Au-Pair - 1 - Back to Espana

After a long hiatus, mainly due to the stresses of Junior Honours and the fact that this seems to be more of a travel blog than anything else, I will be trying to write some more on this blog...at least during the summer as I'm back living in Espana :)   Well, for two more weeks...

So why am I back?  And what am I doing?  To answer this we need to go back a little in time...

*wibbly wobbly effects*

At the end of my year abroad my Spanish level was pretty good, I rapidly improved and I understood just about everything that people would say to me.  But I still felt that my oral skills were sorely lacking, and even though I spoke in my oral classes I always felt that my fluency should be higher and that my confidence when speaking, which lacks even in English as I'm quite introvert, needed to be higher in order that my final language exams could reflect what I feel like I can achieve.  So I started looking for a way to get myself back to Spain, in order to A) immerse myself in Spanish and B) if possible to attend Spanish language classes to reinforce the grammar and correct/academic language use.  The answer came in the form of being an Au-Pair.

An Au-Pair's job description varies from playing with kids in English and generally baby-sitting them whilst their parents are working to being a full-on Mary Poppins complete with house work and cooking.  By using the website aupair-world.co.uk I found an ideal family...they were Catalan and lived next to the beach...the downside, they have two little boys, one of whom is still in diapers...After a long hard think, I had to turn down their offer as my Castillian language skills have to take precedent, although I still plan on living in Catalonia one day .  I then returned to looking and found another gem of a family.  After a few Skype sessions where I met the family and the little boy, I bought my tickets and set my sights on living in Tres Cantos (a satellite town about 30 mins on the Cercanias from the centre of Madrid).  Tres Cantos has a very good economic level, and the people here are not worrying about La Crisis.  For example, my family have two cars, own their house and their child goes to a semi-private school where he learns English, Chinese and Arabic...have I mentioned he is 6!

So family found, flights booked, cases packed and my sister was also staying in Madrid as an Au-Pair. Summer was off to a flying start.


I left the UK on the 15th of June and finally met my host family face to face...or cara a cara.

Year Abroad: Semana Santa Part 4 - Madrid and back to Baeza

We arrived back in Madrid in the early evening on the Wednesday of Holy Week.  We had to go and check in to our new accommodation, the room we hastily booked after our upset earlier in the week.  The room was basic, but clean, and the woman who ran the hostel was very nice.  We then headed out into the city to find some food and to stretch our legs after the train. 

 

We headed towards the other side of the Puerta del Sol in search of food and eventually stumbled upon a bar which had a decent looking menu del dia, just as the rain began.  We sat in the bar for a while, eating and watching a really bad Spanish comedy show.  We headed back out into the city just as the rain had stopped and as we were walking back across the Puerta del Sol we saw a large crowd assembled and heard drumming coming down one of the side streets.  We had inadvertently stumbled onto a Semana Santa procession.  The first one my mother and I had ever seen in real life.  She did her usual of getting over-emotional…oh mammy…and we watched the different cofradias marching with the different tronos and bands.  I couldn’t wait for Easter Sunday so that I could join in one. 

Solid wooden trono.  Decorated with fresh flowers.

The Cofradia carrying the crosses.  some were even barefoot.  All done as penance.

A representative of each of the groups who marched.

This outfit was the most impressive of them.

That trono is very heavy.  It takes up to 80 people to carry one.

The following day we got up at a reasonable time and we decided we would go and see the NASA exhibition which was going on at Casa del Campo at the other side of Madrid, just outside the city.  The trip to get there was interesting to say the least.  We got the metro and when we came back out into the city we were not in Kansas anymore…we were out in the rough part of the town.  We had our google map directions and headed through the dodgy looking flats.  We got a little confused and we had to ask someone for directions…she was definitely a few screws lose….she flagged down two policemen who were there to get the crazy homeless guy with a bat away from the residential area…but anyway we made it in one piece to the exhibit.

The exhibition was NASA: A Human Adventure and it was all about the beginnings of the space race up to the present day and into the future programmes of NASA and their partners like ESA.  We were given an audio-guide which was divided up into sections and had a lot of information broken up into sections: The Dreamers (the visionaries and sci-fi writers who inspired so many to try to get humans into space), Go Fever! (about the Space Race and the first astronauts Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard), Pioneers (people like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Hermann Oberth whose work helped invent the first rockets), Innovation (the machines and technology used), Endurance (space suits and the food taken on board), The Next Generation (NASA’s future projects) and a special memorial for those astronauts who died trying to reach their goals.

An early space suit design

The entrance to the Dreamers section which focused on sci-fi writers such as Jules Verne who inspired so many to reach for the stars.

My mum and I both loved the exhibit.  I have always been fascinated by space and if I had even an inkling of physics ability I’d be working for a space agency when I graduated…alas I don’t so I’ll need to make do with hoping to be an interpreter of the aliens ever land, xeno-linguistics anyone.  There were loads of model rockets showing the scale and evolution of design.  It was interesting to see the different types of fuel which could have been used etc.  The website about the exhibition has more info if anyone wants it http://ahumanadventure.com/exhibition

After the exhibition it was time to head back into the city centre and grab a coffee.  We headed to Starbucks just as the rain came on again.  So we sat there a while whilst our Rick Steve’s guidebook came up with suggestions on where to go next.  It told us that the Royal Palace was free to EU citizens on Thursday afternoons, and since neither of us had ever visited it we gritted our teeth and headed out into the pouring rain to visit the palace. 

We stood in a line outside the palace for about fifteen minutes and managed to get royally soaked (pun intended).  Using our newly acquired guidebook we wandered through the palace and found out a lot of things that weren’t on the official plaques (which were also very interesting).  Most of the rooms were so intricately designed and beautifully decorated.  And our guidebook told us how some of the more elaborate reliefs had to be dismantled during the civil war and how if you look closely you can see the joints.  And it was interesting to see a foreign palace, even though I haven’t seen Buckingham or Holyrood anyway. 

My mum at the placio real

I'm one of the guards now

Across the courtyard is the cathedral

After the palace we went back to the hostal to dry off, get changed and the headed out for dinner.  Another day another menu del dia.  Good hearty Spanish food.  I’m pretty sure I had roast chicken which I love when it is made in Spain because it is always so juicy. 

On the Friday we were getting ready to head back to the bus station and back to Baeza.  A very leisurely day.    

  

When we arrived back in Baeza as we were walking back to the flat with all our travelling stuff we ran into a problem…or rather into a procession.  We had of course timed it so that our arrival coincided with the end of a Good Friday mass and one of the largest processions of the week.  We stood on the main street and watched it, with all our luggage before we went the very long circuitous route to the apartment.  My band was due to play at nine o’clock so we got ready to go and see them.  We stopped off to watch the end of the previous procession as they were doing the final round and got to witness one of the defining features of an Andalusian Semana Santa – a seata.  The old man who had sung at my concert the previous week started singing in the street as the rain drizzled down.  The seata is when Andaluz people sing/talk to God.  It is very powerful and it is taken with a lot of respect.  For example, the people carrying the trono needed to get it inside because of the rain but because this old man was singing they couldn’t/wouldn’t move forward.  After he stopped they double marched into the church. 

The trono showing Jesus being taken down from the cross after his death.

Whilst we normally associate this look with the KKK it started out as a way to give penance to God anonymously. Here in Andalusia there is normally at least one member of every family doing this every year.

One of the brotherhoods walking in the main street of Baeza.

Once you have done this once you will be buried with the robes as an indicator when you get to heaven that you have done it.

Solid wooden trono, intricately designed.

The old man singing his saeta.

We arrived at the starting place where the banda de Baeza were supposed to be starting from.  Unfortunately due to the rain their procession was cancelled but at least my mum got to meet Martin and Pepe and some of the other band members.  Then I took her to go and get some drinks at one of the pubs.  We returned to the flat exhausted and ready for bed.  

Year Abroad: Highlights of the week: 31st March to 6th April

       This week’s “highlights” is the short version of the following posts.  Just my favourite parts of each day.

Saturday 31^st – Off to Madrid.  Spent ages wandering around.  Went to the Botanic Gardens.  Visited the Reina Sofia to see Guernica. 

Sunday 1^st – Sat in La Puerta del Sol eating a pastry in the morning sun.  Visited an Ancient Egyptian Temple.  Sat outside the palace for a while people watching.  Saw a little lost boy get reunited with his daddy.  Visited the Naval Museum.  Chilled out with ice cream in the Retiro park.  Went to the airport to collect the mother (although technically that was Monday morning).

Monday 2^nd – Off to Toledo for the day.  Visited the Military museum in the Alcazar.  Took the tourist train which told lots of weird stories about Toledo.  My favourite was the vengeful father who after the King raped his daughter and refused to marry her, opened the gates and let in the marauding Moors…as you do.  Back to Madrid. 

Tuesday 3^rd – Got out of the disgusting hostal.  Headed to Salamanca.  The hostal there was lovely.  The owner spent ages telling us in detail how to find our way around the city, what each of the monuments were and where we should eat.  Walked around the city.  Took the tourist train to see everything.  Lovely menu del dia.  And we saw Andy Parsons from Mock the Week in the street.

Wednesday 4^th – Wandered some more around Salamanca.  Then we headed back to Madrid.  We had a good dinner and then were lucky enough to catch a procession in the Puerta del Sol before the rain came on again.  Headed to the hostal to sleep.

Thursday 5^th – Went to the NASA exhibition.  Spent like four hours there.  Then we went to the Palacio Real which was pretty impressive.  We used our new guidebook, which someone helpfully left on the tourist train in Toledo, to give us more info.  Nice dinner in a random bar somewhere off of the Puerta del Sol.

Friday 6^th – Not much to be done.  We checked out and lugged the suitcases down the four flights of stairs.  Then headed to the bus station and spent the time on the bus watching The Big Bang Theory and Britain’s Got Talent.  When we got back to Baeza we were in time to see one of the processions.  My band’s procession was cancelled due to the torrential rain…whoever said Spain was a warm, sunny country was sadly mistaken this past month.

Year Abroad: Semana Santa Trip Part 1 – Madrid and waiting for the mother to arrive

            A week off work for Easter holidays, and since my mum is a teacher in a country where they get two weeks off she decided that it was about time she got to go to Spain for Semana Santa (Holy Week).

            Semana Santa is a huge deal here in Spain.  As it is a Catholic country and Easter is the basis of the Catholic faith lots of traditions have been passed through the generations here but the most visible has to be the processions and the hooded people who march as penance, but more of that later on in the week.

           

            We had a rough plan of action for the week.  I would go up to Madrid on the Saturday, she would arrive late Sunday night, Toledo on the Monday, Salamanca on the Tuesday and Wednesday, back to Madrid Wednesday night and back to Baeza on the Friday afternoon. 

            So on the Saturday morning I set off for Madrid and a day and a half of sightseeing by myself.  I arrived into Madrid around half past one and went straight to my hostal, which was very conveniently located just off of Calle Atocha – right next to the Retiro park, the art museums and only a ten minute walk from the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol.  I set off for a walk in search of food.  After a long while of tramping around the city to no avail…I feel extremely awkward eating somewhere proper by myself…I had to give up and head to McDonalds. 

            During my walk I ended up at the palace.  It was lovely in the overcast light and there was a violinist playing.  It was so peaceful and perfect that I wanted to freeze that moment forever. 

Palacio Real in Madrid

            After my lunch I was still swithering about what I wanted to go see.  Being a student, with student ID, and armed with a Young Scot card – yes this thing actually counts for something here – means that a lot of things are either reduced or free and on weekends in Madrid there are free hours for most of the museums as well.  I walked up to the tourist info to grab a map and to see where I was going to go. 

As it was a lovely day I decided to go to the Botanic Gardens and not to waste the good weather.  The entry was reduced with my student card and I took some of my hayfever medicine and was good to go.  I spent a couple of hours wandering around the different plants and trees, recognising some, and all the time being thankful that they weren’t all olives.  I’m sick of the sight of olive groves now.  They are too similar to each other and the uniformed lines mean that whilst it is nature, it isn’t natural. 

Little ducks

Brocolli plant!!

One of my favourite "false friends"

Tree of Love proves that its on the inside that counts

Tulips

Me at the Botanic Gardens

After the Botanic Gardens I went to the Reina Sofia to see the one painting that I wanted to see in Madrid – Picasso’s Guernica.  Picasso painted this inspired by the aftermath of the bombing of Guernica, in the Basque country, in 1937.  Franco essentially gave the German and Italian forces the town to do some target practice because the Basques have always been outspoken and separatist from Spain.  The bombing happened on market day when the streets were lined with civilians and none of the areas bombed were of strategic importance.  They just wanted maximum casualties to crush their spirit.  The painting occupies its own room, with the rooms around it giving more insight into Picasso and the Civil War. 

I decided that since I was alone in Madrid that I wasn’t going to go to a bar etc. so I may as well find some food and then head for my hostal.  There was a random little bar on calle Atocha that had a 7 euro menu del dia, and it didn’t look terribly busy or creepy, so I went in (after walking past it several times).  The bartenders gave me strange looks but the food was good and cheap.  I headed back to the hostal, skyped home and called it a night.

The next morning I woke up pretty early, probably in anticipation and couldn’t really force myself to stay in bed.  So I got up and headed to La Mallorquina bakery just off La Puerta del Sol, bought a pastry and sat in the square in the beautiful morning sunshine.  

Pastries from La Mallorquina, best enjoyed in the Puerta del Sol

The bakery is very old but even for being in such a tourist area the prices aren’t dear at all.  I took advantage of the sun to go on a little walking adventure around Madrid, getting lost a few times, having to re-climb massive hills before deciding to head to the Egyptian temple that is in Madrid – Templo de Debod – in the Parque Oeste, up past the palace. 

This Egyptian temple was brought to Spain in 1968 because the site where it had stood through the ages was being turned into a dam and Egypt sold off or donated the temples that were going to be destroyed because of it.  The temple is pretty small but there is enough information available in various languages to make it worthwhile…also it is free.  One of the remarkable things is that when they dismantled the temple they didn’t number the stones so when they arrived in Madrid the re-construction was like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Hieroglyphics 

The Arches...or a time machine?

Me at the Temple

If this is a time machine..is the old lady really me?

Now it was just after 2pm and most of the museums were shutting.  I ate some lunch and then looked through my options.  I opted for the Naval museum because Spain, like the UK, was once a power in the waters.  Spanish Armada was something to be feared…

The museum would have been better if the information sheets were all in their correct boxes.  But the collection of model ships, treasures from the New World and from the Far East, the Muslim weapons and the modern technology were fascinating. 

Ceramics from the Far East

Moorish weaponry.  They do not like it up them sir

Gibraltar...

The Spanish Armada is alive and well

Another time machine?

Once I was done here I took full advantage of the sun, bought an ice cream and went and sat under a tree in the Retiro.  Very peaceful.  And there I waited until it was time to head back to the hostal, collect my stuff and head into the airport. 

I was of course early getting to the airport, even though I made myself wait, not hurry and make sure I had everything sorted for out train the next day.  And then of course my mum’s flight was delayed.  By an hour.  Bloody BA…but eventually, after hours of waiting she arrived.  We caught a taxi to the hotel and crashed. 

We got up early and then prepared ourselves to get back to the city centre, check into the new hostal and then head to Toledo.                

Year Abroad: Highlights of the week 24th - 30th March

Saturday 24^th – Didn’t do much during the daytime as I was still exhausted.  Was playing a short concert in the evening and had arranged to meet up with Jenna afterwards.

The concert went well.  It was another pre-Semana Santa concert but we were playing after a group of dignitaries had “opened” the event.  In true dignitary fashion they ran nearly an hour late so we all had to be prepared but we ended up with an hour and nothing to do.  Spoke to a few people but it is hard to break into these established groups unless they actually want to include you.  

Jenna and I decided to go bar-hopping.  I left my stuff in here flat and then we headed out.  First stop Da Vinci’s, tinto de verano and tuna tortilla, as well as some good chat.  Then Los Arcos.  Then we went to one up near my house, I don’t know the name of it but we have been intrigued by its “venta hielo” sign for a while. 

Then we decided to go to Charleston, because frankly time is running out and we hadn’t been there before.  We knew that we could run into our pupils there as the entrance ages in “over 16” but we had both been told that it was a good mix of our age and older as well.  Well we got there, and then Jenna spots some of her gym friends, who had all been at a wedding in the afternoon and the bride (still in her wedding dress) and groom had decided to go clubbing afterwards.  Then we bumped into one of the bar tenders from Budladero whom Jenna knows well and he gave us a sort-of backstage tour of Charleston and told us all about the business.  

The owner of Charleston has come up with a good idea as he allows “Bottellon” to happen in the upstairs part but he charges them more money.  Bottellon is essentially a “carry out”.  But it is slightly more socially acceptable.  They acknowledge that the under age kids will be drinking but they are safer than if they were just on the streets.  

All in all a good night, and if Jenna is around another Saturday night then we are planning on going back.

Sunday 25^th – With the hour change I didn’t get home until just after 4.30 and Jenna hadn’t left until after half 5.  I had left my stuff at her house so in the afternoon she brought my stuff up and we decided to go for a walk around the mirador, grab a roll and sit in the sunshine for a while.  Then we went and got coffee and afterwards I went back to sit in the sunshine.  I have a slight tan line where my fringe was and where my sunglasses were. 

Monday 26^th – I started to feel unwell so I spent most of the day in bed hoping that I’d get over it quickly…

Tuesday 27^th – Lost my voice.  Partly.  Went to school and was all croaky and crackly.  Then my kindle screen broke…wasn’t a great day.

Wednesday 28^th – Had to take the day off of work because a) I had no voice at all and all my classes involved me reading aloud as well as a dictation exercise and b) I had no energy and just felt faint.   

Had to phone Kindle customer services, even though I had no voice, barely a whisper, who are sending a new, free Kindle direct to my house as its still under warranty.  And unless it turns out that it was human damage then I don’t have to pay.

I was this penguin all week.

Thursday 29^th – Went back into school because a Thursday means two meetings and then my 5^th year class, a lot less speaking on my part.  Meeting in the morning was cancelled so I went in at break, ate my media con tomate (seriously best elevenses ever) and then my afternoon was also cancelled.   

Because the holidays are coming up the kids are disappearing and not turning up, which was welcome today because I would have been useless.

Tapas was good.  Left early-ish because I still felt pretty sick.  My chest feels tight, my throat definitely has an inflammation or a lump in it and I’m a bit wheezy.  My voice also just doesn’t exist right now.  Very odd.

Friday 30^th – Had to go into school even though we all knew there were going to be no children.  The atmosphere was good though as all the teachers were looking forward to their week off.  The guy with the amazing laugh nearly deafened me laughing at joke I didn’t understand.  His laugh is infectious though.  

Spent the afternoon cleaning and organising my stuff for the adventures.  Off to Madrid early in the morning and then when my mum comes we will be travelling to Toledo, Salamanca and maybe either Segovia or Avila.  

Well that’s all folks…stay tuned

Days until I finish at Santisima - 63