Ode to Spain

Well it's been some time. In some more time, one month to be exact, I'll be leaving this curious little peninsula for the land of democracy, mythology, feta cheese, unionized prostitutes and rampant bankruptcy- Greece. I can't wait. But before I go and Spain becomes just another country on my list of foreign lands I've called home, I wanted to reflect a little on my Spanish sojourn, namely the things that I've come to know and love and will certainly miss dearly. It's true that Spain and I started our romance off a bit slow, but in the end she has won me over. Here's 15 Reasons Why Spain is Great, in no particular order:


1. Hearing the children at school yell "toma!" when I tell them good news or something goes their way. I guess the kid equivalent in American speak would be "yes!" or "who-hoo!" something like it? It always makes me smile.

2. Little old ladies marching two-by-two, arm-in-arm, decked out in fur coats, stage make-up and high heels (we're talking Easy Spirits here, not stilettos, but regardless it's a heel and they're like 97), walking around the sidewalks manifesting their authority and wisdom by refusing to let other pedestrians pass and at times even yelling "Quitate del medio!" (Get out of the middle!) when they think that you're taking up too much space on the sidewalk.

3. These same old women drinking beer in a bar before noon while engaging in serious conversation about their grandchildren, the weather, and their husbands' ailments.

4. Tortilla. And not Mexican tortillas, because we all know I have been missing those since the second I boarded the plane leaving the US. No, I'm talking about Spanish tortilla, the potato, egg, onion, pie-like goodness that I can never say no to, ever.

5. Seeing nuns just walking around, being nuns, doing nun stuff, on a daily basis. I don't think I'd ever even seen a nun before Spain. They also walk two-by-two but sans the fur coats.

6. My international family of flatmates, each of whom has friends and family from all over the globe. As this year comes to a close, I can say that while broadening my Spanish linguistic ability, I have also learned to say naughty things in French, Italian and Catalan (and hopefully some Portuguese before it's over because we just got a new Brazilian roommate). We've also had some really good times exploring and at times perpetuating each country's stereotypes (it's true, French really people do love cheese). Not to mention there was some first class dancing.

7. No matter how I look, men driving delivery trucks never miss a chance to slow down their trucks, stick their head out the window and holler at me in this city when I'm walking down the street. I could have just woken up and be heading out for some milk in my PJs, last night's make-up, hair like I just stepped out of a wind tunnel and be covered in pigeon-poop and it wouldn't matter. I think that's just how they keep themselves entertained throughout a long day of driving...

8. Greeting people with kisses instead of handshakes.

9. When someone drops a lingering, broccoli fart in the metro and I have at least 2 more stops before I have to get off the train. (haha gotcha! I'm not going miss that one!) But I will miss having a quick, efficient, public transportation system.

10. Drinking beer with a large group of friends in a plaza at 4 am and not getting arrested.

11. The lack of dumb drunk guys fighting each other. People drink in Spain. Actually, people drink A LOT in Spain (see #10). And yet, I have not seen one bar fight. It's quite remarkable how easy-going the people are. In fact, the only time I have ever heard of a bar fight, it involved foreigners. People love to have a good time here and for the most part, get along quite well while doing it.

12. Coffee done correctly almost always and served in proper proportions...none of this Starbucks "venti frappucino" nonsense. (While Starbucks has infiltrated Europe, it hasn't had an effect on how typical coffee shops do coffee.)

13. The children's reactions to how I am dressed each day. I have gotten remarks from, "Tamara, que guapa!" (Tamara, how pretty!) to "Tamara, you look like a goth" or "Tamara, you are muy gitana" (very gypsy) or "It's time to trim your bangs." The five year olds treat me like a rockstar; they almost always tell me that I'm beautiful and come run to give me hugs and kisses. The 6th graders, however, are my harshest critics. A month back, my co-worker, Aris, got married on a school day and I was at class in the morning telling the 6th graders that I was going to her wedding that evening. One boy named Jose looked me up and down and said, "En ese vestido?" (in that dress?) I nearly died laughing. (Dress pictured at right. Bride in pink.)

14. Spanglish. Not only do I speak it on a daily basis with my children, friends and roommates, but it is used in businesses and advertising. I saw an ice truck last week from a company called "Hello Hielo" (means- Hello Ice, pronounced- hello YEH-low). My favorite example of school Spanglish to date is of Paula, a 4th grader, who was doing the pee-pee dance when she told me "Tamara, I no can aguant." (what she meant was "Tamara I can't hold it") Fortunately she made it to the bathroom before we had an accident to deal with.

15. Last but not least- It is socially awkward to be on time (with the exception of work). They call it "tiempo britanico" which means "British time" (apparently the Brits are famous here for their punctuality and strict adherence to rules) if they really mean that you need to show up on time. This is something I will struggle with giving up when readjusting into American life. I was constantly late before, normally just a degree or 2 past fashionable, but now I'm going to have to work quite hard at not missing events altogether...


So, that's the short list. There are oceans of other reasons far less flippant, such as the beautiful architecture, fantastic museums, well-preserved monuments, acres of olive orchards and great beaches, but nobody would read until the end if I wrote a "9001 Reasons Why Spain is Great" list. Hell, I don't really know if anyone is still reading this anyway so who knows, maybe I just will...

Twin Tias and the Rio Tinto

Oh man, life's been good lately. It's spring in the city, I've had loads of visitors, I've been to a loving wedding and I've just added about 6 new dresses to my summer wardrobe inventory. Bring on the days of drinking sangria in the sun (because, strangely enough, waiters don't actually expect you to order sangria in December).



Spring Break finally came and brought me Pam and Morgan (who had claimed it before it had even been affirmed that I won this grant!). They made it out the week before Semana Santa to check out Madrid and then stayed for the week after to do the tour grande of Spain. We spent a lot of time wandering around Madrid after I finished work each day, as I had to be sure to show them every nook, cranny and tapas bar that I know. Then we took a train to Barcelona to see all of Gaudi's masterpieces and then another train a few days later to Granada to see the Alhambra. After that we rented a car that I drove from Granada to Lisbon, stopping off in Sevilla and the beach in Faro, Portugal. It was beautiful and springy and there were wildflowers everywhere and I had wonderful company. Bliss.



Then came Kim from Mammoth and her mom Rusty, who were at her mom's high school reunion in England when the Icelandic volcano blew. They were stranded there and as their flight to Madrid was canceled, they decided to take a train from London to Paris and hop in a rental car and drive all night with strangers because it was headed to Madrid and Madrid was the only open airport. Once they got through all that mess, however, things were great. The weather was friendly and we ate lots of food, drank a little beer, saw some neat stuff (including tulips at the Botanical Garden!) and made nice day trip to Toledo. I feel like the theme for their trip was serendipity. Good things happened, but not necessarily when there was an attempt made to plan them.



Then came my friend Marshall from high school. In Madrid, my friends and I took him to a Lady Gaga tribute concert and then showed him the art of drinking in the street. We also might have gone to a museum and a historical monument or two... For the weekend we went to my favorite city in Spain, Barcelona, where I discovered a shop that gives graffiti classes to kids and sells spray paint in all the colors of the rainbow and then some. I took lots of pictures so I could show my brother who will undoubtedly be thrilled. (I also might have added a couple more dresses to my collection when I found a free second to break away and shop.)



Upcoming trips for me include a visit to Francisca, a good friend from Chile who now lives in Paris, and a visit to the Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera. I can't wait. I am currently forming summer plans to do some farming in Greece- expected arrival date in California: August 26, 2010.

*Also bear in mind that I'm here in Madrid until the end of June if anyone wants to plan a last minute visit! We could take a picture in front of a flower like this one:

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...