Christmas in Madrid

Madrid is beautiful during Christmas -its illuminated everywhere you go with lights! Some neighboorhoods have simple lights among tree tops, others have cables stretched across busy streets upon which hang really cool yet simple christmas shapes and retro designs. They are illuminated by hundreds of LED lights. The giant Christmas tree in Puerta del Sol is also incredible. Since I can´t upload photos right now, here is a link to a fellow auxiliar´s blog with great photos of Madrid!

Another thing that I love about Madrid is the Plaza Mayor during Christmas. I decided to stop by again one night and to my surprise it was filled with stands selling small stables and managers to make nativity scenes. Seriously, there were hundreds of tiny figurines of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Three Wise Men, etc. There were also small figurines of regular people of Madrid life; I guess to give a contemporary touch to your belén. That´s what people call nativity scenes in Spanish; it literally means Bethlehem. The entire time I was thinking I wish my mom could see this. She puts up a nativity scene every year and she is very elaborate about it. She would have loved being in the Plaza Mayor.

Anyways, I´m kind of getting a little home sick right now which I guess is normal, but it will be all good when my friend gets here from Granada and we both go to see my aunt tomorrow. Who am I kidding? I have family here at least. I think I´ll make another pumpkin pie since I have several cans left over from Thanksgiving. And one of these days I´m probably going to have a Home Alone Movie Marathon. I bought Home Alone 1 & 2 at FNAC, an electronics store, and it only cost me 8.99 euros. Talk about a deal! Those movies always put me in the Christmas spirit. Later on the 27th my friend Erika and I will be off to Benelux to pass the rest of Christmas vacation and New Year´s there. Thank you to Kat for connecting us with her friends in Amsterdam. Its going to be pure awesomeness. Hasta Luego. Love you Mom, Tracee, Alex, Dad, friends y primos ¡¡Que tengáis una Feliz Navidad y un Prospero Año Nuevo!!

-Charlie

Tapas For Thanksgiving

Hi, again. Forgive me for not being very thorough lately, but many things have been going on recently. First of all, I just want to say that I have some amazing colleagues. Last thursday for Thanksgiving they put together a small pot-luck Thanksgiving celebration just for me! I was kind of surprised when they told me that they were planning it because I didn´t think they´d go out of their way to bring a dish to school with all the craziness that´s been going on in regards to extended hours and pay cuts (more about this later). Seriously, it was incredibly thoughtful of them to do that. I guess they became inspired after I talked about how amazing Thanksgiving is and that it was a shame that I would miss it. Anyhow, one of the teachers put up a list and then everyone started writing their names and what they would bring. I wanted to bring a turkey so badly, but after I spoke with my mom I said forget about it. Its toooooo much work and besides bringing it on the bus would have been too much of a hassle. I ended up bringing a pumpkin pie that I made the previous night. I went the easy way out and used Libby´s canned pumpkin from an American store that I happened to stumble upon by chance......the thing is I was walking in a very uppity looking neighborhood on my way to a workshop for Madrid Science Week when all of a sudden I see a small convenience store overshadowed by a huge apartment building -its neon green sign having been what caught my eye. The name: A Taste of America. It felt a little bit like home; there was pancake mix, Aunt Jemima´s pancake syrup, Reeses pieces, JIF peanut butter -all the unhealthy stuff- cranberry sauce, stuffing mix (they were prepared for Turkey day except they didn´t have any turkeys), and French´s mustard (this really made me excited because the mustard tastes horrible here!!) So on thursday the teachers and I enjoyed some delicious pumpkin pie. Really. It tasted pretty damn good although the dough could have been cooked a little more. They don´t sell aluminum baking pans with pie crusts already on them here so what I did was buy already-made dough for empanadas and placed it over an aluminum pan. So, next time I know what to do. At the get-together there was so many varieties of tapas (Spanish finger food/appetizers) I could barely contain myself. And it seemed that each teacher was eager for me to try his or her speciality. After saying some words of deep gratitude, we dug in. It was a crash-course in Spanish tapa tasting and I passed with flying colors. Tuna empanadas, jamón serrano (parma ham), patés and crackers, cream cheese covered with sweetened bell-peppers, olives, potatoe salad, Spanish omlette, Rioja wine, coffe-flavored flan, etc.

Now tapas are one aspect of Madrid culture that I absolutely love. In fact, when you order some drinks at a bar or a restaurant they usually come with free tapas! The popular drink of choice is called a caña de cerveza. Originally, caña means sugarcane, so I took this phrase to mean sugarcane beer. I was very wrong. Caña in this context means a small glass of beer, usually of the brand, Mahou. Anyways, with an order of a caña de cerveza comes tapas of main kinds depending on the establishment. And who can deny free food?

In the end, I was able to have an authentic Thanksgiving dinner at my friend Cooper´s apartment that following Saturday. He, too, is an auxiliar at a local high school. There were about eight of us, Americans and Spaniards, who savored in the turkey and sides dishes that he cooked. It was pretty impressive and nostalgic at the same time. I wished I could have teleported back for just a few hours to be with my family. But at the same time, I was thankful for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live in Spain.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too. Hasta luego.

Baptisms and Soccer. I mean Fútbol.

So this past Saturday I went to my cousin´s baptism in Mejorada del Campo, a small town outside of Madrid.(I happen to have an aunt in Spain that I didn´t mention. In fact, I stayed at her apartment when I had been looking for one of my own. And her husband has been very helpful by giving me advice about Madrid. But I am the exception as most other auxiliares don´t have relatives here; I´m very fortunate). Anyways, my several months old cousin was the cutest and the most figety of all the three babies at the service. In almost every picture taken at the end of the service he is reaching for the baptismal candle or playing with his suit. Afterwards, we all went back to the apartment were the paparazzi show continued. We ate Colombian food with cumbia playing in the background. Then I went with some of the husband´s family to a neighborhood restaurant to watch a soccer game between F.C. Barcelona and Zaragoza to the tune of tapas and beer. The entire time my aunt´s brother-in-law lectured me on why i should be a fan of Barcelona and not Real Madrid, even though I live in Madrid. This, by the way, is the greatest rivalry in Spanish soccer which is followed by people the world over). In fact, my students ask me ALL THE TIME whether I am a fan of Barcelona or Madrid, and I answer: give me a few months and then I´ll tell ya. By the end of the night I was baptised a fan of F.C. Barcelona whether I liked it or not and Barça (the cool way of saying it) ended up beating Zaragoza 4-0.

Un Nuevo Presidente and Other things.

The news of the hour, of course, is the landslide win that the Popular Party candidate, Mariano Rajoy, achieved last night in Spain's national elections. According to many people that I spoke with, it was something expected that the conservatives would win. It´s just that the masses are tired of the current socialist party which they blame as having contributed largely to Spain's growing debt crisis, although I have spoken with others who say the current administration is not entirely at fault. I have spoken with certain individuals who´ve told me that the previous administration indebted the government by joining the Iraq war and by giving too much power to the banks which then created the housing bubble which burst and in turn crippled the economy (Hmmmm......this sounds eerily familiar). So, yesterday Spaniards went out and expressed their frustration by bringing an end to the People's Socialist Workers Party's winning streak which has ruled the government since 2004 with current president, Mr. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Interestingly, he was the but of many jokes last September when Johnny English Returns landed in cinemas all across Spain. The media said Mr. Zapatero looked like Mr. Bean. And if you look closely, they kind of do resemble each other in the eyes.........

Anyways, certain colleagues of mine have reservations about Mr. Rajoy, specifically regarding education. You see, he is part of the PP conservative party, the same party which the current governor of Madrid is a part of and she has cut the public education budget like last night´s ham. My school in particular lost eight teaching positions from last year and as a result certain classes are no longer offered. There have been several protests and strikes so far and yes, some of my colleagues have gone on strike since I have been here. Seriously, I´m just going to have to dedicate an entire blog to the subject of education in Spain alone.

Anyhow, I hope this change in political direction is a good thing for Spain. As I can see, she needs to re-boot the economy and create more jobs, but as Mr. Zapatero and Mr. Rajoy say, that will be hard to come by without sacrifice. Wow, I think I just had déjà vu.

Hasta luego.

P.S. I stumbled upon a great BBC article about the Spanish government and what makes its debt situation different from other european countries........quite interesting if you are a politics junkie.

Some Advice for Potential Auxiliares!

Hi everyone. I am dedicating today´s enty to giving a little advice to those who are interested in applying for the North American Language & Culture Assistant in Spain program since the they are now accepting applications for 2012-2013 year. I´ll try my best to remember the many steps that I took. First of all, you will need to go to the Education office´s introductory page at http://www.educacion.gob.es/eeuu/convocatorias-programas/convocatorias-eeuu/auxiliares-conversacion-eeuu.html which will give you all the basics about the program. There you should find a link to the actual profex application. Personally, I remember it being a pain in the neck because I had to sign in constantly because the application would always kick me off. So, make it a habit to always save your work. Filling out the application in one sitting would also be a good idea. But there is at least one fun part to it: choosing where you want to go on the application!! My understanding is that anywhere you go in Spain will be an adventure. But if you really want a specific region then get that application in ASAP!! I chose Castilla y Leon, País Vasco, and Cataluña, but they ended up giving me Madrid. I kind of applied late so I was expecting Madrid to be full, which is why I didnt choose it, but I got lucky. Go figure. Then again, Madrid is the community that needs the most auxiliares. And my essay was pretty kick-ass too.

You want to apply for an FBI background check NOW because it takes several months to get it! Along with the background check application you also need to send the FBI your fingerprints. I had my fingerprints taken at the New Hanover County Sheriff's office downtown for $15. Anyways, remember, you just have to mail a copy of the FBI application to your respective consulate along with a copy of the medical certificate, a hardcopy of the program application, the letter of recommendation, and the essay. Once you get your FBI background check in the mail and after obtaining a medical certificate then you want to get an apostille put on both of them. An apostille is an international stamp which you can get at the NC Secretary of State office in Raleigh. You can go in person or mail it. Then just wait until you get accepted!

Once you get accepted, apply for your visa ASAP at your respective Spanish Embassy because it takes at the very least 5 weeks to process the visa application, the medical certificate with the apostille, and the FBI background check with the apostille. As far as I know, most embassies require that you apply in person, i.e. the Spanish Embassy in D.C. Bring a self-addressed return envelope with overnight postage. And of course bring your PASSPORT because they are going to place the sticker-like visa inside it. Make sure it is not expired!

All in all, you should consult the program manual just to be sure because they update it every year.

Also, you should start saving up mucho dinero now because the program won't pay you until after the first month and most auxiliares usually stay in a hostal for two weeks until they find an apartment and add to that money for food and it can get costly. This is why I recommend searching for an apartment before coming to Spain. Idealista.com and loquo.com are good websites to search under. I know this might all sound daunting and complicated but it really isn't. It is just very tedious that's all. Now, I think that is everything. If you have a question about anything, por favor, no dudes en preguntarme. You can comment here or send me an e-mail at charlie.chapulin@gmail.com. Hasta luego.

A Spanish Halloween

One of the things I knew I was going to miss terribly was Halloween. Nobody goes all out like we do, except maybe Canada, UK, and Ireland (where it originated), so I was anticipating a very lackluster holiday. My colleagues had told me that here in Spain it had caught on roughly within the last two decades. For most of them, Halloween had never been a part of their tradition as children. It was their children who had introduced them to the phenomenon. What has always been celebrated around the same time though has been Día De Todos Los Santos, or All Saint's Day on November 1st (interestingly, Halloween gets it's name from this day as the night before was usually called All Hallows Eve). Now, if you are a practicing Catholic then you should be familiar with this day as a day that saints, known and unknown, in heaven and on earth, are remembered. So, in addition to being a Church feast day, All Saint's is also a National holiday in Spain, so I didn't have to go to class. It was nice to have a day of rest after a long night of dancing. I also went to mass in the evening down the block at St. Cristina's, a beautiful Neo-mudéjar style church which is practically the landmark of the neighborhood. 

Anyways, after talking to my students non-stop about Halloween, I definitely had the holiday spirit. I spoke to them about traditions such as apple-bobbing, carving jack-o'-lanterns, and the Wilmington Ghost walk, but my favorite part was reading the ghost story, Where's My Liver (It was the best not-too-long one I could find). After hearing the story for the first time, one of the teachers volunteered to be the voice that howls "Where's My Liver!" in the next class and when he did I swear the entire class jumped in their seats. They were twice as frightened as the last one. When I asked them what they did for Halloween, some said that they usually dress up in costume and go out with friends, others said go egg launching. Wow. What a great tradition America is spreading around I thought.

For Halloween, I dressed up as a zombie; it was a very easy costume to do. I went with my friend, Lina, a Colombian who I had meet a few weeks ago. She dressed up as a cat. We went to the center of Madrid, Puerta del Sol and when I got there I was surprised. About half or two-thirds of the people were in costume. Zombies and vampires were everywhere. We ended up going to a club that let us in for free because it was kind of early and I think they wanted to fill the place up. They played a lot of pachangeo, which according to Lina, is the term that Spaniards use for salsa, merengue, cumbia, etc. -they just lump it all into one group which I think is ridiculous. My landlady's son confirmed this to me by the way. And they also played a lot of flamenco music, not the Gypsy King's kind, but flamenco infused with pop and rock, and tropical rhythms which sounded really cool. After that we decided to have a change of scene so when went to a place called Sol & Sombra where they played Michael Jackson's Thriller about three times. There we met some people from Girona who were really awesome. One of them had been taking English classes so she practiced with me for a while. Then we all went to the third and final dance club a block down and danced the night away. Seriously. I think one of my favorite parts was when they played Ghost busters and everyone suddenly went bizerk especially three people who were dressed up as ghost busters. I had no idea it was or had been that popular over here. But even more scream-inducing were these two songs, Don Omar's Danza Kuduro and Michel Teló's Ai Se Eu Te Pego. They are know stuck in my head.

A Little Bit of Constructive Criticism for the World

If there is anything that I have learned about Spaniards these first few weeks, it is that when they want their voice to be heard, they go out in droves, at least here in the capital. I witnessed this personally in the famous plaza, Puerta Del Sol, the heart of Madrid and the main stage of Spain's participation in the October 15 Global Protests which drew around -sounds crazy- 500,000 people; this was also the epicenter of the May 2011 Spanish Protests. I knew about the event through social media and through the numerous flyers that had been posted around Sol a few days prior. With the intention of witnessing Spain's energy, but with the intention of also standing in solidarity with most of the world, I decided to check it out. I, too, was fed up with politicians, banks, and CEOs who treat us like pawns in order to satisfy their monetary agenda, party affiliation aside, dammit! Anyhow, I was glad to hear that Raleigh joined us that day along with many other U.S. cities who had been energized by the Occupy Wall Street movement. The Spanish nightly news has mentioned the phenomenon several times and I found the arresting of some 700 people, some supposedly having been abused by the police, to be shocking. It didn't sound like the U.S. I told myself. Anyways, I'd better get my information from multiple sources.

In addition to the above, the political atmosphere has been even more pervasive because the country's presidential elections are on November 20th, not too long from now. And if that were not enough, the Basque Separatist group, ETA, declared on Oct. 20th that they would no longer engage in armed conflict, thus putting an end to decades of violence in Spain. At last, some good news. Below are links to related articles if you want to dive further into what I've mentioned. I hope to have some pictures and video up soon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/world/occupy-wall-street-protests-worldwide.html?pagewanted=all
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_15,_2011_protests
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/20/141555754/basque-separatists-announce-halt-to-violence

P.S. below is a clever allegory that was handed out at Puerta Del Sol; English translation coming later:

Un Cuento Para No Dormir...y Seguir Soñando

Siempre fue poderoso don Dinero. Hizo y deshizo lo que quiso. Y sobre todo, quiso crecer, ser más grande y ser, si cabe, más poderoso de lo que en escencia es. Para crecer necesitó ayuda, y la encontró allá donde fue. Pidió al noble cobijo y más tarde al burgués y como no, al empresario más fiel. Pocos se negaron, pues grandes eran las recompensas que él daba después.

También llamaron a la puerta, entre otros, la "frágil Ética", la "noble Moral" y la "sabia Conciencia" pero ante señor tan poderoso, nada pudieron hacer. Así creció y creció don Dinero, logrando instalarse cómodamente en todas las esquinas que habitan nuestro mundo. Y lo más alarmante es que se instaló en nuestras propias vidas, se adueñó de nuestras mentes y aún hoy, trata de ahogar la expresión del alma que nos habita y el pensamiento que nos hace libres.

Afortunadamente, este cuento aún no tiene final y entre todos podemos construirlo. Teniendo en cuenta que, consciente o inconscientemente, todos somos CÓMPLICES del mismo sistema que nos ahoga, creemos que podemos dejar de ser parte del problema para empezar a ser parte de la SOLUCIÓN.

A Tarheel in Madrid

To all who are not yet in the know, over the summer I was accepted into Spain´s Auxiliar de Conversación program to go work as a North American language & culture assistant in a local high school in Madrid (I know, sounds heavy). As a history aficionado, I was always intrigued by Spanish history, especially after I started reading novels by Arturo Perez-Reverte, and as a lover of the Spanish language, I figured some time in Spain would really help me to fine-tune my language skills. Also, I just needed a break from Wilmington. Anyways, after hearing about this program from several professors at UNCW, I immediately put this on my to-do-in-the-near-future list. I just didn't know how soon that would be. After much thought and after listening to my friend Erika, who had just finished one year of the program in Bilbao, I decided to apply last January. Ever since then I have had "Spain on the Brain" as my friend Kat so blunty put it. Before long, I was on a plane from RDU to Kennedy and then from Kennedy to Barajas Int´l Airport in Madrid. It was September 25th, 7AM Central European Time. The sun had just begun to rise above the horizon, a view that was incredibly relaxing. But once I had gotten off the plane, the ride became a little bumpy.

The transition has been kind of tough, but thrilling at the same time. This has included going to orientation, visiting my school and meeting the faculty, coming up with conversation lessons, applying for a resident alien card, learning the metro route, buying a monthly metro pass (which are only available at cigarette stands, weird!), searching for an apartment (I checked all of them out in person because you can never trust the pictures online sometimes), opening a bank account, getting used to the central-north dialect of Spain, etc., etc., etc., phew!! That's partly why it has taken me some time to get this blog up and running. But to say the least, I finally feel settled down now.

The school is great! In general, the kids have been very enthusiastic since I got here. I teach 13 to 17 year olds with another teacher shadowing me; for conversation classes I usually lead the class and for grammar classes I usually follow the teacher´s lead. All last week I practically talked to them to death about Halloween. They loved it though. Some classes are more eager to learn English and learn about American culture than others, and the ones that are not as interested tend to be more rowdy, but I always try to help the teacher out by giving them a hint to shut up. The faculty is super chill and and they have been very helpful with the transition; every now and then they invite me for coffee at the shool cafeteria and sometimes a teacher who has a car might give me a lift to my apartment (The shool is not exactly in Madrid so I take the metro and then the bus to school). One of the hardest things for me is that I can´t let the students know that I know Spanish because once they do they will probably never force themselves to communicate in English with me. More about this later.

As for my apartment, it is epic! I live in the neighborhood of Puerta Del Ángel in Madrid which is filled with many hole-in-the-wall restaurants and bars. The apartment is also three blocks from the Manzanares river which runs through Madrid. I live near where it passes by the Royal Palace and the Almudena Cathedral. Both are breathtaking. And the Plaza Mayor is only a twenty minute walk away. There is also a huge park nearby called Casa Del Campo to going running/bike riding. I have two roommates around my age, an Italian who teaches European constitutional law at a local university and a Valencian who works in a financial services office. Son muy majos. That means they are really cool. The landlady is a trip though. She never stops talking when I see her and barely lets me say a word, but she means well.

One of the things that I have trouble getting used to is the time people eat here! They really eat lunch around 2 or 3pm. This has forced me to bring some snacks to school to eat during break otherwise my stomach starts sounding like chubaca. As for dinner, people don't eat until 10pm which means many people don't go to bed until midnight! I still eat dinner relatively early sometimes, or I might eat a big lunch and two small meals in the late evening and night. I also have to wake up super early so I am in class by 8:20 AM most days and I get out around 1 or 2 PM depending on the day. The way Spaniards stay up so late, I think they have no choice but to take a nap or siesta in the afternoon, which is growing on me.

Anyways, I finally found an adapter for my mac plug and wi-fi access is included in the rent so I will be in better contact with you all, but that will be hard to do if I continue to go exploring around Madrid for extensive periods of time. ¡Hasta luego!

-Charlie