Navidad en el cole (Christmas in the school)

Today was the last day of school before my nice long puente (break). I knew there were activities planned, but I wasn't quite sure what. I brought in m&m cookies for the other teachers to try since making cookies is the thing to do back home around Christmas. I originally wanted to make something more Christmas-y like snickerdoodles, but like I've said before, you're limited on ingredients here. One thing I was not expecting was many of the younger students to be dressed up! I'm talking costumes in the shape of Christmas trees, wise men, and other ones I'm really not sure what the significance was. I have no idea why they were dressed up and I really didn't think to ask anyone why now that I think about it. In the afternoon I listened to villancicos (carols)that all the classes performed. There were cookies and bizcocho (basically any type of cake or bread, like my banana bread, is called bizcocho) during the recreo (recess break) and overall it was a good day! I read Twas the Night Before Christmas and had a few of my first grade students make reindeer where they traced their hands for the antlers and we sang We Wish You a Merry Christmas, which they performed in English when they sang villancicos, and Jingle Bells.  I've uploaded a short video of some of the kids singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  I'm pretty sure you can hear me more than them, but I have to lead them!  Also, please note the costumes.  I wish Nico the Christmas Tree or Manuel the who-knows-what had been there just so everyone could have seen those costumes.

Driving

I was having a conversation a few weeks ago with one of the teachers I have a bilingue class with and we were discussing driving. He asked if I thought people drove better here or in the U.S. I told him I would never want to drive over here and that is a fact. The drivers over here are crazy and I've never seen so many roundabouts in my life. In the mornings I wait for the other teacher I drive with by an intersection that a secondary school is at. The parents drop their kids off there and I have the privilege of seeing the awful and scary driving of Spaniards. A stop sign (where the sign actually says STOP) is more like a suggestion than a law. If you stop too long you get honked at.

Let's not forget the student drivers either. I honestly have never seen so many driving schools. This morning I was walking to the post office and on one certain street all the driving school cars are lined up. I've seen this before so it must be a normal thing, but you will always see a driving school car at any point of the day. Are there really that many people learning how to drive in this city?

And the roundabouts. I'm always afraid that someone is going to crash in one of the roundabouts because sometimes whoever is on the outermost lane wants to go straight while the person in the lane next to them needs to turn. This would normally result in a crash and I'm surprised I have yet to witness one.

I really should take a video sometime of the driving over here. My mom says I sometimes get too close to the car in front of me when I stop, but really I would be considered far away in Spain's driving terms.

Christmas/Zambomba

Christmas is by far my favorite holiday of the year.  I like Halloween because it means Thanksgiving is in less than a month and I like Thanksgiving because the day after is Black Friday which means it is officially the Christmas season.  Needless to say, there is no such thing as Thanksgiving or Black Friday and Christmas here is just not quite the same.  I've yet to see a Christmas tree (the one in Italy doesn't count) and now that I think about it I don't even think they sell them at Carrefour!  They sell Christmas lights, but you won't find lights on people's houses, apartments, or stores.  The extent of my Christmas decorations at my flat is garland I put around my bed and a super small Christmas tree I discovered yesterday on a table next to the front door.  It's kind of sad really and is it bad that I'm already looking forward to next year's Christmas where I know I'll truly be able to enjoy all the Christmas spirit? 

One cultural aspect that is uniquely Andalucian is zambomba, a mixture between flamenco and Christmas songs.  People dance and sing upbeat Christmas songs (not that you could tell they are Christmas songs) that have a distinctly flamenco flair.  On Friday night I went to a party at the youth club my roommate works at.  All the families of the girls were invited and zambomba was performed.  It wasn't really what I was expecting because honestly, it sounds like nothing Christmas associated, except for perhaps the words, but I've yet to understand Spanish songs.  I've posted a video of zambomba from the southeastern most province, Almeria, in Andalucia.

Italia!

This past weekend until yesterday I had a puente (break) and I went to Italy.  I went to Rome and Venice over the summer and I loved Italy as a whole.  A lot of people told me that I should have gone to Florence too so that's what I did. 

I booked my flight through Ryanair, a cheaper airlines over here in Europe.  I heard about it over the summer when we were staying in hostels and some people had mentioned it and yes, they do have cheaper flights!  The flight was quite different than any other flight I've been on though.  First off, you don't have an assigned seat, you just sit wherever you want.  On my one side I sat next to a fifty-something lady who was wearing high-waisted leather pants.  I'm sorry, but I feel like leather pants are never in fashion at any age, but what can I say?  European fashion.  Throughout the entire flight the stewards and stewardesses kept trying to get you to buy things.  Cigarettes (didn't quite figure that one out since it's not like you can smoke on the plane), food, and other random stuff.  Let's not forget the turbulence.  I don't mind flying, but I don't like turbulence at all since one of my biggest fears is falling to my death.  There was some turbulence at the beginning of the flight and about twenty minutes before we landed the turbulence was worse than anything I've ever experienced before.  The only thing comparable was when I went to the Grand Canyon and my mom, sister, and I took a small plane ride over the Canyon and it was extremely windy (people proceeded to vomit on that flight while my then six year old sister laughed thinking it was all great fun).  You could hear the luggage moving around in the cabins and people were gripping their seats and the seats in front of them.  The plane definitely dropped and when that happened people shouted out and screamed.  I was sending a silent prayer to not crash and afterwards, thankfully, the turbulence lessened and everything was fine.  Too bad on the flight back there was turbulence too and I couldn't help but think of the flight over, hoping not to crash either.  I think I've been watching too much Lost. 

Florence is known as the Renaissance city and there are quite a few museums there filled with famous Renaissance (of course) art.  Too bad the museum workers decided to go on a strike while I was there and there was no forewarning whatsoever.  Thankfully the day before the strike started Sarah and I went to the Accademia where Michaelangelo's David is.  If I hadn't gotten to see that it would have been really disappointing.  It's like going to Paris and not going to see the Mona Lisa.  It's one of the things you have to do in the city.  Honestly, I don't quite understand Europe and their protests/strikes.  The day before the museum strikes there was some sort of protest about water (not too sure what about it) and the same day I left Spain for Italy apparently the Spanish airlines were on strike (again).  Everytime I've been in Europe I have witnessed some sort of protest/strike.  Just this past summer, in Spain once again, we saw a general labor strike. 

Although I didn't get to see the Uffizi or some of the other museums in Florence, I did climb the campanile, the tower of the Duomo where I had a great view of the city.  We strolled down the Ponte Vecchio that is filled with jewelry shops, and, of course, let's not forget eating the fabulous Italian food. 

In front of the Duomo in Florence

Seeing as the museums were all closed, I decided to take a day trip on my last day to Pisa.  I had originally wanted to do this, but I didn't think I would have enough time.  I had hoped that the Leaning Tower wouldn't be too crowded so I could climb it and I was lucky enough to be able to go right up and get a ticket and then climb it.  To be honest, it's not as tall as it looks in pictures, but as you are climbing the stairs you can definitely feel the way it leans.  They only let a certain amount of people up at a certain time so it wasn't too crowded either.  I wasn't able to do the picture where it looks like you are holding it up, because everyone there was either Asian or Italian.  I don't speak any Asian language or Italian, so I felt lucky to just get a couple of pictures with the Tower in the background.  This is just an observation, so please, don't take offense, but every place you go in Europe there will ALWAYS be a tour group of Asian people.  This never fails, in any city that I have been in.  If you come to Europe I guarantee you will find an Asian tour group.  

Around the tower are other buildings, such as the Duomo and a baptistry, and two museums.  It all cost 22 euros (including climbing the tower) so it was definitely worth the trip there!

 

Thanksgiving

I was invited by a girl I work with to celebrate Thanksgiving with her, her roommate, and a couple friends on Thanksgiving Day.  I thought it was really nice that she was trying to make an effort to celebrate some American holiday with me and I was looking forward to having them try "American" food, but....let's just say it's a little difficult to celebrate Thanksgiving over here.  First off, it's hard to find certain ingredients.  Cranberries?  Non-existent.  Pumpkin?  Well, it's a white pumpkin and if you really want to attempt to make a pumpkin pie from scratch then go for it.  Turkey?  We live in the country of jamon (ham) so it's not exactly popular.  The girl from work exclaimed that she would provide the chicken and my reply was that we needed to have turkey or at the very least ham!  Too bad she likes neither which is how Thanksgiving Number One ended up being like a nice meal.  The chicken was good and I made super yummy potatoes (probably the most Thanksgiving dish at that meal).  Of course there was jamon and cheese as an appetizer.  Not very Thanksgiving, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Thanksgiving Number Two was much more successful.  My friend Leslie and I went to Carrefour Saturday night in search of ingredients for our Thanksgiving feast where we found that: 1) Pumpkin is definitely hard to come by.  2) Cranberries are not sold at Carrefour.  3) Maple syrup is over 4 euros which is more than five dollars.  Good thing I made oreo cheesecake for dessert which everyone liked!  Even though we had a lack of ingredients we made do.  There was stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, a green bean casserole, and there wasn't any turkey (pork), but Leslie made a phenomenol cinnamon apple sauce.  I'm usually not a fan of baked apples, but I will most definitely be trying to make this on my own!  Although it wasn't quite like Thanksgiving from home, it was good comfort food and very delicious! 

As a side note, I'm glad I was able to skype with everyone on Thanksgiving!   It was nice talking to everyone from back home!

The cheesecake I made for Thanksgiving Number Two!

Food

I'm no expert at cooking, but I can do the basics and I almost always cook my meals.  They're pretty basic - meat and some sort of side dish, mostly potatoes or pasta.  It's not that I don't want to try and be more creative, it's just hard to do so over here!  There is definitely more of a variety of food back home and it's not like I can go to the store over here and pick up a box of macaroni and cheese to make.  I like baking back home, but trying to convert recipes is difficult.  The measurments aren't exact and it's hard to find certain ingredients.  I had to trek to the other part of town to go to IKEA to get measuring cups and I had to go to Hipercor, a store about a 20-25 minute walk (depending on if you are walking in the rain or not like I was yesterday) to find vanilla and sour cream.  I'm fortune that there is a larger store, Carrefour, about five minutes away from me.  It's comparable to a Meijers back home, although yesterday when I went to find some ingredients for a cheesecake I'm supposed to make it was hard to find some (i.e., sour cream, vanilla).  Let's not forget the fact that even if they do have the ingredients everything is smaller!  A pack of oreos isn't as big as back home, there's not as much cream cheese in a pack and it only comes in a container, and the pans to bake in our smaller.  I'm supposed to make this cheesecake for "Thanksgiving" dinner/lunch for Sunday so we'll see how the cheesecake turns out....I did successfully bake banana bread which I was very proud of.  As my mother has told me several times now you have to be precise with baking and well, let's just say even with my mL measuring cups converting a U.S. recipe to milliliters will result in 1 cup equaling an uneven amount so it's still not all precise, but precise enough!  People over here say they love the Spanish food, and yeah, it's fine and all, but I miss the variety from back home.  If I do want to bake or need ingredients that are harder to find they're always so much more expensive.  A jar of peanut butter is around 3.39 euros - that's a $4.50 jar of peanut butter.  It better be good if I'm paying that much.  For all the ingredients that I had to buy yesterday for this cheesecake I probably could have gone to a panaderia and bought something for cheaper so it better work out and taste good too.

Jerez is famous for its wine and I have to say, it's pretty good.  Jerez translates to "sherry" so right there you know it must have good wine!  They have all different types over here and more than half of the time I don't know what type is what.  I usually get the standard rioja, a red wine, and it's never failed before.  I've had two different white wines and I wasn't a fan because it didn't have a great aftertaste.  So if you ever come to Spain, or particularly Jerez (hint to mi madre) order a rioja.  They'll know what you're talking about.

I'm usually a picky eater (that may be just a tad bit of an understatement), but I have definitely ventured out while I've been here!  When I first came to Jerez and was staying with two girls before I found my flat there was this dish that had some sort of meat and another type of food in it.  I have no idea what the other food was and I have no desire to find out.  I'm not sure if it was a type of pea (my least favorite food ever) or something completely different, but I still ate most of it.  Another time I was invited to eat with the two ladies I work with who live in Jerez and the day before I was going to eat with them the one lady was explaining what kind of meat she was preparing.  She asked me if I liked pork and I said yes, then she proceeded to tell me that it was "secret" meat from a pig.  Secret?  I didn't like the sound of that and the next day I most definitely tried to not think about what part of the pig I was eating, although it wasn't bad.  The next time I went to Carrefour and I was looking at the meat section, sure enough there it was on the label saying it was "secret" meat.  It wasn't bad, but I won't be buying that to make for myself. 

I've heard of arroz con leche (a classic dish that every student in Spanish class has heard of), but I had never tried it before and honestly I wasn't too sure what was in it.  One day my roommate brought me some that her mother had made.  As I said before, it's actually a desert and it's cold cooked rice with milk and cinnamon.  It may sound not too great, but it was actually really good!  And last but not least, let's not forget about the bull's tail. 

Tomorrow's Thanksgiving and the two ladies at work said that we should celebrate it together.  First off I should make it clear that it is extremely hard to find ingredients that we normally associate with Thanksgiving.  Pumpkin?  Forget that, although for the Thanksgiving on Sunday my friend's roommate's family grows pumpkins (in luck!) and they're attempting to make a pie from scratch.  The one lady said she would bring chicken and my response was "you have to have turkey or at least ham on Thanksgiving!", but I found out she doesn't like turkey or ham.  So much for a real Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving.  I suppose it's the thought that counts right?  I told them I would make potatoes and the one girl didn't really respond to that and their idea of a dessert is fruit (more like a side dish to me) so we'll see how Thanksgiving Part 1 turns out. 

Speaking of Thanksgiving I have been having all my classes make turkeys using construction paper, crayons, etc.  I wanted to use paper plates and then have them use construction paper to make feathers, but all the plates here are plastic.  One of the many things that one would think is easy to find in Spain, but it's not.  I've attached some pictures below of my first grade class making their turkeys.  I hope everyone back home has a Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Out of the comfort zone

It's one thing to live on your home back in the U.S. and it's something else entirely when you do it in a different country.  I lived on campus my last two years in college, but it was close enough to go home every weekend and still have home cooked meals : ) so my first time actually living on my own is out of the country!  Although I've never really studied abroad in a different country for a long period of time like a semester or year, I still think it would be somewhat different.  You have people to rely on if you need help with things such as professors, whoever is in charge of the program, fellow students, etc., and I imagine it's much easier to be acquainted with everything since you have this added help.  Being in the program I am calls for a lot of independence and is definitely a growing experience.  There's no one really there to help you out if you need help, perhaps in extreme conditions, and if your schools offers help that's great, but for the most part you are on your own.  Two ladies who live in Jerez helped me find my piso, but that's basically been the extent of the help I've gotten.  When you first arrive in Spain you have to apply for the NIE, a foreign number that allows you to stay in the country.  I had to figure out where exactly I needed to go in Jerez and do the entire process by myself and it's still ongoing, even though it has been almost two months since I've been here!  After you get the NIE you need the TIE which is the number with your photo on a card.  You have to pay a fee, send those papers off to Cadiz, and wait (or so I think) until the card arrives.  Besides applying for the NIE I had to open a bank account all bymyself and now I have a bank account in Spain!  It's still weird to think about, but at the same time it's really cool because it's like a statement of my independence here. 

You are also forced to come out of your shell here.  I'm pretty shy, but here your forced to speak and communicate with people in order to accomplish things like getting the NIE, bank account, etc., and just everyday things such as asking for directions, buying a train ticket, etc.  It's good because I have to use Spanish and it makes you more confident.

Not only am I (somewhat at this point - poco a poco!) more confident in Spanish, but I have definitely been more open to trying new food.  I'm a very picky eater so I have "limited" food options, but I've already tried things that I would never have tried back at home.  I've had "secret" meat from a pig (still not sure what part it was and I do not want to know), arroz con leche which is cooked cold rice with milk and cinnamon, and just this past weekend I had, in my opinion, the most exotic of all - bull's tail!  Yes, that's right, a bull's tail!  I'm not sure if this is something that is popular in just Andalucia, but I have heard about it several times and on Saturday there were five of us who went out to several different places for tapas.  At one of them we ordered bull's tail and yes, I tried it!  It actually wasn't too bad tasting, a little fatty, but it tasted like roast beef or something along that line.  It still hard to wrap my mind around eating a bull's tail, but hey, now I can say I've tried it!

Living in a different country can be uncomfortable and yes, there's a culture shock, but it really does make you grow more as a person.  I feel like if I can do all of these things in Spain then living on my own and conquering things back home in the U.S. will be so much easier!