Germs, Jigs, and Jelly

I am posting two entries in one day, so make sure you also read the following post.

Why "Germs, Jigs, and Jelly"? Well, today the millions of germs circulating through the handle bars on the Metro, the hallways at school, and the piso here finally caught up with me. I knew it would happen. I'm always one of the last ones to get it, but right when I think I'm in the clear and I start bragging about how I never get sick, it hits me. The night owl side of me has kept me up too late this week and defenses were down. So after my marathon day yesterday of school, home for lunch, grocery store, cooking, teaching an English class, more cooking at Vanessa's, and Thanksgiving dinner; I got sick. I woke up after 10 hours of much needed sleep and immediately started popping the cough drops and Ibuprofen. Really it's just a cold. I'm going to take it easy and see if it passes this weekend. I'm sure the fact that we have no heat in the apartment doesn't help. I'm NOT thankful for that!

And the jigs... Today, as there was standing room only, I carefully selected least full Metro car, only to watch a man with a bass (no, not a bass guitar, a full-sized bass) walk on behind me. That wasn't all. The whole band followed him: the guitarist, trombonist, accordion player, saxophonist, and bongo drummer. That's right. I scooted over and they began a lively jazz number. Now, instrumentalists on the metro aren't uncommon, but a SIX person band with very large instruments in a standing room only car! That's nuts. I will admit, though, I enjoyed the music and the whole situation was highly entertaining.

Finally, the jelly. Did you know that "jelly" in Britain is "Jell-o"? So when I brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into the classroom and wrote what they were on the board, the students thought we were going to eat peanut butter and JELLO sandwiches. Why did I bring PB and J sandwiches? Because they don't eat PB here! None of the kids had ever had them before. Instead of PB, kids typically eat Nutella (chocolate hazelnut cream) on bread. However, I did find a jar of PB at Corte Inglés (see former entry) for 4 Euros. Most of the kids loved them...which makes me wonder why they haven't caught on here. Maybe chocolate hazelnut spread is hard to compete with.

El Día de Acción de Gracias (Thanksgiving)

First of all, happy Thanksgiving (weekend) to everyone! Holidays always make me miss home, but I was able to celebrate here with my "family". Last night a friend of mine invited me (and about 20 other people) over for a Thanksgiving dinner. It was incredible! (Thanks Vanessa, you rock!) We had quite a feast: turkey, potatoes and gravy, corn, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, asparagus, Spanish tortilla, and yes, Mom, hot pineapple salad (which was a huge hit, as always)! For dessert: apple, pumpkin, and pecan pie (turned out better this year...thanks for the sending me the secret ingredient, Michael), chocolate cake, ice cream, more cake...there was no shortage of food. We were a diverse bunch (Spain, Cuba, Romania, different states) and everyone had a great time. The only thing we didn't have was American football, but as far as I'm concerned, no loss!

So, even though it's a mouthful (no pun intended), I like the word for Thanksgiving in Spanish. Literally it translates "The Day of Action of Thanks". I agree that Thanksgiving Day should include the action of giving thanks...aside from the action of making and eating boatloads of food, aside from the action of spending time with family, aside from the action of making the next day's shopping list. As I explained this day to my seven year old student he asked who we give thanks to. I said that I give thanks to God, and he said that he and his family weren't believers (except one uncle). When he said that, I started to think about how strange it would be not to believe in God and only have ourselves to thank for the many blessings in our lives. I just can't imagine it. So, this Thanksgiving I'm especially thankful for my parents and grandparents who taught me about God. And I'm thankful to God for giving them to me! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and if you haven't, tell someone you are thankful for them.

Where I've Ambled Since October 16

Wow, I've done a LOT of ambling since October 16! Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been without a good friend of mine for a few weeks now. His name is Mac and he is still in the hospital. So, I'm taking advantage of the Internet here at school to update you all.

I moved into my piso. I am convinced the perfect piso doesn't exist. I love the location, the girls I live with are great, it's big, etc. BUT...um, yeah, I recently found out that "no the heat SHOULDN'T be broken, we just haven't used it in five years and can't get it running..." Well, all you rational people must be thinking "that's not a big deal, just call the landlord and get it fixed". Yeah, that's what I thought. Apparently the landlady doesn't like to fix things and my roommate doesn't like to fight with her too much for fear that she won't get her security deposit back. Ridiculous. I know. So, for now we wear warm clothes in the piso and I will keep hassling my roommate to call the dragon lady or give me her number.

School is alright. I am reading a book with each of the three levels I have (7th - 9th). I also picked up a book in Spanish from the library to read on my own. It's written for middle-schoolers, but is quite humorous. It's called "Manolito Gafotas", or Manolito Four-Eyes. Well, the other night I read a few pages of each book and it dawned on me "I am living in the mind of a twelve year old boy!" Yikes, that is scary...maybe it will help me understand why they are so stinkin' squirrely! My, they are squirrely. I am convinced that what happens between 12 and 14 years can only be described as a miracle. If you teach freshman and have never had the privilege of teaching middle school, count your blessings!

My "angelitos" from my private classes continue to be adorable. We carved a pumpkin together the week of Halloween. They had never done that before. The 7 and 8 year old boys LOVED it (and therefore their little brother did too). We ate the pumpkin seeds and everything...the four year old did a number on those! The 3 and 5 year old enjoyed it, but were a little young. The funniest thing was that they were scared of touching the "guts"! I finally had to bribe them with stickers to touch the insides. The little boy, Miguel, kept asking when we were going to learn English...yes, a language nerd already at the age of five. He told me I was his mother the other day and when I said I wasn't, he said that I was his ENGLISH mother. I told him I was AMERICAN, but he continues calling me his English mother and the truth is, I'm just fine with that. :)

We had a four day weekend a week and a half ago and I went to the city of León, about 4 hours north of here. It was great. I went with my Spanish friend Ana and her friend Alicia. We had a great time walking around, eating tapas, chatting (lots o' Spanish!), and traveling. One day we went to the town of Astorga and saw the palace by Gaudí and Las Médulas. (Click on these words for pics.) We got quite lost, but it was fun...as Ana said, we got to see "España profunda" (deep Spain)...and, yes, we did! Jeff and Chris, it reminded me of our backroads adventure that one day when you were here.

Last weekend was a three day weekend. (If you haven't caught on yet, Spain has lots of holidays.) I went to a food fair downtown, finally took Julie and Paco out for dinner (a great restaurant...thanks, Julie!), went to the women's tennis semifinals and saw Sharapova and Henin, went to my roommate's bday party, church, walked through El Capricho park (gorgeous), and cleaned! Phew! It was a busy and very fun weekend.

This is largüísimo (super long), so I'll stop now. Hopefully Mac will get better soon and I can keep you updated more properly! Ciao. (Yes, that's Italian, but they say it here too.)