Spain’s amazing reverence for the Virgin Mary

 People in Spain have such an amazing reverence for the Virgin Mary here.  It’s absolutely incredible and inspiring.  As Christians we tend to think of Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity more than we think of her, and I know that sometimes I certainly forget about Mother Mary.  But here in Spain it’s impossible to forget about her, every church you walk into has a huge statue of Mary, and then next to her is her son, Jesus.  Churches are named after Mary, Mary of Sorrow, Mary of Anguish, Mary of something else, they are incredibly dedicated to her.

So when I was wandering out Huelva today, just to kill some time I stumbled (aka didn’t pay attention) into the church I’ve been attending since I came here.  To my amazement there were four giant floats standing in the whole church being prepared for the “acto de fe” that will happen tomorrow.  And the first thing I saw was a giant statue of Mary on the floor.  It took me a bit of wandering around to realize, but this statue actually came off the wall, where it was previously standing.  The statue was in a nook carved out for one of many statues of Mary and Jesus.  And, to make it even more curious there were men standing around this statue dousing it in incense, keeping her surrounded by it.  I found this very curious, but continued to meander around the church as everyone else took pictures and admired the floats being prepared.  They were putting flowers on them and adorning them to be absolutely gorgeous tomorrow.

A bit later I wandered back over to look at the statue one more time before I left, and noticed that people kept going up to the statue and kissing her hand.  I was so shocked and confused, and realized that the two men standing in their suits were there to protect the statue, one to shower Mary with incense and the other to wipe her hand after each person kissed it.  I then watched one woman walk up to her, kiss her hand multiple times and stand and pray and cry, presumably thanking Mary for all that she has done for us.  After watching this tremendous act of faith and devotion to her I walked up to Mary myself, kissed her hand and said a Hail Mary.  Afterward, I realized how incredibly dedicated the country of Spain is to her, and how important Mary is to me as well. 

Since being here I’ve learned to love Mary even more and accept her love for me.  I’ve turned to her more often than I have in the past and realized that in giving birth to Jesus, raising Him and then watching/letting Him die for me, she has also done one of the most tremendous acts of love.  She watched her son die and has cared for all of us as her own children.  It’s amazing how important she is, and it’s amazing how quickly we forget that.  Spain has helped me remember, and I can’t wait to watch the processions tomorrow down Gran Via.  Rain or shine, the people of Huelva will be showing their faith in Jesus Christ, in God and in the Blessed Virgin Mary, by carrying the very heavy floats down the street and remembering all that God has sacrificed for us to live in his love.

Thank you Spain, for reminding me to remember Mary and her love for all of us as well.

Huelva goes back in time

I forgot to post this when I wrote it…oops.  So this happened about three weeks ago now, but it was still really interesting!

So this past weekend (a couple weeks ago now) I noticed an article posted by the University of Huelva here about a medieval festival that was taking place just 5 minutes away from where I live.  I noticed on my walk to school on Wednesday and Thursday morning that there were strange tents set up and flags hanging from the light posts and buildings.  I was really confused and didn’t understand, thought that maybe it had something to do with a kids festival or so, and just kind of kept walking.  Then, as more started to be put up I got more excited, and finally I saw an article titled “Huelva regresa al medievo” yay!! You can imagine how excited I was.  I mean, I only read about a thousand books about chivalry and knights in shining armor, and although I might not profess my love as strongly as some others, I still really enjoy traveling through time at a medieval event.  I mean come one, they’re the best!  So I promptly found some friends to head to the festival with me on Friday evening and spent the whole night at the fair looking at all the chachki’s they had to sell, yummy meat, bread, and sweets.  I even had some sweets with a friend.  The big candy here is a gummy type of candy in all different flavors.  They’re kind of like gummies, but more sugary and less chewy, and there’s a lot more flavors. 

 

We walked around the area that was in Plaza something that starts with a P and saw the shoddy looking rides for the kids (2euro for a ride on a stupid little pirate ship!?) and admired the jewlery that was all around me.  I’ve kind of turned into a jewlery junkie since I got out of school, I love earrings and bracelets now, it’s kind of a problem.  :P  I fully expect that by the time I leave Spain I will not have to buy jewlery ever again, or will at least be able to retire anything from the U.S. :P  So did some shopping and I bought myself a bracelet.  It was originally going to be for a friend, but then I thought..naw, why should I when I like it!? haha.  I also got a brujita de suerte!! (goodluck witch) and mine was of happiness, which is supposed to bring happiness to my friendships, life, and love.  :)  So cute, no?

At around 9:30 or so there was a cool “espectáculo” where people dressed up in weird outfits and played with fire.  The kids really liked it, and it was interesting to see what Spainards think is fun and is a fireworks show.  For a bit we were worried about the safety of ourselves, others and of the city itself, given that they were performing on the street with fire and there were trees around.  But as is many things in Spain, health and safety don’t really exist like they do in the States.  You wanna let your kids slide down a slope towards a metal barrier on a piece of cardboard? (see picture on the right) Sure.  You wanna do a fireworks show in the middle of the street? Why not?  Such is life in Spain…

So Camille, her friend Javi, and I all went around town together for the night and explored everything.  We watched the show, looked at the “exotic” birds that they had for show.  Really, they had a Bald Eagle, a couple owls and some other animals.  You also had to pay like 5 euro or something ridiculous like that to get a picture with a bird or snake.  Lots of parents were doing it for their kids, but I suppose around here they don’t see these animals in the wild like we can.  I’m not sure, but it was funny, and I loved watching one kid get really scared as they guy put the Bald Eagle on his shoulder.  The Eagle is so big, I would be scared too.  We then spent the rest of the night out in the back party of Casa Colon, which is a plaza area where they had set up brain teaser puzzle games outside for people to play.  It was really fun, and we definietly spent a lot of time on those.  I’d played a few of them before, but they were all really hard, and the directions were in Spanish, of course.  Sometimes they just didn’t have directions at all….which made it even harder to figure out! haha

It was a great weekend, and apparently Huelva has fairs like this pretty often, to help generate money for the city.  Fairs are really good at generating money because it gets people out on the streets, visiting the restaurants and spending money.  Camille told me about a really big medieval fair that happens in a town a little farther north so I’m excited to go to that one.  They have a castle!

Till my next post, I promise it will be a bit more on time. :) Love you all!

Not everything is as it seems

So I know I’ve been trying to avoid putting my feelings on here, but I feel that it’s necessary to share how I’m actually feeling out here.  Up till now everything has sounded pretty awesome, and don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty awesome, but not everything is all hunky dory.

It’s hard to explain my feelings because they are all mixed up and they are all felt at different times.  It’s been about a month since I arrived in Huelva now and I still can’t believe it sometimes.  The funny thing is, most times I can.  It may sound strange to some of you, but to me I almost feel as if I’m home.  I feel like I never left and that I’m truly meant to be here right now.  It’s honestly the best feeling in the world to feel as if you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.  I wasn’t afraid when I left like I was when I studied abroad.  I haven’t fallen into a ball of tears from homesickness and loneliness(yet), but that doesn’t mean I haven’t felt those feelings.  I am extremely frustrated by my job sometimes and I am living with Spainards, which in itself can bring problems because there are differences between my culture and theirs, which leads to confusion and sometimes judgement (on their part, not mine).  

Buyer beware, not everything is as it seems on the blogs

I love my job, I do.  But sometimes it's frustrating.  Not everything is as it seems when they describe your job. When programs like this refer you to blogs from current auxiliaries you are often looking at their blog posts in April and May, when things are wrapping up and all they have to say are great things.  This is because they have adjusted, they have lived through it and are finished with their job.  Sometimes you need to sift through older ones to find the real genuine posts, about their struggles, frustrations and true feelings.  This job is hard, it's not the hardest I've every done, and it's not hard by any means compare to a normal job (12 hrs a week, seriously), but there are different difficulties that come with it.  I work with about 5 different teachers, and am only the classroom for 30 min at a time with them.  Which means I only get to the see the beginning or ending of a lesson, or interrupt their lesson to do an English one and it just seems very chopping up.  In addition, I'm not teaching English at my IES.  I'm teaching: Geography, History, Ethics, Physics, Natural Sciences, Algebra and Music.  Do I sound qualified for half of those things?  Nope!  And if you know me, you know that I can barely do 12/2 or 6x9.  So yea, I'm highly unqualified and get very frustrated when I don't know the answer or have to look for the teacher to give me the solutions to problems.  It's also frustrating when I walk in and the math teacher goes, "here, please tell them how you say all these operations in English, and then walk them through writing out these formulas".  Ugh....okay, I don't know what a third of those operations are.  There's also a couple other teachers who just simply don't know what to do with me, or don't really seem to want me, but I suppose I just need to work on softening them up and helping them figure out how I can help them.

My second job is really good too, but it's also just as difficult.  I'm teaching, like really teaching, and it's a lot of work.  I have to lesson plan, and read the book ahead of time so I know what I'm teaching.  I've never actually taught English, and the books here for teaching English don't exactly spell out conjugation, and I have no idea to explain it.  So there's that, and there's the fact that they are bratty 14 year olds, and a couple of them are just plain annoying.  

Then of course there's the Spanish roommates.  I love one of them, but the boys are another story.  I've basically cracked it down to the fact that there are culture differences between us and one of them (the Spanish boy from Sevilla) simply hasn't had contact with foreigners before and has no idea how to handle me.  He has no concept of respect of other cultures and has no desire to slow down his speech for me.  He judges what I eat, when I eat, what I do, and how I speak.  He also has the general stereotypes of Americans, we're all fat and lazy and eat poorly and are self-centered, so obviously I don't know Spanish well enough and he needs to use his bad English with me.  Yea, he's a jerk. But I've decided to take it all in stride, deal with it and try to remind myself that he has never had any experience with someone who's not from Spain, so just relax, and besides, who cares what he thinks about how I act and live my life, the only person that matters is me.  :)

Okay, I'm done complaining now, but I thought I owed it to the world to let them know that not everything is as it seems.  There are difficult parts about being abroad, stereotypes to battle and different work environments.  But, with the help of my Father and through prayer I have been able to get through it.  It's been difficult being the only person who's Christian (much less Catholic) and has distinct points of view.  I don't wave it around and act like I'm better and I certainly don't bring it up in every conversation.  I'm not stupid and I'm not going to parade it around, but it's been made known simply by my interest in churches, in my active search for a good one to attend and a couple of things said here and there.  That's the biggest challenge to me, but I've meet some nice people who respect me for it and that's nice.  I had the pleasure of explaining myself and the Catholic Church last night to a friend and I really enjoyed the conversation. I hope that I'm able to keep this momentum while I'm here because it's hard, but I know I can do it.  Please keep me in your prayers, and I'll keep you all in mine.  

And with that I leave you with a verse that has inspired me since I've been here. 

"Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called" 1 Tm 6:12

This quote has helped me in so many ways, not only in defending my faith, but in reminding me to live my life to the fullest and live it in the way that God intended me to live it.  I am called to a wonderful life, and I can never forget that.  

Working girl

Hi all!! I’m so sorry, I know I owe everyone an update, but it’s just that not too much has been happening really.  Life is pretty normal here, which is strange to say since I’m living in a foreign country, but honestly, things are really normal.  I have the normal daily grind…wake up at 7 or 8 and be grumpy because I didn’t sleep enough, go to school, deal with grumpy kids who don’t want to be there, go home, eat lunch, plan for the next day and then do it all over again.  With some variations of course, and weekend activities.  Basically, my schedule looks like this right now:
Mon: 9:45-1:45 SCHOOL (with a daily recreo break in between)

4:00-7:00 WORK at Covent Garden

Tues: 8:15-12:15 SCHOOL

12:15-??  FREEEEEE

Wed: 9:45-2:45 SCHOOL

4:00-7:00 WORK at Covent Garden

Thur: 8:45-11:15 SCHOOL

11:15-?? FREEEE for the weekend!

I do things in between my time off in the afternoon and during school.  There’s some holes in my schedule but I get to relax in the teachers lounge and chat or prepare for other classes, or prepare with the teachers. Not all my time at school is spent teaching, some of it is spent relaxing and some of it is spent planning with other teachers.  It’s a really nice and relaxed atmosphere.  It’s very different here, and very relaxed, I like it.  A lot of them wear jeans and some even wear T-shirts, which is very funny, also, the teachers do not go my Mr. or Mrs. or Miss.  The students tend to call them Teacher (our equivialant of Miss!) or they call them by their full name, so I had to introduce myself as Bonnie.  I have to admit, it’s kind of strange.  I’m so used to them called me Ms. Srubas by now that I almost prefer that, and it helps put a barrier between me and my students, since we’re so close in age.  But, I’m getting used to it, and to them butchering my name.  You wouldn’t think that Bonnie is very hard to say, but for them, the “ie” makes it hard, they want to say Bon-ee-a, but that’s wrong, or they want to say “boonie" (like I’m stuck out in the boonies).  Now, I tend to answer to any variation of my name and Teacher of course. 
I got to teach about the Beatles today!! It was great, and I can’t wait to show them the picture of the Beatles outside of Wild Bill’s and tell them about how the vine’s have grown up the building in the order in which they died.  FUN FACTS about Middletown!!! :)  I get to teach a lot of different things at school, some are good and some are not so good.  I have to teach the following: Math, Physics/Chimestry, Natural Sciences, Ethics, Geography, History, and Music.  SO MANY CLASSES!  It all proves to be very interesting, especially when I have to look at the math teacher to make sure the students get the correct answer, I have no idea how to solve math problems, especially not ones that involved negative numbers, powers, and sequences now!  I also had to explain to students how to say mathematical expressions in English and describe some symbols.  FYI: I got a C in math in High School, I should not be allowed to teach this! haha, but I guess I did well enough since all I had to do was say the phrases and tell them how to say 2+2=4 (two plus two equals four), and yes, my spelling was off when I wrote it on the board…oops.


So I know you all want to hear about late nights and nights out here in Spain.  I can almost hardly believe it because nights out here are ridiculous, they last forever.  Literally.  Friday night I decided that I would hang out with my roomies, one roomie had a friend from Sevilla and Laura mentioned that they were going out together tonight.  Little did I realized that we weren’t just going to a bar to hang out, nope, they were botelloning (drinking in the streets) first, then going back to the party to “pregame”'/ drink in the apartment and then go to the discoteca….at 4:30 in the morning.  So Friday night first I went out with some people I work with at Covent Garden, we met up at work and went down to a bar around the corner for casual drinks.  Later, at around 9 we went to get some tapas at a really good tapas bar that my boss, Hayley, knows about. There I chillaxed with 2 Brits, and an Irish woman, and then 2 other girls who I work with (both through CIEE).  It was all great fun, and we left at around 11 to go our separate ways, that’s when Sarah and I decided that we’d try to rally and go out with the Spanish tonight….Now, I thought I partied hard in Granada last year…nope, the Spanish party harder.  We showed up at my apartment at around 11, Laura was just getting out of the shower getting ready to go, and no one had arrived yet to pregame, so we sat around awkwardly making small talk with my roommate and his friends, and then people started to show up, at Midnight-12:30.  Yup, they started that late, haha.  Basically, we partied till 4:30, left for the club, danced the night/midmorning away in the underground club below the bar in the center of town and I was out of the club and in bed by no earlier than 6:30 in the morning.  They roommates came home closer to 7 AM. But it was a great time and I met some really great people.  I’m really happy I stayed up, it was awesome roommate bonding time, and something I really needed because I haven’t quite figured out how to bond with them yet.  The language barrier poses a problem when I want to have small talk, it’s harder in a second language!



Also, I went to the beach again this weekend!! :) Yay!  I met a bunch of other auxiliaries, mostly second years, which was very interesting because they always have great stories. I also met a Scottish person who’s teaching here in Erasmus and a girl from Northern Ireland with the cutest accent (she’s Sam size too!), who’s also teaching through Erasmus.  The weekend was so much fun, I was crazy busy all weekend.  After I stayed up till 6:30 Friday night I woke up to go to Cartaya with those people (in the photo above) and we had some fun walking around Cartaya. Cartaya is a small pueblo outside Huelva where they had their Feria, a fair, celebrating Nuestra Senora de Cartaya, basically, Mary, and they had a crafts fair and all sorts of other things going on.  I was way too tired to stay till later in the evening for the fair activities, so unfortunately we left before the good stuff started, but we had our own good stuff going on and bonding experience when some Gyspsies tried to get us to go in a taxi with them back to Huelva.  Basically, we were disagreeing with them on when and where the bus back to Huelva would show up, they believed it was never coming, we knew it was, so that was fun.  We hung around for about 2 hours because our original bus showed up 20 min early, we missed it and then waited around for another 1 1/2 or so. It’s cool, it was fun times, and then we made plans to go to the beach on Sunday and just sun bath.  It wasn’t too hot, only about 80 or so, but I didn’t get sunburnt and I was able to relax and meet some new people. 
Basically, my life is pretty awesome right now.  I’m making plans to travel soon, I promise, then I will have great stories to tell or travel catastrophes' and about all sorts of old things.  Until then, bear with me as I live a mundane life of surviving on a small salary and savings, and once I start getting paid I will be off and traveling! :) Much love! <3

I’m a teacher…say what!?

So the day has finally come…I’m a teacher.  How I got from college, the student teaching to teaching is beyond me.  How all this time flew by so quickly and all of a sudden I was told to “go!” I’m also not sure.  But maybe I should recap so people will actually know what kind of overwhelming feelings I’m feeling right now.

1. My actual job at my IES Clara Campoamor started today, and lasted from 10:30-11:30…yup, it lasted a whole entire hour.  Really, since I had met with my coordinator so many times before school started, there was only so much to do, and she just wanted to introduce me to the teachers really and give me my schedule, explain to me what I’ll be doing and give my some materials and stuff.  So Basically, I’ll be floating around the English department in like 30 min increments and helping out the teachers in teach classroom.  I’ll be working with science, math, music, and history, sadly no English.  But as I was explained today, it’s because they simply can’t give me more hours than I’m allowed to work and they would love to have me in the English classroom, but I’m needed more in other areas.  Unfortunately, I won’t get to work with my coordinator directly :( but I’ll be working with plenty of other great teachers.  They have had 2 assistants in the past, helping them out, but since the crisis they simply don’t have the budget needed to get two assistants, and they’re even lucky to have me because some schools lost their assistant.  So unfortunately, my schedule is a bit crazy and I’m not in one place for long, but it should be interesting.  Since I’m only allowed to work 12 hours (I think I can work a max of 15hrs but I won’t argue), Belen has me in different classrooms in 30 min increments.  I start off my day at around 8:30 or 9:30 and go until only about 1:30 Mon- Thur.  I bounce from room to room and help the teachers in whichever area they need.  I have to meet with each teacher once a week to talk about what’s happening that week and discuss planning. 

Unfortunately, I’m a bit worried about how much I’ll actually be able to accomplish in the classroom and how much help I’ll actually be, because 30 min is really nothing with each class.  I feel like I’ll constantly be looking at my watch trying to get from one class to the next to do my duties.  Although I have been reassured that I am not merely a piece of furniture and should make sure to put my input in and suggest ideas to the teacher.  So it sounds like I’m really helping them plan and get materials and ideas and occasionally assisting in the classroom during my 30 min there.  So that could mean that I just pop in and help out with whatever activity is happening and then pop out to another classroom.  I guess since I haven’t done anything yet we’ll see.  Either way, I am quite nervous to see how all of this plays out.

2. My second job, which I almost consider a bigger job than my first, is working 6hrs a week at a private language academy after school.  I’m in charge of my own classroom, 2 classes of about 9 and 11 students teaching English.  These kids are here to learn and their parents are paying, so they expect them to buckle down and learn.  I landed the job thanks to my amazing coordinator and have been talking with my direct coordinator there to help get me started.  Since I’ve never actually been told to fly on my own without any support it was a little overwhelming.  And they obviously have their own way how they kind of want to run the classroom.  So while I’m allowed freedom, I obviously still have to follow the book and follow their format: 15 min review, 30-45 min book work, 30 min oral and written practice.  Also, since I’m starting the semester with them too, I have to figure out how to spend an hr with them without doing any work because they don’t want me actually starting the book until next Wednesday.  So you can imagine my sense of overwhelming.  Therefore, I stopped by again today to go over things and feel much, much better, after having some guidance and such.  And overall, I’m excited.  It will be fun to be in charge and have my own space.

I’m hoping I have the perfect balance of things, of being able to relinquish control at my placement and of being able to run my own classroom at the academy.  And it’s not a full load of teaching, which is nice, it’s always nice to not have to be constantly planning for 5 classes and making materials.  I’m glad I’m being able to do this though, because I don’t want to lose my confidence being in the classroom and in charge while I’m gone.  It’s already gone now, haha, but I’m sure once I get thrown back into it then I will be just fine!

Sorry I don’t have a picture of IES Clara Campoamor yet!  I tried to get pictures today and they came out really awful, so I will take better ones tomorrow or another day as I’m leaving or something.  And I’m sure more pictures will be to come as the year progresses.  I’ve actually really been slacking on the picture department so far, I guess I’m just trying to live rather than capture moments, which is a good and bad thing.