Grading Done!

Grade time has always been stressful, but for some reason this particular year it was worse. Each report card took about 15 minutes, and with over 100 students, this added up to quite some time. It's these times I wonder why I became a teacher and get paid so little.

However, with that said, other aspects of my life are going well. I managed to get my first haircut in Spain with limited Spanish and a notecard that said "I want highlights. More in the front than in the back. Also, I want you to layer it in an A-line shape." This was courtesy of one of my students who looked at me like I was crazy when I asked her to write it out for me. But it worked!

And I'm starting to tutor after school this week, which I fought against for a while because I didn't want to stay after school later, but when I realized four hours a week would bring in 800 euros a month (that's almost a thousand dollars), I decided it was worth it. Maybe now I can have some money saved up for when I come back! And at this exchange rate, it'll be worth it!

I also figured out how to order groceries online to be delivered from one of the huge supermarkets so I no longer have to worry about the five pound bags of dog food I get at my local market and can save money on the Zoe monster.

All in all, life is good. I'm learning bits about Spain, and very little Spanish, but I think that deep down in my brain somewhere I can form a sentence.

Hugs from Spain on a very cold November morning!

Pumpkin Carving!!!

I forgot that in Europe they don't do Halloween, so I was a little sad when it came around and no one knew what I was talking about when I said "pumpkin carving." However, Kathryn (my beautiful dog walker) and I set out to find pumpkins and teach Susana how to carve her first one. We finally found some and went home to get things set up. Kathryn and I diligently did the first steps to carving and got all the wonderful goop out of the middle and the started drawing. About that time Susana just picked up a knife and started cutting without drawing anything first. We started laughing and explaining that it was better to draw and shape it first, but she just looked at us like we were crazy and continued on. Turns out, her pumpkin looked way better than both of ours. I hate art teachers =)

It was an entertaining night, and one that I never had the pleasure to experience when I lived in France. So I may not have had any trick or treaters and pumpkins lining the streets of Portland, but I had three pumpkins in my living room, glowing with the same intensity as those of years past.

El Escorial and Spanish Countryside

Last weekend I took off with Susana and Javier for a day into the countryside of Madrid. These are some of the photos. It was beautiful--very different from what I expected, but beautiful. I wanted to at least share the photos!

Food for Thought

This morning on the train I was reading a Paul Auster book that I picked up at Powells last time I was home. It's called The New York Trilogy and is separated into three different mystery-type novellas. I finished the first two last night, and was not that impressed. But then this morning I started the third and final one, and on the first page came across a passage that really struck me. He's talking about a close childhood friend who he hasn't seen in over a decade, and says the following, "We grew up, went off to different places, drifted apart. None of that is very strange, I think. Our lives carry us along in ways we cannot control, and almost nothing stays with us. It dies when we we do, and death is something that happens to us every day."

Recently a friend got in touch with me whom I hadn't spoken to in over a decade. It was like a rebirth of memories, of thoughts, of smiles. Death had occurred, but so had resurrection. Though I'm in Spain, and drifted and drifting from the people whom I've known and loved, I realize that maybe death is happening everyday, but so is rebirth. And thus I leave you with another quote from the book. "The fact was I had let go of Fanshawe. His life had stopped the moment we went our separate ways, and he belonged to the past for me now, not to the present. He was a ghost I carried around inside of me, a prehistoric figment, a thing that was no longer real." I miss my ghosts, but they are there, inside of me, with every stroke of the keyboard, homework I assign, and breath that I take. Hello, and goodbye, to all of my ghosts.

SAT Proctoring

Ok, while I can admit that I really enjoy teaching, and I do like my students, I did not want to wake up this morning at 5:30 to take Zoe out in the freezing cold, hop into my shower, and somehow make it to school by 7:30 to proctor the SAT on a Saturday. I do not want to be sitting in a room full of stressed out students, one of whom puked during the first twenty minutes. I, unlike the kids of course, am counting down the minutes until I am allowed to go home, watch the new episode of Greys Anatomy that itunes has just kindly sent me, and take a nap. Instead, I have to go home, take Zoe out again since she´s been cooped up for hours while I was here, and then figure out how in the hell to make fried chicken. Let me remind everyone here that I am a vegetarian. I have not eaten meat in over a decade. I have no clue how to cook fried chicken. But for dinner tonight we all pulled out a card with what we were cooking, and my luck, of course, is that I got fried chicken. So I bought the chicken, put it in the freezer, and have been searching on the internet for the last hour trying to find a recipe that tells me how to make it. Looks like I´m supposed to defrost it first. Great. Guess I forgot to do that this morning. And shake it in a bag with flour and seasonings? What are these people thinking?? I´m going to placate myself with the fact that I am also making mashed potatoes, if I can find potatoes, and then tonight, when no one is around, I am going to eat an entire sackful of them. After all, if no one sees you eat something, then you´re not really injesting calories. And it´s cold. And I want them. And a nap. And not the timer that is about to go off to tell me that once again I have to instruct the students to put their pencils down, that they are not allowed calculators if they are not taking the mathematics section, etc . . . Ok, enough of a rant. Happy Saturday to all.

Changing Weather

In one of Scott's last emails to me, he told me that in the toughest times he wished we were curled up in bed watching a movie, but in the beautiful moments, that he wished I was there, seeing and experiencing what he was. This morning, I finally realized what he meant. This morning, I felt Spain. I felt its icy breath on my cheeks as I struggled with Zoe to not eat the garbage that was left on the street. I felt its power with the wind pushing me up the huge hill that I have to climb every morning. I felt Spain. I ran with the people down the escalator to catch the train so that I wouldn't be late to work. I wormed my way through people to finally find a seat so that I could read and grade papers during my trip. I smiled at the sunrise over Madrid. I laughed with my students about carving pumpkins. I talked with teachers about getting together and making a halloween meal. We compared notes on where to find cream cheese for cheesecake. Today, it all felt real.

I understand. Because I too have those days where all I want is to be back in Portland, curled up on the couch under a down comforter, watching every re-run of law and order that exists and listening to the rain fall softly on the roof. But today, I wanted to be here. And I wanted to share. I wanted others to feel the weather, the people, the language, the train. I wanted to share the life of Spain.

Jesse and Ashley's Wedding

Ok, so I know it's taken me quite long to actually post any of these pictures, but I've been a little busy going between jet lag and a ridiculous amount of papers to grade. However, as promised, Jesse and Ash get their own blog entry to celebrate the momentous occasion. Ashley looked absolutely beautiful--glowing to be exact, and Jesse shocked me with the utter happiness that he exuded throughout the day. If there is one couple in the world I had to pick for perfectness, I think we've found them. Even with the problems of Ashley's broken ankle and having to walk on crutches, they both still showed nothing but love and togetherness. You two are both inspiration and hope, and I wish you both the best. All my love to you both.