Strikes in Madrid

¡Fuera la reforma laboral! Out with the labor reformation!
¡Huelga general ya! General strike already!

This is the strike that we accidentally ran into tonight. There are really bad unemployment problems here in Spain and apparently they had cuts that they have made recently. They were a bunch of left anti-capitalists here and people flying the Spanish republican flag (which is very old).

Here's a link to the Spanish news about the strike.  (Your browser may have the ability to translate it.)

Here's some pictures I wanted to share with you. It was a NON-VIOLENT protest, so don't worry!

Me teaching

One of the primary teachers took a sneak attack picture of me teaching Art the other day in 1ºC class. I was teaching "pop art" using the artist Andy Warhol. Here are some of the pictures from that day and me teaching in front of the kids. Look how good they all listen to me now. Maybe its because I know everyone's name now, and the second I hear a peep from one of them, I can directly call their name. I also use things like, "Good job Blanca, for sitting on you seat properly, unlike your friend Nacho, who is sitting like a wild chimp." I will also gives stickers at random to someone paying close attention and that makes the entire class attentive immediately! Ha! You can also see the lesson the day before, where I was teaching "What we wear in winter." I drew winter clothes on the board and then had them act out putting the clothes on as I would say the name. A good motor memory skill or whats known as Total Physical Response teaching (TPR).

Here's me teaching:

Notice how one kid, William, is reading a book. He has some form of Attention deficit, or Autism. I haven't really gotten the whole story. The teachers tell me to just let him, "do his own thing." It can be very distracting.

Notice how we have Alba sitting right up on the board. She is "castigada" or punished. This is what the homeroom teacher will do often and as we rotate classes we know which kids have been punished for the day.

Here's some more of the kids from the same classroom. I like how they have to wear orange. Makes them look like inmates from the county juvenile detention center.

Check out Nacho on the far right. Yeah, thats his name. He is usually the kid thats always sleeping in class. Only first grader I've seen just completed exhausted. Apparently, his parents let him stay up as late as he wants.

Edu, front and center here, always has something to tell me, in Spanish of course. But he is a good kid and goes nuts when I walk in the room. Looks like Nacho is using up all his energy for these pictures, because I guarantee shortly after he will be sleeping.

Hope you enjoyed! I'll try to keep posting things, even if its not much! Its starting to get warmer here. About mid 60's during the day and gets down to about 35 at night. Spring is approaching!

Miss everyone!

Carnival in Madrid

So today is Madrid's carnival. The kids did not have class today. Instead they dressed up just like you would on Halloween. Carnival was celebrated kind of like fat tuesday. Its a party up until Ash Wednesday. I dressed up as a police officer and took some pictures with my kids.

Here I am with my one of my favorite teachers, Cristina. I have about 8 classes a week with her. She teaches in 1st B and 2nd A, B, and C. This picture is with her 1st B class.

Right after, Alvaro, one of my favorite students in this class asked if he could have a picture with me since we were both dressed as police officers. He's a really smart and crazy kid. He gets really excited about things and spits a lot when he talks. Normally he wears an eye patch over one eye to correct a vision problem, but I guess today his Mother decided to let him go without it. Ismael and Hugo decided to join the picture as well.

These next two pictures are from 1st grade A. This is probably the easiest class I have to teach. They are very obedient and intelligent. They were definitely enjoying their day off! The teacher is missing because she just had her wisdom teeth removed and apparently her recovery isn't going too well. She's been out for a week so far!

Just thought I would share these photos real quick. Hope you enjoy! On to start the carnival party this weekend in Madrid!

Not much has changed... Wait a minute, yes it has!

Not much has changed in my routine...

However, I have moved into a new apartment! Yes, once again!

New Address:

C/Alonso del Barco 8, Piso 4ºA
28012 Madrid, España

Reason for this move: I was paying way too much for my apartment now, and hurting for money towards the end of the month. One weekend, I was talking to my friends Bill and Riccardo and we were complaining about our apartment situations for various reasons. Well little did we know that by the end of that class we would spend the afternoon looking for affordable apartments together! Its great. We hang out all the time anyway, so living together makes it a lot easier. We've also been getting our homework done easier because we can easily reference each other.

Here are some of out of this world dishes Bill and I have been cooking. Riccardo helps sometimes, but he admits to not caring to cook. Ha!

Here we have our gourmet spaghetti. This consists of garlic, onion, green and red peppers, tomato paste (they don't have spaghetti sauce like we do, so essentially you have to flavor your own sauce), and last but most importantly artichokes.

Here's our first dinner with some friends from our program in our new apartment. Left to Right (Alyssa from UVA, Me, Bill from Citadel, Riccardo from St. Marys, Leanne from who knows where, Didya from St. Marys, and Nathalia from UTC)

Here's a picture of our kitchen. Our fridge is small, but workable.

Didya in the kitchen!...

Our living room, we recently added carpet and an American flag on the wall behind the table. We are still awaiting our couch.

The front door opens to a patio, we have to cross the patio to get to our apartment.

Riccardo and I getting ready to serve the paella we made (Spanish dish consisting of rice and seafood)

Here's a closer look at the paella, our first attempt, but not last. It was good!

Riccardo "helping" in the kitchen. Guess that means pouring himself a glass of wine.

The hallway...

Stairwell. The elevator is really tiny.

This is looking from the stairwell across our patio to the front door. Bill was fiercely brushing his teeth. Ha!

My room

This is the Tortilla Español that I made myself. It consists of eggs, onion, garlic and potato. Its excellent with hot sauce (although the Spainards hate anything hot) luckily I brought some Texas Pete Hot Sauce back with me from the states.

Here's a pic of (left to right) Bill, Riccardo, my old British roommate Tom, and I out at the bar called La Independencia.