Well let's see. Last Wednesday was the General Strike (or Huelga General) in Spain. The government wants to raise the retirement age from 60 to 65, and I believe that Spain's unemployment rate is 19%. Therefore the Union workers are super pissed and organized a massive strike all throughout Spain. Success? No. None of the buses were running and the Metro was supposed to run at 20% but I heard that it was still very quick and ran almost normally. Apparently Spain had another strike back in June that was exponentially worse. I won't lie, the no-bus thing really sucked, but I was only 30 minutes late and the school was very forgiving, because they completely understood. I don't know the logistics of a strike, but I personally think that an underground strike would have been more successful. Spaniards are completely used to the strike thing so they had plenty of time to plan accordingly. If one day the buses and Metro just randomly didn't run, that'd de-rail the entire country. And THAT would be much more effective. There were a couple of bombings/car fires/what have you up north, but not too much excitement in Madrid, except for people who were armed with stickers & spray paint. Near my house at a bank somebody spray painted the outer wall with what I assume is a pig. I'll take a picture...the Strike proponents should work on their basic animal shapes haha. It kills me though because the buildings around here are all ancient so when bored antsy Union supporters get pissed off & decide to have a hay-day with spray paint, they're destroying the most gorgeous buildings. The buildings didn't up the retirement age....go spray paint the faces of the government workers instead.
(see, my thoughts like these are why I'm going into teaching. Or translating. Clearly legal matters aren't my forte)
Above you can see some pictures of the protesters the night before the General Strike. That night we had class out in BFE and afterwards was Fisica o Quimica, my favorite trashy Spanish TV show. I went to Ashley's apartment, which is right off of Sol, the heart of Madrid. Besides the fact that her apartment is badass, AND she has an oven (I have a "combination" microwave that is also a "grill"...and I use the term "grill" loosely because whenever I use the "grill" function the microwave actually elicits flames. Large flames. And as far as I know, no microwaves are supposed to deal with fire so...I've chosen to never use the flame function. Instead, I'll make/bake everything I need an oven for at Ashley's while having movie marathons (HALLOWEEN!!) or watching trashy TV). I was unaware, though, that the protesters would be practicing and getting pumped up in the plaza so...that was a very surprising addition to our TV night.
What else, what else. Well, for one I thought that my last two days of school would be easy because I didn't have class with Colonel Nun, therefore nothing TOO crazy could happen. That was dumb of me. On Monday I brought on the crazy myself. I was getting tired, and the students weren't paying attention...giving me the annoyed blank stare of death again. So I got a little cheeky with them and was like, "Seriously? Nobody knows? Alejandro, how old are you? *blank stare.* Alejandro...how OLD are you? *blank stare* Old. 1, 2, 3...? Alejandro? Roberto? Fernando? No? Okay then..." One of the kids tried to tell me in Spanish that his name was neither Roberto or Fernando. I tried to tell him it was a joke but he didn't get it. Clearly, they're 2nd graders. But then he was like "why?" I told him to ask Lady Gaga. Which then started a class discussion soley in Spanish about Lady Gaga and her songs that they know (well, in broken English). In hindsight I asked for that one. Then again how was I supposed to know they'd actually KNOW Lady Gaga?? They're like...7.
That wasn't the only time I slipped. I might have also been teaching colors to the same class and came across the color brown. I asked "what's an animal that is brown?" and one of the kids said beaver. (this isn't going where you think) Except in Spanish. I was like "yes! That's beaver. Can you say beaver? *no...* Beaver. Repeat, beaver. REPEAT. Beaver, like Justin Beiber. Yes?" Except I didn't exactly explain myself very well so now all thirty of my 2C class thinks that the cute teen star's name is Justin Beaver. He'll never find out, right?
But, besides those poor cultural references, I've been having a very awkward personal week with my kids. First of all, the kid 2 weeks ago who told me I was beautiful came up to my desk after class and did the same thing again. "Hello Chelsea!! Tee-chair, tee-chair, jew are bery be-yoo-teeful."...thanks, Jeremy, for being awkard again. Translation: "Aw, thank you Jeremy. Go stand in line!" But that wasn't the end of that. Later that day, I had 2C, the class of Lady Gaga and Justin Beaver. Afterwards I waited with them to walk down the stairs. One girl who refused to talk to me came up after class and kept trying to hold my hand (the students are VERY touchy here...which seems really weird to me but I've been trying to get used to it. I honestly think it's cute but I've been raised with that whole "don't touch teachers/students" thing so...it's hard to get past) But anyways I was like...what's the deal? Why wouldn't you talk AT ALL in class but now you want to hold my hand? I said "hello! how are you?" she turned to her friend, while still death-gripping my hand (well, 3 fingers) and whispered something in her ear. Her friend gave me a hug, then, and translated "Chelsea, jew are very boo-tee-ful, yes?" The mute friend was nodding her head enthusiastically. ......um....what the hell?? Have you been talking to Jeremy?? What'd he tell you?? That little brat. I don't know how to answer that, so I just said thank you. They kept staring up at me, smiling, studying me. I wanted to tell them "from your angle I'm guessing I'm not too flattering, eh?" but I assumed if they couldn't tell me their names, they wouldn't understand perspective and whatnot. Monday was an interesting day.
Then came today. Tuesday I have recess duty, and so does Juliet, my roommate, so we usually talk together in English and wait for one or two brave kids to come say hi. Two of her students came up and asked us in Spanish "tienes un tampon?" Since my oldest students are 13, it's not usually something that comes up. But I bought a cute case for my tampons before I left so I was like PERFECT occasion! So I start looking in my purse and getting one out but the girl looks completely confused. That's when she shows us a massive hole she ripped in her skirt and motions that she needs something to keep it together. Turns out the word tampon, in Spanish, means safety pin. Ooopsies. So Juliet went off with the girl to find a safety pin and I hung around my students because they know me and treat me like a celebrity, haha. So all of a sudden five different girls come running up to me....CHELSEA!!! CHELSEA!!! Hello!! Hello!! So I talk to them for a bit even though I only recognized 3. The other 2 I haven't even met yet because I won't have had their class until tomorrow for the first time. I think it's super cute though. One girl kept asking "Chelsea, how long are you here? Are you here forever?" Haha! Forever is a long time...I told her I didn't know yet. Then, after that, two more boys came up (from the class I haven't met yet) and started talking to me as well. One of them (that does not know me) looks at my hair, tries to touch it (but I'm too tall), and says "I like jour hair." Then one of the other girls says "jes jes!! Jew are bery be-yoo-teeful." JEREMY, THAT LITTLE SLUG. I'mma kill em. I laughed and said "well...thank you?" and one of the other girls was apalled that I didn't seem that sure. She said, "Jes jes, jew are!! And jour eyes. What colour are jour eyes?" I don't know? Brown? Hazel? Depends on what I'm wearing? "Um...I don't know?" "Well, dey are bery be-yoo-teeful. I like jour eyes!!" ...???
I guess I look very different from most Spaniards. I've yet to see one person that could pass as "naturally blonde"...but there are quite a few blue-eyed Spanish boys around here (that aren't dating my teachers). Juliet went on a date with one the other night & didn't like him so she's considering giving him my number, haha. He's 31 & bald, though, so I don't know if I really want to bark up that tree, haha.
Tomorrow is one of my long days...and when I say long day, I mean long long long day. I go at 9:30 and won't get home until 9:30 at night :/ Erg. I also have 2 classes tomorrow with Colonel Nun. I am just going to let things be and see how it goes....we're learning the subjects tomorrow so I'm interested in seeing how her recent Sean Connery accent with her s's will affect the student's comprehension and pronunciation. "Yesh, shtudents, Shpanish. English. Mooshic. Shi, shi, yesh." Bring it on, Sean!!
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