Every city has a word

Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat, Pray, Love wasn't the most intriguing read of all times (in fact it was one of the only books in my life that I couldn't finish reading) but it wasn't without its good points!  At one point in Italy, her friend Giulio tells her,

Every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there. If you could read people’s thoughts as they were passing you on the streets of any given place, you will discover that most of them are thinking the same thought. Whatever that majority thought might be- that is the word of the city. And if your personal word does not match the word of the city, then you don’t really belong there.
            "What's Rome's word?" I asked.
            "SEX," he announced.
            "But isn't that a stereotype about Rome?"
             "No."
....Now if you are to believe Giulio, that little word - SEX - cobbles the streets beneath your feet in Rome, runs through the fountains here, fills the air like traffic noise. Thinking about it, dressing for it, seeking it, considering it, refusing it, making a sport and game out of it -- that's all anybody is doing."

If I had to give just ONE word to Madrid....I think it would be FIESTA.  I can guarantee that everyone on the streets of Madrid is either thinking about a celebration, tired from a previous celebration, dressing for / shopping for / preparing for an upcoming celebration, excited for a celebration, regretting too much celebration...the list goes on and on.  The "mañana mentality" of Spain?....blame it on the fiesta.

 

 

Favorite poem

My Dad has a collection of old and tattered poetry books from his college days, picked up at various second hand book stores and antique shops over the years.  As a kid I always loved the way they looked and smelled, but never opened them.  When I was 13, I finally opened one up.  It was a collection of poems by Tennyson. I read this poem and immediately copied it down onto some pretty Korean stationary.  It remained on that Korean stationary (in my 13-year-old self's handwriting) in the clear plastic front of my binder for most of high school.  I didn't realize that I had it memorized until I just started reciting it to myself recently.

The Flower
by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Once in a golden hour
I cast to earth a seed.
Up there came a flower,
The people said, a weed.

To and fro they went
Thro' my garden-bower,
And muttering discontent
Cursed me and my flower.

Then it grew so tall
It wore a crown of light,
But thieves from o'er the wall
Stole the seed by night.

Sow'd it far and wide
By every town and tower,
Till all the people cried
`Splendid is the flower.'

Read my little fable:
He that runs may read.
Most can raise the flowers now,
For all have got the seed.

And some are pretty enough,
And some are poor indeed;
And now again the people
Call it but a weed.

España, te amo

1. I love that when I go to the supermarket, I only have to choose between three types of cereal.

2. I love that when I walk around Arroyomolinos, I always run into at least 1 familiar face

3. I love that the 25 minute bus ride to Madrid stops right in front of my apartment.

4. I love that my Spanish moms have added me on Facebook and take me shopping.

5. I love that I can go to the pasta aisle in the Corte Ingles and overhear three gorgeous Italian girls arguing over spaghetti.
6. I love that Principe Pio looks like this at 9:30 at night.

7. I love that when I take a kid away from their parents, teachers, and peers, and just hang out with them, I realize how cool and smart they are.

8. I love that I can't go one weekend without meeting someone foreign, cool, and/or interesting.

9. I love that la marcha doesn't start until 1am and doesn't end until 6am.

10. I love that I can travel wherever I want, whenever I want.

11. I love when people can't tell I'm American.

12. I love enjoying Jesus' mojitos with friends at La Tarasca.

13. I love accidentally kissing strangers...and not so accidentally kissing strangers.
14. I love that an 8 year old asked me if I knew who Calle 13 were. 

15. I love the hippies in Valencia and the peregrinos in Santiago de Compostela.

16. I love my kids.
17. I love that it is totally acceptable to take 100 fifth and sixth graders on a bike ride (from Arroyomolinos to Mostoles)...with only 2 adults to supervise.
18. I love that my nails, hair, and jewelry are the most intriguing things about me to most 7 year olds.

In conclusion,.............España, te amo

Reflections on post-grad employment

I graduated from UNC in May 2010 and have ended and started a few jobs since then....

Whole Foods (September 2007 – May 2010)

Now that I'm 4,000 miles away from North Carolina I can say that, overall, working at Whole Foods was a positive experience.  Yes, it was mundane, mind-numbing, and full of unnecessary drama...but if it wasn't for that maldita tienda I wouldn't have made any friends in Chapel Hill or have been able to perfect my conversational spanish.  It also kept me motivated to not drop out of college because I saw the kind of work I would be limited to without any educational credentials.  I learned to appreciate what I have, become more outgoing and friendly, and become even more impressed by the incredibly hard work that Hispanic immigrants do in America every day.



last day babysitting Isabel

 Babysitting in Durham (August 2009 – September 2010)

I babysat two girls in Durham for most of their year in 2nd grade and the beginning of 3rd grade.  It was a great job.  The girls really clicked with me and didn't want me to go to Spain in September.  The only downside...exhaustion.  I could never be the kind of babysitter that sat the kids in front of the T.V. while I went on Facebook or texted my friends...so it was 2-4 hours of non-stop playing pretend, choreographing dances, going to the park, practicing piano, doing homework, and having girl time.

Camp Walden (Summer 2010)

Oh my god.  Worst job I've ever had in my life. WORST.


last day of camp



I went to Walden for the four summers when I was 11-14.  I met my best friend in the world there, and it was the only time of the year when I wasn't stressed out.  Back then, it had different owners who kept a pretty laissez-faire approach to the whole thing (as far as I could tell).  It was a typical upstate-New York co-ed sleepaway camp for priveleged Jewish kids....much like what you'd see in the movie Wet Hot American Summer.  I went back this year to work as a Group Leader, in charge of about 25 rising freshman girls and 5 co-counselors......You know your job is bad when the best part of your summer is living in an isolated bunk in the mountains with 25 teenage girls. If it wasn't for my girls, I would've quit by the end of June.  Under the new owners, the whole camp is centered around making everything appear to be made of gumdrops and lollipops and rainbows, making sure all the kids in your group are friends with eachother equally (impossible with 13 year olds), and living-breathing-eating unrealistic utopian goals.  To add to these unrealistic goals I was supposed to meet with a group of TEENAGE girls, I had one of my co-staff telling my manager I was doing things I wasn't.  The whole time that we were supposed to be teaching equality and friendship by example, the staff itself was in complete denial that we ourselves were divided into cliques. The whole thing was just ridiculous and stressful.  It reminded me of The Real World because of the isolation and drama. All I can say is that my girls were the best part of my summer.

Colegio las Castaneras (September 2010-now!)
Oh lordy. What can I say about Castaneras?  It doesn't challenge me intellectually, but it challenges my patience.  At every job I've ever had, I try to focus on the positive things to get me through the crappy parts.  At Castaneras, I soak up every moment I have in 3rd grade with Toni and every joke or funny moment I share with the amazing principal Eva. I love pretty much all of the moms and tutor 10 kids afterschool.  It's amazing to have become a part of this community over the past 5 months....(Have I convinced myself yet with all this positive stuff that its worth it? We'll see) The 1st and 2nd grade teacher I have to work with......she makes me not want to get up in the morning.  She infantilizes me, puts me to idiotic tasks like photocopying and alfabetizing exams that she proceeds to un-order 24 hours later.  She demeans the kids, doesn't have a basic command of the English language, and probably still thinks I'm from England.  No one ever knows where she is on the syllabus or if she even has a syllabus.  She single-handedly has made me want to quit and go back to America two seperate times this year.  I found out that last year she was on maternity leave until about January, her auxiliar worked with her for about 3 months and then went home for Spring Break and never came back. She is a horror.  I have to take this as a lesson.  I always tell my kids, "Suck it up, you're not going to get along with everyone in this life"...only 3 more months with this woman. 

Kodak moments

I've had quite a few feel-good moments on this here Iberian peninsula lately.  Last Saturday, I went to El Escorial, a 16th century monastery at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama.  It's one of the big three touristy day trips from Madrid (the other two being Segovia and Toledo) and is just a one hour bus ride from Moncloa.  On the ride there, I looked out the window and saw a white and brown painted bull running through a huge field like a puppy chasing a butterfly.  It seemed kind of ludicrous....a giant "ferocious" animal like that just playing by himself in a big empty field.

Being amused by a frolicking bull is just a normal side effect of letting my mind wander / being alone on public transportation.  On the way back from El Escorial there was a guy at the Plaza de Espana metro stop playing the drums on pots, pans, and empty buckets.  I never give money to people on the subway, but this guy was so good and so into his drumming that I threw all the spare change I had in his tips box.  I also noticed the other day, on the bus that goes from my town into Madrid, that the bus driver was playing classical music and drumming his fingers to it.  He was in his own little world.  It made me wonder if he played the piano at home and was actually playing the song on his steering wheel.

Now that the weather is getting back into the 50s and low 60s, I've been seeing lots of kids out riding their bikes and playing in the neighborhood.  It's always so unexpected when I'm walking somewhere, and I hear a little voice from somewhere behind me say "Hello Niki" in English.  I really am glad that I live in Arroyomolinos.....except when I have to get up painfully early to take a bus into Madrid for something. My town mom has made one part of life easier for me though!  Whenever I get a package, I have to wait until Friday to walk to the post office and pick it up.  The worst part is that the 30 minute walk home (carrying the package) is uphill. HOWEVER, Isa works from home and is always there to sign for her packages, so now I have my packages sent to her house and she signs for them! So according to the postal service, I live with her now :)  She also lent me a skirt to wear to an interview the other day and sent me to her hair dresser to get my highlights done.  She even called the hairstylist the morning of my appointment to make sure she did a good job! She is awesome!

A random cross-cultural moment I had the other day: I was tutoring my 3rd grader Maria at her house and making her act out all the action verbs from her vocabulary sheet.  She started getting super hyper and acting like a spaz.  I read out the verb "skateboarding" or "skiing" or something and she did it so spazzily that she fell flat on her butt.  She laughed so hard she snorted, and I bust out laughing.  I don't know how to translate "you snorted" but I didn't even have to, she was laughing so hard she understood.  That's definitely the kind of stuff I will miss next year.  I have an interview on Monday to be an English auxiliar/teacher for the Escuelas Catolicas de Madrid, and I didn't renew at my colegio (not even as a fallback) because I really need to be at a job where I have more responsibilities and authority in the classroom.  Even though I will miss my kids so much, I could not take another year of being an incorrectly utilized...tool.  The experience I'm having now is teaching me what works and what doesn't work in the classroom, but I need to move on to bigger and better things if I want to feel like I'm making any post-grad life progress at all!

VICTORY!!!

The experience of working at Camp Walden this past summer can be summed up as 9 and a half weeks of people making me think I was horrible at working with kids.

Well, let me tell you....I have a 1st grader who suffers from such painful shyness that he's too embarassed to talk in class (to anyone) or do his work.  He is one of the cutest, tiniest, most adorable kids in the class.  Most of the kids scream "Niki, Niki, Niki, Niki, Niki" over and over again before even considering reading the directions or figuring out an activity by themselves.  If this boy EVER calls my name, I immediately go help him because I know it took so much energy for him to summon up the courage.  Today, his parents had to go in for a parent-teacher meeting, and his 2nd grade sister told me they might change schools since her brother is having such a hard time.  Well, guess what.....he stayed with me in the tutoria the whole time.  We played computer games and I showed him pictures of my family in America.  His mom came to pick him up and said, "You were talking to Niki?!?!?!" because she was so surprised he was actually talking to someone.

See Camp Walden! I am good with kids! so HA!

"I'm thorry, it was the thudio's dethithion"



Cesar & Marcos being "tough"

I recently watched the movie America's Sweethearts where Hank Azaria plays a Spaniard and has the worst accent.  When he wants to know why he can't go to a press junket, Billy Crystal says (without missing a beat, and most likely improvised) "I'm thorry, it was the thudio's dethithion." So espanish.  Since I've spent the last few post complaining about how American I am and how much I don't fit in here, I figured it was time to write about all the endearing things about Spain.

1.  My kids never hesitate to comment on my physical appearance.  Today, I was leaning over to help David with something.  I haven't cut my hair since June, and its incredibly long and hangs everywhere.  Maria started to run her hand along it and asked, "Did you straighten your hair?" and in fact, I had straightened it the night before.  In 1st grade, Aitana told me my skirt was "broken" because it had distressed rips in it, and Marcos told me I look better without my glasses. Thanks, Marcos, Thanks.  The kids always fiddle with any bracelets or rings I wear, and often don't listen to a word I'm saying because they're too busy just flat-out staring at me. "Do you know how to do braids Niki?" "I love your hair Niki" "Your earrings are so pretty Niki"



2. Monday through Thursday I have to stay anywhere from 1-2 hours after school in the tutoria de ingles (kind of like an English teacher's lounge) planning for my clases particulares.  It also conveniently involves less walking for me if I hang out at school and then head to the kids' houses.  Most of the time, a few of the faculty kids are in the tutoria and I can't get any work done, so I've resorted to playing games with them or quizzing them on vocabulary.  The other day, Linda's daughter (who just turned 11) told me, "Niki, parece que a los ninos les encantas" (Niki, it seems like kids love you). It made me and Yolanda, the English teacher who was in the tutoria at the time, really laugh.



3. Last week the jefa de estudios (kind of like the vice principal) asked me to help her with her English conversation skills.  She's taking an exam in 3 weeks, and she's failed it 2 times before.  She does fine on the written part of the exam, but never passes the oral part in front of the panel of examiners.  The questions can be about her experience in a bilingual public school, current events, or even personal stories.  Both the directora and the jefa de estudios at my school are super friendly and loveable.  While we were talking about the board of examiners, Elena, the jefa, leaned over and asked me how I was doing at Castaneras. That was the first time in my 4 months at the school that someone had asked me how I liked it.  She also told me that she had worked in another elementary school in Arroyomolinos 4 years ago and fell in love with the town.  She told her then-boyfriend, "When we get married, we are going to move to this town."  They got married 6 months ago and moved back here.  She doesn't know many people here because all of her family and friends are back in Torrejon, and she told me I should come over her house for a coffee sometime.  Every day I feel more and more a part of this weird little town.



Arroyomolinos

4. Every day, one of my students comes up to me and tells me they saw me walking to school, in the supermarket, or waiting for the bus.  The other day, a 1st grader told me, "Niki! Yesterday, I saw you! I was in the car. I saw you through the window but I couldn't get it downnnnnnnn!!!" as if it was the most agonizing thing in the world.

5. I've become kind of attached to my school moms (especially Andrea & Alba's mom).  This week alone she gave me 3 tupperware containers of different types of soup, a mini-cheesecake, chocolate, and doughnuts.  She has also decided that I have to come back next year and won't take no for an answer.  Carlos & Alvaro's mom always gives me a ride home if she sees me walking since she lives the closest to me.  When I told her I fell down the stairs in my house she told me, "You have to be careful chica, Do you want to kill yourself?!"



6. One of the first things I noticed when I got to Arroyomolinos was that it had a desert-ish climate.  Its really cold and windy at night, but during the day is hot and dry. I never saw bugs, but I saw lots of little lizards.  After not seeing a single bug for months, a HUGE fly-bug-monster-thing flew in the bathroom window while I was in the shower today. I had an irrational FREAK OUT....but it eventually found the window and I shut it out with a spastic slam.

7. I discovered that if you're ever feeling down all you have to do is watch some Chayanne music videos.  They are hysterical.