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.