Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

I may have celebrated Thanksgiving more this year than any year in the past, which is ironic since I was not on American turf. Granted, my celebrations were a bit different, and it was my first Thanksgiving away from my family. Luckily, I had some good friends to celebrate with here so I was not lonely on a holiday centered around spending time with good company!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving #1 - Dinner with other auxiliares/expats!
My roommates and I hosted a Thanksgiving feast in our piso for dinner on Thursday. Since our piso has both an oven & a large table, we cooked the chicken here. (No, I do not mean the turkey. It is tough to find turkey here, and if you want a whole one, it must be ordered weeks in advance from what I have gathered, so we settled for baking 2 chickens instead.) There were 11 of us & everyone brought a dish. We had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, rolls, a jello dish (family tradition of one of the auxiliares, kind of our substitute for cranberry sauce), apple pie, and a couple other desserts.

The rest of our group

Thanksgiving #2 - Skyping with my family!
It was really fun to be able to see and chat with not only my parents and siblings, but also my aunt, uncle, and cousins! It made me feel not so far away to talk and joke around with them for 30 minutes. Definitely made it feel more like a holiday as well.

My family on Thanksgiving last year - miss you all so much!

Thanksgiving #3 - Cooking a Thanksgiving meal for a few of the Spaniards in Mérida
On Sunday Angela and I cooked another traditional thanksgiving meal for her host family and a few other guests. It came out really well, and they seemed to enjoy it. The menu was very similar, but we added homemade stuffing this time. It turned out to be my favorite part of the meal. I was very proud of our cooking skills because we only partially used a recipe, then just invented the rest. (We used bread, celery, celery leaves, onions, garlic, chicken stock, and quite a few spices & herbs.) I stayed around to hangout for several hours after the meal, it was a great time to just relax & enjoy each other's company.

Part of our improvised Thankgiving dinner

I have been cooking from scratch way more than any other time in the past. It's not as intimidating as I once thought, and I usually end up like the food more than the quick things I would make back home.

Another homemade success! 

Sevilla-Venice-Sevilla

Sevilla: For most of my flights this year, the Sevilla airport will be most convenient. I am okay with this, as it is a great city and I enjoy returning to my old "home." I met up with one friend going on the trip to Venice in the early evening before our flight. We were craving Chinese food, so I tried to remember where I ate my one Chinese meal while studying abroad. When I knew we were close, we asked for directions. People sent us all. over. town. But, we eventually came to a different Chinese restaurant that was just as good. Two of our other friends arrived to Sevilla shortly after this, so we reunited with them and headed to the airport for a little sleepover before our early morning flight. 

This is the restaurant I was trying to find.

Venice- Day 1: Once in Venice the next day, we met up with the 5th member of our group. We found our hostel by wandering through the little streets until we reached Via TraGHETTO (I'm sure the Italian have a more elegant way of pronouncing that, but it made it easy to remember our street name). We saw a unique Da Vinici Museum that had interactive inventions in addition to the paintings and sculptures. We also stumbled upon what became our favorite café, which we returned to two more times during our short stay. For dinner that night we went to a small Italian restaurant, where the waiters made a couple move to another table so our group of 5 would could sit together ...that was a bit awkward, sitting outside or waiting would have been alright. Our group continued to the University area that night, which had a pretty fun atmosphere & there were a lot of people out.

On the Rialto Bridge

Venice- Day 2: Although Italian mealtimes are similar to America's, we had a surprisingly hard time following them because we are so accustomed to our Spanish schedules. Luckily we did eat lunch early (for us) this day because we found a cool restaurant in which the entrance was almost hidden. We ate on the outside terrace & there were plants and flowers all around. We saw the major tourist attractions this afternoon, including San Marco's Basilica & the Doge's Palace. Although they were both gorgeous, I actually enjoyed the palace more. I think part of it was that I knew the basilica would be incredible, but since I did not know much about the palace, I went in with very few expectations. Many Doges lived in the palace at the same time, so it had to be huge. In addition to living quarters and salons, it also had meeting rooms and prisons. All of the rooms were filled with artwork. On our way back to the hostel, we stopped in the University square just to relax and people-watch for a few minutes. We opted to participate in the pasta + salad dinner our hostel hosted this night, which was a great, affordable choice!

Inside Doge's Palace

Venice- Day 3: Venice has a few surrounding smaller islands, in addition to the main island, so we chose the explore Murano on our last day. Murano is known for its glasswork (sculptures, dishes, glasses, clocks, vases, etc.) We saw some pretty neat artwork and I loved all the colors of the glass. There wasn't a whole lot more to do on this island though, so we did not stay too long. One fun thing we did on the way over was take a gondola! Well, a 50 cent public gondola that is. It lasts about 2-3 minutes and just takes you straight across the Grand Canal with 8-10 other people. All throughout the trip we devoted some time wandering through the cute streets and browsing the little shops of Venetian masks, and this day was no different. Masks were as cheap as 3.50€ and as expensive as a few hundred! Each of us was able to find one we liked on the lower end of that spectrum. It makes a unique room decoration & has definite potential for costume usage in the future.

Glass sculpture on Murano island. 

Sevilla, round 2: We arrived to Sevilla in the afternoon of the 31st. While walking to our hostel, we ran into another auxiliar! (One of my friends said, "I feel like auxiliares are so nice and helpful to each other, it's almost like we have automatic friendships because we are in similar situations" and I could not agree more. It is pretty cool to have a network of auxiliares all around Spain to meet up with while traveling.) For lunch we found a tapas restaurant with lots of variety and even more flavor. My friend Angela met up with us to explore Sevilla and celebrate Halloween. The Festival of the Nations was going on while we were in Sevilla; it was comprised of markets and food stands. Several of the markets represented other countries, and they sold purses, clothes, jewelry, wallets, belts, and candy, just to name a few items. In the food half, we were almost overwhelmed by the amount of options we had. Anyone who has lived in Spain knows that Spanish food is not spicy. Ever. Flavorful, yes. Delicious, yes. But spicy, no. So, we did want many other expats would do in our situation & created a meal out of a few of the countries with spicier food; however, we did not entirely stray from Spanish culture because we realized going at it tapas style (sharing one plate per country) allowed us to taste the most dishes. I already mentioned Halloween in my previous post, so check that out to hear about the rest of my trip.

Tasting various ethnic foods at the Festival of the Nations.

I know this post was long, so I'll leave you with a few extra pictures from the trip (:

Some of the more elaborate Venetian Masks 

Group shot along the Grand Canal

There were tons of little footbridges throughout the city.

San Marco's Basilica

This is near the palace that I loved.

Halloween in Spain

Several people have asked about Halloween over here, so here's a bit of an explanation: Halloween is becoming more and more popular in Europe, especially in the larger cities. It still is not hugely celebrated, but most of the students learn about it in their English classes.

Some of my students had made pretty neat crafts earlier in the week that they presented on my day with their class

Over here, they focus only on the scary side of Halloween & not on how creative it can be. If they dress up (like for a festival, there is not trick-or-treating here), it is only as a vampire, witch, ghost, spider, etc. My students (and some of the teachers) were surprised to hear that it is also very popular to wear costumes of princesses, celebrities, animals, movie characters, etc. 

Besides scary costumes, the other thing associated with the holiday is Michael Jackson's song "Thriller." I was in Sevilla on Halloween; while at The Festival of the Nations the song was played on repeat throughout the short Halloween performance that was incorporated into the festival. 

November 1st is a holiday here, not October 31st, and it's called All Saints Day. So, no school/work on Tuesday Nov. 1 means Monday Oct. 31 was a puente! (puente=bridge: when a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, they automatically turn it into a long weekend! Awesome concept, I wish America would follow suit!) This also made the 31st a popular night to go out with friends even though it was a Monday, regardless of whether the Spaniards were celebrating Halloween. A few bars had decorations and one offered a drink special, but otherwise it was just a normal night. There were more people in costumes than I expected, but most of them were study abroad students. 

My friends and I contemplated wearing our newly purchased Venetian masks

The Older Kids

Just finished up my third week at the secondary school. I am enjoying both schools, but what's funny is that the things I like about the IES (Instituto de Educación Secondaria) are completely different than the reasons I like the CEIP (Colegio de Educación Infantil y Primaria)! Here are my favorite things about the IES:

Random Photo #1 (I still wanted to add some pictures even though I do not have any at the school yet)- Mérida, Spain.
I walk past this spot on the way to work each day.

The younger grades (11-13 yrs old)- These classes are the most enthusiastic & willing to participate. They have large class sizes (close to 30 students, where as 14-18 year olds have about 15 students). Typically I prefer smaller classes, but in this situation it makes it easier to plan games and activities. Most of the students who are not as excited to participate in the younger grades just have an I-am-embarrassed-about-my-English attitude, but in the older grades the apathetic ones have an I-just-do-not-care attitude. I much prefer the first & these ones still get fairly excited about me helping them one-on-one. Middle school is the age I have had the least experience with back in the States, but I am liking this age group a lot more than I expected (at least in this setting).

Random Photo #2- Roman Art Museum, Mérida, Spain. We visited the museum
during one of our first weekends in Spain (entry is free on Saturdays & Sundays!)

Working with 4 different teachers- Originally I did not think this would be ideal & it did make the 1st week a bit confusing/difficult. However, I am now enjoying their different teaching styles (variety is the spice of life!). It's nice that I only have to plan activities for some of the classes; in others, the cooperating teacher just shows me the lesson plan the day of & lets me take over some activities. If I had to plan them all, it would get tiring, but if they were all the second option, I would get bored. Planning for these classes is a bit different than lesson planning back home because I only see each class once every 2 weeks. This makes it hard to build on what they know and what they are currently studying. The other teachers wanted it this way to give the students a "break" from the normal English class to keep the subject fun and exciting for the kids (and to give themselves a "break" by telling me "consider this your hour with the students...")

Random Photo #3- This is from the Auxiliar pot luck I mentioned a while back.

The teachers- They are so friendly and welcoming! And it is not only the English instructors. Basically anyone I end up beside in the teachers lounge or computer room will start up a conversation with me (one-on-one Spanish is so much more enjoyable than the rapid-fire 10 person discussions in the teachers lounge at the CEIP (though I do love the teachers there too)). The teachers have offered to help me with even the littlest things such as forgetting my umbrella or not knowing where I should go the first time my cooperating teacher was absent sick.

Random Photo #4- Lagos, Portugal. 

My schedule- In the last post I mentioned how good it was, right? Well guess what, it got better! My second week at the IES, the instructor I work with on Thursdays told me she thought they made my schedule in a rush & it would be better for me if I could have Thurs-Fri off in a row. So she switched three classes to Tues & the fourth to Mon. This does mean I start school at 8:30 am Mon-Wed, but I have the rest of the week to sleep in.

Random Photo #5- Venice, Italy. I got to go here for our first long weekend at the end of October!
It was so beautiful, I will share more from that trip soon!

Yesterday morning went especially well! First period was with the 16 year olds and I was able to get everyone to participate. The activities I did were not my favorite, but my main goal was to get everyone involved & now I have a better idea of how to plan for their class in the future. Second period was with a group of 11 year olds. I was pretty excited about the activity I had planned & the cooperating teacher thought it sounded good too. I had them working in groups of 4 which can be risky when you don't know the students, but it turned out to be a success & the teacher even said she planned to do it with some of her other sections. Score! The rest of the day went pretty well too, but it was really the morning that stuck out & got me more excited about working at the IES (:

Almendralejo, Appetition & Agendas

I am nearing the end of another great weekend! It is hard to believe how quickly time is going by- I have already been here for 5 weeks. I took a trip to Almendralejo with Angela for Friday and Saturday. We took a train after finishing up our clases particulares (private English lessons/tutoring). It was my first train ride in Spain! The train station in Mérida is less than 5 minutes from my piso and the prices are comparable to taking a bus, so I am sure it will not be my last! One surprising thing I found out is that the trains almost always run late, which is the complete opposite of buses here- running a couple minutes behind often means the bus will be long gone when you walk up.

Most of our group from Friday night :)

We stayed with Sophie, an auxiliar from England, for the weekend. I had met her at orientation, so it was fun to catch up again. On Friday night she organized a get-together with the other auxiliares in town. We went for drinks and tapas at 2 different places then headed out to a bar. On Saturday a few of us girls went shopping. I found a jacket that will be perfect for in-between weather (too chilly for just a light cardigan, but not cold enough for a wool coat). I also bought a few scarves for 2€ each! ...speaking of these things, it is starting to cool down here. Considering summer stuck around until Oct 20th I know I cannot complain that it is over, but I will say that it still took me by surprise. It almost seemed like summer would last forever!

Exploring Almendralejo

This afternoon Angela's host family had me over for lunch. A few others from our church were there as well, so it was a pretty large group. The meal consisted of a Columbian salad, the Spanish equivalent of pork chops, 2 kinds of potatoes (some with herbs in a buttery garlic sauce & the others with ham in a creamier sauce), fresh bread, a rich raspberry custard (that's probably not the right word, but I'm not sure how else to describe it), assorted fresh fruit, and coffee. Everything was so good, and needless to say I was very full when I left. They slowed down their Spanish so we could understand them better, which was very nice. As long as I remained focused, I could understand a lot, but when my concentration slipped, I had to have Angela fill me in. I actually understood more towards the end of the lunch because during the beginning I kept forgetting to concentrate on the Spanish instead of just relax. ...Angela and I are planning to cook them a Thanksgiving meal, which I am really looking forward to doing. It probably will not be on Thanksgiving Day, but sometime that week. If anyone has Spanish-ingredient-friendly holiday recipes, please share!

I did not take a picture of our meal, but here's a similar version of our main dishes.

Since I have only posted about the primary school, you are probably wondering how the secondary is going, but to be honest, I am still figuring that out! Here's a breakdown of how my first week at the secondary school went:
Day 1- Met my tutor, the principal, and a few other teachers.
Day 2- Attended an English department meeting. This was when & where my schedule was made. I do not have any Tuesday afternoon classes, so I was able to go home after the meeting. I will be working with 4 different English teachers, and I will only be seeing each class one time per week.
Day 3- School holiday, no classes.
Day 4- This would have been my first and only real day at the school. However, I ended up being pretty sick so I was not there for very long.
Day 5- I have Fridays off every week, so this does not really count towards my work-week.
Tomorrow starts week 2 there, so I will be getting a better feel for it soon.

My secondary school

I only ended up being at the school for an hour the entire week, and I only met once class of students. Students were allowed to ask me questions about myself, but they had to do it in English. They were a bit shy to use their English in front of me, so they only came up with 3 questions:

1- What part of the U.S. are you from?

2- Do you like Spain?

3- Do you like Spanish boys? (haha, I guess that student wasn't so shy...)

I actually came close to having a 4 day weekend, but ended up with a 3 day weekend plus Tuesdays off. Definitely a good schedule, even though I cannot use the extra free day towards traveling :/ For both of my schools, I will start late on Monday & end early on Thursday, so I really can’t complain! Here is a breakdown of things worked out:

	Primary	Secondary
Mon	11:00-2:00	10:20-2:20
Tues	10:00-2:00	---
Wed	11:00-1:15	8:30-2:20
Thurs	9:00-1:15	8:30-12:40

My plans for the upcoming break have changed! Guess where I'll be going for my 5 day weekend?? Other auxiliares, how will you be spending our first long break?

Home Away From Home

I spent most of the weekend in Mérida (other than a short day trip yesterday) and I really feel like I'm starting to settle in here. Since arriving, I've encountered a variety of situations- in some cases, the people I interacted with were very welcoming; other times, not so much. The past few days though, I've experience a lot of hospitality, so I wanted to share...

Jess and I in Plaza de Constitución during our day trip to Almendralejo. 

Scenario 1: The lunch with teachers from my school (that I mentioned in my last entry) went great! We meet at a restaurant called El Castuó, near some of the Roman monuments on the edge of town. We got several raciones (platters, more or less) to share. They were excited about introducing me to some new dishes. Everyone was very nice to me even though I ended up doing a lot more listening than talking because my Spanish is kind of rough. A couple of the teachers have kids visiting/studying in the US! Although a few of the teachers know English, most of them happened to be at the other end of the table; however, my tutor was very helpful in explaining things to me when needed. (I finally learned the difference between jamón iberico & jamón serrano!) I prefer to use my Spanish anyway, even when it means I miss certain parts of the convo.  They talk quickly most of the time, but one of the teachers told me I knew a lot (of Spanish), which is the best compliment anyone can give me right now. They said they will invite me to come with them when they go out again :) ...oh, I can't forget to mention that when the check came, they didn't let me pay a cent!

One of our raciones had 2 types of chorizo & 2 other types of jamón- all very tasty!

Scenario 2: I went to a church service for the first time since being here, and the congregation was extremely friendly! Several people introduced themselves to me while waiting for the service to start. They seemed enthusiastic to get to know me, and asked lots of questions such as what's my name, where am I from, how long will I be here, when did I arrive, what am I doing here, do I go to a similar church back home, how did I find out about the church, where I live in Mérida, etc. That might sound a bit overwhelming, but every person did not ask every question, though I probably answered each of those at least twice this morning. I had not been sure what to expect beforehand, and actually thought there was a good chance no one would talk to me- turned out quite the opposite! They also introduced me to another American auxiliar, Angela, who had attended the previous week. She then introduced me to more of the congregation whom she remembered from her previous visit. (I had been wanting to find a church since I usually attend one back home, and just found out the exact time and location for this one yesterday afternoon. I will definitely be back on the weekends I'm not traveling!)

Scenario 3: Walking home from lunch today, I passed one of my primary students on the street. She said hi & that she was looking forward to seeing me in school tomorrow. So cute! ...although I did have to explain to her that I will be teaching at a secondary school this week and will only see her class every other week.

Another friendly face from this weekend.

Us auxiliares are sharing a bit of our own hospitality with each other too! Our potluck dinner on Friday was fantastic! There was plenty (or possibly too much) food and lots of good conversation (and in Spanish as often as possible)! The dinner was at our piso, and it was the first time my flatmates and I had  the group over to our place. It was fun to host & we hope to do something similar again soon :)

Sorry to be behind on pictures again, but the potluck photo is only on my flatmate's camera
...so for now, here's one from the Cáceres orientation- Jessa, Edward, me, Sophie

We have also begun discussing travel plans for our first long weekend at the end of the month! Nothing is finalized, but I am leaning towards País Vasco in Northern Spain. If anyone has advice on things to see and do there (Bilbao & San Sebastián), please share!

1st Week as an Auxiliar de Conversación

Since I have 2 school assignments, I will alternate weeks at each of the schools. This week was primary. I was happy to start there, as it is less intimidating to teach younger students. My school has...

• 1st-6th grades, so the kids are 6-11 years old
• Only 1 class per grade (the elementary school I attended in the states had 4-5 per grade)
• Very small class sizes, which I love! 10-14 kids in the younger grades, and 14-18 in the older grades
• English taught 2-3 hrs/wk per grade. There is a homeroom teacher who teaches math, science, reading, etc, then students attend English classes with a separate English teacher- in the same way that elementary students back home attend art, music, and P.E. for an hour at a time on certain days. 
• School hours of just 9 am- 2 pm. Most days I only have to be there for part of that time.

I found this photo of some of my students on the school's website.

Since these kids are just starting out with the language, I get to use both Spanish and English when teaching them. It's been great to practice my Spanish, as I only expected to be able to use English in the classroom. I have felt pretty comfortable with my Spanish in class, though it is easier to say something to them in the language than to understand what they are saying. 

There is only 1 English teacher, so it's nice to work alongside the same teacher for all my classes (secondary will not be this way). I have helped with portions of activities, but I have not taught an entire lesson solo (or anything close to that). I have also helped students one on one, especially with their speaking skills, as they have been working in their activity books. I am still getting a feel for how much English they know. It's been nice that the teacher has not put too much pressure on me at the start. Some teachers at other schools just throw the auxiliar into teaching to whole lesson right away. I think that is more common in secondary positions, but it seems more effective to first be given the chance to observe and pick up on the way the students are used to doing things. I am looking forward to having more responsibility as the year progresses, as I have learned that when I know I am responsible for presenting a topic and making it interesting, I am both more effective and more creative. Some people thrive on responsibility more than others, and I did not realize how much that it true for me until this week. 

I do not have any pictures with my current students yet, but here I am helping
some kids while student teaching in college.

One of the teachers is retiring (as of today), so everyone is going out for drinks and tapas this afternoon, and they invited me to go with them. Later tonight a lot of the auxiliares in Mérida are having a pot luck dinner together at my piso. I'm not sure of the rest of my weekend plans yet, but I'm sure we will discuss it at dinner. Hopefully the secondary school next week will go as well as the primary did!

Besides teaching, here are some other things I accomplished this week...

• Applied for my NIE/TIE (which allows me to stay in Spain for a year) ...it took 3 visits to the extranjería!
• Opened a bank account
• Several smaller things such as emailing about private lessons, practicing Spanish, and looking into upcoming travels