Pictures!

So after spending the last few hours uploading all of our pictures to Photo Bucket, I've realized that I don't really like it. But I've spent too much time on it to change it now!
I'm not good at taking lots of pictures, but here are the ones I have taken so far!
Go to: www.photobucket.com/ourspainadventure
The front page will be blank!
All of the pictures are in sub-albums. They are listed on the left side of the page, under the heading "Albums".
Click on the sub-album you want to see and enjoy!
The pictures all have titles, to see the full description, click on the picture. Once you have clicked on a picture, it becomes larger and you can see the full discription. From there, there is a little slider bar in the upper right hand corner where you can click to go to the next picture (you have to actually click on the photo you want to enlarge on the slider bar, clicking the arrows only lets you browse to the following pictures).
I hope it works ok! Let me know if there are any problems with it!

We have internet!

Yay! We finally have internet! I can now type to you from the comfort of my living room instead of having to balance my laptop on the windowsill!
Things are going well. I've been teaching Halloween this week which is fun, but a little bit difficult.
Joseph and I went with our friend Stephen (another Language Assistant, from LA) out to Inca, which is the second largest city in Mallorca. It was about 45 minutes away by train. We got to see a lot of the country side, which was nice. They were having a big Sunday market, which was really cool.
Now a bit about Spanish food.
First and foremost, they do not refrigerate their milk. Which is just plain creepy. I dunno how it works, but it does. The milk does not have to be refrigerated until it's opened.
The grocery stores bake bread daily, which is awesome.
When eating out, tomatoes come on everything and olives always come on the side.
Not having a microwave is kind of nice. I feel like I eat a lot more healthy. But cooking with a gas stove and oven have their own set of challenges. It took us about half an our to get the oven lit the first time. And then about 2 weeks to figure out that was the grill setting (which is why everything was coming out burned). We know have the bake setting figured out, but unfortunately it has no temperature setting. In fact it only appears to have 2 settings - on and off.
Fresh fruit and veggies are cheap and easy to come by. Not so much from the grocery store down stairs. But there are tons of little fruit stores everywhere. And there is a big market everyday until 2 right down the street. And on Saturday's it is twice as big and super crowded. But it's nice to have such great access to them.
I have a new found appreciation for seedless grapes. Because they do not exist here.
I am in love with "creme de cocoa con avellana" which is basically like chocolate frosting with hazelnut, only I get the kind that is half regular and half white chocolate, and it is super fantastic. Spread it on some butter cookies and mmmmmmmm.
A really popular mallorcan pastry is "ensamada" and they have it at every cafe and on every desert menu. It's basically just sweet bread in a swirly shape, but they came in all sizes (like pizza sizes) and with lots of different fillings (my favorite is the creme, but I haven't tried the peach yet).
They have this awesome flavor of ice cream here called "stracciatella" which is kinda like vanilla with ribbons of brownie in it - but better! It is sooo good.
The cereal selection isn't nearly as wide here, but they have the knock-off frosted flakes so I'm good.
We'll I guess that'll do for now. We have a three day weekend coming up, and if we get paid in time, we might try to hop over to "the peninsula" (the main land of Spain). But we'll see. Hope everyone is doing great over there!

PS: Don't forget to vote!!

Two in One Day?!

So apparently Joseph and I were writing simultaneous blogs without even realizing it! Since he posted his first, I’ll amend mine to exclude the bank account and Day of the Virgins that he has already covered, but here is everything else!

I know, I know, the updates are few and far between. But we still don’t have internet and there is so much to say, I never know where to start or what to include.
Today’s topic? Work:
I finally just went over to my other school and found my way to the head English teacher. The school, San Francesco (not to be confused with my other school, Sant Francesc d’Assis) is only a 15 minute walk away and it is HUGE, at least 5 stories by my count (well only 4 according to them, because Spaniards don’t count the first floor). It covers every course (so from ages 3 to 18) and has multiple classes of each course (unlike my other school where there is only one class of each). I’m only working in the primary section, which I thought was kind of odd since I think my advanced level of English could be put to better use with the older students, but it’s still great. I work with both 6th grade classes, both 5th grade classes, one 2nd grade, and one 1st grade. I would say my students here know more English than at my other school, but not by much. Unlike my other school, where there is only 1 English teacher, there are several, so the student’s levels also depend on their teachers. Some emphasize reading/writing with others emphasizes speaking, some do activities, so do rote memorization, so it varies. One of the non-English teachers at the school wants to improve her conversational English, so starting this Thursday I will give her a one hour lesson each week. Of course I’m not charging her a lot, but it will be nice to have a little bit of pocket money.
I get to plan some Halloween activities for next week which should be fun! But I’ve been spoiled with technology. There is zero technology in any of my classes. No smart boards, no overhead projectors, not even white boards! Just good old fashion chalk and black boards. So it has definitely taken some re-getting use to. I thought my big school might have at least overhead projectors since apparently it is much harder to get into and a large portion of the student’s parents work in the near by Parliament building, but no such luck.
Ok, that’s all for now!
Luego!

Slackers

Okay, I know we've been slacking lately, but school has kicked into full gear, we're still trying to get basic things like bank accounts and internet etc., so we've been pretty distracted. All apologies. Anyway, we've at least set up our bank accounts, now hopefully the schools and government will figure out how they're going to pay us! What have we been up to since our last post? We've been to a few beaches (it's funny, whenever I tell that to my students, they look at me like I'm crazy because it's so "cold" but in my opinion, it's still great beach weather), we've enjoyed a few parties and bars (to understand the culture of Palma of course), although our adventures are still a bit limited since we haven't been paid. We're hoping to explore a little more of the island this weekend. We've gotten a few recommendations from coworkers. I also start my first tutoring job on Friday! I'll be helping the children of one of my coworkers. So far, it's only for one hour, but maybe I can bump it up to two. Nikki got offered a tutoring position today. While we were signing up for our bank accounts, the clerk was asking us questions. He asked where we were working and, coincidentally, his daughter attends one of Nikki's schools! So by the end, he said he'd email Nikki about possibly tutoring her. What else...Today we celebrated the Festival de Las Virgines. All the men go out at night and serenade the women at night. Then, during the day, they give the ladies clavelas (carnations). The women reward them with buñuelos (fried postres with potatoes in the middle, then sprinkled with powdered sugar). They reminded me of funnel cake or beignets. It was really sweet, the music was good, and the food was delicious. So far, that's all that's really happened. We spend a lot of time living a "European" lifestyle: making delicious meals with fresh food we buy nearly daily, spending time reading and writing in parks and cafes, etc. We live on a main avenue, but only a few blocks from the immigrant neighborhoods, so we have excellent restaurants and markets surrounding us. It's great. I've started writing another script. I hope it turns out well. Hopefully we'll have time to adventure out more with the next few weeks. Once I have more than 30 Euro in the bank. Thanks for the letters! I will try to find some stamps this week too so I can get on writing you back! Well that's all for now I guess. I miss y'all and love you a lot!

Teaching and Such

So we still don't have internet in our flat yet, but if you hang your laptop almost out the window we can get some wifi. So I am typing this now with the hopes that when I hang my computer out the window, it will post!

I had my first day teaching yesterday at San Francesc de Asis. It is a primary school (ages 3-11) with about 200-250 students (only one class of each grade). I lucked out on location. It takes me exactly 5 minutes to get from my flat (on the 5th floor) to the school. I work at this school Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays two hours a day. And the earliest I have to be there is 11:30, which is nice. Most of the students, even the older ones, do not have a very good grasp of English. The younger ones can say "Hello, my name is.." and thats about it. The middles ones can say "Hello, my name is... I live in Palma." And the oldest ones can say, "Hello, my name is... I live in Palma. I like play football." So the English teacher speaks in Catalan (a French influenced dialect of Spanish and the co-official language of the islands) most of the time. The kids are on the poorer side, but nothing compared to some of the schools I have worked in. Tomeu (the English teacher) said that before he came last year, they could speak no English.

 The director of our program told us not to let the students know we speak any Spanish, or they will only try to talk to us in Spanish. But it is very difficult with the little ones who know no English. Besides the English teacher, most of the other teachers don't speak English either. They try to, and we usually end up talking in a Span-glish mix as we both try to understand one another.

I have still yet to hear from my other school, where I assume I am working Thursdays and Fridays. The director of the school I have been going to was nice enough to call them for me to ask about my schedule. They pretty much said, "I have no idea, I will call you back" and they haven't yet. Maybe I should just show up at the school tomorrow? I don't know. But the good news is that the other school is only 15 minutes away, so that is very convenient as well.

Everything else is going pretty good. We had some tiles on the living room floor pop up, so the owner is going to stop by today and look at it. 

Having a super market right down stairs is awesome! It's like having your own giant refrigerator, just 5 flights of stairs away. We've been making group dinners most nights. So we decide what we want for dinner. Go downstairs and buy it, split the cost 5 ways, cook and enjoy!

Everyone says the same thing about the water in Palma, it is safe to drink, but not very good. Luckily the market also sells huge 8 liter jugs of water for only a euro!

Speaking of money, the program still hasn't figured out how they are going to pay us yet. Apparently they can't do it the way they've done in the past because we are not EU citizens. But their attitude is, they have until the end of the month to figure it out, so why worry about it now. I am a little worried, but I'm sure they will figure it out... at least I hope so!!

We also got 3 plants for out terrace! Someone had thrown them out by the dumpster, so we went and helped ourselves! I think one of them is mint even! Yay!

Ok, I guess that is good for now. Luego!

Brief Update

We have a flat. It is great.

We do not have internet. Yet. So right now we are in a Diner (yes, an American style diner) which has WiFi.

Our address is:

Calle Uetam 26, 5 B       

07006, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

(in Spain the house number comes after the street, the 5 means 5th floor and B is the letter of the apartment)

We also have phones!

Nikki: +34 652 160 656

Joseph: +34 652 160 675

(on a cell phone, you can get the plus by pressing and holding zero, I don't know how to do it on a house phone...)

We'll have more updates and pictures soon!

No Longer (Potentially) Homeless

I was not aware it was possible to get stressed out in Palma. But it is. After a week of searching for an apartment (albiet with more specific requirements) we narrowed it down to 2 options. One was this really nice modern place and the other was an older, but equally nice apartment. After complications with Miquel, the agent for the modern apartment, we signed a lease with the owners of the other, older, apartment. We lovingly call it "El Museo", or The Museum, because when we arrived, the owner wanted to give us a tour, "just like at a museum." It is also furnished with ornate antique furniture. It's spacious (even with 5 people living in it), has a HUGE terrace, is more or less centrally located from all of our schools, has a market grocery downstairs, AND turned out to be cheaper than the other place. All in all, I'd say it's a pretty sweet deal. We moved in this evening and have been enjoying not being homeless.

Yesterday we had orientation for our program. It started at 9AM and lasted until 3:30PM. But, luckily, the Spanish enjoy frequent breaks for coffee and food. Nikki and Jessica (a girl from Oregon we're living with) hoped that it would be conducted in English, but to their dismay it was in Spanish. It turned out to be quite informative (if you could understand them) and it was really nice to see all of the other students involved in the program. Not everyone will be in Palma, or even in Mallorca, but seeing and meeting all the others was comforting somehow; just knowing that were that many others going through the same experiences. It turns out that the Language Assistant program is not just for English speaking countries. There were a few German and French students there as well that will be teaching their students the respective languages. I think that the Americans outnumbered the other nationalities though, even the British. Surprisingly, we were informed by our Consulate representative (a nice lady from California) that there are very few Americans in the Islands, that this was the first year Americans were involved in the program, and that for many of our soon-to-be students, we would most likely be their first (and possibly only) physical contact with Americans and American culture. Talk about pressure! After eating the free food and drinking the free Coke, wine and beer, we were off. 

Today was my first day of class. I arrived at 9AM at Col Legi de Arcangel San Rafel. There were many young children running and yelling in the courtyard (kids are the same no matter where you go). I met with Marta and Tina, the two teachers I will be helping the most. We had about an hour of planning (getting to know each other, going over material, etc.) during which I prepared a short PowerPoint to teach the students about where I come from. Marta really wanted me to be specific, so I chose to talk about Atlanta and the South more than America in general (although we did talk extensively about the country). I included pictures (the skyline (and Mom: I even pointed out your building. They really like that) MLK, fried chicken and sweet tea, Stone Mountain, etc), facts, and even Youtube clips to Southern music. The first class was from ages 11-13 and they were VERY curious and engaged and asked really fantastic questions. They were a lot of fun. The second class was up to about 16 years old and they were too cool to ask questions, so they were not as impressive. Hopefully I'll be able to pique their interests soon. I also got a phone! Finally! I've started out with a basic plan, but will soon upgrade to include international calls. We've also toyed with the idea of getting a landline for the flat because international calls are cheaper (when using a calling card). Anyway, things are going great. I think tomorrow will be filled with getting more things for the apartment and weather permitting, (it rained so hard last night that it leaked through my window onto the floor) we'll go to the beach again. Miss yall and I'll send you the mailing address as soon as I remember it.