At my grandparents I was able to catch up with them, share my pictures from France, and see my aunt, uncle and cousins. I also got to meet Adi's new temperamental dog, Tasha. She doesn’t like strangers (and let’s them know it with a very high pitched bark that is incessant), but once I sat down on the couch she seemed to take a liking to me. She came up to me several times wanting to play, and even stopped barking. However, as soon as I stood up, she began barking again and baring her teeth. She wouldn’t bite (I don’t think) and let me leave in peace.
I drove home, with a stop in Rolla to buy some Maid-Rites. It took me a bit to find the place, and it wasn’t where I thought it would be. I bought four, but I think my mom expected me to buy more. We did enjoy them though. It’s a really unique dish that is like a sloppy joe without the sloppy. No one knows how they’re made, and they’re delish.
While I was home, my brother came for a bit. We had a garage sale while he was there, and I don’t think he made it into Springfield as often as he would have liked. We were able to get rid of a ton of stuff in the garage sale, which was a relief. There is more room in the garage now, but the stuff is so spread out that it is difficult to move around. It’s so sad that there’s a 3 car garage, 3 cars, and no space for them in the gargae. It’ll help once I’m out on my own and drag even more stuff away, including one of the cars.
I also drove back up to Chicago 4 weeks later to get my visa to Spain. I drove it straight through the first day, was at the office first thing the next day to get my visa, and then drove with more breaks on my way home. I also walked around while I was in Chicago and saw the gate cloud and ate breakfast at the same café I ate at when I went to get my French visa and when I applied for the Spanish one.
On the drive home I took a detour off the highway several times to go along Route 66. Doing this, I found a covered bridge (which brought back memories of the terrible covered bridge in Strasbourg), the largest covered wagon in the world, and the largest rocking chair in the world. At some points it was difficult to follow the Route. It weaves on and off the highway, and one time when I was just outside of St. Louis, I decided to catch the route. I thought I followed the signs perfectly, but somehow I ended up 10 miles in the opposite direction from where I wanted to be.
My time at home ended too soon, and before I knew it I was off for the next grand adventure of living and working in Spain.
Doing a masters and teaching is more than it’s cracked up to be. That might be a generalization because of how relaxed working in France was last year. But here in Spain, well, despite the laid back attitude, I feel like I’m working my tail off.
When I first got here, I had already worked out a place to stay in Coslada. I met my new roommate, Amanda, and her Spanish contact, Isabel, at the airport. Isabel had come to pick us up, and before I knew it we were on our way to the house. The owners of the house, José and Mari, were there to meet us and make sure everything was fine. All of them were incredibly nice. Amanda and I flipped for the rooms, and began to get settled in.
We had orientation for school/teaching at the Universidad de Alcalá, which is Alcalá de Henares. Some of the information was useful, some of it not so much, but that’ll happen during any orientation. After the orientation days, Isabel took Amanda and I around in Madrid to see the major sights, including the palace, puerta del sol, plaza mayor, and the opera house. We then went to Plaza Mayor to get some of the best bocadillos de camarones in Madrid (since I don't like calamari, I got tortilla española instead).
My first day working was an absolute nightmare for me. I was told that as teachers we would be observing the normal teachers first, then little by little they would give us more independence and by the end of the year we would be teaching on our own (but always with supervision, and we were not to be in charge of controlling the classroom). This was not what happened the first day. I was handed a schedule and basically left alone with the two other English auxiliaries, Sarah and Bryant. The teachers were expecting us to come in and just start teaching. Let’s just say I was not a happy camper. I contacted my university, and the next day I was given a different schedule to use for two weeks of observation, and then I would be going on my own again. Still not the time I would have liked for trying to get in the groove of teaching, but it was better than nothing.
At the beginning, I was spending close to 4 hours a day in commuting alone. Between this, homework, teaching, etc, I was thinking about leaving the program. I have tremendous respect for teachers, and I’ve known that I don’t want to be one, so when I was given basically no guidance I really wondered why I came here. I still wonder that often, but now that I’ve decided to stick it out, I keep telling myself that it’s only another 5 months, right? I’m halfway there now. But in September, I just wasn’t sure. One of my deciding factors was finding a place to live nearer to my school. I started looking online, and called one of the listings. It turned out to be a real estate agent, and a woman named Manuela picked me up after school and took me to all of her listings within my price range. There was one apartment that I was willing to take because of the view alone, but it had already been rented out privately by the owner. So, Lola took me around to a couple of other places, and I decided on one of them.
Sara, one of the other English teachers, and her husband helped me move to my new apartment, for which I’m still very grateful. Living closer to where I work has been a definite improvement.
I also visited Toledo during one of my first weekends. I went with another girl from my program, Cheryl. We just wandered the city a bit. I still love that place. I went into the cathedral again, and it was still beautiful as ever, though there have been changes. No photos are allowed inside anymore, though.
For my birthday, I went to Parque Warner, the Spanish Six Flags. It was set up for Halloween, and I enjoyed going on all of the rides. It wasn't very busy, so I got through everything rather quickly. Then, I actually went back again on Halloween with some other friends, and that day it was much busier. Both times it was fun riding all of the roller coasters and getting into the Halloween spirit. Also, Halloween is celebrated a bit differently in Spain. They only do the gruesome things here; they don't do any of the cutesy costumes. For example, at my school, there were no princesses or astronauts. There were only vampires, zombies, and witches. There was the occasional pumpkin costume on the young kids, but they really enjoyed their scary costumes. The kids also don't do trick or treating, though they know what it is, in theory.
I suppose that November and December slid by quickly. In early December, I had a four day weekend and used that time to go visit my fellow stagiaires from last year in London. I stayed with Sarah and her mom. She met me at the airport, and we went back to her place from there. We thought about going out after I dropped off my stuff, but once we got to her house we decided to stay in and catch up instead.
The next morning we headed in to London and went to the Winter Wonderland that was set up at Hyde Park. It was based on a German Christmas Market, but instead of a ton of Christmas gifts, there were more booths dedicated to food, games, and rides. We wandered a bit, and then Mandira called saying she would meet us there. We walked back out of the market, and met her closer to the tube station. Hugs and greetings were exchanged, then we went back into the Winter Wonderland. There, we recalled a precious memory of going on a specific ride at the foire de Jouy that coincidentally was also one of the rides available at the park. The ride was simple - the riders sit in and then go in circles on a track over and over and over again to techno music. We bought our tickets, and rode around and around as fast as the ride could go. And squished Mandira in the process.
I also grabbed a slice of pizza that smelled heavenly, but in fact was mediocre, and we walked around to see all that was offered. Candy, games, excitement.
We were to have tea with some of Mandira’s other friends in London, and also meet there with Becca. The number of our group had been vague as many people had been invited, few had rsvp’d, and several had given indefinite answers. Our total became one more than the reservation had been made for, and the waiters and maitre d’ at the posh establishment which had been chosen for our get-together flat out refused to give us a larger table. That was understandable, since we were already at the largest table barring going into the party room, which was already reserved, but then they also thought we wanted to move the tables to have everyone in the same spot. That was not the case, but they kept arguing that the tables were permanent fixtures that could not be moved. We tried to ask if they could split up our group and have some people at one table, and others at another, and they still refused since our reservation wasn’t for that many people (and there were empty tables available that we could have easily gone to). After many of these discussions, and after we had too many people to sit at the table, they finally let us split our group across two tables, but there were strict instructions that we could not move back and forth across the tables, and it made us afraid to even turn around and talk to each other if we were so inclined. I just ordered tea since I had already had the pizza. Since the tea was essentially the cheapest thing on the menu, the waiter proceeded to ask me 2 times if I wanted anything else, and at the end of the orders, he read them back and when he got to the tea he asked yet again what I wanted in addition to the tea (by claiming that he had not written down the rest of my order). Once was all said and done, I got to sit at the table with Mandira, Becca, and Sarah, and the other people sat at the other table. They were all some of Mandira’s other friends who had been at HEC the year before us. We chatted, enjoyed the food (or tea in my case), and left the restaurant to go to our ‘big’ reunion at a bar where Becca had enjoyed going during college, Las Iguanas.
We were the first ones to arrive at the bar. I tried a Brazilian soft drink that Becca recommended. It was a bit tarter than 7up or Sprite, but still along the same lines. Slowly other people started to trickle in: Ayoola, Sean, and several people that we knew from HEC the previous year that were working in London. It was a rather loud environment for talking and catching up with everyone. We left around 10 and grabbed supper from Burger King before heading back in our own directions.
Both nights that I was at Sarah’s house we stayed up, had a cup of tea, and chitchatted rather late. It was really enjoyable, and I hadn’t realized how much I missed having a cup of tea with our group from last year.
The next morning, I left at the same time Sarah did on her way to work. The platform I waited at for my train to London actually had two trains: one went to Victoria Station and the other went to London Bridge. The sign kept changing the destination of the next train, so I decided to just take it since I wouldn’t mind seeing London Bridge if I got on that train. Well, that was the train I ended up taking, and when I got to the station I decided to exit and see what was around the area. I saw a church, and I walked across London Bridge which had a wonderful view onto the Tower Bridge. I meandered a bit, taking my time, and Mandira let me know she was heading into town. We decided to meet at the metro nearest Harrod’s, and once I got there I saw that she wasn’t as close to getting there as I thought she would be, and there was a problem in the tube delaying her. So I walked around the area, found Harrod’s, and scoped out a few places if we wanted to grab lunch after Harrod’s.
Once it was around the time Mandira said she would get there, I went to go stand by the metro. Someone had put up handmade posters and flyers all over the place pointing the direction to Harrod’s, but I was still asked for directions 4 times. It made me feel like a true local (or at least a tourist who knows the area) since I was able to give them accurate directions. Well, somewhere in there, Mandira slipped past me and walked to Harrod’s. When I got her text, I went to go meet her by the huge ruby red slippers. Let me explain that – Harrod’s theme at the time was The Wizard of Oz. So, they made it look like the store had landed on the Wicked Witch of the East. Harrod’s was impressive. My mom had told me to buy something so I could get a bag. However, it turned out that the entire bottom level was a huge gift store, and that was where a person could buy a Harrod’s bag – you couldn’t get one just by buying something. But I still did buy several things. Some breakfast tea, some shortbread cookies, some cherry & chocolate cookies for my mom, and a vanilla and toffee cupcake that was yummy!
The majority of the ground level was set up like a grocery store. There was all sorts of food to buy, and then along the walls there were little restaurants set up. So, if you were in the meat section, there was a rotisserie where you could go to the bar and order some chicken, or there was an oyster bar by the seafood. It was really something. Then, on the other levels, there were furniture, clothing, Christmas decorations, and probably anything one could imagine. And of course the gift shop in the basement was where they sold all sorts of Harrod’s paraphernalia. I ended up buying a black bag with all of the major attractions in London outlined in gold on it.
After Harrod’s, Mandira and I checked out the places I had seen on my walk. We almost ate at one, but there were no open spots, and we didn’t really want to wait. So, we headed to Covent Garden and ate at a pub near there. I had a great baked potato with Cheddar cheese. They just don’t make food that good in Spain. Then, we headed over to Covernt Garden, and I must say that I was under the misconception that it was an actual garden. Nope, it was more of a shopping area. There were stores in the building, and then in the huge open spaces were private vendors selling items ranging from dishes to antiques to books to jewelry. I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Mandira remembered a cupcake store that she had been to the last time she was there, and when we saw it our eyes lit up. Despite having had a cupcake 4 hours earlier, I still bought a mini red velvet cupcake. I must say that this one was better than the one I had at Harrod’s. Covent Garden was a cute little area, and I’d like to go back someday.
After we were finished, it was time to head back to Madrid. Mandira accompanied me to the train station, and helped me to buy a chunk of cheddar cheese to bring back with me. Up to that point, I had not found any non-plastic textured cheddar in Madrid, and I had been craving it. So, I bought the cheese (and note that the next week, I finally found it at a grocery store near me, but it cost twice as much as what I paid in London), and grabbed my train. At the airport, I forgot I had a water bottle from the morning in my bag, and that got confiscated at security, but the security officer going through my bag laughed when she saw the cheddar. I wondered if it looked malicious on the scanner, especially accompanied with the water.
Once back in Madrid, I tried to enjoy the Christmas atmosphere in the city. I got churros at the churreria that was set up in Valdemoro, and I walked around a couple of times around my town and Madrid just to enjoy the Christmas decorations.
And just like that, it was Christmas break. I was home with family again, and there was snow, too! My brother arrived before I did, and we were all able to celebrate Christmas together, but he had to leave two days after I got back. I was exhausted, but I tried to play videogames and hang out with him while I could.
The majority of my Christmas break was spent relaxing, running errands, and eating mom’s yummy food.
Then, the last few days I was home my mom had another surgery due to another growth. It turned out to just be a bizarre reaction to the radiation, which was good since they were able to remove it without problems. The morning of the surgery, there was a glorious sunrise that reassured all of us. As we were driving to Springfield, the sun was shooting a beam of light straight up in the sky that went through the different reds, oranges, pinks and purples that accompanied the coming of the new day.
The surgery went fine, and by 3:30 we were on the road again. I tried to help out all I could over the next days before I had to leave again, but it came too soon. I wanted to spend more time with my family, but time flies and I was back flying across the Atlantic looking down on the Iberian Pensinsula once again. It was time to go back to Spain and hopefully survive teaching the kids and finish this degree.
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