Ok, so it's been a month since I last posted a blog. I've been meaning to, a lot has happened, it always just got pushed aside. Pictured above is a white chocolate and curry candy bar that I picked up a little over a week ago. Trust me, it was as nasty as it sounds.
About a month ago it was Carnaval, here in Madrid. Unfortunately, Mildred and I both had to work during the times of the major events, so we saw very little of Carnaval. Her students did dress up as fish for school. One of the major events that we desperately wanted to see was "The Burial of the Sardine". For well over a century this tradition has prospered. A group of Madrid citizens (they have their own cult for this) march through the city streets with a dead sardine that they have placed in a small coffin, of which they have fashioned. It's a long procession, and everyone is dressed in burial garb. Whether or not anyone is shedding a tear for the sardine I do not know.
There are plenty of strange cultural occurences like this in Spain, and so far I haven't gotten a chance to really experience them. I also missed out on Las Fallas, where giant structures made to look like people (kind of like 60 foot tall piñatas) are constructed and burned, creating an enormous blaze. There is another one coming up, but I don't expect to be making it to that one either.
Also, during this past month it was my birthday. On my birthday Mildred, Valentina, Xavier, and I went to an authentic Korean restaurant, so I could get my fill of kimchi. The food was very good, and everyone had a good meal. Thanks, gf for the dinner! Also as a part of my birthday was a trip we took to Avila, a nearby town. But I'll discuss Avila in my next blog. Pictures are already available on Facebook. Also, my roomies had a Friday night dinner in honor of my birthday, which was good but expensive.
The economic crises is hitting people hard here. My friends Valentina and Frederick lost their jobs this past month, but fortunately for them they were able to find new ones right away. I'm still always looking for work. I picked up one class teaching two adults at a company known as, Praxair. It's an American company that deals with gas. So far this class has been a breeze because of the six times that I was supposed to teach it has been cancelled 5 times. Only for this company I still get paid for cancellations. My other private classes have been cancelling a lot as well, but I don't get paid for those. Two weeks ago, all but two of my classes cancelled leaving me with just 40 euros for the week. Still I'm accumulating more work, and I'm able to pay the bills.
One of my adult students, Enrique went on a business trip to Athens, where he had to give a presentation in English. So I met with him on a Saturday to help him prepare for this project. He works for the government, helping design satellite imagery, so his presentation was interesting yet somehow boring.
Mildred and I have decided upon the best pizza place in all of Madrid. It is not Pizza Hut, and it is not the other major chain, Telepizza. There is this Italian place in the center of town, near the metro stop, Tribunal. We have been there a couple of times now. It's nice that you can take your pizza and then go and sit down in the plaza nearby. We are both happy that neither of us live close to this pizza place otherwise we'd be there all the time.
A couple of weekends ago Mildred and I spent a Friday night walking around Madrid, getting ice cream and sitting down by the royal palace at night. It was a very nice time and it was good for the both of us after a long week.
I've been reading a lot of books in my spare time, and studying Spanish on my own. I thought I was going to get into this school that gives free Spanish classes, but unfortunately I arrived too late and am like number 25 on the waiting list. I still hear Spanish constantly and am surrounded by it, so I'm slowly getting better. My reading abilities have gotten a lot better. My listening abilities have gotten a bit better, and my speaking abilities are still pretty poor.
I've been involved in a number of interviews, one of which was for a camp to work at for the summer. Because during the summer it is so hot that everyone leaves Madrid and finds somewhere cooler in Spain to be. So July and August are bad months for English teachers. The only real work to be found is at these camps. I just found out today that I'll be spending the month of July working in a camp in a city north of here called Ucles. They do pay you to teach English during the week.
At another camp Mildred and I are trying to get into they don't pay you, but instead they take care of all your meals and room and board. That would be for the upcoming Easter week, known as Semana Santa. During that week at the beginning of April everything shuts down as well, so we are trying to get into this camp, which would be in a couple of weeks. At this camp you spend all day talking to Spanish people in English, 12 hours a day, its divided up so you are spending about an hour a day with different people. Mildred says this place is nice though, even though you don't get paid, because the food and the hotel you stay in are great.
That's enough for now, I'll write again soon and talk about my trip to Avila.
