Sat Mallorca Fest

I had a lie-in, as Steph says. She means you lie in bed, but when she says it, I always think she’s just pronouncing lion strangely. I needed the sleep.
I spent my afternoon applying for jobs and looking at touristy stuff. I need to figure out my long-term AND short-term future!! I think next weekend may be Carnaval. It’s definitely Barca! I’m planning on staying in Barcelona until next Sunday or Monday. Two of my friends from Korea are coming to visit starting Wednesday: Tom and Youngja. I am thinking I’m going to check out some more cities in Spain, then go to Paris and then visit my friend in Ireland. I have also just realized that Portugal is RIGHT attached to Spain (insert blonde joke here). I may try to add a city from there into the mix too.
I went to Steph’s to go with her and her roommate Natalie to the Mallorca festival? Natalie had said that they had a big bonfire in front of a church where you take your own meat and they cook it for you. On the way, I noticed that there were loads of people in my square. Lots of them were in black outfits with flames at the bottom of their pants and shirts. Most of those people were carrying a drum. To me, it looked like the beginnings of a parade.
When I got to Sant Joan, the church, there was a stage set up and the makings of a bonfire. There were some logs about as high as I am tall. They were fenced off. From Steph’s we went to the grocery store to get some meat. I picked out a kabob set. I said that it just looked like it belonged on a fire. We also got some steak, rolls, olives, cheese, chips, beer, and candy.
We went back to get Natalie and then went to the square. The bonfire was now lit and there was a crowd starting to gather. They were mostly around a circle that music was coming out of. It almost sounded like bagpipes. I got a glimpse of a sort of flute.

Then out of the center of the circle, people in white pants, blue shirts, and red belts started rising. They were climbing up each other in a circle, making a sort of human statue. Apparently, it’s a Catalan thing called Castells, meaning human tower.

After that, we started to go down a side street toward some firework looking things. Natalie’s friend from school who we happened to bump into told her that the fireworks were actually coming to us so we went back toward the center of the square. More and more people were gathering. The proportion of people in costume was also growing. There were lots of people in red robes with masks with real horns on them. There was also a guy with a skeleton painted onto his shirt.

Then a drumming group made their way into the center of the square. They were all in red shirts and black pants. They were very intense and pounded a nice beat into the night.
Then some people in the center of the circle lit firework-types of fire-sprayers on the ends of sticks. They swirled around in the center of the circle, spreading sparks in all directions. It was very pretty, but looked potentially dangerous for those who were close to the action (of course, I think of the danger).
Another group of drummers played and then guys in red jagged capes and black outfits with flames took the center stage. In groups, they lit their fire shooters and created a sort of cloud explosion above themselves. They then split off from each other and came toward the edge of the clearing. They circled the edge of the crowd. I quickly backed up as sparks flew toward us.


Then another set of devils took over the center. They had a sort of ground fire that was red. It shot out sparks and they skipped around it.

Then they had another group that sprayed sparks out of sticks.

Then a dragon was brought to the center of the circle. He was longer than I am tall and draped with a black fabric that hung under him. People were under the structure holding it up, almost like the Chinese New Year parade dragons, but he was a solid shell. The dragon was green with orange spikes down his back, curly white horns and fangs and a big red tongue. When he took the stage, his crowd accompanied him. They lit him from the mouth and made him dance around, spewing fire from his mouth.

Then a group in blue and yellow came to the center and also sprayed the crowd with sparks. The groups seemed to be pushing closer and closer to the edge of their circle, also closer and closer with their sparks to the crowd. By this point, Natalie and Steph had joined me a bit further back from the front of the crowd. The performers made beautiful patterns, but I wasn’t interested in experiencing them quite as intimately as they seemed to want me to. I don’t WANT a burn mark in my coat or my face! Steph got a spark in her hair and said it hurt.
Next, was a Gaudi lizard just like the one that they have on the fountain at the main entrance of Parc Guell.

He had firework bases that looked like candles attached to various places on his back. I believe he was lit via the mouth and then sparks exploded out of his back. He danced around, moving his head up and down and spun in circles. He was pretty neat.

Then the dragon and the lizard were both reloaded. They danced around together in the center of the circle. The members of both of their groups also had individual sticks of fireshooters. It was basically just a massive glow of fire-- it was hard to even see what was really happening.

Then there was a drum-off. One group was on the steps of the church and played a lively number. Then a group close to us competed with them. They were really working hard at pounding the drums, loud enough to hurt my ears! They had a really nice beat though.

After that, Steph and I took our bag of food and approached the bonfire. It was going on 10:30 or 11 and I was FUNGRY. We saw that people had metal sort of grills that they were putting next to the fire. The grills had 2 sets of vertical panels that were attached by a hinge with handles on the opposite end. Steph thought maybe we should wait for Natalie to translate in Spanish what we wanted. I thought it was fairly obvious. Point to the bag, point to the fire: make a bit of a scene and someone WILL help us. I asked a guy next to me. He didn’t know but my scene caused the lady next to Steph to offer that we could use her griller mechanism next.
We stood by the fire and waited our turn. As we waited, a band took the stage on the other side of the square. Natalie came back with a couple of friends who also work in Barcelona. The other 2 girls were Scottish sisters. We chatted and waited and waited and waited. The woman who offered us her griller turned out to have about 30 friends and a million pounds of meat to cook.

I went to the “port-o-loo” and when I came back, OUR meat was in the contraption. Dinner might really happen today!! Steph and I took the first 2 steaks as sandwiches since we did all of the cooking AND shopping. We shared the next ones. We also took the first kabobs. They were AMAZING. They had been marinated and had pepper and onion between the meat blobs.

We both reaked of bonfire because we'd basically stood IN it to do the cooking. It was mostly just embers and smoke by the time we got to use the roaster. We had had enough of it so we ate some cheese. Natalie had also brought MARSHMALLOWS. We put them on chopsticks and roasted them too. They were flavored so a little weird, but still good.
Then Steph and I left the other girls to finish cooking whatever other meat they wanted and went to dance. The music was really fun—something to jump around to. Our favorite part was when the band would make the whole crowd crouch down and then with their signal, LEAP back up. Also, there were appropriate times to just shout.

There were people doing what appeared to be traditional dances, along with the ones just hopping about. It was great fun but we quit around 1. We have THINGS to do tomorrow!

FRIDAY, done with TEFL!!!

Our last day of TEFL!!! First things first, I used the printer at school to print out our Barca tickets. I don’t know when else I’ll see a printer! Now I TOTALLY need to get some gear! Also, on the ticket, it says the game is on Saturday. Previously, they hadn’t decided if it was on Saturday or Sunday. I am excited about that because I’m thinking of leaving Barcelona on Sunday.
Our first lesson was on using videos in the classroom as a listening/visual aid. Then we had our last trip to Paul, the bakery. I had a chocolate donut, of course.
Here’s my whole class: Mikaela, Steph, Laura, Dalia, Petr, me, and Charlie on the floor.
For our second lesson slot, we filled in a course evaluation and then had free time. We went to El Fornet for tea and then back to school for our certificates. I got a B in teaching practice. Mikaela and Steph both got A's. I was a little bummed, but I probably don't deserve better. My performance on the course wasn't as great as I know I can be. Also, the places that I've seen that care about grades just want something above a C so a B will do me. The main thing is that I got the certificate. I got A's in theory and professionalism.
Then our whole class went out to lunch at a Lebanese restaurant. We had a good time just chatting and being normal with each other, outside of the pressures of TEFL. We talked a bit about Korea. I’m discovering that it’s an experience I’m proud of. I knew I enjoyed it, but I didn’t really realize before how much it said about me as a person.
Then I went home for a nap. Tomorrow, I need to take a picture of my certificate and start sending it to people to apply for jobs. I need a future! But for today, I decided to just have fun.
I went over to Steph and Mikaela’s. Mikaela has been moody and was locked into her room. Steph and I went to the crepe place that I went to on Tuesday. We had ham and cheese crepes and I had a waffle with the most amazing chocolate sauce EVER on it. She had gelato.
Then we went back to her house briefly before heading out to the bars in the square above mine, Placa del Sol. We went to Sol de Nit because it had music flowing out into the square and lots of people inside. It was sort of dark and reasonably cheap and there was a table for us to sit at. There was also a little reddish Spaniel running around. We got to pet it. The Swedes texted us that they were coming to meet us but only ended up saying a brief hello before continuing to a club. We went to a club called El Dorado in the square but I really didn't like it. There were creepy people and it was really smoky. In both places, my eyes stung from the smoke.
When I got home, my clothes and hair reaked of cigarettes. It's the first time I've really had trouble with that. I did have a fun night overall, though.

celebratory thursday

On the way to school, I did make time to go the new way for the photos. Beyond that, I petted a cute puppy whose owner wasn’t paying any attention to him. He liked me a lot and jumped against his leash. He got free! I grabbed him around the middle and his owner came and put his leash back on and thanked me in Spanish. I should have run off with the dog! ;)
Our lessons of the morning were on children—what kinds of lessons are good for them and classroom management with children. I had lots of flashbacks on my Koreans students and the awful things some of them did and how cute they were at other times. It made me miss them lots and want to have more little students.
Then we had our last lunch at el Fornet. In the afternoon, I tried to get Barca tickets, but the website rejected my card!! I was really upset and sent an email to dad.
I went home and had a nap before going to Pizza Marzano to meet Steph and Mikaela for dinner. We decided that since we missed it on Tuesday, Thursday was a good day to go, as a celebration of the end of TEFL. I'd finished teaching on Wednesday, btu they finished today. This time, we actually had pizza! I had the 4-cheese pizza. It was really good.
Then I went home with them so Steph could change and then the two of us went to Michael Collins, the Irish Bar, also to celebrate. Mikaela couldn’t come because she had to write a paper on the day she missed. The Swedes came for a bit, but we outlasted them. The two of us had a very cheerful night being our silly selves.
When I got home, there was an email from Dad with 2 Barca tickets. I was SO excited!! I am really looking forward to going to the game!

finalizing Wednesday

I woke up early to work on my lesson, thought about it for a few minutes and then went back to sleep.
We had a test at school first thing. It was on grammar and it was open notes. I pounded it out in an hour and my classmates struggled to finish in an hour and a half. For break we went to Paul and I got a chocolate covered donut WITH a chocolate center. Can life be any richer?
Our lesson today was on business English. Some of it was review for me. Teaching business could be fun.
For lunch, we went to Fresc Co for a buffet. We love it there. How can you say no to unlimited sorbet?!
After lunch, I worked on my lesson, which was now on the Olympics instead of whatever the book had for me. I got an article from the internet on the lack of snow in Vancouver at the moment.
I watched Laura’s lesson in a daze and then started mine. First, we brainstormed Olympic sports. Then we wrote sentences about pictures of Olympic sports. Then I busted out the reading (and some preteach lexis). I found out quickly that my topic was WAY over some of the students’ heads and a bit over the others. Oh dear. I powered through though, doing my best to describe the hard concepts. One of the students understood and explained that the same thing happened in a championship in Granada. Erwin motion 5 minutes to me and I asked some last questions to wrap it up.
After class, some tears slipped out of my eyes. Carlos, one of the students, was the only person left in the room and gave me a tissue, saying the lesson was fine, just the reading was too hard. I told him I should have known that. I like him. Laura also comforted me, saying I was still going to get a certificate and not to worry.
In my review, I said I knew it was a disaster and that my cardinal error was my choice on the dialogue. Erwin agreed and also said that it’s better to have the students read the story to themselves instead of aloud so they can talk about it afterward instead. I can see the logic there, but see some value in reading aloud as well. He DID say that our grades are averaged and that lots of people do poorly on the last one. On my previous lesson, I got an A, apparently. An A! Also, at one point, Erwin complimented my way of explaining things and how I sat with the students, saying I was clearly a teacher. That made me feel good. Erwin showed some empathy today, which he usually doesn’t. Also, I realized I’m essentially done with my TEFL. I just have to show up for the next two days. I have no more work to turn in and no more performing to do.
On the way home, I went to the grocery store and then peeked into Vreneli, the crepe place in my square. I dropped off my bags and walked around the block. There’s a street with a palm tree in the middle that I’ve been eyeing for a photo. I found it right up close and personal. Also, I found a curved street that really showed off the buildings. I decided I’d try to get up early for photos on the way to school tomorrow. We’ll see if THAT happens. Then I went to the crepe place. Turns out, they also have MEXICAN food and SMOOTHIES. I got a quesadilla which turned out to be 2 tiny ones that were overstuffed as if they were tacos. I should have had a smoothie, but went for Coke Light. I read my guidebook while I waited for my food. The waitress spoke mostly Spanish to me, but we worked it out. Inside, the cafe is ADORABLE. It has pink walls and oversized lamps that hang at various heights with bows on the cords. The walls are brick, pink wall paper, and polka dots. The tables were painted a faux-worn mint. Overall, FANTASTICO. If only I’d gone in there sooner!
After that, I stopped in a shop to see about getting some Chapstick but it was 5 EUROS! Uhh, no. I got some candy in the local shop and the man recognized me. He told me how much in English and said thank you as I left. At home, I applied to job in Japan. I added my resume to a TEFL website and applied to a few jobs. It’s a bummer how many require EU passport holders. Also, all of the ones in Thailand have low salaries. I also found out that I already applied to the place that Jen recommended in Vietnam. I plan to apply again after I get my certificate on Friday. AH! I can’t believe I’ve practically earned my TEFL! Despite the disaster in the afternoon, I had a grand day.

tuesday continued...

Then I found the Gothic archways that are made out of stone like the ones at the edge of the open patio. They made me feel like I was seeing a model of the interior of the Cathedral, like the foundation for the more refined stones in the Cathedral. These stones were a nice, warm beige color.




I wandered through the first set of archways and then found another. On top, there was a band and a wall. The wall curved in at several planters on top of columns and had seating between planters.


From there, I decided to go back see the front view of Parc Guell. I’d clearly come in a side entrance. I went down some stairs next to the patio to see the columned hall underneath. There was a man playing music underneath it too, perhaps more than structurally needed. Between columns, there were rounded impressions in the ceiling. They reminded me oddly of a soccer ball based on their juxtaposition. Near the center, there were a couple of mosaiced areas.

I saw some stairs at the far side of the building and went up them, distracted already from seeing the front entrance. I found more stone Gothic archways. These ones seemed to be precariously tipped onto their side.

At the far end of them was another set of archways. These ones were around rounded protrusion out of the rock. It went in a sort of U. These columns appeared to be spirals. They were really neat. They had a rock rail around their edge because below them was another set of arches also made of the same pieced stone.

Then I FINALLY went around to the front of the park. I looked at the 3 mosaiced fountains at the front. The most famous one has a lizard in the center. I had to wait a long time to get a picture of it without someone posing on it.

He’s in the center of the stairs leading to the building with all of the columns. On the sides of the stairs is another blue and white checker pattern on the curved walls that open out to welcome you in. On top of them are protrusions like different sectors of a crown. Along the stairs, closer to the main gate is another fountain. This one is a head on a circle, like a hunting trophy. It’s spitting out water into a pool with plants growing in it. The first one inside the gate is a little bit chaotic, with plants growing in all directions.

I went to the gift shop because it IS the building with the checkered chimney. I went upstairs and bought a bookmark shaped thing off of the postcard rack. It’s got a nice picture of the view of the city. Outside, the sidewalk is practically mosaiced in gothic rocks too.

Then I exited the park.

On the walk home, I was following a family with 4 kids. As they passed apartments, they doorbell ditched every one they could reach. The parents weren’t trying too hard to stop it. As I walked behind them, I heard various “Alo?” and “Si?” replies.
I saw a park with its stairs strategically place to create a cross. I was pretty impressed.

As I walked, I realized I was on the main street next to my friends’ apartment. I cut in back toward my house. I decided to stop at the “Take out Crep” shop. When I arrived, no one was there, not even a shop keeper. One appeared. I explained I didn’t speak Spanish and was directed to the English menu. I only read the creps and chose Nutella and strawberries. Then I read under Galets (I think) about one with ham and brie. Oh snap! I asked if I could get that one instead. The woman picked the crepe off of the cooker and threw it in the garbage. She was happy to please me, not mad. She put away the strawberry she’d started slicing (that I hadn’t noticed) and got out ham and cheese. I felt bad but excited. When the crepe was done, she folded it up into a long thin slice. Then she put it into a box that was the same shape. I got a soda and ate it at the bar in the store. It was amazing. The crepe was super butter and delicious. The ham was Spanish ham—sort of weird and dried/raw looking. I can never quite decide. It’s dark but with a fair amount of fat on it. That part was pretty salty and really flavorful. Overall: amazing. I decided I might go back tomorrow and have the strawberry one for my dinner. On the way home, I wondered how far I'd walked during the day.
At home, I played on the computer. I'm officially not getting a job with BCN because I'm an American. Also, Blogger refused to upload my pics! LAME! I decided to experiment with making them smaller before uploading them and that helped immensely. I organized my notes for our grammar quiz tomorrow and thought a little bit about my lesson. I can’t believe it’s my last one for TEFL! I had trouble focusing on my lesson though because the blog was rather distracting. Pretty pictures are so much more fun than making up a lesson if you're not super keen on the topic. :/

Freedom on Tuesday

I woke up REALLY late and barely made it to school on time. Oops. Our first lesson was on the passive voice. Then we worked more on phonology. We worked on word combinations—what happens when words are next to eachother. Sometimes the sounds blend or get dropped. Mikaela and I worked together because the way we say things is different from everyone else in the class. We had to write out the Monkey Jumping on the Bed rhyme out in phonemes. It was fun because that rhyme is funny.
Then we went to lunch at the usual place. Mikaela’s boyfriend came and Steph went back to school early. After lunch, I had an email waiting for me from BCN Languages asking if I was an EU passport holder. Apparently they’re looking to hire someone. I started to think about how I really might like to stay here to live. I photocopied a page from the book for tomorrow and left early.
I decided to go to Parc Guell, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I was going to take the subway until I saw I had to transfer twice to get to somewhere reasonably close. No, thanks. I decided to walk and referred to my map occasionally. I also asked someone for directions—turned out I just had to walk to the next block.

Spain’s buildings are really amazing. So many of them have such interesting detail along the walls and around the windows and doors. I could just walk around and look at neighborhoods for days. Maybe I’ll have to look into the walking tours in my guidebook.
There was a STEEP hill and it reminded me of the mountains I’d climbed in Korea. Fortunately about half way up, they had escalators to take you the rest of the way. They never had THAT at any of the mountain temples!
At the top of the escalator, there were stairs. Oooh, that’s more familiar! They went by a bunch of cacti that reminded me of Tucson. People had vandalized the cacti though. There were names and symbols carved into the cacti-leaves? What do you call those things?!


I followed the path through the cacti and super-Mediterranean plants to a clearing where you could see out over the city. It was a nice vantage point because you could see lots of the main sights (Sagrada Familia, the egg in the business district, Montjuc, etc.) and then the sea in the back. Also it was a perfectly sunny, blue-skied day.

Then I saw what the path was leading to—the 3 crosses monument. It’s a little bit like half of a giant beehive plopped onto the top of the hill with 3 big crosses made out of big slabs of stone on top. It does have stairs around the sides and a flat top. It IS meant for humans to climb on, unlike beehives. There are three crosses—a main one in the center and two others on opposite sides. There were lots of people on top of the beehive.



There was a good view from the top of that too, naturally since it was even higher.


From the top, I could see the other main attractions. I mentally marked the path down and then followed it through the woods. It was very clear I was in the Mediterranean as I made my way—the vegetation is so appropriate! Also, I saw a couple of big grey parrots. I’ve been little green ones around before. I have a feeling they’re escaped pets, like the ones in San Francisco. Finally, I came to a clearing/patio. On the far side of it was a windy bench that was covered in colorful ceramic. Beyond that, I could see the tower that is on the TEFL Barcelona website. Ah-HA!


Behind all of that, there’s a cliff of a wall that’s constructed with hunks of stone. The stones are pretty jagged and look like they’re from another time, beyond Gaudi’s. The stones are crafted into sorts of columns that branch outward at the top. I followed the stone wall and saw that in other parts of it, there were pretty purple flowers growing. Also, on top of some of the wall, there were palm trees.

Then I went down onto the patio/terrace. I walked from right to left along the snaking bench. It was really colorful and generally amazing. How neat to make little alcoves of seating! It made it so much more socially appealing. Also, it made a neat aesthetic effect.



Beyond the bench, there were a couple of neat Gaudi buildings in the area below. The one on the right has the tower attached to it. I bet it’s actually a chimney. It has a sort of textured checkery blue and white pattern. On top, it has Gaudi’s famous 4-pronged cross. The building itself has a rounded roof with a cool fixture on top, like a handle for opening a sugar pot. It looks like it should be miniature. The building on the left is a more normal shape, but still looked a lot like a gingerbread house. Its roof was iced in white. It also had a little knob on top.


Then I went across the opening again and followed a path off to the right. I came to Casa-Museu Gaudi, Gaudi’s house from 1906 to 1926. It’s now a museum, but I couldn’t be bothered to go inside. It was peachy pink and had a church tower on top.









TBC...