Moving on up to Madrid

Here are a few highlights from my last week in Sevilla. Antonio, my Spanish teacher at CLIC, took us to a film museum with exhibits of Goya award winning films (Spain's version of the Oscars). I was pleasantly surprised to see Jeff Goldblum's picture, because he starred in the Spanish film El Sueno del Mono Loco. Here I am with Madelyn, one of my classmates.

I enjoyed living in Sevilla for a month, and highly recommend traveling there if you're in Spain.

 I also highly recommend Dulce Regina. The coffee and cookies are delicious (but not as good as Katie Walker's of course). And it's a good deal, only 2 euros! I probably went there every other day on my way to school and will miss it now that I'm in Madrid.

I arrived in Madrid on Sunday and stayed at Hotel Husa Princesa until yesterday. The hotel was lovely, but didn't include wifi which is why I'm a bit behind on blogging. (They were asking for 9 euros a day!) I explored the city a little bit, walking from my apartment near Atocha Station to the hotel in Princesa. Here is the Bank of Spain, which is about 25 minute walk from my apartment.

 This is Grand Via, one of the main streets in Madrid. My roommate Armando told me it was designed to look like the architecture of New York. I told him the buildings were too white, clean, and short for New York. 

After getting the keys to my apartment, my first priority was getting my bed set up. The room already had a mirror, shelves, a desk, chair, and much more closet space than my room in New York. Score!

 

 I took a picture using the app Photosynth, and this is what I ended up with.

 This is the view from my window to the right. It's been raining on and off all day, but I don't mind because it finally brought fall weather to Madrid!

And out my window to the left

Yesterday I went to Atocha Station to take the Cercanias train to Alcobendas where the school I will be teaching at is located. It's about a 45 minute commute. 

And there's a green house inside Atocha with cute little turtles.

I met the two other language assistants at my school, Denise from Australia and Justin from California. I met the language coordinator, the principal, and most of the teachers at CEIP Antonio Machado. Everyone was very kind, warm, and welcoming to us. Justin worked as a language assistant at this school last year, so I will be going to him with all my questions. There are about 400 students ages 3-12. I will be working Tuesday-Friday from 9:30 - 4:30 with a 30 minute break for breakfast at 11:30 and a 2 hour break for lunch from 1 - 3. I will be teaching 4th and 5th graders science and english. 

Yesterday, all the teachers went out to lunch together in Tres Cantos, where Tasio (the P.E. teacher) lives and his father owns a restaurant. We spent 3 hours eating, drinking, and speaking in Spanglish. The teachers are as eager to practice their English as I am to practice my Spanish. The principal asked if I could tutor her children after school once a week and that she would tell her friends to contact me if they're interested!

Finally, I took a food picture! We had salad with anchovies and salmon, olives, gazpacho, squid with mushrooms, melon, and ice cream. 

There's always so many more pictures I could post and stories to tell, but I'm trying to hone my editing skills. However, I will say that this week I missed New York a lot because my best friends (Seth and Dana!!) from Oklahoma are visiting. Send BK my love. XO

a child who never grows up

This weekend I went to Morocco with Discover Excursions. We took a bus from Sevilla to Tarifa, a town on the coast of the Straight of Gibraltar. Then traveled by ferry to Tangier (I managed not to get too sea sick), got back on the bus until we arrived at our hotel in Tetuan. 

We had dinner at the hotel which included soup and couscous with chicken. I was so tired from the day of traveling that I skipped dessert and went right to bed. Surprise, surprise.

Saturday morning we traveled to Chefchaouen which is about an hour away from Tetuan. Since I've traveled more in the past few months than ever before in my life, I've been researching famous writers or poets from the places I visit. Abdellatif Laabi is a Moroccan poet who was imprisoned for ten years and then exiled to France for his political beliefs and writings. Here is one of his poems...

I'm a child of this dreary century
a child who never grew up
Doubts that set my tongue on fire
burned my wings
I learned to walk
then I unlearned it
I grew weary of oases
and camels eager for ruins
My head turned to the East
I lie in the middle of the road
and wait for the caravan of the mad









We spent the day in Chefchaouen with a tour guide who told us about the rich and complex history of the people of Chefchaouen. We walked around the Medina, which is the oldest part of the town. All the buildings are blue and white for two reasons: first because the blue signifies Allah and white signifies peace, and secondly because these colors keep the buildings cool and mosquito free.

I found a bit of NYC/Milton Glaser's influence in Chefchaouen.

There were cats everywhere! And I mean everywhere.

We sampled some of his bread.

What amazed me about Chefchaouen is that such beauty comes from simply painting all the buildings a particular color.

We went shopping which was an exhausting endeavor. Everyone wants you to buy something and will barter with you until blue in the face.

My only purchase was a henna tattoo, and yes I bartered for it.

This is the view from my hotel room in Tetuan.

On Sunday we went to Asilah. Here I am with Julia and Laura.

We went to a market inside a cave. 

And then we rode camels. I was in the last group to ride the camels and had a moral dilemma because the camels, especially the first one, were not happy.

The remaining pictures are in the medina of Asilah. There were many murals, art galleries, and an amazing view of the beach!

When we left Asliah to return to Tangier for the ferry, we were warned that sometimes children will try to get on the bus to make it through customs and into Spain. Sure enough, there were kids riding outside on the back of the bus. Later we were told that two kids were hiding underneath the bus before we got on the ferry, and one more kid made it to Tarifa hiding under the bus but was found by the police and sent back to Morocco. 

Morocco is an interesting place because it is heavily influenced by Spanish and French culture. The people there speak Arabic, French, Spanish, and English! And you can watch television in any of those languages. 

Sweet is the dance of the houses round the mount

The Alameda de Hercules in Sevilla is the oldest public garden in Spain. It is known in Sevilla simply as Alameda. The restaurants and bars are always busy and the playground is crowded with children as families finish dinner around 9:30 or 10 in the evening. 

 Alameda is about a five minute walk from where my host family lives. Last week I walked over to Gualdaquiver River to watch the sunset. Here you can see the Puente del Alamillo which connects Macarena and La Cartuja. There is a cloistered monastery in La Cartuja and it is where Columbus lived when he planned his voyage west.

 Here are a few other pictures from my walk . . .

Now that I'm going on week three in Sevilla, I feel like I have a few routines that I enjoy. First thing is in the morning, after making a pot of coffee (because I'm the first one up), I sit by the window to do my makeup. The lighting is better than in the bathroom, and I need the cool breeze as I drink my coffee. That's right, they don't do cold brew or iced coffee here. I asked Maro, my host mom, and she made a noise signifying disgust at the thought of ice in her coffee.
I met with my intercambio (conversation partner) last Wednesday for coffee at La Cacharreria. We talked in Spanish for an hour and then in English. His English is much better than my Spanish, so he did most of the talking for the first hour. I'm finding that the easiest vocabulary words to remember are everyday objects that I use or need often or food I like. For example, perchas~hangers, bolso~purse, vino tinto~red wine, or palomitas~popcorn.
On Thursday nights I've been going out with a group called Discover Sevilla. They organize events for international students and offer a free drink and entry to a bar or discoteca. They also organize trips and I am going to Morocco this weekend! I'm getting ahead of myself though. This past weekend I went with a group of students from CLIC to Granada. Here is an excerpt of Federico Garcia Lorca's poem "Albazin" about the city of Granada:

With fantastic echoes, white houses spring up on the mountain…Opposite the golden towers of the Alhambra reveal a jagged oriental dream against the sky. The Darro cries its ancient lament, lapping the regions of Moorish legend. The sound of the city vibrates in the air. The Albaizín is heaped on its hill raising aloft its towers full of Mudéjar grace…it displays an     infinite external harmony. Sweet is the dance of the houses round the mount. Here and there, among the red and white tones of the district, the rough outlines and green darkness of prickly pears appear…Around the tall towers of the churches appear the campaniles of the monasteries their cloistered bells gleaming behind the amaranths, singing in the divine dawn of Granada, echoing the deep honeyed tone of the bell of the Torre de la Vela. In the clear and wondrous daylight of this magnificent and glorious city the Albaizín is delineated on a uniquely blue sky overflowing with rural grace and enchantment.

 Me and Stephanie walking through the neighborhood Albayzin, with the Alhambra in the background

 Gardens at the Alhambra

 Palacio de Generalife, garden of the architect 

 On top of the Torre de la Vela, overlooking Albayzin

My favorite textiles in the Palacios Nazaries where the kings of Granada lived

 The ceiling in every room is different and beautiful

The weather was amazing in Granada, and a brief respite from the heat in Sevilla. I enjoyed listening to music on the bus ride there. Time is always marked by the music I listen to. Whenever I hear Mum or Air, I think of  taking the TGV from Paris to Geneva when I was seventeen. Here's the music I've been listening to as of late, that will always remind me of Sevilla and Granada. 

                            Golden Suits                      

                 Repave by Volcano Choir