Long Weekend!

Time for another update from Madrid! Although today is Monday, I am writing not after a long day of work but after a day of relaxation, shopping and chocolate con churros. That's right, today was a national holiday in Spain- it's called Puente de Pilar and is some kind of nationalist holiday that involves a huge military parade. Maureen and Deirdre learned of this when they heard low-flying planes practicing on Friday and were on the verge of fleeing to the nearest Metro station, convinced that we were being attacked. Those of us who actually have to work on Fridays were unaware of this, but I really can't complain because we just had a 3 day weekend! We got to relax, go out, and hang out with Deirdre, our roomate Emily, and our friend Caitlin, who is also an auxiliar in our program.

Emily and Maureen

Maureen and Caitlin

Yesterday, Maria Carmen, the principal of Maureen's school, took Maureen, Deirdre and me on a day trip to two little towns outside Madrid: Aranjuez, where the king and queen's summer palace is (though the current monarchs don't use it), and Chinchon (it's fun to say), which is a very cute, very old little town with lots of pretty, well-worn architecture and rustic little taverns. Check out the pics:

Aranjuez y Chinchon

Maria Carmen is really nice and generous and has sort of taken Maureen- and consequently me and Deirdre- under her wing and decided to show us lots of different places while we're here. Next weekend, she is taking us to a musical and she has also offered to take us to Salamanca and other places in the future. We're not sure why she's so nice to us but we're not complaining!

We also went to the Reina Sofia museum this weekend- home to Picasso's Guernica among other masterpieces.

Teaching continues to go well. The lesson plan I am using now involves using songs and lyrics to help with listening and teach new vocab and cultural concepts- who knew Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" could be such a useful ESL tool? The songs "Hey There Delilah" and "Viva la Vida" have also been successful, but I've definitely gotten the most mileage out of Sk8er Boi- it brings up lots of vocab and idiomatic phrases such as "punk" and "stuck up their nose," while also teaching valuable lessons about life, love and acceptance. Maureen's teaching is also going well, although she has one troublemaker named Arron, who asks her if she's ever been to the "house of the boys who play" (Playboy Mansion) and according to the other teachers is part gypsy (always a sign of trouble to Spainards).

Anyway, that's pretty much all that's new here. Unfortunately, the news from home is not as good. I am definitely grieving the Red Sox ALDS loss though I am many miles away. I was so excitd that yesterday's game was on at noon EST (6 pm our time) because that meant I might be able to watch it. By the time we got back from our trip, though, it was already the 7th inning, so I had to watch victory slipping away in the form of mlb.com updates. And on top of that the Pats lost last night! Sad times. Oh well, I guess I should start getting into Real Madrid instead.