Escuela y events

Hello all!

It’s been a while since my last update and a lot has happened! I’m still working on getting a schedule set-up and settling into that routine. I finally went to school last Thursday, and this Monday and Tuesday. I also had a great weekend and saw some pretty cool events, including a super authentic flamenco show, a Mexican band concert, and the Madrid 2016 Olympic rally.

School:

My first day started off a bit awkwardly. I came into school about 20 minutes early because I over-estimated my commute. I didn’t have the key to the bilingual department so I waited awkwardly in the hallway for the bell to ring before going to my first class. I found the room with no problem and waited again in the hallway for the teacher (José Antonio, the Science teacher) to come. Like I said earlier, the teachers in Spain move around but the students stay in the same class. So, once one teacher has left, and the other is still coming, the kids are left to their own devices in the classroom. Sounds like a recipe for disaster? Well it sort of is.

José Antonio still hadn’t come and the kids were pretty rowdy. However, as the Comunidad de Madrid made very clear – I am not a disciplinarian and I wasn’t sure if I should go in or not to calm then down. Another teacher eventually came by, and told me to go in and introduce myself so that the kids would be quiet. So, I was in the middle of my little spiel (Hi, my name is Katica Kiss, I was born in New Jersey, but living in Washington DC – Yes Obama is my neighbor….) when in walks José Antonio with a very confused look on his face. Apparently he didn’t know I was coming, and quietly told me that he didn’t need me and that I could leave. So I awkwardly said goodbye to the students and went back to the bilingual department to wait again in the hallway before a teacher with a key came by.

Anyway, the beginning of my first day was basically a lot of awkward waiting. I was also sent out of classes twice after I had introduced myself and was feeling a bit frustrated. However, things picked up in the afternoon and today. I had prepared over the weekend an activity on Ancient Egypt for two classes. I found a pretty complex article on the objects Ancient Egyptians would bury with mummies (amulets, food, weapons etc.) and told the students it was an exercise on skimming complex texts to find the information they are looking for. After finding the objects and their purpose, the students were to discuss what these objects reflected about Ancient Egyptian’s beliefs about the after-life – namely that afterlife was an extension of human life, and people would need food, weapons etc. just like they did during their lives on earth.

Anyway, I thought the exercise was a pretty good one and there were some successes and mishaps in execution.

The students were surprisingly enthusiastic, especially considering it was the last two periods of the day and they are understandably antsy. They also have a better vocabulary then I had expected, and understand more than I thought they would. Though their pronunciation might not be the best, but I was impressed with their questions and word choice.

However, just as they are enthusiastic they are also chatty! They talk amongst themselves a lot during class, when the teacher is talking, and particularly when working on something. The teacher had also printed out a limited amount of copies, so the students had to share amongst groups the articles which really didn’t help.

Overall, I was happy with how it went and appreciative of the opportunity to be more engaged then just sitting in the corner, correcting pronunciation every once and a while. The teacher also asked while we were walking around and helping the students if I had ever taught in a classroom. I told her I hadn’t, and only have tutored on an individual basis. She told me that she was surprised because I had a natural ability and seemed to connect well with the students. That was really nice to hear especially since she’s a teacher I really like a lot and value her opinion. It also helps that she invited me to her vacation home in Northern Spain ;)

I also taught a short lesson today on the moon and lunar phases. Waning gibbous moon? Ever heard of it? Me neither. Being back in school in a middle/high school is an interesting exercise in testing my memory of the things I learned a long time ago! So, in some ways I’m just as much of a student as the kids – and learned that it takes the moon 29.5 days to go through its phases, and that the moons has a weak atmosphere which accounts for the extreme temperatures during the day and at night. It’s a good exercise in humility!

I’m also starting to get to know the kids better, and a lot of them are really sweet. When I said I was from New Jersey two girls in the front row got super-excited because apparently one of the Jonas Brothers is from NJ. They later came up to me at the end of class to show me their agendas that were filled with Jonas brother pictures and hearts to show me which one was from NJ. Another girl came up to tell me that she will be living next year in Westfield, NJ with some family friends and has visited there before. It’s interesting how quickly you can pick up student dynamics – and tell which students are really engaged and interested in learning and which ones are going to be problems. Overall I find that the girls are better students (or at least more attentive) which is pretty common at this age I think. However, there’s also another boy, Miguel, who is really sweet and really bright. He’s adorable and is always ready to ask questions.

There are also some pretty funny kids. When I walked in with one of the teachers into the class, the teacher asked the students if I had already introduced myself to them. They said yes, and one kid chimed in with my life biography and said, “Yes, and she was born in 1987 in New Jersey, and has one brother…” – repeating word for word the “about me” poster I had prepared.

Another time I walked over to two boys who were messing around and play/arguing with one another and jokingly asked them if I should give them another assignment since they were “clearly” done with one they were supposed to be working on. One of them smiled at me, apologized and said, “sorry, this one is problematic” and pointed to his friend. I had to give him credit for using a pretty advanced word!

Next week I’ll also start tutoring after classes which means I’ll be making a little extra pocket money. I’ll go home with one of the teachers after class, have lunch with her, and then tutor her daughter or son for about an hour – all while getting paid 20 euros/hour! English tutoring is in high demand and pays really well! I’ll be tutoring at least 3 hours/ week, and an extra 2 hours every other week.

Since I also have a better idea of my schedule now I’m really going to try to get involved in the research project and/or organizations that I’m interested in learning more about. I’ve been a bit frustrated just because I’m realizing I don’t have as much time as I had hoped to do these other projects, but I’ll just have to be flexible and hope for the best.

Events:

Last Friday was an exciting day in terms of life logistics. Friday morning I went to the police office to get my NIE, which is an ID number given to temporary residents. After a last-minute visit to get passport photos because the ones I had were too light, I officially applied for temporary residency and should be getting my card within a few weeks. I also finally took out money from my Spanish bank account and confirmed that my Santander debit card will be coming soon in the mail.

On Thursday, I went with some friends to Casa de America, a cultural institute that I have often passed when running to Retiro park. We saw the Mexican Institute of Sound (see you tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3z81DxFt0I). The concert was a lot of fun and really high energy! Casa de America is also a really beautiful building and they have an incredible outdoor garden bar- very pijo (swanky) but it was a great night. They are having a Chilean film festival soon that I will hopefully be seeing.

On Friday night I met up with some friends to go to a Flamenco tablao in La Latina. I hadn’t explored much of La Latina before and was excited to find that there are a ton of great bars and restaurants all conveniently located on the same street. I went with some friends who had been there before and raved about the chorizo and flamenco – both which were great. We wentto the downstairs of the bar and soon found ourselves in a smokey room filled with Spainards and two old men from Cordoba, one singing and the other playing guitar. It was super authentic – just a bunch of friends sitting around and playing flamenco. The singer was the picture of an older Spanish guy – told funny and inappropriate stories (I didn’t understand most of it, but got from the face and hand gestures the nature of the jokes). Eventually some of our friends left and we invited a group of older guys to sit with us at the table because we had plenty of room. It turned out one of the guys was also a Flamenco singer and he got up to sing a few songs. It just felt super authentic and intimate, and you could tell that this group of friends probably did this at least a few times a week. Some of my favorite flamenco tablaos in Granada normally draw a younger crowd, so it was fun to see the flamenco atmosphere in an older context as well.

I was supposed to go on Saturday to Toledo, but last minute we decided that impending sicknesses (a lot of people are getting colds from the extreme weather changes – hot one day, cold the next, and then hot again) and exhaustion called for a more relaxing day. That night I went to see “El Secreto de los Ojos” with Rebecca – an Argentine movie that was recently released and won a lot of awards in the San Sebastian film festival. It was a bit difficult to understand at parts because of the Argentine accent, but it was really well done. It was the story of two lawyers, and their experience with a brutal rape and murder. I won’t get into the details, but Rebecca and I walked out with completely different interpretations of the movie! We’re not sure who exactly was the murderer, because of some translation issues and ambiguous scenes. We’re hoping some other friends will see it soon to give us another opinion!

Finally, on Sunday I walked with a friend down to Plaza Cibeles to participate in the Olympic Rally. Madrid is bidding for the 2016 Olympics and is super excited about it. There are posters all over the place, it’s in the newspaper all the time, and finally this weekend they planned a huge rally to show solidarity and city support. There was a DJ and David Bisbal, a very famous Spanish pop artist, gave a free concert. It was a lot of fun and despite some rain showers almost half a million people showed up! Below is a picture of the crowd, I was in the red side and waved my red sign like the rest of them.






Below are also some other pictures – from Retiro park and other places. I’ve been working out the kinks w/ this new camera and finally found Lithium batteries so it doesn’t die every two minutes. Hopefully I’ll be taking more pictures when I start traveling – starting w/ San Sebastian this weekend!

Besos,
Katica

Turtle Haven

Hello all, since I’m not emailing out this blog link until today (had some photo gliches earlier) I figured I’d provide another update. Yesterday we went to Retiro park and had a lovely picnic and enjoyed the warm(ish) weather while it’s lasting. It’s definitely noticeably colder since we first arrived so the fall is definitely on its way.

After spending a few hours at the park a few of us ventured over to the Reina Sophia, the modern art museum. It’s the modern art equivalent of the Prado and has some great work, it’s most famous is probably Picasso’s Guernica. I’ve been there a few times when I was in Spain before but it’s always fun to go back, and this time it’s free! The museums in Spain have “free hours” where everything is open to the public. Normally the Reina Sophia is free 6-8pm weekdays but apparently on Tuesday it’s not open at all, which we discovered after walking there.

However, since the Reina Sophia is near the Atocha metro/renfe station I wanted to show some people the turtle haven I’ve discovered. In one section of the train station there is this huge glass room with palm trees among other plants and it’s really beautiful. And, best of all, there is a turtle pound which is actually very entertaining. We stayed there for a bit to turtle-watch and agonized over whether one of the turtles was stuck/sleeping or dead. Apparently neither of the three.

We found a nearby café and sat down for a long talk about living and working (or not working) in Spain. I’ve been finding this filler time before classes to be very awkward although I know I should be enjoying the time to relax. The head of the bilingual program hasn’t told us exactly when school starts, or what day this week we can come in to visit the school and meet the other teachers. Some TA’s (mostly primary) have already started so it seems that while they are all public schools it’s up to the schools judgment when exactly they want to start.

There are also some interesting expectations that the Comunidad de Madrid (who sponsors the Auxiliar program) has told us. In schools we are: 1) unable to communicate in Spanish 2) Supposed to be British.

The first one I think is mostly in relation to the students. The comunidad wants us to only speak English to the students so that it forces them to communicate to speak English with us. While I understand this reasoning, I actually disagree with hiding the fact that we speak Spanish. I think telling the kids that we were able to learn another language makes us more relatable and approachable, and gives them inspiration that they too can become strong English speakers. However, they’re paying my salary so there’s not too much I can do about it.

As for being British, it appears that I’m going to have to brush up on my “British” so to speak. Spain, along with most European countries I believe, follows British – English spelling and pronunciation. While they don’t expect me to start speaking in a British accent (while that would be fun) I need to remember how to use British spelling – colour, favour etc. Apparently the Brits used to spell “jail” as “gaol.” Apparently that is old-fashioned, but I have never seen that spelling before.

In other news it looks like I will be traveling to San Sebastian next weekend! I’m very excited about this development, and have been looking forward to going there because I’ve heard it’s beautiful. I went there once when I was younger with my parents (we were visiting family in Southern France and crossed over to Spain) but all I remember was that it was very brightly colored and so were the car license plates. I hope to be much more observant this time!

This weekend we’re also hoping to visit a small town outside of Madrid and on Saturday is Noche en blanco, a huge cultural event/party in Madrid which I’m sure will be a great time. I’ll keep you all updated! Here’s the official website: http://lanocheenblanco.esmadrid.com/lanocheenblanco/

Until next time! Besos!

Katica

A long and necessary update:

Saludos de Madrid! I’ve been meaning to write and update this blog – so here it goes! Please feel free to skim I have the tendency to do blog posts in a stream-of consciousness style

**note on blog title: For those of you who may have forgotten, my last name is “Kiss” which is pronounced like quiche in Hungarian. Conveniently, quiche is one of my favorite dishes to cook and eat. Since my last name is pronounced like kiss in English, I thought it would be suitable to name my blog “Besos de España” (kisses from Spain). Also, besos is a very common goodbye in Spain – you say besos to almost everyone, and kiss everyone twice when you meet and say goodbye.

Pre-Arrival

First of all, let me begin by explaining what exactly I am doing in Madrid. The truth is, I’m not too positive about that myself. About a year ago I was in the midst of Fulbright applications – trying to finalize my project proposal and scrambling for affiliation in Spain. Affiliations are people, organizations, academics etc. that will vouch for your project and pledge to provide support/guidance. Through a professor in Granada, I was able to connect with another professor who agreed to provide academic affiliation. However, I felt that the nature of my interests would require organizational affiliation as well and I was not able to get that in time for handing in my application. So, last minute I switched to teaching because I felt like that would be a better option and was still flexible enough for me to pursue my research interests on the side.

Fast forward to April and I found out that I was awarded the fellowship! I later found out that I would be teaching “secundaria” (ages 12-18, though we don’t teach the 16-18 yr olds). My instituto is IES Maximo Trueba, located in Boadilla del Monte, about an hour outside of the city. I found out that my good friend Angie was also awarded a TA (Teaching Assistant) fellowship and we were both super excited.

This past summer was pretty busy with working at Changemakers (Hi everyone at Changemakers, I miss you all!), my graduation, my brother’s graduation, catching up with friends in DC and LV, and studying for the GREs. I was really lucky to stay with my Aunt in DC and enjoyed the numerous dog walks (Hi Agi and Spencer!) and spending time outside. I also went to the consulate to apply and pay for my visa, as well as booking flights/hostels etc. I stayed in DC until late August and had a great week with Tim (who was in Morocco this summer) before heading back to NJ for packing. My Mom was super patient and helpful with helping me figure out what I needed and how to fit it all in two suitcases. I was able to see my brother (who just started his freshman year at MIT) and Aunt before leaving.

It was an interesting summer – I met some great new people at Ashoka, caught up with old friends, while missing lots of people who weren’t in DC or Long Valley. The whole time I don’t think it really sank in that I would be abroad for a whole year, and to be honest I’m not sure it still has.

Traveling

My parents dropped me off at Newark airport on Thursday, Sept. 3^rd for a 5:30 pm flight. I met up with Angie at the gate (we were on the same flight) and it was great to see her and catch-up. We had a few hour layover in Copenhagen and then caught the second flight to Madrid. On the plane we met a really nice Canadian guy (who has lived quite the international life, including in Mexico, London, and now Copenhagen). We really enjoyed speaking with him and made plans to meet up the next day in Madrid.

Once arriving at the hostel, Angie and I went into super-speed mode. We had a lot to do – including getting SIM cards, abono metro passes, and of course the dreaded apartment. Thanks to Clayton’s Spanish friend, I had been religiously visiting idealista.org, an amazing apartment hunting website that makes craigslist look positively rudimentary (which it really is). Through the site I was able to connect with a lot of people and had about 6 apartment visits lined up. Angie also had a bunch lined up so we had quite the day planned after a day of traveling.

I won’t bore you with the details – but from Friday to Sunday we visited A LOT of places. Other than the stress and nervousness of trying to find something, it was actually a lot of fun and a good opportunity to explore the city. In the end I found a cute place in Alonso Martinez, which I’m sharing with 3 Spaniards (ages 21 – 26) who all seem very nice. Hugo is 26 and works for a style PR firm, and represents Levis. Sandra is 26 as well and works for the corporate side of Corte Ingles, a huge department store in Madrid. Andrea is Hugo’s younger sister (21) and an audio-visual university student. Angie also found one in Embajadores that is perfect for her commute.

As to be expected, there were some bumps in the road and some funny translation situations. However, over all I think we both did pretty well considering neither of us has really spoken Spanish in 2 years. One example is when my compañeros were showing me the piso I misunderstood and thought they were talking about the badae – but turns out they were talking about the Jacuzzi tub! During on of Angie’s apartment visits (Kyle and I tagged along) the girls were explaining a very complex situation where the apartment was supposed to house 3 people but they illegally were housing 4. She referred to the 4^th “illegal” roommate as “negra” (black – as in black market) and at first we thought that the problem was that the roommates were racist which was not the case. Anyway, as long as you have a sense of humor about it, it all works out!

Orientation

After spending the first few days in a hostel and apartment hunting, we packed up our stuff to go a Residencia which is where we would be attending the Fulbright orientation. I had already moved in most of my stuff to my new place and Angie moved in hers to her apartment the next day. Orientation was pretty busy, but a great opportunity to meet all the Fulbrighters. I mostly met TAs because they were in our sessions, but I also met some really interesting research Fulbrighters. I was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t be joining the researchers, but I am also looking forward to the challenge of being a teaching assistant and I like the support that the TA provides. After I have a better idea of my schedule I’ll try to see what kind of other side projects/research I can do.

It was really great to hear from former TA’s, some of them are staying for a year longer which is an option available to everybody provided we do a good job. I had also heard a lot of the information from Adena, the fulbrighter who was at our school and she was incredibly helpful in preparing us.

Other than the sessions, we all would go out at night to explore different parts of Madrid and get to know each other. There were also a lot of TAs who won’t be in Madrid (there are programs in Valencia among other areas) so it was a good opportunity to get to know them as well. After a few busy days, it was nice to finally move in and unpack all of my stuff in my new piso.

Post Orientation

Since Orientation ended last Friday, I’ve just been relaxing, catching up with friends/family, and exploring the city with my new friends. I’ve been to lavapies, which is a really colorful section of Madrid known for its immigrant population and incredible Indian food. We’ve gone to a few places in Tribunal/Bilbao area, as well as Malasaña and my area. Last Saturday we ventured out to a town outside of Madrid, where a friend is living and teaching. It’s apparently the town’s biggest Fería of the year and it was a lot of fun. They had all kinds of music, free food, and we enjoyed hanging out and getting out of the city. We also enjoyed non-city prices, and getting tinto verano at reasonable prices

Us eating at the Feria

Strange Obama “yes we can” poster in Spanish phonetics (?) That’s our theory at least..

After the Feria, we came back into the city and walked around Retiro park for a bit. I’m a big fan of Retiro, and trying to take advantage of it as much as possible before the weather gets too cold. I walked to the park from my piso the other day and went running in the park while stopping at different areas to do some people watching. Today we’re going to have a little picnic at Retiro which should be fun.

While I’m liking Madrid, I have to be honest I’ve been more homesick than I had expected. I’ve been comparing Madrid a lot to Granada, which is really not fair since it’s a very different city and different circumstances. I’m hoping once things get busier, and I start school that the homesickness will subside. As Dylan, my best friend who lived in Madrid before told me, Madrid is not like Granada where its charm and beauty is immediately there upon arrival. He says that Madrid’s charms need more familiarity and it’s advice I’ve taken to heart. I’ll post later about the differences I’ve noticed.

Closing thoughts

Alright, I think that’s more than enough information for now! I apologize for the dry post, but I felt like a catch-up was necessary. I promise to provide more interesting anecdotal stories soon. I'm also hoping that I'll soon have a better idea of my teaching sched. so that I can start working on side research projects, volunteering for Ashoka Madrid, intercambios, taking classes or whatever works out. I'm trying to be flexible and really absorb the "no pasa nada" Spanish mentality.

I’m now off to get ready for today’s picnic at Retiro. I’ll try to be diligent with this blog and keep you all updated. I’ve looked back a few times at my blog I kept in Granada and I’m glad I kept up with it. I’ll try to do the same this time! All my love and best to everyone!

Besos,

Katica