Alcalá

First thing I have to say is: if you haven't watched the video of Sally's skit on my Facebook wall, you need to find someone with Facebook and watch it.  It sums up so much of how adorable she is.



On Thursday, I had my first exchange class. In a language exchange class, we're supposed to speak Spanish half the time and English the other half so that both parties can benefit. So I met with a man named Alfonso, he's probably around 40 and he's a music theory teacher and a really nice guy. He's all excited to show me around this area of Spain, and, being a teacher, he's really good at keeping the conversation going which is especially difficult for me to do in Spanish because, by habit, I just don't talk very much when people are speaking Spanish around me. I found this guy because Marina sent out an advertisement for me to around 25 people she knows in San Lorenzo who might be interested or know someone who is interested in exchanging languages.  I got about 10 emails back and started trying to fit people it. So far, I have 4 different people I'll actually meet with at some point.

On Saturday, Stephen made paella for lunch which is a very traditional Spanish dish and it was amazing!!! I really need to learn how to make this one, but it sounds extremely complicated so I'll have to do a lot of observing in the future if I actually want to replicate it well.

On Sunday, William had a concert in Alcalá which is a historical city (kind of like how San Lorenzo is historical for having the monastery) near Madrid.  William is the Escolania which is a boys choir at the monastery and it's one of the two best boys choirs in Spain. They sang for the pope who came to San Lorenzo sometime earlier this year.  Stephen, Marina, Sally and I went early to visit the town and we had no idea that it was Cervantes week which means the medieval festival was going on. Apparently, its the biggest medieval festival in Spain.  Alcalá is where Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, was raised. We took a tour of his house, and he was from a very well-to-do family, but compared to the mansions of today it was so small. It was really cute, and Marina is a great tour guide. She showed Sally and me different pieces of furniture and what they were famous for and used for during that era.  The town was absolutely gorgeous and still maintains so many attributes of the old cities. For the concert, we went to the Magisterial Cathedral of Alcalá de Heneres which is a breathtaking cathedral that was built hundreds of years ago.  It was an extremely pompous ceremony and when the boys started singing I had goosebumps. It sounded like what I imagine the angels singing will sound like.  I was shocked that my little escolanos could be so antsy and disruptive in class, but then turn around and sing so beautifully.  I could have sat and listed to them all day. We were all extremely exhausted by the time we stumbled in the door, but it was well worth it.

Today, I was almost dead from exhaustion when I got home. This morning, Emily had an appointment to maintain legal residency in the country, so I was teaching alone.  Teaching is SO tiring. I could never do it for the rest of my life.  It's especially hard when the kids literally have no clue what you're saying.  I was about toast by lunch time. In the second hour of lunch, I met with Alfonso to practice Spanish and he took me the Seat of Felipe II which is an overlook onto San Lorenzo. It's said that that's where he sat to watch the progress of the monastery. It was gorgeous! There were granite boulders the size small buildings and the expanse was really breathtaking. In the actual stone seat, there was the initial S.M. which when translated stands for His Majesty.  It was really cool! We happened to run into another couple of people who were practicing Spanish. The guy had overheard us speaking in English and asked us if we were also trying to exchange languages. This guy was from L.A. and he was traveling around to the different historical places with this girl who was helping him and learning English as well.  After lunch, I had the WORST class of the entire week. It's this one particular class of five year olds. There must be something wrong with their teacher because there is about 8 or 9 legitimately bad kids in this class. By the end of that hour, I was really struggling to remind myself why I go to work at a school every day.  Already dead on my feet, I had another language exchange class after school with a girl named Patricia who is 15 and was in L.A. for three months this summer. She doesn't want to lose the skills she's picked up so she was up for exchanging time.  Needless to say, I'm really tired now and  happy because tomorrow is the Spanish version of Columbus Day so we don't have school. Michelle, Anja, and I are heading into Madrid for sightseeing probably in the old part of town.  I'm sure it will be fun, and Thursday, I'm going to meet with another lady to practice Spanish. So, hopefully I'll be getting better soon.