Hello! Sorry (probably not the right word) for the lack of a post but I have been busy. It is exam time for the kids again. It seemed like only yesterday that I first got to see their happy faces drop into despair but its here again. They have all done well, including one 100%! The exams are good as you dont have to do anything in class but the marking and report writing that follows always makes up for it. I have used the same six stock phrases rotated to ensure they all have a different one from last time and that the kid who sits next to them doesn't have the same.
What free time there was this weekend was taken up by Alice, selfish. In fairness there has been a lot of watching a download bar like a spectator sport. We went out on Friday evening with Felicity and Lukash and it ended up being pretty heavy. On Saturday morning I was physically sick like a thirteen year old girl. It was a time of mourning though as the beautiful barmaid will no longer be working there. I don't think the owner knows quite the feelings he has unleashed. The weekend was more productive as with a great deal of help from Marc and Kathryn we headed out into Navarra. Shamefully in the time I have been here I hadn't ventured far into the countryside. The most obvious thing is that, there is a LOT of it. Navarra is really, really empty. It's most notable towns can't be too much bigger than New Ash Green. Very beautiful nonetheless.
We started in Javier, named after the Patron Saint of Navarra San Javier who was born there. He was cannonized for his missionary work in Asia, he is buried in Goa and Japan, it's probably not best to ask why seperate. He also encountered something called the miracle of the crawfish but my Spanish failed me. Onwards into Aragon, as in Catherine of, to a village called Sos, which was absolutely beautiful. It's one of those strange Spanish things that they come back to their home village and the population of these tiny villages swells during the summer to fall away to virtually nothing in the winter. A German friend in Pamplona came interested in these peoples sex lives, he was thinking somewhere between Hot Fuzz and Eyes Wide Shut.
It was lovely to have Alice here though I'm glad to not be sleeping on the floor anymore, I think one night I slept directly on my left kidney, if thats possible. Put some photos up in the next few days.
Its a three day week, I finish tomorrow and I can't wait to be honest. Be great to have a break. My heart has really not been in it this week, showing DVDs, that sort of thing. I remember watching the Disney Tarzan in German and it did me no good but these kids seem to be into it. When one lesson the DVD didn't work the look on their was like they had just realised their own mortality, but it was X-Men 2 so it was understandable. My half arsed week is best summed up by the fact I now need to go and work out just exactly what I'm teaching in a few hours time.
Home on Friday, I'll be in time for Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles. See you there.
love love love x
Tuesday 30 March 2010
Sunday 21 March 2010
The French Open
There is espionage afoot! If you were a spy you would think you would make an effort not to look so totally shady as the guy above but hey I'm not Bond. While rooting around the internet, something which usually leads to trouble, a blog was found about CLEN. Mysteriously posted in January by someone under the name "Black Pig" it is less than complimentary. A blog being used for evil, unthinkable. CLEN is far from perfect there are plenty of annoyances as there are with many if not all jobs but the person who wrote it is just unfair. They claim that Alfonso pretends to speak no English which is just wrong. They also complain about delayed pay something which hasn't happened once in my time here. Neither has their other complaint of not having the hours to fufill your contract. They also whinge about travelling, which is part of the job. My favourite was crying about the wind and that its cold in winter. I found myself getting defensive about it.
The question is who wrote it? I'm going to invoke the spirit of Jessica Fletcher to find out and then I'm going to go all Jack Bauer, for we no criticise, we make work for glorious leaders. I want to meet Black Pig, preferably under a clock tower, I'll be Red Fox and be carrying an empty brief case. That's far too much effort and I'll probably forget all about it in ten minutes but nonetheless intrigue.
We have our third new housemate! Her name is Gloria she's from Madrid. She's very nice. She's a bit older than the rest of us and everyone was worried whether she would enjoy living with three guys in their early twenties but she seems to be fine so far. She has been very polite in hiding her distaste with some of our ways, for example a fridge without a system, but I'm wearing trousers in the house so we are all making sacrifices.
It was Fathers day here on friday which is taken about as seriously as it is at home. BUT! In true Spanish style, you can't be expected to work so it was a lovely four day week. All of my young students have taken great pride in showing me their gifts they have been making in class. They do all involve pasta and glitter, but most important material of all is love, sob. Friday is my planning day so without it I have literally nothing organsied for tomorrow so we're going to be winging it. I used the day productively by going and getting horrifically drunk, which was the first time I had been so in ages. Pamplona subjected to the full force off my dance moves. Saturday also turned out to be heavy as we watched more rugby. I actually felt a bit bad when England lost, mostly as Antoine was sitting there being French all up in my face. He is less of a rugby than me and didn't care either way but still. The real highlight was Dan throwing sixty years of European cooperation back in their faces by listing all the reasons why losing to France would be unbearable to a French man. He didn't realise he was French until he noticed everyone around him laughing.
I've also been looking masters, my word they are expensive. I told myself to be brutally pragmatic no airy fairy courses just cold hard career courses. Though looking through the opitions I'm instantly drawn to Poltical Ethics or Imperial History. I'm not ruling out puppetry or dance thearapy.
It appears I will be home for Easter so if anyone is around let me know, I can bore you in person
love love love x
Sunday 14 March 2010
If its Tangy and Brown You're in Cider Town
Cider, sweet, sickly and the favourite choice of skint drunks everywhere. The Basques however claim cider as an important part of their culture. Being cultured a a few of us decided to partake in some real culture by spending all Saturday drinking cider, imagine that on the South Bank Show, Melvyn Bragg would drink anyone of us under the table.
All over the Basque countryside there are places called, Sagardotegis or in Spanish the infinitely more pronouncable Sidreria. They tend to be on farms where the stuff is made, with an instrument with the greatest technical name ever, "a piece of wood with a nail in it".
To get out of Pamplona into the countryside a mini bus was hired which was very exciting, a mini bus really helps the feeling that you are off on a trip. We also got the share the bus with a guy who had been out all Friday and hadn't slept it was now 2 on Saturday and he was no where near finished. The countryside is beautiful and hopefully soon there will be some pictures. It's actually very British, but with mountains. When we headed into the mountains it changes to a more Alpine feel. There are lots of isolated white houses and high up there was still some snow. It looked the Sound of Music but without the Nazis.
The place itself is a small wooden building attacthed to a farm. The cider itself is kept in a huge barrel. You need to go up and turn on the tap but as amatuers we weren't expected it to come out at a force horizontially. You position yourself where you believe the cider will shoot out and have to catch it. Then you had to move the glass towards the barrel because apparently that makes a huge difference, only a cretin doesn't alter the distance. It's a process that gets more difficult after a few ciders.
You also have a meal which is virtually always steak. Our place was exactly the same, its rough being a Basque vegetarian. The meat is very rare its like biting into a cow but they smoke it so you don't have all the blood and it has the texture of being well done. It was fantastic and they keep bringing it and bringing it until you concede defeat (for thats what it is) or die from meat poisioning.
On the way back we stopped in a village the tenth of the size of New Ash Green but still had a bar that was rammed at six. Metal appears to be the Basques first choice of musical genre which explains the unacceptably high level of mullets. The night finsihed as all nights should with a running race around the block where I claimed a perfectly reasonable third place. As Any British sportsman will tell you, that will do boys, let's go home.
love love love x
All over the Basque countryside there are places called, Sagardotegis or in Spanish the infinitely more pronouncable Sidreria. They tend to be on farms where the stuff is made, with an instrument with the greatest technical name ever, "a piece of wood with a nail in it".
To get out of Pamplona into the countryside a mini bus was hired which was very exciting, a mini bus really helps the feeling that you are off on a trip. We also got the share the bus with a guy who had been out all Friday and hadn't slept it was now 2 on Saturday and he was no where near finished. The countryside is beautiful and hopefully soon there will be some pictures. It's actually very British, but with mountains. When we headed into the mountains it changes to a more Alpine feel. There are lots of isolated white houses and high up there was still some snow. It looked the Sound of Music but without the Nazis.
The place itself is a small wooden building attacthed to a farm. The cider itself is kept in a huge barrel. You need to go up and turn on the tap but as amatuers we weren't expected it to come out at a force horizontially. You position yourself where you believe the cider will shoot out and have to catch it. Then you had to move the glass towards the barrel because apparently that makes a huge difference, only a cretin doesn't alter the distance. It's a process that gets more difficult after a few ciders.
You also have a meal which is virtually always steak. Our place was exactly the same, its rough being a Basque vegetarian. The meat is very rare its like biting into a cow but they smoke it so you don't have all the blood and it has the texture of being well done. It was fantastic and they keep bringing it and bringing it until you concede defeat (for thats what it is) or die from meat poisioning.
On the way back we stopped in a village the tenth of the size of New Ash Green but still had a bar that was rammed at six. Metal appears to be the Basques first choice of musical genre which explains the unacceptably high level of mullets. The night finsihed as all nights should with a running race around the block where I claimed a perfectly reasonable third place. As Any British sportsman will tell you, that will do boys, let's go home.
love love love x
Monday 8 March 2010
It's Getting Boring By The Sea #1
Spain it turns out really isn't one country, it is actually a number of small countries stuck together. What we think of as Spain, the bull fights, paella and flamenco dancing is actually mainly from only one part of Spain, its largest region, Andalucia in the south. The regions are all very very proud and generally people in Spain don't see much of a reason to leave their region for any real period of time. Travelling for a prolonged period isn't the big deal it is at home. Sometimes it's really inspiring that they take so much pride in their home and it makes different parts of the country truly different. Different food, traditions and attitudes. Sometimes its really annoying, when they treat something an hour down the road as foreign. I thought I'd try and paste together a brief discription of each, starting with Navarre, Catalonia and Galicia. So strap in for am exciting journey through Spanish regionalism. Generalization ahoy.
Navarra, my own little corner of Spain.
POPULATION: 620,337
FAMOUS FOR: Bull running mentalness, The Sun Also Rises
FAMOUS PEOPLE: Miguel Indurain (5 Times Tour de France Winner), Manuel Almunia
Navarra is small, rural and sparsely populated. It gets to be autonomous due to the fact that a mere few centuries ago it was an independent state, that actually joined Spain through mutual constent. I say mutual consent, they were at the end of the sword, but let's not quibble. Thus they are basically left to govern themselves and have their own president, Miguel Sanz. It's one of the strangest things about Spain, that to keep all the regions happy they devolve so much power that the Spanish government only controls about 40% of Spain's finances. Navarra leads Europe in renewable energy and is boldly attempting to be 100% renewable by the end of this year. It's not going to happen but theres nothing wrong with outlandish claims. Its people are regarded as being reserved, it takes a long time to become friends but when you do you have a friend for life.
Catalonia
A CAR ACCIDENT: Every 19 seconds
FAMOUS FOR: Arcitecture, Barcelona FC, Art
FAMOUS PEOPLE: Salvador Dali, Antoni Gaudi, Joan Miro
Catalonia and Madrid have been in eternal rivalry and will be forever due to their tendacy to automatically choose the opposite side in every debate on principle. The current example is bull figthing, Madrid declared it an art form to be defended as an iconic image of Spanish culture, swiftly Catalonia swore to destroy it and are in the process of banning it. They need each other, like Holmes and Moriarty, to destroy the other would be to destroy themselves. Catalonia also has its own language which can annoy other Spaniards so claim that in Barcelona events are advertised in Catalan and English but not Spanish, ouch. Barcelona is a city full of immigrants many who become so attatched they become honourary Catalans, Colombus, Picasso, Sam Bloomfield. Johan Cryuff the great footballer became so attacthed that he waged a war on the state to get his child's name spelt in Catalan, Jordi, rather than the Spanish, as Catalan was banned. How did Jordi pay his father back? By having his own football career that ended in Malta, it must be terrible to be so horribly horribly outshone by your father. I get the same feeling when I play my dad at Risk, "SIAM IS WEAK MARK!!" Catalans also have a reputation of being tight fisted and romantic, a strange combination.
Galicia
FAMOUS FOR: The Way of Saint James, emigrating,
FAMOUS PEOPLE: Franco, Amancio Ortega Gaona (founder of Zara, Spains richest man and 10th richest in the world)
Galicia (the bit above Portugal) is cold, windy and desolate. It is cut off from Spain by mountains and is closely related to the Celts. They have their own language Gallego, which is the first language over Spanish. It is poorer than a lot of Spain despite having its richest man, and is superisitous and are often the butt of jokes like the Irish in Britain. People say they never give a straight answer and never allow someone to know what they are thinking. Due to being poorer they are big emigrants. So much so that in Argentina and Uruguay Spanish people are called Galicians. There are more Galicians in Buenos Ares than Galicia. Descendents of Galician emgriants include Fidel Castro, Enrique Iglesias, the Sheens and most importantly Emilio "the mightest duck" Estevez.
There you are three complex regions reduced to nothing before your very eyes.
TODAYS POST WAS SPONSORED BY THE NUMBER 5 AND THE LETTER K
love love love x
Navarra, my own little corner of Spain.
POPULATION: 620,337
FAMOUS FOR: Bull running mentalness, The Sun Also Rises
FAMOUS PEOPLE: Miguel Indurain (5 Times Tour de France Winner), Manuel Almunia
Navarra is small, rural and sparsely populated. It gets to be autonomous due to the fact that a mere few centuries ago it was an independent state, that actually joined Spain through mutual constent. I say mutual consent, they were at the end of the sword, but let's not quibble. Thus they are basically left to govern themselves and have their own president, Miguel Sanz. It's one of the strangest things about Spain, that to keep all the regions happy they devolve so much power that the Spanish government only controls about 40% of Spain's finances. Navarra leads Europe in renewable energy and is boldly attempting to be 100% renewable by the end of this year. It's not going to happen but theres nothing wrong with outlandish claims. Its people are regarded as being reserved, it takes a long time to become friends but when you do you have a friend for life.
Catalonia
A CAR ACCIDENT: Every 19 seconds
FAMOUS FOR: Arcitecture, Barcelona FC, Art
FAMOUS PEOPLE: Salvador Dali, Antoni Gaudi, Joan Miro
Catalonia and Madrid have been in eternal rivalry and will be forever due to their tendacy to automatically choose the opposite side in every debate on principle. The current example is bull figthing, Madrid declared it an art form to be defended as an iconic image of Spanish culture, swiftly Catalonia swore to destroy it and are in the process of banning it. They need each other, like Holmes and Moriarty, to destroy the other would be to destroy themselves. Catalonia also has its own language which can annoy other Spaniards so claim that in Barcelona events are advertised in Catalan and English but not Spanish, ouch. Barcelona is a city full of immigrants many who become so attatched they become honourary Catalans, Colombus, Picasso, Sam Bloomfield. Johan Cryuff the great footballer became so attacthed that he waged a war on the state to get his child's name spelt in Catalan, Jordi, rather than the Spanish, as Catalan was banned. How did Jordi pay his father back? By having his own football career that ended in Malta, it must be terrible to be so horribly horribly outshone by your father. I get the same feeling when I play my dad at Risk, "SIAM IS WEAK MARK!!" Catalans also have a reputation of being tight fisted and romantic, a strange combination.
Galicia
FAMOUS FOR: The Way of Saint James, emigrating,
FAMOUS PEOPLE: Franco, Amancio Ortega Gaona (founder of Zara, Spains richest man and 10th richest in the world)
Galicia (the bit above Portugal) is cold, windy and desolate. It is cut off from Spain by mountains and is closely related to the Celts. They have their own language Gallego, which is the first language over Spanish. It is poorer than a lot of Spain despite having its richest man, and is superisitous and are often the butt of jokes like the Irish in Britain. People say they never give a straight answer and never allow someone to know what they are thinking. Due to being poorer they are big emigrants. So much so that in Argentina and Uruguay Spanish people are called Galicians. There are more Galicians in Buenos Ares than Galicia. Descendents of Galician emgriants include Fidel Castro, Enrique Iglesias, the Sheens and most importantly Emilio "the mightest duck" Estevez.
There you are three complex regions reduced to nothing before your very eyes.
TODAYS POST WAS SPONSORED BY THE NUMBER 5 AND THE LETTER K
love love love x
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