Volunteering, non-Thanksgiving and Gingy's grand return

Heyhey, long time no write!
A few weeks ago I found this website on a FB page:

http://www.servethecity.es/

And signed up for one of the projects with Jess. The projects are varied and last a day or just a few hours. Given that I work with kids for a living, I didn't sign up for a social one but for a building project. Beliefs, age, race and occupation aren't important, just that you're willing to volunteer a few hours of your time to a good cause. We went to Getafe for a day to help with building work on a community centre for Roma women. We didn't do a hell of a lot but they were grateful for our presence and help and it was a good opportunity to meet new people and do something proactive and useful with an otherwise dull weekend. The link above is for the Madrid section of the scheme, but Serve the City operates in many cities around the world.
The following week was Thanksgiving and though I had two opportunities to partake in Thanksgivingness, alas this year was the first year I didn't due to the darkness and the cold and the hideously early starts for work finally getting the better of me and keeping me in bed almost all week feeling like death warmed up. Not fun.
However I was well in time for Gingy's grand return! We did the pub quiz on Thursday night as usual, and on Friday we went to the lake and the park where Gingy got into her element and we took some stunning pictures. (Hers are better than mine because she has a posh shiny camera.)

Above: A wild photographing Ginger in her natural habitat.
We also went to the Templo de Debod at sunset (which is so awesome it's recommended on Tourist pamphlets) and I came up with these beauties:

This one looks like the Star Series book cover:

This last one was beautiful anyway but ermagherd look at her hair! The photo doesn't do justice to what orange light does to orange hair lol.
We spent an evening at the Gatoteca, Madrid's cat cafe where city types can go cuddle rescue kitties:

We also went out for a nice meal in Chueca, went on Madrid's Teleferico and the Rastro on Sunday. The kids at school all had exams last week so I didn't do a lot, so it was super sad when on Monday Gingy had to go and I was faced with a week of working doubly hard to make up for teacher's marking exhaustion. But hey, only just over a week now til I see her again! Wooo! Excellent stuff.

Madrid being disgusting, Salamanca, first private class and what happens when you get locked out with everything you need to go anywhere locked in

Over the weekend I took the bus with some friends to Salamanca, a very old and beautiful city. However it snowed/sleeted/ generally soaked us through to the bone and froze us solid.

As we came over the mountain the above view met our eyes and many nervous sideways glances were exchanged. Not nice, but some of my favourite quirks of the city were the astronaut carved into the old cathedral (left) and the miniscule thing that can barely be made out as a frog sitting on a skull that people go absolutely nuts over:

See my fb page for all the photos. I also had my first private English class yesterday, with a woman who's doing a Cambridge course and wants to prepare with listening and speaking practice before she goes to Cambridge for the exam, and the other is a 15 year old who fortunately uses one of the same textbooks in school as I use at work. Hopefully I'll be able to structure my teaching around their individual goals and take on more classes in future.
And oh dear, fiasco of the day, last time I left without my key I had my arse saved by sheer luck but this time, no, no. Dear gods, let the horror of this morning never, ever be repeated. I got locked out of my flat moments after closing the door and realising I´d left my purse in there with my keys, money, travel pass, bank cards, absolutely everything I needed to go anywhere, so I sat in the lobby for an hour waiting for the porter thinking I may well sit there all day, I coudn´t get in, I couldn´t go anywhere, couldn´t get anything to eat. An hour later a wild flatmate appeared, and I said, dude! I rang the doorbell 6 times!´ (I assumed he´d left already) and he informed me he sleeps with his headphones in. Yippee. If he hadn't turned up no doubt I'd still be sitting in that damned lobby. I can´t think of a way round this, if I leave things in different places I´ll lose them, I´ve never ever lost my purse, it´s the first thing I pack! Argh is all I can say after a weekend of SNOW and freezing my balls off with no heating. Then, as luck would have it, when at last Madrid seems to be defrosting is the day my heater arrives. Lol at my life.
Finally allow me to leave you with this image and accompanying quote of Jess for the Shitville the street sweeper strike has left the city in:

Ok so the tourists don't get what's going on the poor dears, but honestly we don't sit neck-high in our own shit voluntarily. But no worries, it's second nature to us, as Jessica commented in Salamanca:

"I'm just gonna stand here by this trash can so I feel right at home."

Right on sis.

November without Bonfire Night or Remembrance Day

*Sigh* well it was all very quiet Tuesday last week, eerily so and today was a normal school day. The clase de Marisol, while trying to teach the topic of Bonfire night, went thus:

Me: Ok, so what was Guy Fawkes trying to do?
Kid: Burn de President!
Me: errr...sort of....

Teacher (after explaining who Guy Fawkes is 6 times): we two teachers are here to help you!
Kid: Sofí, you are ticher?
Me: Errr.... did you think I was here to look pretty?

Kid: What is Gooi Fowkies? (after trying to look up Guy Fawkes in the dictionary)

There is no desk large enough upon which to headdesk.

And in the end they never really got it. Here I sit reading on FB the annual mix of uproar over poppies or lack thereof, and Wilfred Owen poems and beginning to really miss Britain and that surprisingly eventful bridge between Samhain and Yule, something that seems to be lacking here and you don't really miss it 'til you're gone. Still, Nano is keeping me occupied until Gingy makes her grand return, which really is only just around the corner.....

¡Huelga!

Ello ello.
Well the week began with the arrival of my dear orange-haired one, and despite my painfully early starts for work we were able to make the most of the afternoons and evenings with Cien Montaditos (nom), El Prado museum, the Reina Sofia museum (recommended), walks around town and around the Templo de Debod Park, and around the Retiro Park and stuffing our faces in a deserted gay bar in Chueca (we were there about 8ish - people here don't even start to think about dinner until 9.) I took her to the weekly pub quiz and I can't even tell you how we did, in the company of her loveliness I seemed to drink more than usual, and well, it was all a bit fuzzy. But hey, nice photos.

That day was also the day of the teacher's strike, and Gingy being the lefty banner-waving type that she is, bounced up and down with pride at the prospect (indeed, protesting issues that seem to be prominent in most European countries right now.) Class sizes, levels of bureaucracy, level of needless extra work, you name it, the Ministry of Education has ballsed it up, and indeed the topic of conversation among auxiliares rarely strayed from it (we'd be told to turn up on Thursday, assured by many teachers that we'd have classes, only for almost all of us to sit there for a couple hours 'cause no-one had turned up.) But hey, we saw this everywhere:

Go Spanish peoples! You sure know how to strike.
Finally at the end of the week I began Espiral, the Spanish Reclaiming course which was definately very hard to keep up with in Spanish but I think I had the course content nailed more than the rest of them which worked vaguely to my advantage. The weather on Sunday in the park was glorious and it was lovely to do practical work out there. More on this when I do the second weekend in December!

So finally, I leave you with this because it's adorable:

Quote of the week:
Ginger: I think the Gay district should really be in Casa de Campo 
Me: Errr, why?
Ginger: 'Cause it's camp! Campo! Camp!
Me: ........That's a field/countryside sweetheart....

But awww, the orangeness. *Squidge*

Long time no blog!
That's because my life seems to have begun to slip into a dull routine of work Monday to Thursday, quiz night Thursday night, drinking some sort of awful cheap booze with Jessica sometime over the weekend, trying to write, and doing it all over again the next week. Fortunately though I had Thursday off this week because of a local holiday. Woo go Villanueva del Pardillo!
I can't help but feel that school's beginning to feel a little bit like this.

Yes, you tell those little babbling ragamuffins.

I'm not allowed to admit I understand Spanish and must continue to bark at them in English, even at those with a very low level and those actually studying something other than English. Maps of the UK and US abound, ever reinforcing the fact that

all the time, no strange local tongues here, nono. Which is obviously good for them given that learning English may well make or break their little careers, but eh, that's a long way off so instead let's whack each other over the head and throw things at each other, or, if we're feeling well-behaved, gossip about this that or the other individual or compare our weekends.

In other news, we have Internet! Yay! Only took three weeks, my, my, Spain I will not miss your hideous inefficiency. I hear also on the grapevine that a new face will be arriving at the beginning of next month. Huzzah!

In happenings, last weekend I went to the Rastro market, an enormous outdoor flea market that happens every Sunday morning and looks like this:

Last night I went to a Spanish conversation evening in a friendly bar which attracted people of numerous nationalities and was very good fun! But the highlight of this entry is next week, drum roll please:

This gorgeous cartoonified creature will be arriving next week which makes Sophie feel both very excited, but also a lot like this also cartoonified specimen:

XXX

More following the kids

´Cause I totally don´t know my way around school yet, despite the awkwardness of looking like the older ones and occasionally being mistaken for one of them by a teacher not from the English department. Hmm. Yesterday consisted largely of doing a presentation about myself and where I´m from numerous times and being asked all sorts of weird and wonderful questions by the kids (many of which I´m really not supposed to answer), and one adorable little tyke who asked me if I like to have

and I said yes, that´s my favourite thing to do in Spain. At one point I freaked out a bit because we had a class of obnoxious 13 year olds being taken by a cover teacher so neither of us were being taken seriously. Total non-lesson lol. I´m having a better day today, and I´ve been paired up with the art teacher and we´ve been doing geometry which I´ve liked a lot. The kids at least now know all about me and weird goings on in my life and HOOOPEFULLY we´re getting Internet today and some new flatmates too, so I can skype ma Gingy because tis her birthday!!

Happy birthday beautiful lady :D xxxxx

Laugh and the world laughs with you....

Or at you, is how it feels on one's year abroad because really, I didn't get pretty much anything of what you just said, and no snorting and rolling your eyes at me won't make me understand more, it'll just perpetuate my general sense of panic and isolation. Yay. Hopeless lack of understanding aside, here's the lowdown of the last couple of days:
On Thursday night I went to a pub quiz in La Latina run by some American dudes in a cute little Mexican themed bar and hey we came second! Despite some weird freaky questions that surely no-one was going to get...
Yesterday evening I went to the Templo de Debod, since I may as well do touristy things despite living here, and caved in and bought knitting needles and wool (which I didn't bring as I figured I could go without.) Alas I go crazy without knitting. Mmm!

I also did the scary bank openy thing yesterday where I also got eye rolled at but hey, it's done. I've signed up for Spanish Reclaiming training so hey, I'm integrating! Woo!

Today I was happy as I had a super productive day; having no Internet is making me write more so I'm now finally approaching throwing distance of the finish line of Price of Man, but it's also pretty annoying that we won't have Internet til at least Tuesday (I must Skype my Gingy on her birthday!) Sadface. Alas school will get going properly next week so at least I'll be sufficiently distracted :D

Just follow the kids....like a creep....

Heyhey!
The first few days at school have not been terribly taxing. On the first day the teacher gave me the wrong bus information (he said bay 2, which was not the right bus, so I spent 15 mins running around trying to find the right one which turned out to be 27, on a different floor.) Hence I was late but alas not the last to arrive, and when I thought I was lost and not in the right place a whole load of kids got off the bus I just thought, follow the kids....oh yes, like the creep that I am.
There are four English language assistants which is nice, one from near where I'm from, one who was here last year and one American. She's in a dodgy living situation right now reminiscent of how I lived last year so I showed her round my flat as an option. On the first day we were introduced to the teachers, shown round the school, then sat in the cafeteria and chatted for a few hours. Yesterday we had an English dept. staff meeting and today we're just putting together presentations for when we're in classes next week. We'll be working with lots of different classes of different ages (within the secondary school), and half our classes will be English and the other half different subjects in English (I've been paired up with the art teacher which will be fun.)
And now I've got a flat, attention turn to figuring out how to do boring stuff like the abono (travel pass), opening a bank account, getting an NIE, working out bus timetables etc. All fun and games. Never mind eh, I'll get into the swing of things when work starts properly. :)
Laters xx

Bedrooms, meetings with friends, and waste of time orientation days

Heyhey!

I spent yesterday with friends from Reclaiming Spain and people I met at the goddess conference in Glastonbury last July, who were in Madrid to complete their Iberian priest/ess training, taking part in ritual with them then going out for Chinese afterwards. They talked a tad too fast but it was nice to see some familiar faces at last :). 

Today I got up at daft o'clock to travel the length of the city to sit through a total waste of time orientation day. It got to the point where they were about to give an hour long lecture about a pack I've got downloaded on my desktop and have already read, (the rest of the day consisting of a 'my experiences of the year abroad' talk, also the equivalent of which I've already sat through, and the distribution of documents I can get elsewhere anywho), so I just gave up and went home.

Still, first day of work tomorrow, but in true Spanish style it's more like a 'meet and greet', and I was told by the teacher 'not to worry because we've got a few days preparation before we go into the classroom.' Oook. Sounds piss easy :P.

Bedroom photos, as promised:

The rain in Spain does not stay mainly on the plane

Today it fell mostly on me, and apparently will continue to do so for the rest of the week. I didn't come to Madrid for this weather! Oh well.
I'm sorry folks, no pictures yet (I forgot, also I've only just finished furnishing the room.) I'm in a flat with a guy from Reading also doing the British Council program, but we haven't got Internet until the other two rooms are filled. The last few days have comprised of an Ikea adventure (it really is an all-day trip), nothing but tumbleweed that far out of the city, I shit thee not, and sorting out the deposit and rent and buying other things for the communal areas. Last night I went out with a group of British council people all living in Argüelles/ Moncloa, then ended up joining a huge group of about 60 on an all-night bar crawl. I discovered that clubbing with people I don't know is really no fun at all, and needless to say going to straight bars with people I met a couple hours before is incredibly outside my comfort zone, but these things must be done if I want to make some friends around here. It was very loud and overcrowded and hard to hear myself/ other people, and when we got to the club at half 2 I got ID'd and didn't have ID so just took a taxi home (I'd kinda had enough by that point anywho.) Still I can't be a hermit as much as I'd prefer to, and the good news is I met a nice guy who happened to live on the 2nd floor of my block.
Today I got caught in the middle of this during torrential rain while on the way to my friend's house to use her Internet:

http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2013/09/28/actualidad/1380385253_107089.html

The police cordoned off her entire street and I had to say I lived here/ beg them to let me through. I hope they don't give me gip trying to get home! This country takes their protesting pretty seriously I must say, and no doubt I'll miss a good deal of work/ get stranded a few times what with all the manifestaciones and huelgas that go on.
I didn't think that going clubbing without my girly would be so crappy, nor that I could miss anyone so much. I might even ask her to send some hairs in the post so I can stick them to my clothes so I can pick them out....how I miss picking orange hairs out of my clothes. :( :( :(. I look forward to seeing her soon! But hey, I start work next week and I have a date with some locals for Pagan fun tomorrow! Woohoo.
xxx

Not so easypiso.com

Well, well, well. What a tale to tell.
I spent Saturday ill and Sunday lounging around in the park not doing a whole lot, apart from a flat viewing that was in a perfect location but was a bit grotty. The landlord was trying to advertise his room to me (with all his stuff in it), but it's ok, he was moving out this week to go record a CD in Argentina....but yesterday I started getting super antsy to find a place and yesterday the pressure was on. I got an email from the guy saying to phone him asap because someone else was interested and 'had something important to ask me.' So I spent the morning running round like a headless chicken trying to find a cash machine that would actually let me take cash out so I could buy a phone to phone him. When I did he told me that someone else was about to sign. Like a fool, I said this other guy could have it because I was about to go look somewhere else....
And when I got there, it was, well.... very, very cosy. And in the basement. The guy was nice, but errr...he was charging 350 a month for a dingy, dark shoebox to share with him. Not cool. Sorry mate, busy day, another appointment....
Which was even more disastrous. I got lost trying to find the place, and in the advert it said no.16 of this street advertised at 360 a month, so there I was buzzing no.16, and when he didn't pick up I phoned him and he asked me where I was. "Oh 18!" he said. Err, ok...off I went to 18. I told him it said 16 in the advert, and he said, "Oh yeah I've got lots of flats" (or I think that's what he said. His accent was horrible and he talked way too fast.) He showed me around and I was rather impressed, it looked much nicer than the last 2 places. "So what is your price range?" he asked. "About 300-400," I said, as I'd stated in my advert and was within his price advertised. He then looked at me like I'd sprouted another 5 or so heads. It then dawned on me with crushing horror that somehow he thought I was looking to buy the entire flat. Only then did he tell me the room at no.16 advertised had already gone.Oh language barriers. Aren't they fun.
Awkward was not the word. I smiled politely and backed away slowly, then ran, and would've just sat down in the middle of Latina and cried if I didn't have another appointment to go to that a friend in the hostel had found advertised on Facebook, and was already late for.
I met this last guy outside Moncloa who mercifully spoke English, and specialised in finding student accommodation for the local university. He showed me a flat that was 5 minutes walk from where I needed to be, it was clean, not overcrowded as it was only 3 bedrooms. It was slightly above my price range but by that point I really would've cried if I'd gone through all that and not had a result. I took it instantly, ignoring the fact that I was advised it might have a 'party atmosphere'.... but as a local British expat told me this morning on the subject of flat hunting, you really can't have it all....
But hey. It's something. You couldn't pay me a million to repeat the stress and horror that was yesterday, but I celebrated my success at the end of it by joining in with the hostel's drinking games and going out for tapas and beers with a couple of Londoner inter-railers, and today I plan to do very little.  Pictures of the flat to come when I move in tomorrow.

Tapas, Madrid style - not quite what you were expecting....

Well,

day 2 and 3 have been reasonably less panicked than day 1, possibly owed to coming down with a stonking cold due to being run down and it being rather too toasty to sleep at night. Not fun. However yesterday I made the excellent decision to do the free walking tour of the centre of Madrid offered by the hostel, and ended up having a meal and a wander with a few of them afterwards, around the beautiful Retiro park and to the museums (which I almost went for then felt like I was about to conk out.)

In the evening we went to a 'famous tapas bar where the locals go,' and were promised an authentic local experience rather than a cheesy tourist trap. This involved being crammed into a room like sardines, getting a seat was a luxury reserved for the lucky few (not me lol), and waiters who weaved around flocks of people, stacked plates and glasses in hand, like an acrobat, as if the incredible maneuvers he put on show came part of the price. We were told, "In other places, you choose what you want to eat, but here they'll bring you lots of food and they'll keep bringing it until we tell them to stop!". All you can eat tapas wasn't bad for €10 even if it did involve 10 people huddling around each little table. Afterwards we were encouraged to go on the bar crawl, which sounds like fun only here it´s the cultural norm to head out about 1:30/ 2am and finish around 6, and given I could feel my sinuses clogging up at the mere thought, I gave it a miss (but still felt rubbish today - poo!). Still I managed to drag myself to the park in this beautiful 29 degree sunshine and feel like I achieved something through my coughing, spluttering, sniffling and hapless flathunting.

To say I've been thrown in in the deep end is quite an understatement, and to say I've never felt so lost in my life is no exaggeration. But now I'm here to stay, and I'm learning fast so all I can say is... bring it on!

Life on Mars

Remember that TV show about a dude who ends up in a bizarre (might as well be) Martian environment? That's me. I'm him. It's not like I haven't been to Spain before....it's not like I haven't been to some really weird corners of the planet....
But then I've made an arse of myself a fair few times in just a few hours (even though I was advised many times that this was the best way to roll.) I had a warm welcome of a greasy, overpriced dish served by the grouchiest waiter I've ever met (I thought the Madrileños were friendly!), but then this was balanced out by Ryanair not losing my bag and not charging me a fortune for having a 15.2kg bag on a 15kg allowance (which was a shock indeed! Oh the horror stories I've heard...). I also managed, just a few hours ago, to do a bold supermarket shop only to not turn up with a bag and not be offered one, so I then attempted to stagger back to the hostel; I then put said items down to stuff as much as I could in my hoodie to carry it that way, only for someone to ask if I'd fallen over. Silly sausage is me, daft yet resourceful.
Then there's this country's ghastly lack of English Breakfast tea.... I had to settle for peppermint. Dear me....
....Well I'll get there. Maybe the French supermarket down the road is a good bet...

Last minute jitters

Now dawns the last minute terror at T-5 days - not running out of money, making sure everything's done on time and the right order (scary things involving police stations, bank accounts, endless red tape and paperwork and phone tarriffs), not losing things, not getting lost myself, not looking like a tourist and making sure I can scrape by when things go horribly wrong and the only help I may get is from Spaniards who bark angrily like machine guns. Then there's finding somewhere to live that's not filled with cockroaches and loud Erasmus students from hell, run by dodgy landlords armed with hidden costs. Let's also try not to end up in a 'party hostel' the week we're trying to sort this all out without losing the plot, huh....
And how will I leave my dear darling Gingy? (pictured).

The funny thing is that on Monday she thinks that she's having a dissertation handing-in party, when actually she's throwing me a two day leaving party. I'm sneaky like that.

But hey what is there to worry about! I'll be teaching kiddies here:

And living here (somewhere):

I'm apparently supposed to be doing a lot of this:

Which on a regular basis is not really my idea of fun but that's ok, because it means that within a week we'll all be homies like this:

or....something. I suppose it'll probably end up looking more like this:

Hey, I might get all local and start beginning to think about warming to this stuff:

All of the nom! Hey, I'll have a great time.

I'll not often be without this little groovy dude, will I? :D

xxx

Bienvenidos :D

Greetings friends :D.
My other two blogs have been horribly neglected this summer, which will be rectified once I stop picking fruit for 35 hours a week. As many of you know I'm jetting off to Spain to teach English in a school in Madrid for 9 months in the freakishly near future, and not wanting to leave you lovely peoples out of the loop, I have a new blog to fill with pictures, strange goings on, mishaps and wonderful new experiences. So you know now, the name of this blog translates as 'The diary of the little witch', 'brujita' being the adorable nickname I managed to attain the last time I spent time with Pagans in Spain two years ago. I hope to be much more active in the Spanish Pagan community than I have been able to in the next year, somewhere modern Paganism has taken off like a rocket (as in many European countries.) Acting as a bridge in the gap between the majority anglophone resources and famous faces, and an eager Spanish audience hungry to learn, is a very exciting place to be indeed.
This will probably end up becoming bilingual as I go along, so please bear with me anglophones! Google translate is your friend. In all honesty I've no idea what will happen and little introverted Sophie who likes lists and plans and neat timetables and not too much fun in one day is quite terrified. But hey, if we don't adventure we don't learn nearly as much, so..... speak soon :)
XxX