Week 4

By Aaron

Lost in Translation:  The Spanish language has proved tricky to navigate in the month we've been in Madrid, but we have also had several encounters with people speaking English in unfamiliar ways.  This week we had a classmate of ours ask "Do you have a rubber?" in the midst of an otherwise very normal lunch break.  A quick check of the time revealed that this lovely person would have approximately 10 minutes to make use of the item in this request. After exchanging a quick glance with each other, Joni and I realized that this was a request to borrow Joni's eraser.  English is fun!

Exploring the city: This week we ventured to church with Marli.  After taking the bus (our first Madrid bus!), we found ourselves in a small evangelical church not all that far from our school.  Everyone we met was so incredibly nice, and it was one of the most immersive experiences we've had with Spanish.  Some of the songs were recognizable, and having the Spanish lyrics made the meaning fairly easy to interpret.  The sermon, on the other hand, was delivered full speed entirely in Spanish.  The scripture reading for the day led us to believe the message was about the prodigal son, but no way I ever would have discerned that meaning on my own!

After church we attempted to make our first visit to an Aldi outside of the United States.  For those who aren't aware, Aldi is my favorite grocery store and just in general one of my favorite stores ever.  The incredible discounts!  The lightning quick cashiers!  The obscure German food!  Anyway, we had our sights set on a store about 20 minutes walk away from Marli's church, and set off on foot.  Much to our dismay, this particular Aldi was closed on Sunday!  I swear I had looked up the hours the night before, but the unlit storefront and the clearly stated times of business on the window confirmed that the store was indeed closed.  We'll give it another go soon, and in the meantime the anticipation only grows!

Memorable meal: On Friday night, Marli made some amazing pizza.  Pizza is always a hit with me, but with jamón? Out of sight.  In addition to the food being memorable from this meal, it was also Theo's last night.  But not even our fearless translator could make sense of what seems to have been an impromptu bed switch right in the middle of dinner.  A man came to the door, and proceeded to take apart one of the beds in our room before carrying it out into the hall. Four people got up from the dinner table, mid-meal, carried out several beds, and disappeared for at least 20 minutes with zero explanation.  At first we wondered if we might be getting an upgrade to a double bed, but another bed of similar dimensions was moved into our room from another room.  Eventually (a couple days later) we found that this whole thing was one of many moving parts that go into Marli's shifting life as she prepares to house new people in one of her apartments.

Who's coming to dinner: This week we had the pleasure of dining with an Argentinian family from Marli's church.  Isabel and Juan have a daughter named Nicole (who is a little shy but tends to get slap happy and crazy - in a fun way - as the night progresses) and a son named Brian (who is as kind as he is hilarious).  Marli (who transplanted to Spain from Brazil) seems to have collected all the people at her church who moved here from another country and adopted them as her family.  The Argentinians are a part of this group, and it was fun to hear about their lives and hopes for a new start in Spain.

En la clase: This is our final week of our TEFL course at TtMadrid, and what a momentous one it was! Joni and I both taught our 6th and final practice lesson, and completed our final exam.  The entire class passed the final, and Joni was the lone student who received perfect marks - surprising no one.  This was one grueling month of work, trying many things we (mostly me) had never done before.  While there is still a lot of learning that can only come with more practice and real-life application, we both feel prepared to teach.  It will be sad not to see our fellow students and wonderful teachers on a daily basis, but it will not be sad to say goodbye to 12 hour school days!

Final note: We got a room upgrade!  On Tuesday night we were informed that the five girls who were set to move in on September 1st were arriving on Wednesday, August 24th.  Little did we know that during Friday's dinner shuffle, Marli was preparing to move out of the place we assumed was her permanent home.  It seems that she moves about between the 3 or 4 other apartments she manages as dictated by the needs of her renters. On Wednesday evening we came back to the apartment to find that we had been upgraded to the master bedroom with our own bathroom and copious amount of sleekly designed storage space. We do still desperately need to find an apartment, but we will be living out the rest of our time at Calle Gran Via, 15 in style.