"Don't let your dreams, just be dreams."
Hanging out at Elli's piso with Maury, Brittani, and Elli
Bucketlist adventure at the Vertical Gardens with Brittani and Maury
Two things that i love about madrid - first, is their love for books. There are always cheap used book stores that i get lost in and i'm there until closing when they kick me out, or half bars half bookstores which i love to hangout with friends in. And second, is this city's love for outdoor-open air markets. There are two regular outdoor markets that I go to the Rastro market which is every sunday morning from early morning until 2pm and Mercado de Motores, which is every second sunday of the month and its usually all day. This makes for awesome sunday fundays. Rastro has everything from dresses, to cheap purses, to kitchen ware, scarves, posters, socks, etc. and it's in the La Latina neighborhood under these huge oak trees. The market extends for several blocks and branches off in different directions too. There is a bar in this area that has English Breakfast Brunch - called the Rastro Bar, which we go to sometimes for after shopping fuel.
Mercado de Motores is in the train station museum which is located off of the Delicias metro stop, and it's in an old train station! The market on the inside is a little more expensive because its artisan stuff - anything from bags, to shoes, houseware, clothing, children's toys, etc. But the part on the outside is a flea market - which is neat, I've found some good books and random stuff out there too. Another thing about living here - that i know i talked about before but everyday i think it makes me so much happier and healthier, is that I love being able to walk in the fresh air and be outside as much as I am. christmas is coming and so are madrid's winter/christmas markets! I am so excited to be abroad in spain for the christmas season! They already started putting the lights up and they are constructing the huge Christmas tree in puerta del sol. I can't wait!
Let me tell you about my job and teaching - In a different life, I always thought I would be a kindergarten teacher if I wasn't an SLP. So the fact that I teach 3-5 year olds should be perfect, right? It's a lot harder than I thought it would be - controlling a group of 27-30 babies who don't speak English is not how I imagined it. As a teaching assistant, the teacher is always required to be in the room with me - some help you with their kids and others not so much. And the education system in Spain is very weird to me. Some of their discipline tactics would get you fired in the US. For example, their discipline system is shame based. Basically, if the whole class is not paying attention or listening - you pick out the worst kid who is talking and yell at them a foot from their face, and make them stand up the entire class period, or pull them by their ear. Yes and they do this for 5 year olds. They constantly "castigar" (punish) kids all the time, and make them sit or stand separately from the class. And when the 5 year olds cry about being "castigada" (punished) they threaten them with sending them to 3 year old classes or they pull out a necklace of baby pacifiers to put in their mouths if they don't stop crying. For 3 year olds, they put them in a really high chair so they can't get down and/or they make them cross their arms tightly so they can't touch anyone else. Or they threaten to hold them/rock them like a baby in their arms. It's shame based for maximum embarrassment so that the other kids are scared into behaving. It's quite strange really. Oh also interesting fact - I pray the Lord's prayer at least 4 times a day (teaching 5 yr olds the Lord's prayer in English).
One of the 5 yr old classrooms
Other than the behavior and discipline system, I like my job - i love the kids they are just so much fun. My favorite are 5 year olds and 3 year olds. 5 year olds fascinate me because some are so smart and can read and write already. And their system of teaching reading and writing is so different from English!! In the Spanish language, when you read a word or sentence, it looks exactly how it sounds. There are only 5 vowels in Spanish (and they are always the same) but there are 20 vowel sounds in English and there are different letter-grapheme combos to each of the English vowels). Thus, there are no sight words when teaching kids to read in Spanish!! Isn't that crazy?! The 5 year olds that I teach are from a pretty affluent neighborhood so a lot of them have a decent amount of English. In their education system, they teach children how to write in print at 4 years old and cursive at 5 years old. The 3 year olds are sponges and some of them just learn so fast. I love how fun they are! 4 year olds are not my favorite because their just not there yet with reading and writing, and they are old enough to be super mischievous and misbehave.
It's nice having a job - that's just a job for me. I don't have to take work home or worry about reports to write. But I do miss being an SLP.... I saw PTN's annual campaign video come out this week and missed some of my kids so much!!
What else is new? Hmmm.. about a month ago, Elli and I were eating breakfast and talking about our upcoming "puente" (long weekend - with a Friday holiday) and so we searched online for the cheapest tickets we could find in Spain and decided that we wanted to go to Santander. We both loved it. We spent the weekend shopping, being tourists, drinking tea, being by the ocean, and eating tapas in Northern Spain. Santander was really small but homey like Sevilla (a lot smaller than Sevilla though). It rained some, but not a ton, so it didn't ruin our weekend.
Elli and I taking a jumping picture in the street in Santander
In the coming weeks, my school has our patron saint day - our patron saint is San Jose de Calasanz and we have a huge party, celebration, and dinner for the teachers on that Thursday AND the best part is that we have Friday November 29 off of school! Then the next weekend, Elli and I are going to Sevilla to celebrate Christmas with our beloved host moms. I cannot wait to see Manoli. I am so excited!!
Then the 24th of December, I fly home and will be in Los Angeles for 2 weeks. I am super excited to get to spend Christmas with my family. and to fly home to some warmer weather. It has been 34 degrees in Madrid this whole weekend and this week it's going to get down to 32 - which means if it rains, snow will stick. The cold is not agreeing with my California soul, I am constantly freezing.
Other things to look forward to: My dad is coming in April and we are going to Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris, and then he's coming back to Madrid. Sharla and I are in the process of planning her trip for her to come in June!!
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