¿Das clases particulares ?

Time is moving by super fast. This week was filled with more introductions about myself, my town my family. Who knew that talking about your self for 12 hours a week would qualify as a job. I'm slowly beginning to pick up on how to best approach teaching the kids. I personally think its better to suffer through the silence and making them ask me questions, rather then just talk to them in English and have them not understand a clue.

I am also learning from the student too. For example, without a doubt I am asked "what is your favorite fútbol team?" I respond Barcelona (For no real reason other than I like they city and already own a jacket ...reminder to self...bring it back after break!). Almost on cue half the class erupts in cheers and the other half in groans...the groaning half supports Real Madrid. The follow up questions then alway test my true fan-ship. When I was first asked "Do you like Messing?" I replied with what, whats that? Turns out, he's THE player for Barca...oops! So after a few classes I know to say I love Barca, Messing included....and No, I do not like Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid ("best player in the world" apparently muy muy guapo accoring to the girls).

Other than school I have been making a pretty big effort to try and meet up with as many Spanish people as possible to really improve my spanish. Without a doubt offering to give "clases particulares" or individual english classes is the best way to do so. I can charge money for these but so far have opted to do it more like, you buy my coffee and we'll talk in spanish and english. Most of the people I have met with have been people whom I've met out and about. Now, there are pros and cons to the situation. I have one conversation friend who is this older-ish business man who my friends and I can't tell is very metro/euro (aka way too nicely dressed all the time) or...simply you know..either way its entertaining as at our last "lesson" we ended up at a cafe with his friends/co workers talking only en español.

On the other side, I met with two younger guys Raul and Juan, both who are/ have studying for their masters/doctorates in the science field. These two we met at the cafe/bar near are piso and they seem to be two really nice guys, normal and actually interested in working on their english.

Also, at the local police station/dmv time building where I had to go to turn in paper work for my foreign ID card, I met a really cool chica named Paz. She is originally from Galicia, lived in Tenerife (Canary Islands) for a while and is now in Mérida for a few years while working on a third degree. She is super nice and met with myself and two others just for some tapas and drinks. So nice and offered to take us out to this nice place whenever we want.

The here in Mérida and everyone I've met is nothing but friendliness and offers to help in anyway needed. Two of my neighbors, Emilio and Agoo (short for Augusta I think) have also offered to help with anything at well. Its great to already feel at home after only 3 weeks in a city.

On Tuesday nights we pretty much have a ritual down of our "hip hop" class, which i struggle through, and then going to the "Jazz Bar" for live music. Its funny because we clearly are the token foreigners and people are welcoming and love to chat. Wednesday night my teacher, Montse, invited me to the movies with her and her two sisters. The sisters live in the building next to me so I rode with them and we also had tapas and a drink before the movie, Agora. It was pretty good, and I understand around 85/90 percent of the conversation which I felt pretty good about! The director is Spanish, but the movie was dubbed en Español. I can't wait to see "Where the Wild Things Are" as well as the "New Moon" (the twilight movie!!)

Well tonight a few of us are traveling to Almendralejo, a smaller city about 30 mins away, to visit another friend and get out of Mérida for a bit. Saturday night I have plans to go out with a Spanish girl, Elena, who is the student of one of Montse's sisters. Elena is studying international business and is 23 and seems pretty excited to introduce me to her friends and go out. Its pretty awesome how helpful and open everyone!

OH and since Halloween is an important holiday to be celebrated we're hosting a dress up party next weekend..so there will be pictures by then for sure!

Ya es OCTUBRE!

Merida is a much better city then I could have ever imagined. Not only does it have great Roman Ruins (still have to see them...waiting for some visiters!!) but there are quite a bit of other activities as well. Friday morning we went to a forum on Migration and Development in Extremadura, mostly dealing with Moroccan immigrants. It was interesting to as well because my final research paper for Spanish dealt with similar themes. And believe it or not, it felt good to actually be doing something a bit academic. Of course I am enjoying the leisure activities here but I also am glad to be getting involved in other ways as well.

Friday night we (my flatmate Sara and Kristina, from the UK) ordered in Telepizza...Spains version of Pizza Hut. VERY delicious! We also met up with our American friend Ben and his neighbors who showed us a great time. It is very true that the people in this region are super friendly and want to help you in any way if need be.

Saturday was a fun day as we went to Mérida's basketball game. There are a couple guys on the team from the US, and one put on quite a good show. It was cool to see how some cheers/chants are universal. Although there was no "wave" there was plenty of cheering and horn blowing as Mérida won by 2 in the last 30 seconds. Also on a funny side note the shot clock was 24 seconds quite an arbitrary number.

Saturday night was fun as well as people from the nearby city of Zafra came to visit. We also had a family style dinner with homemade tortilla de espana, pasta carbonara, bread, meat cheese and of course coffee at the end! Later we went to this place called the La Amsteleria, that Sara and I live above. It reminds me of a Spanish version of Applebees/TGIF...friendly people, standard spanish fair from Tapas to Paella, and frosted mugs. There was a group of about 12 of us from France, Canada, Germany Sweden and Italian! At the end the waiter brought everyone at the table either a t-shirt of this crazy Red back pack/fanny pack/ duffle bag....Surely will make a great Christmas Present...sidenote....(I'll be home for the Holidays!)

Another great thing about our neighbor hood is the near by bakery. Open from 7 am and on, its a great spot for bread and of course pastries! Napolitanas de york (jamon) y queso or Napilitanas de chocolate are possibly the most amazing thing ever...anytime of day or night.

I'm semi looking forward to another week of work, but hope that the kids at Ruta de la Plata (in Calomonte) are a bit more enthusiastic then the first time around...pero, thats typical for the classroom I guess.

Pictures to come soon...time for a shower and some Paella!

"Do you like spanish boys?"

So started my first week of actual classes today...sort of. We had a long weekend so I didn't have to go in until tuesday and had 3 classes. They consisted of kids being almost forced into asking very basic questions about me, and me this having to talk for about 35 minutes in a slow voice about anything I could think that would interest them. Two classes were kids about 14/15 years old and the other was a class of mostly 11/12 years old. In the latter of the two ages, I helped read some exercises out of their work book for them to fill in.

Today (wed) I went to my second school where I gave 4 classes. Pretty much the same thing except I have my own classroom and kids come to me have a class as a time and asked questions they had already written down. The students in this school seemed more eager to participate, and by that, i mean they actually asked some questions rather than just have me talk at them.

MY favorite question of the day, "Do you like Spanish boys" and of course I said yes and explained my love of Rafael Nadal and our sharing of the same birthday...he also won his tennis match today !

Besides the job part I've been checking out a few different places at night. Went to a "Jazz bar" last night which was really fun live music with bongos and steel drums. Over the weekend a group of French girls doing my same program came to visit the our city so we all had dinner together and then went out and hit up the hot spots of Mérida.

It turns out I live right next to one of the nicer bars that the Spanish young people frequent before they head out to the late night clubs. That means from 12:30 to about 3:00am the bar, Caramelo is busy, inside and out. Anytime between 2:00 and 3:00 people make there way out to the El Foro, a mall by day, mecca for clubs by night. We managed to stay out till about 5, which pales in comparison to those late night-ers who stay out until 8 or 9 in the am. My stamina will clearly be tested in the coming months.

I've also signe up for a hip hop dance class with the other girls in Mérida...I clearly am not the most coordinated person in the world but I figure a month of dance classes can't hurt. Also I've been running and going out to eat a bit too... I officially love the Spanish Tortilla, Jamon Serrano and green olives.

Grocery shopping isn't bad, cheaper but nothing compared to Wegmans. However, they do have quite the selection of canned "seafood" (shout out to Joe Mullin, you'd love the selection of anchovies, calamari and everything kinda of canned sea food imaginable!)

Alright time to get back to living the spanish dream!

New Apartment!

Haven't had much time or internet to write but I've got some down time now...

Just moved into our piso, I'm living with a Canadian girl Sara who I met at orientation. We have 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms kitchen and a "salon" (pictures to come at some point). Currently we can still internet from the third bedroom...not a bad set up at all.

Also, I officially have a NIE- foreign national number kinda thing and am getting the equivalent of a green card, making me legal in Spain. Thus I opened a bank account with BBVA and now have a cell phone with through Vodafone.

Also funny to note, when we arrived in Mérida we came by train and stayed at a hostal for one night. Rather then spending all that money on a less then nice establishment, we called up our teachers at ended up staying with them till we moved into our APT.

My spanish teach's place was super nice...4th floor with an upstairs enclosed room and terrace. She had a little girl who was 3 years old...super cute but a little princess for sure. It was nice to be fed breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday and not have to really do a thing. However, I am glad to now be "on my own" to go about my day.

For dinner last night we had cheese and jamon on a baguette, toasted in the oven. Simple but delish.

I'll be sure to write more later!