Madrid

On Monday Hollis and I ventured into Madrid for our first day trip. Well, I had to go to Madrid anyway to finish applying for my NIE (resident card) so I can be legally in Spain. It's been nice because the Ministry of Education has taken care of all the filing of paperwork and I've just had to show up when they say to show up and bring the things they say. Also, there are no long lines when we go (because I think they make special appointments - yay working for the government!). So after that, Hollis and I headed to the Modern Art Museum - Casa Reina Sofia.

On our way there, we passed the BIGGEST Nutella jars that I have ever seen. Yes, they are bigger than my head.

Then we went to Reina Sofia. Awesome side note: because we bought Youth Cards, we got in for free! Yay being under 26!

There were some cool things that you would only find in a modern art museum. One of our favorites was this room full of embroidered world maps, each contry colored by it's flag. There were several different backgrounds, but we picked our favorites and had pictures next to them. We also LOVED this random stack of animals: a cow, pig, and sheep. They all had UNICORN HORNS! And they were carved with the skin missing and all the cuts of meat labeled. We also needed pictures next to those.

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We also really liked Guernica, but you aren't allowed to take pictures where it is displayed. So I found one online where someone broke the rules and took a picture so you could see how big it is. It was really cool because they have several pictures and preliminary sketches of the work. You can see how Picasso deliberately designed everything in the painting to be the way it is. Yes, he purposely made the bull face weird and be different colors. I know because it looked different in the original sketch. He kept changing it until it looked as it does here.

After the museum, we were quite thirsty. We had already eaten the potato chips, sandwiches, and cheese that we had brought from home, but we wanted more. I decided that what I really wanted was a Jamba Juice, and then we walked past this smoothie bar. So we got some smoothies.

Totally a coincidence that our cups spell out the company's full name: faborit. They weren't that good, but somehow still felt very satifying. I guess I really needed blended fruits with no sugar or anything else added. Mine was oranges and carrots. Yep. Only ice was added.

We then went to Parque de Buen Retiro. It is what used to be the royal summer grounds. We first walked past this large pond. I learned that mock Naval battles used to be staged in the pond for the King's entertainment. Or education. I'm not sure which. We then went to look at the summer palace, but it was closed (I'm in front of the closed doors). I was excited to see the crystal palace because it was sunny and it sounded beautiful. And it is beautiful (it's the glass building below). It too, however, was closed. Sad. But at least we could see inside the building.

While we were there we saw wildlife! I saw some beautiful black swans, eating a fish that they might have killed (you can kind of see the fish's tail if you look closely).

Then Hollis tried to call this squirrel over to him. I put my camera on high speed and managed to catch it mid-leap.

After all the walking we had done that day, our feet hurt. And Hollis's brown shoes wore out (sad!!).

Finally, we went to Atocha to catch the train home. I made Hollis walk even farther to show him the turtles inside the main atrium. I was surprised to see so many! So I included a picture of the turtles from four years ago so you can see the massive increase in turtle population.

Fire!

The other night we were awakened at 3 AM by some loud popping noises. We assumed that someone was blowing up fireworks (not that uncommon). However, when we went to shut our windows, there was a FIRE burning! A truck was completely engulfed in flames. A few minutes later, someone rang our door phone and was yelling "¡Fuera! ¡Fuera!" or "Outside!" We assumed that meant "get out" so we quickly grabbed essentials (like keys) and ran outside.

It was interesting because we then knew what things we would grab on our way out the door. Not our scriptures (I distinctly thought "I can buy a new set") but I grabbed my journal. Pretty much I just threw everything on my nighstand into my school bag (the closest bag). We also grabbed our computer backup on our way out. I reminded Hollis that we have all of our stuff insured so it is okay if it all burns. Then we ran down our stairs. I also realized that if a fire ever started in our stairs, the only way out of our 5th story apartment would be off the balcony. There isn't a fire escape. We'd be relying on the trampoline catch or ladders of fire fighters.

Anyway, we got outside and this is what we saw:

That is a scooter on fire.

Right after the put out the flames:

And the next morning:

We didn't think to take a picture of the truck engulfed in flames. Well, I thought about it, but I wasn't entirely sure I wasn't supposed to be running away instead of standing in a gawking crowd. Hollis took a picture of the burned-out hulk the next morning.

Right in the middle of the picture.

Well, anyway, we soon determined that the helpful neighbor yelling "¡Fuera!" simply meant "Look outside! A fire! You should look at it." Oh boy. I really could have done without a frantic 3AM dash down the stairs. So we trudged back up all 5 flights of stairs and laid in bed, wondering how we would ever get back to sleep. We managed.

Azuqueca

José-Luiz is the bilingual coordinator at IES Complutense. He lives in a town called Azuqueca, just the next city over. Last week was his hometown's festival. He has several friends in Peñas, which are clubs of sorts. During the city's festival, the publicly funded clubs have to host a half-public tent with free drinks in the public half. If you are in the club, you get to go into the back half and eat food. They party all night long for a week. José-Luis's friends gave us stickers which made us honorary members of the Peñas for the night.

The first Peña served sardines and jamón. Yum!

The sardine I had was actually quite good. Hollis's wasn't as good as mine.

Oh, another thing about Peñas is that everyone in a Peña dresses the same. The big peña style is to wear a collared button-up shirt over a shoulder. At the second Peña we went to, a lady gave me hers to wear so I could be cool.

We danced down the street following this peppy band, but retired early (midnight). One thing I wanted to see but didn't was the running of the bulls. Azuqueca has a smaller version of the famous event that Pamplona has.

IES Complutense

I work at a secondary school called IES Complutense. It is a bilingual school. Right now, only the 1st and 2nd years (1° ESO and 2° ESO). They are the 12 and 13 year-olds. Each grade is divided into several classes, lettered A-F. 1°A, 1°B, 2°A, and 2°B are all in the bilingual section, which means that they take all of their classes, except math and Spanish, in English. Every group takes English, and all classes take some classes in English. For the non-section classes, they take art and/or PE in English (since you can understand what to do in the class even if you don't understand the language).

One major difference between schools here and the US is that the students stay in the same room with the same students all day. The teachers move classrooms. Also, the kids don't have the same schedule every day. For example, the students only have science class three times per week, but it isn't on a MWF schedule. Some kids have it Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Others Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. The director of studies has the job of arranging the teachers schedules so that the students get a full schedule and the teachers also get time to prepare for class. It is a hard job, and it is also very complicated. School has been in for 2.5 weeks and the kinks are still getting worked out.

José-Luis is the bilingual coordinator, and he has the job of arranging the schedules of the three American teachers: me, Joey, and Steve. He has to arrange our schedules so that we are with our subject area teacher as much as we can be and still leave time for us to go help with the other subjects that are taught in English. This year, the scheduling is complicated by the fact that the government fired about 3,000 teachers in the Madrid area just before school started. They also added two more classes to the teacher's schedules and reduced teachers pay by about 5%. The biggest problem with this is that the government did not explain why they were going to do this or even warn teachers that this could be happening. They just made the cuts. So the teachers are on strike sometimes during the middle of the week. This doesn't mean the school is closed, because that is illegal. It just means that several of the teachers don't come to school and the students are combined into larger groups for other teachers to supervise, and the students don't learn any of the required material.

I finally started work last Wednesday. I work mostly with the natural sciences teacher, Irene. I teach once per week in each class (this next week I'm teaching about the individual planets in the solar system in 1°A/B and cellular nutrition in 2°A/B). I am also helping José-Luis with 1°A English twice per week and helping Marina with 1°C/D and 1°A in Art. My role is primarily that of being a native English speaker and pretending that I don't know any Spanish. My schedule still isn't finalized because things could change. José-Luis says that everything should be completely settled by the end of October. It seems funny that it takes a month and a half for things to be arranged with schedules in the school, but I'm not entirely surprised because it is a bit Spanish to be a little late with everything.

Debit Card!

I received my debit card for Santander in the mail today. It is a cool card with the flags of a bunch of different countries around the outside. It's awesome because it makes me feel like I'm more official.

My first solo Haircut

Hollis wanted me to cut his hair for about a week. However, it turns out that his hair clippers need a converter so we don't break them with European electricity. So after two trips to the electronics store, I bought this little beauty for 18€.

After charging up his clippers, I started cutting his hair. I just had to use some scissors to get the blending done. When I was finished, he had a hairy back (which he wanted me to show you for some reason).

After washing the hair and styling it, it looks great! Which is good because I don't have my sister-in-law L to take care of my mistakes anymore (Seattle is just too far away now for a simple hair fix).

Broken Glasses

So today we fed the missionaries. While I was cooking, I decided I needed something not in the kitchen. I turned around to leave and BAM! I ran into the door. I hit my glasses on the corner and they flew off my face. I was in pain, and I noticed that my glasses were missing a piece. I was so upset that I broke my glasses - I feel like I always do that! (See this post for the last time my glasses broke).

Anyway, this time it was better because the glasses could still stay on my face! So I went a couple of days with a missing piece on my glasses.

Thankfully, they were broken with the hinge intact, so we just glued them back together, and they still function like normal! Yay!

Our View

We love our apartment. Pictures to come of the actual apartment, but I wanted to share this awesome view from our bedroom window: