Christmas Time's a-Comin'

The last month or so in Madrid was a little bit of a blur. In November we were going to have a Thanksgiving dinner, but then I caught what must have been the Spanish plague (or I guess maybe the flu) and we had to reschedule. So our Thanksgiving dinner became a Christmas dinner, since we didn't have it until last weekend. It was a lot of fun (although hectic), and it was great to see NYU people from last year who I haven't seen since last June.

The NYU girls.

Group shot.

School was especially hectic the past couple of weeks, between field trips, Christmas concerts, the kids having to finish their textbooks before the end of the trimester (that's right, even kindergarteners in Spain apparently have to finish up their book of fichas, which I'm not really sure how to translate but it's basically just a bunch of worksheets that they have to apparently complete by the end of each trimester).

Santa with all of his reindeer.

The primary school students had to learn a crazy country Christmas song called "Christmas Time's a-Coming" for a Christmas concert, and they actually did a really good job (some of them even played instruments, instead of playing the music from a cd). With my preschoolers, I decided to teach them "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and all of my students colored a reindeer, which we then hung on the wall with Santa in his sleigh.

For some reason, this year's Christmas season didn't really feel like Christmas to me; I'm not sure if it was because we didn't have any Thanksgiving dinner or because for the first time in many, many years I didn't have papers to be writing and finals to be studying for. But Christmastime in Madrid is always cool; there are lights and trees and decorations (and people selling decorations) all over the city. The lights this year were the same as the ones they used last year, but they moved them to different parts of the city, so some I didn't get a chance to see last year and were new to me. This photo album has all of my pictures of the lights and other Christmas stuff in Madrid.

Feliz Navidad!

Portugal

As I said, last weekend we had Thursday and Friday off, so I went with some friends to Lisbon for three days. We stayed in Lisbon for two days and took a day trip to a town called Sintra on the other day. I really loved both cities, although the weather in Lisbon was pretty crummy most of the trip (the sky finally cleared up in the afternoon on our last day). Nevertheless, there were a lot of things

Elevador da Gloria, near our hostel

about Lisbon that I loved, some things that are similar to the cities I've been to in northern Portugal, and some things that are different. I love Portuguese architecture (though I couldn't tell you anything about it) and all of the red-brown colored roofs of the buildings, and I especially love the sidewalks made of stone that form mosaics in many streets and squares. I love the old-fashioned trams that still run in the city, and there are also still a few funiculars, which are basically trams the go a short distance up really steep hills (Lisbon is very hilly). One of these funiculars was actually on the street right next to our hostel, but we never rode it, mostly because we

Pastel de nata

had no need to, but also because it costs like two euros! I'll walk up the hill for free, thank you. Anyway, lastly, there is also still one "elevador" or elevator/lift that serves a similar purpose: it is an outdoor elevator that brings you from the lower part of the city straight up to the top of a hill to a higher neighborhood. Apparently there used to be two elevators like this, but only the Elevador de Santa Justa is still in use today (mainly for tourism, as the other trams are also). Another thing that I love about Portugal is the pastries...there are so many different kinds (unlike Spain) and they're all amazing looking and tasting. A few things I didn't like so much about Lisbon is the weather. The first two day we were there it was very foggy and cloudy. On the last day it rained in the morning and then finally the sun came out in the late afternoon. It could have been worse, but I know I would have liked the city a lot more had we had good weather the whole time. Next, I didn't like how there were Spaniards everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I love the Spanish (for the most part), but the whole point of our trip to Portugal was to get away from Spain, Spanish, and Spaniards. I'm pretty sure we heard more Spanish than Portuguese this trip. Another downside to Lisbon is that you can really see the poor state of the economy; in much of central Lisbon there are many, many abandoned buildings, residential and commercial, and the place isn't quite as packed with stores and restaurants as one might expect. (Spain, on the other hand, certainly shows signs of economic problems, but pretty much the entirety of the population thinks nothing of going out for dinner or drinks or shopping all of the time still.)

Sintra, the town we took a day trip to on our second day in Portugal, was amazing. The town is very touristy, but it's just so beautiful and fairy-tale like that you don't mind all the tourists around you. The town is mainly famous for all of its palaces, the Pena Palace above all. There is also the remains of a Moorish castle that is

Pena Palace in Sintra

pretty famous as well. We only had time to visit the Pena Palace (and the surrounding Pena Park) and the Castle of the Moors. Since both are on top of a mountain (which is terrifying to go up in a bus), there are some great views of the center of Sintra and the surrounding Portuguese country side. I loved Sintra, but I realize now that you could easily spend two days there in order to see everything you want to see, so hopefully I'll have a chance to go back in the future. (Actually, I'd like to go back to Lisbon also, because there were some things there we didn't get a chance to see from the inside, such as the Belem Tower and the Jeronimos Monastery, because of weather and time).

All in all, it was a fun trip, but I wish we'd had more time in both Lisbon and Sintra. At least the next time I'll go, I'll know exactly what to do and where to go!

Avila

Pretty view of Avila from at the top of the medieval wall.

View of the cathedral from on top of the wall.

 Last week was one of the many crazy Spanish holiday weeks. We went to school on Monday and Wednesday, and had Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday off. On Thursday I went to Lisbon for the weekend with a couple of friends, and Tuesday we also had off, so I went to a city that I've been meaning to visit for a while now called Avila. It's famous mainly for the medieval wall that surrounds it (built between the 11th and 14th centuries); it's one of the most complete, still standing medieval walls surrounding a city. (They're also really cool because you can climb up them and walk around them almost the entire way around the city, which gives you not only a nice view of the city but also of the surrounding countryside.) The old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site. There's also a nice cathedral, but I didn't go inside because it cost something stupid like 7 euros, and it was pretty enough from the outside. I'm not really one to say, "if you've seen one cathedral, you've seen them all"; I think all cathedrals are pretty unique even when they're the same architectural style. But I do draw the line at the Catholic Church charging me 7 euros just to go in and take a look around.

Hopefully I'll get around to posting about Portugal soon, but this week at school has been crazy and next week will be no different, between Christmas things and packing to go home on Thursday.

Spanish Elections

Spanish elections were a little while ago now (back on November 20th), but I keep getting sidetracked when meaning to update this blog. Anyway, when I was in Spain in the spring of 2008, Spain was voting for its next prime minister. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), the incumbent, won. I don't think there's a maximum amount of terms a prime minister here in Spain can be in office, but regardless, the whole country has been really unhappy with Zapatero for a while now because of the economy, the lack of jobs, etc. So he wasn't even running again. Which perhaps is a shame; I don't want to delve much into politics here, but Zapatero did do some good things while he was in office, at least in my opinion; things that for a still very young democracy like Spain are quite surprising and even controversial, like legalizing gay marriage back in 2005, and a few years later, abortion. Anyway, this time around, Mariano Rajoy of the Partido Popular (Popular Party), who ran against Zapatero back in 2008, won. I don't know much about Spanish politics (or politics in general, for that matter), but the PP is the more conservative political party here, and I also don't really like Rajoy, so I'm not thrilled about that. But hey, we'll see how it goes. You can read more about it in this NY Times article.