The General Election in Spain

A couple weeks ago, Spain had a general election in which they elected a new prime minister. Mariano Rajoy of the more conservative party PP will be the next PM of Spain. I found it interesting how regional the voting in Spain was. I was in Catalunya for the day of the election, and none of the main parties of Spain were voted for over there. They voted for their own parties with Catalan interests. The cover of the newspaper the next day in Catalunya made it very clear (in English, no less) what their voting patterns meant. Kind of refreshing that there are more than just two parties in Spain, actually.

It'll be interesting to see how the shift to the right affects Spain in the future, but I'm guessing it won't be as much as a shift to the right affects America.

Barcelona & Manresa

Gaudi Building. Illuminated to stunning effect.

A couple of weeks ago, I flew to Barcelona to see my friends out there and to see the city. I had never been there, but everyone had told me how amazing the city is. I bought a flight on ryanair for 24 euro roundtrip from Jerez and was on my way. I arrived in Barcelona at around 8pm on a Saturday, which was coincidentally the same time the Barcelona FC match started against Zaragoza. Any later and I would have tried to get a ticket. Bummer. Oh well. I made my way anxiously out of the airport to check into my hostel. Between the nearest metro station and the hostel and stumbled across one of Gaudi's famous buildings. Pretty cool.

The hostel was really nice and my friends Joe and Erica were already there. I got settled in and then we went with the group from the hostel on a pub crawl around Barcelona that ended at the club Razzmatazz. It was pretty fun. There was a huge bar that was in what looked like an old fish market or something. Really warehouse looking, with tons of picnic style tables everywhere on the inside and people drinking huge 5 liter tanks of beer and sangria. Party on.

The next morning I guess I must have slept through my alarm clock because I awoke to a polite French girl telling me that I needed to check out. 10 am is too early to check out on a Sunday! So I grabbed all my stuff, and Joe, Erica and I headed out to see a bit of Barcelona during the daytime before going back to his place in Manresa, some 90 minutes away by train. Barcelona is really pretty, but I can't really put my finger on what makes it special. It didn't really seem all that unique to me. Paris is ornate and beautiful, Lisbon is bright and fresh, Sevilla is typically Andaluz, but Barcelona didn't seem to have an identity that I could pick out. I kind of felt like it was a cross between San Francisco and Paris. Like as if someone dropped the city by the bay full of all it's political malcontents and artists in Europe and aged it a lot.

I may be delayed, but at least I have olives!

Heading to Manresa on Sunday afternoon we had quite the fiasco. The train line was undergoing repairs just before Montserrat, so they picked us up on a bus and took us to Montserrat, which is where most of the people get off. They didn't seem to consider what that meant for people continuing on, and they didn't have a plan. We got sent all over the area for an hour and a half before they straightened it out. Spain.

Manresa

Manresa is suprisingly beautiful and has a kind of compact feel to it that I liked. When you gotta walk everywhere its nice when things are close. Joe doesn't seem to like the place, but I think he was spoiled last year in Jerez de los Caballeros, a beautiful Extremeduran village of 10,000. We hung out for a bit with some of the other auxiliares and took in the christmas markets which are pretty much everywhere this time of year.
I stayed a couple nights just hanging out with Joe until I finally had to return back to Jerez for work.

The morning before my flight I headed back to Barcelona to see the Sagrada Familia before my afternoon flight. It was REALLY beautiful. Probably the brightest cathedral I've ever been to, and amazing colors. I took about 150 pictures in there and I don't think that was too many. Everywhere you look there is something interesting.

Barcelona we shall meet again, springtime maybe? More Photos!

Stop!

 If you happen to see something like this...

Reach into your pocket and find a euro, quickly. Give it to that woman and take your tasty treat. What are they? Castañas of course! Chestnuts! YUM! They taste like boiled potatoes

I never had chestnuts before a couple weeks ago, and I'm now making up time.

Paid At Last!

Last year in Extremadura, we didn't get paid until around Thanksgiving and it was a really trying time. But I had money from America and private lessons to get me through November. This year for whatever reason I couldn't find any private lessons. None of the teachers at my school seem to want them, and nobody responded to any of the flier I put up around town. 

Luckily I didn't have to wait until Thanksgiving this year. My school cut me a check on the Thursday before Halloween weekend, which was nice. I went straight to the bank to deposit it. BIG MISTAKE. The teller asked me if I wanted to cash it, or deposit it. I said deposit it. Surely I didn't want to be walking around with 700 euros in my pocket. After she was done running the check through... whatever that machine is that moves the check around, I asked her for some money to have for the weekend. She told me I had to wait three business days. My heart sank as I counted the days in my head. Friday, Monday, then Tuesday was a holiday, Wednesday. I'd have to wait practically a week to be able to use my paycheck! I'd have to go a long Halloween weekend without any money. WTF! 

So next time I get a paycheck, I'm going to cash it at the bank written on the check... then quickly run outta there like a bandit.

One of the first things I bought with my new-found riches was a plane ticket to Barcelona. But first I had to do some ninja moves to get around Ryanair's ridiculous €12 "administrative fee". I used my Google-Fu to find a bank that issues a pre-paid Mastercard, the only card you can use to get around the fee. Turns out La Caixa can give you one for free, and without even opening an account there. I went in, stood in line for a while, and got myself a card. €12 saved! Total flight cost roundtrip from Jerez to Barcelona? €24!!! I might have to go there every weekend!


My flight lands 5 minutes before the opening kickoff of a Barcelona FC soccer game (vs. Zaragoza), which breaks my heart because I totally would buy a ticket if it was just an hour later. As it stands, I might try to just go to the stadium and see if someone will let me use their ticket to get in at the end of the game if it's a rout.


I'm also looking forward to some of the other amazing things that Barcelona has to offer. the Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, etc. Really I just can't wait to leave Jerez for a while too. I haven't left the city since mid-September if you can believe that. Jerez is really nice, and there are lots of people to hang out with and things to do, but sometimes I just gotta get away...

Last weekend I went out with my roommate and a couple of her friends. It was the first time we really hung out outside of the apartment. First we went to this place right by our apartment that has flamenco on Saturdays. I really liked it and I'll definitely be back there. The guy who played the box (he really was just banging on a box) was a friend of my roommate, so that was cool to meet a real flamenco artist. 

I'm starting to really love sherry. A nice cold glass of Tio Pepe fino hits the spot!

Time Flies

Three weeks in the books, and I already feel like I've been in Jerez for months. Today the head of the English dept. said I could pick up my first paycheck at the office tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to having money for... well anything. I've already got a trip to Barcelona planned out for mid-November, all I have to do is buy the plane ticket. I haven't left Jerez since mid-September so getting out of town for a bit will be nice change of pace.

I'm really loving my school this year. I'm with less classes, but more often, so I can actually get to know some of the kids fairly well. I'm with the bilingual primero de eso (it's like 6th grade) class every day of the week. By the end of the year, I should know those kids pretty well.

I'm also really loving my living situation. Once I get a bicycle, it'll be sweet. It's a little far from the city center to want to walk there every day, but a bicycle will really shrink this whole town for me. Visiting friends across town will be something I can do on a whim instead of something I do on the weekends. The apartment itself is a bargain compared to what I'm hearing other language assistants are paying. I'm paying €115 plus the lights and internet, which only comes out to maybe €140 a month. Lots of other people are paying over €200 per month. My roommates are working out alright. Could be better, but could definitely be worse. I haven't really socialized with them outside of the apartment at all, but then again I can't say I've really felt like I missed anything.

The other auxiliars this year are way different from last year. Last year we were almost all new in Extremadura, and most of us could barely get by with Spanish when we arrived. We had each other and we were a pretty tight-knit group up there in Don Benito. This year lots of people are here for a second year, and almost nobody is a beginner at Spanish. Even the people who are spending their first year here in Spain seem to speak really good Spanish. Most of them did semesters abroad in Spain or South America. Another thing that is unique about Andalucia is that its a more desired (not necessarily desirable!) destination for language assistants. So much so that there is a private company that handles Andalucia placements in addition to the government of Spain. They charge something like $2000 for that privilege, and surprisingly people actually pay it. It doesn't really make good fiscal sense to me, but I guess if some people have the money, there are worse ways to spend $2000 than to get a job in Spain for 8 months. Well gotta go to sleep now. No pictures this time. Rocio pocketed my camera two weeks ago and hasn't been back since!

Moving into Jerez

I guess I'm getting a bit of a late start on this, since I've been in Jerez for nearly a month now. Better late than never, I guess.

After I spent the summer staying with Rocio and helping out occasionally with her family's fruteria, I moved into my piso here in Jerez de la Frontera. It was mid-September when I moved in, and my roommates (two Spanish girls) had already moved in at the beginning of the month. I think they were a bit worried I was never going to move in, but I did eventually.

It was really weird living here at first since I don't have a car or bicycle to get around, and this city is much bigger than I am used to for Spain. Having to walk twenty minutes to the center of town is kind of a pain, but at least there are lots of things to see along the way. I live right around the corner from the Real Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre, which is where they train the horses to do the "paso andaluz" or andaluz step. I think they also train the horses you might see at a bullfight there too. Continuing on towards the center, I'll pass the Sandeman bodega, one of several sherry bodegas in town. The bodegas all look really cool, and as soon as I get that first paycheck I'll have to go visit a couple. Also along the way to the center are a church built in the 17th century, a Palace, and really cool fountain in the middle of a rotunda. There really is a lot to see here in Jerez compared to Don Benito, which basically had one plaza that was somewhat nice looking.

For the first few weeks here I had absolutely nothing to do, and I couldn't get any bites on fliers for private lessons that I put up. So naturally I wandered around the town gaining my bearings a bit while taking photos. Day by day more auxiliars like myself showed up until last week when we started classes.

I went into the school the first day expecting it to be like my school from last year in Extremadura, but so far it seems to be a completely different experience. First of all I don't have nearly as many different classes. I have maybe seven or eight different classes, when I had twenty-four last year. I might actually be able to learn names this year! Also the school has much fewer students overall and really they seem to be better behaved also.

Today was a holiday of some sort, and there is another one on Wednesday, so I should have had two days off this week, but I already get Mondays off, so I missed out I guess. I don't mind having Mondays off instead of the typical Fridays off that most other auxiliars get because I feel that there is more to do on Sunday night than on Thursday night. I can stay up late and watch football if I want, which is nice.

Well, that's all for now. staluego.....