Hello Everyone!
Long time no read. I apologize for that heinous posting below. Boring content and bad writing. But thats what happens when you have zero internet and are trying to write a post in the library.
But now I finally have internet and can write long posts about overly generalized opinions about Spain.
Yesterday the telifonica man came out of the blue to install our internet at 10:00 on a Saturday morning which is unheard of in Spanish time.
Lets first generalize about time. Spanish time is always double of the actual time.
For Example:
" We will be leaving in a half an hour to an hour."The time here in Spain is just overall ... insane. Shall I bullet????
(Two and half hours later.... )
Yes I think I shall.
~ The Sun does not rise...repeat does not rise.. until 8:30 a.m. ~
Can I explain the confusion this can generate for an intense morning person. Our whole beings involve us morning folk waking up to and by the sun. No sunrise no morning person.I go to school in the morning in the dark. I am walking through the halls in the DARK. Just LOCO!
~ People go out at 1 a.m. and don't go home until 8 a.m. ~
Nope I did not get a.m. and p.m. confused nor are there typos. You read that correctly! The reason people here siesta from 2-5 p.m. and eat dinner at 10 p.m. is..drumroll... so they can go out until Spanish time sunrise.
This is absolutely the most intense lifestyle EVER. Some clubs don't even open until 6 a.m.
If you tell a Spainard you want to go to bed at 3 a.m. or 4 p.m. they just yell at you and tell you you are " Parrty Pooperr!" and that " It's early! It's early!". The only defense is to say" I'm American."
My students often ask me " What are American parties like?". One awkward question..but I say and only say " We go to bed earlier than people in Spain. We go home after parties around 3 a.m. maybe 4 a.m." and that just erupts loud baffled whispering for a solid 10 minutes.
I dont even have words for this..ok maybe one. INSANE
~ Nothing is open. EVER. Or during hours when most convenient. ~
Siesta is a serious serious matter in Spain. While things don't open until 10 a.m. (AT THE EARLIEST), everything, literally everything, closes at 2 - 5 p.m. for siesta. NO ONE works 2-5. No ONE. Top marks on the life style list.
I know what your thinking... "Oh the important things must be open during siesta." WRONG (eeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh slamming the wrong buzzer over and over and over and over). The government bodies and important places such as the bank..they close at 2 p.m.!!! They dont even open after 5. Yup. I mean it makes getting your residency card and setting up your bank account to get paid virtually impossible...but its also kind of awesome. How this country functions..my bet Madrid and only Madrid..maybe Barcelona.
While I am struggling to adjust to this time schedule the Chino store has helped me through, the chino store, the most reliable genre of stores I will ever come across in my existence. My whole being survives on the graciousness and the accessibility of the Chino store. The Chino store is ..well.. that random shop run by Chinese. And these stores are LITERALLY called Chino stores. For example Chino Bazaar, Bazaar de Chino..etc. etc. They take pride in the ability to keep foreigners like us living cheaply and as if we were in a normal country. Im proud of you Chino stores and I am proud to say half of me belongs to your race. Live long and prosper!
~Now lets move on to food~
The five basic staples of the Spanish diet: ham, cheese, bread, ham, and ham.
Everything is ham, every style of ham you could think of, they even have ham flavored chips that they eat with their ham sandwich. Everyday all the students (every single one) eats the same ham sandwich, a baguette with cheese and ham, EVERY student EVERY day. I will take a picture one day and prove this to you.
The Spainards do eat other things...sometimes. Sometimes they eat tostadas..well which usually is a piece of bagette bread and ham, or tapas which is also bread cheese and ham..o wait same ingredients ..ok ok . Sometimes they eat payeya (can't spell) which is rice and shellfish. Or sometimes they eat eggs with potatoes called Tortilla de patatas. Or sometimes (scratching head - thinking intensely) sometimes they will eat some peppers or lentils maybe.
OH shoot and Papas Fritas and mayonaise. They love their papas fritas and mayonaise.
~Style.~
Lets go onto style. (Spain is a haven for cheap shoe shoppers everywhere!!! Yup that is the first thing I noticed and I am super excited to by cheap black flats on a monthly basis if I wanted too.)
The Spanish style is relatively distinct. You need skinny jeans, leggings, and a botched haircut. The clothes are modern and interesting, you can wear almost anything you want. Some people even go all out and wear the same color all the way through.. yup some people just wear entirely one color..or others combine different articles of clothing in ways I cant explain but are cool.
But the hair. The hair is oh so ridiculously awesome. The hair..ok I will list again.
1. Mullet
2. Drullet (mullet with dreads in the back)
3. Rat tail
4. Side rat tail
5. Side dread rat tail
6. Randomly shaved head
7. Randomly shaved heads with random dreads
8. Fohawks
9. 90's front spike (YOU KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT)
10. Side-bangs
So many options so little time to regrow your hair! Im going to have to rock one of this at some point...Im thinking the side dread rat tail but I also am loving the drullet.
~OH and the language.~
Now my Spanish was bad when I got here. It still is bad. I knew this was going to happen ..but I had no idea that I would have absolutely no idea what anyone says. At school Boston University we learned MEXICAN SPANISH. You think not..but we did. Ok remember that minor detail that every spainish teacher voluntarily left out..oh yeah thats the VOSOTROS form...yeah. They use the vosotros here. They also lysp there "c"s and in Extremadura my region they mesh everything together and omitt the "s" (similar to how Boston omitt's the "r"). My best strategy for speaking in Spain is the slur all my words together..much more effective than pronounciating.
Overall ESPANA. Te Quiero. Love Spain. I love my students, I love my city Caceres, and I love the people I know here.
Caceres is an old moorish city covered in stork nests with no storks because they have gone south for the winter, intense conquistadoresque buildings, a plaza mayor, and a normal part with clubs, shops, and restaurants. Caceres is small (80,000 about the size of Quincy) but it is big enough to have a social life and since it is in the remote countryside, living is cheap and affordable. A+ in my book.
Caceres is also a catholic town, many catholic churches and it has its own Virgen de la Montana (the virgen my street is named after). The virgen of Caceres that they haul down from their mountain(hill) in an absurdly ornate parade. They also have crazy religious processions with pointy hats and huge heavy platforms where they carry statues of the saints. There is even a nunnery where the nuns never see any outside person. You can buy pastries from the nuns through a rotating door. Very cool.
And though Caceres is a "catholic" city..it knows how to party party party. In attempts to become the cultural capital of Europe, Caceres has been putting on crazy cool events. Last weekend, my birthday weekend, was the visual arts festival where they had a light show on all the major cathedrals and buildings. The light shows were tailored to the building so it seemed as if the buildings were emitting these crazy psychedelic light patterns. They also had amazing d.j.'s rocking out while the light show was being displayed on these antique cathedrals.
Two words "Catholicism Rocks"
Also I love my pueblos. I work in two towns Malpartida de Caceres and Arroyo de la Luz. My teacher who picked me up from the bus station is the main English teacher in Malpartida. She virtually did everything for me besides hand feeding me. I was lucky since some auxiliares teachers didnt even contact them let alone help them.
Malpartida is a small suburb of Caceres. My school is teeny tiny but the students are fun. Most common questions " What is your favorite Spanish food?", "Who is your favorite Spanish Actor?", "Do you like Spain?", "Do you like Spanish?", "Do you have Spanish friends?", "Do you like Spanish men?"...absolutely ridiculous. After you get through those wave of questions its relatively smooth sailing. These kids have never heard anything about America, only the U.K. so there is a vast vessel of information to give them.
Arroyo is the other town 45 minutes away. The students are super eager to learn, ask less questions about my opinion of Spanish things, and are from a town known as the "pueblo de los caballos" ..TOWN OF HORSES. EPIC win. The teachers are super friendly and the students have actually made me consider becoming a teacher. Teaching made fun.
My life is pretty simple and I am enjoying it as much as I can. Hopefully I can improve my Spanish so I can stop being mute at parties and bars. In time..in time. Im building up that vocabulary.
Next post is going to be about my schools again..I have left out so many details but a blog post can only be so long. AND I will get to China..I will.
Besos!
Spain seems so fun! I wish I could visit and I can't wait to hear more!
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