Week 26

By Aaron

Exploring the City: This past weekend, we set off on a journey to London.  While I have long considered the British city to be my favorite place to visit in the world, Joni had not previously visited it.  Budget airline EasyJet provided our transit, a two hour flight from Madrid to Gatwick airport.  For any Americans who have not had the pleasure, EasyJet would be a close comparison to Spirit Airlines in the US - the priority is low fares with every possible amenity available at an additional cost.  Knowing this going in, our experience went quite smoothly - though Joni was disappointed by the lack of complimentary beverage service as she enjoys sipping on that sweet sweet cranberry-apple whenever she flies.

Once grounded in London, we proceeded through a lengthy customs line and embarked on a train that took us to Victoria Station in the center of the city. After walking in vain search of Buckingham Palace to glimpse the tail-end of the changing of the guards, we happened upon the Santander bike sharing service.  Similar to the system that we utilized in Paris, London has a network of stations containing a fleet of bikes available to rent - at the stunning rate of £2/day (about $2.50).  This meant that we didn't end up riding the Underground or any buses during our stay, something that saved us money but that I regretted a bit after the fact as I thoroughly enjoy taking various modes of public transportation.





Like all our other weekend trips thus far, we rented a room on Airbnb.  We checked in to drop off our bags before heading out for the day, and found a sign welcoming us by name!  It was definitely the nicest room we've stayed in through Airbnb, though the whole apartment was quite chilly.



The entire city was hit with a cold snap, and while we were active or indoors a good amount of the time it was still very evident whenever we entered a building after being out (however briefly!).  We managed to fit in three different theatrical productions - the musical version of "School of Rock" the stage adaptation of the novel "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" and the classic thriller/chiller "The Woman In Black."  All productions were enjoyable in different ways, and shared the common thread of being very reasonably priced - we didn't pay more than the equivalent of $30 for any ticket, which is a bargain for West End prices.  Theatre-going is a past time that we've not indulged for about 8 months, and it's something I knew I missed but hadn't fully realized until this past weekend.






With all the theatre we didn't have too much time to do a lot of sightseeing, but we checked off a fair amount of things.  Here's a brief rundown:

- Seeing Big Ben/Parliament

- Crossing through a small section of Hyde Park
- Frantically and respectfully traversing a packed city block of protesters from the women's march...on our bikes!
- A stroll through Trafalgar Square, pre- and post-women's march

- A glimpse of Buckingham Palace

- A jaunt through the wonders of Harrod's department store

I think that London (and likely England in general) is so appealing to me because it is a mix of familiarity with just enough oddity to seem exotic.  The language is obviously very similar and provided little to no difficulty.
Lost in Translation: It's a small one this week, but after a brisk pre-theatre dinner we asked for the check.  The waitress smiled and said "Certainly.  Though I must insist on calling it the bill."  Who knew!

Memorable Meal: After scoring our tickets to "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," we meandered in search of a place to eat.  I had been craving an English breakfast, and we found exactly that at Balans Soho Society near the Gielgud Theater.  Eggs, "bacon" (closer to ham), sausage, a cooked tomato, a giant cooked mushroom, and toast.  I missed the sometimes-traditional baked beans, but was glad to avoid any contact with blood sausage.  In addition to serving scrumptious food, this restaurant made me realize what I crave when traveling to a new place: something local, not too expensive, with hip and/or location-specific decor, and lacking a recommendation to vouch for quality I think I prefer a chain of some sort.  I always think of myself wanting to try exotic or trendy foods, but really I crave a sense of order.  This will hopefully prove helpful in future travels, as Joni and I often struggle with choosing a spot when it comes to dinner.

En la clase: Joni started a new Spanish class this week.  Twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, she goes over to our friend Cat's house and a teacher comes to teach them both.  It's still early, but Joni is enjoying the structure of having a teacher.  I've been vigilantly attending a workbook focused on Spanish verbs, along with painstakingly working my way through the Spanish television show "El Ministerio del Tiempo."  There is still a ways to go, but I think we are both feeling good about the progress we've made.

From the teaching side of things, the past week has been full of fruitful discussions surrounding the recent inauguration activities.  Thanks to a thought-provoking collection of inauguration-themed Trump cartoons unearthed by Joni, our students had a platform to air any questions and ideas about the new US president, Obamacare, Twitter and the strangely compulsory connection between a bible and a nation principled on freedom of religion (there were a lot more questions than answers on that last point!).  One of my students mentioned a public opinion poll that found Spain to be the most anti-Trump nation in the world.  This led down a few fascinating rabbit trails about populism and even Maslow's hierarchy of needs.  Need I state the obvious, that these students are incredibly intelligent and informed?

Final Notes:
We recently took up a fiendishly addicting obsession with the BBC show "Sherlock."  I'm not exactly sure how it started - I've heard the show highly praised for a couple years - but it fortuitously preceded our adventure to the British isle.  This past Monday we were watching the show and spotted a familiar face.  British actor David Fynn is currently slaying audiences eight times a week as the fun loving Dewey Finn in "School of Rock," but he also appeared as train geek Howard Shilcott in 'The Empty Hearse' - the first episode kicking off the third season of "Sherlock."  It was a fun and well-timed intersection between two anglo-centric forms of entertainment, and we would heartily endorse checking out both shows - if you have Netflix or if you are planning a trip to New York or London.

Last but not least, we are pleased to share that Joni's dad's surgery went smoothly last week. Everything appears to have gone well, and although it is going to be a long recovery, he seems to be in good spirits about the whole thing.  We've been checking in with almost-daily updates over video chat, which has been really nice.  What a blessing to have ready access to technology that helps bridge physical divides!

Week 25

By Aaron

Lost in Translation: This Monday, I lost a glove.  I realized it on my way out of teaching a class at Torre Picasso, a large office building where many of my students work.  This building has a set of administrators in the lobby who issue security key cards to guests, and I asked if a glove had been returned to the desk.  No one had seen any stray gloves, and so I asked to return to the floor where I had just taught.  After an extensive search, I came up empty. I went back to the desk and reported my lack of success, then turned to leave. Just as I was resigning myself to walking around with a cold hand, a security guard near the door stopped me and said something very quickly.  I asked him to repeat, and he started to do so before saying "wait here" and walking across the room.  Moments later he approached carrying my glove!  While his garbled message was likely something to the effect of "I found your glove - you dropped it on the way in" I like to imagine it involved a lot more intrigue.  It's a mystery lost to time and my feeble Spanish ears.  All that said, this entire exchange was conducted in Spanish, and I felt fairly confident that I was getting the gist of almost every phrase!

Exploring the City: In an effort to do anything possible to further drag out the holiday festivities, Joni and I went to a performance of Circo de Hielo on January 15th.  I believe this is an annual tradition in Madrid, setup in a temporary space at the edge of the sprawling Casa de Campo. Imagine, if you will, something that resembles Cirque du Soleil...but with the thrilling addition of an ice skating component!  I was very nervous but also very entertained - until we progress enough to be able to take in more traditional theater, color me a budding circus fan. We witnessed a woman hang from the ceiling by her hair, a woman skate around on ice skate-stilts, a group of women carry sticks topped with spinning plates while figure skating, acrobats, and two strong men contort themselves into poses at angles I thought were only possible underwater. It amazes me what people can do.











We hit up another discount Wednesday movie, this time taking in the much heralded La Ciudad de las Estrellas. Or, as you may know it, La La Land.  American movies tend not to have literal translations, which often leads to comical new titles.  Joni learned this week that The Sound of Music in Spanish is called Smile and Tears.  Our Spanish is still not quite advanced to see a dubbed version of a film, so we opted for the original English version with Spanish subtitles (commonly represented with the acronym V.O.S.E. - versión original subtítulos español).  As was the case when we went to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the theater was packed for a midweek showing starting after 10 PM. These showings are simply so much cheaper that it is difficult to pass up, and for a couple of teachers without any extremely early classes we are certainly planning on more of these rather late movies.

Puerta de Toledo - which Joni walked by after work on the way to the movies

Memorable Meal: This past Sunday on our way home from Circo de Hielo, we stopped to pickup some fruit at our neighborhood fruit stand.  We are getting to know the men who run this place, and on this particularly empty evening at the store (close to 10:30 PM) we struck up a conversation.  This turned into about 25 minutes of an informal language exchange, discussing different places where the men have family all over the world.  Nearer to the end of our conversation, we were offered strawberries from the store.  We hadn't really eaten dinner that night, and this was definitely the most memorable moment of the week that involved food.  Voila!

En la clase: I began a new class this week with a student at Idealista.  If you recall from earlier posts, this is a company that specializes in helping people search for housing (a platform that fosters person-to-person interactions - think Craigslist but with more structure).  Idealista has office space on the fifth floor of a building about 20 minutes from our apartment, and the security protocol is way more relaxed than at Torre Picasso.  I arrived and told the lone door attendee that I was here to teach English, and he told me that the elevator was right behind me.  Puzzled that he didn't care to ask for ID, I thanked him and boarded the elevator.  When I arrived on the fifth floor, I entered through the only accessible door to find roughly 100 people spread out at computers in an open floor plan.  There was no clear secretary or point-of-entry for guests, so I asked the closest person where I could find my student.  He was very kind and told me to wait.  Which I did, for approximately half an hour, to eventually meet my student and discover he had been in a meeting.  I think this is going to be a good experience, and it's nice to be in a new environment that also feels familiar (Idealista shares the green and white color scheme with WCS, my beloved former employer in Washington D.C.).

Joni gave Ignacio, her 8 year-old student, another American treat this week.  The sweet of choice this time around was a classic peanut butter cookie, complete with embossed fork marks.  While the reaction was not nearly as euphoric, Ignacio was over the moon for the cookie and said that he preferred it to the no-bake peanut butter cookie he'd sampled last year.  Joni credited the predilection to the fact that classic homemade cookies just aren't a thing here.  I've had Spaniards tell me that one of their highlights of visiting the United States was trying Mrs. Fields' cookies.  Yes, that is one of the best things about the U.S.

Final Notes:

• While sitting on a park bench next to a statue of Miguel de Cervantes, a high school-aged girl approached me and asked about my backpack.  She said she had been looking at it on Amazon, and wondered if it was any good.  I love this bag and it's traversed the globe with me, so I unleashed a really good accounting of the many times the backpack had saved my life.  Actually, this was in Spanish, so I mainly told her it was really good and really hard (I meant to say 'tough' but I have no problem giving the bag some street cred).  Then she asked several questions about me and why I was here and THEN SHE COMPLEMENTED MY SPANISH.  It was undeserved, to be sure, but I was actually able to have an organically generated conversation entirely in Spanish and that felt real good.  The whole exchange was nice, if a bit bizarre.  Few people in the states would approach a stranger on such grounds, and to date I've not noticed anything missing from my possession (a valid concern, as I've heard many stories of pickpocketing).  Chalk one up for humanity - good people with honest inquiries exist!
  
• While the Sometimes Choir is on hiatus, Joni and I still have the pleasure of singing in church.  This past Sunday we performed the song "Will You Come And Follow Me?(The Summons)" as a prelude to the worship service at Community Church of Madrid.  It was wonderful to sing a duet accompanied by our fearless pianist/choral director Amy, and a good way to start out our week
• Finally, we'd be remiss not to mention that Joni's dad Jeff had surgery in Ohio on Tuesday.  It was a big part of our week and we were incredibly grateful for ready access to video chat.  The operation went smoothly, and our thoughts and prayers are with Jeff as he embarks on the road to recovery.

Week 24

By Aaron

Lost in Translation: 

Freshly Madrileños once more, Joni and I got back into the groove of Spanish life and language this week.  Starting with our time on the plane the reintegration to being surrounded by Spanish speakers went pretty smoothly, and overall I'd say it may have even helped to be mostly cutoff from the language for about a fortnight.  There was, however, one frustrating moment in Joni's quest to call a doctor.  After cross-referencing online lists of English speaking docs in Madrid with providers who accept our insurance, Joni called a number.  After a brief (and successful) conversation with the woman who answered, Joni was told that this office did not, in fact, take our insurance.  Not to be detoured, Joni called another number - which appeared to be for a hospital rather than a specific physician.  But after a couple minutes of letting the phone ring, she hung up in frustration.  "How long is it going to ring?  They probably won't accept our insurance.  And I probably won't even be able to communicate with them!" We've since been put into e-mail contact with a personally recommended doctor...which may prove useful.

A beautiful sunrise welcomed us back to Spain!

Exploring the City: Technically this blog covers the end of last week, so I thought we'd cover our exploration of Goshen, IN!  The booming metropolis of about 30,000 is home to our friends Gregg and Lavonne, as well as a pretty great downtown strip.  It was great to walk around and see the town decked out in ice sculptures, if a bit short-lived as the temperature was hovering just above zero.  

Once we returned to Spain, I joined Joni on a walk to her class at Ignacio's house as my hours have shifted around this trimester.  It was great to get to a new part of the city (for me) and to be able to better envision the neighborhood that is home to one of Joni's more entertaining students.  We've been enjoying the 60 degree weather after surviving the frozen Midwestern hellscape charm of Indiana in winter.

Memorable Meal:
When we were in Goshen, Gregg and Lavonne cooked up a divine curry dish.  I don't know what all was in it, but the result was fantastic.  We really enjoyed chatting with these good friends as they graciously prepared us a hot meal. Fingers crossed that we'll see them again soon... We also got some extra company from Bracton and Bri when mealtime came around!

En la clase:
As noted previously, my workload is shifting as students' schedules change frequently - though I've been promised more classes in the coming week. In addition to her returning classes from the fall, Joni has a few new classes:

- A brother/sister pair of high school students, who Joni calls "quite possibly the nicest teenagers I've ever met, and also very serious/quiet."
- A brother/sister pair of elementary school kids.  The girl is the older of the two, and has been described by Joni as "a bit demanding and obsessed with crafts" to which I responded [no comment].
- The mother of the aforementioned teenagers, who is preparing for the Cambridge exam and "runs an incredibly tight ship of a home...but in a good way!"

Stories will surely be forthcoming, stay tuned.


Final Notes:
It was a week of adjustment and acclimating to our unconventional-yet-familiar environment.  We're nearly adjusted to the sleep schedule, though we did have a few restless nights of surprising friends in the states with calls at 3AM Madrid time.  As seems to be the case in such moments, we felt we did not maximize our inordinate amount of free time to it's fullest potential.  One of my many new year's resolutions is to sleep less, and this week was full of far too many nine-hour nights. I know the research is varied, but I recently happened upon some that claimed adults need only seven to function at a high level.  That's what I was accustomed to in the states, and honestly I feel more drained than rested after a night of anything more than about eight. All that to say we feel the promise of a new year and we're excited to see what the future will bring.

Week 23

By Aaron

Lost in Translation: This week was entirely comprised of time spent around English speakers, so words were not lost in translation.  Being back in the U.S. did cause us to notice some things we may not have discussed before.  For me, it has been a very long time since I regularly drove in cold weather (as I haven't commuted to work by car since 2013).  Madrid is noticeably warmer than northwest Ohio, but even in the coldest parts of our time in Spanish winter we are always on the move.  Since we rarely take the bus, commuting time is spent walking or sitting in a warm train car.

Stores are also very, very big in the U.S., and it's strange to be able to go into a store like Meijer and find everything you could possibly need.  Oh, and many of these stores are filled with people who look the same.  This is probably indicative of fashion trends in an urban vs. rural setting rather than any kind of country-to-country difference, but I think it's also a product of just being on foot all the time and being more attuned to the clothing of people all around us.

Finally, we did see snow fall!  It was quite the treat to see flurries of snow, and even have a small amount of the white stuff accumulate.  I won't miss driving on snowy/icy roads, and I hope nothing holds up our return to Madrid this Saturday.

Memorable Meal: We've had the incredibly good fortune to eat ourselves silly with Joni's family.  While every day brought a new scrumptious treat, the two most memorable meals we had came on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.  On December 31st, we had our "family Christmas" with the Martins where we exchanged gifts and had the traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls and egg casserole.  The next day, the first of the new year, Joni's extended family came over and grazed off of the finest party food in the land.  Nacho dip, taco dip, BLT dip (with real bacon!), grape salad (with Butterfinger crumbs!), chocolate cake freak out, veggies with dip, meatballs, barbecued pulled pork, and much more.  If I were a bear I'd sure be ready to hibernate for the next several months!

Along with all this great food, we enjoyed playing lots of games, good conversation, and putting together this puzzle from Disneyland Paris that Joni's mom was excited to receive:

We also attended one of T.J.'s freshman basketball games. 
That same day, we made 6 batches of Chex Mix using the ingredients we received for Christmas. This stash should last us a while, and it'll be nice to have our favorite snack available in Spain! A little taste of home :)

 

En la clase: No classes this week!  For the first time since September, we neither took nor taught a class.  It was a strange feeling, and this time off felt akin to the lengthy reprieves between semesters in college.  I read an entire book (an entire book!) in three days.  I have a feeling next week will be hard...even with the relatively small amount of hours I'm scheduled to work.

Final Notes: 
We met our new nephew, Marty Blee! He is now 7 weeks old. It was great to snuggle with him and simultaneously be entertained by the ever-energetic Jade, Marty's 3 1/2 year old big sister. 

Jade loved her new Flamenco dancer dress from Spain!

We rang in the new year surrounded by family, and at the last minute remembered that we wanted to participate in the Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight for good luck. The only grapes in the house had already been made into grape salad, but that worked just fine!  We just didn't have time to count them out onto a plate for everyone, so my mom got to use the serving bowl.

It was so nice to have some quality family time and lazy winter days. Now we're headed back to Madrid to make the most of the next 6 months! Hopefully they will be filled with language learning, travel, and clarity for what's to come post-Spain.

Happy new year, and happy Three Kings Day!