Lo que estoy leyendo ahora

Lo más importante, sin embargo, era que cada día realizaba el gran sueño de su vida: viajar. Cuando se cansara de los campos de Andalucía podía vender sus ovejas y hacerse marinero. Cuando se cansara del mar ya había conocido muchas cuidades, a muchas mujeres y muchas oportunidades de ser feliz.

from El Alquimista by Paulo Coelho

I am starting it for the second time. I checked it out this summer and didn't finish it so I am starting again. I am only on page 38 but I am enjoying it immensely. It is a very unique and incredible experience to be reading a book set in the same province in Spain that I have been in, and in the same language that is all around me. What makes it even more incredible is that it is about a boy who becomes a shepherd to travel and walk around Andalucía and beyond. I have been walking through the same fields and countrysides as the ones the author sets his protagonist.

Concurso de logotipo por Las Cabezas

The town next the Lebrija is going to have a bicentennial celebration in 3 years but for some reason they are really on their stuff, so they had a Logo Contest. I went there today to submit my materials to the Ayuntamiento. Here it is. Fingers crossed. The winner will be selected Monday.

The Walkabout part II...

(click to enlarge)

This weekend my roommates and I set out on another walking trek, but this time was south to the ocean.

Friday afternoon we set off outside of Lebrija to the Rio Guadalquivir where we would follow it most of the way to the sea. The beginning of the treks always seems to start out so barren and vacant but the end is always rewarding.

We didn't leave until 3:30 because Bijan worked. Well, the sun starts going down around 6:30 so not much progress was made day 1, especially since we tried to take shortcuts through farm land and had to jump some small irrigation ditches. We made it to the riverside and walked until sunset and stopped to eat and make camp. We found a palette and started a wee fire just to have something to do.

We awoke a few times in the night to barges going down the river...well, maybe the boats interrupted our "we are trying to sleep but it is cold, cramped, and earlier than we expected". When it is dark by 7:30 and you are on the trail there aren't many things to do. We all woke up at one point and had a guess at the hour. "Calvin- 4? Bijan- No its just 1:15. Shit, we have all night yet."

In the morning we started our journey onwards. There isn't really much to talk about. We just walked. Talking here and there. A bit of singing. Mostly "On the road again...something something, cause we're on the road again," or other variations such as "on the road again. Bijan, Cal, and Boone are on the road again." Other times movie quotes and comedy skits.

Along the road we met a middle aged couple who was touring the south. We saw riders from the Jerez Equestrian school going out on rides. Close to El Parque Natural de Doñana we saw flamingos in the marshes (not nearly as close as I could have seen them though). In the middle of the nothingness we entered the Doñana pine forest and emerged on the outskirts of Sánlucar. In Sánlucar we hit the market to refresh our supplies and hit the beach to walk to Chipiona on the coast.

We all took a quick liking to Chipiona for its cool lighthoused/cathedraled boardwalk. Apparently the city is always dead in the off season because half the property is owned by people in Sevilla, so now, in the winter, it felt very quaint and calm, much to our liking.

We walked along the coast until we weren't close to the houses and bars that litter the coast and made camp. The tide was out and it looked rather far away, but there was a line were the wet sand was and the dry sand was 5 feet from where we put the tent. We didn't have other options because further back wasn't level ground and the fence and dunes were there. We scavenged another palette (I tell you what, with out palettes, we would be bored as hell) and started a beach fire. A little later we went to bed, but I was super-paranoid about the tide and poked out of the tent every time I noticed the tide was closer. In the end, the tide never got near and we all passed out much harder than the night before after a very full day of walking.

I leave you with our homemade postcard, and blame it on guys being guys especially when in the wilderness and bored.



Click HERE to see other photos from the walk.

Busy little beavers...

It has only a little over 2 weeks since I have moved to Lebrija, although, it feels much longer. I went back to Sevilla the other day to run some errands and had mixed feelings. I do not miss traffic jams and commuting to work or the amount of time it took to get from one place to another. However, now that I live across the street I can go to class a few minutes before it starts and go home in between classes, so I see the teachers alot less than before. But that is a simple fix. I can just stay in the lounge in between classes. Also, in Sevilla I left the house more often than I do here in Lebrija, which isn't saying much. I have more reason to stay at home than ever. My roommates and I have been scheming projects for the house.

Project ^#1- The herb garden rack.



Soon we hope to start growing Basil, Cilantro, Oregano, and the like, on our terrace. We built it out of palettes and found timbers.

Project ^#2- Jamón



A house isn't a home without the ole pig haunch in the kitchen...at least in Spain. Spanish are nuts over the jamón. They take immense pride in jamón iberico, which comes form pigs that are fed strictly acorns. It quite the sight to walk into Museo de Jamón and see 100 pig legs hanging from the ceiling. The best part is that they are all no cooking or refrigeration required, because the meat is cured.

In order to get jamón, first you need a Ham Holder, which costs money, which we have little of, SO, just take some scrap wood and throw that haunch right on it.

Project ^#3- The rooftop cabana.




As of yesterday we have installed a rooftop cabana complete with palette benches and a fire pit. The fire will keep us warm during the winter months, and the cabana will shade us during the hot summer months. Unfortunately, it just adds one more reason not to leave the house.

Oh, and I am a teacher...

So I have been here a while now and haven't really mentioned anything about the teaching part of my Spain experience, which is the reason why I came...well, not really the reason why I came, but the means by which I am able to be here. I haven't talked much about cultural things either, but I will save that for another day.

For those who don't know, I work at IES, (Instituto Educación Secundaría), El Fontanal, for a strenuous 12 hours a week. The Spanish school system is broken down a little bit different than home. They start prescolar around 3-4-years old, which is comparable to our Kindergarten; primería follows, which is our Elementary; instituto is kind of like Middle school and the first half of High school because it is 12-16-year olds, this is where I work; bachillerato is the kids from 17-18, and is optional, it is mostly for kids who want to go on to a trade school or university. Within my level of instituto there is primero, 7th graders; segundo, 8th graders; tercero, 9th graders; and cuarto, 10th graders.

I have a core group which is primero bilingüe. I have them for 5 hrs of the 12, so I know them better then the rest, who I only have for one hour a week. I have the primeros in English, Social Studies, Science, PE, and Math. The other 7 hours are all English classes with mostly terceros and cuartos, which are not bilingual groups. (Don't let the name "bilingual" deceive you, none of the bilingüe are bilingual, but their teachers hardly talk to them in Spanish, almost completely in English. It is really impressive, it has to be really hard, but it is probably the best way to learn.

In the beginning my role in the classroom was mostly the "perfect" English pronunciation parrot, the teacher taught and looked to me for confirmation. Slowly it phased a little more into the teachers handing me a textbook or worksheet a few minutes before class and giving me full reign of the class, but Spain didn't bring 1,300 of us over to cover textbooks, which the current teachers are perfectly capable of covering...or at least most of them are capable of doing. So upon the arrival of Halloween I took the opportunity to start creating crazyfunbutstillinformative lesson plans.

I presented a slide show of last years Halloween party and had the kiddos guess who or what the people were. I didn't think about how much would be to old or uniquely American. So two California Raisins were unidentifiable, Amy, the dancing silhouette from the iPod commericials, became a primitive in their minds because she had painted herself jet black (gosh), but they got Tetris, (cheers Mar)...which I happened to steal for my costume this year...money and time mandated it.

This week is my greatest lesson yet, and I have had a lot of fun teaching it. We cover Obama, the Presidents, and the Election process. We vote in the class for "Which American President had the coolest facial hair?" I am usually a beard man, but my personal fav is B., Martin Van Buren, however, most of the kids go for the Taft-stache, I think it is a cultural thing...I then try to demonstrate the differences in tallying the results in a style of complete democracy, or a republic, or a tyranny, which means that since I like B, Martin Van Buren was the best facially haired president to date, period. I then try to convey the subtle difference in a democratic-republic, but think that it isn't very important and harder to explain. I have already gotten noise complaints from teachers in the neighboring room. Always a sign of some hands on learning going on next door...

Today me and the primeros had a blast in Math moving numbers on the positive/negative integer line. I kind of just wish they were the only class I have. They are too young to constantly ask me if I get high. They are more respectful and quiet.

Also, I have started helping out a little in the art classroom, not too much yet though. The art classroom is incredibly overwhelming, the behaviour of the students is absurd sometimes. But one thing has come out if it thus far and that is first hand accounts of a Spanish educational system policy that we should perhaps look into, which is regarding mentally challenged and autistic kids in the classroom. So far as I have observed there are no "special ed" teachers or classrooms, the handicapped children sit in the class just the same as all of the other children.

When first arriving in Spain I had thought, and others, the same, that Spain had an abnormally high handicap percentage. Upon further thinking, the new theory is that Spain doesn't have a higher percentage, but rather a higher rate of inclusion of the handicap into the flow of things. I have heard incredible stories from other auxiliares about how students who can't use their arms are fed by other peers and wheelchaired to and fro, etc. It shows obvious benefits for both of the parties.

Next week I will be going over my Uganda trip and tying it in with our recent geography lessons. I am excited to see what else comes of my role in the classroom.

I've Moved...now, I live right HERE.

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Boone Sommerfeld
Avda de Océano Atlántico, 3-B
41740, Lebrija (Sevilla)
España

I lived in Sevilla for the past month, but I couldn't take it anymore. My average day was waking up at 6:20, (which isn't bad in the states, but everything is later here. Dinner isn't until 9pm) then riding my bike 40min to a carpool meeting point, then a 45min carpool, work, then do the same trip back, hit the library to use internet. I then would arrive home at 5 and make lunch, which wasn't ready until 6, and that was the first thing I would have eaten all day...of course I could go eat lunch instead of going to the library and just go in the evening, but that adds one more hours of bike riding to the day, plus it fills up in the evening with students and you have to wait in line to enter the library. SO, myself, and two other Auxiliares decided to move to the pueblo where we work.

I have only been here since Saturday, but we all love our place, and have no regrets.

Here is the comparison between what I paid €200 in Sevilla and what I am paying €110 now in Lebrija.

The living room in Sevilla...

The living room in Lebrija...

My room in Sevilla...

My room in Lebrija...

not to mention our own rooftop, and a kitchen for a king...



We are all surprisingly like-minded. It is the house consensus that we start a garden next door, an herb garden indoors, and get a fire pit to the roof.

An added bonus is large community meals. Last night we roasted a chicken, with baked potatoes, a large avocado-roasted bell pepper salad, baguette, and Moroccan oranges for desert. All of which was by the light of a small lamp in the kitchen, because we are all equally cheap. It feels a lot like living in a cabin actually, because there is no heat in houses here, so we have been wearing our scarves, sweaters, wool socks, and sometimes mittens inside. We huddle around the oven after the cooking is done to warm our appendages, then scurry off the the sleeping bags and blankets that live on our couches.

All in all, a good decision, I hope you all can come visit someday soon.