Business in Palma

So the past few weeks have been busy with work and tutoring since both Andy and I have received a lot of interest in private lessons after the New Year. So we went out to eat twice for Valentine's Day weekend. We had a great time meeting up with Andy's coworkers at an Italian restaurant on the beach where we ate and ate and ate and drank with a bunch of really interesting and young teachers that Andy works with. It was a good opportunity for me to listen to Spanish and practice my own Spanish as well as to experience a typical Spanish night out which consisted of arriving at the restaurant at 10:15, eating appetizers and sipping on wine until 11:30 when our entrees arrived and then it wasn't until after one that we finished our desserts and last glasses of wine on our way out the door. It was a lovely meal overall and made both Andy and I feel very grateful to have been invited.

For Valentine's Day, Andy surprised me with a little pink potted flower to add some color into our bedroom and then we went out for a giant lunch at a delectable vegetarian cafe. The cafe offers a four course meal with two options for each course so we ordered differently each time and we were able to try everything! I started with a orange and rasberry frappe, then a creamy vegetable soup, then eggplant moussaka and for dessert I ate fresh mint yogurt with a ball of fudge in the middle. Mmm. Makes me happy just thinking about it. Andy had a pesto salad, a shitake mushroom and tofu soup, twice baked potatoes covered in shallot gravy and the same dessert. Wow, it was definitely one of the very best vegetarian meals I have ever had and it was a really nice alternative to a super expensive night out.

The most important thing going on in both of our lives right now is figuring out our plans for after this job. Illona, a friend from Malta we met back in October, is staying with us for the week and she's been traveling for the last 12 years. She's also really involved in the yachting industry so we've been barraging her with questions about her experiences and about how to get a job working on a yacht. With an ~800 euro course in safety training and a certificate signed by a doctor, we're off. The season in the mediterranean lasts from April until October and we could make about 2,000 euros a month starting wage if we found a position. And another big bonus is that Andy and I could apply to agencies together and it's possible for us to get jobs on the same boat. So yachting is a way to both ear money and travel as well as do something completely different and I have to say that appeals to me at this point.

But, last night Andy finally got an email response from the coordinator for an International Relations Coordinator position in a small town in northern Japan. Tsuruta is the sister city for Hood River and each year they hire a Hood River native with a bachelors degree to come for a year and work on international relations with the town officials and teah English in the classroom. The job pays 3,600,000 yen which converts to about 38,000 dollars for a year of work. So this is another really great opportunity. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if there would be anything for me to do and the liklihood of finding an English teaching position is low given that Tsuruta is a town of 15,000. So we have a lot to think about and I've even been losing a bit of sleep over all the prospects. But we have one major issue which is rescheduling our plane ticket. Because we booked through Vayama, they have a $100 fine and then SAS has another $300 fine so we will have to pay at least 400 in fines to change our ticket, but when do we change it for??

Yachting would keep us here for the summer. The job in Japan would start on August 1st. Our ticket is currently for May 26th which doesn't even allow us to finish out our current jobs completely. And, Andy wouldn't even find out about being accepted or not to Tsuruta until April. Ugh, by that time we'll probably have to pay the price difference of the ticket on top of the fines because prices go up so quickly. So, confusion. But, I think Andy is going to try to apply to Japan to at least have it as an option and he asked about me in his email to the coordinator so perhaps she will have some advice about me going along and if there's anything I could do there. So we are busy trying to make decisions but I guess I am grateful that I am able to have a choice. The application for Japan is due on March 2nd so Andy will be working on that over the next couple weeks and we'll have some time to think about the possibilities.

Oh, 3rd Grade. Madness.

Today while I was walking back home from another terrible class with the out-of-control third graders, I tried to concentrate on what exactly I could do to help out the situation. Unfortunately, for at least three of the kids I can think of, their behavior is so completely beyond my comprehension that I have no idea how I can help them. One is from a very unstable home life and I have suspicions that the others have equally bad situations at home. And so their interactions with the other kids end up being violent, confrontational and downright rude. And they are in the third grade. I try to comfort them as much as I can by speaking to them calmly and get them used to me but still they hear one offensive remark from another student and they are yelling, punching, kicking and biting. In all honesty, my school doesn't have enough resources to really be able to help these kids and they are just put into the same classrooms as all the other students. And that means that their likelihood to resort to violence feeds an unhealthy atmosphere in the classroom. The kids that might be fine otherwise but the craziness of the class gets them riled up to the point of no return. Today I did collect a group of the students that had finished their tests and I read from an English storybook for a little while. Unfortunately, the noise of the troublemakers was too distracting for us to have too much luck but I did hear one of the kids mention that he was understanding more than he thought he would so that made me feel pretty excited. I think that having a substitute teacher is also really not helping the situation at all. So for now, all I can really do is try my best to help out.

TeacherTube Video!

http://www.cpmiquelporcel.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=14

That is a web address for one of my schools and there is a cool video on it with me helping teach math to fifth graders. Love it!

Fred's Amazing 200 (or possibly 400) Year Old Belgian Farmhouse

A Difficult Work Day

Today I started working with my substitute Monica at Joan Miro and she’s a really pleasant woman so I’m looking forward to the next few weeks with her. We had an incident with the terrible third grade class when two of the boys started throwing punches and kicking each other in class but I wrangled into the middle of it yelling my head off and scooped the perpetrator out of there. The poor kid has a terrible home life and he just loses control sometimes. Certainly the challenges that I have sometimes are unexpected but I still feel passionate about teaching and working with children.

Getting Back Home and Jetting off Again

After we got home from London, we unpacked and settled back into our apartment by cleaning out the fridge of the perishables that perished. It felt good to be back and it helped that the sun was finally out so the day got quite warm. We enjoyed ourselves. The next morning as I was getting ready to go to school, my teacher texted me that she was sick so I spent the day lounging and pretty much doing nothing. It was great! Unfortunately, that teacher is now heading to Norwich for four weeks so I will once again have to work with a substitute. But I have high hopes that it will work out all right.

I’m also signing up for a Spanish course that will last from February until June. It will take place two times a week and I think it will help me fill up my time with something productive. I’ve been practicing my Spanish by listening to podcasts and using workbooks but I have still been a bit frustrated learning Spanish because of the common use of Catalan in our schools and on the streets. But I am quickly learning to differentiate the two languages and picking up more and more as I do that.

This past weekend, Andy and I flew to Belgium to visit with one of his very best friends, Fred. Andy met Fred in high school because Fred was on an exchange and they’ve been good friends ever since. To save money, we flew into Madrid first and then caught a flight to Brussels. We didn’t realize that Fred lives about an hour outside Brussels in the countryside but he was kind enough to drive and pick us up. When we arrived, we found ourselves in a gorgeous farm home that was renovated five years ago. We have a bedroom on the third floor to ourselves with a fabulous skylight.

Fred and his girlfriend Leslie made a delicious fondue dinner for us that first night using a hot plate of sorts and individual pans that we filled with cheese, cornichons, mushrooms and meat for the meat eaters. We also had really tasty Belgian beer that I had been looking forward to for a long time. That night, Andy and I went out with Fred to a town about 30 minutes from Fred’s house and partied with his friends until after 3 am on a very bust street filled with bars and clubs. As we were leaving, a big pack of policemen ran down the street and then when we were walking to the car, we saw at least four different police cars rush toward the craziness. I have no idea what was going on but there were for sure enough drunk people around to cause problems.
The next day, we took a road trip to Germany (about 30 minutes away) and visited the town of Aachen. We ate doughnuts in the rain and wandered around looking in the windows of all the shops. We also went to the cathedral where Charlemagne is buried in a gold coffin. The cathedral’s ceiling was covered by bits of tile mosaic and some of the pieces were real gold. It was an impressive place and I snuck a few photos. Because of the rain, we stayed inside on Sunday and only left the house to go to the bakery that smelled divine and I got my first hint of the famous Belgium chocolates while I drooled over the treats. We left with only fresh bread to make sandwiches for lunch. The baguettes in Belgium are definitely the best I have had thus far. As it rained outside, we stayed in and watched the movie Cars and played guitar hero, tennis and bowling on the Wii.

On our last day, we went out to a classy Italian restaurant and ate big bowls of delicious pasta. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a vegetarian option available but the waiter was more than happy to create a dish for me that turned out wonderful. The next day, Andy and I spent about 12 hours traveling including a 6-hour lay over in the Madrid airport but luckily Andy brought his computer so we watched movies and in between I jumped around the terminals and stretched out. It was actually more pleasant than I thought possible. We made it home by 8:30 Tuesday night and got back into our routine.

Foggy London Town: Passport Shenanigans

So we arrived in London on December 26th after a lovely but strange first Christmas away from home. And Andy forgot his money belt on the plane. He decided that it was bothering his neck and so he tucked it away in the seat back pocket and there it stayed. We discovered it was missing when we arrived from the train to the immigration. The security lady almost let us ride back to the plane on a security truck but after a call to her manager she changed her mind. So we stood in line and Andy made it into the country with his Spanish ID card and we rushed to the easyjet desk only to find out the worst news ever from the lady there. She told us that easyjet contracts with a lost and found company for everything left on the plane and our only option would be to call them, leave a message and wait for them to call us back if they found the item. She also told us there was no way we would be making our flight to Dublin so we trudged out of the airport and tried to use our spanish bank account to access money but the atm wouldn't recognize the card so I had to use my card from home and suck up the crappy exchange rate so we had some money. So we bought a coach ticket into London because the airport we arrived at was an hour and a half outside of central London. So we rode and rode through the traffic and arrived at Victoria Station disoriented and overwhelmed by the fact we were in a city we knew next to nothing about with no one we knew and no place to stay. But we wandered a bit and found a "hotel" that cost only 40 pounds a night and we booked it. It was seedy and dirty but it had a tv so we crashed on the bed and watched the Chronicles of Narnia. At 4 am, I woke up to what I truly believe were the sounds of prostitutes soliciting business in the hallway outside of our room and I listened to their drunken raucousness for hours. But the breakfast the next morning cheered my spirits especially because of the tasty tea and the stack of toast we received. So we set out for the day and walked around looking at Westminster, Big Ben, the London Eye and Buckingham Palace. We also found an internet cafe so we could book a new place to stay asap. We stayed one more night at the "hotel" and utilized some Nyquil to assist our sleeping process and thigns went smoother. Then we moved to a great youth hostel where we made some great friends even though we only stayed for two nights. We called the lost and found people several times over the days and finally yesterday we received an email from them that they located Andy's passport. The stress of a missing passport is difficult to convey but Andy also had 150 euros in his satchel and when we checked in with the embassy for an appointment to get a replacement passport, they didn't even have an appointment available until the day we were supposed to leave London. Rediculous. So we were incredibly relieved to find out it was safe. Although, getting is was a whole other battle. It was in an office beyond Stansted airport so we took the tube, a bus and a train to get there. We spent all our money on the transportation and Andy forgot to save 5 pounds to pay the fee to get it back so we had another crisis until we used our american card again. And then we had seven minutes to run back to the train platform and catch the train so we ran and ran with our lungs burning in the 1 degree weather, and just missed the train. The town we were in was tiny tiny tiny and everything was closed. The next train wasn't for another hour. So then we found ourselves in rural England stomping around on a train platform in the cold counting down the minutes until the train came back for us. And finally it did after several dance routines for me to get my blood flowing. So we rode back, checked in with the awesome five star hotel we are transfering to tomorrow, courtesy of my dad's holiday inn reward points, to make sure there wouldn't be any problems. And now we are sitting in the basement of our hostel using the internet and waiting to take the bus to go to our hotel. I feel very very lucky to have turned things around for the best and I am truly enjoying our time in London. It's a very comfortable and beautiful city. And New Years is going to be wonderful and I think we will camp out near the fireworks over the London Eye with some champagne. I am also hoping we can find some discount tickets to go see Wicked and I want to take a tour of the Tower of London. So lots to do and fun to be had.

Christmas in Palma

Today is the very first Christmas day I have ever spent away from home and it feels very strange. Andy and I bought a small fake Christmas tree and we bought several lovely presents for each other (boots, necklace and tea set for me; spain flag, barcelona jersey and cd for Andy) but being away from family for Christmas is a surreal feeling. Especially with the warm weather outside. But we are making the most of it while we can. The only challenge at this point is that both of us are feeling under the weather and we need to start packing for our adventures to Dublin and London tomorrow. Yikes!

But tonight we are going to make a huge dinner with our roommates that I am really looking forward to. Here is the menu:

Deviled Eggs
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna
Pork Roast
Glazed Carrots
Corn
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
And Banana Bread for dessert

We'll see if we can get it all together in a timely manner so dinner is hot all at once. Last night, Andy and I went to Jill's house for a delicious curry Christmas Eve dinner and her kids were so excited that they kept running around in circles around everything chanting "Christmas is tomorrow, Christmas is tomorrow!" It put me in a festive mood. Jill's parents also flew in from Manchester so we left her dad in charge of the kids and walked down to the Cathedral for midnight mass. The huge cathedral was decorated with lots of danglies from the ceiling and the effect was charming. We arrived at 10:30 and the service began at 11 with quite a bit of singing and frankincense. Yuck. I do not like the smell of that stuff. Unfortunately the service was completely in Catalan so I understood very little but the organ and the singing was captivating and we stayed until midnight but we weren't very far through the program so we ditched and walked back home under the Christmas lights. Funny side story though: On Calle Sindicat in the old town we had heard a pretty noisy party going on above one of the stores on the walk to the Cathedral and then when we were walking back home, an old woman near the loud apartment was out on her terrace with a sizeable stick banging onto the windows of the partyers. It was absolutely hilarious. She was very seriously shaking a stick at them and nobody was listening to her whatsoever. Perfect. Anyways, I need to go get the eggs ready and have a little snack before kitchen madness commences. Merry Christmas everyone. I hope it's a good one!

I may or may not have been struck by lightning

So here's the deal. The weather here in Palma today is outrageously bad and ugly. It has been pouring all day with various spurts of thunder, rain, hail and wind. So I bundled up to go to work and took the toasty warm bus to my stop where I walk an additional 15 minutes or so to get to my school. On rainy days it can be a bit of a bummer, especially because I walk on an overpass above the train tracks and the wind gets a little nasty that high up. Well, I made it to school with only the tops my shoes getting wet but the heat was off so it was pretty cold in our classroom. Even the kiddies wore their coats. Angel the English teacher was super busy so he left me alone with the 5th grade math students to administer a test. Not that big of a deal except that the first class I worked with was out of control and had no qualms about yelling the answers and whispering insults in spanish at each other. But I got it done and luckily the class is always held in the computer lab so I sent the devils to the computers when they finished and paced around to keep warm. The English classes later in the day were more enjoyable because they practiced their song to sing for the Christmas concert on Monday. And all of the music is from Momma Mia. Love it. So we learned "I have a dream" by ABBA. Fantastic.

Now to the good part. It was absolutely pouring down rain when I left the school and it was the end of the school day so I elbowed my way through several layers of concerned parents holding umbrellas outside waiting for their little ones to arrive. I booked it toward the bus while keeping an eye on the ever-increasing level of water on the road because of the possibility of being drenched by a car's spray. So I was running/power walking and at the top of the overpass a car honked at me and just then a big spark flew off my umbrella and my fingers were shocked as a huge clap of thunder banged overhead. I don't think I was struck by lightning because it really didn't hurt all that bad but I was so crazed by the weather and the circumstances that I slammed my umbrella closed and picked up my pace toward the bus while screaming at the top of my lungs, "My life is a joke!" I felt a bit better after some screaming and then it started hailing so I continued yelling while glaring at my lightning rod umbrella dangling uselessly in my hand while I got soaked through and through. So I may have been struck by lightning. But everything is fine now.

Another week gone by

Today I arrived at my school and the substitute I've been working with (more on that later) wasn't there so I milled around a bit feeling awkward and then decided to go back home. I was told the sub was having car problems and no one seemed to know if she would be coming back in anytime in the foreseeable future. Since I don't have keys to the English classroom or access to the lesson plans, I felt lost without guidance so I just left, feeling slightly guilty but also looking forward to the fabulous bed that awaited me back home. And I took a really great two hour nap!

So the sub. My main teacher, Lauren, is always on her game and pretty much teaches English single handedly to 300 kids. But she was chosen for a training session that lasts until Christmas so last week she mentioned that I would be working with a sub until the new year. Patricia the sub is a very nice woman but she is not an English teacher and she normally works with three year olds. So to say the least things were a bit of a challenge on Tuesday. I had the normal misunderstandings as she spoke Spanish and when I spoke English she didn't really understand either. We made it through the day though without any terrible incidents so I considered it a success.

To cheer myself up and get things moving into the Christmas spirit, I bought ingredients to make sugar cookies. They were very difficult to cook because our stupid oven has two settings of hot and super hot so I had to closely monitor the cookies and a couple batches burned but the remaining turned out quite pleasant. Andy and I also hitched a ride to Ikea on the number 14 bus where we bought some Christmas presents for the house such as a garlic press and oven mitts as well as some wrapping paper, ribbon and ornaments. We bought a little fake tree at the Chinese Bazaar across the street and thus, Christmas decorations have taken root in our lovely homestead. We also had a new roommate move in so we are now six and evenings are very cosy as we huddle together for warmth in our unheated apartment. Things are going well.

Remembering

Kevin, Eric, Andy Mardock (with his head turned), Barett, Me and Megan celebrating
Andy Mardock's birthday in the mountains

A Full Week

This week I . . .

Struggled to come to terms with the death of Barett, a friend from the University of Oregon who I met through Andy

Remembered Barett through photos taken of a few very fun weekends spent at the Oregon Coast/mountains and from Eugene

Had a breakthrough with three of my sixth graders who my teacher terms "slow" but really I think they just needed a chance and someone to believe in them

Had a four day weekend filled with late nights drinking, meeting friends and a particularly memorable trip to Valldemossa

Watched the office with my hilariously awesome roommates

Made curry lentil stew and ate it all

Received the best care package in the world filled with countless goodies and very useful items like a purse and an umbrella that made me realize just how lucky I am to have my family