The joys and pains of working in a bilingual school

Despite the fact that teaching english is the reason I am in Madrid, I have yet to really blog about my school, the students, what its like, etc. It is nearly impossible to describe everything, but something that is unique at the school i work at is that it is a bilingual school (hence the reason I am here) where I work solely with teachers that speak english. While its not their first language, they all have a good enough command of it that we are able to communicate (most of the times). What I find so novel about this is that things can be said in the classroom that couldn´t normally be said because it would be considered inappropriate for the kids to hear teachers say such things, but since the kids don´t really know english, anything can be said and the kids are completely oblivious. So for example, there is a kid in my 1st grade class that is constantly misbehaving and the teacher was completely fed up with his antics so he says to me ¨you see that kid right there, sometimes I just want to cut his ears off!¨That is just one example, but similar things have been said numerous times. It´s like we have a secret language and there is no rules about what can be said!

So that introduces the topic of discipline. First, discipline is not as strict here as in the states and classrooms easily get out of control. They warned us about it in orientation, but it is something you really can't be prepared for. I really am tempted to introduce the idea of "class bathroom breaks" instead of letting kids go just as they feel the urge or as boredom sets in. They move around the classroom with the luxury that wasn't granted to me until I was in college. No joke.

Anyways, I digress. Because I am with 1st and 2nd graders, there is a lot of telling on people. I am starting to understand some phrases, but sometimes kids will come up to me "Profe! Profe!" and tell me something that their infliction makes me assume is a matter of life and death, and I can't understand A THING! Sometimes I feel really bad because they tell me something that is apparently something SOO important I must be told with extreme urgency, and I couldn't repeat it if they begged me because I didn't hear a single word of what they said just "khdskfhasdkljhavkjnadkljahsf". Other times, its kind of a relief because I don't have to deal with discipline issues. I just tell them "repeat" and point to the main teacher.

While there is a team of about 6 english speaking teachers, nobody else in my school speaks english. Rumor is some know a little bit, but will not speak it with a native speaker. While this may not seem like a real problem, it really is. Particularly because i'm not always with english speaking teachers. So for example, today one of my teachers asked me to go make copies. Easy enough right? Well I go to the copy machine and start copying and see that it doesn't have paper, and next to the copier is a sign in spanish that says I need to go ask Rosa for paper. WTF. So I go ask Rosa for paper in my best attempt in spanish, but she starts ranting in really fast spanish and stomps up to the copy room. I tell her I need 39 copies of each. Easy enough. Of course not! She starts trying to resize the copies for some reason and I tell her no, I want it all. Well once again, she starts ranting and raising her voice at me, and the other teachers look at me like I am a complete idiot so I can only assume that was the gist of her rant. Imagine putting an infant that has an extremely limited vocabulary in that situation, and that is how I felt.

In other news, I was walking from the metro to my school last Thursday and two girls come up to me and ask me if i'm an auxillary (keep in mind I wasn't speaking/reading english but they still knew I was an American-- I guess the hair really gives it away that I am from America for some reason). They were both from the States as well and had renewed so it was their second year. They tell me that they both work at the elementary school next door, and i'm like "there is a school next door?" and they proceed to tell me that the school i work at is for all the social-rejects and "socially undesirables" and all the other "good" kids go to the school next door. Pretty messed up, huh?

True Story: I am having a hard time telling the difference between boys and girls in my school. Seriously. Last week I referred to this boy that had a ponytail and gold earrings as "she/her" all day until I heard someone call him Juan...oops!

Non School Related news: I went to see my first movie in Spain. Don't be too impressed because it was "original version" which means it was in english with Spanish subtitles :)

Wow, i really live in Europe

So as life in Spain begins to really set in and be in full force, I am already finding it harder to make myself sit down and blog, and when I do, I think back over the week and decide it is not possibly let my family/friends know everything that is going on with my life. So for those that I don’t talk with on a regular basis, and the primary way of following me is through this blog, just rest assured that life in Madrid is amazing, I feel truly fortunate to have such great friends here, and to just be in an amazing country immersed in a one-of-a-kind culture.

Proceeding past my love affair with Spain, my week started off not so good. When I was at work on Monday I started feeling light-headed, hot, and just overall not well. So I came home, slept 10 hours, got up, got on the metro, and half-way there I started feeling light-headed and just overall dizzy like I was going to faint. So I get to the school and walk up to my director (she is a smoker, as well as almost every other teacher, and they stand outside the gates and chain smoke while the kids and family members walk up to them and say good-morning) and tell her that I am very sick and I need to go to the doctor. So she feels my forehead and says I am burning up. So long story short, she got one of the bilingual teachers that I work with (Julia) to take me the hospital. I don’t know what I have done without her because she did all the speaking and interpreting, I was just overall really thankful. So I stayed home from work for 2 days because I had a fever and was therefore contagious. It is no fun whatsoever to be sick abroad in a country where you don’t speak the language. It is definitely an incentive to use a lot of hand sanitizer and to take my vitamins.

So that brings us to Thursday. Thursday (which is our Friday because we don’t work on Friday’s) I met up with my expat-fam in Sol and we went to a bar and just hung out and then went to this horrible imitation of an “American club” with “American music” where all the expats hang out because they feel more comfortable with it, Joy Eslava. So being the expats that we are, we felt we had to experience it at least once. All I have to say is that I felt like I was at a high-school dance surrounded by 18-year olds that were out for the first time. It was just overall, not an enjoyable experience nor one that I would suggest for others. After that followed a series of unfortunate events that I will not go into detail here to save my mom from a heart-attacks, but I at least once to mention them for my own memories. Friday, me and the rest of my expat-family had taco night and it was great! There is just something so nice about having an “American” family-unit while abroad. Its not like we sit and sing the star-spangled banner, but there is something much more unifying about being an American when you are outside of America.

Now we arrive at my best weekend in Spain thus far. On Saturday me and Alissa went out on the town with Gonzalo and his friend Carlos and really had a great time. We went around to a couple bars in La Latina and just had drinks, conversations, jokes, and of course talked about cultural norms that me and Alissa aren’t use to. It was my first night out until the metro reopened! Yay for leaving the club at 5:45 a.m. ! Sunday, Gonzalo invited us out with some of his friends from school and such. They seemed to be really nice people, despite my self-inflicted inability to understand a word they said. However, because of my inability to communicate with them, I did a lot of observing. The one thing I have to say is that it is almost an out-of-body experience to see other cultural norms, and then reflect on how that would be viewed back home. As I am around more and more Spanish people, I think in general, we (Americans) just take some stuff too seriously. We are so caught up in political-correctness and how we are going to be viewed, that we confine ourselves to boxes of decorum and just become overall boring.

New Insights:

The more I am around non-native English speakers and attempting to absorb Spanish in various forms, my English is changing. I have noticed I have begun using inflictions of words that is perfectly understood in a monotone voice, I’m leaving out key words that don’t really exist in Spanish, and my sentence structure is getting all messed up because I am attempting to imitate Spanish. By the time I leave Spain, I am going to have a horrendous mixture of Spanglish and will be rendered incomprehensible by all.

I am also having to think more about English and why we say things the way we do. For example, Thursday at work the auxillaries had a meeting with the bilingual teachers and they were asking us questions about phrases we use to control the classroom. They were confident that we say “sit on your seat”, but I said no, its “sit in your seat”. They had a strong case because they were saying that we sit ON a couch, not in a couch, so why do we sit IN a seat. The truth is, I have no clue why we say the phrases we do, but we do. But when you hear their justifications for a wrong phrase, you start thinking, maybe I am mistaken. So in short, I spend all day in self-doubt on a topic that I am considered an “expert” on. EXHUASTING!

Quote of the week: “In the winter, I am yellow like a Simpson”- Carlos

*The quote of the week is becoming more and more competitive because I am around so many people that say hilarious things, especially when in a room of about 10 Americans that have been drinking a lot and are able to say anything they want and know they will be understood, for better or worse. However, most are extremely inappropriate so why these may not be the “funniest”, they definitely hit near the top.

some insights/revelations, etc.

Things that aggravate Americans about Spain, but at the same time, makes Spain Spain:

1. The lack of one stop shops: In the states we are bombarded with one-stop-shops and come to expect the convenience. For example, in the states you can buy a notebook at the grocery store, pharmacy, Wal-Mart, etc. But not in Spain. You have to go to a paper store if you want a notebook, true story. The one chain that is somewhat similar to a one-stop-shop in Spain is Corte Ingles, but it is so overpriced, it makes going to the papelaria just a necessity of life.

2. The inability to get coffee “para llevar”- to go: Here if you get coffee, you are expected to sit and enjoy it. Not take it with you. So coming from a culture where I could find a drive-up coffee shop almost every mile along the streets, not being able to find places that have to-go cups is aggravating in all senses.

3. Breaks in the middle in the day, that inevitably make the work day longer: So I started work this past week and was given my schedule. For some reason, schools take a ½ hour break from 11:30-12:00 for a snack, and then take a 2 hour lunch from 1-3. My question is, why not just wait that extra half hour for lunch, and why do we need 2 hours for lunch when we JUST had snack?!? As an American, I don’t like “wasting” time taking unnecessary breaks. I want to go work, with coffee in hand, get it all over with, and go home. But not here. I appreciate the slow pace, but it feels extremely abnormal and unnecessary.

4. Of course, laundry: no explanation needed.

5. Lack of acceptance of debit/credit cards: While you can use debit cards at larger department stores, going to the stores that are conveniently located require you to always carry cash. I am one that ALWAYS used my debit card at home and got annoyed when places would say I couldn’t use my card for my $1 purchase. Therefore, not being able to swipe and go is……aggravating to say the lease.

6. Everybody communicates via phone, and emails go unanswered: Ok this is a really hard one given it is 2009. Back home, I used email to communicate with EVERYONE. It didn’t matter if they were near or far, I would email them, and it wasn’t even expensive to call people, I just didn’t really do it. But not here. People still call, even when it costs a ton of money to place and receive calls. For example, I am trying to set up private lessons to make some extra cash, but everybody wants to call me instead of just emailing me. I was talking about this with a girl at work and I was telling her I don’t know why I find it so aggravating but I do, and she explained its because we are so use to being able to do things on our own time-schedule. If I see an email, and know that I need to answer it but what to think on it for awhile, that’s okay. But when people call (and they never leave voicemails) the only way to know what they want is to answer and be put on the spot.

I think that’s my list for now, but I am confident it will grow. In other news, I had my first private English lesson and it was a lot more exhausting than I thought it would be. It is a pretty sweet deal to get paid good money to just sit and talk with someone, but I’m constantly trying to think of new vocabulary words, but words that aren’t impossible to understand if you don’t understand the cultural context. It really makes me reflect on how I use words.

The woman I talked to yesterday was 24 and recently graduated from pharmacy school (I just can’t get away from pharm-tards can I?) Anyways, she was saying that a lot of the pharmacies want their pharmacists to know English because many immigrants and expats go into pharmacies needing help, and often times we/they don’t speak Spanish. She was also saying that she eventually wants to work for a pharmaceutical company, which if she does, she will be interviewed in English, all of her work will need to be done English, everything in English. It’s mostly because many of the pharmaceutical companies that operate in Spain are based out of the states or UK, and the tops of the companies only know English. We sure are a cocky language! Learn our language or don’t have a job. Cocky.

I am finding that giving private lessons to Spaniards is a great way to learn about Spain. Ana was telling us about the justice system here and we were baffled by the leniency. First, if you are under 18 you cannot be charged with anything, period. A couple years ago a 17 year old killed a girl, and nothing happened because he was under 18. Also, you can’t be in jail for longer than 30 years. So if you commit murder when are 20 and are convicted, then when you turn 50 you are released from jail despite still having 25+ years to commit more crimes. And lastly, you can’t be imprisoned past the age of 55. So if you are 40 and you kill someone, the most you will serve is 15 years because you age out of the system. So Ana’s tip was, watch out for the old people and the young people because you just never know about them.

And yes, I get paid to talk about stuff like this in English…it’s a sweet deal if you ask me!

NEWS FLASH: I walked around my neighborhood last night and I fell in love with Madrid. Despite my complaints in regards to culture shock, it is a place that cannot be given justice through explanation, it just has to be experienced. Last night as I walked through the streets with thousands of Spaniards, watching people eat at the sidewalk cafes, walking through the hustle and bustle in a t-shirt and flip-flops in October, I finally understood how lucky I am, and subsequently fell in love with the City.

Be prepared this is going to be a REALLY long one....

So I haven’t updated in awhile just because I started work this week. I had Orientation Monday and Tuesday and then today, Wednesday, I went to visit my school to meet everyone. Orientation was ummm….orientation. The first day Magdelena, the woman in charge of this entire program, spent the morning telling us about everything…..in Spanish! So I spent the entire morning trying to decipher how I was going to be paid, how I got my insurance, what I would be doing for the next year, all in Spanish. That was a mental workout to say the least. The only real comment I have about orientation is that either I am easily aggravated or Americans are just aggravating. All the other Americans were just asking useless questions. I am extremely happy I have already found my friends and surrogate family (Alissa, Erica, Jasmine, Tom, and Meagan). The funny thing is that my family here is just like family in general. Family is never chosen, it just happens…

Besides my aggravation with Americans, the orientation was overall really informative and made me excited about teaching this next year. The program I am doing is in its 6^th year. About 8 years ago the EU wanted each country to design a program in their schools that would make learning at least 2, preferably 3 languages mandatory. So now the way it works is that ½ of the curriculum in all schools is in English. One of which is science. So all their education in science is in English and never learn any science words in Spanish. They do this because it is one thing to have a foreign language class, but another to make English a necessity to learn science, which is a part of the standard curriculum. The other classes taught only in English are art, music, and PE. Something like teaching science in a foreign language would never happen in the states…..

So today I went to my school to meet the director and the other teachers in my school. Paula took us through the school to meet some of the other English teachers and they all gave us dos besos but what was funny is that one teacher said she is afraid that the fear of swine flu is going to force them to stop kissing as a greeting. She seemed really upset about the prospect of not greeting people with besos…….I digress, back to topic!

Let me first give some visuals about my school. It is in a not-so-good part of town with graffiti all over the building (there is a lot of graffiti in Madrid for some reason, but not artsy-graffiti, just pure vandalism). Just imagine Brooklyn. So after being buzzed through this huge gate, I go in and meet Paula, the bilingual coordinator at the school. Her English is decent, very broken, but considered great for Spain. So we sat down with her and she explains that the children in the school really need any assistance that is available to them because a lot of them are immigrants, of lower social economic class, have lots of family problems, etc. She said it is not rare for our equivalent of social services to have to become involved in many of the children’s lives because of things teachers report.

Now Paula is extremely laid back and would probably be considered borderline hippie in the States. She is a great person, kind of crazy, loves to laugh, and just really enjoys life. She then lets us know that we get to make our own schedule (crazy right!) as long as we get our hours in, she has no problem with it. So after talking with me and one of the other new assistants, (the other assistant is 27 and spent the past 5 years being a sign-language interpreter in New Mexico) Paula took us over to the school buildings. The way the school is set up it is an open campus situated in a compound, so the buildings aren’t all connected. So we walk in the buildings and the first thing I see is the teachers standing outside a bathroom handing the kids toilet paper before they go into the bathroom. Then there is another teaching standing outside the door so as the kids come out of the bathroom and she puts anti-bacterial on their hands. So I am assuming that A) there is not toilet paper in the stalls and B) there is not soap in the bathrooms…..

So after meeting all the teachers we went into Paula’s classroom and they were about to change classes. So as the kids rush in she points kids out as the gypsy kids, or the slow ones, or the ones that are lazy. But it was just something so different for a teacher to point to some to kids and say “they are gypsies!”

The kids were sooo cute though and soo excited to ask us questions in English. It made me smile. The kids I talked to today were between age 7-9 and went around saying “hello my name is ___. I’m ____ years old. I’m from_____.” Every kid was able to do it too! They definitely have limited exposure to English so its great to say stuff all the time. So when the kids were leaving I said to each one “I will see you tomorrow” and the first few had no clue what I was saying, but by the end of the line the kids were saying “I will see you tomorrow Daniela”. I am overall really excited about starting work J J

Quote of the day: “if you’re walking down the street and tomatoes starting falling out of the trees, hold on to your belongings and don’t look up” US Consular General (as part of our orientation that Americans that work at the US Consulate in Madrid came and gave a speech about staying safe in Madrid. For those that might not be aware, petty theft and pick-pocketing is a really big problem in Madrid. So the consular general was telling us about an experience she had in Greece when some kids hung out in the trees and threw tomatoes from the trees while having some buddies on the ground to grab the purses and valuables while the tourist were looking to find where the tomatoes were coming from. True story.....

fin de semana en Madrid (weekends in Madrid)

So I was in Spain last weekend, but I feel like this weekend was my first REAL weekend here. Last weekend I felt I was so hung up on the bad differences (such as no stores being open), but this weekend I took note of some of the good differences. For example, yesterday I went to the park and it was full of families. Not just 2 parents and a kid, but even grandparents, aunts, uncles, truly the entire family just spending time together. It made me think about how people in the states use their weekends compared to here. Maybe it is just me, but I always feel like we are doing stuff and running around on weekends, but here it is truly a day off. I think the cutest thing was that I saw a grandpa (probably in his 60’s) playing soccer with his grandson. You could tell it was definitely a natural occurrence here, just hanging out in the parks with family. I definitely have a greater understanding of the emphasis on family in Spanish culture now.

Today (Sunday) we went to Rastro flea market which is really just a huge street market where you can buy ANYTHING for real cheap. I was actually surprised of the amount of Spaniards that go because it is labeled as a tourist attraction. There was all the typical stuff there, but then there was truly just junk. We saw one guy selling light posts….really?? I didn’t buy anything but there was a poster that I wanted but I didn’t get. It was a painting of the statue of liberty with Barack Obama’s face. I loved it of course!!

In other news, I have been noticing that whenever I got out to a club or go shopping at a clothing store, they are always playing American music; however, so few people know English so they have no clue what the song is even about. Friday night I was in the bathroom in a club and there was some Spanish girls singing a Beyonce song and when I asked if they spoke English they didn’t understand a word I said. I just find it funny J

Random note: there is a bingo-rama right down the street from us and the old ladies line up to go inside in their “Sunday’s best”. Therefore, I think its safe to say that Bingo is an international old-lady pastime……..

Quote of the Day: “you never date a guy that has been to prison, not even federal” (Jasmine)

bastante bien

So today I was finally able to go to IKEA and it was very much worth the wait. I was able to get some personal touches to make my room feel more homey which is a great feeling J

Last night I went to my first intercambio at O’Reilleys (an Irish bar in the city center—near Sol). An intercambio is where people from lots of different countries get together and practice new languages. It was a really cool experience. I was talking to a couple from Spain that wanted to practice their English and they were asking how I was adjusting to Spain and I told them the whole no-dryer thing is definitely going to take some time to get used to. (In case you aren’t aware, people in Spain don’t really use dryers, they just dry their clothes on a clothesline). Anyways, he explained that I must remember that Spain is just 30 years and one generation past being a 3^rd world country, so the fact that they don’t use dryers should be of no surprise. For those that don’t know, Spain had a dictator until about 1975. I just thought that was something good to keep in mind when I am complaining about putting my clothes out for everyone to see.

In addition to my daily happenings, today I decided I wanted to cover a couple things on here that have been on my mind:

First, when people arrive in a new city it is very normal to be lost, but Madrid takes being lost to a whole new level because they do not have street signs. Let me repeat that, they do not have street signs; at least not what an American would consider a street sign. Therefore, nobody knows where anything is and when you stop and ask a Spaniard where someplace is they say “es muy leijos” (it is very far) which usually means they have no idea where it is!! One guy told us a plaza was 40 minutes away when it was right around the corner. The point of the story is, embrace being lost when in Madrid.

Second: two days in a row I talked freely about someone with one of my roommates on the metro, and nobody else on the metro had any idea what I was saying. I know it sounds bad, but it is pretty liberating to know you can freely comment about people’s clothes or relationship statuses and them be none of the wiser.

Favorite quote of the day: “Danielle, I think he is talking about shitting”- Erica

(Background: at the intercambio last night Erica was talking with a Spaniard about sayings and he was trying to say that there is a Spanish phrase that people use when they are mad at their bosses and he kept squatting and making a grunting face but we had no idea what he was saying and after a while we figured out that the saying is “I want to shit on my boss”, but we didn’t get it for probably 5 minutes and after he squatted and grunted probably 15 times…great times!)

Updates de Espana!!!

So I haven’t been able to blog since I arrived in Madrid because we haven’t had Internet. So here are a few recaps from my memory, some are more jumbled/fresher than others:

Thursday night 9/17: So after traveling a ton of hours and getting no sleep, we get into Madrid. We get to our apartment and our landlords were waiting for us. They were older than I had imagined, probably in their late 50’s early 60’s. Anyways, they were really nice people but I couldn’t understand a WORD they said!! Talk about a culture shock and a slap of reality. Thankfully, Alissa and Erica are pretty much fluent, but I felt so isolated it was unbelievable. Also, when we were at our stopover in Dublin we drew rooms and I got the smallest room, to say it was tiny would be an understatement. It was probably the size of the bathroom at my house back in the states. So after the landlords left and pretty much considered me a mute, I go into my bed and pretty much cried myself to sleep. I was thinking about how this was a huge mistake and wondering how I could get out of it. I rationalized with everything that was going through my mind that I should just sleep on it and make any decisions at a later date. Is it bad that when I felt myself wakeup, I hoped that when I opened my eyes, I would be back home……

Saturday 9/19: I am going to feel Saturday on my feet for many days to come. But the saddest part is that I didn’t take a camera with me. So me and the roomies wondered around the city today some more, went and kind of got our internet set up, nothing too eventful, but I did make plans to meet up with Jorge, one of my Spanish friends from Australia. Last nice was “el noche del blanco” which is a big street party that happens once a year in Madrid. Each plaza (think cul-de-sacs but more European like) had something different going on. We saw a Tupperware band (yes, Tupperware) and some street performers and such. After being lost for a while trying to find Jorge we finally got to meet up with him and his friends. Something kind of funny. In Spain they do besos (kisses) on each cheek when they are meeting people. Well Jorge had told them that we were all Americans and since they all knew English they greeted us in an “English” style by shaking hands. I guess they think that’s how we greet random people in the states, but it was just really funny. I wanted to say “we don’t do this at home, this shaking hands business”, but I knew it was their attempt to make us feel comfortable because for almost the entire night, they spoke English (which I was so thankful for!) After bar hopping, which is what I guess Spaniards do, we got to this Havana club and it was real cool, I would go back. The only thing is that drinks are expensive, but you only need one to really feel anything. It was 9 Euros for a mojito!! Don’t worry though folks, my head started spinning half way through……oops

What was so cool about last night though was just taking with a lot of highly educated Spaniards that speak English and getting their take on a couple things. One thing that Jorge said that caught my attention. Specifically He is an attorney now and went to the best university in Spain. Anyways he was complaining that him and his friends work so hard and go to school for such a long time so that the rest of the country can keep up their irresponsible behavior and partying (it was definitely said with resentment). He was saying he only get paid 35,000 Euros as a first year associate after taxes, which he said are excessive. It was just interesting to hear that take and how they personally perceived a “socialized” system. There was also another guy that was asking about the cost of healthcare in the US and asked if I thought Barack would get it passed. I said probably not because the insurance companies make a lot of money, but I just thought it was interesting that people in Spain are following our quest for a public provided health care, when a lot of people in the states might not even have a clue about what is going on right now.

Sunday 9/20: Like everyone has said before, absolutely nothing is open on Sunday. There are a few stores, but nothing compared to all other days. So after sleeping until noon ( I have never slept that late in my life, but I usually don’t stay out until 5 walking the streets of Madrid either), I took my computer in search of Internet. Café y Te was closed (shocking) so I walked down towards plaza del Toro. Plaza del Toro is one of the bullfighting rinks in Madrid. It was a BEAUTIFUL building! Imagine Lucas Oil Stadium, but older, and you have plaza del Toro. I ended up not getting Internet down there so I walked closer towards home and went to a park and did Rosetta stone. That was pretty much my Sunday.

Monday 9/21: On Monday we left the piso determined to get Internet. Unfortunately, you have to jump through a million and one hoops to get Internet, one of which is open a bank account. Luckily Erica wanted to open one anyways. So we go to Phone House, which is where our landlords told us to go, and they tried to tell us it would be 20-30 days for Internet!! We asked, no es posible muy rapido? and she said “no”. So we went to Telefonica and that said later this week! So we went to bed happy on Monday.

Tuesday 9/22: I noticed today my Spanish is getting better. I haven’t gotten to the point where I am able to speak it, but I can finally understand people. Thank god! What is the most exciting though is that I don’t find myself translating word for word, I just get it. It is something that cannot be understood unless you have experienced it, but it is a great feeling truly. I have been wondering around Madrid like a lost puppy never far away from Alissa or Erica. Today was a great day overall! This morning Telefonica called and said that they could install our Internet this evening! So we get out of bed with an extra pep in our step and headed off to the metro to meet our WONDERFUL landlords/grandparents for our NIE appointment. They said they consider us their children, and they do truly treat us as such—they even called our schools LMAO. Back to the NIE, For those that don’t know, an NIE is like our version of a social security number and allows me to get paid while in Spain. Typically arranging an NIE appointment takes 2-3 months, but our wealthy and connected landlords knew somebody and got us right in. They are truly incredible and we would have better utterly lost without them. In addition, they took us to see Alissa’s school, which is out in the campo (country). Random note--Spain is very dry!!! Imagine Nevada. There are mountains, dry grass, the whole works. The strange thing is that it struck me as beautiful. It just appeared so natural. It’s hard to describe.

What was even more exciting was that today in the park I was practicing Spanish with Rosetta stone and this older guy (probably 70’s) came up to me and asked me a question (in Spanish of course). First thing to know, is that older men wonder streets and parks everywhere and everyday in Madrid. They are us also dressed up, like suites. They don’t wonder around in a senile way like the states, but more as a thing to do and a way to see people. Anyways he comes up to me and I respond in Spanish that I couldn’t understand him and asked him to repeat it. So he repeated it and I still couldn’t understand so I just explained that I didn’t speak Spanish. So in a very clear and slow manner, he asks where I am from and I was able to respond in Spanish!! We had probably a 5-minute conversation and I almost understood EVERYTHING and was able to respond. I just felt such a high. I really did it!!! The topping on the cake is that 5 minutes after I came back from the park the Internet guy came by and now we have Internet in the piso. What a great day!!!! Now I am just wrapping this up and then we are going to an intercambio (language exchange) tonight. Somehow I have become the evening event planner of our piso and I have something for us the next three nights.

Last notes: My favorite quotes thus far,

“ I’ve been thinking about it and I just can’t understand, how can a pillow be flat and lumpy?”- Erica

“Where are my pants?!?”- Alissa

“I work so all these people can party”- Jorge