Respectful Neighbors

Everyone's heard the saying "Good fences make good neighbors", but how do you apply that to apartments? Good walls make good neighbors? If only they made good walls that could trap the sound in one apartment so that all of the surrounding apartments couldn't hear the obnoxiously loud annoying noises. Today was the first day since sometimes in January that I didn't have to set an alarm- I was super excited! However my neighbors didn't wake up to their alarm and pressed snooze every 5min for about 30min starting just before 8am. When they finally did get up they put on really bad Spanish music on a high volume and hit repeat for about 2 hours. When they finally got sick of the music they did something which sounded like a mix of roller blading and dragging a stick behind them while clanging chairs and other furniture around. Not exactly what I wanted to spend my supposedly relaxing Friday morning listening to. I understand that sometimes when you move furniture or cook or whatever that you make noise, that's fine. What's unacceptable is that you blast music all day and make other obscenely loud noises which disturb all of your neighbors. I am new to this whole apartment thing. I lived in apartment-style rooms throughout college the past 4 years, and honestly only ever had a noise issue occasionally. It all comes down to one thing: respect. All of us at school (and generally across the US) have respect for others living near us. While every now and again someone would throw a loud party or something we did have pretty good walls which buffered noises. Here in Spain people have lived in apartments their entire lives- they should know how noises affect neighbors, especially since they don't have good walls here. The noise issue was a problem in my previous apartment as well as this apartment. The English coordinator at my school hasn't slept well for months now because of the noises her neighbors make. Maybe this is why students are now forced to take a citizens class where they unfortunately aren't learning anything. We in the states are taught respect at a young age- respect your parents, your teachers, your friends, even people you don't like you still have to respect their differences and move on. That lesson seems to have missed the current generations living and working in Spain. They are much more self oriented and anything you do is imposing on them and you shouldn't do it- your problem not theirs. The longer I'm here the more I'm truly amazed at how different two developed, westernized countries (or so they're both classified) can be. Only 117 more days till I'm back in the land where good fences make good neighbors.

Citizen Class

I found out today that everyone attending public school in Spain takes a class that's essentially "How to be a good citizen" It's usually 2hours a week, and the students learn things like how they should behave. I was talking to one of the teachers about it and he told me that the class is "shit." He said it's something the politicians recently implemented because they noticed children weren't disciplined and didn't know how to behave properly once they entered the world after high school- well yes that's very obvious; I noticed that after being here for only a few months. He went on to say that it's something parents/family/friends should teach children growing up, it's not values you can learn in a classroom. Basically the class tries to tell students what's appropriate behavior and actions and what isn't. Clearly the majority of the kids have yet to learn anything- not from the class nor from their parents. To me, this whole idea of lack of discipline and how to teach a child what's right and wrong is very different from what I'm used to. Obviously there's no one correct or magic way, but the Spanish way has some major flaws- and even my friends from the UK, Italy, and elsewhere have noticed. So this post is really just a shout out and wishful thinking that things in Spain will change; if not the country is going to have some serious problems in the not to far future.

Sweden

This past weekend I went with a friend to Stockholm, Sweden. The first thing we discovered is that it's very expensive. Sweden doesn't use the Euro so not only were things expensive, but we also had to factor in the exchange rate. The second thing we discovered is that Sweden is amazing :) We couchsurfed while we were there and our host told us that a lot of people are excited to eat in Stockholm. At first I thought that was a bit strange, but now I completely understand (as all of my food pictures demonstrate). Our host told us about a well known bakery, so we went there for the traditional Swedish Semlas, Cinnamon Buns, and other pastries. It was so good that we went twice even though we were only there for 3 days. We also found a really good Vegetarian restaurant right in the center of Old Town. It was an all you could eat buffet, and we definitely took advantage of it! Seriously, the food was delicious! (We also went there twice.) We also had the opportunity to make Swedish Cinnamon Buns from scratch! Unfortunately the oven was a bit off and didn't cook them evenly so the bottom was burnt and the middle wasn't quite done, but they were still delicious and we ate them all!

Apart from the food we got to see a lot of Stockholm. The city itself is built on 14 islands and has an archipelago close by that acts like a barrier to the city. We walked around a lot of the city- along the harbors, the "boardwalk", through Old Town where the royal palace and the Nobel Museum are located, around one of the islands with a huge park, etc. In the park we saw lots of people running and it really made me want to join them- it really was the perfect running spot with gravel trails though a park, next to the water. We also took a ferry out to the archipelagos. Before reaching the fort located on the main island of Waxholm the ferry had to cut through some ice. I had seen the ocean frozen over in Helsinki a few weekends earlier but I had never been on a boat going through ice before. It was really neat to see how quickly the ice reacted and fused back together once the boat had passed. We were told that just 2 weeks ago it would have been fine to walk across all the ice, but now it was getting to warm to be safe. The weather was not what I know as spring weather, but there was a definite difference from my trip to Helsinki earlier. There were ice puddles, where you could tell things had warmed up for a few hours and refrozen, there were birds around, people were outside, and although it was cold and windy there wasn't the frigid chill you experience in winter (like I noticed in Helsinki). I want to go back and visit Sweden sometime in the summer and be able to do some kayaking and hiking up north. It's also really close to the beautiful cliffs and landscapes in Norway where people base jump with wing suits- talk about a rush! Sweden really is a pretty country and worth a visit.

Carnival !!!

Since Spain has a strong religious following (theoretically, although I'm not sure how many actually practice) Carnival is a huge celebration here. It's kinda a mix of our Halloween, and Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It's celebrated to prepare for the season of Lent in the Catholic faith. The weekend before Lent starts there are lots of parades, parties, etc. and EVERYONE dresses up! You can dress up as whatever, and there are more costumes in the stores during Carnival than during Halloween. Throughout the entire weekend we saw kids and adults just walking around in costumes, and especially at night everyone was dressed in costumes. (Maybe this is how they get the idea that Halloween costumes must be scary... in order to differentiate them from Carnival costumes?) The school of course had a celebration for Carnival as well. Tuesday afternoon there were no classes, but the kids paraded around and then danced around for awhile. Everyone, even all of the teachers, secretaries, etc were all in costumes. Most of the grades had a theme, for example 1st graders were clowns, 6th graders were doctors, 5th graders were business men/women, 3rd graders were lumberjacks/lumberjills, 4th graders were chefs, there was a wizard of oz class (although one kid in that class was dressed as spiderman- didn't know he was in the wizard of oz!?), and 2nd graders could be whatever they wanted. One of the 6th grade teachers was "Dr. Jaus" House, but with a J since we're a bilingual school- we all found that pretty hilarious!! Another tradition at Carnival is to burn a sardine. On the sardine you write bad things that are going on that you want to disappear/good wishes and when you burn the sardine the bad things are supposed to go away. It was interesting to watch them burn a giant paper sardine in the middle of the schoolyard with everyone watching. All of the parents were lined up along the outside gates of the school to watch the parade, burning of the sardine, and then the dance fest that lasted for a good 30min or so. It was a really fun day at school and it was neat to see how even though it's a religious holiday it's celebrated in a public school and all over the country, and even though we celebrate this holiday in the states (New Orleans mainly) it's still celebrated in different ways in Spain. Definitely a fun cultural day!

Auxiliar's Week

This week in school is Auxiliar's week. All of the auxiliars are going around to all of the classrooms and explaining to the school where they are from, what their culture is like, what they enjoy doing, etc. The kids are learning about Miami, Kansas City, Texas, Atlanta, NC, Ireland, Scotland, and London. My presentation includes Atlanta and North Carolina. There are pictures of the city of Atlanta, GT, baseball, American football, the NC mountains, NC lighthouses, Winston-Salem, my family, my dogs, my house, and some races. To go along with our posters a lot of us have songs. I tried to download some songs (since we don't have internet in the classrooms) to play but I couldn't get "Welcome to Atlanta" or "Raise Up", so I have "Carolina Girls" and it's been stuck in my head all week :) The kids also get to ask us questions- usually it's the same boring questions over and over, but every now and then I'll get a good one or a random one. One kid asked me if the potatoes in North Carolina were big, that was a bit odd. There was also one class that really was interested in racing and asked me a lot of questions about that, so I really enjoyed that class. That was also the class that was chanting "Carleigh Carleigh" as soon as I walked into the room, kinda a cool feeling to have a room full of people chanting your name because they want to listen to you!

Emily's visit!

The past few days my friend Emily from the US came to visit me!! We had a great time and it was nice to see a familiar face again! She brought me some goodies from the US (like mac n' cheese) which was awesome. We did the touristy thing around Alcala and Madrid. It has been awhile since I was a tourist in Madrid so it was kinda nice to do some of that stuff again. We took a gondola/cable car ride from Parque Oeste to Casa del Campo and got to see a panoramic view of the city and some sites like the Templo de Debod, el Palacio Real, the river, and the gorgeous Casa del Campo park. Casa del Campo is an amazing park on the western side of Madrid, it's 5 times bigger than central park, has a zoo, an amusement park, lots of playgrounds, some mountain bike trails, picnic areas, and it'd be a great place to run! (although there is the minor issue of having to then take the 90-120min trek home on public transport without showering... so maybe I'll just run by my house and walk around Casa del Campo.) Monday while I was at work Emily went to some museums and saw a little of Madrid on her own before I met up with her after work to see Retiro, Gran Via, Sol, tapas at el museo de jamon. We of course had to have the Spanish staple of chocolate and churros (pictured above). It was a really great time!!

Helsinki, Finland

This past weekend I traveled north to visit a friend in Helsinki, Finland. Even though I was only there Thursday-Sunday I packed enough clothes for a week- good thing too as I ended up wearing them all, at the same time! Although it was below freezing (b/w -20C & -2C) I had a great time! I got to see the city of Helsinki, I got to see the ocean frozen over (really cool looking), and I got to cross-country ski! I'd never been cross country skiing before, it's a lot harder than it looks! There are two types, classic and skating style. Classic is easier, but I think I prefer skating style, but I'd really have to do it a lot to get used to it as it takes a ton more effort. We were skiing for a couple hours and didn't notice the cold till we stopped, then it was really cold. We went out on both Friday and Saturday nights, and I learned a few things about laws in Helsinki. For example it's illegal to bring your coat with you, you must pay to have it checked at the entrance, and each bar/restaurant/whatever can set their own age limit- so some places would let you enter at 18, others 23, other 25, etc for no reason other than it's what their establishment decided. (This was only sad because we really wanted to go to the ice bar but you had to be 25 to get into the restaurant where the ice bar was attached.)

Finland was much too short of a trip, but you can really see Helsinki in a few hours (which I did). I did get to try reindeer meat, something I've never tasted before. It's really expensive so I bought some slices from a market for sandwiches. It looked like beef jerky but was more tender tasting, really good! Another thing Finnish people are known for are their famous saunas. Lots of people have them at home and all the apartment complexes and universities have them. It's a social thing (well male & female saunas are separate) & they do a few times a week, even in the summer. We went for a bit and it was really hot! Although I guess that's the point. The "correct" way to sauna is to go in 3 times (taking a cold shower between each time) in order to get all of the toxins out of your body. It was an experience, but I guess the humidity in the southern US essentially does the same thing as far as heat and steam are concerned. All in all Finland was a blast!