The one with the Conference in Villafranca de los Barros

Yesterday we had sort of a special occasion.  One of the schools in the area holds an annual get-together of many of the local schools with English or Bilingual Section programs.  The schools involved create a presentation of some sort for their students to give, and there are games and activities for the students who come from all the groups.  In all, there were 21 schools present, a mix of public and private, secondary and primary.  It was interesting to see what the different schools came up with.  Many of them gave virtual tours of their schools and explained how their school had developed their Bilingual section.  My school had enough studetns in our Bilingual program that we only brought our first years.  Not counting the students who didn't come (the flu is passing through our school, so 8 were out), we had 48 of them, coming from three classes.

My students had been practicing a presentation for a while.  Here, the parents of students leaving primary school get to choose what secondary school their children attend.  To some extent it creates some competition.  The schools give presentations and tours, etc., trying to entice the students to come.  Our first years this year go to the primary schools to give the presentation.  It conveniently is useful for the conference.

When we arrived in Villafranca, we all got some churros and chocolate, which was awesome :)  I love it when they feed me.  I always think it is kind of funny when my kids get the chance to speak with me outside of normal school contexts because I can tell they never know what language to use and how much I am going to understand.  Oftentimes, this means they avoid talking to me, but I don't take it too personally.  After mingling for a while, Chus, the students doing the presentation, and I headed to the auditorium to watch the other presentations and wait for our turn.  It ended up taking all morning, but our kids did a good job.  Afterwards, Chus and I walked around the school, checking things out and grabbed a bocadillo from the cafeteria.

My favorite part of the day came next.  We were standing outside waiting for everyone to get together to leave, when a large group of my girls came up and started talking to me, asking me questions, and having me translate things.  The things they want to know.... In Spanish, it seems that there is some "joke" popular with the kids that goes, Eres tonto o... It roughly seems equivalent to the American "You're so dumb that..." Well, they were translating them into English, "Are you silly or do you smoke glue?" When I realized that was what they were saying, I told them that we don't smoke glue, we SNIFF it.  They thought it was the funniest thing known to mankind, and I can't believe that is what I have taught my kids.  I guess if they are going to talk about it in English it might as well be using the right words, right? Then on the bus one of my girls tried to tell me jokes in English.  I appreciated her effort, and she actually did a pretty good job.  Yay for the occasional bright, motivated student!!

The one with the book of things I like to do

I have found that making books with my younger kids works really well.  I usually write most of it ahead of time, but it lets them practice various sentence constructions, in this case, "I like to..." It is also really good for my younger one to be exposed to the letters and words.  Plus, we always have fun coloring them! The past few weeks we have been focusing on actions, words like sleep, jump, dance, eat, etc.  Because of this, I wanted to give them a chance to learn the words for things that they like to do.  This was my end product.  Ok, so I did a blog post on this because I wanted to show off my awesome book. Don't judge my awesomeness!

The one with Valentine's Day

So today is Valentine's Day, and because it is a holiday that is celebrated in the United States, I have been doing the required lessons with my students both in school and with my private classes.  This is the Valentine I made for my mommy with my five and nine year olds.  Here you go, Mom!  As great as it is, I am NOT going to pay the euro+ to send it to you in the mail.  It's the thought that counts, right??  When my five year old asked me where my mom lived and I told her in the United States, very far away, she didn't understand why I didn't live with her.  Well, because I am an adult.  Except, I probably will end up living with her when this adventure is over, but that is another story entirely.  Another funny story, one of Marissa's girls, who is six, was also confused about why Marissa's mom wasn't living here with her in Spain or at least coming to visit. She asked Marissa, "Doesn't she love you?" Too funny.

Then this is how life really is...we were walking down the street in Belgium when we came across this priceless sign telling us how life really is.  REALLY?  Being single has to be sad and ugly?  I don't get it, but maybe there was just something lost in translation.   I hope so...

The one with a quick Brussels vacay

Monday and Tuesday were kind of strange days.  It was a mix of doing as much as we could in a small amount of time but kind of during off hours and in some cases doing things almost solely to fill time before travel.  Monday, as I mentioned, most of the museums were closed, so that didn't leave very many things for us to do.  We could have just walked around, but it was too cold for that.  After only a few minutes my hands and face were painfully freezing.  It just wasn't a good day for wandering outside, so after checking out the Royal palace in Dam Square we headed to the Amsterdam museum (the only open museum) to wander about, inside and safe from the cold.  It was an interesting enough museum, but nothing mind-blowing.  We saw an exhibit on the most famous football player from the Netherlands that was pretty interesting.  The rest was a walk through Amsterdam and Netherlands history, but because the museum wasn't very well laid out, it was difficult to follow.  One minute, we were walking through the 15th century, and the next the 19th century.  We watched a funny video about the Dutch Golden Age that was pretty entertaining.  I didn't realize until afterwards that it was meant for children, but that's okay.  

Afterwards, we headed to Melissa's office to drop off her passes.  Both Melissa and Marissa's Dad had suggested this one place for lunch, Singel 404, and so we decided to go there since it was close by and convenient.  It was a really cute little cafe, fairly similar to the one we ate at on Saturday.  Marissa and I both started with a cup of mint tea, a specialty of the Netherlands, probably stemming from the days of the trading company.  It is kind of funny because, as you can see, it is a lot like a mint salad just chilling in your cup with water.  It tastes really good though and is nice and warming on a cold day.  For lunch, I got a giant sandwich with grilled chicken, goat cheese, and chives.  It was humongous and one of the best things I had on the whole trip.  If you are ever in town, stop in for a bite.  It seems to always be crowded, but it is worth waiting a few minutes, for sure! After lunch, we picked up our luggage from the hotel and made our way to the bus station to head to Brussels.

We made it to Brussels with no complications and only struggled a little bit to figure out how to take the Metro to our hostel.  After a short break, we headed to city center to find somewhere for dinner.  Our hostel had given us a map with some fun site-seeing/food-finding advice, so we took it and headed to one of the recommended restaurants to grab a waffle.  Yes, our first course consisted of waffles with whipped cream and powdered sugar accompanied by cappuccinos, and it was DELICIOUS! Brussels was worth it for this alone.  Second course of dinner had us finding a fry shack to pick up some of the famous Belgian fries.  Let me just tell you, they are famous for a reason!  It is a good thing that I don't live in Belgium because I would not be able to resist picking up some of these every couple days! After dinner, we headed back to the hostel with plans to get up early the following morning to check out some of Brussels during the day.

We only had about three hours to site-see in the morning before we needed to pick up our luggage and catch a bus to the airport, but we tried to make it worthwhile.  First we headed to Grand Place, which was a lot like a plaza.  You can't really see it in the photo, but the buildings were trimmed in gold, which was pretty.  It was nice to see, but it was also COLD, so we weren't there long before we decided to find a cafe for a hot cup of coffee.  Refreshed from the warmth, we made our way to one of Amsterdam's famous peeing statues.   It was humorous enough, but the best part was the 1 euro waffle that we got right next to it.  Man, that thing was soooo scrumptious!  Our final stop was at the main Cathedral, which was nice, but no Sagrada Familia to be sure.  Mostly we were glad to go inside and get warm.  

A long couple of hours later we were taking off, headed back to Sevilla, where many of our adventures begin.  One of the strangest parts of the trip was the fact that on the flights, the swollen fingers on my hand ballooned up even more than usual.  Still no word on what is going on there.  Anyways, every time I go to a new city, I wonder to myself, okay, how does this rank compared to the other places you have been?  It is incredibly difficult to even begin to put them in any order.  I love them all for a variety of reasons, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Rome, Lisbon, Florence, Venice, Barcelona...you just can't make me pick!

The one where we were kids again!

We entered Day 3 in the Netherlands with the goal of knocking off the majority of sites that we wanted to see there.  Here is Europe it is a common occurrence for museums to close on Mondays, so that eliminated going to the museums on our last day of the trip.  Judge me if you like, but at the top of our list was the NEMO Science Center.  Yes, it is technically a children’s science museum.  No, that did not stop me in the least from wanting to go there or from going there and having an awesome time.  Museums make me tired; I may be an adult, but I want to touch things, figure out how they work, and understand how they were created.  This museum is absolutely perfect for that.  I highly suggest it for anyone traveling with children or who is looking to have some fun for a bit.  We look young enough, so nobody called us out, but people might give you funny looks if you are an older adult (especially a man) going through the museum by yourself.  Here are some of the awesome exhibits that we saw/played with:

In the upper left corner, that is me, INSIDE A BUBBLE! As you can see from my face, I was pretty psyched about it.  The upper right corner is a picture of Marissa and my shadows.  There was this special paint on the wall that after a flash of light the shadows would stay in place! I was like PETER PAN'S SHADOW, with it doing its own thing as I went about my business!  The lower left corner is Marissa, there was this cool optical illusion that made your body symmetrical; this is what resulted.  Finally, the lower right corner is me on infrared camera.  I look awesome!  And there were cold metal designs for you to press a body part against, make it cold, and leave a design on your skin.  You can see mine on my forearm!  It was really neat :) So basically, the museum was a success.  Part of it was dedicated to teaching teenagers about puberty and their changing bodies...it was a riot.  There is NO WAY some of the things in that exhibit would be allowed into a children's museum, but that is Amsterdam for you...

For lunch we went to a pancake place and got some savory pancakes.  Mine had cheese and tomatoes and was quite good! It was strange though, definitely not in line with America's pancakes with syrup or fruit.  In the afternoon, we went and picked up our bus tickets to Brussels for the next day and then headed to Anne Frank House.  It was really interesting to see in person.  Evidently, Marissa and I both went through a WWII/Holocaust phase in middle school, so it was pretty cool to see this in person.  I would highly recommend it to families, especially of kids who are of the right age to read Anne Frank's diary.  One of the most interesting parts was how the museum came to be and learning about the people who helped those in the Secret Annex.

What a pretty place :)

After a rest at the hotel, we headed back out to get dinner.  I got to try falafel for the first time, which was really good.  We also tried some Belgium fries, which were absolutely fabulous! There is one thing that Spain does not do that well, french fries, and it is rather upsetting.  Next we checked out the Red Light District, which was fascinating and alarming at the same time.  You can't go to Amsterdam and not see it, so we went.  It was weird.  It was startling.  People have this idea that Americans are so sexualized, but it is nothing to some of the things I have seen since coming to Europe.  It is not something that most Americans are okay with talking about. We went, we saw, we conquered (I guess).  And then we quickly went back to the warmth!

The one where my 8th grade dream comes true (Amsterdam)

I can hardly believe it, but we are officially more than halfway, with the halfway point taking place around January 26th. We had Monday and Tuesday off of school, so combined with our Friday off, this presented an excellent opportunity for another big trip.  We only have one more, maybe two more, with Holy Week at the end of March.  We ultimately settled on Amsterdam, with a stopover in Brussels on the way home because it was cheaper than flying out of Amsterdam.  Ever since my 8th grade geography class when I did a presentation on the Netherlands, I have wanted to visit.  It was totally worth it.  Despite the cold, I absolutely loved it.  It is high on my list of cities to return to, and I would suggest it to everyone, though possibly in the Spring or Summer when it isn't so cold!

We left on Thursday and spent the night in Sevilla so that we could get to the airport in time for our early flight.  We spent a good chunk of the day in the Barcelona airport, before finally flying to Amsterdam and arriving in Amsterdam!  Marissa's dad has done a lot of traveling there, so he had given us lots of helpful recommendations and tidbits about transportation and where to visit.  We made it to our hotel after an exceptionally cold walk from the bus stop with little complications and dropped our things.  As is customary on our first night in a new city, we ended up going with the cheapest, closest thing we could find, which ended up being an Italian restaurant.  We split two pizzas, one artichoke and one spinach, that were absolutely awesome!  Reminded me of the ones I had in Italy, which is saying something.  

Day 2 in Amsterdam, we got down to business.  Through Marissa's dad, we had made contact with a woman who worked at his old company in Amsterdam.  Melissa kindly agreed to meet up with us, show us around, and lend us her Museum Cards to get us into the sites.  It was so cold in the morning that we decided to go check out the Hermitage museum while it warmed up and meet up again later.  The main draw at the museum was the Van Gogh exhibit.  Usually it has its own museum, but that was closed for renovations.  It was absolutely fabulous.  We couldn't take pictures, but take my word for it, it was so interesting and breath-taking to see.  The exhibit did a fabulous job of telling about his life through his art.  I felt like a learned a lot about him without it being thrown in my face.  For being a temporary exhibit, the museum was able to make it relatively fluid, going from the different parts of his life and reflecting Van Gogh's different inspirations.  I would love to go back and see the exhibit in its natural home some day!

Afterwards, we met back up with Melissa, and she took us to some of the local markets.  We walked through the tulip market, which was pretty despite being relatively void of flowers.  We also went to a market that was a lot like the gypsy market here in Zafra, but it also sold food, cooked and raw.  As you can see we got these waffle-looking things, that are sliced down the middle and filled with a caramel of some sort.  They were extremely delicious, but cooled down very quickly because of the cold.  It was lots of fun watching the guy make them in front of us.

We were starting to get hungry for real then, so Melissa treated us to a very nice lunch at one of her favorite cafes.  It was small and homey.  There was a ladder leading to a second floor where we ate our lunch.  I had a grilled chicken with avocado sandwich on ciabatta bread. After lunch we headed to the Rijksmuseum, which was also mostly closed for renovations.  I didn't really mind because I was starting to feel tired.  They still have the Masterpieces exhibit open, which houses the most famous works, such as many of Rembrandt’s paintings.  It was interesting to see, but nothing life-changing.  By the time we were finished, it had gotten quite snowy outside.  We went back to our hotel to enjoy the snow in the warmth.  Eventually, we made our way back out into the cold to get dinner at Wok to Walk, a chain that we had also eaten at in Barcelona.  It was delicious and a welcome change of pace.

The one with el Doctor

It's difficult to see, but my pinky, pointer finger, middle finger,
and thumb base joint are all noticeably swollen 

So today I finally had a doctor's appointment to figure out what is going on with my hand/body.  What an experience!  First a week ago I went to the insurance office in town to figure out how to go to the doctor.  It seems like it would be obvious, but I wasn't sure.  This really helpful guy told me that to see the general practitioner, I can just call the doctor, and to see a specialist, you have to be pre-approved.  So I called and set up an appointment last Monday, but the earliest I could get an appointment was today at the urgent care/hospital-like facility across from my school.

My appointment was at 5:40 PM, so I arrived around 5:15, in case I had to fill out any paperwork.  Strangely enough, I didn't, though the guy at the reception desk filled some things out on a computer and printed a form with my name on it.  I went up to the lounge on the second floor only to discover that the whole town was there with  me.  Okay, so it was really only like 60 people but it was insanity.  I quickly realized that it was because no one, except me, came to the doctor alone.  I waited an hour even though I had an appointment, but it was okay because it gave me time to nervous sweat.

Dr. Garcia was nice and trustworthy-looking.  I explained that because I am American that it would be easier to just give him my symptoms written and then handed him my notebook.  We talked about my swollen joints, and the laundry list of ones that hurt (fingers, wrists, elbows, knees, hips, etc.).  He examined, bent, and flexed them.  He said that is sounds like general joint inflammation, cause unknown, possibly Rheumatoid arthritis, further tests needed.  Finally he wrote it all up in his computer, ordered a blood test for tomorrow, and gave me a prescription for prednisone to help with the inflammation.  So yeah.  And that was my experience with visiting the doctor in Spain.  Overall I give it a 7 out of 10 (reduced because of the wait , lack of definitive diagnosis, and having to come back) but highly recommend it others who are sick or injured.

The one with White Wine at Wade's

We are relaxing in Zafra this weekend and planning the details of our trip to Amsterdam/Brussels next weekend. Yesterday we grabbed drinks and a tapa in the Plaza grande with Masha and soaked up some of the Spanish Sun that has finally graced us with its presence. It was glorious and I didn't even wear my jacket!

Later I made Christianos and Moros or black beans and rice for dinner. Then we headed over to Wade's house to watch a movie with Wade and an auxiliar named Sarah from Ireland. We watched Top Gun, which was awesome as usual! Yay for being social :) It was a good day spent among friends!