My Return to Texas

As I return to the United States, I am both excited and sad. I am sad to end my great experience in Spain, from which I learned so much about the Spanish language and culture. However, I am excited to start a new school year with my students and be able to share the information that I learned in Spain. I believe that this information will help my students feel a stronger connection to what I'm teaching, and I will be able to emphasize the importance of learning Spanish in high school. I want to say a big thank you to the people at the National Spanish Exam and the AATSP for allowing me to have this amazing experience. I will remember this amazing experience for the rest of my life, and I believe that it has made me a better person and more accepting of other cultures and ways of life. I made many friends along the way and had many great experiences that continuously make me laugh and smile. I hope to return to Spain someday to visit my friends and see how much the country has changed. I will encourage all of my students to take a trip to Spain to enhance their knowledge and experience many new and exciting things.

El Parque del Retiro

Nothing beats Sunday afternoon in Retiro Park. It is the most popular and widely visited park in Madrid. On a Sunday afternoon, you will see Madrileños walking with their families in the park and being entertained by the multitude of street entertainers. Retiro is also a central meeting point for all sorts of people, from the roller skating younger kids and older men playing 'petanca' to football players and joggers of all ages.
The Retiro was originally built for the Spanish king Phillip IV and was opened to the general public in the 1800's. One of the most beautiful places in the park is the 'Crystal Palace', which is made entirely of glass.
The central point of the park is the large lake where you can go row boating or lay around on the steps and listen to street entertainers perform. The park has quite a few restaurants where you can enjoy a cold drink in the heat of the summer. Also, the major road through the park hosts a huge book fair every year in June. Among the park's numerous statues, there is one dedicated to the 'Angel Caído' - said to be the only statue in the world dedicated to a fallen angel.

Real Madrid vs. Al Ittisch

One of the things that you MUST do while in Spain is see a soccer game with their famous team Real Madrid. The game that I went to was not sold out, and we paid 40 euros for great seats in the middle of the stadium. The most famous player is probably #9 (Renaldo), but the new player Kaká is also very popular. I saw many jerseys for David Beckahm as well even though he no longer plays for Real Madrid. The soccer stadium sits in the middle of the city and is gorgeous. The game started at 10:30pm and lasted until 1am. I was very surprised by a couple of things during the game. First, unlike football, baseball, and basketball games in the United States, they didn't sell any kind of clothing, bobbleheads, soccer balls, or anything! I was really looking forward to buying something that I didn't need. Ha!
Also, the big screen at the game had no dot race games and didn't even show the game. The only food that was sold were sandwiches. I was looking forward to hotdogs, cheesy nachos, and cotton candy. It was very strange to look around and see people eating a ham and tortilla española sandwich.
It seems to me that they would make so much money by selling items and food, but I guess in Spain it's more about the actual game than the "frills".

My Trip to the Madrid Zoo

I was very excited to go to the zoo today as my daughter and I frequently go to the zoos in Dallas and Fort Worth. However, after my visit to the Madrid Zoo/Aquarium, I was very disappointed. The zoo seemed very dirty and upkept, and the habitats for the animals were very small with stagnant water and trash in them. There were about 40 people at the zoo, and I understood why when I walked in (on one of the hottest days of the summer) and saw many of the animals laying down, exhausted from the heat of the day. The monkey habitat consisted of about fifty monkey and was filled with a ton of trash, most of which the monkeys were playing with. Also, the tiger habitat was filled with smelly, stagnant water, which was obviously very unhealthy for the animals. One of the pictures that I included was of a small zebra that looked very hot and sickly. From all of my trips to the zoo, I have never seen a zebra laying down like this before. The highlight of the zoo trip was the aquarium, which included many different beautiful fish and sharks. The dolphin tank was also very nice, but I can only hope that the Madrid Zoo used my entry fee of 18 euros to help with the upkeep of the habitats and these animals.

La Corrida de Toros

Ahhhhh....the classic bullfight. Several of my friends from school and I attended a bullfight on Sunday night at 8:30pm. It was a low profile bullfight, and the bullfighters were relatively new and unknown. It cost 5 euros, which was very cheap, and there were 3 bullfighters and 6 bulls. It all seemed a little brutal to me and very bloody, and I felt sorry for the bulls. Since the bullfighters were new, it took them several times to kill the bull at the end, which was quite disheartening to watch. The crowd did not applaud very much, and some of the Spanish people around me were quite upset that the bull was not killed on the first try. There are three parts to the bullfight, each of which I will describe.

En el primer tercio, el toro es soltado a la arena donde tres asistentes, bajo la dirección del torero, utilizan sus capas para probar el comportamiento del toro. El torero entonces llama a los picadores, dos hombres con lanzas sobre caballos en armadura que debilitan al toro al pincharle la espalda entre los hombros. Esto es hecho para hacer más seguro acercarse al toro y permitir una muerte rápida al final del tercio.





En el segundo tercio, el torero llama a los banderilleros. Estos tres hombres se acercan a pie, imitando continuamente el comportamiento de los toros. Cada banderillero decora al toro con dos lanzas con punta de gancho envueltas en lazos de colores brillantes.



Durante el tercio final, el torero utiliza su capa amarilla y roja o rosada y una espada para trabajar al toro en una serie de movimientos como en un baile. La gente va a gritar 'olé' cuando el toro pasa particularmente cerca del torero. Creo que esta es la parte más elegante y refinada de la corrida y está sujeta a arte, canciones y literatura, tal como La Muerte en la Tarde de Hemingway.



Cuando el torero siente que el toro está cansado, cambia su capa y espada por una muleta roja más pequeña y una espada de metal. El torero embiste la espada dentro de los hombros del toro hasta su corazón para una muerte rápida.

Durante una corrida, escuchará a la multitud aplaudir las bien ejecutadas maniobras del hombre o del toro. Puede escuchar también los "buuus" cuando la gente no está a gusto. Al final de la corrida, algunos pueden sacar sus pañuelos blancos pidiendo que el torero sea recompensado con una o dos orejas del toro.

El Oso y El Madroño

This is one of my favorite statues in Madrid - the Bear and the Strawberry Tree. It is located in La Puerta del Sol. The Puerta del Sol is in the Madrid of the Hasburgs (or the Madrid of the Austrias) section of Madrid. This area of Madrid is so named because it was during the reign of this dynasty that this area and Madrid itself really began to develop. The Sol area is the heart of Madrid. All of the best shopping can be done in this area, and believe me, I have bought way more than my share of Spanish shoes and clothing. When I ask people about the story of this statue, I never get the same story twice. Some people would even argue that it's not a strawberry tree, but I can get everybody to agree that it is a bear. :)
The Bear and the Strawberry Tree was constructed in 1965 by the sculptor Antonio Navarro Santafé. This statue is said to weight almost 20 tons! It is also the official symbol of Madrid, and you will see this symbol everywhere, on taxis, buses, pavements, banks, street signs, trash bins, and other things as well.
So, why is it the official symbol of Madrid? Opinions vary. The practical theory is that the bear standing on its hind legs with its front paws on the tree trunk represents possession and ownership of wood necessary for constructing buildings.

La Consulta del Médico

Yesterday I took a trip to the "médico." My stomach sickness had not gotten any better. I was still very cold, had a fever, chills, and many other symptoms that I choose not to discuss at this moment. One of the most important chapters that I teach to my high school students is the medical chapter. I always tell them that they may be sick in a Spanish-speaking country, and all of those phrases will come in handy. Now it seemed as though I was taking my own advice. My appointment was at 7pm, which was the first thing that surprised me. I am used to going to the doctor at 8am and being the first appointment if I was really sick. I took the bus across town with another girl from my residence who was also very sick with a serious head cold. We walked down to the doctor's office, which seemed to be more of an apartment than an office. Forty euros and two hours later of waiting in the waiting room and telling the doctor our symptoms, we received our prescriptions. We were lucky because a "farmacia" was located next door, and it was still open. I had no idea what type of medications that the doctor had prescribed for me, but I trusted him. They only cost me 5 euros, which was relatively cheap in comparison to some of the prescriptions in the United States. The pharmacist gave me two full boxes of medicine, much more than I needed, and I was on my way. I was told not to eat anything for 24 hours but to drink 2 liters of "aquarius" every day. Aquarius is a drink that is similar to Gatorade, and it tastes pretty good. So, here I am today, still alive, and trying my best to get better. :) I guess it wouldn't have been a true trip to Spain if I didn't experience every single aspect of this country.