Monday, August 30, 2010

So you think you can dance?

Flamenco–noun
1. A style of dancing, characteristic of the Andalusian Gypsies, that is strongly rhythmic and involves vigorous actions, as clapping the hands and stamping the feet.
2. A style of instrumental or vocal music originating in southern Spain and typically of an intensely rhythmic, improvisatory character, performed by itself or as an accompaniment to flamenco dancing.
Source: www.dictionary.com


I have always been a Zorro fan. In fact, my mom made me a Zorro costume when I was little and I wore it for numerous Halloweens. With that said, I am a big fan of the movie The Mask of Zorro. There is a specific scene in that movie where Catherine Zeta-Jones does a flamenco dance as everyone looks upon her. Last Wednesday I was able to experience what all those spectators witnessed on the set as they watched Jones—the flamenco (relatively speaking in regards to Jones’ performance, not to take anything away from her performance that is...)

We first separated into groups to go out for tapas, basically what Spaniards call appetizers. This night in particular I had some of the best non-fish tapas I have had here in Spain (I say non-fish because many of the tapas I had up to this point were fish, and even though I wasn’t a big fish fan before I came to Spain, I am gradually expanding my taste pallets to include a few different types). We tried several different tapas at this restaurant, but there were two that blew me away—“pollo con tomate” and “queso frito.” Those are pretty easy to translate but for those of you who don’t know those are “chicken with tomatoes” (more of a stew) and “fried cheese.” Deliciousness.

After enjoying a few different plates (including calamari which I am gradually becoming a fan of) we made our way to the center of town and hung out in front of the cathedral to take pictures. We had about 30 minutes before we had to head towards the cultural center where we would be watching the flamenco.


Eventually we made our way there, stood in line, received are tickets, and shuffled into the dim lighted center courtyard of an old Spanish home where the flamenco would take place. There were five acts: (Note: the audience was only allowed to take pictures during the fifth act)

Act 1: Classical Guitar and Singing
Two men sat on the state with one playing classical guitar well the other clapped and sang. Very cool with some spectacular guitar playing and basic clap flamenco.

Act 2: Classical guitar, singing, and male dancer
The guitar player and the singer moved their chairs off stage, and were also joined by a woman. Within a couple of minutes of them playing the male flamenco dancer came on stage. It was incredible. It was a mix of crazy tap-dancing and movement of the body. Pair that with the guitar and singing in the background and it was an awesome experience.

Act 3: Classical guitar
The classical guitarist played for about 7-8 minutes. This was some incredible guitar playing that I know my brother would of really enjoyed (my brother is a big guitar player and can play a little classical guitar himself).

Act 4: Classical guitar, singing, and female dancer
The male dancer switched roles with the female dancer for this act and it was her time to shine. Again, it was an incredible performance by everyone.

Act 5: Classical guitar, singing, and both female and male dancers
This act contained more of what I traditionally though a flamenco dance would look like. The couple danced on the stage for only a few minutes while the crowd snapped pictures but it was something you may have seen Catherina Zeta-Jones and Antonio Banderas do in The Mask of Zorro.



All in all it was an incredible and entertaining night. I wish I could further explain what the flamenco was like, but it was so unique and indescribable that you would have to see it for yourself. That was the first flamenco show I have ever been to, but it will definitely not be my last here in Spain.

Hot. Very, Very Hot.

I lived in Dallas, Texas for a couple of months last year. I moved there in the middle of August and there is one thing I learned very quickly—it is hot there. Almost a year later I have moved to Spain and will be studying in Sevilla for the next 4-weeks. Again, I have learned something very quickly—it is hot.


That's me walking around Sevilla.

Since arriving here in Sevilla last week the day temperature has not been less then 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This was okay last week when I was being put up in an air-conditioned hotel by CIEE. However, I have now moved to my host Senora who does not have air conditioning and I have rapidly needed to adjust to living in a room whose temperature does not drop below 85 degrees (that is a low guess…)


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My specific location in Sevilla -- c/ Feria 150, 2


Speaking of my host Senora—I am officially moved in to where I will be living during my 4-week Spanish class. I am placed with a woman, who I guess, is in her 60s—Concepcion. I am also not the only CIEE teacher placed with her. Steven, a recent graduate of Alabama, resides in a room just down the hall from me and together we have had a great time with our Senora over the last couple of days. However, as mentioned, it’s been difficult for both of us to adjust to the heat and lack of air-conditioning, from waking up in the morning sweating to being outside in extreme heat and walking into extreme heat once we enter our house. However, we have both decided we are going to make the best of it and are really looking forward to the next 4-weeks.






Along with Steven there is also a girl from Germany living in our long hallway. Alex arrived Saturday night and will also be studying Spanish over the next 4-weeks . She speaks not only German, but pretty good English and Spanish and is hoping to start Italian at her university this fall. I put her on the list of Europeans I know who can speak multiple languages and at least two fluently. This continues to be the one thing that amazes me about the Europeans and I feel lingual-inferior (not sure if that works but its true…) because of my monolingual background. Hopefully that changes in the next 4 weeks…

I have a lot to write about over the next couple of days. From spending all day yesterday in Cadiz at the beach to the Flamenco show we went to last week during orientation. Check back tomorrow.

Friday, August 27, 2010

History Geek. Take 2.

What a whirlwind of a week. I apologize for not getting a post or two up this week but CIEE had quite the itinerary planned for us with little down time (most days we even had stuff planned during the Spanish siesta time). Let me catch you up.


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Monday my uncle brought me up to Sevilla and dropped me off at the hotel where CIEE was putting us up all week. It was about a two hour drive from Algeciras. When we arrived at the hotel I checked in and made my way up to the room. I figured I’d have a roommate and sure enough I found out I was actually in a triple. I opened the door and the lights were out—both of them were out cold. They had arrived that day and like me the week before, jet lag was winning. At 7 that night we had our welcome meeting and shortly after that we had a welcome cocktail where all of us doing the 4-week Spanish class intermingled and got to know each other. Overall it was a solid group of people from all over the country. It was going to be a fun week.
I don’t want to bore you with all of the orientation meetings we had, but in short, we had 5 hours of meetings broken up by a 30-minute coffee break on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We went through some very useful information. After each meeting we had lunch and then had a little bit of free time. But that free time often meant we were walking around the town with a CIEE staff person showing us the city of Sevilla.



The city is absolutely incredible. It is the third or fourth largest in Spain (depending on how you determine city size…) and dates back to the Roman Empire. Most notably it became one of the capitols during the Moorish Empire and became the first capital of Christian Spain after the Moors were defeated. The churches and government buildings here are incredible and easily trump anything I saw in Honduras and Guatemala. It is amazing to think that those churches and buildings I saw in Central America are modeled after what I am seeing here in Spain—with Spain being the origin of most of the common architecture in Central America.

On Tuesday afternoon, in 100-degree heat, we had the opportunity to check out an incredible fort that dated back to the Moors. The Alcaza was a fort built by the Moors over one-thousand years ago but when the Christians defeated the Moors in Sevilla in the 15th Century they took over the fort and first tore a lot of it down (there are still two rooms and a large portion of wall that date back to the original Moorish complex) before rebuilding much of it using Moorish style architecture. It became the royal palace and capital for Spain and thrived even more when Columbus discovered the New World in 1492.

Speaking of Columbus, he spent much of his time in Sevilla before and in between trips to the New World. After his successful discovery Sevilla became his headquarters and within the Alcaza was Columbus’ first office. That was an awesome moment for me as a history geek—standing in a room that Christopher Columbus stood in over 500 years ago.

The palace itself is incredible. Like many of the buildings around Sevilla the intricacy is incredible. These pictures do not do it justice, but they try.






I apologize if you feel like you are reading a history textbook, but being around all this history makes me pretty giddy.

Anyway, its time to unpack at my home stay house, I just arrived here today and am going to settle in before I get a post up about my living conditions for the next 4 weeks.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

History Geek.

I am a history teacher. Yes, I also have a Social Studies certification, but history is my first love. Having the opportunity to live in Europe is exciting for many reasons, but one of the major reasons was the opportunity I have to see a lot of historical places. So far I have not been disappointed.

On Sunday I went to a smaller coastal down on the Atlantic with my uncle and his family. Over 2000 years ago the Romans had established a town in this very place which thrived (because of tuna migration from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic) for several centuries. Many of these ruins still exist and there is a nice museum, as well as walking tour, of the ruins. After walking around the ruins for an hour I had another one of those "wow, I am really here" moments. We were having lunch overlooking the Atlantic and within 50 yards were those 2000 year old Roman ruins we had just been walking through.




I have much more to talk about but it will have to wait. I am actually in Seville now and just finished my first full day of my program orientation. But it is past midnight here and I need to wake up at 7 so it is bed time.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Relaxation.

So, this is what it is like to sit around with nothing to do? I have experienced this before but it has been several months. Ever since I went down to Honduras I have felt like I had things to do. Although Honduras really cut me off and I was able to slow down my pace of life, there was still grading and planning to do. Not only that, but I also had things to take care of for Spain, as well as my TEFL class. Yes, I took an awesome vacation with Rachel at the end of the school year to Guatamala and Roatan, Honduras but we were traveling a lot, trying to pack as much in as possible over the course of 12 days. I arrived home to the United States at the end of June and within two days I was in a car on my way to Chicago to apply for my student visa for Spain. Now, there were several days while home in the US where I was able to relax and enjoy downtime, but I always had something I had to do or look into later down the road.

Since I arrived in Spain on Monday I've had nothing to do. And its been awesome. My orientation starts Monday night, with my Spanish classes starting the week after that. So life will get busy again. But for now, I've been able to enjoy the fact that one, I am in Spain, and two, I really don't have anything I have to do right now. It feels great.

With that said I imagine it comes to no surprise to you that I haven't done a whole lot the last few days. My body is still getting used to going to bed at what feels like 6 PM (midnight here) and getting up at what feels like 4 AM (10 AM here) so thats taking some getting used to. Along with that the meal schedule--2 o'clock lunch and 9 o'clock dinner--has taken some time, but its been a lot of fun hanging out with my uncle and his wife, and most notably my little cousin, Daniel.

I finally meant Daniel last month when my uncle and his family came to the US for 3-weeks. Being as busy as I was I really didn't get the chance to hang out with him. Now that I am here, in his domain (which is filled with so many toys), I have played with him the majority of my time. From playing Hungry Hungry Hippos, to cards, to Legos to watching cartoons, he is always looking for something to do--he is one curious kid (which is ironic because one of his favorite cartoons is Curious George). And what is awesome is that he speaks almost perfect English. The kid is 5 and completely bilingual. I am jealous. If I can learn enough Spanish and become mostly fluent over the next year I will get my kid speaking Spanish at the earliest possible time. Bilingualism is the future (it is actually the present in Europe, but not the case in the US) and I want to make sure my kids are part of that.

Anyway, its been a blast hanging out with him and his parents. We have made it down to Sotogrande, which is where Valderrama, arguably the best golf course in all of Europe, is located. That was an incredibly wealthy area and we made it down to the yacht club which had some of the largest yachts I've ever seen. I also made it to the beach yesterday and swam in the Mediteranean for the first time. It was basically Lake Michigan with salt (only a midwest boy would say that....)

As the weekend approaches though, I am beginning to think about the large task ahead--learning Spanish...

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Wait, where am I?


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(Hit that minus ("-") button once to zoom out and see where I went)

I don't think its hit me yet, you know, the fact that I am in Spain now, and will be for the next 10 months. I had a little bit of the realization yesterday when we took a 20 minute car ride west to Tarifa. This is a town located right on the water and is known for its spectacular beach and strong winds, which makes it one of the most popular wind surfing destinations around. Although the wind wasn't blowing that strong yesterday it was an incredible beach. We stopped at a beach front cafe and had a cup of coffee and took in the surroundings. It was a pretty cloudy day, but as we sat there on the water the sun began to poke out. It lit up the town which was to the south of where we were and in the process a rainbow was formed. It was pretty awesome.



After relaxing for a while we finished off our coffee and began to head back towards Algeciras. On the way we stopped at a lookout. This is where it really hit me for the first time. I sat there, looking out towards the Mediterranean, with Africa in the background. Here I am, in Spain. My home for the next 10 months. Craziness.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

That is fish?




I am not a big fish fan. That includes seafood. I am just not a fan of the fishy flavor. However, when I learned I was placed in a town (Motril) that was right on the Mediterranean I knew seafood would be the staple. With that said I came to Spain with an open mind (I guess technically an open mouth) to try the seafood cuisine. I told my uncle about this and he said the approach we could take was that he would put something in front of me, I would try it, and he would tell me what it is after (a risky move, but I trust he won't throw something that bizarre in front of me right away). After he picked me up at the airport yesterday we stopped for a quick bite to eat. The restaurant was across the street from the Med. Sea and only a 10 minute walk to his townhouse. We started off with some potato salad and a white fish that came fried in the small filet form. This was actually pretty good. From what he said, and my understanding, white fish usually doesn't have a lot of flavor, which is right up my alley. He put some lemon juice and salt on it and it worked out pretty well. He then ordered another plate of a different white fish. This had more of a fishy taste to it and had bones, so I wasn't as big a fan, but it was still mild. All in all it was a pretty good way to start my seafood introduction, with the rule being if in doubt, go with a white fish...

I am sure this is only the beginning of me talking about my experimentation with seafood and me talking about food. If you followed me while I was in Honduras I at one point kept a week diary of what I ate during the day (In sum, beans, tortillas, and eggs). I will probably do that later on as well, and hopefully this one will have a little more variety!

Anyway, time for dinner (its almost 10 o'clock here). This will be a major adjustment...

Monday, August 16, 2010

I have a crank in my neck...



I made it! The trip started with an awesome fly over of Chicago as I flew towards Philly. I hadn't done this before and I was able to look out the window of the airplane and not only see an awesome view of the city, but also see the west and east coastlines of Lake Michigan at the same time. There was also an air show going on just north of the city and you could see the smoke trails of the stunt planes that were performing. That was pretty cool.

I arrived in Philly with just enough time to grab a sandwich at a deli in the airport and eat before I boarded my 7 hour flight to Madrid (which is like a 13 hour flight because of the 6 hour time difference). This was a transatlantic flight, and the first one I have ever taken. However, although it may be transatlantic, the room you have on those planes are less than the room you have on many domestic flights. In fact, I couldn't even shove my backpack under the seat (not because it was overpacked, but because there was some sort of contraption under all the seat that left limited room for storage). I eventually gave up on it sitting at my feet and put it in the storage area above me. Eventually I got tired (along with everyone else on the plane) and tried to get some sleep. This was awful. I was sitting in the aisle seat so I didn't have the window to lean on, so my head was constantly being swayed back and forth. Add that to little leg room and the women behind me who was pushing against my seat, which would un-recline it, I wasn't too successful in getting a good night sleep. By the time people began to wake up and the flight attendants turned the lights back on to serve us our small breakfast my neck killed.

Although we had sat on the runway for over an hour in Philly before taking off for Madrid (we were number 24 in the que) we arrived in Madrid on time and I had 2 hour and 40 minutes to get my bags, get through customs and get to a different terminal to catch my domestic flight to Malaga. All went well and I made it to Malaga (after one of the more turbulent flights I've ever had) where my uncle was waiting. I hopped in the car and we drove back to Algeciras where we grabbed some lunch. More on that and my new goal to try fish (not necessarily seafood... yet) tomorrow.

Anyway, I am exhausted from my travel day(s) and it is 11:30 PM here so I am turning in for the night. More later.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

I just wanted to give everyone an itinerary of my time in Spain and what I will be exactly doing while I am there.

August 15
Leave O'Hare International in Chicago, which will bring me to Philadelphia, which will then bring me to Madrid

August 16
Arrive in Spain mid-morning and take a domestic flight to Malaga where my uncle Todd will be picking me up.

August 16 - 22
Spend time with my uncle Todd and his family in Algeciras.

August 23 - 27
Program orientation in Seville.
Seville, Spain

August 27
Leave for my 4-week home stay where I will be living while I take my 4-week Spanish class.

August 30 - September 24
Intensive Spanish class (20-25 hours of Spanish class a week).

September 25
Leave for my placement in Motril.

Motril, Spain

October 1, 2010 - May 31, 2011
I will be working as a learning and cultural assistant (EFL teacher) at a local Spanish public school in Motril. More on this once I get to Spain!