Pre christmas update from chilly Spain
Hello All!!
It has been a long time since I last wrote an update for this webpage, and figured it was time to do something about it. I last wrote to give you some thrilling historical facts about the town I am living in, Martos. This time I want to spend some time telling you about my observations since I have been here.
Work aside, I haven’t been out much but I do like to wander around the town when I am trying to escape from my computer and lesson planning at home. There are some peculiarities that I have noticed during my wanderings.
One of the more disturbing of these is the Spanish tradition of putting posters up to say that someone has passed away. On every empty piece of wall (or so it seems), there are bunches of black and white A4 sized posters. They all have a picture of Jesus (incidentally a very popular name here and pronounce hairzeus), or of the Virgin Mary. Under these often macabre pictures are the name and birth / death dates of whoever has passed on. It might seem like a quaint custom, and a good way of letting people know. I feel sad though as I am always seeing the towns’ elderly gathering around the walls, scanning the posters for news of friends and acquaintances. Every time I walk past one of these posters I invariably see at least one, sad looking, person looking at them. I have tried to imagine what it must be like to find out about the death of an old and dear friend on a wall by the side of the local supermarket! Harsh I reckon.
There is one guy that makes me laugh every time I see him (which is twice so far). He is an old guy, obviously from the country, with a tattered waistcoat and his trousers held up with string. He walks up the main thoroughfare of the town, past all the new and shiny cars, leading his old white horse behind him. The horse looks as old and tired as him and always has big rush baskets of grass on its back. There is also a small dog that stands on the back of the horse – looking around and trying gallantly to stay standing as the horse sways along. Every time I see him it brings a smile to my face. I don’t know what he does with the grass, where he has been or where he is going but he brightens up my day!
There are a lot of teenagers in Martos and there isn’t a huge amount for them to do. There is a park near the library which is the ‘unofficial’ youth drinking club at the weekends. Whatever the weather huge groups of them firstly visit the off licence that serves the underage and they then converge at the park and endeavour to get as drunk as possible whilst flirting and posing with the groups of the opposite sex who are close, but not ‘with’ them. Apparently, in the summer, people in their 20’s an 30’s also take wine or something similar and sit out in the park in the evenings. It has certainly seemed busier than most of the bars when I have walked past.
There are a huge amount of bars and restaurants here, given the size of the town. We have two Chinese restaurants, about 8 or 9 Pizza restaurants, lots of tapas bars and some more upmarket restaurants. We also have (which surprised me greatly) and Irish bar! Yep, you read that right – there is actually an Irish bar here. It is down one of the side roads and plays English music (as does another bar called the ‘Belfast Bar’).
As well as myself and Eugene (the 42 year old Scottish guy who works with me) there are two young 20 something girls who are here on a year out from University where they are studying Spanish. They are here until May and have been placed by their University and the Spanish government to work as teachers assistants at two primary schools in the area.
They are nice enough girls but make me feel very old. One of their less honourable hobbies appears to be seeing how much vodka they can drink before they fall over! Oh to be that young and carefree again.
Spain is still very religious which actually causes problems with one of my groups at the academy. I teach a group of children that are 8-9 years old. The problem is that next year they will all have their first communions at church. The boys will dress up in sailor suits (I have asked but couldn’t clarify exactly why!) and the girls will wear wedding dresses. As this will happen next year they have to attend regular catechism classes, which clash with our timetables. Apparently it is fair enough for the students to forego basketball or football practice to attend classes at the academy, but they MUST all attend their catechism classes. They take it very seriously.
I had a letter from the Junta the other day (the Junta is the Spanish name for the local government), saying that my request for residential status in Spain has been approved. This means that my health care is free and I get to pay taxes (yay!). I have to go to the office shortly to pick up my Spanish Identity Card. It is nice to be legal. I have to visit on Friday to give a fingerprint for the computer system - big brother is watching!
I am finally able to properly pronounce all my students names. There are some odd ones such as Aurora (pronounced Aw Oo Ora), Jesus (hairzeus), David (the a is pronounced like the a in apple), Juan Carlos (Hwan), Marie Carmen (marry karmin), Adrian (the a is like apple again) and Justa (whosta) Sometimes I say their names in the English way just to raise a laugh. Jesus loves it when I call him Jesus (pronounced our way). I also find it amusing to say ‘Jesus be quiet and listen to me’ – that feeling of power haha – as if I were speaking to the ‘real’ Jesus. I remember I had a student in Thailand who’s nickname was God. It did amuse me when I pretended to be very upset if God missed my class!
I moved apartments at the beginning of November and am much happier in my new place. My neighbours are all elderly so no more loud ‘bomm bomm’ music at all hours! The problem at the moment is that the apartment beneath me is being gutted and totally refitted. This means that the workmen begin banging at around 8am and continue until around 8pm. The only day they have off is Sunday. I was hoping Sunday would be nice and quiet but it seems that this is the day that the man who owns the place has chosen to go in and do his own improvements to the work that has been completed in the week. It is not unusual for me to wake up in the mornings and for the first thing to leave my mouth to be a swear word! Doesn’t do much for my karma!
My normal working day does not officially begin until 3.45 pm but due to circumstance I have to be at the academy everyday by 9.30 am. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays I teach a business English course from 9.30 – 10.30 am. On Mondays and Thursdays from 9.30 – 10.30 am I study Spanish with my private tutor. My Spanish is coming along slowly. I spent my last class conjugating irregular verbs (yippee). Nothing about Spanish appears to be straightforward (although my students probably say that about English). My teacher s good though. Much better than my first teacher (who I sacked for being crap). She is around 45 years old and teaches English to primary school kids.
The weather has turned cold here and last week I bought myself an ‘estufa butano’ (to you and me that means a fire that is powered by one of the huge gas bottles). It has made a huge difference to my home life. The temperature today in my kitchen is 5 degrees but in my living room it is 18 degrees!). I know this as I invested in a couple of thermometers in one of those – exactly how sorry for myself should I feel - moments! I daren’t imagine how much gas I will go through to power the thing as it is on from the moment I wake to the moment I sleep (unless I go out). I wheel it into the bathroom for 30 minutes before I have a bath and do the same in my bedroom before I go to bed. As nothing in Spain is simple, although I bought the heater itself, I had to buy the tubing and the gas bottle connector cap separately from the Ferretaria (hardware shop). The guys in the shop thought it was highly amusing that I literally had to buy everything to install it – including a screwdriver as I didn’t have one (my dictionary came in very handy). I managed to put it together easily enough. I was told that I should soak the tubing in hot water to make it more pliable and easier to connect to the metal sticky out bits (technical eh). Anyhow, the water was a ‘little’ too hot to begin and I melted the tube! I had to chop the end off and start again with a slightly shorter tube and slightly cooler water! It did the job though!
A Spanish kitchen idea has greatly impressed me. They never dry up their crockery here. Above my sink is a cupboard with no bottom. It has racks for plates, cutlery and pots. You just wash your stuff and stick it in the cupboard to drip dry. The thing I keep forgetting is that the water and soap suds on the newly washed crockery drop straight out the bottom. I have had food in a strainer in the sink, quickly washed the pan it was in, put the pan in the cupboard and ended up with soapy food! Simple concept but one I repeatedly appear to fail to grasp! Peas a la lemon washing up liquid are becoming my speciality.
I have an oven in my new apartment. I keep meaning to take a picture of it. On the front, near the temperature dials are some pictures of various food items and the numbers they should be cooked at. One of the pictures is of a reindeer – I kid you not! I guess that if you go out and shoot some wild animal you should always cook it at number 8. Seeing as the only thing I want to shoot at the moment is the builder downstairs I am a bit confused as to what temperature I would cook him at – number 8 I guess.
In one of my rooms is a huge statue of Jesus on the wall. Quite normal for this area I presume but I find it a little bizarre. I swear he is making a peace sign with his hand. I don’t think I have ever seen a ‘peace man’ Jesus statue before – although the concept is quite obvious really isn’t it. I shall take a photo and stick it on this site when I go home at Christmas so you can also experience it.
I have invested in a truly wonderful ‘school’ bag. It is on wheels! Apparently this is normal in France too but I think they are great. All the kids have them to go to school (they tell me it is because they have too much homework to carry but I don’t believe them!). I haven’t seen any other adults with them but that doesn’t worry me – it is great! It looks like a normal backpack type school bag (and indeed can be worn as one) but it also has an extendable handle and wheels on the bottom. As I have so many books to take to and from the Academy it is a god send. The cheap bag I bought at the Monday night market in Thailand lasted about 2 weeks before it died on me.
The final thing I want to mention in this update is….. MULLETS! You know the hairstyle I mean (where the person has short hair on the top and sides, then long at the back). Well, here it appears to be (take a deep breath here) fashionable!! God it must be the world’s worst hairdo but so many teenagers here walk around proudly sporting mullets. Sad, very sad. I only hope it is a passing (quickly passing) fad.
I am planning to go to Granada on Saturday for another wander around and to buy Christmas gifts for my family luckily one of my adult students lives there at weekends so I have a free lift there! If you want anything in particular you had best get your orders in quickly!!!
Well, that is it for now from me; I hope you have enjoyed hearing a little more about my life here. Take care and have a good Christmas (Navidad here).
Love
Laus
xxxx
It has been a long time since I last wrote an update for this webpage, and figured it was time to do something about it. I last wrote to give you some thrilling historical facts about the town I am living in, Martos. This time I want to spend some time telling you about my observations since I have been here.
Work aside, I haven’t been out much but I do like to wander around the town when I am trying to escape from my computer and lesson planning at home. There are some peculiarities that I have noticed during my wanderings.
One of the more disturbing of these is the Spanish tradition of putting posters up to say that someone has passed away. On every empty piece of wall (or so it seems), there are bunches of black and white A4 sized posters. They all have a picture of Jesus (incidentally a very popular name here and pronounce hairzeus), or of the Virgin Mary. Under these often macabre pictures are the name and birth / death dates of whoever has passed on. It might seem like a quaint custom, and a good way of letting people know. I feel sad though as I am always seeing the towns’ elderly gathering around the walls, scanning the posters for news of friends and acquaintances. Every time I walk past one of these posters I invariably see at least one, sad looking, person looking at them. I have tried to imagine what it must be like to find out about the death of an old and dear friend on a wall by the side of the local supermarket! Harsh I reckon.
There is one guy that makes me laugh every time I see him (which is twice so far). He is an old guy, obviously from the country, with a tattered waistcoat and his trousers held up with string. He walks up the main thoroughfare of the town, past all the new and shiny cars, leading his old white horse behind him. The horse looks as old and tired as him and always has big rush baskets of grass on its back. There is also a small dog that stands on the back of the horse – looking around and trying gallantly to stay standing as the horse sways along. Every time I see him it brings a smile to my face. I don’t know what he does with the grass, where he has been or where he is going but he brightens up my day!
There are a lot of teenagers in Martos and there isn’t a huge amount for them to do. There is a park near the library which is the ‘unofficial’ youth drinking club at the weekends. Whatever the weather huge groups of them firstly visit the off licence that serves the underage and they then converge at the park and endeavour to get as drunk as possible whilst flirting and posing with the groups of the opposite sex who are close, but not ‘with’ them. Apparently, in the summer, people in their 20’s an 30’s also take wine or something similar and sit out in the park in the evenings. It has certainly seemed busier than most of the bars when I have walked past.
There are a huge amount of bars and restaurants here, given the size of the town. We have two Chinese restaurants, about 8 or 9 Pizza restaurants, lots of tapas bars and some more upmarket restaurants. We also have (which surprised me greatly) and Irish bar! Yep, you read that right – there is actually an Irish bar here. It is down one of the side roads and plays English music (as does another bar called the ‘Belfast Bar’).
As well as myself and Eugene (the 42 year old Scottish guy who works with me) there are two young 20 something girls who are here on a year out from University where they are studying Spanish. They are here until May and have been placed by their University and the Spanish government to work as teachers assistants at two primary schools in the area.
They are nice enough girls but make me feel very old. One of their less honourable hobbies appears to be seeing how much vodka they can drink before they fall over! Oh to be that young and carefree again.
Spain is still very religious which actually causes problems with one of my groups at the academy. I teach a group of children that are 8-9 years old. The problem is that next year they will all have their first communions at church. The boys will dress up in sailor suits (I have asked but couldn’t clarify exactly why!) and the girls will wear wedding dresses. As this will happen next year they have to attend regular catechism classes, which clash with our timetables. Apparently it is fair enough for the students to forego basketball or football practice to attend classes at the academy, but they MUST all attend their catechism classes. They take it very seriously.
I had a letter from the Junta the other day (the Junta is the Spanish name for the local government), saying that my request for residential status in Spain has been approved. This means that my health care is free and I get to pay taxes (yay!). I have to go to the office shortly to pick up my Spanish Identity Card. It is nice to be legal. I have to visit on Friday to give a fingerprint for the computer system - big brother is watching!
I am finally able to properly pronounce all my students names. There are some odd ones such as Aurora (pronounced Aw Oo Ora), Jesus (hairzeus), David (the a is pronounced like the a in apple), Juan Carlos (Hwan), Marie Carmen (marry karmin), Adrian (the a is like apple again) and Justa (whosta) Sometimes I say their names in the English way just to raise a laugh. Jesus loves it when I call him Jesus (pronounced our way). I also find it amusing to say ‘Jesus be quiet and listen to me’ – that feeling of power haha – as if I were speaking to the ‘real’ Jesus. I remember I had a student in Thailand who’s nickname was God. It did amuse me when I pretended to be very upset if God missed my class!
I moved apartments at the beginning of November and am much happier in my new place. My neighbours are all elderly so no more loud ‘bomm bomm’ music at all hours! The problem at the moment is that the apartment beneath me is being gutted and totally refitted. This means that the workmen begin banging at around 8am and continue until around 8pm. The only day they have off is Sunday. I was hoping Sunday would be nice and quiet but it seems that this is the day that the man who owns the place has chosen to go in and do his own improvements to the work that has been completed in the week. It is not unusual for me to wake up in the mornings and for the first thing to leave my mouth to be a swear word! Doesn’t do much for my karma!
My normal working day does not officially begin until 3.45 pm but due to circumstance I have to be at the academy everyday by 9.30 am. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays I teach a business English course from 9.30 – 10.30 am. On Mondays and Thursdays from 9.30 – 10.30 am I study Spanish with my private tutor. My Spanish is coming along slowly. I spent my last class conjugating irregular verbs (yippee). Nothing about Spanish appears to be straightforward (although my students probably say that about English). My teacher s good though. Much better than my first teacher (who I sacked for being crap). She is around 45 years old and teaches English to primary school kids.
The weather has turned cold here and last week I bought myself an ‘estufa butano’ (to you and me that means a fire that is powered by one of the huge gas bottles). It has made a huge difference to my home life. The temperature today in my kitchen is 5 degrees but in my living room it is 18 degrees!). I know this as I invested in a couple of thermometers in one of those – exactly how sorry for myself should I feel - moments! I daren’t imagine how much gas I will go through to power the thing as it is on from the moment I wake to the moment I sleep (unless I go out). I wheel it into the bathroom for 30 minutes before I have a bath and do the same in my bedroom before I go to bed. As nothing in Spain is simple, although I bought the heater itself, I had to buy the tubing and the gas bottle connector cap separately from the Ferretaria (hardware shop). The guys in the shop thought it was highly amusing that I literally had to buy everything to install it – including a screwdriver as I didn’t have one (my dictionary came in very handy). I managed to put it together easily enough. I was told that I should soak the tubing in hot water to make it more pliable and easier to connect to the metal sticky out bits (technical eh). Anyhow, the water was a ‘little’ too hot to begin and I melted the tube! I had to chop the end off and start again with a slightly shorter tube and slightly cooler water! It did the job though!
A Spanish kitchen idea has greatly impressed me. They never dry up their crockery here. Above my sink is a cupboard with no bottom. It has racks for plates, cutlery and pots. You just wash your stuff and stick it in the cupboard to drip dry. The thing I keep forgetting is that the water and soap suds on the newly washed crockery drop straight out the bottom. I have had food in a strainer in the sink, quickly washed the pan it was in, put the pan in the cupboard and ended up with soapy food! Simple concept but one I repeatedly appear to fail to grasp! Peas a la lemon washing up liquid are becoming my speciality.
I have an oven in my new apartment. I keep meaning to take a picture of it. On the front, near the temperature dials are some pictures of various food items and the numbers they should be cooked at. One of the pictures is of a reindeer – I kid you not! I guess that if you go out and shoot some wild animal you should always cook it at number 8. Seeing as the only thing I want to shoot at the moment is the builder downstairs I am a bit confused as to what temperature I would cook him at – number 8 I guess.
In one of my rooms is a huge statue of Jesus on the wall. Quite normal for this area I presume but I find it a little bizarre. I swear he is making a peace sign with his hand. I don’t think I have ever seen a ‘peace man’ Jesus statue before – although the concept is quite obvious really isn’t it. I shall take a photo and stick it on this site when I go home at Christmas so you can also experience it.
I have invested in a truly wonderful ‘school’ bag. It is on wheels! Apparently this is normal in France too but I think they are great. All the kids have them to go to school (they tell me it is because they have too much homework to carry but I don’t believe them!). I haven’t seen any other adults with them but that doesn’t worry me – it is great! It looks like a normal backpack type school bag (and indeed can be worn as one) but it also has an extendable handle and wheels on the bottom. As I have so many books to take to and from the Academy it is a god send. The cheap bag I bought at the Monday night market in Thailand lasted about 2 weeks before it died on me.
The final thing I want to mention in this update is….. MULLETS! You know the hairstyle I mean (where the person has short hair on the top and sides, then long at the back). Well, here it appears to be (take a deep breath here) fashionable!! God it must be the world’s worst hairdo but so many teenagers here walk around proudly sporting mullets. Sad, very sad. I only hope it is a passing (quickly passing) fad.
I am planning to go to Granada on Saturday for another wander around and to buy Christmas gifts for my family luckily one of my adult students lives there at weekends so I have a free lift there! If you want anything in particular you had best get your orders in quickly!!!
Well, that is it for now from me; I hope you have enjoyed hearing a little more about my life here. Take care and have a good Christmas (Navidad here).
Love
Laus
xxxx
posted by Laus at 9:59 am
3 Comments:
Hiya honey!
Figured whilst I was here i would send you a message this way! It's a fab blog, most informative and entertaining! You certainly sound much happier...peace of mind from huge decision making processes eh!
Well fancy, who are you hoping to work with next....Allah?!?!?!?
Have a great time and I will speak to you soon in the more conventional fashion. Love Red
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hello there, wow, I must say, what a great read! I found myself enjoy quite a few chuckles! You must take pictures and stick them on this blog. I can't wait to see the old man, his horse, his dog and his grass! About all the Jesus's, I get pretty Jesused out here in the south of the States so I can't imagined how I would deal with my surroundings there!
lol I want to see him giving the peace sign! Maybe those pictures of people who have moved on will help with announcing the news to the public. I never look at the death adds in the newspapers, maybe it would keep me updated. Then again do I really want to keep updated on that kind of news? Any way, I'll be checking in here regularly looking for some positive pictures of your surroundings and such!
I send hugs to you!
Kimberly
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