Hope you guys are having a nice week.  We are slowly getting back into the swing of things after the holidays.  It’s nice having Three-King’s Day, because often you’re not ready for the holidays to end after Christmas.  But by January 7 you’re pretty sick of ‘em and ready to move on. 

I started a new schedule at work this week working afternoon/evenings from 2-10.  I don’t mind it but it’s awfully late when I leave.  I talked to Angela, the owner, and she agreed that working every other Saturday in addition to Monday through Friday was a real rip-off.  So, I will still be working full-time but we will work it out where if I am working a Saturday, I’m either off the Friday before, or the Friday after to have a three-day weekend.  Angela also said they would hire Caitlin to work maybe one or two Saturdays a month.  So Saturdays will be busy, but we will still have enough time to take any day-trips we want to take.  We will be going to Barcelona at the end of the month, either the last week in January or the first week of February.  The trip will be my Christmas holiday and Caitlin’s birthday present.  I am really looking forward to it; Barça seems like a great city, even if they are the hated rivals in football.

Speaking of football, the FIFA Player of the Year was awarded this week to Lionel Messi, an Argentinean.  The Spanish press, therefore, have simply lost their minds.  This is a tragedy of epic proportions, and headlines scream how the country has been robbed.  Nor is this limited to the elite press: This opinion is shared by the general populace.  There is much talk of a conspiracy against Spanish football. Several Spanish players have had better years than Messi (my opinion, but shared by plenty others): Xavi, Casillas, and Iniesta to name a few.  The whole debacle has certainly provided much fuel for conversation during English class.  It’s curious how something that can pass completely unnoticed in one country can be so important to another.

So anyway, that’s pretty much that.  Our best friend Amy has moved back to the States, so we are a little bit lonely… good Iowans are hard to find in Spain.  But the dog keeps us occupied (in a good way) and there’s plenty to see and do in the city.  Last weekend we went to the National Archeological Museum and really enjoyed it.  They are completely renovating the museum but have left a small part open with all of the highlights still on display.  We saw a beautiful Visigothic crown from the 7th century, made of gold and covered with garnets and sapphires.  There are also some beautiful funerary statues from several hundred years before Christ which were found in various parts of Spain.  And later this week we get to experience something we have never done before: we will attend our first gay wedding.  Gay marriage is legal in Spain, and a lady at my work, Kelly, is marrying her partner.  They are really super people and Kelly has become a good friend.  We are excited about going because the wedding is in a small town called Chinchon about an hour outside the city.  Caitlin and I have been there before and love it.  It is really picturesque and may even be my favorite place I have been in Spain.  Kelly and Cari are pretty poor and can’t afford a caterer.  So in lieu of gifts, they have asked us all to come to a restaurant afterwards and everyone just pays for their own meal.  But it’s kind of like a buffet where you pay a set price and then get tons of Spanish food and unlimited wine, beer and soft drinks.  So, beer and wine, tapas and main courses, friends, a tiny tavern in a tiny beautiful Spanish village?  Sounds great to me. 

I guess that’s pretty much all that’s been going on.  Spain just enacted a pretty strict smoking ban which outlaws smoking in bars and restaurants.  It was really nice to go out and watch the Real Madrid game on Sunday and not come home smelling of cigarette smoke.  Some of the bars are flouting the law, but the government means business, and has promised stiff fines for businesses that allow smoking.  You can even call a hotline and anonymously denounce people or establishments that are not complying with the ban.  Sitting in a café smoking a cigarette is (or, rather, was) a pretty popular pastime in Spain, so it will be interesting to see if the law actually sticks.

Ok, I reckon that’s enough for now.  We love and miss you all.  Keep in mind, we have an extra room!  If you are too busy to come yourself but need a vacation, put your spouse on a plane and we’ll do the rest.

Cheers,
Tony

Wrote this one a while back and never posted it! Still need to upload more pictures- sorry!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 C: Seeing as how we haven’t blogged since May, let’s catch you up on the last six months:

-         Spain won the World Cup! Hooray!

-         Tony got a job at a great academy called Rose of England.

-         Caitlin went home to Texas for Anime Overload in Austin and Jennifer tagged along. Also, went to Montreal for Otakuthon. Mom tagged along for that one.

-         While Caitlin was gone, Tony bought a dog! An adorable French Bulldog puppy named Torito, which means little bull in Spanish. (abundant photos here!)

-         Went to Paris in September to see Alexis and Kelly for their birthdays.

-         Caitlin started work at a new academy teaching children… yikes.

-         We celebrated our first wedding anniversary by going to a bull fight! (pics here, but not for the squeamish- there is blood!)

-         Texas Rangers in the World Series! Tony couldn’t miss it, so he made a trip home. At the same time, Caitlin went to Youmacon in Detroit. Sixth year in a row there! Mom also went for her first time. A quick stop home in Texas to do some recording and then back to Madrid!

-         Finally started seeing more of Spain than just Madrid. We made a couple of day trips to nearby Salamanca and Cuenca.

-         Caitlin turned 29! Birthday dinner with Tony and Amy was yummy!

 

So that brings us to Thanksgiving. My friend Sam came to visit for four days and it was really nice to put the guest room to good use! Tony and I both had to work, so there wasn’t much time to show Sam around, but she managed to see most of Madrid on her own anyway. Because of our work schedules, we planned for dinner to be on Friday night. You can find whole turkeys here, but they cost about double what they would in the States. No matter- it was worth it! However, the giblets were not included, to my dismay! So, no giblets in the stuffing, no giblet gravy… But there was quite a feast nonetheless. Besides the turkey, stuffing and gravy I fixed green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, corn, pecan pie and cranberry sauce. Most of the ingredients were brought back with me from Texas. All in all, I think everything turned out pretty well. Despite cooking the turkey longer than necessary for its weight, it still came out a bit underdone! But since we were eating at night, I couldn’t make everyone wait any longer. We ate what was cooked and there was plenty of meat for seconds. Also at dinner was a teacher friend of mine, Rebecca, who brought excellent wine and conversation. The dinner party was small but satisfying and we enjoyed a cozy evening in our nice, warm apartment.

 Saturday was round two of the feast-ivities. I carved the rest of the turkey breast and put the pieces in the oven to roast some more. Tony had to work, but once he got home we headed to Amy’s place for Thanksgiving lunch with her and her roommates Ali and Laura, and Laura’s boyfriend Kiko. Amy had been a busy bee in the kitchen! We stuffed ourselves with mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, more turkey of course, and then pumpkin pie! I think I had seconds of everything! Amy made us take turns saying what we were thankful for that year. Her roommates gave their answers in English and Spanish, so I did the same. Tony had had too much to eat (or maybe too much wine?) to attempt Spanish, so he replied just in English. I said I was thankful for my husband, my dog, my health, my family, and thankful for the opportunity to live in Spain and make new friendships that I hope will last for a long time to come. Tony said he was thankful for the same things but also added thanks for Call of Duty: Black Ops and Cien Montaditos, his favorite restaurant here in Madrid.

 

T: Before we fell into a full-on food coma, we headed home. It was strange to not watch the Cowboys game and take a nap. Also strange not to put up the Christmas tree the next day or head out early in the morning for Black Friday deals.  But also, kind of nice.  Sure, we missed our friends and our families.  But it was nice to be away from all the heartache that a close Cowboys loss brings and the stress of beating the crowd at Target.  And, it was nice to be able to share our unique holiday with people who had never celebrated Thanksgiving before.  I sure wish we could’ve introduced them to Honeybaked ham (and let them see what real ham tastes like), but watching them eat all those other foods for the first time was special enough.  And, being that far away from home made me realize what I was thankful for most of all: being American.

I'm trying very hard to remember, but it must have been really awful and I blocked it from my memory! It was probably something while traveling. I think I know what Tony would say. A couple of weeks ago we went to this restaurant called Oishii (which means delicious in Japanese ). I helped Tony order something that I thought he would like, since he doesn't eat sushi. Yakiudon is pretty harmless, just udon noodles, which are think and eggy, vegetables and chicken in a light sauce. What he got was a pile of noddles alright, but it was covered in these little flakes of something that were moving. Poor Tony! He was so disgusted. He leaned over and said, "Why is my food moving?!" I had no idea what the flakes were. I asked the waitress and her answer was "seafood." Okay. That's nice and vague! Best I could figure was that the flakes were of some poor, dried sea creature and when put onto hot food, the steam caused them to wiggle, much in the same way that my straw paper would turn into a crawling worm when I would scrunch it up small and drip a bit of water on it. So, combine the moving dinner with the fact that Tony doesn't like Japanese food much anyway AND it was also full of mushrooms which he hates and you can guess who went home hungry that night! I promised him I'd never take him there again! I told him that when we move to Japan he will get very skinny because he won't want to eat the food. He thinks he'll get fat because he'll just go to McDonald's everyday!
________________
I'm having my own gastronomic adventures here in Shanghai. Nothing wiggling though, thank goodness! Mostly, it's all been great. The first night here I went to a Chinese restaurant and had simple things: garlic chicken cooked in a clay pot, shrimp and pork fried rice.

The next day I had trouble with my alarm being an hour behind so I only had time to grab donuts on the way to work. But here they have these kind called mochi rings, which are chewy inside, like Japanese mochi. I hate mochi, but LOVE these donuts! Woe is me! In Spain I hardly eat sweets, but here there's a Dunkin' Donuts connected to my hotel! What am I going to do?

What else have I eaten? Oh, Yang's fried dumplings which are a favorite of Tony and I from our last trip. The hotel where I'm staying is right around the corner from the restaurant! And they are SO cheap! That same night we (work colleagues and I) went for Chinese food again and I had some more adventurous things like frog legs and chicken feet, which were both good. Really!

Uh... Starbucks a couple times, more dumplings (steamed this time), pork buns, red bean dumplings, tuna sandwich, breakfast with AMERICAN bacon (none of that fatty stuff like in Spain), McD's (because I love international McD's!), and more chewy, mochi-ring goodness from Mister Donut, another chain here.

I don't know what the plan is for tomorrow but Monday we go to the World Expo where I hope to eat all kinds of tasty international delights!! And then that night we're going to Bubba's Texas Barbecue of Shanghai-- yee ha!

I hope Tony is eating well at home...


PS- I can't access Picasa here in China so picture posting will have to wait until I get back. Sorry!

I always write and then forget to post pictures at the end, so I'm posting them at the beginning!

  One night in April

  El Rastro

So, one whole week of work down and we're feeling pretty good. It was a bit iffy at the beginning of the week. I wasn't sure I was really cut out for it, or that I would even like it. Business English is a little intimidating to me, but the ladies in my classes are great and I think we're going to have fun together. And hopefully they'll learn something! I also managed to pick up 2 more hours through another academy. I'll be teaching a one-to-one session twice a week. Tony is bummed because he wants more hours too, but when ever he gets calls or emails, nothing works out with his availability. But, we'll keep looking. So far, I have 14 hours and Tony has 10.
I work:
M- 2-3:30
     6:30-8
T- 2-3:30
     8-9
W- 2-3:30
      8-9
Th- 2-3:30
      6:30-9
F- 6:30-9:30

and Tony works:
M- 2-3:30
T- 2-3:30
     7-9
Th- 2-3:30
       7-9
F- 2-3:30

Besides work, a lot of our time and energy last week was spent apartment hunting, scouring websites on in net. The tenants of our current apartment return at the end of the week so we need to find a new place. It is slow going. There are plenty of places available, but finding the right size for our money, in a good location, and with furniture is proving a chore. Using apartment finder websites I've written many emails, which is great because I can use Google translate to write in Spanish for me. I could figure it out myself I suppose, but Google saves time! However, it doesn't really matter how much time I've saved when hardly anyone will write back or call! I guess I should have just called them in the first place! I have a tough time understanding people over the phone though. Even when I tell them I don't speak much Spanish, they just rattle on! One guy got so frustrated with me on the phone he just hung up! So that was discouraging and has made me not want to call anyone! But I think I'm going to have to buckle down and just do it because we're not getting many leads.

We visited a place yesterday that has 2 bedrooms, but is very tiny. We'd like to have 2 bedrooms for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so we have a place for visitors to sleep but also so we have another room to go into to! We love each other and everything but sometimes a person just needs some space! Anyway, the apartment is close to Retiro Park which is awesome because it is beautiful there! We could walk there in about 3 minutes from this apartment. It's on the 7th floor of an 8th story building but unlike so many older buildings in Madrid, this one has an elevator! Woo hoo!  It has a small kitchen though, w/ no oven and only a 2 burner stove. But the fridge is full size which would cut down on trips to the grocery store, and the pantry is large too. Tony would be happy moving there, but I just want to explore as many options as possible before deciding. Thankfully, the move will be easy. We don't have that much stuff here so we can pack it all and move it in 2 trips on the Metro.

Tonight we're going to look at a place that is a little bigger and little cheaper but farther from the center of town. It is close to the business where we teach though. It also has 2 rooms. Besides going out there for work, we don't know much about the area and what it has to offer, so we'll see what we can find out tonight.

Our other option is to possibly stay where we are, but we're waiting on more details from the current tenants. The husband, Isai, returns at the end of the week but we don't know when his wife Olivia is coming back. For all the fussing I did about this place before, after seeing just how small apartments can be here, I recognize how blessed we are with this place! It has an oven! Hopefully they get back to us soon so we can find out how much it would cost to stay.

I'm taking advantage of our oven while we have one and fixing baked ziti for dinner. Amy is coming over so we can all do some lesson planning. I'm looking forward to playing hostess :-)

Alright- back to the hunt...


UPDATE: The apartment was great! Jose, the owner, was very professional and the apartment is beautiful! Everything is new- 2 bedrooms, full kitchen with a big fridge, oven, a range w/ 4 burners, newly re-designed bathroom, hardwood floors, lots of cabinets- all very IKEA. Bright and sunny, Metro stop right outside our door, grocery store literally around the corner- makes up for the place being 30 minutes fro the heart of the city. But the price is right- 660 euro + bills = about 730 or so. On our way out, we ran into the next couple coming to see the place. We knew we had to decide quickly! We talked it over during dinner w/ Amy and called Jose back and said we'd take it. It feels great to have a place! No more hunting! We pick up the keys tomorrow :-)

So, here are some pics of what we've called home for the last 7 weeks. Time to say goodbye!
Calle de los Tres Peces

So, we spent the first week out of school just catching up on sleep. It rained the entire week, so we didn't do any sightseeing. We worked on getting our CVs looking nice (thanks Alexis!) and sent them out on Wednesday. Both of us heard from a company that evening and emailed them to set up interviews. When we didn't hear back by Thursday afternoon I called them, but had to leave a message. I spoke with Josephine from EBC that day and told her we were a bit discouraged and worried we wouldn't find work. But she reminded me that it had only been one day and that in Spain, we would have to just keep calling them. That seemed strange to me, because I didn't want to seem like a pest. They contacted us first, after all. But, I took her advice and had Tony give them a call this time. He also had to leave a message.

Later on Thursday we both were emailed by another company and set up interviews for both of us on Friday afternoon. Thursday night, Tony received a call from the first company and set up an interview for Friday morning. I was disappointed that I didn't get called back, but Tony said I should just go with him and see what happened.

Friday morning we got up, got pretty, and set off for our interviews. I sat on the couch in the lobby and read while Tony had his interview. Then he came out and told me he'd been offered a job and that now it was my turn to be interviewed! So, off I went and about 30 minutes later, I had a job too! We are now both employed by Kleinson & Collins Language Consultants teaching business English. Hooray!

Then we dashed off to our second interview of the day. We arrived at the same time as another potential employee and Tony went into a separate room for his interview while I sat in the main room and listened to the other girl get interviewed! Awkward! But, it was all in Spanish, so it was easy to tune it out. Once she was done it was my turn. My interview was also conducted in Spanish. I could understand what was being asked of me, but I didn't always know the right Spanish words in order to answer. She said I could answer in English. It was strange. But she was a nice lady. I also had to show her how I would teach some grammar! On the spot! I'm glad it was easy stuff- present simple vs. present continuous. Then Tony and I changed places and I went into the smaller room to also be interviewed by the other guy. I had to do some grammar teaching in there as well- some things about prepositions and past simple vs. past perfect simple. A little more difficult as I had to remind myself what past perfect simple even was! In the end, we were told that they would have to keep us in mind for the future since we were unavailable during the hours they needed to fill (due to the work we'd just accepted that morning). They are also developing an English class for young actors and told me I was their best candidate to teach it if it ever gets up off the ground. I suppose it also depends on how long we stay in Spain. Tony and I gave different answers to them. He said one year and I said until the end of the year! Oops! Oh well.

Went home, changed clothes and then headed back to K&C for training. Un-paid training, unfortunately, but at least it was free. They have very particular methods of teaching, using accelerated learning and relaxation and things, so we had to go in to learn more about that. On our walk back to the office,Tony was wondering aloud if we would be training by ourselves or if there would be other teachers there. Maybe Kirsten and Amy also got hired? No sooner had he said that than who should walk around the corner but Kirsten and Amy! We'd all been hired together! The training session was intense and long, but we were all very grateful to have found some work!

Tony, Amy and I had also been called by another company and set up interviews with them, but we have to reschedule because we had a second training session at K&C this morning and missed the interview. We may not even bother though because the pay rate there is so low.

So today was also our first day of work! We had more training in the morning and then no time for lunch before heading off to another part of town on the metro. I had an advanced class of 4 students, all ladies, and Tony had an intermediate class of 4. Our classes went pretty well, although the students weren't big fans of the K&C methods! Don't quite know how we're going to deal with that yet...

As I waited for Tony to finish his class, I got a call from Josephine at EBC offering hours to Tony. He called her back but the time conflicted with work he already has with K&C- so EBC offered me the hours instead! We are both so excited! I start with them on May 3rd. Both of us feel so blessed and grateful to be working. This really is a slow season to begin English teaching. The best times are in January and September, so we know how fortunate we are. Thank you all for your prayers- they definitely helped!

We need JOBS. It has been so nice to sleep in but it can't last forever.The last couple of days here have been cold and rainy, so we've spent most of our time inside perfecting our resumes before sending them out today. Hopefully we hear from academies soon and go for some interviews. Only a couple of our classmates sent out their CVs earlier in the week, but the results have been mixed. Kirsten had a couple interviews. One was in Spanish and another only offered her 1.5 hrs a week- and it takes an hour to get there! She got another interview by email the next day, but it was also in Spanish! We were told in class that the companies should interview you in English since that's what they're hiring you to teach. How annoying. Our other friend Amy hadn't heard anything yet yesterday, but hopefully that has changed. So, we'll see what happens for us. We'd really like to stay here for a while and get better at our Spanish, as well as be close to other friends and family in Europe. It would be great to go visit Hayley and family in Italy again, as well as Lukas and family in Germany. And our friend Jorge in Frankfurt is having a birthday party in a few weeks. We miss him and would love to go! This is technically the beginning of the summer season here, when academies begin their summer programs, and there are also month-long summer camps outside the city. We were assured there would be plenty of work. I guess we just need to be proactive about it.

We had a fun weekend. There was a graduation party on Friday night that began at this place called Tia Cebolla's (Auntie Onion's!) The sangria was very tasty and Tony and I had our first paella since we've been here- also very tasty. Our instructor Stephen was there and it was fun to just hang out and not be his students anymore. He actually lives near us in Lavapies (pronounced lava-pee-es) and he has a cat! I want to go hug it! Anyway.... at Tia Cebolla's we also had a tortilla, which is not like a Mexican tortilla at all. It's round and about 2 inches thick and make of egg and potato. Really filling! It could have used some hot sauce but I say that about most of the things we eat here. Later in the evening we went across the way to a different pub where we partied for a while, but not too late. We were tired! It had been a long week.

The next night, some of us from class went out to watch El Clasico, the futbol game between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. We met up at Kirsten's apartment in a part of town Tony and i had not yet visited. It was really nice and the building next door to Kirsten is renting. We may have to check it out. We found a nice diner-type place that wasn't crowded, but in retrospect, we think a crowded atmosphere would have made watching the game more fun. Barcelona is undefeated, and they really beat Madrid. So, good for them, but not so great for Real Madrid fans. But we had fun anyway. And we ate Patatas Bravas, which is the closest thing we've found to "spicy" food. It's like potato chunks smothered in some kind of sauce that is remotely spicy, but the Spanish think it's really hot.

On Sunday we slept in a bit and then went to El Rastro, which Tony mentioned before. The rest of the day was spent cleaning and doing laundry, typical weekend stuff. On Monday we went up to the school to pick up the power cord for Tony's netbook which he left there on Friday. We chatted with Josephine for a while and then set off to go buy a cell phone. We have to have a number for academies to call so they can hire us! Later in the day Tony went back to the apartment to nap and I went and got my hair cut. I hadn't cut it since June, right before we went to Jamaica! Boy did I need it! I got a few bangs in the front and Tony says it looks "sixties." It's cute though. I just hope I can style it on my own. Monday night we met up with Amy, Kirsten and Lucas for dinner at Ginger. Lucas left on Tuesday morning for Thailand, but he's heading to Viet Nam to teach next week. Crazy! I guess if nothing pans out for us here we'll be heading east too.

So, now we're just sitting here waiting for calls. Soon, I hope...


Here are pics from the graduation party.

And updates to this album and this one too.

Well, we’ve finally made it to the end of our course.  It’s strange – the last four weeks as a whole seem to have flown by, yet individual moments within the four weeks seem like ages ago.  It has been a ton of hard work but we both feel like we’ve learned a lot. We have made new friends who now, unfortunately, become our competition in the job market.  We’ve decided to apply for jobs here in Madrid.  We like the city itself – very easy to get around in, lots of beautiful architecture.  Parks, plazas, restaurants, and pubs are all over the place.  The vibe here is very relaxed; everything seems to move at a slower pace, almost like slow-motion.  Yet it all becomes a blur of activity when you try and remember it.  Our neighborhood, Lavapies, is very nice.  You can find just about anything within walking distance.  Except a Wal-Mart.  But we’ve had to make do.  There is a kebab store around the corner from us and we have made friends with the owner, Miron.  We eat there often, and sometimes will go there just for a  change of scenery as we work on homework.  Caity has already started teaching Miron some English phrases while we are there.  I am hoping he offers to pay here in food for some actual private lessons!  We can walk to the Reina Sofia museum in about five minutes, Puerta del Sol or Plaza Mayor in about ten minutes and a twenty minute walk gets you to Retiro Park.  It’s neat to be near the center of the city.   Last weekend we walked to the Rastro, a huge flea market like Trader’s Village.  But the stalls are just set up throughout the maze-like streets of the barrio.  Part of the market has clothes, bags, shoes, etc.  Other parts sell furniture and art, or tools and electronic equipment.  But the coolest area was like the back part of Trader’s Village with people just selling their junk.  Knick-knacks and doodads of all sorts.  We could’ve bought tons of stuff but instead just bought me a three-pack of striped black and gray dress socks for one euro.  When we find our new place, though, we will come back to the Rastro to get some cool things to furnish it.  We have until the end of the month in our current apartment.  Hopefully we will find work soon so we can start the search for a new place.  I don’t think that will be too hard – it feels like half the city is made up of small apartments with even smaller balconies.  So in general, Madrid gets a thumbs-up.  The city is not without its quirks, however.  It’s pretty difficult to do what are supposed to be mundane tasks – getting a subway pass or a phone, for instance.  You would think that these would be fairly easy, but no, you can’t actually buy a subway pass in the subway, you have to buy it from the tobacco shop.  Huh?  But ok, we’ll walk over to the tobacco shop.  Oh, sorry, you have to have a passport-size photo to get a subway pass.  Huh?  We do?  Ok, fine, where can we get that?  Oh, back at the subway station, of course.  Sigh.  Places close down for siesta right in the middle of the work day, which can also be frustrating.  But this is all part of getting used to a new city and new culture, I guess.  Spain is also pretty expensive.  Things won’t seem so bad when you’re buying it, but the exchange rate is killer.  It will be nice to start getting paid in euro since that’s what we keep spending!  Oh – also, Spain made the switch from analog to digital tv, knocking us from six channels (all in Spanish but would occasionally show an English movie) down to zero.  That’s ok, though.  With no sports on tv to watch or xbox360 to play I’ve been forced to read in my spare time, and yesterday I finished Crime and Punishment.  (Although I am following the Rangers game as I write this; Nelson Cruz just hit a home run to put Texas up in the 10^th inning at Cleveland… Feliz better not blow this one!)  Caitlin and I miss you all.  Please pray for us to find jobs.  The Lord has a place for us to be – it may be Madrid, it may be somewhere else.  So we will just trust that He will direct us to the right place.

Cheers,

 

Tony

(Yes!  Rangers win!)

Pics of the Reina Sofia

Pics around town

The third week of class was pretty much a blur. Everyday as Tony and I would ascend the escalator at the Cercania station we'd say, "Didn't we just do this?" Our brains have downloaded so much information in the last few weeks- so much grammar, so many lesson plans... And everyday we come home, rest a bit and get started on homework. I don't think I worked this hard in college!

This last week it was especially difficult because it was Semana Santa. There were all kinds of processions and things that we'd rather be seeing, but it was always homework, homework, homework. We wrote four lesson plans last week and taught two classes. On the way to school on Thursday, Madrid seemed like a ghost town! The train station was the only busy place. Practically everyone was leaving town for the holiday weekend. The streets were desolate, especially in Nuevos Ministerios, the financial district where our classes are. We were afraid no students would show up for the classes, but they did. Tony had four in his advanced class and I had one in my beginner class. I'm bummed because both times I've taught beginner, it has been to only one student. I'm still nervous about teaching that level because they know little to no English. I would have liked to practice with more students, but oh well!

Saturday was Tony's birthday, so on Friday we took some treats from the bakery near our apartment to share with the class. Man were they good! Both of us have been watching what we eat, and I've especially stayed away from sweets, but we let it slide for the celebration. (Okay, maybe for the whole weekend...) Classes went well Friday also, and we were happy to have students again! Tony had a beginner class of three and I had an intermediate class of three. My topic was Texas! It was so much fun :-) Tony came in at the end of class and helped me teach "Deep in the Heart of Texas" to everyone. A great way to end the week.

After a brief nap back at the apartment, we headed out to meet up with some of classmates for dinner. The restaurant was in walking distance of the apartment and on our way we stopped to watch a Good Friday procession. Actually, it was hard not to stop as it was blocking the whole street! People were lined up everywhere along the sidewalks, and they also filled the street behind the procession. We stayed and watched and took pictures for ten minutes or so since we figured it might be our only chance to see one all weekend with all the homework we had to do (and still have to do!)

Dinner was nice at this place called Ginger. It looked really fancy but was pretty inexpensive! McDonald's costs more here, actually. After that everyone walked to this shisha (hookah) bar that was in our neighborhood, Lavapies. Our classmate Ananda just moved to our barrio so it was cool to show her and our other classmates some places in our part of town. I'd never been to a hookah bar before and it was pretty cool. We sat by the door though so we could get fresh air. Around midnight a belly dancer came out and danced with the crowd. She'd pull people out onto the dance floor with her and got Tony to go twice. We told her it was his birthday. She was very nice and really pretty! William, who works the front desk at school and arranges all the class outings, was extremely excited about the belly dancer. It was cute... and slightly awkward. But she was good sport and we took plenty of photos for William.

Got home late, slept in on Saturday and then got straight to work once I did finally get up. Tony had gone out at 7:30am to see another procession and got back around 8:30! So he went back to sleep for a while, but that was ok. It was his birthday after all. The grocery stores had been closed for two days due to the holiday but were open again on Saturday, so I went there to pick up a few things. I think I spent 10 minutes shopping and 30 minutes in line! All of Madrid must have been in that grocery! So, Saturday was quite boring. Homework, grocery shopping and a few chores. We did go out to the Doner Kebab place around the corner to have a beer with some friends we made who work there. They are always showing Bollywood musicals on the TV in there and they are really fun to watch even though we have no idea what is going on. Last night there was one really long song on and it sounded like they were singing, "Love me, love me, Obama! Love me, love me, Obama!" It was pretty funny.

Anyway, today we were going to go to church since it is Easter and everything, but decided we'd better stay home and keep working on the mountain of homework we have. There is an English language church here that our instructor told us about, so we plan on checking it out next week. No fancy Easter supper today, just leftovers for lunch and homemade hamburgers for dinner. I bought Kinder eggs for us and we got some pretty cool toys inside. We also had gofrites w/ chocolate and strawberries. Janis pointed out gofrites to us on the street the other night as we were walking. They are like waffles made from crepe batter. I saw some in the grocery so I got them as a special Easter treat. They turned out to be SUPER sweet! More like crepe batter + a ton of sugar! So, back to the no-sweets-for-me diet tomorrow. Sigh.

Well, I've taken a break from homework long enough. Time to plan some lessons! Take a look at some pictures we've taken lately- and please write us something! We miss people!

Hanging out with friends

Semana Santa Processions

Just 2 weeks of our course left! This past week we taught two more classes each and had a nice end of the week celebration by going out for drinks and tapas with some folks from class. Then we slept most of the weekend! Seriously. Half of Saturday and half of Sunday. Sleeping. This course takes a lot out of us! We did manage to take a walk on Saturday and do do some homework in Retiro Park. It was SO beautiful- but we forgot the camera! But, I'm sure we'll be going back! Sunday was spent doing laundry and other chores, and more homework. I also cooked Tony's favorite- tomato chicken. He didn't think I could do it "as good as mom" but I think he was pleasantly surprised :-)

So this week our work load is intense! We have to write this week's 2 lesson plans tomorrow in class and then next week's 2 lesson plans in class on Wednesday! We have some group presentations on Thursday and Friday, an essay due Wednesday, and also preparing our materials to teach again this Thursday and Friday! On top of that, a syllabus for a hypothetical one-on-one tutoring class, consisting of no less than 8 lessons, is due next Wednesday. Somewhere in there we start working on our CVs. This week is also Semana Santa (Holy Week). In Spain, it's a huge holiday and most people travel with their families at least Thursday through Sunday, but most people left last weekend and won't be back until next week. The kids all have off from school too. So, since the classes we teach are free to the public, we don't know if we'll have any students. Many of the regulars have said they will be out of town. Now we know why the school said that March-April is the low season. I hope we have students considering the crazy amount of work we'll all be doing this week.

Okay. Enough stalling. Time for homework.