Pro soccer

I went to my first pro soccer game today. Our city´s team, Xerez Campo Deportivo, lost 2-0 to a team from the north of Spain called Racing Club Ferrol. My friend got my roommate and I tickets for free. We drank coke and ate sunflower seeds. There were chants and cheers of all types, but no wave. I heard a lot bad language.

I was sympathizing with my friend because Xerez and its fans sound a lot like Philly teams and their fans - they occasionally have strong seasons, but they seem to let down their fans more often than not....the fans remaining fiercely loyal through it all.

Learning new words in Spanish

I learned how to say ¨busted faucet¨ in Spanish after the man at the cyber cafe pointed to the sign with the words ¨busted faucet¨... after I´d turned on the busted bathroom faucet and shot water everywhere.

I learned how to say crutches when I had to ask for a pair after falling off my buddy´s roof and hurting my foot in an intense midnight game of hide and seek.

I learned how to say umbrella when I needed to buy one, the day after I´d soaked up a gallon of water walking four blocks to school in the sideways torrential Jerez rain.

Spanish elections: A possibly unwanted social studies lesson

There are elections here on March 9th. You cast one vote. This one vote is for the PARTY that you want to rule. You don´t vote for a candidate for this office or that; you vote for his or her party. The votes are added up and government offices are divided up between the parties to represent the popular vote. The winning party´s president remains president of his or her party and becomes the president of the national government as well.

The contending parties for more or less the last 30 years have been the Popular Party and the Socialist Workers Party. The Popular Party is more conservative than the Socialist Party. The Socialist Party has been in power since 2004.

The Clock Museum and a trip to the soccer stadium

On Wednesday I went to the uh.....Clock Museum. I was thinking I was going to be bored but I wasn´t. There are 300 clocks from about 1650 AD on. I learned some history and was reminded how creative man is. There was a sundial - a few of the clocks in the collection weren´t mechanical, but most were - this sundial had a glass lense and a functioning canon, about a foot long. If you line up the clock correctly and throw a little gunpowder in the canon, it fires at 12 PM. I left with a general appreciation of the convenience of our system for dividing time, whatever that means to you. Imagine trying to make plans to meet someone during the day 2 weeks from now, say at 3:45 PM, without being able to say 2 weeks from now at 3:45 PM. (This might be too primitive an imagination.) Here goes:

Hey, neighbor, meet me during the day, 14 risings of the sun from now, when she´s halfway between her high point in the sky and the horizon. Don´t you be a few degrees of declination late!!! I have to meet my mother-in-law 465 winks later.

I went with the 5th and 6th graders on another field trip today - this time to the municipal sport complex. That was great.

TGIF. Have a nice weekend if you´re reading this today.

I told you my blog would be boring.

A trip to City Hall

I went today with the 3rd and 4th graders to City Hall. We saw the old city council chamber, the new chamber, the citizens complaint center and the mayors´ hall, where all the former mayors´ portraits are hung. The chambers interested the kids, but the mayors´ hall didn´t really. In fact, once Francisco realized he could skate down the marble handicap access ramp, everyone followed and we had to herd them all into the next room to end that.

Back at school for lunch - I eat lunch at the school everyday and then help the lunch ladies serve the kids - I was served a beer by the school principal. I don´t think that would happen in the States. I love Spain.

Carnaval madness

Today we are celebrating Carnaval, for which folks dress up. In the school each grade has dressed up differently. The sixth graders are Freds and Wilmas Picapiedras (Picapiedras is Spanish for Flintstones); the fifth graders are dressed in what is supposed to look like traditional Chinese garb; the fourth graders are Counts Dracula; the third graders are Jokers to the second graders, who are Batmen; the first graders are frogs; and the three to five-year-olds are a mix of things. The Chinese-looking outfits of the fifth graders are in this year. I know because I went to the city of Cádiz on Saturday for the biggest Carnaval celebration around and saw a ton of people dressed thusly. The fifth grade teacher made me one such costume today....which is made up of a yellow trashbag with blue plastic lining, and a black paper hat. So I´m dressed like that right now, with a little painted on moustache to go along with it all. At 1 PM we went outside for the Carnaval Dance Party in the playground to wrap things up.

I´m more like a really big student here than a teacher. When the kids dress up, so do I. They all call me by my first name. On field trips, the other teachers always encourage me to jump in and play with the kids, which I totally want to do anyway - maybe they sense that. My favorite place and time each day is recess in the preschool playground, rolling tires, chasing Fernanda who´s stolen my sunglasses again....and being in the middle of 5-10 two-foot-tall people who are all giving me hugs and calling me Jone (which is how most of the kids say Sean).

Kickoff

Dear all,

Thanks for coming to my blog. Over.