Back To Work

And it's official...summer vacation is officially over. Let's have a moment of silence as we honor our dear, departed free time.

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Just give me a sec to wipe away the tears........aaaand I'm good. I don't think I need to go too in depth on what makes summer so great. Zero responsibility. Sleeping in. Easy living. It's a beautiful thing. And what makes it worse is that my summer this year was extra-good. It involved the padres coming to Europe and all of us making a grand tour of Europe. It involved this guy going home and enjoying 6 weeks of sweet, sweet Oklahoma summertime. It was almost too good. Damn it.

But as of today, I worked my first full day teaching the little niños once again. And I must say, it wasn't all that bad.

Here is a quick shot of my school. Notice how it looks like a prison? Believe me, the similarities go far beyond the bars around the building.

So anyway, I received my teaching schedule almost immediately upon arriving at school. Which might not seem all that remarkable, but (trust me on this one) it is a HUGE feat for my particular school, seeing as how last year I was two weeks into the school year before I even knew what I would be teaching. And I suppose that I didn't even need a schedule last year to tell me that I was in WAY over my head....I taught everyone from 2 and 3 year olds to high school juniors and seniors.

However, all that is leading me up to the beauty of my schedule this year. I will be teaching (drumroll, please) 1st and 2nd grade science, art, and English! Woo Hoo! And only 1st and 2nd grade science, art, and English. I can't even begin to describe how amazing it will be to only have to plan classes for one age group. Let me give you a little scenario so that you can compare and share in my joy for this new schedule.

Last year, on any given day, I might have a 2nd grade science class, a high school senior English conversation class, a pre-school English class, a 6th grade art class, a 4th grade science class, a 2nd grade art class and a 3rd grade English class. Imagine planning out separate lessons for every single one of those grades/subjects. And now imagine only getting to use those lessons for that particular day and then the next day having to plan new stuff for 7 or 8 completely different classes.

Now let's fast-forward to this year. On any given day I might have 4 2nd grade science classes, 2 1st grade art classes and a 1st grade English class. My schedule the next day will be pretty much the same. And the next day. And the next. Planning is going to be a breeze AND I might actually learn my students' names this year. (Which shouldn't be as hard as it is, since about 75% of the girls are named Maria and 80% of the boys are Alvaro or Pablo)

Now, I will say that I'm a little bummed that I won't have any older kids this year. They were usually really fun to work with and overall pretty intelligent. But just take a look at these pictures of some of my 1st graders from last year (in their Halloween costumes) and tell me that you wouldn't love working with them:

So I've decided that since they are adorable, I can handle working with only them this year. And here are a few more reasons why working with them will be great:

1. I can still scare them. If they start getting out of hand, it's not too difficult to give them "the look" and get them calmed down. This doesn't work so well with older kids.

2. They love me. Pure and simple. In their eyes, I'm the coolest guy there is. And who am I to argue with that?

3. They're not that smart. Which is fantastic, because I'm not either. No more planning science lessons about electricity and magnetism. No more sex education. No more being unable to answer complicated science questions. I'll feel so much more intelligent this year.

4. They don't start class until 9. Again, this is another reason you might not appreciate. But trying getting out of bed at 6 a.m., making the hour commute to work, and giving an entire 8 a.m. class, all before the sun comes up. It's no fun. But it's not my problem anymore, because these kids don't start until 9. Which means I get a whole extra hour of sleep. Which means that I will be considerable nicer to these children.

5. They're adorable. Now, I know I already said this one. But it's worth repeating, right?

So anyway, it looks like it'll be a pretty good year. As of now, I'm excited about my schedule. Give me time and I might change my tune, but I don't think that'll be the case.

Loving, Leaving, and Starting Again

Well, folks, I think it is safe to say that last year was a massive failure. In terms of blogging, that is. The whole two posts that I took the time to write from Spain last year really served well to document my time abroad. As long as you weren't curious what happened after September.

I suppose I was somewhat justified in not blogging all the time. I was constantly working either on homework for my masters or stuff for the classes I taught at my job. It was a busy year and finding time to blog about it all just wasn't happening.

But all that is about to change.

Here I sit in my apartment in Madrid once again, about to start year #2 in Spain. I never really would have expected a second year here had you asked me last August, but things just kind of fell into place that way, as they always seem to do.

So now I'm here again with MUCH more free time on my hands. I'll only be teaching this year, so that pesky masters won't get in my way anymore. Which should be awfully nice.

In any case, I think it would be appropriate if, before starting this new year of experiencing life abroad (and actually blogging about it this time), I did a little recap of last year. Which should be about as close to impossible as anything else I've attempted on here.

But here's my method. I've looked through all of my pictures from the last year (okay, so maybe I kind of glanced through them) and chose one picture from each month that I think pretty much sums up that particular month. I'll give the background story for each picture and with each story, you should more or less get a feel for the year in general. I guess we'll see if it works.

August - This picture is of some of my lovely friends (from L to R - Jorge, Kayla, Annie, Jacek, William and me) in Valencia, Spain. I was lucky enough in the beginning of the year to take a little "Intro to Spain" trip to Jávea and Valencia on the Mediterranean coast. While there, I got to see several of my friends who had studied at OU and just enjoy being in Spain. It was a fantastic way to start the year. I didn't yet have any responsibilities and just had two full weeks of relaxing. Not exactly how the rest of the year would be...

September - This is a picture that I had posted previously when talking about the roommates in my first apartment in Madrid. Yes, I said "first apartment." I'll get to that.

But in early September, things didn't seem like they could be any better. I had seven roommates (Gaby and Simón from France, Saila from Finland, Gigi from Italy, Maite and Guillermo from Spain, and Kayla from Oklahoma) and things were busy, but it was all so dang exciting. Meeting all these new people and having all these new experiences were just incredible. Everything was so new and I was loving life.

October - A lot of things happened in October and it was difficult to narrow my choice of photo down to just one, but I chose this picture for two reasons. But first, the back story. At Halloween, Kayla and I took a trip to Paris, France to visit several of our friends: Jacek from Germany, Jorge and Gloria from Spain, and William and Marc from France. It was an awesome reunion and we had the best possible time. One of my favorite trips from the year, without a doubt.

So anyway, my two reasons for choosing this picture: 1) Because Paris has become one of my favorite cities in the world, if not my absolute favorite, and being there in the fall was beautiful. 2) Because at that point in time (at the end of October) Kayla and I were reaching our breaking points. We had begun to realize that our living situation was less than ideal. (Okay, it was horrible. 8 people and 1 bathroom? Pure insanity.) We saw that we had almost no free time due to the demands of our program. And, if we were both honest with ourselves, we were probably both a little homesick. So we really needed something good in our lives to bring us back from the brink right at that time, and this trip was just exactly what we needed. Kayla and I talked later about that trip and agreed that it was a turning point for the year. Who knows it the year would have ended up so great without it.

November - I think this picture is somewhat self-explanatory, but I'll give a brief explanation anyway. Four of us from our program (Kayla, Alicia, Amanda and myself) all decided to have an American-style Thanksgiving celebration. We just couldn't imagine a year without it. And if all of us couldn't be at home to enjoy our mothers' home-cooking, then we would make the best of it. One of our friends from Valencia (Susana) offered her house to create this massive feast, and I think we did a pretty good job. And all of the Spaniards agreed with us.

December - I was lucky enough to be able to fly home at Christmas and no picture is better than this one of me with my nephew to represent how great that trip was. At that point I had been in Spain for five months, and I needed some family time.

January - Soon after returning to Madrid, I made another trip to Valencia to visit all of our great friends there. We had a really big gathering of OU people and just had a great weekend. This trip was also needed, because right after getting back to Madrid, I think I was missing home just a bit. And being around all of our awesome friends that we had met in Oklahoma, I felt much better about things.

February - Over the year, things just got better and better in all aspects. I found a new, much better apartment. I was getting much better at managing out time for homework. And things at my job were becoming really fun. This picture is of me and some of the other teachers I work with during Carnival. It's strange getting used to all of the crazy Spanish traditions and it was always a good time. The reason we're all dressed up is because Spaniards use Carnival as their time to dress up in crazy costumes instead of Halloween, when the only acceptable costume is something very scary. That was a fun day.

March - In March, around Spring Break time in the US, Spain has Semana Santa, or Holy Week in English. During that week, the country basically shuts down. In Semana Santa, you have two options: One is to stay in Spain and enjoy the festivities, because there is a lot going on at that time. But we chose Option Two, which was to travel outside of the country. So a group of us did a tour of Italy for about 10 days. We started in Milan, then went on to Venice, then Florence, and finally Rome. This is us in front of the Coliseum. And what an amazing trip it was.

April - Otherwise known as Birthday Month. Kayla and I have birthdays that are only a few days apart, so everyone in our program was nice enough to throw us a big joint birthday party. And it was incredibly fun. And it really made me realize what amazing friends we had made over the year.

May - Another Spanish holiday and another Spanish costume. In May in Madrid, there is a holiday for the city's patron saint, which is Saint Isidro. Madrid has a traditional costume, which my Spanish friend Adriana and I are modeling in this photo. Adriana also worked at my school last year, and we were required to wear these costumes. It was really cute to see all of the little kids in their little costumes.

June - This is the month where everything paid off. This is a picture from our Graduation Day. It's a picture of every single person in my program. It was a really great group of people and I made a lot of great friends. A lot of them are back this year with me, and I'm excited about that. And I'll definitely miss those who aren't here again.

What's also cool about this picture is that it was taken in the chapel where we had our graduation ceremony. The chapel is part of our university and it is around 600 years old! People like Miguel Cervantes (the guy who wrote Don Quixote) have received their degrees here, and now I've joined their ranks!

July - Perhaps my favorite picture of all! In July my parents came to visit me in Madrid and I couldn't wait to get them here. After a few days in Madrid, we then went on to Barcelona, Paris, and Rome and it really was the trip of a lifetime. It was my parents' first time out of the US and I was so excited to show them all of the places that I've come to know. This picture is of us right after Spain won the World Cup. We watched the game at a big outdoor area in the middle of the city with thousands of Spaniards and enjoyed the celebrations that went along with it. And, of course, we wore our Spain colors, as you can see here.

So, as you can see, it was an incredible year. It's almost hard for me to describe just how amazing it all was in such a short space (if you can call this short!). But it really was wonderful year with all of it's ups and downs. I learned a lot and made a lot of great friends who I know I will have for the rest of my life. And I had the experience of a lifetime.

But now it's time for Spain Round 2. And it's time to make way for some new experiences and some new friends. It's time to start again. And if this year is half as good as the previous one, then I know that I'm in for some fantastic times.

Tomorrow starts my first day at school and the start of my year. I guess we'll see how it goes.

Mi Vida Española

Ah, my Spanish life. It seems like it changes a bit every day, but always for the better.

As I had mentioned before, Kayla and I got back to Madrid and vacation time is officially over. Kind of.

School hasn't yet started, so we've had some time to go out a bit more, do a bit more sightseeing, etc. So the stressful part hasn't quite kicked in yet. Aaaand more importantly, our little international apartment family is finally complete! Woo hoo!

Let me give you a little rundown of my roommates for the coming year:

• Kayla - a fellow OU Sooner who is also in my same program with the Universidad de Alcalá. She's been one of my very good friends for a long time and I'm not sure what I would do without her. I don't really know what else I can say about her that I haven't said already, but I do know that I'll probably become a Shakira expert by the end of the year because of her.
• Maite - our Spanish roommate. She's 24 (or 25, I don't really remember) and she's originally from Bilbao in the north of Spain, but she's lived in Madrid for several years now. She doesn't really know any English, which can be both good and bad. It definitely helps with practicing Spanish, but it also kind of creates a language barrier for any real, intimate conversation. In any case, she's very nice and a good person to have around.
• Gabriel - our 17 (almost 18) year old roommate originally from Nice, France. However, although his father is French, his mother is Spanish so he is of both nationalities and he speaks perfect Spanish. He also speaks great English and he loves speaking it with us. He loves America and even has an American flag hanging in his room. He's a pretty cool kid and I think we'll get along really well. He's starting his 5 year program in Madrid this year.
• Saila - the 24 year old roommate from Helsinki, Finland. Her name is pronounced SIGH-la. She's here for an exchange year to finish up her Masters and being from Scandinavia she speaks perfect English. Her Spanish is pretty good, about the same level that I'm at. She's tall, super platinum blonde, and reminds us of a Barbie doll. Pretty much your stereotypical Scandinavian girl. She's really cool though and a lot of fun to talk to and hang out with. She and Kayla are very similar in a lot of ways and they've already hit it off very well.

And here is a picture of all of us minus Maite from just a couple of nights ago. From left to right it's Gabriel, me, Kayla, and Saila. And Gabriel wanted to do like Kayla and I have done several times making the OU symbol, so we're holding up an M and U for Madrid University. haha

And technically we have a 6th bedroom open, but we're all kind of hoping that no one takes it. Right now there's a great environment in the flat and we don't really need anyone else. Also, right now one of our showers is out of commission, so we don't really want to have to share one shower between 6 people. haha (No worries, it's getting fixed soon. I don't live in the ghetto, I swear).

And also some good news: We're getting our own wireless internet tomorrow! Which is AWESOME! I'm sick of stealing crappy internet that only lets me look at gmail, youtube, and my blog. And that way I'll finally be able to use skype and see people. I can't wait!

So as you can see, life is good thus far. I was a little worried about how the roommate situation would work out, but I don't think I could have asked for a better set of people to live with. I'm even more excited to live here now.

And now it's time for a siesta. Man, Spanish life is rough....

Buckle In...

...Cause this is gonna be a long one.

It's been well over two weeks since I've updated. Which normally isn't all that bad, but considering the mountain of things I've done over the past couple of weeks, this could be a difficult task. But in the interest of keeping things as brief and non-boring as possible, I'll try and keep from being too over-expressive.

First of all, as I'm pretty sure I mentioned before, Kayla and I left Madrid on Wednesday the 12th to go meet up with our friends Gloria and Jorge in Jávea, which is a little beach town about an hour south of Valencia. While we expected to get plenty of beach time and to get a little more tan, I couldn't have even begun to imagine just how amazing the next couple of weeks would be. (Unfortunately, since it's been so long since I've updated, most of the stuff is running together in my mind, so it probably won't be in perfect chronological order. But I'll try.)

So anyway, we get to Jávea and meet up with our friends who we've been waiting to see for months now and it was awesome. It's so good to see some familiar faces. Also it was awesome because Jávea is an incredibly beautiful Mediterranean town. The sea was beautifully blue, the weather was fantastic, and the people were friendly. Anyway, in true Spanish style, the first night they took us out and we stayed out until around 7 in the morning. Which I suppose was a good way to start our vacation time.

Over the next week, Kayla stayed with Gloria and I stayed with Jorge, so we each had slightly different experiences, so I'm sure our stories would differ a bit. But all I know is that my week in Jávea was AMAZING. Rather than giving a day by day account, I'll give a quick list of the things I did:

• Went motorbiking around the city on Jorge's motorbike. Which was surprisingly awesome.
• Went cliff-diving several times, with the most memorable (and terrifying) being a cliff that was over 4 stories tall. Needless to say, it took us about 30 minutes of psyching ourselves into actually jumping off and not just climbing back down. haha In fact, thinking about it now is making my palms sweat. And if you don't think 4 stories is very tall, just walk to the roof of a 4 story building and look off the side. See how brave you are.
• Fought bulls at a Spanish capea. A capea is a small, private bullfight where everyone gets to take part. Rather than one full-grown bull, there are many smaller, younger bulls, so there is much less danger of getting hurt. And basically, it's a bunch of young guys eager to jump in the ring and show off how manly they are. So naturally, I had to jump in there and prove that Americans are just as good as Spanish. Not sure how good I did, but I do know that I did a pretty good job of not getting hit by any bulls. Mission accomplished.
• Went snorkeling with Jorge's family and watched a guy dive down and pick sea urchins right from the sea, and then proceeded to watch him cut those sea urchins open on our yacht, and then proceeded to eat raw sea urchin. Which was quite possibly the fishiest tasting thing I've ever had in my mouth. Still good, just different.
• Stayed out until 7 am more than once. I'm not sure how the Spanish do it, but I know that this guy's body will not be able to put up with that too often. I enjoy sleep WAY too much.

There were a few other experiences here and there, but those were the main ones that make for the best stories. And if I was to account for the entire week in Jávea, I'm sure no one would ever read it.

So then I rode to Valencia with Gloria and Jorge where I met up with my friend Dini, who I was going to stay with during my time there. Glo and Jorge both live in VLC, but they needed a bit of a break after hosting us for so long. (And just as a side note, it's so odd being the one everyone is having to take care of. I'm so used to being the host and the driver.)

Anyway, Valencia was amazing because two more of our good friends, William from France and Jacek from Germany, flew in to meet us and have a big OU reunion. And it ended up being so incredibly fun. Again, I'm not going to go too much into detail about what all went on, because it consisted of a lot of going out, a lot of sightseeing, and a lot of beach time. But I promise it was fun. All these guys are some of my best friends and we've been planning this reunion for what seems like forever, so for it all to finally take place was great. And of course, it was over all too soon. But, no worries, we already have plans to meet in Madrid sometime this month, Paris in October, and Berlin in November for the 30th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not too bad, right?

And I feel like I should mention that I've adopted a new Spanish family as my own (no worries, Mom and Dad, it's only a family while I'm in Spain. You're not being replaced). Dini's family was absolutely incredible. I've never been in more of a welcoming, accommodating environment in my entire life (aside from my own home, of course). They were so fun and I really felt like I became a part of the family over my week with them. I know that anytime I get homesick or need a good home-cooked meal, it's only a short train ride away.

But now vacation time is over and I'm back in boring, old Madrid in my apartment. JK JK. There really are no "life as usual" feelings for me now as even the mundane is exciting. I finally have gotten around to doing some decorating for my room. Kayla and I went to the famous Rastro, Madrid's huge open-air market on Sunday mornings, and both of us got some things to make our rooms feel a bit more homey. I'll get some pictures up soon.

Speaking of pictures, throughout my entire vacation time, I took about 5 pictures. I know, TOTAL failure. But plenty of other people took pictures, so I'll steal some of theirs soon and post them and take full credit for them.

Anyway, I LOVE my room now. I bought a HUGE tapestry thing for my wall, a poster, a lamp, and some other odds and ends. It no longer feels like I'm living in a dorm room! Hooray!

And I feel like I should end this now. It's getting to the point where even I'm bored from it. I promise I'll get more pictures soon and that I'll update a little more regularly so that it won't be a novel to read for each post.

Until next time....

Slowly But Surely

Man, I need to get on the ball with this blog! Although time here definitely feels much much slower than in the US, it's amazing how time really flies. For example, I can't believe it's already been a week since I was at home. So on that note, if I don't get going soon, it's going to be impossible to update this thing without writing a novel. So here goes nothing....

First of all, I suppose I could talk about the flight, although it wasn't the most exciting thing in the world. Fairly simple, no problems. However, I have found a new favorite airline. Oh, British Airways, how I love you. Seriously folks, I had my own individual TV screen where I could choose from an entire library of movies, tv shows, and radio stations. Amazing, really. Especially compared to the nightmare that was Continental Airlines last year. But that's neither here nor there....

Anyway, got into Madrid on Tuesday afternoon and Kayla and I promptly went to lock our luggage up in the airport. Or so we thought. It actually ended up being around an hour wait to get our luggage and then another hour to get into the locker area. But despite the wait, we felt secure in knowing our belongings were in good hands. And then we proceeded to our hostel, which was also fairly simple. Although I will say that a nice, cool shower felt amazing after a day of travel and sweating with our stuff in the Madrid heat.

Thus began our search for a place to live. Of course we had been doing a bit of looking beforehand on various websites to try and get a headstart, but for anyone who has done any kind of apartment/house hunting, you'll likely agree that it's nearly impossible to do it before actually getting to the location. So once we got an internet connection, we looked for every possible appealing apartment listing. And the next day, we made a ton of phone calls to set up appointments to view the different places.

Luckily, Kayla and I didn't have to do too much searching to find our perfect place. After only viewing one other apartment (that definitely didn't strike our fancy, on any level, but most importantly factoring into our decision was the incredibly weird Canadian that lived there) we made our way to an apartment right by Gran Vía and Plaza del Sol, which, for anyone who has been to Madrid knows, is an AMAZING part of the city. It's right by absolutely everything, including all the shopping areas, the nightlife, the important sites of the city like the Royal Palace, and so much more. Basically, we never thought we would be able to find a place like this that we could afford. And then, almost magically, it appeared. Upon viewing it, Kayla and I decided right then and there that this was the place that we wanted to spend our year. And even better, after meeting a couple of our roommates, we realized even how much luckier we are.

Our apartment has 6 bedrooms, 5 of which are currently occupied. Of course Kayla and I both have one apiece. We also have a 22 year old Spanish guy named Guillermo, who seems to be really cool. He's very artsy and trendy and loves to go out. Our first night after meeting him he took us out with all of his friends and gave us our first taste of the Madrileño nightlife (including staying out until almost 7 a.m). Also there is Maite (pronounce MY-teh), a 24 year old girl who is also from Spain and who is full of information for us. While she is a bit more reserved than Guille (GEE-yay, short for Guillermo), she is still really cool and friendly. And last but not least we have Gabriel, a 17 year old guy from France. We have yet to meet him as he has been on vacation since we got here, but according to Guille and Maite, he's nice enough. And then we'll just have to wait and see who else ends up living with our little international apartment family.

Probably the only things that a person might have as a complaint for our apartment are the stairs (We live on the 5th floor with no elevator. Imagine carrying a year's worth of luggage up 5 flights of stairs. Not pretty.), the air conditioning (Or lack thereof. But really nowhere in Spain has air conditioning, so there wasn't much we could do about this one.), and the Internet situation (We don't currently have it. No skype, no facebook, no nada. However, at times we are able to steal internet from a local hotel, much like I am doing now. So it works out I guess.)

But Kayla and I both feel incredibly lucky that we found such a great apartment. Quirks and all (it's a really oooooold building) it's a great place and an even better location. I've been really blessed with both the place I'm living and the people I'm living with. I know it's going to be an absolutely amazing year.

Other than all of that, we've just been doing a lot of sightseeing. And just as I remember, everything in Madrid is photo-worthy and beautiful. This city has so many incredible things to see and I am completely and totally in love with it. I dare anyone to come to this place and not get swept away by it. And the more things we see, the more people we see hanging out, the more times I wake up to a great Madrid morning (or afternoon, in some cases), I know more and more that this is where I'm meant to be at this moment in time and that this is a defining moment of my life.

Whoa, that just got deep.

Anyway, I'll try and keep things a little more updated and hopefully get some pictures up on here soon. Although, with my stolen wifi internet, I doubt the pictures happen soon.

As for now, love you and miss you all!

Besos y abrazos muuuuuuy fuertes! (Kisses and reeeeeeeally strong hugs)

I'm in Spain!

Well, I'm here and I'm happy and all is well. I actually don't have any time to really type anything or get into any details. I was actually just looking through some pictures on my computer (before going out for drinks and tapas, naturally) and noticed that I was picking up some stray wireless internet and got really excited (because my new, awesome apartment doesn't have internet yet).

Anyway, now that I know I can get on this blog, I'll post some more later. I don't know if I have strong enough internet to post pictures, but if so, I'll do that too. Woo Hoo!

Abrazos mis amores,

Jordan

Same Story, Different Semester

Let me get one thing clear right now: I HATE this time of year. With a passion.

I know, I know. It's an exciting time. Graduation happens, people get to go out and start their lives, and summer finally comes after a long semester. But I'm sick and tired of being sad when things end. And it never fails, I'm always sad at this time of year.

The last couple of weeks have been full of lasts. Of course, last year was my "official" last year and since I technically already graduated, I shouldn't really consider this my end. But I just can't help getting emotional at the last OU Cousins BBQ, or the last Panam party, or the last pool party. It's amazing how we get used to a way of life and when that way of life comes to a sudden stop we find ourselves struggling to readjust. Or maybe that's just me.

I'm trying to keep positive right now and tell myself to get excited about Spain. But it's always so hard to look past the present.