Problem Solving

I have already shared the popular saying "so miz" on my blog, but last night can be described by another favorite phrase, particularly that of my friend Clay: "rock bottom." "Rock bottom" is used amongst my friends and I when you are pretty positive nothing else in your life could go wrong. You have reached the worse point (of the hour/day/week/month). "Rock bottom" can be used as a noun or adjective. Here is the "rock bottom" list of things that were wrong with my apartment by 10pm last night:

1. I have been eating out for every meal because there is no room in the fridge for me to put groceries
2. My closet and chair have been broken since I moved in so I have been living out of a suitcase for over a week
3. My i-pod will not upload new songs from i-tunes or charge for that matter or upgrade to the newest version of i-tunes so I cannot download any tv shows
4. I cannot find a fan in all of Málaga so it is very hard to go to sleep
5. There is a mysterious leak coming from the toilet area in bathroom two
6. The shower-head in bathroom 2 broke so we can no longer use that to shower
7. I finally decided to buy pasta and keep it on a shelf since there was room there and after I cooked I realized there was no hot water in the kitchen to wash any of the silverware and plates (they have been using cold water)
8. Bathroom 1 is next to the kitchen and therefore does not have hot water either

I sent an email to my friend Vitor, who works as an intern in the EPS agency, about all of these issues. Here is the copy of an email I got midday from him:

Hey, I spoke to my boss and the bathroom that has hot water has an electric shower - the other bathroom has a gas powered one, and I guess the kitchen sink is powered by gas too. You'll need to get the gas canister replaced before you can have the hot water.... I wouldn't recommend lighting a flame near the gas though haha.

Also they said that the electric shower will break if it is used by too many people every day because the motor is pretty small... so one of you guys needs to come down here to talk about that.

The number to call for gas is, 952306339, they normally bring it the next day, but one of you would need to be there to take the gas and pay for it.

Hope that helps, let me know if you need anything...

At 8pm right now here are the solutions I have found to the following issues:

1. There is now room for my groceries in the fridge and I am going to eat pasta with vegetables tonight!
2. I decided to take initiative and buy a free standing closet at Corte Ingles ( it was 50% off! they must have known I was having a rough week) so I can finally unpack and feel comfortable here. Also EPS says I can buy myself a new chair and they will pay me back for it!
3. Emily lent me her apple adaptor ( I had been using a regular one). I got it to charge if I plugged the i-pod directly into the outlet but not when I tried to plug it into my computer to get my new songs. I decided to try plugging my computer directly into the wall instead of into an extension cord and then plug my i-pod in and now I am able to upload my new music and charge it! Sounds kind of strange, but it works.
4. I went into a "chino" shop ( they are the little Chinese stores all over the city that sell literally everyhting you could possibly need) in Torre del Mar and bought their last fan! It makes noise when I turn it out but better than nothing.
5. My roommate Lee realized the leak is coming from this area that is connected to the shower and it probably needs to be drained somehow....
6. After going to the EPS office today to talk to them about all the problems the director agreed to call someone to come Thursday to fix the broken shower-head.
7. The director also told me that I might need to call to have the gas canister replaced to make the hot water work in the kitchen and bathroom 1, but the people who live downstairs (Emily's roommates) have been here for a while and since I know we have a gas canister I am going to ask them to help me figure out how to make it work.
8. I took a cold shower last night and will do it again tonight. I kind of feel like I am camping but I know we will have hot water soon!

Malagueta

In case you have forgotten what sand looks like I made a little video this past weekend at the beach.

Commuting

I think it's fair to say that the thought of commuting doesn't excite most people. I have had to commute to school/work for most of my life. I grew up on the Upper West Side and took the bus crosstown 86th street to the Upper East Side every day to school and back. It was usually 30 minutes. My dad moved downtown to Murrary Hill when I was 11 so I learned to take the #1 train and then the shuttle to grand central. So while some of my friends still don't know the names of the avenues on the west side I was easily navigating uptown, midtown, and union square by age 12. I went to college in Nashville, so I didn't commute but home was definitely not close by. Summer internships were in midtown so that was a hot underground treck back and forth every day. When I found out I was going to be teaching in Torre Del Mar, a small beach East of Málaga my first question was, "how far is the commute from Málaga?" The commute is generally 45-55minutes there and possibly (but that means never) 25minutes on the way back if you get a direct bus. Some of my friends who were placed to teach in Torre del Mar or Velez-Malaga (near Torre) thought "no way do I want to make an hour commute" and they now live in Torre. Even though I may regret saying this later, so far I love my commute. I have always liked taking buses even though some people I know swear that they will never use one. I think it is a great way to get to know your surroundings. It is also a good time for self-reflection, reading, writing, and since my commute is along the Mediterranean there is really nothing to complain about. The picture above I took this morning of the sunrise (don't mind the random man that made it into the pic).

"Swimming with no direction"

This morning at work Jenny and I had a nice talk with the music teacher, "Chauny." Many Spaniards know English very well, but are nervous to speak and will therefore only speak to you in Spanish. I have definitely experienced this, but "Chauny" is great because it is clear she does not care if she makes mistakes with her grammar or vocabulary, she wants to practice. She has been helping to design our schedule along with several other teachers in the school. Today she explained that as "auxiliaries de conversación" aside from teaching we will also help the teachers to design the curriculum and to translate what they already have into English if they have not done so already.

Chauny also shed light on our role in the school (we are employed by the Junta de Andalucia and therefore a "project" of theirs). While she thinks the concept is very important she told us that she does not like the way the project is being carried out. She thinks it is extremely disorganized or like, "swimming with no direction." She said that when CEIP Blas Infante volunteered to have this program in their school the Junta said they would give them all new computers and paper etc. However, this has not happened yet. Since it is a fairly new program at CEIP Blas Infante (only three years), I knew there were definitely going to be some organizational challenges and obstacles. I told Chauny that we understand and it will be our job to prepare for anything, be flexible and take initiative. A big part of our position is to be creative. I consider this to be one of my strengths so I am actually looking forward something coming up last minute and figuring out a way to improvise.

By 2012 all schools in Andalucia will have "auxiliares de conversación."

weather.com

Weather.com is for the most part accurate in the US, but when I plug in "Malaga" it gives me basically opposite weather information. Earlier this week it said it was going to be “heavy rain” for two days. I wore jeans and brought an umbrella in my bag with me all day but it ended up being gorgeous all day long! I am in desperate need of a european weather.com. eltiempo.com???? Today is so beautiful. Greg, Clay, and I are going to the beach (at 5pm). For some reason the weather gets better as the day goes on and the sun doesn’t set until much later. Right now on weather.com it says its going to be "mostly sunny" in the 80s and high 70s for the next ten days. I hope that's right!

Project "Comenius"

Project "Comenius" is something that C.E.I.P Blas Infante is working on implementing into their program. They are working with schools in five other countries in Europe, (one is the Czech Republic) to orchestrate a "pen-pal" sort of system. The students allowed to participate are ages 6-11. The schools must apply for the project using a "preparatory visit grant." The goal of the project is to talk about traidtions, festivals, and holidays in each country so that children know more about their European neighbors. Although we did not learn much about this project I think it is such a great idea and I am really looking forward to helping out with it and possibly even giving them contacts in the US so that they can become pen-pals with Americans.

C.E.I.P Blas Infante

Today was my first day of work. C.E.I.P stands for Colegio de Educación Infantil y Primaria. I got to work early so I walked down to the beach to watch the sun rise over the Mediteranean. It was gorgeous. I met Jenny, the other girl working in the school as an "auxiliar de conversación" (that is our official title in the school). She is from Britain choosing to do her year abroad teaching. We did not do much the first day besides walk around the school and get introduced to everyone. There were lots of kisses and hugs and I felt very welcomed. The kids are very cute and I found out I will be working with students ages 6-12. I will have a period with each grade. Each grade is divided into "A" and "B" and I will be working with "A." Each year is given a number for example, the 6yr olds = 1; the 7yr olds= 2; the 8yr olds= 3 etc. We were not able to finalize the schedule because there was a bit of a dispute over whose classroom we would be helping out in so I will know by Monday when and what classes I am teaching. I am really excited to get to know the students and watch their progress over the year.