I'm an English teacher now

So I was going to give you all a taste of yet another Spanish city in my blog post today, I was about to write about my interest group trip to Madrid complete with tons of pictures. However, as I started to write that post I realized my heart just wasn't in it today, despite that fact that I have two other trips I'm still dying to share with you all I was to preoccupied thinking about something else. That something else just happens to be that I taught a class BY MYSELF for the first time today. For an hour and some odd minutes I was in charge of nineteen, normally twenty-three but four weren't in school today, four year olds. I don't have any pictures because I was so nervous I forgot my camera (sorry Mom!) but I'll get some soon, promise.

A typical day in the infantil (preschool) English class starts off with their learning the basics of how to greet people and talk about the weather, day, month and season. Each day a different child helps the teacher take roll call and asks if each person is in school, and then the children are supposed to respond with a greeting, today's helper was Manuel. Listening to them greet each other is adorable and it usually goes a little something like this.

Manuel-"Is here Juan Delgado?"
Juan-"Am here, good morning."

I'm not sure why but this just cracks me and melts my heart simultaneously every time. Then we move onto singing the "Good Morning" song, this was awkward because I had to lead the song without any musical accompaniment this morning, and I'm an awful singer, which may explain the look of terror that was in some of their eyes, just kidding that's because I'm three feet taller than all of them. After that was going through the days of the week and what month it was, despite it being the last day in April I had to work really hard to convince them that it was in fact April, a common vote was for February, I'm not sure what that was about...

Then we reviewed colors, shapes, numbers and directions (such as up/down and near/far). I liked this part because I got to draw on the board with colored chalk! Also, by this time I was no longer nervous about teaching the class, and now that I look back it was a little silly to be afraid of speaking to four year olds.

Up next was a listening activity, where I played a tape where a voice said eight vocabulary words that they have been learning. The first time they just listen, the second time they look and listen, the third time they have to look, listen and then repeat the word. This got a little rowdy and María, the real teacher, had to help me settle them down. She told them how lucky they were to have me because I am from the United States so I pronounce everything correctly, one little boys response to this was "¿¿Con los vaqueros??" or "With the cowboys??". I thought that was so cute, but a lot of Spanish people actually believe the United States are still like how they are depicted in Westerns. During her explanation Gonzalo and Paz (ironic because it means Peace) got sent to their desks for being naughty, but after that things went smoothly.

The final activity was listening to the tape again and given three objects identify which object makes the sound that was played on the tape. I had lots of volunteers to answer these questions but a lot of times whenever I would call on one of them they would get nervous and either give their answer in Spanish or just point, both of which are no-no's. Lastly, Manuel and Teresa helped pass out their workbooks and they had to cross out the objects that made the sounds that they had heard. They were really good at this for the most part, but some of them crossed out the wrong object and were really embarrassed about it, but I just brought them an eraser and talked them through it until they found the right one.

During this time María asked me how I liked teaching a class by myself and I told her that although I was really nervous I loved it and couldn't wait to do it again next Monday, and that is the truth. It was such a great experience and the kids are all so adorable. There are two kids in particular who really like to come up to talk to me, Juan Delgado and Teresa. They talk to me in Spanish and although it's supposed to be an English only class I respond in Spanish because they don't understand me otherwise. Today we talked about where we live in Sevilla, Feria (the big holiday that just finished in Sevilla) and whether or not I know how to dance Sevillana also known as Flamenco (to which the answer is no although I'd love to learn). Turns out that both of them can dance Flamenco which is amazing because it is a complicated dance, and they're four.

All in all I loved teaching class for a day and that the kids are warming up to me. I wish I had more Mondays here in Sevilla to spend with them, I'll really miss my volunteering at Sagraga Corazón when I go home.

Beach Weekend In Portugal!

Ugh I'm sorry that I'm so behind in my blogs, between school and my travels I feel like I'm being crushed under the weight of all the things I want to share with you all. Lucky for you I have four days with basically nothing to do but homework, and it turns out blogging makes for a good study break, so prepare to be bombarded with posts in the next few days. Hopefully that's okay with all of you :)

A few weekends ago I headed out on one of my final trips of the semester, a beach weekend to the famous beaches of Albufeira and Lagos, Portugal. This was another trip with WeLoveSpain, the tour group I travelled to Morocco with, once again they didn't disappoint. They put us up in an aparthotel, I stayed in an apartment with three other girls. It was a one bedroom with twin beds, two pull out sleeper couches in the living room, a kitchen, bathroom and balcony, overall I was really pleased with the hotel, the only downside was no free food, but since we had a full kitchen that was just fine.

After a few hour bus ride we arrived in Portugal, checked into our hotel and headed straight to the beach. It was a little chilly but Allison, Nadine and I braved the cold and we were honestly probably 3 of 5 brave souls who went for a dip. Once you went all the way under it wasn't bad at all though, and we spent probably half an hour splashing around in the Atlantic Ocean, which is one of the oceans I'd never swam in before. I have a strong love for oceans and all things ocean related, I have been quoted as saying fish are the most majestic creatures, so to say I was excited to spend my weekend by the sea is an understatement.

La playa. 

Splish-splashin' in the chilly water. 

Las chicas en la playa. 

Drying off in the sand. 

After our brief dip in the ocean we decided to explore the rest of the beach which was full of cliffs and mini-caves. I made the choice to go barefoot, turns out this wasn't wise, the rocks were pretty sharp, but I just kept thinking of it as a free pedicure. 

Such a pretty view. 

Some of the "cliffs" we climbed. 

Fish fossils, I was the only one who thought these were neat. #Biologymajorproblems

OUCH, barefoot climbing!

How many girls can you fit on one rock?

When the sun started to set we walked into town and bought some grocery essentials for dinner that night and breakfast/snacks for the next few days. One thing about Portugal and Spain for that matter, fruit is SO inexpensive, a huge carton of strawberries for a euro? Sounds good to me. That night we made spicy mac and cheese for dinner, combining two things we all miss most, comfort food and spicy. The next morning it was up early to leave Albufeira for the day and head into Lagos, where we would be seeing the end of the world and visiting another beach. Unfortunately, the weather decided to be bratty and it rained heavily for a good part of the day, so I wasn't too bummed that we spent a good part of it on the bus.

What used to be thought of as the end of the world, before the discovery of the Americas. 

Looks kinda dismal.

Who knew the end of the world would be so windy?

After visiting the end of the world, I'm no longer worried about 2012, it will be a cake walk compared to the weather there. All jokes aside, the wind was so strong that if you got too near the edge of the cliffs it would push you off. We stopped at another scenic overlook which reminded me completely and totally of Pirates of the Caribbean, so much so I'm convinced part of it was filmed there. 

Nature is so cool. 

Pretty Pirates-esque right?

Swimsuits one day, fleecy and jeans the next, did I accidentally end up in MN?

Love all the news friends I've made here. 

Our next stop was one of the most beautiful beaches in Portugal, and the sun decided to grace us with it's presence and gave us a couple good hours there. One really funny thing happened at this beach though. There were a couple guys in our group who, shall we say, had a lot of liquid courage and decided that they wanted to jump into the ocean and climb up this big rock that was a hundred yards or so out from the shore. The group coordinators didn't want anyone climbing the rock, for obvious saftey reasons and started yelling at the boys with a megaphone until they realized that one of them was naked. In his infinite wisdom he decided that he not only wanted his pants to stay dry, but his boxers as well. At this point he had attracted a crowd and about three greyhound buses of people full were watching him and hooting and hollering. He was sin vergüenza or without shame, he stood on the rock faced the crowd and waved, then made a grand leap off. It wasn't until he had jumped off the rock and was walking up out of the water that some of his liquid courage wore off and he became embarrassed. 

That rock in the middle is the one he climbed up on. 

Such a gorgeous beach. 

Loving the color of the water. 

We then ventured into the city center of Lagos for some lunch, coffee and warmth. It was a cute little center area but not too much there. We spent most of our time ducking into assorted gift shops and stealing some of their heat. Our cue to leave each shop and move onto the next one was when someone, okay fine, usually me, almost broke a knick-knack. Some interesting things that the city center held was the the most exotic merry-go-round I've ever seen and a pink mutant bull/cow, it had udders and horns, is that normal?

Lions, giraffes, and horses, OH MY. 

Seriously, I don't think that's normal. 

That night WeLoveSpain took us on a "bar crawl" that consisted of one bar, but it was tons of fun, for the first few hours there was a live band, who upon seeing the large influx of Americans proceeded to play every American song they knew. Which are usually kind of oldies but it was still fun. Then a DJ came on and played a lot of good Spanish songs and everyone's favorite Portugese song "Ai Se Eu Tu Pego", even though it's in Portugese it's become one of my new favorite songs, although I did make the mistake of listening to the English version, MISTAKE. The original is always better. 

The next morning we loaded up into the bus one last time and went to a huge public beach in Lagos. It was great for seashell collecting and the sun even stayed out all day so I think I got a pretty good tan. The only downside was the wind, which seemed intent on imbedding sand in my scalp. As soon as I got back from Portugal I took a shower, but I was still finding sand in my hair for days. 

I'm so lucky, I think I've seen the most gorgeous views in the world on my study abroad trip. 

Don't you just want to jump off that pier. 

Obsessed with white beach towns. 

Breath-taking. 

Our day at this beach came to a close all to quickly and it was back to Sevilla. I must say the beaches of Portugal are some of the most beautiful I've ever been too and I would love to return in the summer when it is even warmer so that I could swim more. My beach weekend was lazy, amazing, relaxing and just what I needed to unwind from a tough week at school. 

Como-like Barcelona

Finally a tell all reveal of my aventuras en Barca! ;)

I woke up bright and early Sunday morning to shower, finalize my packing (passport....check!) and then dash out of my house to meet Allison and wait for Lucas, whose Mom graciously offered to drive us all to the airport and save us the trouble of a bus or taxi. We made it onto our plane with no problems and in just under two hours, around 2:30 we were stepping down onto the tarmac in Barcelona. The first order of business was to eat so we headed to La Rambla, one of the most famous streets in Barca full of shops and a great view, to grab a bite to eat. Then we headed to our hostel, HostelOne, if you ever stay in Barcelona I highly recommend staying here. I was a little nervous to stay in a hostel because I was afraid it would be dirty or sketchy but it blew my expectations out of the water, it was clean and the staff were fun and helpful. I stayed in a six person room with Emily, Allison and Allyson (three girls from my program here) and John and Mike two of Allyson's friends from home who are studying in Manchester. I was glad that our room was full of just people we knew, it made things like one giant sleepover and we had a balcony!

Our gigantic backpacks. 

It was a long morning at the airport...

Our slightly lived in (read: messy) hostel room.

 After quickly dropping our stuff off at the hostel we left once again to meet up with Alberto and María, Alberto is a friend of Lucas' and María is his girlfriend who lives in Barcelona. He was visiting her the same time that we were there and she offered to show us around. She is so nice and is crazy good at Spanish and English even though neither of them are her first language, she speaks Catalan which is a mixture of underdeveloped Spanish and French. She took us to see the Gaudí houses, the 4Cats bar where Picasso, Gaudí and Miro hung out and drank absinthe, and some of her favorite places in Barcelona including a very cool skater bar. 

4Cats bar where Picasso, Miro and Gaudí used hang out. 

"Skater" bar with a really unique atmosphere. 

One of Gaudí's houses. 

That night we all went out for traditional Barcelona tapas. I had a really delicious salad and Emily and I split a questionable sausage and mushroom dish, it was mostly good but I'm pretty sure it involved blood sausage. After dinner Allyson, John, Mike and I went to an Irish bar of all things where one of her friends from home who is studying abroad in Barcelona works. He got us a free drink and told us about some of his favorite things to do in Barcelona, we stayed there for a while but ultimately went home pretty early because the next day we had plans to go hiking.

Me and Allyson.

Study Abroad amigos :) 

Despite our best efforts to get up early we all slept in until about 11:30, after a heavenly shower (there was finally enough hot water and water pressure) we headed out to meet María and Alberto who were going to be our guides for the hike. We all bought some food at the grocery store for lunch and stocked up on water before we headed up Montserrat. To get to the bottom of the mountain we took the metro, I'd never been on the metro before and I was SO excited. Everyone else made fun of me because they had all taken it before and didn't understand why I hadn't or why I was so excited, in retrospect it was a bit of a let down but it's another mode of transportation I can cross off my list. We climbed halfway up the mountain, had a picnic on a scenic overlook and then continued up the mountain to partake in the unobstructed views of Barca that the mountain offered. 

Maria struggling to get up the mountain and Alberto helping while Lucas laughed and documented it all. 

Pretty path on the mountain.

View of Barca. 

View of the Sagrada Familia.

Spot where we had our picnic.

Mike, John, Me, Allyson and Allison taking in the view. 

Las chicas, minus Maria. 

After our hike on the mountain María and Alberto left us and we decided to tour La Sagrada Familia. It was breath-taking. Gaudí started building it and didn't complete it before his death, now they work on it little by little as they get enough money from donations. The astonishing attention to detail and obvious plan for every little bit of this monstrous cathedral is astounding. 

After touring the Sagrada Familia we stopped in at a grocery store and picked up supplies to make tacos at the hostel that night for dinner. It was fun to cook all together and it was nice to have a home-cooked meal after eating out so much while we were traveling. We also met an Australian guy Has who was traveling alone and we pretty much adopted him into our group and he hung out with us for the rest of the weekend. That night after dinner we went out to a bar call Chupitos or shots. They had over 200 different kinds of themed shots that were on fire, had funny flavors and a million other things. Lucas did one called pulp fiction and they shot it into his mouth with a syringe, he was so surprised by that, and talked about it for the rest of the weekend. 

Marki, Allison and Lucas cooking. 

Our delicious dinner. 

Shot of the whole group. 

Me, Mike and our Australian friend Has. 

Silly Midwest girls. 

List of all the chupitos. 

Study abroad amigos + Australian friend. 

S'mores,  chupitos en fuego!

The next morning we woke up bright and early and went to the cutest little breakfast place across the street, it was real authentic Spanish food and the cook was the sweetest old lady who we made friends with. I had a delicious egg, cheese and tomato breakfast sandwich. After breakfast we braved the rain for a free walking tour of Barcelona. It was such an amazing tour. It really gave me some insight into why the people of Barcelona, many of whom consider themselves Catalan and not Spanish, have such strong negative feelings towards the rest of Spain. They have been maltreated by pretty much every regime to come into power.

Saint Eulalia is the patron saint of Barcelona. She was a young girl who was tortured and persecuted by the Romans for believing in God. She suffered thirteen tortures including being stripped naked in front of a crowd to humiliate her but the legend has it that when her clothes were removed a snow storm started over just her and covered her from sight. Angered by this the Romans put her in a barrel, filled with knives and rolled her down the hill, but she didn't die. She was subsequently decapitated, upon which a dove flew from her neck, this was grounds for sainthood.

Shrine to Saint Eulalia. 

This old church and square was a site of many terrible war crimes and deaths during the Spanish civil war. It was here that Mussolini bombed the citizens of Barcelona with no intended military target to weaken the moral of the people. It was also the location of many executions ordered by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who was angry because the people of Barcelona refused to assimilate with the rest of Spain. Speaking Catalan was banned and any expression of Catalan culture could result in execution.  

Many of the holes in the wall are from shrapnel and bullets from the many bombings and shootings that took place here. 

The door to the church. 

Plaque in the square. 

Art is a really big part of the culture in Barcelona and it is home to many artists. Some famous artists that lived there in the past are Pablo Picasso, Juan Miro and Antoni Gaudí. With so many artists in one place feuds were bound to happen. There is one story about Picasso and Miro, years ago in the 4Cats Picasso was drinking and heard everyone talking about how great Miro was. This made Picasso angry so he took a pencil and drew on the table cloth his interpretation of a Miro, one patron saved it. Miro found out and was so angry that he did his own interpretation of a Picasso in retaliation. These drawings are now the artwork on the outside of one of the art museums in Barcelona. 

 Picasso doing a Miro.

Miro doing a Picasso. 

Street art is also a big deal in Barca. This reads: the freedom of expression is on the walls. 

We also saw the Cathedral of Barcelona. It is no where near as impressive as the Cathedral of Sevilla but it has a lot of cool history that almost makes up for its appearance. 

Old roman part of the cathedral. 

Cathedral of Barcelona. 

The arch below was built to connect the cathedral with the legislative building of Barcelona so that when the Bishop has to sign off on laws he can just walk across the bridge instead of having to go outside and all the way around the building to the front entrance. I thought this was so interesting because it shows how intertwined the church and the laws are. It is also said that if you walk backwards under the arch and make a wish it will come true. I tried it but don't ask me what I wished for, I can't tell you, if I do it won't come true. 

Secret pathway. 

During the time of the Black Plague there were so many bodies and the Bishop didn't want to risk catching it that he ordered all the bodies to be piled up in front of his balcony where he would reach out a hand and do a mass blessing of all of the bodies before they were taken away to be dumped into the sea. 

Skull under the arch to represent all the lost souls from the plague. 

Hard to see but in the corner is the Bishops finger. 

The Jewish people were also mistreated in Barcelona and at one point to get enough materials to build a castle the Jewish gravestones were dug up and used as stones in the wall. 

We also learned about Wilfred the Harry who is supposed to have delivered Barcelona from the control of an evil dragon who was eating all of the towns virgins in the 9th century. However, because Wilfred the Hairy wasn't an appropriate person to be the savior of the city because of his name and appearance the people transferred the legend onto Saint George, and he is known as the one who saved the city from the evil dragon. 

St. George and Wilfred the Hairy fighting dragons. 

There were also many cool sculptures in Barcelona. One to represent the human castle building contests that happen often in Barca, building human castles that are up to four stories high, and one to commemorate George Orwell, for his support during the Spanish Civil War. 

This is supposed to be a castle somehow, I don't really see it. 

 Statue to honor George Orwell, I think it's supposed to be an eye. In an ironic twist this statue is in the only plaza in Barca with camera surveillance, I don't thing George Orwell would be too pleased about that.

This sign is up in one of the worst barrios (at night) in Barcelona, where all the drug addicts hang out. It says "we want a respectable neighborhood".

Former Red-light district in Barcelona, that was cleaned up and moved when the Olympics came to Barcelona in 1992. The art school that Picasso attended was right next to the Red-light district, it is believed that his friendships with the women who worked there shaped a lot of his early work and attitude towards women. 

 Former Red-light district.

Picasso's art school. 

I thought the tour of the city was well worth the three hours it took, I learned so much and I never knew that Barcelona had such rich history. I loved my time in Barcelona, it was a truly beautiful city and so much fun, however, it still pales in comparison to my Sevilla, I still haven't found a city that I love as much. 

Finally, if you made it to the bottom of this post, congratulations, I feel like this was a long one. If anyone is wondering the significance of como-like, it's something my friend Allison says all the time, like is how people incorrectly translate como into English and now whenever we are at a loss for words or need time to pause we throw como-like into the equation. Much like middle school girls use like back in the states :)