Turkey success

The turkey dinner was a great success. Most of us arrived at Rachael´s before 9pm hoping to eat around 10pm. The turkey however took slightly longer than expected so we had extra time to catch up with each other and enjoy all of the bubbly beverages we had brought over to celebrate. We ended up eating in true Spanish style around midnight. There were just under 20 people in attendance. It was such a treat to have everyone there, especially Rachael´s roommates who were celebrating Thanksgiving for the first time. Rachael prepared a delicious turkey with gravy, sweet potatoes, rice, green beans and salad.

Above: Bill cutting the turkey
Above: the whole crew eating dinner.

I spy Madrid

Above: By a fountain in Retiro Park. I LOVE fountains!
Above: On gran via
Above: In front of the Palacio Real

Teatro Cervantes in a different light

Last night "C" took me to Teatro Cervantes to watch her boyfriend play with one of his bands. Obviously I was excited to go see live music again and I dont think I will ever pass up the chance to see a performance at the Teatro Cervantes. They were playing there to benefit an organization that researches schizophrenia. It was really fun and very informal. After his band finished another band went on and the lead singer spoke to the audience in the balcony and encouraged them to come downstairs and fill up the empty seats. No one hesitated. In fact practically everyone except for "C" and I made a b-line for the stairs to get closer seats. I could not believe it. It was a very nice gesture on the artists part, but sadly for the eager audience members, they were turned away by the theater staff and had to come back up to their original spots. There was tons of dancing in the aisle ways and it felt more like a concert in a park than a fancy indoor theater. Very refreshing!

XMAS Lottery

There has been a lot of talk around school recently about the upcoming "Christmas Lottery." It is a huge event here and not cheap to participate. At 20euro a pop you can purchase your ticket and hope to be one of the lucky winners. Why it is 20euro instead of just $1 like in New York I am not sure...but if I win you´ll definitely tbe able to tell-most likely by the termination of my blog and my move to the Caribbean.

Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Malaga crew! The 4 of us are lucky to have several visitors from the United States meet us on Thursday in Madrid for a big celebration at Rachaels flat. It goes without saying that ham is the meat of choice in Spain, so I am extremely excited and interested to see how our turkey dinner will work out. Miss you all at home and see you so so soon!

Side Hustle...CHECK

I hustled and bustled and I finally got a side hustle! The first month I was here I browsed through Loquo and saw an ad that struck my fancy. A woman was looking for experienced English teachers to become tutors. I sent her an email and since my schedule was pretty hectic for a few weeks we had not been able to get a timetable worked out until last week. She acts as my "agent" and finds people for me to tutor through the English academy she works for. So far I have two clients and one on the way.

The TEFL course that I took over the summer has really come in handy. I went over most of the modules and used several of them to help plan my lessons. The women that I tutor have different levels of English. One has a lot of trouble with grammar and pronunciation especially with words ending in "-ed." I found this blog called esl-tutor which has been a life saver. The other woman I tutor reads and writes very well, but wishes to improve her conversational skills. This website is excellent for conversation topics. I highly reccomend both of them for esl teaching and tutoring!

Happy __________

I created my own Thanksgiving story book for my lessons this week. I printed out tons of pictures (turkeys, pilgrims, indians, feasts, and the Thankgiving Day parade) and wrote out a story about where Thanksgiving comes from and how we celebrate it today. My roommates gave me weird looks all weekend as I sat in the common room coloring the feathers of turkeys and Mayflower ships meticulously. After reading the story to my third grade students and quizzing them on some important Thanksgiving facts, I had one last question and it was to evoke the response, "Happy Thanksgiving." I said, "okay so for this holiday, what would you say to wish someone a happy one...kind of like 'feliz navidad...' or 'feliz pasuca...' " Then they all gave me the, "ohhhh I know what you mean" face, and in unison started singing, "happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..." It was hilarious. The other teacher and I completely cracked up and I almost didn't care that they completely forgot the TITLE of the lesson written in huge letters on the blackboard: THANKSGIVING.