Carnaval

     Carnaval is celebrated in several regions of Spain and luckily Galicia is one of them. I had three days off of school and therefore went to the province of Ourense to celebrate. Everyone who knows me, knows that I love fiestas in Spain! In 2011, I went to Sanfermines (running of the bulls) and several other small village festivals. And when I studied in Sevilla, I went to many fiestas as well, including La Feria de Abril. But I always fall in love with the smaller fiestas, and my goal this year (and every year) is to go to as many as I can. These fiestas have great food, drinks, live music, traditions and culture, which all happen to be things I love.

     During the four days of Carnaval I went to three villages and two cities. I started the celebrations by going out in my home city (Vigo). Carnaval isn't as popular in Vigo, as it is in the province of Ourense, but I was suprised at the amount of people dressed up! I was a cat because it is the typical, "I don't know what I want to be/don't want to spend money costume." I then went to the province of Ourense for the rest of the time.

     On Monday of Carnaval I went to a village in the region of Ourense called Xinzo de Limia. I had planned to stay in that village for around five hours and then take the bus back to the city of Ourense to eat dinner with my friends. As I was walking to the bus station, someone called my name and as it turns out it was the teacher who takes me to school everyday. I was actually wearing the batman shirt she gave me as part of my batman costume I wore that day. I was about to get on the bus when my coordinator told me that I could go with them if I made a quick decision. Luckily when I called my friend she immediately answered the phone and said that we could meet in the city later on that night.

     I went in the car with Chisco, who a retired teacher who I had met before at the festival of chestnuts. (Magosto) Three students who had already graduated from CPI de Panxón were also in the car. We first went to a village called Laza, where there were a bunch of half naked guys handing out meat and bread to the crowd. I almost went down to get some but was too afraid of the people running around in fancy costumes who were running over people and hitting people with sticks. I even saw two of my friends from Verin running through the crowds. After we had seen some of the Carnaval celebrations in Laza, we made our way to another village called Verin. I had been to Verin many times before the fiesta because I have some friends from there. Although, I had never seen the village covered in flour. And when I mean covered in flour, I mean that one of the main plazas was covered in inches of flour.... Unfortunately we arrived after one of the most famous orquestras in Galicia, Paris de Noia, was playing. I saw them two months earlier and loved them. 

        Orquestas are very popular in Galica and the people of villages and towns will raise money so that a good orquesta can come to play at their fiesta. An Orquesta is composed of many people who sing, play instruments and dance. We left Verin and at 1 a.m. Chisco and the others dropped me off in Alameda, one of the most popular zones in Ourense to botellon, a term used to describe people drinking in the street in order to spend less money at the bar. I then met my friend who lives in Vigo, but is from Ourense. I met her friends and we proceeded to go out until 9 in the morning (the discotecas still weren't closed) I had lunch with my friend and her boyfriend at her grandparents village and then we went back to Vigo and went to the beach. The next day I slept a well-deserved 17 hours.

Verin (yes, flour is all over the ground)

This is a charanga, and I took a picture of them because I went out in Ourense on Saturday and was talking to them, because it was 4 in the morning and I needed suggestions about where my friends and I could get something to eat. I spoke to them in Gallego and we were all laughing. I then saw them on Monday night, while wearing my batman costume.

Laza

I stayed at my friends house in Ourense and after eating lunch at her grandparents village we went to the beach in Vigo. 

Esta vida makes me happy.

These past three months have been filled with incredible experiences. Weekend trips to a village on the Spanish/Portuguese border, weekends spent exploring the city/region with friends, time spent at school and giving private lessons have kept me busy, so here are some of the highlights.

One of the highlights of these past few months has been watching the Spain/Germany soccer match at Balaidos stadium in November.

                                                      Running into friends at half time :)

                                 Fiesta de castañas y setas en el sur de Galicia.

                                                                Grilling Chestnuts

                                                                  Lago de Sanabria

Exploring Parque de Castrelos in Vigo

                                                    Thanksgiving dinner (esta de carallo)

   "It's very traditional for Americans to throw broccoli in people's mouths on Thanksgiving" -James

                                                                 Yay for Breakfast.

Random poems in bottle caps  from strangers.

(Castañas) Grilled Chesnuts - aka my favorite food. 

 Churrasco (ribs) Cooked over a fire and enjoyed with friends and typical liquors of the region.

                                                          Chaves, Portugal (bagpipes)

 I crossed this river in Chaves, Portugal, and almost fell into the water because the rocks were unstable. I obviously haven't changed.

 Castle in Portugal

                          Hiking the Ruta del Contrabando either in South of Galicia or Portugal

                                           

                       

Teaching

     I have just finished my seventh week of teaching at CPI de Panxón. I teach 14 hours at the school and also help out at lunch by cutting food for the little kids and basically telling them to eat more. I also teach 11 hours of private English classes in Vigo, the city where I live. I am also very lucky because I teach in the region of Galicia, and it is one of the most well-organized regions. I received my first paycheck at the end October, but many language assistants who work in the other regions of Spain are not as lucky and will have to wait until December or January to be paid.

    The first week was difficult because I was second guessing everything I did. Because I have taken Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Russian classes, I know what works/what the students like in terms of language learning, so obviously I want to be a good teacher. By the second week, I was feeling more confident and after seven weeks of teaching I am teaching 25 hours in total and enjoy planning lessons for classes as well as for individual students. I teach seven classes composed of students from 11-16 years old and I take four or five students out of class each week and we often play board games designed for ESL students. I just finished teaching a group of 15 year olds who had an excellent level of English, they never spoke in Spanish and were very interested in the game. I love it when the students are interested in English because it is more fun for me when we can do an activity, as well as have side conversations. But the students before that class were a different story, I had to remind them every minute to speak English... I always tell the students to speak English the whole time even if they are embarrassed because from what I have learned, making mistakes and being corrected is the only way to learn a language. Because once the students have the ability to speak they can take the learning into their own hands by delving deeper into the language by asking meaningful questions.

     I also assist in 9 music and art classes. I learn so much in music class, because I have forgotten everything I learned about reading music and the names of the notes. This is great because by assisting in this class I am learning the vocabulary in Spanish and English (and sometimes Galician) at the same time. I enjoy the art classes but sometimes the children say my name 100 times during class, which gets annoying. But I can't complain because when they finish an activity they usually spend their free time to draw me a picture.

                                A halloween project I did with the six and seven years old.

I enjoy my private classes because I get to base the activities around the likes of each individual. I have one student who is moving to New York next year and last class we figured out her Starbucks order (a latte with a double shot of espresso seems to be the closest order to a cafe con leche) we also talked about Sunday Brunch and other typical things in the United States. I teach a group lesson on Fridays and we play games. I also teach a 14 year old girl with a very high level of English and I bring songs for her and we translate the songs, as well as discuss the vocabulary, phrases and meanings of the songs. I am planning on staying in Galicia over the summer, so that I can enjoy the nice temperate weather, the beach, the many fiestas, and take advantage of the fact that I am in Europe and travel to another country. The fact that I am teaching many private lessons will allow me to enjoy the summer without having to work as much.

    I am at the school from 9-3:30 everyday and because I only teach 14 hours a week I have many breaks so I am a regular at several cafés where I spend my time reading, writing or lesson planning. I enjoy getting to know the people who come into the bar. I have a 3 hour break on Fridays so I bring my laptop (so I can blog and lesson plan). A funny older Galician man told me (in Galego) that I was beautiful and wants to set me up with his grandson, this town is full of characters....

     I am so happy that my first job out of college is that of an English conversation teacher/ Cultural Ambassador, because I learn so much in school, during my private lessons, and during my free time. I am also lucky because the nicest teacher drives me to and from school everyday (because we both live in Vigo) and the village of Panxón is 20 minutes away. She teaches the Galician language and she is always teaching me knew words and always tells me about the different festivals that are occurring around Galicia. I also love my job because the beach is a downhill 3 minute walk from the school.

Playa de Patos, Celta de Vigo, and other adventures

     On Thursday, October 2nd I Went to the beach after school ended. My friends wanted to go surfing, so we went to Patos, which is a two minute drive from Panxón, the city where I work. One of the teachers dropped me off at the beach and I spent the afternoon with everyone, while we watched the dolphins in the distance, so picturesque, right? I then ate tapas with my friend from the United States and everyone was looking at us funny. When I was in line for the bathroom, one of the waiters saw me outside and asked where I was from. He then said "Oh welcome to Spain I'm from Venezuela" and my friend jokingly said that I should be the one welcoming him to Spain because I have been here longer than he has.

     We then went to the fancier area of Vigo to have a drink, this area is called Arenal, I enjoy going there because the crowd is older (which means that I don't run into my 16 year old students.)We then went to a street called churruca (known for cheap drinks) and I ran into some of the other foreigners. My friend left so at around 3 in the morning I went to the apartment of a friend of a friend and we then proceeded to meet other friends at the bars.

    On Sunday I walked 10 kilometers with my friend. The event was a solidarity march for people with disabilities. It was a sunny day and it was nice to walk around the city with people who care about the rights of minority groups. The mayor of Vigo spoke and said, "Esta marcha es un grito de la ciudad que esta gente tiene los mismos derechos que nosotros, sin discusión"

    After the march several of my friends came over because we had tickets to see a Celta soccer match. We brought beer to the game because I asked my friend who always tailgates at the games. He told me that we should bring beer because everyone tailgates together. When we arrived there were police everywhere and of course I was terrified to take the beer out of the bag. After five long minutes I saw some people drinking and asked them if I would get in trouble if I also drank and they said "of course not.  So in true galician fashion we opened up some Estrellas and joined the crowd.