Internet! and preparing for hallowe'en shenanigans

So today the nice internet man came and we adopted a brand new baby router complete with internet and all the extra goodies. We couldn't be happier about this addition to our family here in Palma. But in a seriousness, we were tired of pirating signals from around our neighborhood and now I am writing this blog from our lovely living room and it feels great.

Today at school I helped the Kindergarters paint pumpkin masks while attempting to keep them from painting themselves. I stapled newspaper "legs" onto a spider "body" made of black trash bags filled with more newspaper. I helped paint such legs black and miraculously avoided transferring the black paint that covered all the students onto my white top. I also met Jill, the parent of two of our students who hails from Manchester. She is an English teacher who speaks no Spanish but she loves living in Palma and it was great getting to know another person who is new to Palma. I also taught the sixth graders how to complete a crossword puzzle with hints like "What goes bump in the . . . " and "Halloween month." But the highlight of my day was my attempt at explaining a haunted corn maze to the skeptical sixth graders while jumping around the classroom, flailing my arms and yelling. And that was just the lead-in to the best part of the day. The climactic moment of my day was when three of the observant girls in the back of the room signaled me over and looked at me for awhile, while formulating their question. And then they just said, "What was that?" in Spanish of course. And they started flailing and yelling and I started laughing and realized how rediculous my life is sometimes here in Palma. I tried explaining in English again but all I really got through to them was Halloween. But, I will be dressing up Friday and thus will continue my reign of terror whilst yelling and flailing.

New Look and Americans Coming

I was getting bored with the style of my blog so I decided to change things up a bit. And here's a little story to entertain you:

Last night, in the middle of the night, I woke up several times because of a super loud thunder storm. But one time I woke up to see Andy standing over me. He said, "The Americans are coming. Move over." Then he swung his arm at me to move over. I stared at him. I said, "I think you are confused." He continued swinging his arm at me and so I scooted over to the other side of the bed and fell back asleep.

The End

Andy's Birthday and Mallorquin Nightlife

First things first, on Saturday night we found ourselves wandering the streets of Mallorca intoxicated off a combination of local gin and lemonade trying to find a mystery bar that one of the guys we were with had been to previously. Unfortunately, he had been in a state of deep(er) drunkeness when he last entered the bar in question. And little did he tell us that this was an "underground" illegally operated bar. When he finally got to where it was, I almost yelled "Stop!" when he reached up to ring the doorbell. The place looked like an average apartment and I wanted to avoid a confrontation for ringing a random Spainard's doorbells in the middle of the night. But then the door swung open and we were ushered under a black curtain into a dingy bar. It was a dirty bar - and I only say that because really did have a lot of dust and grime from the lack of ventilation - and it was full of people I probably would not trust on an average day. That might not be fair but it's the truth. There were some shady characters in attendance. But we were welcomed in by several of the locals and after another drink, I started to feel somewhat at ease in the strange location. The music was dim as to maintain a level of secrecy. People played foosball and a few of them chatted with us. We even met a DJ who works in Mallorca that spoke great English and Andy and I had a lovely chat with him. I remember distinctly laughing at his stories of living in the US while simultaneously searching for a non-sticky spot to rest my elbows on the bar. Other things I do not remember quite so clearly but it was great people watching. By 4 am, Andy and I said goodbye to the nameless bar and walked home, just missing day break.

Yesterday was Andy's 23rd birthday and we celebrated by getting a bank account and going out to dinner. The bank account wasn't so much a celebration, but it felt great to finally get it done. Now whenever we are paid we have a place to deposit it. We're going to try using a joint account to simplify things since we share most of our expenses at this point and if it doesn't go well, one of us will just open a different account.

Bea told us about a yummy Paella restaurant in Can Pastilla that we wanted to try out for Andy's birthday. For those of you who don't know, Paella is a rice and saffron dish that is cooked with a great variety of meats and/or seafood. And the Spanish are crazy about it. So we went with the roomies out to Can Pastilla on the bus only to discover that the restaurant was locked up and dark. So we backtracked to an Thai restaurant we saw on the way and ate there instead. I should have known it would be strange by the name: Cha Pra Pa. Hmmm. I will set the scene. First off, we were eating at about 7:30 so no one else was there because most Spanairds eat much later. So when we entered the waiter/owner/? was smoking and watching the TV. Secondly, the waiter didn't seem to speak Spanish or English and he had us write the number of our orders down on a piece of paper. I wrote that I didn't want spicy curry and he took one look at the paper and said, "Only numbers, only numbers." So we explained to him that the curry should not be too hot. Ok. Then he just disappeared. It seemed like maybe he was the one cooking our food but Nikki saw a cook so I have no idea what he was doing since there was no one else in the restaurant. And there was that TV that played crazy music videos from the eighties. What an absurd situation for dinner. Anyways, the food finally came and it was pretty good although not very "Thai" Thai food. Nikki, Joseph and Eric gave Andy a Mallorquin flag for his birthday which he greatly appreciated. We walked across the street when we finished and scored some super tasty gelato and then went home to the cake I attempted to make earlier in the day. To preface this, it is not easy to make a cake with an oven that functions like a stupid broiler so the whole top of the cake was originally scorched until some handy knife removal action cut the damn top off. So the cake turned out ok although I couldn't find vanilla or baking soda at the grocery store so I used baking powder and cinnamon in a little science experiment to see what would happen. Not too sure about the impact of the baking soda but the cinnamon was yummy combined with the generic brand Nutella I bought as a frosting. I scraped the idea of paying for a trip to Paris after finding zero cheap flights and instead bought a nice wool sweater for when it cools down here and told Andy that I will pay for the train ticket to the other side of the island when we finally make that trip. It's supposed to be quite beautiful for sightseeing so it should be nice.

Today I worked with the kids at Joan Miro and finally felt like I had a bit of a breakthrough with the sixth graders. I think it's easier for the little kids to warm up to strangers in their classrooms because all the younger kids reacted great to me after the first meeting but the older kids have been slower to accept me. But today in class they were raising their hands and signaling me over faster than I could keep up with. Their questions were good and they made a serious attempt to speak to me in English. It was great to feel like I am carving a place for myself in the classroom and I really hope I can learn names as soon as possible because all of them have got mine down pat. "Jessica, over here." "Jessica, please." "Jessica, jessica." Their friendliness and acceptance makes my day that much. And I had a coffee break with the teachers at the bar near the school and was able to follow bits and pieces of the conversation in Spanish so I'm also making some progress on that front as well. It's going to be work to learn Spanish though since I only speak English in the schools and I live with English speakers but I really want to make it a priority while I am here.

Photos to follow

I'm starting a new photo site to (hopefully) upload more photos quicker. This is the web address: photobucket.com/jessandandy

Autumn in Palma

It's autumn here, not fall. The influence of British English in schools makes itself most present in the strange mix of Brit/Spanish accents of the teachers and the word usage differences. Film not movie. Autumn not fall. So far my interactions with the teachers I've been working with have been stellar. It's still unclear how we're getting paid but all of that is in the hands of the great Spain beaurocracy that takes it's sweet time figuring all things out. In the meantime, I am so grateful to have real people who truly care about their students and the work we are doing. At least, most of them try. But teaching three year olds - or, acting as their handlers - is a challenge that grates on even the most composed teacher. I work with one class of the little buggers every day in each of the schools and they are a real handful. Their energy is seemingly endless, their cries of joy or anger are overwhelming and their mob mentality often overtakes them in both excitement and despair. For example, Marta at Miquel Porcel uses "Ducky" the duck puppet to explain things to their spongy minds, but at the beginning of every class when Ducky makes his appearance, the kiddies shriek like banshees with smiles that don't seem to quite match the terrible noise that comes out of their mouths. So Marta puts Ducky away until they calm themselves and tries again, and again. And that's how it is with the threes.

In the older classes, the kids challenge the authority of the teacher in more thoughtful ways by refusing activities, immersing themselves in strange inner-dramas and ignoring attempts to reach out to them in English. But, that is a minority of the students I work with, thank goodness. And even when kids refuse to participate they often have some type of reason. Francisca, a 4th grade girl at Joan Miro, refused to color her picture of a house and kept asking me for another activity in art class. Since I'm not supposed to speak spanish with any of the kids, I asked her to repeat in English and she stared at me until I walked away with a gleam of angriness in her eyes that disturbed me. After almost 30 minutes of slow demolition to her picture, she finally snuck up to the table to grab a clean one. She hadn't been asking me for the other activity, she just wanted a clean slate to start on. She was desperately behind the other kids who were starting their chants of "I'm done. I'm done. Come check!" I squatted next to her and started a rapid-fire drawing session to fill in the sky and ground and felt partially redeemed for our mutual misunderstanding. Dealing with misunderstandings is just one of the challenges to this position. Since so many of the kids in my schools have very little exposure to English, they simply do not speak well. And that is why I think I can really help here. At least I am going to convince myself of that for now. I worked one on one in a question and answer activity with 5th graders at Miquel Porcel and it reinforced my conviction that kids really need some type of individual attention to thrive in a classroom session. It felt good to be able to provide that opportunity to them.

Last weekend we had our couchsurfing hostess over for a dinner of fish, glazed carrots, asparagus, salad and bread. It was an experience I hope we can continue having because I really enjoy making food and cultivating friendships. Our apartment is plenty big for visitors and I hope we can host tons of dinner parties. I also made a tasty lentil soup for the weekend because it was a holiday on Sunday and that meant we didn't have work on Monday and all the stores were closed on Sunday (as usual) and Monday. So we ate soup for the whole weekend and it turned out pretty well. We also went to a bank last Friday to try and open an account but we found out that the banks all close at 2 so we were out of luck. I walked across town in search of a health food store that I found just as I was giving up. I was finally able to buy some vegetarian proteins so I can mix things up a bit instead of always relying on eggs and cheese to survive.

Andy's birthday is on Monday and I am still considering what to get him and have been diligently searching for cheap flights to cool locations on a weekend in the near future so we'll see how that goes. I would really love to go to Paris, but still need to work out the details. We are going to try and find a blues club tonight in old town to listen to some music. Love to all.

Updates from Spain

It's been a little while since I last posted but a tremendous amount of activity has happened since.

Numero Uno: I have an apartment, am all moved in and getting to know my great room mates through some really great meals cooked and eaten together. We literally have a suprmarket right down stairs so it's easy to buy supplies for each meal as they come. Last night we made hearty homemade mac and cheese with a spanish salad topped with lentils, garbanzos, mushrooms, corn and red peppers. The wine is super cheap so we bought a couple bottles for the meal and used it in the cooking and then drank it, of course. Our apartment is the museum because it is filled with our landlord's old furniture and knick knacks (that I already stored away). There is no microwave, clothes dryer or toaster but we are making do. Everyone dries their clothes on the line here and they dry in a day because of the mildly warm lovely weather.

Numero Dos: I began work at my school! Yesterday I took the bus to the school Miquel Porcel and got a bit lost but after I asked an older Spanish woman for directions, she walked me all the way there. The kids range in age from three to twelve and they decorated a huge sign in the entrance of the school that read "Welcome Jessica." It was a very sweet gesture and really helped me start feeling more at home. The teachers were extremely excited to see me and I struggled through their spanish and catalan barely understanding anything before the English teacher switched over to English. I help with a remedial math class for 5th grade, an english class for 6th grade and an "infantil" class with three-year-olds. The math class has only ten students and I ended up working with one girl named Angie who moved here from Ecuador a couple weeks ago. We were learning basic addition but it seemed like she didn't have a grasp so I helped her count on her fingers while naming the numbers in English and then I showed her how to write out numbers and count from one to another. It felt good to work with someone one on one because it really seemed to help her. The 6th grade english class was very rowdy in a noisy classroom above the playground. I thought the kids would understand more english than they did but I slowed down my speech and clarified my questions and answers to them. I am glad I'll be here for the school year because I think I'll see a lot of growth and be able to get close to the kids I'm working with. The three-year-olds were a whole other story. They spoke zero English and were intimidated/distracted by hearing English. With the older kids I was told to not speak any spanish so they are forced to speak english with me, but that was impossible with the little ones. They asked me my name in spanish and I obviously answered. Because of their age they were cranky/happy/distractable/silly. But, it was an interesting change up to my day and overall I enjoyed the experience as a whole. Most of the teachers and kids have learned a form of British english so my accent and some of my words are very different from what they've learned before but I think they are excited to get to know me and work with me.

I finally got a hold of my other school, Joan Miro, that I still hadn't heard from and went to visit today. Both of my schools are in poorer neighborhoods but the kids are still kids and they make me laugh. After walking across town to meet someone from Joan Miro, I was briefly introduced to the female English teacher from France named Laurence. She didn't have time to say much although she did warn me that the school kids often have lice and "there are a lot of gypsies here." I had already been warned from teachers at Miquel Porcel but it still took me aback to hear it. I think if I'm careful I can avoid the lice and I'm not really sure if the issues with gypsies is about stereotypes or what. But I am totally thrilled that I am spending a large part of my day teaching art there!

So my perceptions of living on a tourist island are a bit different than the reality because I will mostly be working in immigrant neighborhoods. But I am glad with this opportunity because I will be here for so long and will be able to know these kids. I don't want to jump the gun but so far I am enjoying the experience of teaching and looking forward to the crazy awesomeness to come.

Here's my schedule for those of you who are curious:

Monday/Wednesday: Miquel Porcel, 10am Math 5th grade, 11-11:30 break with the other teachers, 11:30-12:30 English 6th grade, 12:30 to 1:15 infantil control (kind of a joke)

Tuesday: Joan Miro, 9:30am-11:30 Art 4th grade, 11:30 to 12 break, 12-1 English with 6th grade

Thursday: Joan Miro, 9am infantil control, 9:30-11:30 Art 4th grade, 12:30 to 1 English

Closing in on an Apartment

Ack! Finding an apartment in Palma has been one of the most frustratingly slow and painful processes ever recorded in the history of my life. We've looked at newspapers, websites and signs hanging out windows to find numbers to call and inquire. And then the phones cost 50 euro cents per minute to call and most of the time nobody answers or the apartment is already rented. We have combined forces with another couple and a single guy to look for a three bedroom apartment in order to save money. But, even with all the help it still takes a long time to wait for people to call back or get the apartment ready to look at it. There are also tons of rental agencies that operate here and the apartments we've looked at that are listed under an agency charge a commision of a full month's rent. So, most apartments we're looking at are in the 850 euro price range and that means the commission is 850 euros! So much money. But split 5 ways makes it much more affordable although it is a painful price to pay on top of the normal month's worth of deposit and first month's rent, which is standard.

But, today we got our first call back from our second choice apartment asking us when we wanted to move in. Since we've been working at finding an apartment for the last week as a full-time job, it was a very welcome phone call. We call the apartment "the museum" because it is decorated like one. Luckily, the owner is showing the apartment so we wouldn't have to pay a commission. It also has two double rooms and a third room with two twin beds so the bed situation is ideal, which is unique because most apartments only have a single bed in the bedrooms. So hopefully we'll be able to follow through with this apartment tomorrow after our orientation and get ourselves moved in. Our couchsurfing hostess, Bea, has been a most gracious host allowing us to return to her apartment after we had no other place to go. She went to Seville yesterday and left us with the keys to her place. She's the perfect host for us right now since we are in such a limbo until we can find an apartment. We're still waiting for a call back on our first choice apartment but we've been waiting since last night so I'm not holding out too much hope for that. It's been a long process and hopefully we're coming to the end soon. We've been extremely lucky to stay in a place that doesn't charge us so we've been doing fairly well with money but euros go quickly since the exchange rate is always working against us. Hopefully the recent crash won't adversely affect the exchange rate since we won't be paid until the end of October at the earliest. Signing off for now and crossing my fingers for an apartment soon.