feliz navidad

Now ever since I threw "Julie Ann's Claymation Christmas Party" in Tuscaloosa my junior year of high school after baking 9 different types of Christmas cookies, a gingerbread house, and giving out invitations to all my friends specifying that they bring "G" rated gifts suitable to open in front of your grandmother to play the "white elephant/dirty santa" gift exchange game... I have known I absolutely LOVE, love, love Christmas.

I mean my one of my all time favorite movies in general (forget just Christmas movies) is "White Christmas"... not to mention that my mother and I make it a tradition to not only watch it, but also "Holiday Inn," both the old and the new "Miracle of 34th Street," both "The Santa Clause" one and two, both "Home Alone" one and two, "Christmas Vacation," "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "It's a Wonderful Life," and "Elf."

I now have 230 Christmas songs on my ipod.

I used to be of the "why do they start Christmas earilier and eariler every year" brigade until I realized, "uuuhhh Christmas dominates, why not let the season last as long as it possibly can?" Why shouldn't I let the fact that I get to celebrate the fact that Jesus was born for two whole months? Fine by me!

So of course, it has torn my little heart up not being able to celebrate Christmas with all the people that I love in the United States... but scattered through here are photos of my delight-tation of Christmas here in Spain. They have turned on all the beeeeeautiful Christmas lights in the centro and Mari, Sylvia, and I decorated our piso for a Christmas party while listen to my scores of Christmas songs.

I wish I could figure out how to put videos on here because I have a endearingly cheesy video that Sylvia took of Mari and I dancing to Mariah's "All I Want for Christmas is You." I will stick by this til the day I die... it really is the little things in life.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

a sundry of...

haphazard thoughts...
indiscriminant observations...
assorted caprices...
arbitrary musings...
and variagated photos ...

- So very often I find myself walking through the halls of a high school... in Spain... asking am I serious? Haha... is this for real? I love walking down the hall and having kids scream my name in their accent... "Jooooooooooooolie!! Hi!"

- The good thing is that after being in the school for two months without actually teaching a ton of classes, I have absolutley no fear of walking into classes and teaching and walking down the halls. Bring it on, punk kids. :)

- This is the back of my apartment building. Our balcony is the second floor (el primer piso), in between the palm tree and the other tree, with the two rugs hanging over the side.

- The other day in my car pool I looked around and was the youngest member (not to mention the only female) by at least 15 years (and I'm being generous)... and what came on the CD player (ie NOT the radio)... but "I'm a Slave for You" by our very own Britney Spears. I looked around thinking "please, God, let these men not understand these lyrics." This song was immediately followed by "I'm not a Girl, not Yet a Woman," also by the ex-Mrs. Federline... yes, it was indeed her entire album to which we listened. What?

- So after teaching for a few weeks I realize that I enjoy teaching the first and second levels of ESO the most, followed by the two levels of bachillerato, then with the third and fourth levels of ESO coming in a distant third. (See previous post for explanation of levels.) You see... the first and second of ESO don't have that high of a level of English, but aren't too cool for my games like "bingo" (which are pretty sweet if I do say so myself)... then the bachillerato levels have a decent enough of a foundation that you can talk with them... but with third and fourth of ESO, they don't know English still, but they're too cool for games..... THEN it hit me... bachillerato equates to juniors and seniors in high school in the US... third and fourth of ESO corresponds to US high school freshman and sophomores... which means that first and second of ESO correlates to US 7th and 8th grade!!!! That's right... I prefer middle schoolers. Haha... oooooh goodness, who would have guessed.

- There is a child in one of my classes (second year of ESO) with a little round face and tight dark curls who makes a lot of trouble. He looks to me like Spanish Corey Matthews from Boy Meets World. I call him Spanish Corey Matthews in my head. But I can't share it with anyone here because no one knows what I'm talking about. And anyone readng this can't appreciate it because I have no picture. Oh well. Trust me. It's funny.

- If I ran the world, movies with sad/depressing endings would have a warning label on the box so you don't stress yourself and waste your energy hoping for a happy ending when it's just not coming. Don't worry, I wouldn't get rid of those kind of movies altogether for all you weirdos who want to pay to see something depressing, I'd just fix it so I wouldn't have to be deceived.

- "The Holiday" is a lovely movie... at least I enjoy what I procured from the film in Spanish.

- Shay and I went to Códorba this past weekend when he visited for the puente (holiday). There is an (apparently) lovely mezquita (mosque) there that cost 8 euros. We wouldn't know. We didn't go inside. We DID, however, pay 14 euros to see the circus. Haha. It was awful. Don't be fooled by the poster in this photo. Elephants, rhinos, lions, there were NOT. I wish it wasn't a liar. There were, however, gymnasts in flesh-colored tights and thong leotards for costumes (Did we mention there were children present at this event?)... and a group of dogs playing soccer. By far, the highlight of the circus was when the "goalie" dog chained to the "Barcelona" goal squated and pooped in the middle of the game. Any time you can possible start a story with "so when the dogs were playing soccer...." you know that it's gonna be worth at least 14 euros. :)

- The other night Beth and I were hopped up on Christmas spirit and purchased a bag of roasted chesnuts in the centro. While these warmed kernals might bestow tidings of great joy to lovers of the acclaimed Christmas carol... they fervently lack in pleasurable taste. Poop.

- Walking around a beautifully lit centro can cure any and all foul/melancholy disposition. This is my absolutely favorite sight in Sevilla.

- P.S. my one hour carpool in the morning is kiiiiiiller. It's all I can do to stay awake the whole time.

- The other day I was in class allowing the students to ask me questions which sounded like this: "whaaaaaa-at.... eeeeeeeeez.... yoooooore... na-aaaahhhme?"
"wh-eeeeeeerh... aaahhhhhhh-re... youuuuu... frah-uuuum?"
"ha-oooow... oh-ooooold... aaahhhhh-re... youuuuu?"
Then all of the sudden this student called me by my first name (which still startles me when anyone says it correctly here in Spain, much less a student) "Julie Ann!" And he pauses to think and struggle through his question, but instead opts for "¿mepuedeshablarenespañol?" (canyoujusttalktomeinSpanish?) Haha.

- As a teacher, it is toooootally accepted to dress pretty much however we want. Jeans are totally accepted. One of my higher-ups has his eyebrow pierced.

- The kids at school do pretty much whatever they want. It is not uncommon for kids to just get up and walk around the class, or blatantly sit there and not do work... not even bothering to take out materials and fake it. Non-members of a class will just come in from the hall and interrupt. One girl told the teacher if she didn't allow her to sing fandango (a typical flamenco type song) then she wouldn't behave... so at the end of class, the student had her own personal mini-concert. But kids run around and scream between classes just like they do in the U.S. Haha. Punks.

- You would not believe the difference between my street during the siesta versus during peak hours of life here in Spain. I wanted to put some compare and contrast photos to help convey my stupefication at the drastic difference between exactly how crowded and brimming with people the street can be versus how barren and abandoned it can be, but I felt like a tool taking a photo during the uber-full of people time, so here is the empty time. (My door is just past the blue Telefonica store and sign, if you can make that out.)

- The other night Beth and I made "pomanders" or yummy, Christmas-y, smelly, decorative thingys by sticking whole cloves in oranges in pretty designs while listening to Christmas carols and proceding to dance around the piso. It's the little things in life. I reccommend the little things.

- I appreciate that although I freeeeeeeze inside, it is still beautifully sunny enough for me to run in shorts along the river during the day.

- I am slowly becoming able to be "me" here in Spain. Here I am freaking out because I just realized that our bus was going to take us on an extremely indirect route around the city back to our piso. Mari thought it was hysterical and made me freeze for a photo. I'm definitely missing the car and feeling the pain of being at the mercy of public transportation.

- The other weekend, my roommate Sylvia gave a concert here in Sevilla at a fundraiser. She is such a fun performer to watch. That girl is precious.

- Style here is very different, and I don't quite understand it. It is quite the "in" thing to dress head to toe in all one color (no really as in hat, jacket, pants, shoes) and in rather odd colors such as a bright orange, a bold teal, or an irridescent yellow.

- When driving Spaniards are much better at obeying the rule of using their blinker than people in the US (or at least me), however, I have noted that more than one driver with whom I've driven is in the habbit of putting on their left blinker to move into the passing, left lane and leaving it on for the duration of their occupation of said passing lane (no matter how many minutes or kilometers pass) until they return to the slow, right lane.

- Although, yes, it is absolutely freezing here... inside... (I am wearing three layers of shirts today, not for style, but for survival, plus a sweater, plus a large coat)... when Spaniards drive they keep the heat on soooo high that I think I'm going to melt away.

- El Parchís (aka Parchisi) dominates and its a totally underrated game.

- All of the English books in Spain teach this wacked-out Brittish English which includes this verb "have got," and Spaniards are obsessed with it. As in...
"Julie Ann has got red hair."
"Julie Ann has got one brother."
"Julie Ann and her brother have got two parents."
You know, for as much as I've been told that Brittish English is "more proper" than my improper, uncouth, barbaric American English by people here... I do delcare that "have got" sounds pretty darn gramatically incorrect to my "uncultured" ears.

Well... I feel like that's enough... and no worries... before I leave to return for Christmas I will include lovely fotos of the Christmas edition of my life including decorating the piso for Christmas!!!

i promise i have a job.

So... it's a lovely Saturday here in Sevilla... it's raining outside which I very much don't mind right now. Mari and I are sitting on our computers in the salón. She is playing on facebook (I vice to which, yes, I am culpable for introducing her,) and I just finished my chore for the week of cleaning the bathroom (a duty which I actually don't mind and that I'm pretty darn good at thanks to my work for Grace at the ranch for so many summers- whoop whoop housekeeping!). What a perfect time to write a blog, no?!

So I think I'll begin with explaining a little bit about the way Spanish school works. VERY different from the US.

Ok... so their school system.
It begins with a type of preschool called educación infantil that you do til age 6.
Then you enter educación primaria from 6-12...
followed by educación segundo obligatorio (ESO) from 12-16 of which there are 4 levels.
At that point, you receive a type of graduate certificate.
Then from 16-18, you have the option of doing further schooling called bachillerato (of which there are 2 levels) before going to the university OR doing a type of vocational training to enter the work world.

My school IES Doñana, is an Instituto de Educación Segundaria (hence the IES). It incorporates ESO, bachillerato, and the vocational training listed above... so there are kids from 12-18 running around. I work with classes of all levels of ESO as well as both levels of bachillerato. They are punks. Haha. And they don't really know English at all which means the HATE trying to speak it.

My instituto is actually huge. Although Almonte (my little pueblo) is rather small, the school is big because they bus kids in from other surrounding pueblos as well. I think there are like 90 different professores in the school and something like 2000-ish students, so it's a size I'm used to. Here is a picture I tried to take of Almonte from the bus window coming from the highway. It's not fabulous, but it kind of give you an idea of how these pueblos are just little entities or clusters of pocket villages that exisit as you drive down the highway.

And just a side note information, right now my school (as well as any building including my piso) is FREEZING right now because every edificio is built to expel the life-sucking, unforgiving, infernal heat of Andalucia during the summer... so during the winter, we have not a prayer to retain any minute amount of it. Here is a picture of the departamento de inglés where I used to sit and buscar materiales por el internet before I recevied my lovely new schedule. It kinda gives you an idea of how the inside of the school looks. Note the tiled walls and floors, read arctic.

ANYWAY, their school day works as follows:
primera hora 8:25-9:25
segunda hora 9:25-10:20
tercera hora 10:20-11:15
recreo 11:15-11:45
cuarta hora 11:45-12:45
quinta hora 12:45-13:40
sexta hora 13:40-14:35

As you may note, they don't have a lunch time because they all go home and eat afterwards (while I drive the 1 hour commute back to sevilla with my carpool), but the period called is a time for students (and professors) to go to the little cafetería and eat chips, candy, or a bocadilla (a sandwich with an obscene amount of bread in proportion to the tiny slivers of meat- most likely jamón- and queso).

The cafetería also serves café con leche and is more like a café than anything we would think of as a school cafeteria. The bar tender's name is Manolo and one time when he was explaining the difference between a manchado and a café con leche to me (answer the ratio of coffee to milk is much less in a manchado), he spilled coffee all over himself and blamed it on me (but all in jest), so we joke about that quite frequently now.

Other odd differences I've noted in the Spanish school:
1) the students all call the professors by their first names
2) if the students don't use their first names, they use maestra, or rather they whine maestra
3) the teachers do not have fixed classrooms, so the teachers move from room to room each class while the kids stay... personally I think this is dumb for a number of reasons, mainly because (a) there is no way to have stocked materials for your subject in your room, you have to carry them around and (b) it gives the students this "territorial" type advantage/control over the teacher which is horrible because their behavior is abhorrent already
4) because of how the teachers move around, they don't have a fixed "all day, every day" schedule... so they might teach 2 classes during primera and cuarta horas on Monday, then 5 on Tuesday, etc, etc.... this frees them up to come and go only when they have to be there, but often time leaves them with huecos or holes in their schedules
5) professors (not me, because I'm not really real) also have hours of guardia which are just times where they have to be "on call" to patrol the halls or to just be available to random student if they have problems
6) they don't do substitutes unless a teacher is out for an extended period of time, so if a teacher is just gonna miss a day, the kids just have a hole in their schedule and do whatever they want... really good for 12-16 year olds.

Well, now that I am in classes (nevermind the fact that it took me 2 months to get there), I am very quickly gathering funny stories which are worth telling, however as I realize that this blog is already a little long, I will save them for later to post with other fun recent pictures of me and the crazy people with whom I am doing life now. :)

And a PS... please just imagine what a dork I felt like taking pictures of the high school... I want to be able to put pictures of the inside, but I can't bring myself to do so when there are kids running around. Haha.

Here... and just to end... Yesterday Beth and I went Christmas shopping in the centro and while we were walking back by the cathedral we had a "I can't believe we're living in Spain" moment and took a picture and then walked around listening to our ipods. I find that Coldplay is perfect for this type of setting. I got cold and am actually wearing three purchases (hat, scarf, sweatshirt) that I somehow ended up with for myself when shopping for others. Oops.