Semana Santa!

Spring break. Oh man I was I ready for it. Too long without a decent nights sleep can take a toll on you and I was pushing my limit, so when Friday finally rolled around and the last happy child finally headed off with their parents I booked it out the door and headed for a nice nap. Except I never quite got around to it. It's strange how tired you can be when you have something to do, yet how awake you are when you lift that weight free. My plans for spring break didn't exactly go as planned. Originally I was going to go to the UK and see almost all of it, but due to passport complications that I won't get into I was unable to leave Spain. I had a good time though anyway and got to see some really cool things and hang out with cool people!

Sunday I headed out with the Pathfinders group to a mountain about two hours from Zaragoza called Moncayo. We got their in the early afternoon and while the pathfinders set about learning how to distinguish plants and such things, I started up the mountain. I hiked until I couldn't hear the screaming kids anymore, found a nice sunny spot, built a rock chair with a reclined backrest, and took a nap. It was so nice to be out in nature again. I haven't seen a wilderness since I got here and it was amazing to sit on my rock with pine trees surrounding me and no noise to disturb my contemplations... or my sleep. I woke up an hour or so later and headed back down the hill just in time to meet up with the pathfinder group starting their hike. I got my exercise in. After lunch I rode with a fellow teacher and her husband around to the other side of the mountain and up to an old sanitarium. The sanitarium now serves as a cafe and lodge for the daring hikers who plan to go for the top. From the look of the mountain I think I could have been up and back down by supper time with a light jacket and a good pair of boots... but I didn't say anything, and we had coffee at the cafe.

Monday night was a little different. The festivities for Semana Santa had begun. I went downtown and met Anabel then we went to check out the parade. Anabel told me that Zaragoza focused on the drum during this event and I didn't really understand that until we got to there. There must have been 200+ people in the first parade all of them dressed in colorful outfits, that are eerily similar to ku klux clan uniforms, and every single one of them was beating on a drum. It was deafening, but I enjoyed it. The parade was long and each section represented a different part of Jesus's crucifixion. After that parade we caught two more before getting tapas at a cafe and heading home. I caught the next night too, but after that I had a headache and couldn't stand more drumming.

The rest of the week went pretty good. I got caught up on sleep, exercised, and planned for my weekend in Madrid. Saturday morning I headed to the bus station, hopped on my bus, and headed for Madrid. I was supposed to meet my friend Chelsea Rodgers at the hostel at around 10 p.m. I took the metro and the place was easy to find. I was a little scared to see where we would be staying, (we signed up to sleep in a 12 bed mixed dorm), but was pleasantly surprised when I got there. The place was clean and everyone spoke English, not something I was expecting on either front. The bedroom wasn't bad either, nice clean beds with lots of room and free lockers for your things. I had some time to kill so I headed to the common area and chatted it up with some of the Americans/English guests who were down there. Around 9:45 I headed out to wait by the metro stop for Chelsea, just to make sure she found the hostel and because there were a lot of drunks out and about when I had come in. There were two exits to the metro however and at some point as I was going between the two Chelsea arrived, checked into the hostel, and began waiting for me there. Comical I suppose, but man do I miss my cell phone... 

That night we got some food and saw what there was to see in that area of the city, then headed for bed. The next day we saw the Puerto del Sol (center of the city and old gate from the wall that once surrounded Madrid) and walked around the parks in the area. Around supper time we decided it was time for some taco bell! We hopped onto McDonald's free wifi and google mapped it. Only 3.5km away! Google maps won't lead us wrong right? Google maps took us down real streets making real turns. However it was leading us down a path of false hope and empty stomachs. After arriving at an empty apartment building we were depressed. We ended up eating Kebabs though so it was still okay. :)

The next day we got up and saw the Prado Museum, a big art gallery with lots and lots of famous paintings. I took one picture before I realized that photo's weren't allowed in there and had to put the camera away... We also saw the botanical gardens which are home to over 30,000 different kinds of plants! After that we decided to go see the river so after a long walk we found it right about sunset. The river was beautiful... Madrid is beautiful. I really was amazed by how pretty the city was, I walked around Paris and Rome and while those cities were cool they were not beautiful. Madrid has a good vibe to it. I recommend you at it to your travel plans if you ever head to Europe.

Overall my spring break was awesome... if a little to short. I had a great time and saw cool things that I wouldn't have seen if I had gone off somewhere else. It feels good to know Spain just a little bit better now.

A story from today and something I forgot.

Today the kids were learning about space, planets, and the like. When told that stars that we can see are suns just like ours one of the older boys asked, (this was translated to me) "If all the stars are suns then why do they not put off more light like our sun?"
The only way I could think to explain it to him was to turn off the lights and put a lit flashlight about two inches from his face. "This is our sun." Then I took the flashlight across the room and pointed it at him again, "And this is the closest star." He seemed to get it after that.


I have one more story from last weekend in Sagunto. On Monday before we were going to leave with the bus, I found Brittany and Terah cooking in the kitchen attached to the girls dorm. I walked in and closed the door. We talked for a little bit and then they decided that it was time to get ready to go and tried to leave. No luck. The door was locked from both sides. Don't ask me how that passes fire code but it happened. The only window in the room had a grate blocking the outside. Isn't that just great... ha. Well after flipping the circuit breaker for the dorm a few times and no one coming Tarah started working on the bolts holding the grate onto the window and I tried unsuccessfully to pick the door lock. Tarah had more luck, using the handle end of a corn butterer she managed to pull out one of the two remaining bolts holding the grate in place. I knocked the grate off, we jumped out, replaced the grate, and booked it out of there.

Fun times!

Viva La Fiesta!

For the 17th through the 20th I went to Valencia for their yearly fiesta Fallas. I stayed in the dorm in Sagunto so I got to hang out with other Americans and in general have a good time. I was supposed to go by train and arrive fairly early Friday afternoon, but I accidentally took the wrong bus and didn't end up at the train station on time. Instead I ended up on the wrong side of town at the end of the bus line. They kicked everyone (me...) off the bus and drove away leaving me with my bags and a long walk to the next stop. I ended up walking an hour home with my rather bulky bags...
But all was well, Anabel and Ruth (the lady I'm living with and the 4 and 5 year old teacher) made a last minute decision to go to Valencia as well so I got a free ride down.
Saturday I got up and met with the family I had visited earlier this year. The father used to live in Walla Walla and both of them speak English. We had lunch and I played with their little daughters and their dogs. Good times. Saturday night I met up with some friends and we all went out to see the town. We ended up staying out super late and got back to the dorm early the next morning. We got to see lots of statues and shops and people, but I forgot to take my camera. Sunday night I got ride to town to see the fireworks show from a Portuguese cop with three girls I know Brittany, Chelsea, and Tarah. There was a huge firework show that night that we got to see. The whole thing was better than any grand finale I have ever seen in the states and it lasted almost an hour. Monday night we went out again this time with the school bus and got to see a bunch of the statues burned. The crowds are so thick that you can barely move and then there are a series of explosions and suddenly the whole giant statue in front of you is burning. It didn't take long before we were pushing back into the crowd to try and escape the heat. It was really interesting to see the things burn though.

It was interesting spending so much time with English speakers. Although I am in no way fluent in Spanish I have begun to think in it a little bit. I've been speaking and hearing it for so long that my brain process has started to adapt to my vocal process. So I think in a mixture of Spanish and broken English, at least until I catch myself doing it and switch to real English in my head. Talking with people for long amounts of time brought this to my mind even more. I was stuttering over conjugations and having a hard time finding words quite often. It got better as the weekend went on, but it was very interesting to me. 

A Long Weekend by the Beach.

This last weekend I got to go with Loida, the first and second grade teacher, to stay with her family at their summer home in Peniscola. Peniscola is a beautiful little town along the Mediterranean coast north of Valencia. On the way we stopped in a town called Morella. It had a really old castle at the top of a mountain in it. We climbed all the way to the top and got to look around. A lot of it has eroded but it still fairly intact and it was awesome to see how defensible it was and where the rooms used to be. After we had a good look around we got back in the car and headed off to Peniscola.
Peniscola has a beautiful beach and a really cool old castle that was more put together then the castle in Morella. We spent a day seeing the castle and the town. I was happy to be able to explore two castles in so short a period of time.
On Monday we went to a zoo for Exotic birds and Kangaroo's. It was really cool, there were lots of parrots and other cool birds. I got to have five or six birds land on me at once. I enjoyed it a lot.
Over all it was a great weekend and it was amazing to see a different part of Spain and get away for a couple of days.

A Rock Star Super Hero.

Playing with kids makes you feel like a rock star super hero. They love you for playing with them they flock to you screaming for their turn, hands in the air. If they were just a little bit bigger you could start a mosh pit. It's overwhelming at times how much attention they give you, and then there's the super hero part. As an adult you're obviously bigger and stronger then the kids. You can lift more, run faster, jump higher then them. You're like the million dollar man without the million dollars.

It's exciting to play and have fun with the kids every day at recess. I really enjoy playing tag with them, teaching them new games to play with each other, and giving piggy back rides to the little kids. The kids also love it when I take them by the hands and swing around in circles so that they can "fly." I don't like how dizzy that one makes me, but it's one of their favorites.

I'm thankful that the kids all seem to like me, and I definitely like them! I'm extremely lucky and glad to be here.

Valentines Day

Today I passed out awesome valentines day card that my parents sent me. The kids loved them. :)
Also I got to help set up a table full of goodies to pass out to the parents. A remarkably unremarkable day, but it was fun.

I used to think I was an overly-warm person, but now I don't think so. I am cold every single day at school. I just can't get warm unless I'm pressed against a radiator. It's ridiculous. I'm soooo ready for warm spring weather.

Spring Break

While the details are not all settled yet it looks like I'll be touring the UK for spring break. Carrie, another american girl named Kasha, and I are going to try and hit London, Edinburgh, and Dublin.

Close Enough

My Week.

This week has been hectic. I didn't know it but there was a concert today and all week we were preparing. I was helping but I didn't know what for. I spent the better part of two days working on making a slideshow with music to show in between the children's songs. I think it turned out well. 

After school yesterday I finally caught on that the performance was today, but when we started loading things, including 5 gigantic stair things that nearly killed me, into a moving truck I got suspicious. We moved everything into a big school across town and set up for a performance. This morning we got up early, to the church by 8:30, and made sure everything was ready. Fernando, Ana's husband, gave me his camera and told me I was in charge of photos. So for the whole program I wandered around and got tons of pictures. It's fun being the camera guy!

We put everything away afterwards and made it back to the apartment to eat at around 3:30. We ate and I took a quick nap then it was back to the school at 5:30 for some parent thing. I just made hundreds of grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids and then helped clean up afterwards.

This week was also a teacher conference for the head teachers meaning that Ana was gone for most of the week. I was in charge of her classes while she was gone. She had prepared homework for the kids so I basically just had to monitor them and make sure they did their work and didn't kill each other. Not so hard right? WRONG! These kids love to push me. They pretend they don't hear me, pretend to not understand simple commands, act dumb or simple things, and directly disobey me. I put an end to that fairly quickly with some decisive punishments, immediately taking away all recesses from the worst offenders and making the others stay late, and life got better. There is one boy though who just won't quit. When the kids finish their work for the day I let them read. A few kids had finished and were reading quietly in the corner when this boy came up to me and asked if he could go read. "Are you done with your homework?" "No." "Okay then no." I watched him finally actually start working on his large assignment, about ten minutes later he came up to me. "I'm done!" "Let me see it," He went over to the pile of papers and pulled out an assignment. I looked it over knowing full well that it wasn't his. "Is this yours?" "Oh yes!" "Then why is Iker's (other kid who I adore) name on the front?" "Oh ah...." Yeah no recess for him, and when I caught him blatantly copying answers later it was off to the principle with him!

I enjoy teaching. Most of the kids are great, I can laugh and play around with them. It kids like that one though that make my days long and tiring. I don't like having to constantly watch and punish kids. I can enjoy being a teacher this year, but it's definitely not my life career.

A sad commentary on a life lived too hard and too quickly.

Johnny Cash - Hurt

Johnny Cash took this song and made it his own. You can really feel his soul while he's singing. It was recorded just months before his death.

Some Pics from Break

Christmas Break

Christmas break was spectacular. The last day of school I went Christmas caroling with the kids, we watched a Christmas movie, and we were free! I went home crashed and slept in the next morning. The next night was Christmas eve so I went with Anabel to her mothers house to celebrate with her family. There was a huge dinner and lots of fun conversations to be had. For Christmas we went and ate lunch at her mothers again and after did a gift exchange and played some games. I left early to go talk to my family on skype which was awesome. Christmas overall was pretty fun here. 
On the 27th I flew out for Paris! I arrived around 9 pm and took the metro to what I thought was my stop. As it turns out there are two hotels by the same name in Paris and the one I was booked at used this to trick customers into reading good reviews about the other hotel. I was at the wrong hotel. I took the metro back and then had to take a taxi to find the place. When I got in it was after midnight so they charged me extra... Grr. The room had no shower and there was one bathroom per floor. I was displeased... But it was okay and I felt safer then I would have in a hostel alone. 
I spent my first day figuring out the metro, seeing the Eiffel Tower, and visiting La Museo de la Arme. The Eiffel Tower is fantastic and is so much bigger than I thought. The museum was also very interesting. It had all of the weapons, uniforms, and other items from the Napoleonic War through WWII. I really liked being able to get close to all of the huge machine guns and take a better look at guns I've used in video games :) The museum is also home to Napoleon's tomb. I walked in expecting it to be grand... But it was fantastic. It's a huge cathedral like building complete with gold edging and beautiful frescos. There are important peoples tombs with beautiful statues surrounding a circular section where the floor dropped away. If you took the stairs down you got to see Napoleons tomb. It was about the size of two and a half hummers put together. The walkway around it was fantastic, the tomb was beautiful. Unfortunately it was too dark for me to get good pictures. 
I spent the rest of the week until Saturday exploring Paris. Seeing beautiful cathedrals, catching mass in the Notre Dame, and enjoying the lights at night. Saturday I met Brittany, a girl from Sagunto that I met when I visited Valencia, at one of the metro stops. We spent the day going up the Eiffel Tower and watching the sun set at the top. The lights are gorgeous, and the view from the top is astounding even if it is too cold to feel your fingers. 
As that night was new years we met the rest of the Sagunto crew and headed towards the Eiffel Tower. We were a little disappointed that the only fireworks were ones launched by bystanders, but it was still awesome to be in Paris for New Years! 
The last full day I was in Paris I went to the louvre. I was supposed to meet Brittany but my alarm didn't go off and I ended up being about two hours late. Luckily she didn't wait for me. When I arrived the line was huge. It stretched across one large square, though a door and then across another large square. It was a surprisingly fast moving line however and I got in after only about an hour. I loved the Louvre and spent the better part of the day there just strolling around. It is so big that even just walking randomly I never had to see the same exhibit twice. I saw beautiful paintings and sculptures that I have always wanted to see, spent an hour staring at a ridiculously realistic painting of a battle by some German dude I've never heard of, and fought my way to the front of the Mona Lisa crowd to get my blurry glass glare picture. I saw so many beautiful things I will always remember. I loved the louvre!
When my stomach could no longer stand it I left the louvre and grabbed supper before heading to La Defense. I didn't really know what to expect but people had told me it was cool. Basically it's a giant building in the shape of a hollow square. It was pretty cool but after the Louvre I was having a hard time being impressed. I did manage to take what I feel is my best picture ever though, so that was cool!
The next morning I flew to Rome. My plane was delayed an hour but when we landed they played victory music and announced "another on time flight, our flights are on time over 90% of the time giving us a better record then any other European airline." I laughed, if an hour late is "on time" no wonder they have such good numbers! 
I only had to wait in the airport for about 30 minutes when Carries plane from Madrid landed. We took a taxi which took us to the wrong hotel so we had to walk 3/4 of a mile. No big deal we hoofed it to our hotel and checked in. I was blown away. We weren't spending very much to get an absolutely fantastic place. Two rooms,two beds, and best of all I had a shower again! :) 
We caught the bus, which was apparently free... We didn't really figure it out but no one ever paid so whatever... To the metro and went straight to the colosseum. It was closed but we walked around it and took pictures. Then we headed off for the Trevi fountain but got sidetracked walking through the free section of the Roman Forum. After we got back on track we followed the one sign, I literally think there is only one, in the direction it pointed. There were multiple turns, y splits, and alleyways, but we persevered and soon found ourselves sitting in a restaurant eating pizza and gelato. I know sidetracked again but we got hungry from all the walking. After eating we finally got to the Trevi fountain. Gorgeous! I threw a coin in to ensure my return to Rome, took some pictures, and we took off. We felt like wandering and we ended up at the Spanish steps, I wasn't sure why they are famous, and I'm still not sure even after reading the wikipedia page, but they looked cool and there were tons of street vendors. We walked up the steps and saw a cool cathedral with some priests and nuns singing in it. On the way back down we were accosted by a flower peddler. "You are so beautiful!" he said, to Carrie if that wasn't obvious... "Do you love her?" to me. "nope we're just friends..." "but she is so beautiful!" "yep" "have a flower for free!" "we don't want a flower" "for free!" "no" It went in like that for a while. If you take the flower they follow you and ask for a small contribution.. It's rather annoying. 
We finally extricated ourselves from flower man and headed down the steps following the Christmas lights we ended up walking through the expensive part of town. Armani, Prada, 400€ underwear... You get the drift. I did end up buying a scarf for 7€ from a street vender, but no Armani for me. Maybe someday... Anyway it was quite cool to see the shops and quite revolting to see the price tags. 
We walked until we found a big square with an obelisk in it, were approached by another flower man, and then made our way back to our metro stop. We would have gotten back to the hotel with just enough time for a cup of tea before except for one miscalculation. We forgot to look for visual landmarks at our bus stop. Due to an entire bus full of only Italian speaking people we figured out that we missed our stop and needed to get off the bus and go back the other direction, so we got off the bus. It was a small mostly empty looking little town with only a few people standing around talking. We were confused, cold, and tired and standing outside in an unfamiliar place at night isn't a good place to be in that situation. Luckily after about an hour of waiting our bus came and all was well. We definitely made sure we knew our stop the next night. 
The next day we got up, ate breakfast at the hotel and headed to the colosseum again. We waited in line and finally got in. It is marvelous. I was so impressed to be standing where so many people had fought and died. It floored me to think of the cruelty that had occurred where I was looking. The history excited me though. I really liked the place... I like gladiator stuff :) After the colosseum we walked through the roman forums. The old pillars and building were fantastic. I couldn't believe some of the carvings that have survived. Even just random notch decorations on the walls are still there, I would have thought they would have eroded away long ago! After the Forum we walked to the Pantheon... I think. I'm having a hard time remembering which day we saw it on but this is the only day that makes sense to me so... The Pantheon was pretty cool. From the outside is very impressive, from the inside it's a leaky roof with lots of cool church stuff and statues on the wall. The architecture is really cool, but it was weird having random catholic statues in there, I would have liked to see it back when all the mythological gods were still in there. After the Pantheon we took lots of pictures, got some food, walked around, and headed to the hotel making sure to look for our bus stop this time. 

The next day we woke up got breakfast again and headed to the Vatican. We dodged the people telling us the line was two hours long and that we needed to buy a tour guide to skip the line, walked two blocks, and waited ten minutes to get into the Vatican Museum. It was almost as awesome as the Louvre. It had collections from all over the world. It showcased ancient Egyptian religions and Greek mythology right next to the Christian history. If there were competing religions in the world at the time displays would sometimes be set up to show the differences between the beliefs at the time. Christian artifacts on the right, pagan on the left. I was highly impressed with the museum but it all culminated at the Sistine Chapel. I have seen pictures and drawings of the chapel but nothing can compare with seeing it in person. The paintings are beautiful, the metaphors brilliant. The people look like they are going to pop off of the ceiling. Carrie and I sat in the chapel for over an hour just looking and listening to our audio guides about each painting. It was definitely one of, if not the most, amazing things I have ever seen in my life. After the museum we moved on the St. Peters Cathedral. We walked around the square for a little while and took pictures while the sun was still up, then joined the line and entered the church. The decor was amazing. Everything was golden or marble and simply beautiful. We walked around and looked at everything before noticing that a mass was starting. There were security guards who were keeping people out, but I asked them if we could go in and they randomly said yes. So we got to see a mass in the Vatican. It was really cool even though we had to stand the whole time and it was in Italian. Mark that off of my list of things to do in life. 

After the Vatican it was late and rainy so we headed to the hotel. The next day was our last full day, and also catacomb day! We headed out in the morning and took the metro to the Baths of Caracalla which after all the architecture and grander we had been seeing wasn't all that impressive although it awesome on it's own.  After that we caught a bus to the catacombs. It was required to go down with a guide, which is probably a good thing as we learned that there are four floors each with over two kilometers of floor space, and it's all narrow dark twisting passages. I would definitely have gotten lost. The tour was very informative. We got to see where popes and saints were buried and where a pope was beheaded. We even got to see a place where Christians hid during the persecution. I had never seen anything like this and although it was necessarily cool architecture or impressive statues, it was neat to see and sense the history of the place. I wish I could have done a little bit more exploring then the tour allowed for. :)

After the catacombs we walked around downtown. We tried to go to the first Christian church in Rome and actually walked for around an hour trying to find it, but when we got there it was closed and not lit up so that was a fail. Carrie had a really early flight so we called it a night and headed back to the hotel. I flew out the next morning and arrived safely back in Zaragoza. And that was my awesome break!

I am so thankful to be here in Spain where it is amazing and where I can travel to amazing places for decently cheap prices. I'd like to thank everyone that donated so that I could come here again. I am having a great time and loving the work I am doing at the school. 

Random Fact:
Today I saw a kid mix unflavored yogurt with his blackbean soup and then slurp it down like he'd made a banana spilt. Que Asco! 

Random Fact 2:

Nerf Football = Way to peg annoying kids with a ball and have them enjoy it.