By Aaron
Lost in Translation: Nothing was necessarily misunderstood this week, just a lot of blank stares and total lack of understanding at dinner. But boy am I getting that lispy grathíath down!
Lost in Translation: Nothing was necessarily misunderstood this week, just a lot of blank stares and total lack of understanding at dinner. But boy am I getting that lispy grathíath down!
Exploring the city: As noted in our last post, I had a birthday last week. Our classmates all decided to go out on Friday night, and we ended up near Plaza Santa Ana. In addition to being a happening place on a weekend night, we were somewhat surprised to see a lot of families with young children out past 10. There is even a playground that would have seemed drastically out of place were it not for the abundance of kids playing on it. We also ventured out after church with our friends Cat and Ben to a restaurant called Txirimiri (pronounced Cheery Meery) in the La Latina neighborhood, where we devoured some delicious and exquisitely presented food.
Memorable meal: Txirimiri may have provided us with the best food I've had all summer after eating all across the U.S. We had some kind of meat (pork?) prepared to be as crisp as it was juicy, served atop a cooked potato sliver that embodied everything a standard potato chip has always wanted to be. Marli also served us some incredible meals, including another unknown piece of meat in sauce that seemed to melt in our mouths and nourish our souls after a day when we arrived home at 10 PM.
Who's coming to dinner: This week yielded fewer surprise guests at dinner, but our house mate Valeria was a constant source of entertainment at the table. Hailing from Italy and visiting Madrid to enhance her conversational Spanish, Valeria is a Spanish teacher who, by everything we witnessed this week, needs absolutely no assistance with making conversation. While the topics were many, my favorite conversation was probably when we somehow stumbled onto religion and she discovered we are Mennonite. She LOVES Mennonites and I believe we were the first she had ever met. Pacifism was understood, but it is unclear whether the distinction between Amish and Mormons was made clear. Amid the confusion the doorbell happened to ring, and Joni joked that maybe it was some Mormons. It was the electrician, whose faith we did not discuss. Tonight was Valeria's last dinner as she departs tomorrow to visit her sister in Germany, and our dinners will never be the same.
En la clase: My birthday was acknowledged in school for the first time ever, with a muffin and the traditional "Happy Birthday" in English (followed later in the day many, many times with the endearing "Cumpleaños Feliz" while we were out and about). Joni was voted Student of the Week by her peers, winning a free Spanish lesson and a magical coupon for a school-related favor from any of our teachers. Almost all of our classmates (close to 30) met up at a tapas restaurant and proceeded in a caravan eventually winding up in the indie/alt rock club "Mi Madre era una Groupie." It was a great way to get to know these wonderful new people after a busy first week of class!
The following week brought on our first teaching practices with actual students attending a class we taught on our own. For certain students of the week among us, the scary part was the unknown territory of working with adults. For other lesser students with no marked distinction, the scary part was spending 50 minutes in front of a group of strangers and attempting not to pass out or walk out of the room. I'm happy to say that we both completed our lessons and the more timid one of us is growing more comfortable by the day in this new world.
Final note: Class is incredibly busy, as we are spending time lesson planning, preparing materials and working on a group project all while having a regular load of classes. We are on the hunt for apartments, keenly aware that we need to find a place before September 1. Perhaps the weekend will provide an opportunity to devote more time to the search, or at least slightly less cluttered brains with which to contemplate the options!
Who's coming to dinner: This week yielded fewer surprise guests at dinner, but our house mate Valeria was a constant source of entertainment at the table. Hailing from Italy and visiting Madrid to enhance her conversational Spanish, Valeria is a Spanish teacher who, by everything we witnessed this week, needs absolutely no assistance with making conversation. While the topics were many, my favorite conversation was probably when we somehow stumbled onto religion and she discovered we are Mennonite. She LOVES Mennonites and I believe we were the first she had ever met. Pacifism was understood, but it is unclear whether the distinction between Amish and Mormons was made clear. Amid the confusion the doorbell happened to ring, and Joni joked that maybe it was some Mormons. It was the electrician, whose faith we did not discuss. Tonight was Valeria's last dinner as she departs tomorrow to visit her sister in Germany, and our dinners will never be the same.
En la clase: My birthday was acknowledged in school for the first time ever, with a muffin and the traditional "Happy Birthday" in English (followed later in the day many, many times with the endearing "Cumpleaños Feliz" while we were out and about). Joni was voted Student of the Week by her peers, winning a free Spanish lesson and a magical coupon for a school-related favor from any of our teachers. Almost all of our classmates (close to 30) met up at a tapas restaurant and proceeded in a caravan eventually winding up in the indie/alt rock club "Mi Madre era una Groupie." It was a great way to get to know these wonderful new people after a busy first week of class!
The following week brought on our first teaching practices with actual students attending a class we taught on our own. For certain students of the week among us, the scary part was the unknown territory of working with adults. For other lesser students with no marked distinction, the scary part was spending 50 minutes in front of a group of strangers and attempting not to pass out or walk out of the room. I'm happy to say that we both completed our lessons and the more timid one of us is growing more comfortable by the day in this new world.
Final note: Class is incredibly busy, as we are spending time lesson planning, preparing materials and working on a group project all while having a regular load of classes. We are on the hunt for apartments, keenly aware that we need to find a place before September 1. Perhaps the weekend will provide an opportunity to devote more time to the search, or at least slightly less cluttered brains with which to contemplate the options!
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