Doing Stuff that is Fun

It is Thursday night, which means my work week is over. I am pretty tired, but oh so content. I really feel like I am hitting my stride here in my making a home away from home happiness project. I mentioned before (I think) that I felt like I had been here long enough for the newness of my life here to wear off, but it still didn't have a comfortable meaningful layer to it.
Well, I have been a busy bee over here in La Linea. I joined the rugby team, which was an excellent decision, socially and recreationally. I've been to three practices so far, and I am still getting to know the rest of the team, but they are a pretty jolly group. The vocabulary was a bit of a hurdle, because the words I had looked up were the South American terms for the positions. Oops.

A mini rugby vocabulary lesson:

-placar: tackle
-ensayo: try
-forwards: delanteros/gordas (in an affectionate way)
-backs: tres cuartos
-depressiones: push-ups
-mele-scrum
-Ruck-ruck (pronouned 'rak')
-I'm just realizing right now I mixed up the order of English/Spanish on all of those...what does that tell you about my thinking patterns right now?

A teacher at Hilaire's institute, Raquel, invited me to play padel with her on Wednesdays, which fills the hole in my heart forming from separation from racket sports. Padel is wonderful, the child of tennis and raquetball and pickleball. Look it up, it is as fun as it looks.

This weekend I am going to watch the men's game in Algeciras with the ladies team...just the group of people I was looking for and didn't have two weeks ago. Talk about things taking a turn for the better! I am just so happy and grateful to be in a position linguistically and self confidence wise that allows me to pick and choose activities that I love to do in a second language. Really just pleased as a peach. And tiiiirreeddd, between school, private lessons, padel, rugby, running, weight training for injury prevention, social time with other teachers and other auxiliares...leaves Jack tired.

In other news, I went to a town called Castellar last weekend with my friend Rocio and her friends from Huelva that came to visit her. It is about 20 minutes outside of La Linea, and it is an old castle on the top of a hill that people still live inside. Very cool.

After we went to a 'venta', a countryside restaurant with local food. We had some wild boar and venison...nom.

Dead Ends and New Challenges

This weekend I had big half baked plans. Friday night we went out to The Cuban, a restaurant in Gibraltar that has very good food, fun decor, overpriced weak drinks and is location on a dock over the water. I went with a group of 13, the 8 auxiliares in La Linea plus Erin from Los Barrios, plus 4 American girls who were placed in/around Malaga that Elle and Millie met in their pre-program thing in Sevilla. We were a very jolly group. On our way back we staggered out a bit because half of the group stopped at the gas station before the border/airstrip to pick up cigarettes/gum/alcohol depending on the person. A fifth of vodka there is 3.75, whaaaaattttt, but they don't sell after 9pm, we found out, leaving some in our party SOL. I got the gum I came in for and we headed back. Once we passed security we found the rest of the group... and my crying roommate. She had jumped up on one of the plastic road barriers expecting it to be weighted, but it was empty, so it shot out from under her and she landed back on her wrist and fractured it. That took the wind out of our sails pretty quickly. Two people went with her to the sala de emergencias and the rest of us went to Molly Bloom's, the Irish bar in town.

I lasted a few more hours before I headed home. By that time Hilaire was home and in a cast up past her elbow. Talk about an awful end to her evening.

Saturday was my half baked plan with a teacher from my school to go to Castellar, a medieval castle the people live in. Principally hippies, as I have heard. But that teacher, Noelia, went back to her home city of Cadiz (Capital) to see her family, so that was a no go. I am discovering, after 24 years of trial and error, that in order for something to happen, one must plan and communicate. There is a free nugget of wisdom from me to you. We might go some time later this week...pending on my ability to plan ahead. In the end of it all, I slept instead and then went on a run. Now I have talked about my first dead end, the trip to Castellar, so it is high time to mention one of my new challenges.

Last year on Westerns rugby team we had a French exchange student, Maeva, who I did a half marathon with in January. She is back in France this year and asked me about a month ago if I were interested in doing a marathon with her and I immediately said 'no!'. Too much running, I thought. Nahh. But I kept thinking about it. I have plenty of free time here, and if I want to do a marathon at some point in my life, why not do it europe? So then I started considering it, and I had I started thinking 'I don't know if I can do it..'. And that annoyed me. There is no reason I shouldn't be able to do it! So to prove it to myself, I got back to Maeva. I'm in. April 28th (barring any sort of injury, knock wood) I will be running the Rock and Roll marathon in Madrid. Say whaaaaaat. I have been working up my miles slowly, I am up to 8.75 now. Only 17.5 miles to go...

My plan for Sunday, today, was to go to Malaga for the day to watch the women's rugby team from the University of Malaga play the University of Granada at noon, followed directly by the men's team. I was really excited, a day of rugby spectating, a new city, maybe a few beers, recipe for a delightful day right? Unfortunately I couldn't find a buddy. I generally don't like to not do things because no one else will do it with me, but traveling for 3 hours to watch a sports game in a foreign country is one of those things. And there was an 80% chance of rain today. I pulled the plug on the event, which was disappointing. They have another home game in a month, so I think I will go for a weekend trip.

But speaking of rugby, I am going to go this week to play with the newly formed women's club team in Algeciras. I emailed the Malaga team who emailed me the phone number of a player in San Roque who I called who told me she'd pass my info on to a guy in La Linea who plays in Algeciras who could give me a ride, and who texted me this morning. What a string of communication. In another language! I am a champion! And also pretty excited; I miss team sports and people who work out and are competitive. This past year has been the first since I was a toddler that I wasn't on any kind of sports team. Plus I will meet more Spanish people in their 20's. Woohoo! That is new challenge number two. That is a lot of new people to meet in Spanish, and also nerve racking is the language itself...how do you say tackle in Spanish? or spandex? Or ruck? Scrum? not to mention all of the positions on the field... They say do something everyday that scares you right? Okayyyyy

So today I decided to hike up Gibraltar for something to do, so after puttering about the house for a few hours drinking coffee and having a lazy sunday, I get ready and head out the door. Within 2 minutes of getting out the door it starts to drizzle, which two minutes later has turned into heavy rain. I stood under the eave of the building by the border and studied the clouds and things did not look promising. After 10 minutes I gave up and headed home, taking a few pictures of the center of La Linea as I went. I got home and a half hour later it stopped raining...it looked like it would rain again in a moment, but here I am an hour later and it still hasn't rained. The weather is teasing me. Ha. Ha. Very amused.

The good news is that it inspired me to write in my blog again. I will let you know how things develop this week! And Happy early Thanksgiving!

The photos below are from today in the rain; the first from the border where I waited in vain for the rain to stop, the others from the pedestrian bridge over Avenida del Ejercito. You can see the park across the street from my apartment, and the picture with the car going around the roundabout is my street, I live just behind the buildings on the left!

The central plaza, 'Plaza de la Constitucion'

Things that are different in Spain

I am reading a book my dad sent me, "A Home called Your Own" by Steve Hanna, and he has so many little observations about Spain that remind me of my experience with my host family in Argentina and my first time out of the country. This reminds me in turn of all of the small things I haven't thought to write about but which would be interesting to read about from a computer desk in North American. So here is a list of "Things that are different in Spain", big and small.

1. There is no central heating here. Not in any house I have been in. In Andalucia or Madrid. Most places don't seem to use heat except at night, during the winter, keeping the doors closed to each room.

2. Water heating is done by bombona, a propane tank. It remains off unless you need to take a shower, in which case you hold down the spark thing and twist the knob and slowly transition it to the 'on' position, a technique that takes practice.

3. Spanish apartments seem to all be built around the same pattern of a door that opens into a hall that has rooms off of it. So in our apartment there is one long hall, the kitchen is a room with a door, the living room is a room with a door, etc.

4. Apartments almost always come furnished, with everything from tables and sofas to towels and cups and cleaning supplies. There is generally one of two decor styles: a) Decorated 25 years ago by grandma and has never been updated. b) Decorated recently, and as cheaply as possible, with kitschy stuff from the US equivalent of dollar store decorations.

5. Everyone dries their clothes on the clothes line.

6. No carpets anywhere. Tile floors fo dayz.

7. If you go out in the rain without an umbrella, the whole world is concerned with your health. If you get wet, you will get sick. Without at doubt.

8. 50% of people say you can drink the tap water here, the other 50 say no. I drink tap water 50% of the time. Seems logical to me!

9. Teachers scrub it up. T shirts and shorts and sneakers, etc.

10. Teachers change classrooms, not the students.

11. Many classrooms just have blackboards, and as the teachers change rooms, they don't decorate them. So most classroom walls are blank.

12. It thunders here so much that even though there was an enormous thunder and lightning storm going on outside a class full of bored 13 year olds, not a single one looked outside when there were huge claps of thunder. I, on the other hand, was extremely distracted.

13. Breakfast is a 11:30am, lunch is at 3-5pm, and dinner is from 9-12. No joke. I've had dinner here at 1am. Followed by coffee.

14. There are two types of coffee here. Cafe con leche, or cafe solo. Coffee with milk or espresso. Period.

15. The classic breakfast here (again, eaten a bit before noon) is cafe with a tostada, which is a 6 inch piece of white baguette toasted with tomato paste and olive oil.

16. If you order drinks you get olives, at most places. I have learned to like olives.

17. Gyms close during siesta and over the weekend. Annoying.

18. People call and hang up before you pick up to confirm something, to avoid being charged for the call.

19. Roasted chestnuts are on about every 5th street corner.

20. You always kiss people on both cheeks when you greet them.

21. Teachers take and pass a test when they finish school. According to how they did on that test, they are put on a list of available teachers, with the best grades at the top. You get placed in your region when your turn comes up, so teachers have little control over the cities they live in.

22. There are a lot of strikes here.

23. That is all I can think of for now, next update: a day in the life. I bet you're on the edge of your seat!! I don't blame you!

Internet access and time spent writing negatively correlated

Turns out when I have unlimited internet access the amount of time I spend writing and reflecting goes down...isn't that surprising? When I have all of the tv/movies/youtube videos on the internet at my fingertips it is hard to say no...

Last week was Halloween, a slightly anticlimactic holiday, as only small children dress up. But I did go to see a very good pianist for free (we all know how much I love cheap and free things!) at the Palacio de los congresos. My science teacher friend tipped me off, and I am very glad I went. When Kara and I heard the World Youth Orchestra in Riva del Garda it made me remember how much I love and appreciate classical music, especially when performed live, especially when it is free. Afterwords I went and had a beer with the couple I give private lessons to, and went home, for a very tame halloween.

The next day I went to Madrid! A 5.5 hr train ride north, (or a 9 hr bus ride, for 40 euro cheaper-my selection for the ride home) I was met at the train station by Raquel, who took me back to her place for dinner. What a trip to see her again! The last time I saw her was in 2009, between Peru and Italy. On this same long weekend we went to Morocco together and had quite the adventure-Raquel has an amazing ability to meet and befriend the most unlikely and most friendly people.

To sum up Madrid, I walked around the whole city seeing all of the beautiful sights and beautiful people. La Linea suffers from the small town syndrome where it loses a huge percentage of their 20 somethings, as they have gone to larger cities, leaving teens and families and grandparents. So it was nice to see people my age everywhere, not to mention gay people! A sight for sore eyes. Imagine living in downtown Edmonds and visiting Capitol Hill... For all that though, I have to say it was nice having the 'home' feeling when I got back to La Linea. I know the streets, I know the restaurants and the bars and I see people I know walking around town.

I met a number of guys from Senegal, met a Senegalese holy man, had Senegalese coffee (very sweet, very herbal tasting, good!) paid twice as much for everything as I do in La Linea, I went to a scream-o concert,I chatted with a lot of people from Sweden (my other friend in the city, Charlotte, is from Sweden), bought a scarf and a new leather purse (my ugly multicolored one finally broke- I took it hiking the other week, and I jumped off a boulder and the shoulder strap ripped through the bad. Time for a new one!) and an umbrella. So many people here were very concerned with my lack of umbrella state. Here getting wet from the rain = you will get sick obviously. People are starting to get colds now, and it is because of the rain. Period. The good news about the rain is that it controls the jellyfish population, which was a huge issue here this summer, as it only rained a few times last winter. People couldn't swim here because the water was thick with the 'medusas' (jellyfish) (I love that they are called Medusas- Little Mermaid much?) They apparently had boats with nets in Barcelona, trying to clear the water so tourists wouldn't be scared away. But I digress, back to Madrid:

I took the night bus back, getting in at 530 in the morning. I slept for 2 hours and went to school, the bank to cash my check (I got a check!) and pay rent, the grocery store because I had 0 food left. I then had two private lessons. One of which is with a 14 month old, and he is finally comfortable enough with me to stay in the playroom without his mom. He loves me; when he sees me he gets a huge grin and squeaks 'ordan!' I went on a walk with a few teachers from my school with our umbrellas, hoping they wouldn't break as the winds popped them inside out and back again with regularity.

Then I slept like a rock.

Most recently, I have to say that I am so so content with the results of the elections. It felt strange to sleep through the final sprint on voting day, and waking up today was like waking up on Christmas-a huge feeling of expectation, forcing myself to be patient as my computer loaded and I typed in 'US election result' and then the project of containing my glee at seeing the answer. Obama won by so much! So many states swung in the right (left...) direction! And just as important to me, gay marriage passed in Washington! It did surprise me how close it was, I guess I get used to living in King County, or I guess it really is surprising that so many people would want to strip me of this right, seeing as they it won't affect their lives. I like the sassy quote I've seen floating around - "if you don't support same sex marriage, don't get married to someone of the same sex..." Why is the majority voting on the rights of a minority? I mean, granted, they voted well, but I just don't like it.

Obama! I have health care! I can get married! Recreational marijuana!
cue the Proud to be an American song please....

Hiking and Internet at home!

Two exciting things to report,

1. We have internet in casa!! I am sitting at my dining room table as I write this

This week is only three days long because of the celebration of All Saints day on the 1st and 2nd of November. My roommate Hilaire and I are going to Madrid, visiting friends of mine that I worked with in Peru.

2. This weekend I went hiking with my couch surfing friends, Gina, Marjo and Jackie. We went to El Pincacho, outside of Alcala de los Gazules about 45 minutes NW of La Linea. There were cork trees and purple heather everywhere. As ever it was refreshing to get out of the city!

There is apparently a ratio based on the tree's circumference and height, and they are a surprisingly dark shade of red underneath the cork. According to the natural sciences teacher Jose, that park has one of the largest cork tree forests in the world. Who knew?

I am about to skype with mom!!

Words words words, and too much thinking eating and drinking

It is hard to step outside your own schema to see things from a different culture’s perspective. I have undeniably American roots, and when I say American I don’t use it as they do here in Spain. Here, when people ask where I am from I say ‘estadounidense’, literally that I am from the United States. In my first ventures outside the country (aside from BC) I went to Latin America, where I opted for ‘Americana’, because it was easier to say. But I was routinely corrected; I was not allowed to claim all of North and South America as synonymous with the US. This objection to me is totally understandable from the point of view of the countries constantly in the shadow of the United States. But here in Spain they call me Americana, and I always then specify that I am from the United States.
Why?
Maybe out of respect for the other American countries, to acknowledging their existence by recognizing the separate pieces that make up our continents.
Maybe because of an exaggerated sense of patriotism and a desire for there to be no confusion or ambiguity about my possible country of origin in the Americas.
Maybe I am happy the word ‘estadounidense’ no longer presents itself as a linguistic challenge for me, thus would like to roll it out on all possible occasions.
Maybe I am ready to stand up to anti US sentiment in a way I wasn’t before, due to my age, inexperience and possibly the fact that the Bush administration was in office.
(I will admit when I was in Argentina I was so tired of being told I was a fascist because I was from the US (mostly by cab drivers, to be fair) that I started claiming that I was Canadian)
Maybe the principle of it annoys me-if I had a friend in the US in from Europe and always described them as being ‘European’ as opposed to their country, I would find that to be inadequate. They should too.

That being said, I am American, as in a person that has grown up in the Americas-where at very least we are united by a history of colonization, inhumane treatment of native populations and revolution in the formation of our nations and national psyche. The other day in class my teacher asked me to talk about the 4th of July and how we celebrated it, and then without thinking I asked if their independence day was coming up. But of course, Spain doesn’t have an independence day, because they are the country most of the Americas were becoming independent from. They were celebrating the day that Columbus set sail to conquer new lands-reminding me in an unexpected way of which side of the Atlantic I am on right now.

Here and now Spain is one of the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) that are ‘causing problems’ for the rest of Europe. With such an international crowd in the area because of Gibraltar I have heard a number of times something along the lines of ‘this is Spain, they don’t do anything properly/promptly/efficiently/logically/(insert positive adverb here)’. Spain is the underdog. I can’t help but think back on all of the history lessons I took for my minor in ‘Studies of La Raza Latina’- elaborate caste systems in Latin America with a specific name for every possible mixture of Spanish, African and Native blood. They allowed different possibilities in life according to that system, which included reserving the highest positions of power to those actually born in Spain, giving them privilege even over those born of Spanish parents on Latin America soil. Such was the division that women would sail back to Spain to have their babies, and they had to make up a line in the Atlantic because so many babies were being born on the ship ride east. Born past that imaginary line they could be counted as full blooded Spanish and accorded all of the rights associated with this highest of high births. But if mom couldn’t keep her shit together and had the baby off the coast of Florida, well than no luck, your potential in life was just shaved several inches shorter. (Although not nearly as short as that of a mestizo (Spanish/native blend) or god forbid an African person.)

It just feels like a math equation that doesn’t add up right. Or that my perception of Spain is based on a historical perspective without giving adequate weight to its present reality- which is a 25% unemployment rate and an inability to adjust their currency due to their membership in the EU. The rise and fall of nations-where will the US be in 400 years?

On a more day to day note, last night I invited my couch surfing hosts over for dinner which turned into a 11 person dinner party at our place and man oh man did we eat well. My contributions were butternut squash gnocchi sautéed in honey garlic and rosemary, and Berenjena rebozado, or fried eggplant, drizzled with honey and reduced balsamic vinegar. Nom. There was so much food, and so much wine, and at 1 we went out for dancing until 5. We successfully threw an excellent party.

Ronda and Tarifa

This weekend I flirted with the idea of heading to Sevilla to explore a bit there, but in the end of it all I decided to stay in La Linea to explore from here. Friday however, was a day reserved for working off a tremendous hangover from the night before. Thankfully I am not a real teacher so I don’t work on Friday, thus I wasn’t one of the many teachers I went out with on Thursday night that stumbled into work Friday morning quite the worse for wear. The culture at schools here surrounding teachers is quite a bit more relaxed than in the US. For example it is acceptable for teachers to come to school wearing jeans, sneakers, t-shirts, t-shirts with political messages on them, unshaven, etc. All my worry about shaping up to looking very professional was not really necessary. Although I will say that looking nice gives more confidence going into a new job. On Saturday, Hilaire (my roommate from NY), Gonzalo, Rocio (both math teachers at my school) and I piled into Rocio’s car and headed to Ronda, an hour and a halfish drive North from La Linea into the mountains. The gorgeous views as we wound upward were accompanied by a very, very, very winding road that left us all feeling pretty carsick. There was enough altitude gain that our ears were popping and the air became noticeable crisper, colder and cleaner. (In La Linea there is an oil refinery that brings down air quality a bit). There were enormous rock formations that looked like the backs of armadillos emerging from the mountains, and the rock of Gibraltar came in and out of view as we twisted around and up. Ronda is one of the most beautiful cities in Spain that I have seen so far. It was built on either side of a huge old bridge that spans a canyon carved out by a river. When we were there the river was pretty pathetic looking, but I would have liked to see it during the floods that happened because of the downpour that happened as I arrived in Spain. It has the small winding streets typical of cities that were built/occupied by the Arabs, who were in charge of the Iberian Peninsula for about 700 years until the Catholic King and Queen Ferdinand and Isabel got married to join the two large kingdoms of Castilla and Leon. With their combined powers the ‘Reyes Catolicos’ led the Reconquista and kicked them and all of the Jewish people out in the 1400s. Andalucia was the last place the Arabs held onto). There were beautiful old buildings and arches galore, and best of all great walkways along the cliffs, which offered stunning views. About 15 minutes outside of Ronda was the small town of Cetenil, which we also visited. It is built around the Caves of Sun and Shadow, which made me feel like I was in the Lord of the Rings or something equally epic.



Sunday we went to Tarifa, a much closer destination with fewer but equally potent twists in the road. Carsickness is a lovely feeling. For those of you who are curious, no I did not puke, but I felt bad enough that I am going to go to the pharmacy and get some anti-nausea pills for next time. Tarifa is famous for its Kite Surfing and great beaches-the sad was white and oh so fun to play in. We didn’t swim because it was not really beach weather; windy and cloudy, and it had rained a bit earlier in the day. We did meet up with the auxiliar de conversacion posted there, Bree, who we met at our orientation. Bree looks/smiles/moves exactly like my friend Caitlin Ochs, enough so that I inquired about any possible relation to Caitlin, but no dice. But I wish I could put them in the same room, and maybe the similarities wouldn’t hold up to close scrutiny, but here there is no one to contradict me so I say they are twins separated at birth, case closed. Back to Tarifa-a mix of international Roxy/Billabong wearing kitesurfers sipping Cañas at the Chiringuitos (sp?) (cafés/bars/restaurants that are on the beaches themselves) in flip flops with anklets, and hippies wearing the typical hippy clothing that you can find anywhere in the world, like at the Bellingham Farmers Market, for example. Hippy shops full of hippy clothes and woven necklaces, necklaces with a polished rock on a leather cord, braided bracelets and feather earrings abound. It is a surfer town set in an Arab medina; the entire center of the city is pedestrian only because the ‘streets’ are not wide enough for more than 2 or 3 people to walk side by side. It was great, and so drastically different from La Linea in terms of atmosphere. This place could have been in Southern California, whereas La Linea is absolutely a Spanish city. Overall impression: I will have to go back there again on a nice day, if not for kite surfing than for the great beaches.