new job

The principal of my high school offered me a teaching position in their after-school program two days a week, two hours per day. I will provide test prep for students in the high school who plan on taking an international English exam in May, along with two other professors. I know nothing about the test and feel a little worthless in that respect (they have not given us a syllabus, lesson plans, or prep book), but I'm excited about the new paycheck and the opportunity to work with older, more advanced students.

My Spanish Thanksgiving

My friend Kathryn and I decided that although we are in Spain, we couldn't let a Thanksgiving Day pass without sharing a turkey dinner with friends. Since we work on Thursdays, we pushed our feast back to Saturday to allow more time for preparation. Even with Kathryn's tiny kitchen and even tinier oven, we managed to pull off a pretty delicious meal for my very first time cooking for Thanksgiving. And, we got to give the gift of a "first Thanksgiving" to several of our non-American friends.

Our bootleg way of keeping things warm when they came out of the oven...(aluminum foil + towels)

The turkey! It's a miracle we managed to find one.

 Garlic mushrooms, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy

 Sweet potato casserole

 Corn Souffle (everyone's favorite of the night...thanks for sending the ingredients and the recipe, Mom!)

Felix filled with excitement on his very first Thanksgiving.

And lastly...the apple pie!

The rest of the gang: 3 Americans, 2 Germans, 2 Irish, a Brit and a Swede

I missed all my family and friends back home but was very content and grateful this Thanksgiving, especially for my mom, for making Thanksgiving possible for me by sending a care package of American ingredients. :)

Thanksgiving at I.E.S. Los Álamos

     In celebration of Thanksgiving Day, the English teacher of my youngest group of students (1º de la E.S.O., or first year of middle school) held a pie contest using American pie recipes in English. (Actually, they called it a pie contest but in the end there was no judge and thus, no winner.) The students were divided into groups and made various pies, from chocolate to lemon to pumpkin to apple. 

     I tried a bite of several of the pies as their makers eagerly asked me if it tasted just like the pie is supposed to taste. I had to tell one confused group of eleven-year-olds that I had in fact, never heard of "butter pie" (no idea why they were assigned that recipe), but what I tasted was the closest thing to butter pie except for (maybe) pure butter. 

    The majority of the pies were not excellent, but very few were terrible, and a couple were surprisingly excellent. I don't blame the students - not only did they most likely have trouble understanding some of the recipe's instructions, but many were unable to find the right ingredients and had to substitute honey for corn syrup or chestnuts for pecans. The pies were sold during recreo (recess) and the proceeds will most likely go towards a party for the grade. The students were just adorable about the whole thing - so proud of their creations and so out-of-control excited to eat and sell pie.

 Yes, this (butter) pie says, "happy".

 This "pecan" pie (not quite sure what this group used as a pecan substitute...) was surprisingly delicious.

 If I were the judge, this apple pie would have won. Tasted pretty much just like an American apple pie!

 

This pumpkin pie wasn't bad...

Riki (in the green shirt) is one of my favorite students (I know I shouldn't have favorites but it's nearly impossible not to). He can be out of control but is mature enough that I can level with him. He makes me laugh.

 

camera shy

 These twins, Andrea y María, wear the exact same outit every single day. How on Earth do they expect me to be able to tell them apart?

 Me with some of my 3º (older) students. I guess it's cool to not smile.

Poor Alejandro was sooo excited about his butter pie. When I took a bite of it he told me, "it's made of almost all butter." Oh, wonderful.

 Oh heyyy Pablo.

Besides the pie sale, Thanksgiving was a fun day at the Institute. I taught my students about Thanksgiving, the way we celebrate the holiday (the three "F's": family, football, and food), and its history dating back to 1621. I found myself getting surprisingly patriotic about the whole thing. I never knew that Thanksgiving was made an official holiday during the Civil War by Abraham Lincoln, who hoped that the holiday would bring a moment of peace during such a tumultuous time in our nation's history (actually, I probably did know that in elementary school, but at this point it's as if I never did...). Gratitude is a powerful virtue and I'm glad that our country chooses to make a day (or rather, a couple of days) to devote to giving thanks. Even better that giving thanks comes in the form of eating a ton of food.

This Thanksgiving I'm grateful for Thanksgiving, because it's just sad to not have a holiday in between Halloween and Christmas.

With a few of my classes, I taught my students how to draw turkeys by tracing their hands, and had them write a couple of sentences about what they are grateful for this year. My favorite sentences? Those that revealed the students' gratitude for their English teachers. 

it ain't any better over here...

If it interests you, check out this NYTimes article about the current state of the Spanish economy....

As a country still stuck in a recession, with high rates of unemployment and an enormous deficit, Spain faces the risk of losing investor confidence and entering a severe fiscal crisis.

One expert recommended that the Spanish government "increase the workweek." Hey, Andalucía, there's a thought!

*     *    *

"Europe so far has survived the bailout of Greece. The financial rescue of Ireland also is manageable. Even if Portugal becomes the third country to succumb and seek aid, as many people widely predict, it is unlikely to push Europe to the financial brink.

But any bailout of Spain — with an economy twice the size of the other three combined — could severely stress the ability of Europe’s stronger countries to help the financially weaker ones, and spell deep trouble for the euro, Europe’s common currency. Even though Spain, like Ireland, has adopted an austerity plan to help it avoid the need for a bailout, it still could need aid if its banking system proves frailer than the government thinks it is, as was the case in Ireland."

HELLO, TEACHER!

When I walk down the halls of my school, I am greeted with shouts of "Hello, Elizabeth!" or, "Hello, Teacher!". I had one student yell, "Hello, Elizabeth! What's your name?" (obviously the only English sentence that came to his mind). Most of the girls are shier than the boys and just smile and then tap their friends to notify them that I am passing by. (I'm kind of a big deal).

Then there's David, the jumping bean, who, most days, greets me like this....

seville metro

This week, I used the metro in Sevilla for the first time since arriving here.
It is the most immaculate metro I have ever seen.

 

The main reason for its cleanliness is that the Seville metro was built only a year and a half ago. Plus, there is currently only one line, so it doesn't bring in as many passengers (while there are always people on the metro, I have never seen such vacant trains, even at rush hour!). Three more lines are in the planning phase, and will make the metro accessible throughout the main areas of the city once completed.

I plan on using the metro as needed from now on; there's a station right by my flat, but I have little need to go to the other destinations on the line.

feels like home

The biggest similarity between Angelenos and Sevillanos may be their inability to drive in the rain.

I missed class because on my way to school, I was stuck on my first bus, while a line of three or four cars going the opposite direction of my bus on a narrow street essentially trapped us and prevented the bus from moving. Consequently, I missed two of my next buses, which only run every thirty minutes. I ended up giving up and going home. Luckily, I didn't even need to explain to my teachers, who immediately interjected when I started to tell them the story and explained, "no problem. the rain makes traffic in Sevilla crazy."

a taste of andalucía

From the moment I woke up this morning and saw that it was raining, I knew I wanted to make lentil soup. I'd been wanting to make my first attempt at this dish for a little while, and today (with my shortened work day - or "day off" - due to missing the bus), gave me enough time to give it a whirl.

At the grocery store, I bought lentejas parinas, Spanish green lentils. While they can be used in any lentil soup recipe, I decided to go with a Spanish lentil soup recipe, for obvious reasons.

Lentils need to be soaked before beginning the cooking process. Although, online I read that Spanish lentils don't actually need to be soaked, but that Spanish women do it anyway. My three hour nap created the perfect three hour window for the lentils to soak in cold water before I rinsed them and began the cooking process...

ingredients:
lentejas parinas
olive oil
water
1 big onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 red pepper
meat stock cube
chorizo ibérico (sausage)
salt & pepper

After chopping the pepper and the sausage, I added them to a pot with the lentils and the meat stock cube and filled it with water (enough to cover the mixture). Spanish lentil soup is not as "soupy" as we normally imagine lentil soup.

In olive oil, I sauteed the onions and the garlic until both were nicely cooked. Then I poured the whole mixture (with the oil) into the pot with the lentils. Add salt & pepper to taste and let simmer for at least an hour, until lentils are fully cooked.

I was happy with my result: a hearty, meaty lentil soup (I was serving a boy as well, otherwise I might have gone the veg route. Plus, no Spanish dish is complete without it's share of Iberian pork, and I've had to resign myself to that fact).

 

(i know it kind of looks like poop, but doesn't all lentil soup?)

haters

I'm sick of defending certain American stereotypes to Europeans.

Specifically, I'm sick of defending the stereotype that Americans don't know geography and don't know about the rest of the world. I suppose the stereotype is generally true and that the majority of Americans are not super map savvy. However, I'd like to defend my country not with a defensive move but with an offensive one (a la Americana)...

Yesterday in class, I passed out a handout that I had made for my students to help them with their weather vocabulary (basic words like sunny, windy, rainy, stormy, summer, winter, spring, fall, hot, cold, etc.). On one side of the handout was a blank world map. on which I had circled and numbered certain regions (i.e. the Sahara desert, Andalucía, California, the Caribbean, Patagonia, etc.). In groups, the students were meant to form one sentence about each of the numbered areas.

Aside from the appalling fact that it took at least 20 minutes for the rowdy students to understand the directions (they tend to close their ears and shut down their brains as soon as they hear something spoken to them in English...), I was even more flabbergasted by their lack of geographical knowledge.

#1 was easy: Andalucía. The students were able to correctly stipulate, "It's sunny and hot in Andalucía."

But thereafter, their geographical knowledge plummeted. I explained to them that the point of the exercise was not to correctly name the regions or countries, but rather to practice weather vocabulary. That being said, I circled regions that I assumed they would recognize, such as, Australia.

That's right, I circled Australia. And some of my 13 year-old students didn't recognize the Australian continent on the world map. Other problem areas? England, the Caribbean, Scandinavia...the list goes on.

Forgive me for being harsh regarding my students' academic knowledge, it's just that over the course of the past few days I have found myself again and again responding to Europeans' negative assertions about Americans' lack of knowledge of this same topic. I explain that essentially every single person I know in the states has a basic knowledge of world geography ("essentially" leaves room for the very few of my friends who don't - you know who you are). I knew where Australia was at the age of 6. Please stop telling me that Americans are ignorant; every society has their share of ignorance.

Although, I must say, there is a reason that this stereotype exists of Americans, and it's this girl. I've had more than one European share this link with me. And to that, I have no defense.

the colors of rome

Despite the fact that the Italians wear all black, only black, all day, every day, I was floored by the unique color scheme of Rome. I find it very hard to describe colors, which is interesting because I have a strong and thoughtful attraction to them. So, I'll let you see for yourself the combinations of colors that captured my attention during my time in the eternal city.

Walking around on a rainy day + some views from the top of St. Peter's...

A day at the park...

 

I realize now that I need to stop, because before I know it I will have 100 photos in just one post about colors. But the list goes on...the deep green of the extra virgin olive oil, the rich red hue of the tomatoes that color every meal, the rainbow of gelato flavors...take me back please.

p.s. this is promised to be my last post about rome. you will start hearing more about my time in spain from now on.

rome through my eyes

The thing about Rome is that it's not just the hundreds of famously old monuments and statues that are just downright impressive. The "ordinary" buildings that house book stores, bodegas, and other commonplace modern Italian necessities are absolutely lovely.

Take a look at the pictures that capture a few of these humble structures.