Yes, more about littering

So, I hate to be a nagging brat about the whole littering thing, but the story continues. Hard to believe? Well, yes, it does.

I decided to take some advice from a comment an anonymous reader made on my first blog entry about littering ("The Joys of Littering") in which he/she stated that I should bring up the topic with my students and see what they had to say about it. Finding it quite a neat idea, I decided to do it. I took advantage of some extra free time in my classes yesterday after wrapping up a discussion about the American tradition of Arbor Day and the importance of trees in our every day lives...

I casually started off with a story, precisely the story I told you all about my brother's encounter with the strange sensation of littering in Spain, something he normally doesn't do in Minnesota. (You can read the full story in my entry "The Joys of Littering.") Upon finishing up the story I asked the provocative question which was "What's the difference between a twenty year old boy from Minnesota and a twenty year old boy from Spain in this situation?"

Their, surprisingly proud, response? "The Minnesotan boy cares about the environment more than the Spanish boy."

And so the conversation continued.

"Do you litter?" ... "Yes."
"Do you think it's okay?" ... "Yes."
"Do you think littering is a problem in Spain?" ... "No."

"Why do you think it's okay!?" The list of excuses was endless...
-Because the government pays people to clean the streets. If we throw away our garbage they will lose their jobs. (This was the most common thing that they said.)
-Because there are never any trash bins nearby. (An addition from two or three students: If I am on one side of the street with my friends and the bin is on the other side of the street, I am not going to cross the street to throw it away because then my friends will leave and I will have to chase them.)
-Because it's easier.
-Because the street is not my home. I don't have to take care of it.

I was shocked and awed. These comments came from THREE different groups of students aged 11 to 13. In every class, of course, there were a couple of the typical students who are always nice and thoughtful and smart who said they don't litter and think that it's very bad to litter- but the overwhelming response was listed above. They literally argued with me against cleaning up after themselves. And so, I found the problem. These kids have never been educated, neither by their parents nor by the education system, to take care of their town and of their planet.

I have decided on a punishment/lesson for the kids. Near to the school there is a huge field, a typical field that all the kids cross every single day to walk to school, and that is, of course, filled with garbage. (When I told them the street cleaners didn't clean their field, and what would happen to that field being full of garbage for so long, their response was, "It's not a big deal, the plastic will decompose and it won't harm anyone.") I have decided that although Earth Day has passed, we are going to have a belated Earth Day in which we will clean up the field... I don't know if schools are into that here, but I've already spoken with the head English teacher and next up is the headmaster. These kids are going to learn how to pick up garbage... even if it is from their American TA.

And then I'm going to show them this video... just to give them an extra dose of what I like to call "responsibility!"

The longest Thanksgiving ever

This year I experienced the longest and most festive Thanksgiving of my life. Lasting a whopping two weeks, my days were filled with multiple dinners, family skype calls, presentations and classroom activities. Being that I work at a hospitality and tourism school where cooking, waiting, and restaurant services are taught, Thanksgiving dinner has been integrated into the school as a new kind of yearly tradition. The dinner is prepared by the cooking students and served by the service students. The menu is prepared in English and a traditional meal is ingested by students, staff, and community members.

The two weeks before Thanksgiving were filled with a lot of prep work. Traditional Thanksgiving recipes for green bean casserole, apple and pumpkin pie, and whipped cream were sent by my mom across the big pond, then translated by Chelo and I, and later turned in to the head chef for ingredient shopping. A guest list was prepared with a limit of 50 eaters. I did my research and prepared a power point presentation filled with my preferred version of the few available versions of the "history" of Thanksgiving published throughout the internet (is there any way to know the real origin anyway?). Lets say the week also included a daily panic attack that increased with the passing of every day until Thanksgiving day itself, which was the day of my grand presentation in the school's auditorium.

This was posted in the teacher's lounge:

Speech: Thanksgiving

Given by: Molly Yurick

Complete with microphones, loudspeakers, a blow up projector screen and well over 100 seats, I spoke about the American culture of Thanksgiving to just about everyone in the school is or will study English in the future. As they always say, you learn more about your country, your life, and your culture when you leave it. Things I learned from my research (hell, maybe you'll learn something too): Minnesota produces the most turkeys in the US... Thanksgiving is the biggest traveling holiday of the year... The first Thanksgiving lasted three days and over 150 people attended. Wowza, history!

Thanksgiving was also a day of surprise for my 17 year old group. Their English level is notably lower than my other students, so I made an easier and simpler Thanksgiving presentation for them. Up until Thanksgiving day, I pretended that I didn't speak one word of Spanish except for "Hola, como estas?" and "queeee???" During these two months of understanding when they thought I couldn't, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they always said good things about me in class, never bad things! (Thank goodness!) My favorite was "Molly mola!," which means, "Molly's cool." hahha. So on Thanksgiving day I asked Chelo, my fellow English teacher, if I had her permission to reveal the big secret to them. She told me that yes, it was about time to tell them. I told her to interpret for me (as she always did). "Every one of you must promise that you will continue to speak English to me as you have until now. Promise. Everyone has to promise." And one by one, in what was the cutest thing I have ever seen near-adults do, they raised their hands and declared "I promise." I snuck a video:

And so, in my quickest and most fluent Spanish possible, I blurted out, "So... it turns out I speak a little bit of Spanish." My students whipped their heads back and forth, doubled over laughing, and then ended with a round of applause. "Como mola Molly, como mola!," they proclaimed. This was one of the funniest things I have ever experienced. Even now, reaching the end of December, they still giggle and jaw drop when I speak Spanish to them. They just can't believe it. They spent two months thinking I spoke much worse Spanish than they spoke English. The good lesson that comes out of it though, is that I had to study and to work really, really hard to reach the level of fluency that I have.

Halfway across the world in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, my parents were hosting Thanksgiving with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Thanks to the good graces of Skype, it was as if I was there in the kitchen with them drinking wine and waiting for the turkey to finish. They sat me at the table and I even won a game of Pokino, the game my family always plays on Thanksgiving.

The Friday after Thanksgiving I was warmly welcomed into the home of a few fellow Americans to ingest a real Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone brought a plate to share, and we engorged ourselves on wine, corn, stuffing, pie... the only thing missing was turkey- we ended up with store bought fried chicken instead. It was all pretty damn close to as delicious as always and it was nice to be surrounded by my fellow ex-pats.

During the week after, classtime was spent making my students tell me what they were thankful for, just like at a real Thanksgiving dinner. My favorite? One student said, "I am thankful I was born in Spain and not in (insert poor African country here)." Then, as a bit more entertaining piece to class, I showed them clips of the only Thanksgiving movie to date: Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Using the infamous car rental clip, I taught them how to use the word "fuck" as a verb, adverb, adjective... the works. They enjoyed that one:

It's great having students that are adults.

Thanksgiving dinner at my school was served the following Thursday, December 2nd. A few of my all-around-the-world pals came to enjoy the meal with me. First course: pumpkin soup. Second course: stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and cranberry sauce. Third course: pumpkin and applie pie. Oh, most importantly, it was all accompanied by unlimited red wine. Lets say that for the food, well, they tried their hardest... In the end, it was fun to see my school and loads of people celebrate Thanksgiving.

Gobble, gobble!

Gijón

So, it’s true, I am off again on another adventure to Spain.

I will be working as an English Language and Culture Assistant (again) with the same program (through the Spanish Ministry of Education). Last year I made the tough decision not to renew my position in Jaén, and instead apply to work in a new region. Being as I am, I decided to make my life as difficult as possible by moving as far away from everyone I know in Spain for no particular reason, and so here I am in one of the most northern parts of Spain: Gijón, Asturias. Being a city on “La costa verde” (The Green Coast) on the Bay of Biscay, the weather here is consistently compared to that of the UK. It’s considered as being rainy and “cold” by Spanish standards, but therefore is one of the few areas with truly green open spaces in the country. It’s got a couple of small, scenic beaches where people go surfing year round and even an “old quarter” that I have yet to visit. Oh, and sidra (cider), of course. I’m sure that there will be a post to come when I learn a bit more about the story behind that deliciously awful alcoholic Asturian drink.

In Gijón I am working at a school called, formally, “Centro Integrado de Formación Profesional de Hostelería y Turismo.” A mouthful, yes. In a nutshell, it’s comparable to a Tech College in the US that teaches courses specifically in tourism and hospitality. I will be working alongside two different English teachers, who, surprise, are actually fluent in English! My students are quite a bit older this year- I have one class of 17-20 year olds, while the other classes range from 20 to 40-something years old. This year, all of them already know how to say how old they are, which makes a much easier starting point than last year. In fact, they understand at least half of what I say in class (or so that’s the impression they give). On the first day of classes I believe I taught every class more than I ever could in two months in Cambil. So, I’m already assisting with classes in Catering, Bar and Restaurant Services, and something like Hotel Services. In the school they study everything from room cleaning to reception, wine tasting to baking, French to English, ahh the joys of a fun school! The cafeteria where the students will practice on the public opens soon and I caaaan’t wait!

I am honestly shocked to say that I have been here for two weeks already. I successfully completed my orientation in Madrid, where I roomed with a girl from South Minneapolis, because the world is always really, really small in my life. In Gijón I can say I have successfully made one friend, a Polish girl named Magda who is a human angel, really. She warmly welcomed me into her home through Couch Surfing (a website for travelers) and is letting me stay until I find a place, which has proven to be a bit more difficult than I imagined. Turns out that arriving in Gijón after university classes started in October was a baaaad idea. I’ve called over 50 ads for apartments or rooms and ALL except abouuuut, oh let’s say seven, have been full. I’ve seen a few places, a few good, a few creepy, a few smelly, and am still working on finding the combination between the place and the people that “click.” One more mental breakdown call to my mom and I she just might fly out here to console me (with ulterior motives of traveling in Spain of course), but honestly, I’m hoping that by tomorrow or the next I’ll have a place to call home. I can feel it in my desperate bones. I also have successfully already taken a weekend off from doing nothing to do some more of nothing with a side of heavy drinking during a long, five day weekend… I’m guilty of enjoying life too much. I went to Jaén for “La feria de San Lucas.” It takes about 12 hours to get from Gijón to Jaén on bus, and isn’t exactly cheap either (round abouts 120 euro), but as I expected it was totally worth it. As a group of wailing hooligans, my good friends from last year and some new ones from this year spent four nights in a row de fiesta until at least eight, nine, or ten in them morning, take your pick. Feria in Jaén is like everything a street drinker could ask for. It consists of 70 or so “casetas” (tents) set up in the local fair ground, each caseta holds either a bar, club, or restaurant. It’s like a glorified pub crawl that lasts 24 hours a day for 10 days straight. Everyone’s mom, uncle, and cat goes to Feria. There, I ran into everyone I met last year and it made me slightly sad to not be back in Jaén for the second year in a row. It would have been quite easy to roll back to the same city with the same great friends and even more new ones, but I am looking forward to getting to know a new city, have a new teaching experience, and, well, a new life experience as well.

Ta ta for now,

Molly

The Weather Forecast

As a group project for Pilar’s English class, the students had to prepare a type of weather forecast for any country they wanted. The groups prepared posters with weather forecasts for Germany, France, Italy, Iceland, and Switzerland.

Today I bring you the weather forecast for Germany, from Cambil.



After watching all of their great presentations, which made me quite proud as their English TA, they asked me report the weather with one of the posters. Doing eenie-minie-miny-moe I ended up doing the weather for the ICELAN(D) poster. The group for Iceland originally wrote Iceland without D!! (The Andalucian accent cuts off the end of words... and that accent slips it's way into the student's use of English in the classroom.) As I instructed them on how to correctly spell the country's name, Sergio insisted it didn't matter. When I asked him what he would think if I spelt España without an A at the end, leaving it "Españ," he giggled and realized the silliness of their misspellings.

What a great day of weather predictions it was!