Since I gave a wonderful tour of my workout facilities in Spain, I thought I would continue and show you all what my school looks like. Enjoy the photo tour!
Welcome to Antonio Garavyo Dinelli
Here is the front entry-way looking out and looking in- yes there is a fence around the entire school and a locked gate. Do I have keys? No. Someone has to buzz me in every day. And why the fence? I was told by my co-worker today that a child once escaped and now to combat that issue, there is a huge, prison-like fence.
Here is where you go to see the secretary - it also looks like she is imprisoned!
What I refer to as a big waste of space right as you enter the school
Here is looking down the main hallway (this is the 1st floor here in Spain but they start from 0 and to us it would be the second floor).
A Spanish classroom
The smart board (the board that I wrote about in a previous post and was so excited that each room has these - they are so useful)
Here is one of my favorite pictures - this is the "teacher's lounge" and everyday at 11:30, the children have recreo (recess) for 1/2 hour. What do the teachers do? They all gather here and have coffee, cookies, cakes, toast, pate....you name it, they eat it at this hour. It's so entertaining!
And lastly, here is the gaggle of parents waiting to pick their children up at 2pm!
Well, I hope you all enjoyed the tour - and I think as you all can tell - I have entirely too much free time on my hands! Anyone out there know of anyone who needs some work done around Motril, Spain?!?! :-)
Have you ever wanted to join a gym with great amenities and a personalized workout plan? Welcome to the wonderful world of “Emily’s Gym!” It’s my latest endeavor in Spain and please feel free to take a look at “The Essence of Emily” – the inaugural edition of the monthly newsletter for Emily’s Gym. What are you looking for in a gym? Whatever your desire, I’m sure we have just what you need. • Terrains of all types for a diverse workout experience - uphill, downhill, gravel, pavement
• Areas for doing sit-ups, lunges, and stretching
• Climbing equipment
• Breathtaking views from each piece of equipment
• Personalized work out plans
If Emily’s Gym interests you, please contact Emily for more information. Membership numbers are hovering right around one right now but we are always looking to increase. As an incentive, if you join before December 1st, your name will be included in a drawing for a free flight to Spain! Don’t miss out on this awesome opportunity! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ok so obviously this is a joke (and you would need that flight to Spain to be able to work out with me) but I wanted you all to get an idea of a little bit of the landscape of Motril and also how I am combating the issue of gaining weight in Spain - if you need a refresher, just refer back to the "culinary adventures" blog post. I have been enjoying my runs but hope to join a real gym here soon. Though, I joined one in Granada and it didn’t stop this from happening!
In other great news, I am writing this blog post from the comfort of my own bed in my piso because WE FINALLY HAVE THE INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, remember how I was all excited about the cooking that I had been doing for the roommates? Well, there are just those days when you don’t really feel like making food or you simply have nothing in the house to make. What do you do? You order pizza. Tad, Michael Lynn and I had a brilliant idea to call and order pizza this afternoon for lunch. We gathered all the coupons/fliers we have collected from our mailbox and got to making a decision from which place to order. Our options were Telepizza, Telehorno, or some other place that I don’t even know if it has a name. This nameless place advertised specials for pizzas on Monday so we decided to go with the cheaper option and forgo choosing the places that we had previously heard of (Telepizza and Telehorno). Michael Lynn made the call but then could not understand what the guy was saying so she passed the phone to me. Everything was going great until he told me that he couldn’t hear me (my phone is really horrible) and while trying to put him on speakerphone so he could hear me better, he hung up on me! I got hung up on by the pizza guy!! After gathering confidence and making the call with my phone on speakerphone, we called back and he immediately knew it was us again (I have no idea how?!?! – that’s a joke) and we got things squared away. It took a while for the pizza to get here and when I met the guy at the door to pick it up, I was pleasantly surprised to know that we didn’t get any great “Monday deal” on our pizza and paid the full price for our pizza. Oh well. So I took it upstairs and opened up our half Hawaiian/half cheese pizza to see something that resembled a pizza but that had been sitting out for days. It looked quite like a plastic pizza. Take a look for yourself
We were all a little skeptical but Tad cut it for us and we dug in……….well, not really. Upon further inspection of the pizza, Michael Lynn was not too excited to find a shiny, silvery substance that reminded us of fish scales. You also have to keep in mind that it was a 4 quesos (4 cheese) pizza and so we also considered the possibility of this being some kind of moldy cheese – haha. I took one bite and it was disgusting. Michael Lynn, expert food investigator that she is, then encountered a meat-looking substance that we were quite unable to identify. Can you help us figure out what it is?
Here is the damage Michael Lynn and I did without really eating anything
Needless to say, I don’t think we’ll be ordering pizza from the unidentified company again.
Well, we made it through a Spanish Halloween! Tad and I dressed up twice! We went to what they refer to here as a “chino” (it sounds really racist but that’s the Spaniards for ya!) Everything there is really cheap (think Dollar Tree in the US) and we got some stuff to make costumes. I got the traditional cat ears and tail and also a gypsy skirt and some accessories to go with it. Tad found stuff to be a pirate and pulled it off well. Since Halloween is relatively new here in Spain, everything for them has to revolve around being scary and gory. Every costume has some sort of blood. A Spaniard would dress up as a ballerina but you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be some blood on that costume! With that said, there are still people in the US that make Halloween about everything to do with monsters, blood, death, etc. However, in the US, Halloween has acquired this sense of promiscuity (at least in college). Every girl tries to find the cutest costume and pretty much leaves the blood in the dust. Both nights I was dressed up, people kept approaching me and telling me that my costumes didn’t scare them! Tad and me – night 1 Tad, Michael Lynn and Em – night 2 Our friends had a party last night at Pablo’s cortijo (cortijo can roughly be translated to cottage or country house). They went all out – they decorated, bought food and drink for the party, had music. It was very cool because Spaniards don’t frequently have parties at their homes. I took some pictures and a video so that everyone can get a sense of a Spanish Halloween party. It certainly was different but very fun! Here are some crazy Spaniards So I didn’t get a good picture of him, but we all voted and Beetlejuice was the “best costume” winner for the night We weren’t really sure what Bernardo was supposed to be but his costume was hilarious! Just don’t ask questions…..
I wrote this a few days ago and just am getting around to posting it (I won't mention anything here about lack of internet......)
Ok, so even though it is relatively new in Spain, kids LOVE Halloween. I have spent the better part of this week having students color a Halloween page and also teaching them the things related to Halloween and then doing a word search. They know mostly all of the typical Halloween things – pumpkins, witches, bats, Frankenstein, Dracula, etc… To them, the concept of putting candy into a pillowcase is quite unheard of and that word was a tough one to explain. However, you must keep in mind that the Spanish pillowcases are very long (think body pillow size) and have openings at both ends. I can imagine the confusion for a Spanish child as they are imagining all of their candy going into their pillowcase only to go right out the other end! Ha Trick-or-Treating is not common practice here but I have been told that there are some apartment buildings where they organize it and it does happen. Trick-or-treating here is called truc-o-trato. I showed this video to my 4th grade class today while they were working on their haunted house project and the laughter was non-stop. I didn’t even plan to show it but my teacher asked me if there were any songs for Halloween?!?! I could only think of one and that was the monster mash. The kids had no idea what it was saying but it was funny to them all the same. I laughed just seeing all of them look so happy.
I also had to do my typical “dress for the holiday” like I always did in HS and even in college. I seem to have a pair of socks for every holiday (though they did not make the cut of things that I brought with me to Spain). I was asked by a lot of 4th graders why I was dressed like a witch. I guess they just can’t appreciate my effort I put forth to be festive! Can you see why I was voted “most likely to be a soccer mom” in high school?! Thanks, mom, for teaching me everything I know!
Also, like I mentioned earlier, I had my 5th graders color a “Happy Halloween” page and made it a contest. Today, on the way to school I stopped by a candy store and bought candy for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. Shhhhhh, don’t tell anyone but a small amount of candy may have snuck into the bag for me :-) I didn’t have this particular class today and so I just visited them to announce the winners. However, I was very relieved to not be staying in that class because I think I caused a bit of a disturbance by giving only three children candy. Most of the others started rambling in Spanish about how their drawing was good and they should have won, blah, blah, blah….I quickly snuck out. Getting to the point, Michael Lynn and I also colored one at home the other day and Tad hung them on the fridge!
PS - I have to mention that Tad drew his own picture. Michael Lynn did not know this and asked me if one of my students had given it to me! haha Don't worry, Tad. I give it an "excellent!"
One other point that I’d like to make about Spanish children is about their complete and utter lack of self confidence. I have to say that this is probably a mix of things they get from parents, teachers, friends, and themselves. I have another 5th grade class (different from the one mentioned above) and I had them in class yesterday. They were making drawings of an invertebrate and a vertebrate. The teacher had this cool website that showed them how to draw the butterfly and shark step-by-step. Well, this seems like a cool thing until each child either gets up out of their seat to come see EVERY step and give them reassurance that they are doing it correctly or they raise their hands and shout “teacher” or “Emily” for me to walk to their seat and see what they’ve done. Imagine this for 9 steps X 25 students (all of which end up speaking to me in Spanish and stare blankly at me when I answer them in English) and it gets a little tiring. I think my teacher and I both were ready to just run out of the classroom yesterday once the day was over. But in all reality, teachers act in either one of two ways with their children. I have observed many of my teachers putting other students down and to their faces. They will tell them that their drawing is really not that good, or will call them out in front of everyone for not having their materials for the day. In this regard, I think there is a lot of tough love. On the other hand, I have seen some of the teachers giving the students hugs, or touching their backs reassuringly. These children receive such mixed signals all of the time. I have yet to form an ultimate opinion about that, so I will have to get back to you.
On a completely different note, the internet guy came!!!!! Ok, that certainly didn’t warrant 5 exclamation points and this is why: we still don’t have INTERNET! I was the lucky gal that got to be here when the technician came and did the work. I won’t bore you with the details of the story but after coming and going 3 times in a matter of an hour, we think that we have a successful internet line installed. What the company failed to tell us and what the guy told me the other day is that now we have to wait for our router package to arrive and we get to set the rest of it up ourselves. The bad part is, we were planning to go away tomorrow and now we have to be here in case the router is delivered because it is coming through a private company and we have to sign for it. Do any of you have a headache reading this because I certainly am getting one writing it! Who knew that such a simple task could turn into something so difficult? I will reserve further judgment, however, because I have had my fair share of difficulties with Comcast in my college days (wow, I sound old when I say “in my college days!”) I am wishing everyone a safe and Happy Halloween!! Love to all from Motril!
So, despite my dismal thoughts about the town of Motril, my roommate Tad and I have finally discovered that there are indeed YOUNG PEOPLE in Motril and we found them last night! It just takes getting to know some locals and they show you all the cool places. Here are a few pictures of new friends.
*Disclaimer* From the pictures, it appears that all my friends and I do in Spain is drink. This is entirely untrue. We are simply assimilating to the culture - which in Spain revolves around sharing beverages with friends in moderation. We are also doing many cultural things such as visiting small towns, going to museums, etc.
Roommates :-) New friends at the bar A champagne toast for my birthday! NEW FRIENDS
Motril is becoming a more and more attractive place to live. We went a visited a neighboring beach this past weekend (and managed to go on the only cloudy day all week). It's like a ghost town now....everyone flocks there in the summer and then is not there now! It's crazy. it's still warm enough to lay out and work on a tan!
That's all for now - we have someone coming on Wed to install the phone line - one step closer to internet!!
I have a very short multiple choice quiz for all of you blog followers out there…… Which would you rather NOT eat? a. Pastries b. Chocolate c. Candy d. Churros and chocolate e. Anything healthy (including but not limited to vegetables, fruits, chicken, etc…) Well, as most of you may expect, I chose “e” for my answer and unless there is something seriously wrong with you, I might suspect you have all picked the same answer. Here’s where my favorite Southern Spain phrase “no pasa nada” enters into play. This can be translated to “don’t worry.” Well, one could say that I took this phrase a little bit too literal when I came to Spain two years ago (especially with my eating habits). Now, I have to preface this by saying that this is not going to be a post about self-image or body confidence but more just about pure facts. When I left Spain before, I was FAT.
Just look at the chub that has accumulated around my nice round face here when my parents came to visit me.
I don’t think my parents would have recognized me if I hadn’t snuck through the security exit into the baggage area at the airport and ran toward them like a flailing idiot. Also, you know it’s bad when you come back to visit your host family two years later and they spend the better part of 10 minutes looking at this picture which is displayed in their living room and commenting about how fat I was when I left (I guess I will take that as a compliment though as they are implying that I look better now). This is a direct result of my “no pasa nada” attitude when it came to eating. My friends Liz and Emilee did not help the situation but only made it worse. There would be nights that we would make trips to multiple candy stores, devour two pastries, and then sit by the river eating a carton of neopolitan ice cream. Would I feel a little guilty? Yes, but then would think “well, I am in Spain and I might as well enjoy myself.” This eating situation was only made worse by my host mother who insisted on giving me the largest portions of food at lunch. Then, there was the problem of my picky eating…..if there was something at lunch that didn’t taste so good to me, I would simply shovel it down with plenty of bread (yes, I am pretty sure there were days I may have eaten an entire baguette by myself.) Moving on, those days are behind me and I am looking to still enjoy myself in Spain but might I say “in moderation” this time (at least with regard to food). I stopped in a magazine shop the other day and picked up a “cooking healthy” magazine and another one that has recipes. Might I say they are all a little strange? There are a few that I think we could stomach but for the most part that idea was a fail. One of the shows that I really like to watch on TV is this guy who has a cooking show. He always breaks out into song and is just really entertaining. Well, one of his side dishes the other day was couscous. It looked good. I couldn’t stop thinking about couscous the entire next day. Here is where domestic Emily enters the picture (I know I say it a lot but these domestic things don’t come easily to me….cleaning, cooking, laundry). I decided to cook up some chicken, broccoli and couscous. Everything came out really great (and I even used chicken broth instead of water to make the couscous like my cooking show guy did so it had more flavor). Tad and Michael Lynn were a little skeptical of the couscous but after trying it decided that it wasn’t so bad. Here are some pictures from our dinner the other night
So, in my package that is so happily displayed in my last post, there was the October issue of Fitness magazine. One of the highlights on the front cover was recipes for easy, healthy soups/stews. Well, this is perfect for Spain because that is what they eat all of the time. I went for a run this afternoon and came back with an exceptional amount of energy and decided I’d try my hand at chicken tortilla soup. I looked at the list of ingredients and thought I’d be able to find them all in a Spanish grocery store. The only ingredient I couldn’t find was cumin and so I substituted curry which seemed to work fine. The recipe claims that it only takes like ½ hour to cook but I managed to prove them wrong! It took me a good chunk of time but the finished product was a success! Tad and Michael Lynn really liked it and so did I! We had a nice healthy meal and have some left over for tomorrow. I have a couple of other pictures but I can't get them to load (I'm not always the best with this blog website!) So I can’t say there was much of a point to this post except to show that I am actually trying to make meals and have acquired the label of "resident cook/mom" of the piso.
