Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Today I was at Ruiz Jimenez with my 3rd grade class and two 5th grade classes. We made paper jack-o-lanterns, played Halloween bingo and some students got their faces painted. I even brought a simple disfraz (costume) for Irene and me (a leopard and a devil)!

On my way home after school I stopped at the marisqueria (seafood restaurant) on our street for lunch. I had a bocadillo de calamares fritos (fried calamari sandwich) and got some more calamari-like fish as my tapa.

Later I decided to carve pumpkins at my house. One was going to say Alcalá and the other was going to say Venceslada (the name of one of my schools) but part of the way through the process my cold/fever reared it's ugly head again and I was out for the count. Sad day. I realized it's been so long since I carved a pumpkin! The pumpkins were pretty tiny (at least compared to the pumpkins in the US)...did you know they used to make jack-o-laterns out of turnips? That would take some serious skill!

Unfortunately the rest of Halloween was pretty boring. I was sick and in bed all evening and hardly knew it was Halloween. I even brought a Halloween costume this year and didn't get to really use it. At least there's carnaval in the spring!

I did a couple other Halloween activities with my classes over the last couple weeks that I forgot to include so I'll just throw them in here. Before each of these activities we went over the vocabulary, wrote it on the board and then they wrote the vocab in their vocabulary notebooks...

Halloween Crossword (Hints in spanish, they have to put the word in English in the puzzle.) I had to be clear in telling them that you have to start the word in the box with the number, and that they had to leave a space in between "haunted" and "house." I also had to tell them what "across" and "down" meant and emphasize correct spelling or the words wouldn't fit.

 I found this word search online. I can't remember where from though, so if you made it, thank you!

 This worksheet had the pictures on it and boxes in the correct shape of a letter (long boxes for letters like 'l' and 'g' and short boxes for letters like 'a.' They had to fill in the blanks.

I used these as big flashccards as we were going over vocabulary, then when we were done going over vocabulary they each got one to color. Some of them didn't have as much to color (the bat was already black and the ghost was already white), so on those drawings they were supposed to put more Halloween-related images in the background (spider webs, ghosts, moon, etc).

 I actually didn't get a chance to do this activity, but I'll explain it. They are learning parts of the body so I printed off flashcards with "mouth, nose, eyes and teeth." I also took the opportunity to introduce shapes "triangle, circle/round, square." They were supposed to be in partners and one would describe a jack-o-lantern face..."2 square eyes, 1 triangle nose, etc" and their partner would try to make the jack-o-lantern on orange paper like their partner was describing.

I also was going to teach them "left" and "right" in case they wanted more specific instructions for their partner, but we didn't get to it.

A deep breath and some chocolate

I don’t typically like to blog when I’m frustrated, because I don’t want people to think I’m unhappy here or be worried, but today is just one of those days were a series of annoying little things aligned to bug the heck out of me. I woke up and felt like I had to walk on eggshells or avoid Ana because of our unresolved argument last night. I finally left to get some water from the grocery store and then over to Ceres for a coffee and buñuelos. They recognize me now and strike up short conversations with me. One day the guy asked me how coffee compares here and in the US. Today one of the women asked if I give private lessons. In the past I always felt weird about going to the same place all the time but now I kind of like it. They are familiar faces that I am developing relationships with (obviously not really intimate relationships, but still). Also, advice for other international students/auxiliares…ASK QUESTIONS! Take “risks” by asking or getting to know the people you run into a lot. Don’t let fear of making language mistakes hold you back or fear that you're asking something stupid (you can even lead into with "Ok, I know this might be a stupid question, but..." if it makes you feel better like it does for me). My interactions with the people at the panadería (bakery) Ceres started when I asked what something was (una empanadilla con atún y pimiento) so I wouldn’t have to say “that” and point every time I wanted it. As soon as I broke the ice and started a conversation they felt more comfortable taking to me. I think in many situations natives don’t strike up conversation with the foreigners because they don’t know if we can speak Spanish or why we are here. Especially if we’re here long term and not just on vacation for a week or two, more people are genuinely interested in talking to us or helping us out. They want to talk to us too, or are at least open to the idea, but they feel just as awkward as we do. Anyways, at Ceres today I got a café con leche con hielo (coffee with milk and ice). I’ve seen people order iced coffees before but never knew if it was only a specific coffee drink served with ice or if you could order any coffee served cold. So I got my coffee cold (it’s been really chilly since the feria ended but today it’s nice and sunny) and got 3 buñuelos. Buñuelos (like cream puffs) are typical of All Saints Day on November 1st so they’ve been in the bakery all week. They have buñuelos of chocolate, caramel, truffle, angel hair (I’m still not sure what it consists of, but I think coconut), cream and batata (sweet potato). The chocolate ones are my favorite.

I dropped my groceries off at home then left again. Thus started the frustration (aside from the existing frustration of the environment in my apartment). I went to the locutorio (internet café) to print some stuff but the computer wouldn’t read my external hard drive. The minimum to use a computer is 50 cents…50 cents down the drain. No, it isn’t much but I only had like 4 euro to start with and it costs to print. So then I went to another locutorio. That computer could read my external hard drive but their version of Word was too old to open my documents. Another 50 cents wasted. Then I decided to stop at the cash machine to get money for my stuff that I needed to print and to pay to get my gym membership started. Another fail. Even though my 700 euro paycheck is supposedly in the bank (and shows in my balance) the ATM would only let me take out 20 euro. I don’t know if I have to wait several days for my check to be processed or what. So, no money until at least Monday and no gym. On the upside I’ve been sitting in Plaza de la Constitución for almost 2 hours blogging and soaking up the last few rays of sun before winter. Apparently spring and fall don’t exist here. I’ve been told by several people that we skip straight to winter, and based on how fast the weather changed after the feria, I believe them.

 Plaza de la Constitución

The last hint of summer

New vocabulary for the day:
andar/ir de puntillas: to tiptoe
capricho: whim, quirk

The extranjera (dun dun dun), Christmas candy and SLEEP!

Luisa helped wake me up at 8:30 this morning. I put on some clothes and threw my hair back. Luckily so little time had passed since I went to bed that my makeup was still in place. I ran out the door to go to the copistería and get a copy of my passport.

The extranjería office is on the side of this building.

The park across the street from the extranjería.

I arrived at the extranjería about 15 minutes late, saw Matt (the auxiliar living in La Puerta this year) and was immediately called back for my appointment (gold star #1 for the extranjería). I hit the extranjería employee lottery and got someone who was actually friendly and pleasant to work with (and who had the same birthday as me! Gold star #2!). My appointment was done by 9:45 without any problems (gold stars 3 and 4 for speed and ease of the process). Good thing too, because then I had to run off to the university and catch the bus with my business Spanish class for our field trip to the Christmas candy factory Doña Jimena in Alcaudete.

Side note...for all you auxiliares worried about what to bring to your first appointment, this is what you need:
-Formulario EX17 (the original and a copy)...You can find the form here: http://www.parainmigrantes.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/17-Formulario_TIE1.pdf
I can only get this link to open with Mozilla and not Internet Explorer, but I think it might just be my computer.
-1 passport sized color photo
-Your passport and a copy of EVERY PAGE of your passport (even the pages with nothing on them) -La hoja del centro (The letter you received that has your school's information, how much you will be paid, etc on it...you need the original and a copy)

At the end of your appointment they will give you the time and date for your next appointment (to get your fingerprints taken). When you come for your second appointment you will need 2 passport sized photos in color.

There was a protest going on when I left the extranjería. These guys have been camped out in front of the delegación for months. Every now and then they protest in the streets in the morning, or march around town, but most of the time they are just camped out with their flags and signs. Unfortunately for them, I really don't think it's going to change anything. They've been sitting there that long and nothing has happened, and I don't really think the delegación cares that much about them deciding to sleep in tents outside their building rather than their own homes.

Anyways, I got to the university with just enough time to stop and get a tostada and some water for breakfast before we left. I really didn’t think I was going to make it to the field trip. I can’t believe the extranjería appointment only took half an hour. When we got to Doña Jimena a woman named Cristina took us on a tour of the factory where they make all their chocolate, bombones, turrones and marzipan. We got to try samples as we went through the factory. It was a pretty cool field trip, although I’m sure it would have been even cooler if we weren’t so dog tired.

(We weren't allowed to take photos during the tour, but this is the factory shop where you can buy tasty Christmas candy, chocolates, etc.)

When we got back to Jaén I ran to the grocery store, home to eat something and then straight to bed. I went to bed around 4pm and woke up at 11pm. Oops. I got up to make dinner, watch Grey’s Anatomy, get into an argument with Ana about cleaning the apartment, then back to bed again until 11am. I slept around 17 hours total. Guess I needed it.

Work, learn, play

Today I worked at Alcalá Venslada. As I have several days this week, I woke up late, so I threw on some clothes and grabbed a taxi to go to school. I go the about 5 minutes late but the days I work at Alcalá Venslada I have to be there at 9, so lucky for me the kids are still getting settled in the first five minutes or so. Also, another week has passed without a normal schedule. I was supposed to work with Mercedes this week but she was out sick. Really I didn’t mind because that meant I got to hang out with the director Ana and make Halloween decorations all day. I meant to take pictures of what we did before I left, but totally spaced. We made ghosts out of suckers, ghosts, bats and pumpkins out of foam paper, pumpkins out of mandarins and tissue paper and they were also going to make ghosts out of tissue paper and balloons. They also made paper bats connected to clothes pins so you could hang them from things and it looked like their wings moved when you pressed the clothespin together. I also worked on getting the kids’ drawings of the feria into powerpoints and put the 4th graders’ photos into their “about me” powerpoint. Those powerpoints are for an international project we are involved in through E-Twinning. There are schools from all over Europe that gather together for bilingual projects. We are doing an "about me" presentation (one about the teachers and one about the students), "about our school," "about our city," "about our country" and then 2 projects a month on other festivals/traditions/etc. Everyone submits their information to a website and the project coordinator puts it all in a blog for us. The blog is here http://havingfunte.blogspot.com/.   I also got paid today. Amazing! Right on schedule!

(There were a lot more Halloween decorations, but I forgot to take pictures of them.)

These are the Halloween drawings that some of the kids did. They heard the first part of a Halloween story, then they had to write their own end to it and draw a picture to go with it...

At the end of the day I ran to the bank to get my check deposited, then stopped off at D’Canas for lunch. I try to be careful about spending money since we don’t get paid that much and I’d rather not have to give private lessons this year, but I like to eat out for lunch at least once I week. I’m not a good cook, so I always end up making the same things. Also, I don’t make Spanish food…so I like to think my lunches out give me better nutrition, more cultural exposure, better morale (being out in the world instead of cooped up in the house) and more people to talk to. The waiter at D’Canas is really nice. He asks me how to say things in English and I ask for food recommendations. It works out great.

 Habas con Jamon (y normalmente huevo frito)

Solomillo de la casa

The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and trying to conquer some of my other to-dos. At 6 I headed off to a plaza with a long fountain, that I thought started with ‘A’ that is close to the Plaza de Toros. (Luckily, yes, I did find it based on that information…Almeda de Capuchinos ). At 6:45 I was supposed to meet 2 of my co-workers, Alfonso and Carmen, and they were going to take me to a lighting workshop with their photography association. I couldn’t resist. I ditched my Spanish class so I could go with them. they have their meetings at 7pm on Thursdays and my Spanish class is Thursdays from 7:30-9:30 so of course I can’t go every week…but hey, maybe it will be my reward once a month or so and maybe next semester I can pick a different time slot for my Spanish class and I can go more often. This photography organization has a printed newspaper, an online version, weekly meetings/workshops and excursions. There is also a restaurant that I go to called Azulejo and they put up new photo exhibits every couple weeks from this group. It’s mostly men. Us few women are greatly outnumbered (like 4 to 50). I’m of course the only foreigner. Carmen introduced me to the group and they greeted me with an applause. Haha. People kept asking if I was understanding, and thankfully I was. There was a lot of vocabulary that I wouldn’t have known enough to say or use but I knew what they were talking about. (Example: Aperature=Diafragma…which is a little awkward because it also means diaphragm outside of the photography world…yes I double checked to make sure I don’t make a fool of myself in front of this group of male photographers). I knew based on the context what they were talking about, but didn’t know the word going into the workshop. For this workshop they brought in 2 models and one of the photographers walked us through what a photo would look like -with the built-in flash -with an external flash -with a hard light (speedlite) on a tripod -with a hard light (speedlite) on a tripod and a reflector -with a softbox -with a softbox and a reflector -with a softbox and a secondary light with umbrella -with a softbox, secondary light with umbrella and hair light -and with a softbox, secondary light with umbrella, hair light and background light He also walked us through light metering. It was almost all stuff I had heard before, but it was nice to have a refresher course and be able to hear all the terminology in Spanish. For awhile now I’ve been embarrassed to ask guys like these for help with my flash. I’ve been having problems with my flash for a couple months (ever since I took it in to get “fixed” and get the bulb replaced). I wasn’t sure it it was a problem with my flash, a problem with my camera or something stupid that I didn’t know about my equipment/flash settings, etc. I wish I knew more about my actual equipment. Well, I finally asked the photographer next to me for help, and later 3 other photographers joined in to help. The good thing is that it’s not because I’m an idiot who doesn’t know anything about cameras. The bad news is that when I took my flash in to get fixed this summer they accidentally did something to prevent my flash from synchronizing with my camera (or anyone else’s camera for that matter). Sad day. I just hope that after paying $150 this summer that Camera Techs in Ballard will take another look at it. I’ve heard good things about them from other people, so I hope they’ll be understanding about the circumstances and why I couldn’t get it back to them for 3-4 months. I’d hate to have that much money go down the drain. So, meanwhile I’m without my flash, but I’m glad that it wasn’t something embarrassingly simple that I was/wasn’t doing.

When I got home Luisa was there with her two friends from Germany. They are studying in France but taking a trip through Barcelona, Madrid, Jaén, Cádiz and Lisbon. They invited me to go out with them. First we went to one of Luisa’s friends apartment to botellón. There were 3 Germans, 3 Dutch, 1 Spanish guy, 1 English guy and me. We stayed there for awhile, then headed off to a bar called Botellita. Much to my surprise I was greeted by 4 eager guys saying “Hey! You lived in SILES last year!” Yes, yes I did. One by one they showed me their national ID cards with their Siles addresses (well, 3 from Siles actually, and one from Puente Geneve)…as if I didn’t believe them. I surprisingly only recognized one of them. They were basically glued to our sides the entire night. One in particular kept trying to rub up against me and get me to dance with him, but I knew better. The cotilleo (gossip) in Siles and the surrounding small towns is insane, and if I danced with him everyone in the Sierras would probably know by Monday. I’d had enough when he told me that last year I was the one that who was desagradable (unpleasant, unkind) but this year I was cool. After never once talking to me last year, and thinking his drunk @$$ knew everything after being in the bar with me about an hour on this particular night) that was his conclusion. I yelled at him and he finally left me alone (although his friends followed us to our next stop). Luisa also "had her camera stolen," (we later realized she left it at home and it was never at the bar) so we headed out.

We meandered off to Kharma (dun dun dun), which I had mixed feelings about. My first two trips to Kharma didn’t turn out great, so I have my reservations about this place even though it’s extremely popular. It was actually a lot more fun this time. It was Thursday so there weren’t as many people as there are on Saturdays, and I was in a big group instead of with just one other person. We eventually grabbed a taxi and made it home about 6am. Luisa and I both knew we would hate ourselves in the morning because I had my appointment in the extranjería (foreigner’s office) at 9am and Luisa had to go to the Universidad to get a professor’s signature about the same time. Uffffff.