Before I get to the recap of the past few weeks, I have to tell everyone what I'm doing right now. As in, right RIGHT now. I'm in a classroom at School Year Abroad, "teaching" a class. Let me explain, lest you think I'm either giving a test or simply ignoring my students: The class is a once-a-week, two-hour, international conversation class that we call Joven Erasmus (Young Erasmus), after the European international student exchange program. Every Thursday, from 6-8pm, I gather with eight SYA students (chosen through an application process) and eight students that come, in pairs, from four local private schools. The class has a simple construct: Students must sit with someone from "the other country" on their left and right, Americans must speak Spanish and Spaniards must speak English, and each class meeting will be led/moderated by one American and one Spaniard. That's it for the rules. Oh, one more thing: The topics for each class are chosen during the first meeting, and students sign up to be teachers for each meeting. The topics range from differences in school systems, to youth culture, to poverty, to movies and cultural statements, etc. Today's topic is abortion.
And its awesome.
For an hour now I have listened to 16 young people respectfully, powerfully, emotionally, tackle one of the hot button topics of our time. Seriously, when was the last time you heard people, especially high school students, struggle to define for themselves and others how to define "human being", "human rights", "life", and "responsibility." No slogans, no name-calling, no disrespect, just good honest debate. Seriously, this is the best class I teach all year, and I don't have to do anything. I'm the guy with the keys; I turn off the lights at the end of the day, and that's about it. I only posed one question, and let them run with it for a while: "How do we determine what the rights and responsibilities of the father are in questions of abortion? For example, what if a woman wants to terminate and the "other chromosomal half" (sometimes called "father") doesn't? Or vice versa?"
And then I shut up.
Honestly, the hardest part of this class for me is to STAY shut-up, but I think I do a pretty good job of it.
OK, the descanso (break) is over, so i have to go back to not talking. I'll post the rest later tonight. Suffice to say, it is in the upper sixties right now, and sunny almost every day. I could get used to this...
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Monday, March 08, 2010
El tiempo vuela...
Wow, so much for a post a week. And now a month has gone by...
Lets see. When I last wrote we were in Andalucía.
That was a great trip, enjoyed by all. In total, we visited Sevilla, Granada, Córdoba, and a couple of little towns in the olive producing region of Jaén (I thought that I had seen olives before, but oh man, Jaén is unbeLIEVABLE. Everywhere is covered with olive treees). In Jaén we visited an olive oil factory (vinyard? oliveyard?) and saw the process necessary to convert olives into Euros. We also saw two towns with medieval centers that were interesting, and cold.
Very cold.
Well, okay, very cold for Spain, when you're improperly dressed.
Spain experienced a very rare cold snap during our trip to Andalucía in which cold winds descended on Granada, Córdoba, and us. It actually snowed north of Córdoba (we saw that from the warm safety of our train). We, of course, went to southern Spain fully prepared...for spring. I can hear the echoes of my family's voices now..."Thanks a lot Dad, for telling us not to bring winter clothes." Poor Ben suffered through a week of short hair and cold wind. Poor Ben, but poorer Dad.
After the Andalucía trip we returned to Zaragoza and to a more school-like schedule. There's not much to say about this period, except to say that Ben and I got to take a couple of terrific ski trips to the Pyrenees (to Formigal and Cerler), and we continued our weekly ration of "futbol-sala" games (Ben's 5-on-5 soccer league that has come to own our Saturdays).
Oh, and we had a leak in our apartment.
A big leak.
A leak that has probably destroyed one of the rooms in our downstairs neighbor's apartment. Apparently it has been going on for some time (read: years) without being addressed. Ah, the joy of landlords. After spending a full day vleaning out the "junk room" in our apartment in order to turn it into a cute little bedroom, perfect for a 10-year old who has been displaced so we can accomodate guests, we have now lost the cute little bedroom to water damage. The wall has been ripped open, the wallpaper torn down... and now we wait until the owners decide to fix it.
I'm not holding my breath.
One other thing of note to report is that Andee and I went out for Valentine's dinner (about a week after Valenltine's day, but what the heck) we arrived at a very nice restaurant at 8:45. We were tuned away. We were too early, they didn't start serving dinner until 9pm at the earliest. The earliest. Mind you, this was a SUNDAY night, not really a big, late night out in Spain. And it was a week after Valentine's, so no big reason to go out late. We were just (once again) the early Americans.
The dinner, for those of you who are still reading, was terrific. We ate at an Argentinian grill (well known in Spain for good food). We plan on going back sometime.
When its not so cold, and when we can stay up and eat until after 9pm.
Lets see. When I last wrote we were in Andalucía.
That was a great trip, enjoyed by all. In total, we visited Sevilla, Granada, Córdoba, and a couple of little towns in the olive producing region of Jaén (I thought that I had seen olives before, but oh man, Jaén is unbeLIEVABLE. Everywhere is covered with olive treees). In Jaén we visited an olive oil factory (vinyard? oliveyard?) and saw the process necessary to convert olives into Euros. We also saw two towns with medieval centers that were interesting, and cold.
Very cold.
Well, okay, very cold for Spain, when you're improperly dressed.
Spain experienced a very rare cold snap during our trip to Andalucía in which cold winds descended on Granada, Córdoba, and us. It actually snowed north of Córdoba (we saw that from the warm safety of our train). We, of course, went to southern Spain fully prepared...for spring. I can hear the echoes of my family's voices now..."Thanks a lot Dad, for telling us not to bring winter clothes." Poor Ben suffered through a week of short hair and cold wind. Poor Ben, but poorer Dad.
After the Andalucía trip we returned to Zaragoza and to a more school-like schedule. There's not much to say about this period, except to say that Ben and I got to take a couple of terrific ski trips to the Pyrenees (to Formigal and Cerler), and we continued our weekly ration of "futbol-sala" games (Ben's 5-on-5 soccer league that has come to own our Saturdays).
Oh, and we had a leak in our apartment.
A big leak.
A leak that has probably destroyed one of the rooms in our downstairs neighbor's apartment. Apparently it has been going on for some time (read: years) without being addressed. Ah, the joy of landlords. After spending a full day vleaning out the "junk room" in our apartment in order to turn it into a cute little bedroom, perfect for a 10-year old who has been displaced so we can accomodate guests, we have now lost the cute little bedroom to water damage. The wall has been ripped open, the wallpaper torn down... and now we wait until the owners decide to fix it.
I'm not holding my breath.
One other thing of note to report is that Andee and I went out for Valentine's dinner (about a week after Valenltine's day, but what the heck) we arrived at a very nice restaurant at 8:45. We were tuned away. We were too early, they didn't start serving dinner until 9pm at the earliest. The earliest. Mind you, this was a SUNDAY night, not really a big, late night out in Spain. And it was a week after Valentine's, so no big reason to go out late. We were just (once again) the early Americans.
The dinner, for those of you who are still reading, was terrific. We ate at an Argentinian grill (well known in Spain for good food). We plan on going back sometime.
When its not so cold, and when we can stay up and eat until after 9pm.
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