Jálama

Yesterday I went on a hike. A Hike. We climbed the highest peak in the province (1492 km), Jálama. It was, hmmm, phenomenal. Stupendous. I went with a hiking club, and they do this same route every year, and bring a nativity scene in a boot to the top. Yeah, I know. It was incredibly beautiful and incredibly cold at the top. I could have been in Washington, except for the turrón (typical Spanish dulce at Christmas time), the wine in skins being passed around, and the bocadillos filled with jamón ibérico at the top. I have a new respect for the people on the hike. These people have an intensity for hiking that I haven't seen since I left Bellingham. (How I miss Bellingham!!) And they did it like it was nothing (comparatively, as I am quite out of shape). Anyway, it was amazing. So, I guess there is beauty nearby, you just need a car or a chartered bus to get there. However, I have never hiked with people who smoke on the ascent (is that possible), descent, short rests, etc.

Madrid, Segovia, Toledo, Cuenca

Pues.. It was excellent to get out of Extremadura and see something new! Madrid was packed with people. I have never seen so many people in one place! It was difficult to move down the sidewalk, made worse by the Spanish pace (SLOW and wandering). The daytrip to Segovia was refreshing. It brought back so many memories, good and bad, and I can't even begin to understand how much I've grown since then. Three years... It was foggy and very cold, which seems like it would be bad but was such a welcome to change to the piercing sun of Extremadura (never thought I'd feel that way). The weather reminded me of Washington and there are many more trees and green than in Extremadura. I had forgotten how similar parts around Segovia are to home, but now I realize why I'm having a more difficult time with the lack of beauty in Coria than I did before in Segovia.

Toledo is beautiful. It is surrounded by a river with streets full of hills and and mazes. I wish that I had more time there and had felt better. We had gotten drunk (those cañas sneak up) and lost without a map the night before in Madrid so the constant subiendo y bajando took its toll towards the end of the day. In addition to the exquisite catedral there are also synagogues and mosques; it is nice to be reminded that there are other religions besides Catholicism in Spain. Apparently Toledo is the home of perfect Spain Spanish. Also a nice contrast to Extremadura (yes, there is an "s" at the end of that word, and that one, and that one...).

Cuenca is perched on a cliffside carved by a river. The casas colgadas seem to grow out of the cliffside. The countryside is also beautiful and green. We woke up early to see the houses in the sunrise but it was cloudy. Thus, we had risen early, walked up a huge hill, and waited in the dark and cold for a cloudy nothing. Of course. By this time we were getting fed up with Spanish food (fried and greasy unless you spend a lot of money). I'm getting increasingly more excited for the trip to Portugal and Italy!

Spanish lesson #1: false cognates. We learned about false cognates on the second day of Spanish class freshman year of high school. And they still get me! "Escalope" does not mean scallop, as I had thought when I ordered it. It was a slab of meat (pig or cow, can't be sure) FRIED to death. Ugh. So, be careful with that one.

If you can't tell, my English is getting worse... I apologize.

Plasencia

First, I can't believe it's snowing in Olympia (and elsewhere?)! I guess it's like last year, and it's December (which I can't believe either) but it's so different than the weather here and it's hard to imagine anything else than what I see. There is no second.

We moved into the new apartment, which is a marked improvement. The warmth makes such a difference and it's amazing to be able to use the oven, stove, and another appliance (or lights?) at the same time while being warm. Our old landlord didn't seem to care at all that we were leaving and said, "Ah, sí, hace frío aquí" when he came to collect for utilities. Of course it's cold!

We went to Plasencia this Saturday. It's a beautiful walled city near Coria. There's a huge park with bird exhibits and lots of different trees. Strange to see a pine next to a cactus.. But the most "nature" I've seen in a long time! It was absolutely freezing there because it's at a higher elevation, so it gave us a taste of what we're in for in Segovia, Madrid, Toledo and Cuenca in a few days. I can't wait!

Con calefacción

We found a place and we're moving in today. It's warm, it has a color tv, and it's more centrally located (read: more traffic noise). It's not as bright as the other apartment. I am very sad to leave the old, cold one. I've become accustomed to it and I love it. It's the type of place I would choose, and it would be perfect if the electricity situation was fine. We told the landlord about it last week and he didn't seem to care. Alas, I must remind myself of last winter when I was miserable for several months because I was always cold. So. The new address is:

Calle Isabel La Católica, Nº 2 - Pº 1D
10800 Coria, Cáceres, España.

I'm having flashbacks of my last move (end of August) but clearly this won't be nearly as bad. One negative thing about this piso is that we have to buy dishes and sheets. Pain. But it's warm!

Buscando otro piso

So we are looking for another piso, and we have to find one before the end of the month. It's a pain, and everything takes so long here. We decided that since the current landlord didn't seem to care that we couldn't heat the house, and the weather is just going to get colder, we had to leave. I feel bad (of course) but there doesn't seem to be any other way. Even if the landlord were to fix the situation, who knows how long it would take? I've been sleeping in my new sleeping bag, so I'm finally warm at night. Ridiculous.

Next week we have a puente, so Sydney and I are going to Madrid. I can't wait to get out of Extremadura. I've been here too long without leaving. I feel suffocated. I've realized that the hardest part for me to adapt to is the lack of nature here. I can deal with pushy people. I can deal with paper-thin walls. I can deal with the heat/electricity situation (but not for much longer, ojalá!). But I just can't adapt to the concrete. Everything is concrete. There are no trees, grass, beauty, anywhere nearby or easily accessible. You can always hear cars and people yelling. I can't find serenity anywhere. I've been in so spoiled in Olympia and Bellingham, I realize now. I found a park here, which is better than nothing. With huge ducks. Everyone keeps telling me about the beautiful mountains ("mountains") nearby but I can't get there easily. I've been dreaming about mountains (real ones) lately. Even in Segovia there was a nice wooded area below the city, away from roads. Nothing like that here. I can't wait to leave for a few days. And only two weeks after that is the vacation de las Navidades. We're going to Lisboa, then to Italy. I can't wait for this either!

So on my way to this internet cafe, I had to turn back because it was raining too hard and I wasn't wearing correct rain gear. I feared that I was turning Spanish, or, por lo menos, into a fair-weather person [gaspthehorror]. However, turns out that I had just forgotten that during torrential downpours it is necessary to wear a raincoat. Thus, kith and kin in Washington, fear not. Today was the first day of real, actual, Northwest rain since I arrived. Today is a truly drizzly depressing dark dreary day (fun with alliteration that I am not skilled enough to do in Spanish). It's surreal. Anyway.

The weather has turned colder. My apartment is so so cold; there is no central heating and we can't use more than one portable heater at a time (or anything but the lowest setting) or it overloads the electrical system or whatever. How educated. There's probably a better way to say this but I don't know how. Jennifer, from Florida, has moved into the piso. It's nice to have someone who can help me try to figure out Spain (ie electricity situation). I've resorted to longjohns already. I'm just hoping that it won't be as bad as last year. But it doesn't seem possible that anything could be as bad as that.

The bank still hasn't allowed the money to go through. I don't have to go to Cáceres to have a document signed, but I have to wait for the bureaucracy at the bank to figure the problem out. It seems like I have all the correct papers and the bank is the one with the problem. Several people are trying to straighten it out for me (crying on Thursday afternoon made them feel sorry for me?) so it should be fixed soon. It's still just so ridiculous, but more funny now.

So I hadn't judged Torrejoncillo too harshly before. If anything, not harshly enough. I went to two classes with the same teacher. Horrible. The first one I spent the entire class standing in front of the class while the children all yelled at each other in Spanish and the teacher yelled at them in Spanish too. She told me that they were always like this, impossible to teach, that there was no point in trying. I couldn't believe it! She would sternly tell them to be quiet, then look deploringly, then sign and yell some more. There's no point for me to go to classes like this. If the teacher can't control them, what can I hope to accomplish?

Frustration

I guess I will start by enumerating my frustration with Spanish bureaucracy. First, they still have not paid me. Well, they have finally paid me, but the bank will not put it into my account because I have to have proof that I am here legally. Of course, my id card will not be ready for another month, probably, (even though I requested it a month ago) or at least two weeks. My número de identificación extranjero is not enough, even though I had been told it would be for the bank. And it was, to open an account. Just not to have money in it, I guess. Thus, I must go to Cáceres, to the national police, to have them sign a paper saying I'm here legally. However, the bank did not tell me I would need to do this until yesterday, when I went to see why they hadn't put the money in my account. I was irate. So I have to wait until Monday because the police aren't open in the afternoon (claro).

Anyway.. On a better note, I have been giving private conversation classes to three boys, 8, 11, and 13. And they have paid me. These children are really sweet and so much better than the classes at school. I actually enjoy the classes with them (yes, I am enjoying children).

So I've lived alone for a month now, loved it, but now I will be sharing my piso with another American lectora. Jennifer will be teaching in Moraleja, a small(er) town near Coria. She's moving in tomorrow, I believe, and I'm excited. I have been spending a lot of time with the other profesores at school and I enjoy it. But it's also tiring. I only hope that we can try to speak Spanish together and not fall back into English... it's so tempting.

Right now I'm in Torrejoncillo, waiting for classes to start. First, the name of the town is impossible to say; second, I dislike coming here. The children are rude and badly behaved. I am also with some lower level classes that really don't understand ANYTHING. Nor do they care. This is only my second time and I'm probably judging too harshly (but I doubt it).

I spent the weekend in Badajoz with Sydney. It was amazing to be in a real house, with decoration on the walls, a fully stocked kitchen with utensils, heat... Syd made me a spectacular homemade, nutritious, delicious, vegetarian dinner with eggplant. And a cake. Wonderful.

Time...

As many of you know, I have trouble with time. I don't really have a firm grasp of it, nor do I understand it for my life. I have been here nearly a month and I can't believe it. Sometimes it feels like I have been here forever, this is what I've always done and always will do. However, when I went to Granada and saw friends from the US, returning to Coria was completely surreal. Other times it feels like I just got here, especially when I learn something that I really should have known before. I had been correcting the children when they said 'football' for soccer. I just realized yesterday that they do call it football in British English so they are right.. Duh. Why didn't I think about this before? Why did this occur to me randomly nearly a month after starting this? Another disorienting aspect is the weather. I've never known sun, constant sun, in the fall/winter, so this weather seems like late summer.

I'm getting more used to my job. I'm beginning to know the classes, too, which ones are good and which ones stare at me blankly or talk the whole time amongst themselves. I dread going to some classes and accompanying some teachers. The behavior of the class depends greatly on the behavior of the teacher, and some exercise no discipline whatsoever. They stare at the children and roll their eyes as if there were nothing they could do to control them. These ones I dread. I also hate the classes that stare blankly. Do you understand? No answer. Yes or no? No answer. My favorite moment was when one teacher told them to open their books to page 69. She adds, "Sixty-nine, the erotic number. You can say anything, they don't understand." The additional conversation classes (which I do by myself) are going well because these students want to learn and they already know a lot. Next week I'm going to start giving private conversation lessons to some children of one of the teachers here. O god more children!

I am learning so much about Spain. I am understanding more about tapas (or pinchos, as they are commonly called in Coria--this threw me for awhile), encountering their strange meats. You guys will never believe. I'm learning more about the politics and class differences as well as the Spanish mentality in general. Qué raro, ¿no? Sydney understands.

Granada

I just spent a long weekend (puente) in Granada with Sydney and Lindsey. It was great to see them both, to speak English, and to be in a city!! I didn't realize how much I missed everyone until I saw them. I had to take three buses to get from Coria to Granada, about 10 hours of traveling. But, really, what else do I have to do with my time? The weather was beautiful, but the nights were incredibly cold. I was reminded a little of Washington... Except for the sunburn in November. We didn't get into the Alhambra because we didn't buy tickets in advance (note to self). Seems like I'll just have to go back. We spent a long time wandering the city, the Albaicin, and the cuevas de Sacremonte, the parque de García Lorca. We ate tons of amazing food. I hadn't realized how much I missed this either. Chinese, Japanese (sushi!), Indian, Middle Eastern. And, of course, delicious tapas. Seeing all these American students together reminded me of studying in Segovia. Returning to my life in Coria feels strange, and my Spanish is suffering a bit after the weekend..

Rain!

Rain! How I missed thee!

(oh god Hemingway is getting to me...)

Por fin para empezar

After a week in Coria, I finally have all my paperwork finished. I had to go to Cáceres, the capital of the province, about an hour away. Pedro, one of the ninety something teachers at the Instituto, helped me with everything there. We had a limited amount of time, since the police station closes at 2 in the afternoon and doesn't reopen until the next day. Ah, España. It will take 40 days to get my tarjeta de identificación, but now I can open an bank account. However, Ángela told me that it will probably take about 2 months until they pay me. How efficient. I start classes tomorrow. It is a high school, so the children are older and hopefully better. After a month and a half, I will finally have a schedule! I feel like a nerd, but I can't wait. One day a week I go to a school in Torrejoncillo, a small town nearby. Three I will spend in Coria, with one día libre. And the weekend. The school day is from 8 - 2, and one afternoon a week, after the siesta, I will teach two conversation classes for extra money, 30 euros per hour. How could I not?

Some wonderful things about my apartment:
-I can hear the neighbors arguing through the wall, and depending on the volume, the exact words they say. These neighbors include a man who shouts, a woman who sings loudly, a crying baby (various hours of the day and night) and an incredibly whiny young boy.
-The tv is in black and white.
-There is barely enough hot water for a short shower.
-If I use the oven, I can't use other appliances (or lights, apparently) or it will overload the circuit. I need to figure this one out better.
-I only have one knife, and it is equivalent to a steak knife.

A quién se importa, my address is:
Amy Tooley
Avda. Virgen de Argeme, Nº 66 - Pº 2
Coria 10800, Cáceres, España

My cell phone number is:
647140635, and you have to dial 01134 before the number.

My Spanish is improving, and I'm finding it hard to think in English; I have the compulsion to add phrases in Spanish. I hope to hear from everyone!

Coria

Months of anticipation. I am in Coria. First impression: cities are few and far between in the distance between Coria and Madrid (four hour bus ride). The landscape is fairly dry and barren, at least when compared to western Washington. I have yet to see much of the city, but it does not seem like there is much to see. Ángela, an English teacher at the Instituto, picked me up from the bus station last night. She told me the city is not very beautiful, but it is fine, adding that she is not from here. She fed me dinner at her house, just up the street from my apartment. It definitely was a Spanish dinner, with the mom serving everyone and telling them to eat more ("¡No has comido nada!"). I like her husband, Emilio, also a teacher at the Instituto. I ate jamón (not to be confused with ham) for the first time in 13 years, as I have decided to try everything I am offered. Edible, not as bad as previously thought.

So, yes, I have my own apartment, fully furnished, with two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, and a separate living room. It is right across the street from the Instituto. I was dubious, but now I am excited to have my own space. Now, about the cooking... As of yet, I still have no idea about my work schedule because I will be at a different school for half the time. This seems to be the way. I have the opportunity to give additional conversation classes through the school for a little extra money. It is sunny and comparatively warm here. It does not rain much here, I have been told. My Spanish is incredibly rusty, embarassing.

Madrid, finalmente

Sydney and I have made it to Madrid. It's strange to be here again, three years later. It's amazing how much my perspective (among other things) has changed since then. I don't know where to start, so I won't. But Spain is Spain. People still invade your personal space, disregard the concept of a "line" and "waiting", and shove past without a single glance. It's hard to believe I'm finally here. I bought my ticket to Coria today; I leave tomorrow. Well, it seems like it's time for a siesta. Vale.

Today is October

We're in October now. I don't understand time; how did this happen? It's nearing the end of 2007, it's fall now, the rains have begun, school has started for nearly everyone I know, my 23rd birthday approaches (eek!), all of this. It's disorienting, not going through the fall routine with all of my friends that I have done for the past four years. I am waiting. Today is the first day of school in Coria, Spain. I have been moving toward this date since May, when I found out was accepted as an English language assistant. I said goodbye to everyone and was ready to leave September 22, but my visa wasn't. Spanish bureaucracy, wonderful. Now I am wasting time, waiting until I can leave. I hate the concept of wasting time but it is very difficult to avoid this mentality with nothing to do. This state of limbo where I find myself is tremendously unsettling. I have never felt this homeless before. I don't belong anywhere, even though I feel welcome in many places. During this past month of waiting, I have come to realize that my parents' home is no longer my home, no matter how much I want it to be. Everyone must experience this at some point, probably sooner than I have. Shit, this must be a part of growing up. Something that I been resisting: adulthood. It seems like I should still be able to put it off for awhile longer, even though graduating from college is a big step in its direction. Shudder. Yet, this period of waiting (not yet over) has made me feel less like a capable adult than I have felt in a long while. No responsibilities, no routine, and no obligation. It seems nice but also includes relying on others, burdening them, and not having my own space. I guess it comes down to the fact that I don't know what I want and I probably won't be satisfied or content for a long time. At least that way I can't become complacent. And at least my first job out of college includes traveling, with very little commitment. I guess I don't have to get serious too fast.

Anyway, I leave for Spain on October 10. The school in Coria is finding me a place to live (thank god!). I can't wait to start using my brain again. I haven't spoken Spanish for several months, so this should be a welcomed challenge. I was advised not to write too much, so if this is too much, please stop reading. I hope to hear from everyone while I'm away. School ends at the end of May, but who knows when I will return?