This Place Is Full of Burros

Spanish Organizational Patterns and Techniques-

Moving at the speed of this tractor:

<-------

I wasn't originally going to include this in my blog, but I just encountered the straw that broke the camel's back.  Let's talk for a moment about Spanish organization, punctuality, etc.  This week, Ian and I traveled once more to Toledo in order to secure our NIE's; which are the Spanish equivalents to social security numbers, except obviously ours are temporary.  The program had booked appointments for all of the Americans working in CLM so that we could all go as a group, do the paperwork and get on with our lives. Turns out that was way too easy. So 15 of us arrived, only to find out that one of the most critical people in the whole process, The Stamp Your Paperwork Man, was either a) sick or b) in a meeting.  We don't really know which because they gave us both excuses. Additionally, this man's job was apparently so nebulous and shrouded in mystery that nobody else at the entire office knew what exactly what this man's job consisted of. (Well??) I wish those were the only excuses we were given, but it got better. They also told us they would not be able to process our stuff because their equipment wasn't working.  What equipment, you ask?

Oh, that's right, The Copy Machine. How in the world can an office continue to do work when The Copy Machine isn't working (allegedly)???  Frankly, even more impressive than their display of incompetence was the mere fact that many of these people manage to blink and breathe at the same time. Regardless of who was actually sick, malfunctioning, out of toner or in an important meeting, we were sent away and told to come back the next day, despite the fact that many of us had come from over 2 hours away, and ironically, were missing our jobs to do this.  Okay, fair enough.

So we show up the next day and for whatever reason, only half of us were initially allowed to have our paperwork submitted because allegedly only half of us had appointments. So we thought, "That's strange, because yesterday we had appointments and weren't allowed in, yet today, Stamp Your Paperwork Man is back, The Holy Copy Machine must have been repaired or had some animal sacrificed for it's health, but we don't have appointments even though yesterday we were told to come back by these very people?"  Whatever. I was one of the lucky ones who made it through in the early going. Luckily for Ian (who didn't have an appointment), they took the first ten minutes of their precious siesta time to process the paperwork for the other Americans who hadn't been so fortunate earlier. So a process that should have taken a mere hour or so ended up taking about 28 and costing us two day's worth of missed teaching time. Awesome.

Today-About 3 Hours Ago:

Let me turn now to the straw that broke the camel's back. As I had written in my previous posts, Ian and I were supposed to be traveling to Tenerife tomorrow (Nov. 6). We had planned on taking the bus to Madrid at 7.40 pm, then staying in the airport during the night and hopping on our plane at 6.15 am and being on our way. Easy? No, we forgot where we were...not easy, not at all. So we arrived at the bus station and waited. And waited. And waited some more. No bus. Maybe a copy machine at the bus station in Madrid wasn't working, but for whatever reason, there was no bus.  But Drew, did you misread the schedule? Was it the right day, the right line? No, yes, yes. After being thoroughly angry and confused, Ian and I scoured the internet to make sure we weren't the ones to make a mistake and sure enough, all of the information we found led us to believe that a bus should have come to La Villa De Don Fadrique on Thursday, November 5th at 19.40 leaving for Madrid. But, nope. So, Ian and Drew will be going to Tenerife will be kickin' it in La Villa this weekend, because we have no other possible way to reach Madrid by 6.15 am tomorrow morning.  If you're curious and want to see where the AISA bus lines made their egregious error, you may visit the site apparently titled: We are f*cking morons, and scroll about 4/5ths of the way down to the timetable titled "La Villa de Don Fadrique-Madrid (Lunes a Sabados)".

Okay, I've had about enough ranting. Although, I do love to learn how to say "Donkey" in every language I encounter. In Arabic, it is "hemar." In Spanish, it is burro, and they use it appropriately enough, to call someone stupid. With that said:

AISA &

Oficina de Extranjerias:

|

|

|

V

My Travels

I've been here for close to 6 weeks and have already seen a great deal. I've been to Toledo, Madrid, Coruna, a lot of small villages close to VDF. and tomorrow, November 6th, Ian and I are going to Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. It is about 80 degrees there everyday with a ton of beaches...so after a hard 3 day work week we are escaping to an island paradise, poor me, things are just so hard here and getting worse everyday.

Toledo

So our first weekend here, Ian and I had orientation on a Monday at some university in Toledo, so we decided to leave VDF on Friday and stay there till Monday.  The place is unreal. As soon as you are within visible distance of the city, you see this:

The place is gorgeous. It is about as European as I thought a city could be: gothic style architecture (To be honest, I don't even really know what that means but it is how I envision architecture when it is called Gothic), cobblestone roads, restaurants outside, narrow streets.  We had a really strange night. We first met two American ladies in their 30's and began talking with them at a pizza place in Zocodover plaza, the main plaza of Toledo, and one of the ladies' husbands is from Longmont! She had been there last Christmas and hated every moment of it! (not Longmont itself but just her in-laws, haha) And if that weren't enough, she goes on to say that she lives in Houston now, in an area called Bear Creek, which  Gretchen tells me is where she went to elementary school!

If that weren't enough, we get up from the dinner table after talking with these ladies and I see a kid rocking a DU Intramural Championship T-Shirt! Turns out there was a group of study abroad students in Toledo for the night and 7 of them go to DU. It's a small world, indeed. So we ended up walking around with them and the next two days visiting other parts of the city and going on a hike around the outside of the city next to the Rio Taja (I think). The scenery was amazing with the river and views of the city right next to one another. We also went to see Toledo's football team play outside the city against Atletico Madrid's B team. Pretty awesome!

Madrid

So here in VDF, the first few nights Ian stayed with an older lady named Inma. She is an absolute saint, and we call her our Spanish Grandmother. Anyways, she has two nieces who we met, and became good friends with. Luckily for us, the two girls both study at a university in Madrid, so when we went to visit, we stayed with them and they showed us around etc. Madrid is really cool because it is a huge city without a huge city feel. From what I experienced and Sara told me (I think she did, at least), there is no exact "downtown" location. But regardless, we walked around, saw the train station that was bombed in 2003, went to the Reina Sofia, (some art museum...although my appreciation for art is about as big as this period:  .   ) saw the palace where the King (figurehead) lives,and then went out that night and ate dinner.I have to say that at first, I was skeptical about the validity to the notion that the Spanish really take naps in the middle of the day and eat dinner really late. That skepticism is now totally annihilated. They sleep their asses off here, but only because it is normal for dinner to start at 11 pm or even 12 am. That night in Madrid we began dinner at 11 pm and ended around 1 am. After that we went out to various bars and then some club till 5 am. Needless to say, the next day there was a siesta.

While I'm talking about Madrid, I should mention that the following Wednesday, after being back for only 2 days, I was there again. I went with some fellow teachers to watch some sport they call football, with some team I think is called Real Madrid. It happened to be a Champion's League game against AC Milan. Oh nothing, just two of the world's biggest teams with probably over 1 billion dollars worth of players (Kaka, Pato, Ronaldinho, Seedorf, Pirlo, Benzema, Xabi Alonso etc etc etc) on the field.While RMCF lost 3-2, I didn't care, the game was unbelievable, the crowd was fantastic and I loved every moment of it. 

A Coruña

Last weekend Ian and I went with Sara, the science teacher I work with, and her fiancee Manuel, to their home city of Coruna, in the province of Galicia. It was an amazing place and thank God, a welcome contrast from VDF. It was totally green, had real buildings, people with teeth, and even the ocean!  We had a really spectacular time thanks to Sara and Manuel. They graciously opened up their houses to us and we met their entire families, who treated us greatly, always even making sure to mind my incredibly, fantastically science fictionish habit of not eating meat (QUE!!????). We experienced the great nightlife, once again staying out till 5 am or so, going to the beach, walking around the city, and taking about 3 hours for every meal. It was also a really good opportunity to speak more Spanish, as the car ride was 7 hours each way. Lucky for me, Manuel is pretty fluent in English so whenever I needed help, or to ask a difficult question, we could speak in English, but for most of the rides it was Spanish.  

To go on a tangent, I think my Spanish is improving nicely. Compared to where I was a month ago, if I could achieve linear improvement each month then I will be fairly fluent.  That is great, but also says very little for my Spanish now.  My problem isn't expressing my ideas, but listening, which has always been my problem in all languages I've tried to learn. It's hard to converse if you don't know what the other person is saying. (unless you talk to yourself, in which case, why are you speaking a different language?)

Other Odds and Ends

In between two of those trips, we visited Consuegra for a freaking sweet Saffron festival (kidding). We spent about a week there one afternoon (Thanks for the line Harry Chapin).  The one positive was that we got to see the really typical Castilla La Mancha old time windmills. They were beautiful and a definitely a sight to behold, especially as people here have so much pride in them.

Last week we also carved a pumpkin. This was awesome because people here don't carve pumpkins or really celebrate Halloween, so it was fun to bring a little American culture to the VDF. It was great because my Dad graciously sent me a huge package and in it, included a pumpkin carving tool set.  Ian and I did two little pumpkins (the pumpkins here are different than American pumpkins and not meant for carving) that turned out great, but what really got us some serious acclaim was the big one we did. We put this out our window for the kids to see and the next day I took it to school and it was like I invented fire. Of course, I didn't tell them about the huge Halloween industry in the USA that practically carves these things for you.

(One quick final note*...Placing pictures on this blog and having it flow well with the text is apparently very difficult for people of my ilk so I apologize for lots of empty weird space--kinda like Castilla La Mancha and VDF!). Anyways, Ian and I are off to Tenerife tomorrow, with I'm sure some more amazing stories and pictures.  I hope to not take two weeks in between posts again but you never really know. So adios, talk to everyone soon!

One Quick Note

So I received mixed reviews about my last post, some people appreciated my attempts at humor and others thought I was miserable; so I wanted to dispel some rumors. I'm doing really well here. The last post was just me poking fun at VDF and my situation, mostly the contrast between where I thought I was going to be and my actual reality.  There is something to be said for the physical place itself, though. It has a strange beauty to it, the landscapes are barren and moon-like at times, but I've come to appreciate them as time passes, and even more as I pass by them on a bus out of VDF (it's probably those types of jabs that confuse people).  
But regardless of the physical place, I can't take anything away from the people who inhabit this place. They are unconditionally kind and willing to go far out of their way in order to make you feel comfortable and welcome (as you'll see later).  So I wanted to make sure everyone knew that. I'm doing well, enjoying my time, learning Spanish and traveling...a lot.  Speaking of....

Ladies and Gentlemen, Allow Me To Introduce VDF..... (Applause).....(Crickets).....Fine.

Well, this only took me about a month. As a result, this post will be much longer than most others, I imagine. I'll try and split this up into manageable sections:

Villa de Don Fadrique (VDF)

It took Ian and I about three days to realize that VDF sounds more like a venereal disease than a village in Castilla La Mancha. However, it's probably safe to say that neither is something one would really long for. VDF is about 4,000 people. We have approximately zero stoplights, but then again, why would village need one when heavy traffic consists of a tractor following...a tractor.

But honestly, this place is tiny. Everyone knows everyone. Ian and I aren't able to walk down the street without someone yelling out "I-innnn," or "Drooooow", which is the way Spaniards pronounce our names (actually, some people have decided to quit trying to say Ian and just call him Juan--I don't know why). It is kinda endearing but it does have its pitfalls. Everyone knows who we are. That doesn't always bode in your favor. For example, Ian does a lot of private tutoring. Out of the 7 to 8 people that he tutors, only 1 of these people actually comes over to our apartment for lessons. She happens to be 17. Therefore, we have gotten a reputation for hosting young girls at our apartment. This is as far from the truth as possible, but on numerous occasions we have both been asked if we've had young girls up in our place. Haha, at first we thought it was hilarious because it was so dumb, but the second time we were asked...not so much. So we've had to be more careful, because people talk here.

VDF looks pretty awful to the average American, I have to say. It is out in the middle of nowhere, the buildings mostly look rundown and the town's economy relies heavily on wine production (which brings along with it, LOTS of flies--and these flies aren't scared to dive bomb you) and front doors. However, you'd be greatly confused entering the homes of many people. They rival those of Americans-not in size necessarily, but in quality.

They have modern, nice things but it only serves to further highlight some of the contrasts between what we'd call nice, and what we'd say looks horrible...like this view from our front door (what we imagine the USSR must have looked like during nuclear war--which is also ironic in itself because we later found out VDF was once called "Little Russia" because of its large number of communists--but there are still a good number here today!). Regardless, VDF is a strange place for an American, definitely not a place I'd ever envision myself, but as I've positively and negatively experienced, that is part of the enchantment and allure of travel.

Our Apartment

So our apartment is humbly located in about the middle of the village (It takes me about 15 minutes to walk to school). We live above the only barber in town (we think he is at least...) and rent it from him (Constantino is his name). It has two bedrooms, although mine would serve as a moderately nice closet for some jackets. I got here second, obviously.

We have a kitchen with no oven (which means an oven can't explode here!) and most of our appliances operate on natural gas instead of electricity. It's kinda cool except for when you forget to turn the gas off and open yourself up to the possibility of spontaneous combustion, mmmm! We turn the hot water on by turning the gas on and lighting a match in some box thing that I've never seen before. It's awesome.

However, my favorite place is the bathroom. Hideously small and dirty, it houses our nasty sink and miniscule shower, haha.

I can barely turn around in the shower, which wouldn't necessarily bother me if I could guarantee that I'd have a constant stream of hot water, but we don't and it's an exercise in flexibility when the cold water squirts out to say hello.  Overall though, the place suits us. It isn't too nice or too bad. We had internet installed a few weeks ago which made everything a lot easier because we don't feel so distant now.

School

So: the reason I'm allegedly here. I teach at el instituto, which means loosely, middle/high school. The name is Leonor de Guzman, but nobody here probably even knows the name because there is only one school so they call it the institute. My responsibilities are to assist the teachers in teaching Music, Natural Sciences, PE and Art. Now, this was quite different than what was advertised. I thought I was going to be teaching the English language itself, but that isn't the case. Rather, I assist in helping familiarize the kids with the English language only really relevant to their class subjects. By that I mean that I'm not helping them write English sentences or learning to have simple conversations, but teaching them science, music etc, in English.

So everyday I help read vocabulary like "Solar System, Black Hole, Instrument, Paintbrush" etc. I often have them repeat and they're supposed to only address me in English. Herein lies one of my largest complaints: Today I was told most of the kids have had English classes since they were 4....haha, uhhh no. Most of the kids don't know how to react when I ask them, "How are you?" Their English is poor, at best. Consequently, everyday is a real struggle to keep their attention (as I imagine it would be for me  if someone spoke to me constantly in Spanish, I mean, Chinese). So, I feel a bit under utilized at this point but I'm hoping it gets better and eventually I start to see the kids actually learning and using their English (please?).

This brings me to another point: behavior. Let me start this by saying that I have no teaching experience, I wasn't educated in Education and I have no base of comparison, however, these kids are BAD, and not a "good" bad like Michael Jackson Bad. Maybe it is something in the water here, but if they paid attention for 10 straight minutes, or someone didn't get slapped in the face every 5 minutes, or I didn't have to say "Listen up you little Motherf*ckers" (J/K... kinda), then I would be so happy.

Teachers don't get paid enough, and that includes me, even counting the fact that I don't even work on Mondays. But back to the point, there are problems. I don't know if it is VDF, Spain, or just kids in general but some days are prettttty rough. My fury could just be that today was my worst day here yet but I don't think that is what it is fueling this. Seriously...today I looked up after explaining to some girl why Pluto was no longer a planet and saw between 12-15 children literally RUNNING around the classroom, with one child being bitch-slapped in the face while behind him one kid was being put in a head-lock. Good work, Drew. Your degrees are paying off, big-time.

The worst part is that the teachers are as helpless as I am. These kids aren't scared of being in trouble, having a note sent home, or being sent to the Principal. If you ask me, most of the kid's actions reflect their lives at home, which doesn't say a whole lot for their parenting. That very thought hit me today and I decided it had to be correct as I watched the music teacher wheel the rolling whiteboard in front of Davido (who had been sent to the front corner desk to get him to quit distracting those around him at his normal desk), to act as a shield so the other kids would stop looking at him and egging him on. Needless to say, this didn't work. I felt like Eminem-"Where are the parents at?"

----------------------------------------------------------------

So this has taken me a good bit of time and I have to go now anyways. When I next have time, I'll write about my trips to Toledo and Madrid, along with what's going on with soccer. Thanks for reading! Hasta luego!