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