Salamanca Salamanca

First of all, I apoligize for not updating this sooner... My laptop won't charge anymore (even after getting a replacement power cord), therefore I've been borrowing Jessica's computer, but it's still not the same. Hopefully I'll be able to get it fixed in the states over Christmas, and then I can add more pics and be more consistant in my updates... I'm starting to think I should've gotten that insurance now... Anyway, let's move on.

We had no school Monday through Wednesday this week, so for the puente, three of my friends and I headed to Salamanca. I really didn't know anything about Salamanca before going, except that Jessica had studied abroad there and it's always really cold. The immediate reaction that every one my teachers had when I told them I was going there was "Que frío!" So naturally, I packed all the sweaters, gloves, scarves, socks and jackets that I owned and braced myself to live in Antarctica for 4 days. Luckily, it wasn't ridiculously freezing as we had anticipated, although I was happy to have bought a warm scarf before I left.

Getting on the bus to Salamanca was a stressful process. My friend Bryce had bought our bus tickets online, but none of us had printers, so we were hoping we could get our tickets at the station. Unfortunately, since a ton of people travel during the puente, the bus station was one big... mess [trying to keep this PG]. The lady at the ALSA window essentially refused to help us, so we had to weave our way through the crowds of people, and ask the bus drivers if they were going to Salamanca and if we were on their list of passengers. We got pointed in lots of different directions, but finally found a crowd of people waiting to board a smaller tour bus that was (apparently) going to Salamanca. We showed our passports and explained the situation to the driver, and he was like "OK, whatever" and let us board without even checking ot see if we were supposed to be on the bus. Clearly, we had boarded a "substitute bus"... the driver had to ask for directions to get to the bus station when we got to Salamanca.

We stayed in Pension Estefania which is right in the center of town. Our room was in the same appartment as the owners, so we heard the doorbell every time it rang, and it always smelled like meat in the hall. We also had to pass the a window looking into their living/dining room on the way to the bathroom... A little awkward, but overall, the place was clean and warm.

Salamanca is a beautiful city. It is home of the oldest university of Spain, University of Salamanca, which is spread out throughout the city in diferent facultades. It's really clean, and it has beautiful churches with intricate facades (although they do have a playful side- the Catedral de Salamanca has an astronaut carved into it). Salamanca was all decked out for Christmas. One night when it got dark, we headed to the Plaza Mayor, where they had lit up a tree light display and were playing Christmas music. Everyone was out with their friends and families and we watched the little kids try to dance in their stylish puffy coats and boots. (Seriously, even the little babies are fashionable here.) I also tried some chestnuts roasting on an open fire- not exceptionally delicious, but it did put me in the holiday spirit.

During the daytime, we explored the city, shops, and food. I tried turrón duro, and choclate con churros for the first time. We had some photo sessions on the Puente Romano (Roman Bridge), and searched all day for Jessica's batido cafe that she used to go too. Eventually, we discovered it was right next to our pension (we went there twice for milkshakes). Overall, the weekend was a nice break from the usual, and it was a great first trip to "real Spain" for me.

There is a reason why Thanksgiving is a day, but Christmas is a season.

Turkeys turkeys turkeys. I see most of my kids only once every two weeks, so I've been talking about Thanksgiving since last Tuesday. And let me tell you... I'm a bit Turkey-ed out. I've been starting my classes with a game of hangman, where the word is "Thanskgiving" and for a while, it surprised me that: a) it takes them forever to guess the word, and b) my kids respond "¿Qué es eso?" (or if I'm lucky, they say "What is this?"). I thought, "I've done a Thanksgiving lesson 15 times and you really had no clue this was coming?? Did you not talk to anyone?? However, upon further reflection I discovered the reasons for these absurdities. First of all, the letters G and V are hard for them to pronounce so they volunteer just about every other letter in the alphabet before saying these. And secondly, in contrast to my middle/high school experience, the students here stay in the same room while the the teachers move around. So they're in class with the same people all day every day, and there's none of the "Hey, what are we doing is English today?" discussions between classes. So I guess that explains why they were all so blind-sided. Anyway, there is usually one person that knows it's the day where we eat pavo. And to be completely honest... that's basically the jist of it. And I'm teaching 20 classes about it. OK, enough about Thanksgiving... on to bigger and better holidays!

So, as many of you know, I'm coming home for Christmas!! I'm going to officially have the longest birthday of my life. It will last about 33 hours because I'll be crossing time-zones that day. I'm not sure if that sucks or if it's awesome, but I'm so very excited to see my family and friends for the holidays. I just couldn't imagine spending it away from them. I can't wait to drink hot cocoa, watch holiday movies, eat/make Christmas bread, and see Portland lit up for the holiday season! Every once in a while, I get a rush of that holiday spirit. They have started hanging up lights around Bilbao for the holidays, and one of the teachers brought polvorones for everyone, which are traditional holiday treats that sort-of crumble when you bite into them. I tried the almond, chocolate, and lemon ones and they were all pretty good. Another holiday treat is Turrón, which seems kind-of fudge-like to me... It comes in all sorts of flavors, and sometimes nuts or wafers. I'm not explaining it right, but it's delicious.

Anyway, I'm trying to decide what I'm going to do for my lesson plans in December... I've had lots of random ideas like designing/describing an ugly Christmas sweater, doing a white elephant gift exchange, watching "The Grinch" or that old-school Rudolph movie... There are endless possibilities- and I'm open to suggestions.

Also... this is a shameless plug: I'll be done with this program in June (aka unemployed), so if you hear of any jobs that might be opening up (or know someone who I could talk to), please let me know! I'm leaning towards education of some sort, but it will be a year or so until I can start grad school. Clearly I will have experience speaking Spanish and teaching English as a second/foreign language but I'm also interested in math and sports, and I took lots of business classes in college. If you don't have my email, it's allysoncscott@gmail.com. OK, done. Just wanted to throw that out there.

Have a Happy Turkeyday!

Just checking in...

Had a really low-key weekend since many of my friends were out of town. Jess and I pretty much just hung out, baked some delicious crepes, and went to the gym. We did manage to go out one night with those of us still in town. And we also watched Harry Potter 2. Trying to prep ourselves for Friday, you know. Unfortunately, none of the theaters in Bilbao are playing it in English, so we'll have to bare it dubbed in Spanish. Not ideal, but still exciting.

This week I'm teaching the second-years and the bachillerato students (basically high school juniors/seniors- that plan on going to college). My classes today went really well. The second years are so precious. We played 20 questions with famous people, and then I had them do an activity where they got to draw. It seemed like they were having a good time and they were all really well-behaved. With the older kids, we talked about Thanksgiving... I described the holiday, and showed them a slideshow of typical dishes (It wasn't until today that I realized just how many Thanksgiving "staples" there are. We really do eat a lot on that holiday!). I also found some videos on how to brine a turkey, and how to make pumpkin pie. Unfortunately, I can't get any Food Network shows in Spain, which is a bummer because I would love to show them some of those videos- Giada, Bobby, and Ina are very important in my life...

Anyway, for how much my students talk about food, they don't have a lot of experience cooking it... I asked them if anybody cooks at home, and they all said no, for the most part. I'm curious if it's the same with older generations, but I fear for these kids futures a bit... It makes me really appreciate that Mom let us help in the kitchen. Or, let me rephrase that - in the spirit of the holiday - I am thankful for having learned how to cook throughout my childhood. That's a shout out to you, Mom. And Grammy. And Dad (I'm thinking about making dutch babies this weekend). Anyway, I asked my students what they do know how to cook and I got three answers: pasta, eggs, and tortilla española. I took this as a great opportunity to a) get them talking, b) teach some handy cooking verbs, and c) learn how to make a tortilla española. Perfect!

For those of you who are unfamiliar, a Spanish tortilla is like a thick potato omelet. So, absolutely nothing like a Mexican tortilla. They serve it in wedges at pretty much every bar/cafe. It´s kind-of bland and ugly, but it's probably the most recognized Spanish dish. Therefore, I would probably shoot myself if I didn´t learn how to make one of these before I left. So here´s how it´s done (according to my students):

• Peel and dice the potatoes.
• Fry them in a frying pan.
• Beat eggs in bowl (I think it takes about 6-8 eggs, but I forgot to ask).
• Add the potatoes to the eggs and mix them.
• Pour the mixture back into to pan and fry it.
• Flip it in the air like a pancake (if your talented enough). Or, as a safer alternative, use the age-old "flip the tortilla onto a plate and slide it back into the pan" trick.
• After it's cooked, remove from the pan and serve.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. It ended up being a really fun lesson! We all had a good time and learned something new. And don't worry- I didn't let them leave without learning some basic table manners and saying something they're thankful for. I still have yet to attempt a tortilla on my own, but it did inspire me to order one at the little cafe by our piso this evening.

Tomorrow's my long day. Hopefully the next few classes will be as good a the ones today.

¡Agur!

Finally, a beautiful day!

It is so gorgeous outside! Since this is my day off, I slept in until 8:30 this morning and woke up to sun streaming through the windows in my piso. After slowly eating breakfast and sipping my coffee, I decided to take a walk. I walked through the Parque de Doña Casilda and then strolled along the river past the Guggenheim and finally back through the city to my piso. The thermometer outside read 18 degrees, so I was perfectly comfortable walking around in a light sweatshirt. This is after many days of cold, rainy, windy weather, so I'm especially appreciative of the change. I should've brought a camera...

There not much to report on, except I finally joined the gym across the street (I'm still kind of sore...) and I taught my younger kids the Hokey Pokey. 

Oh! Portland got a shout-out in the newpaper this week! Not for any particular reason, just to shed some light on the city. The title is "La nueva meca de la bohemia blanca" (The new mecca of the white bohemian). Here are some quotes I thought were interesting (translated to English for you):

• "I'll trade you two dozen eggs for some goat cheese." 
• "[Portland] has become one of the new bohemian meccas of North America. Not only for people that pursue a lifestyle that's part rural-part urban, but also for thousands of young artists that search for inspiration in it's streets."
• "Portland is also the best city in the country for pet owners."
• "Portland has the profile of being one the the most attractive, little-known destinations in North America."

They also mention how some landmarks in Portland inspired the names of some characters in Los Simpson (like Ned Flanders and Montgomery Burns). If you didn't know already, The Simpsons is huge in Spain. In fact, they actually have a Simpsons mural on the outside of my school. 

Well, enough time on the internet, I've got to go take advantage of the weather before it gets dark. 

Cheers.

Fall-time in the Basque Country

Let’s start with Halloween… Halloween is not celebrated here nearly as much as in the states. All Saints Day (Novemebr 1^st) is a much more important holiday where people go to cemeteries and honor their family and friends that have passed by putting flowers on their graves. However, being the American that I am, I celebrated Halloween instead and had lessons about it in class. Since I had my younger students, I basically just played games with them, after asking them what they know about Halloween. They knew a lot more than I expected them to know- my kids were about to fill whole chalkboards with Halloween vocab, but I also noticed that their impression of Halloween is much much scarier than mine. They came up with lots of scary costume ideas like (ghosts, zombies, witches, vampires, mutant clowns, any character from a horror film, etc…), but were completely shocked when I said that you could dress up as things that weren’t scary like superheroes, princesses, or fish (I didn’t mention coffee cup, lipstick, or recycling bin costumes because it would’ve been way too confusing).

Anyway, Halloween was also Jessica’s birthday, so we headed over to our friend Claire’s house for some delicious birthday cake and drinks. From there we hit the town dressed up in our costumes. We got lots of looks on the metro, being the only people dressed up, but I think people loved it. Jessica got meowed at a few times (she was a cat). We went to one of the only bars open (this was a Sunday, so the choices were limited), and then to a Halloween party at a club, where we finally found other people in costumes. They had a contest for the best-dressed people, which itself is very exciting, but I got a kick out of the prizes. Third place got a 50€ gift certificate to a restaurant, 2^nd place got a certificate for a massage, and 1^st place (this would only happen in Spain) got A LEG OF HAM! Congratulations dude in a scuba suit- you get to carry around a huge leg of ham for the rest of the night!

Moving on… Ever since I got an email from Dad saying that all the leaves were changing in Portland, I started really missing trees… I hadn’t really noticed until now, but there aren’t any trees around my house and school. I got my fix yesterday though… Three friends and I took a bus out to the wine country which is absolutely gorgeous at this time of year. The trees and vines were all different shades of yellow, orange, and red. We were all awestruck- especially Thomas, who is from Oklahoma and never sees hills or vineyards. We got a tour of the Fabulista bodega (a bodega is a winery), which is one of two remaining underground wineries in Laguardia. It was really cool. In the lobby, they have the grape stomping basin (or whatever you call it), which filled the room with an overwhelmingly strong smell of vinegary wine. From there, we went downstairs into these little underground tunnels where they were storing all the barrels. We tasted some joven (young) and criado (matured) wine while the tourguide cracked jokes… most of which I didn’t understand. We hung out in the town the rest of the day, ate some food, tried some more wine, ventured down to the vineyards, and waited way too long for the bus to arrive. Overall, it was nice to see the countryside and drink some yummy Spanish wine.

That's all for now! Happy fall!

This was from October 25th...

So, it’s been a while since my last entry but let me catch you up on my life since then. Basically it feels like one big trial and error. Speaking of errors, I should correct one that I made in the last entry: Txakoli is actually white wine, not cider. My teacher corrected me today.

We went to a club last weekend… it wasn’t exactly the scene we were hoping for. We got off at the metro stop and walked about half a mile to Fever, which is in the middle of a bunch of warehouses. Most of the people there looked about 18 years old, which means that there was a good chance that some my students were there. Luckily, I didn’t recognize anyone (which doesn’t mean much because I have a like a million students). Anyway, we’re going to try to get some recommendations from people our age from now on…

On a more successful note, Jessica and I overcame some baking obstacles and invented lemon pancakes to go with our lemon cupcakes. OK, it was an impatient move, but they were pretty delicious.

School has been pretty good…  although I did miss my  first class today. Poor kids- they had to do activities from the book. I have two weekly schedules- and I got them mixed up.  That was embarrassing… but not as embarrassing as the shrimp incident: I thought this girl asked me “What do you want to eat”, which I thought was an odd question… I wasn’t really hungry, but I racked my brains trying to think of some acceptable answer. So finally, I said, “Right now shrimp sounds good. I’d like to eat some shrimp.” It looked like they didn’t understand me so I even drew a shrimp on the chalkboard (it was a pretty good drawing, actually). Then finally, the teacher goes, “I think you misunderstood… She asked you what you want to be”. You could safely say my goals in life are more than ambitious.

So, this Monday I went to Guernica for their Feria, which is a big festival/market. They had lots of local food and crafts. One thing about Spain is that there is not a ton of variety in the food. Even if there are different companies or brands, they still make the same thing. For example, there were probably at least 50 different cheese places, but they all offered one of two types of cheese: a tougher, parmesan-like cheese or goat cheese (queso de cabra). There were also booths that sold pastel vasca (basque cake), which I would describe as a mix between pudding and cheesecake- but not nearly as rich. Anyway, I got some produce and a scarf, finally… I went way too long without one.  I’ll probably need at least five more. Maybe once I get paid…

Getting Settled

So I’m finally getting settled in Bilbao. It was a crazy transition going straight from traveling to trying to get settled in a new city (and country…).  Now that I feel a little more secure, let me fill you in on my experience thus far…

Finding a place to live was a lot more difficult than I expected it to be. Originally, my friend Jessica and I intended to find a place together with Spanish roommates so we would force ourselves to speak in Spanish the whole time. Well, it might have been possible for one of us to find accommodation, but by the time we figured out that finding two vacant rooms in a Spanish “piso” (aka apartment) was virtually impossible, pretty much all the rooms were filled by Spanish students who are starting school around this time. We saw some pretty shabby looking pisos in the outer neighborhoods, and some mediocre rooms with questionable roommates. The worst by far was a room in a tiny piso with a guy named “Vladamir” who worked a night job, had porn up on his computer, and welcomed “night visitors”. Let’s just say we high-tailed it out of that one and immediately upped our budget and did more research on good neighborhoods. 

Anyway, we ended up being extremely lucky (thanks to one of Jessica’s teachers). We had to compromise on the Spanish roommates, but we got a cute 3-bedroom piso in a great neighborhood in the center of town. The previous renters had just moved out the day before and our landlord, Javier, hadn’t finished cleaning the place, but we insisted on a tour. After having seen so many (pardon my language) shit-holes, we didn’t even hesitate before running to the bank and giving Javier a 300 euro “signal” that we wanted the place. It was just our luck because by the time we got back from the bank, he had showed the house to another couple who would’ve taken it if we hadn’t. Phew! So, luckily we knew of another girl doing the Language Assistants program who was also having trouble finding a place, and the three of us moved in on Monday. Anyway, we’ve been spending the last week trying to make it seem like home. We shoved the creepy animal-skin rug into a closest, reorganized the kitchen, bought bedding and organizational things at Ikea, and figured out how to light the gas stove and operate the washing machine (in which my clothes were trapped in pool of water for three straight days. We finally got them out, but it’s still trial and error to get it to work). There are still some more little projects, but I’m starting to feel much for comfortable in the piso, and I’ve finally gotten to cook my own food!!

Speaking of food… Let me fill you in on how it works in Spain because this is one of the more revealing aspects of the culture here. First of all, Spaniards eat on a different schedule than Americans. They typically have breakfast (like a cup of coffee or orange juice and bread or a pastry) around 8 or 9 I’d say. Then, most people head to work and return around 2 or 3 for the biggest meal of the day. At restaurants, you can order off of a “menú” which is a 3 course meal. They usually have about 3 or four options for each course. For example, here’s what I ordered for my first meal here:

• Pan: Bread (Standard with any meal)
• Ensalada mixta: Salad with corn, eggs, olives etc. (You dress your own salad with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper)
• Filete a la plancha: Seared, flattened steak filet served with steak fries
• Perfiteroles: Profiteroles… delicious.
• Café con leche: Coffee with cream (although usually you would have a choice or wine, juice, or water)

There is usually a bunch of seafood on the menu here because we are so close to the water, but I’m still a little wimpy when it comes to seafood. However, I have had bakalao (cod), gambas (shrimp), and rabas (fried squid slices), which were all really great. I also tried some calamari, which was chewy... (Not my favorite). The last meal of the day is cena, which is really just a snack. Often people go out to a bar or café and have a “pintxo” or two. “Pintxo” is the Basque word for “tapa”, which is like a little appetizer, usually served on a slice of bread. Restuarants usually just set out plates of various Pintxos, and you just order them as you want them. Typical pintxos include: croquetas, which are breaded, fried, and creamy in the middle; salchichas or chorizo which is sausage; gambas; bocadillos de jamón, which are little ham sandwiches; and of course tortilla española, which is like a thick potato omelet. Those are the most common ones, but I’ve also had some other great pintxos of curried chicken, fried lomo (pork loin) with quail egg, and fried zucchini. Then you usually order a caña (small beer), tinto (wine), or a kalimotxo (which is red wine mixed with Coke, which is surprisingly tasty).

I should also mention paella, which is also very Spanish, but I’m still not completely sure about its cultural importance. Paella a huge family-style dish made of rice and either mariscos (seafood), or carne (meat). It takes a few hours to prepare. I had paella at a welcome party at my school, but I don’t usually see it on menus. Therefore I get the impression that it is like a party/celebration dish. They also served txokoli, which is a Basque cider that is traditionally poured from up high. Asturias, the region where Steph studied, is very well-known for their cidra (cider), but txakoli is apparently the Basque version. I’m not sure if there is any difference besides they name and the place it was brewed.

On that note, I should probably explain what I mean when I refer to “Basque”… So, Spain is broken up primarily into different provinces. For some reference points, Barcelona is part of the state of Cataluña, and Madrid is part of Castilla La Mancha. Bilbao belongs to País Vasco (it’s Spanish name), or the “Basque Country” as we say in English, or “Euskadi” as they say in Basque. The Basques have preserved their own language, Euskara (or just “Basque” in English), which is one of the oldest languages in Europe. It originated and has remained in the Basque Country, unlike Spanish, whose Latin roots were introduced when the Romans invaded and took the Iberian Peninsula as part of the Roman Empire circa 200 a.c. Anyway, Basque is completely different than Spanish, and everyone here is fluent in both languages, which just makes things more interesting. For example, most streets have a Basque name and a Spanish name. Usually people refer to the streets as their Spanish name, but apparently the Google Maps gives you the Basque name… let’s just say that when I arrived here, my directions weren’t very helpful. Also, a lot of times Basque people code-switch in the middle of a conversation. So, I’ll be overhearing a conversation, following along in Spanish, and then all of a sudden I’ll be completely lost! They did this at my orientation meeting and one of my fellow teachers must have noticed my open mouth and befuddled expression and said “If you ever can’t understand someone, they’re probably speaking basque.” This somehow made me feel more and less comforted at the same time. Anyway, it hasn’t caused many problems, and it’s actually pretty interesting. I’ve already learned a few words like Agur (which means goodbye) and Kasko (city).

*Fun fact: My cereal box has four languages on it: Spanish, Basque, Catalán, and Polish (at least, that´s what my roommate thinks it is…)

As far as my job in concerned… I haven’t done much. I went to the school the Friday before last for an introduction. Cristina, my “tutor” showed me around the school and took me to her classes, where the kids already knew my name and asked me lots of questions. The most popular ones were “What are your hobbies?” and “Do you have a boyfriend?” I’m teaching in an “Instituto”, which is a few different schools lumped into one, but I’ll be mainly working with the kids in secondary school, so they’re between 12-16 years old. I haven’t actually taught a class yet, but from what I understand, I’m mostly there so the kids (and teachers) hear English spoken as a native language, and to give insight into my culture.

[Ok, update since I first wrote this… I’ve had two days of teaching. The kids are precious. I mostly had them get into groups and brainstorm what comes to mind when they think of the US. The most popular answers were: Hollywood, big houses/streets, shopping, fat people, hamburgers, fast food, New York, Miami Beach, Justin Beiber… Most of their activities are written in British English, so at one point I had to read a passage and totally stumbled over the word “mum”. They also asked if I lived in a “flat” or a house in the States.]

I’ve met quite a few of the other Language Assistants. We started a facebook group, so a lot of us in Bilbao have gotten together. I’ve now got friends from Colorado, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ireland, Scotland, and England. It’s pretty funny comparing our accents and dialects. For instance, the guy from Oklahoma is named is “Thomas E. Mosley III”, which my Irish friend pronounced “Thomas E Mosley the Turd” so now he’s just “Thomas the Turd”. Also, a fanny is something much different in British. And in Ireland, they say “What’s the craic?” instead of saying “What’s up?”

Alright, well now that I’ve written your ear off, I’m going to head for bed. If any of you want to explore my neighborhood on Google, you can search: Calle Iparraguirre 44, 48011 BILBAO. I’m on the 4^th floor of a random triangle-shaped building.

Agur!