and trail mix. It was awesome.

Our team is small but the dynamic is exceptionally entertaining...

We have the uber-competitive, uber-machista, late 40-something man who is by far the biggest trash talker on the team but livens things up dramatically. Every time he beats the Basque guy he yells some sort of nationalistic victory cry that usually causes me to put my head underwater so he can't see me laughing.

The nerdy but beautiful coach who plans all the sets and eats, sleeps and breathes swimming. He's even purchased a neoprene suit for races that costs over 300 euros and sends us floods of emails about the newest technology in swimming. Everyone went nuts when he broke a Master's breast stroke record in one of the recent meets (timed with a STOPWATCH for heaven's sake).

The ex-Olympic swimmer from Mexico who does all kinds of dry land exercises like push-ups and sit-ups but then only gets in the pool for about 15 minutes every night. He also has the neoprene suit.

Of course there is always a legion of very sweet and friendly older men who take practice very seriously over in Lane 2, but chat with me about all things Spanish, American and in between, during meets and before and after practices. My favorite of those is a charmer, who I just found out the other night speaks English really well and lived in Britain for a year or two. (I think he was keeping that one at bay so he could use it one day, not unlike me at the elementary school where the little ones still haven't figured out that I understand them...) These guys are clutch for finding out about the best jazz concerts in the city.

Likewise, no Master's team would be complete without the dirty old men- those who always find a moment to make borderline inappropriate comments and innuendos to girls 30+ years their junior...

Today I learned from the free Metro newspaper...

One of the highlights of my mornings here in Madrid is the free newspaper that is disbursed at the Metro entrances in the city. At first I never took one, simply because I usually have a book to read or papers to grade, but after my roommate told me that the papergirl has to stay outside until all of her papers have been distributed, I began grabbing one out of pity on my way down the stairs. Turns out the paper is not only educational, but quite entertaining. While a beacon of journalistic excellence it is not, the local news, information and amusing oddities are enough to start my day with a little glee. I've been saving some of the treasures:


Friday, February 12, 2009-

Good lord what has gotten into the Greeks? Not only are they strike-crazy and broke but they have been reporting false data to the EU about their economy and other *minor* issues. Apparently being the father of modern western civilization is all the money in the bank you need? The following quote will continue to be the joy of my weekend- says biochemist Vasiliki Revithi, "But we gave the world democracy, and we expect the European Union to support us." (This actually came from the NYT Global Edition)

Thursday February 11, 2009-

New streets in a neighborhood in Zaragosa, Spain, are expected to receive names from video games, including Calle Super Mario Brothers. Officials feel that since street names have always been a reflection on the culture it seems normal to jump from Calle Lorca and Calle Cervantes to Calle de The Legend of Zelda. I also read the breakdown by region on Spanish sex lives. Apparently the Basques are the most sincere, the Cantabrians and Extremadurans the most satisfied, the Catalans and Madrid-ers the least satisfied, and the Murcianos are the biggest liars. Good to know?

Monday, February 8, 2010-

Unionized Greek prostitutes went on strike last month to protest unlicensed competition from Russian and Eastern European prostitutes. Also, the Bulgarian Prime Minister has said that he is adding more women to his administration because, " Women are more diligent than men, and they don't take long lunches or go to the bar...Women have stronger characters than men because when they say no they mean no, and they are less corruptible." Sexism in reverse?

Thursday, February 4, 2010-

A giant sand replica of Ghandi was created in India by 50 artists using 19 different shades of sand and it only took about 4 1/2 hours. Also, the Madrid Metro is considering letting dogs ride the train.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010-

Senior citizens may take a free computer class here in Madrid as long as they bring a note proving that they are 'free of infectious disease'. Today is also National Tortilla Day! (Día de la Tortilla)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010-

(Sidenote- Today in my 5th grade class the kids laughed at me when I said the Spanish word 'entonces' without the lisp. In Spain it's pronounced 'en-tohn-thes' whereas in the rest of the Spanish-speaking world it's 'en-tohn-ses'. Awesome.)

75% of Catalan cinemas are striking to protest the new law mandating that 50% of the movies shown in the movie theaters must be dubbed into Catalan (of the cinemas in Catalonia). This would be extremely expensive and according to my roommate from Barcelona, "Nobody wants to watch movies in Catalan!" Equally as fascinating, I learned that Michael Jackson's glove had its gallery debut today in Macao, China, at its new home, a shrine dedicated to all things Michael. The glove was purchased from the US for $1 million.

Monday, February 1, 2010-

Punky Brewster (AKA Sun Moon Somethingorother) lives in L.A., has opened a shop of eco-products for children, had a breast reduction as a teenager due to gigantomastia (which I thought was a made-up Spanish word until I Wikipediaed it), and occasionally still dresses up in Punky wear to take pictures. She also Twitters.

Thursday, January 28, 2010-

81% of young people (15-24) in Madrid consider going out and partying (while not necessarily drinking) one of their most sought-after pastimes. 20% enjoy reading and the theatre. I realize the percentages don't add up.

Snow Day!

So I was supposed to go back to school today but instead I stayed home because it snowed in Madrid. Really, we only got a couple of inches, but it was enough for Madrid to shut things down- schools, the airport, train schedules... the place was a bit of a mess.

With my free day I've been catching up on things like this blog, emails, and grading papers. I'm also planning out my goals at school for the upcoming year.

After this trip to Morocco, my mindset has changed a bit. If anything, Morocco helped me to appreciate how nice Spain is and has also helped me to remember to take advantage of the time I have left here.

So I have 2 projects to work on until June. The first has been ongoing and it is a quest really to get the 5th and 6th grade children writing correctly in English. So far we have written about superheroes, holidays and other random silly things that will get the children interested in writing sentences. They really get stoked when we write about things that let them use their imagination. I guess that's the benefit of being the English teacher, I don't have to make them write about ancient civilizations or tectonic plates (not that those things aren't fascinating!).

My second project is a Science Fair for the 6th graders. They've never done one before and they haven't really done a lot of hands on experimentation in science so I am excited to see what they will come up with for this. Although now that I am in the beginning planning stages I have already realized that organizing this will be a lot more work than I originally thought!

New Year, new goals. I'm definitely looking forward to see how it all goes! Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for reading!