Livin' it up in Lisboa!

So many updates in order! Last weekend, we moved to our new apartment near Avenida de America. It's much more of a neighborhood than Sol, which is pretty touristy. We're near the metro and supermarkets and kepab houses;). Plus, the place is a lot bigger than the closet we were previously residing in. I will try to post up pictures of the new place soon.

This weekend, we went to Lisbon, Portugal. It's a funny story. A couple of months ago, I was searching for a place to take the GRE Subject test in Literature. I was sure I could take it in Madrid, since they proctor the General test here. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it. I skyped my mom and told her my dilemma and she suggested that I look to see if there are any other countries where the test is available. Sure enough, I could take the test in Lisbon. "Why don't you just make a weekend trip out of it?" she said. When I shot the idea past A, he was adamant that I take the test there.

So, we took a quick flight on over to Lisbon Friday morning. I was a little nervous about traveling to a country where I didn't know the language; even going to India is not that bad because I have dad there to translate. All my fears were eliminated when I learned that the Portuguese understand and speak both Spanish and English. It's very easy to get around the place and simply ask for things in English. Thank God.



Here's a picture of a building outside of our hostel window. Many of the buildings had colored tile on the outside. It seemed odd to me, like a kitchen that was inside-out; however, they were unique and quite beautiful. Even the sidewalk had some decor. They were small cobblestones with different designs. Here's a picture of what I'm taking about:



After we settled into our hostel, we decided to go get lunch. Many of A's students recommended that we try Baccalau. This is a codfish dish with vegetables. We stopped in the nearest place to try this specialty. Here's a picture of our wonderful meal.



It was delicious! The fish melts in your mouth. The onions and cilantro complimented the dish very well. As you can see in the picture, the dish was served in a sea of buttersauce, which stayed in our stomachs all day. We proceeded to explore the center of the city and take lots of pictures.



This is a picture we took on our walk towards the center. There are a lot of hills in the city and a large castle/fortress top of this one. I couldn't help but think of Monty Python when I saw it. This is the Castle of Saint George. We didn't have time to go up and tour it, but it is an awesome sight amidst the city!

We went to the bay and saw this statue across the water. It's a replicate of the Jesus statue in Rio de Janeiro.



The next day, I went to take my test in Lisbon. There were 6 young men there who were taking the GRE Subject test in Math, Chemistry...basically, in important fields. The test proctor assumed we all spoke Portuguese, but I had to request to hear the directions in English. Fortunately, the test was all in English!

After the test, I met up with A and we headed over to the Lisbon Aquarium. We had noticed several ads for the aquarium and in our tourist maps, it stated this was one of the world's largest aquariums. That sealed it. We were going.



The aquarium had this huge tank filled with sharks, fish, and this really big thing called the Sun Fish. When you are on the bottom floor of the tank, you can look into the whole seascape. It seemed 3D. My photo doesn't do the aquarium justice, but I think it's a must-see when you're in Lisbon!



After the aquarium, we strolled around the area and saw the Vasco de Gama bridge. It's pretty famous for its unique shape.



I was really impressed with the architecture in Lisbon. There were a lot of creative edifices. Check out these apartment buildings. Don't they look like fish?



Well, that was our fabulous trip to Lisbon. Once I actually clean the apartment, I will post up pictures! I leave you with this wonderful warning picture from the Lisbon metro. Be careful of the doors or you will get cut in half.

Toledo: The Post of Pictures

Not much happened this week. We've both been busy teaching and such. Fortunately, we're feeling more comfortable with our classes and students!

Last weekend, we were able to venture outside of Madrid and take a day trip to Toledo (no Ohio). We took the glorious Renfe train. It is one of Spain's nice trains that takes you to Toledo in a half an hour. The Renfe also is a commuter train in the city. A and I use this train frequently to commute to our jobs north of town. Here's a picture of the lovely train.



As we departed from Madrid, I took some shots of the scenery. As expected, there were a lot of farms, but very little grass. It surprises me that anything grows out here. If there's one thing I'm missing from the US, it's the trees changing colors and seeing grass!



Toledo is the capital of La Mancha. It's an old city that seems to be built upon a hill. When you're meandering through the downtown streets you can get easily winded from the uphill climb. It is the birthplace of El Greco and Garciliaso de la Vega. The city was prominent during the Spanish Empire and promoted a co-existence of Muslims, Christians and Jews.


Toledo is also famous for their metal work and sword-making. Here's a picture of some armor. The designs on the armor are very intricate.



While we walked through the city, we were able to tour an old synagogue. It was beautiful and it had a lot of Muslim influences in the architecture. The museum had a wealth of information about Judaism as a religion and culture. I would have loved to learn about it, but everything was in Spanish.









One sign that I was able to read was great. Check out this sign at the synagogue. My favorite part is the last thing you are not allowed to do inside.



After the synagogue, we checked out the monastery of San Juan de los Reyes. There was a beautiful courtyard with orange trees and a well. The inside of the church was amazing.









This picture above is from the ceiling. It's pretty neat to see a mixture of symbols and designs that are Jewish and Muslim.



Finally, here's a picture of Puerta del Sol. It looks like a castle doesn't it?



So that is our latest adventure here in Spain. We are now preparing to move into a bigger apartment. After that, we have a weekend trip to Portugal, where I need to take another test and figure out why I can't understand Portuguese.

Mish-mash!

My apologies for the extended delay of my posts. I haven't had much news as of late. A and I mostly plan our lessons and go to work during the week. Our weekends have been filled with drawing, reading and occasional trips to eat kebaps (or kebabs). This last week was a bit frustrating since our electricity kept shorting out. We attempted to explain the situation to our landlady, who believes the problem stems from our stovetop. We came home that evening to find a box on our counter that said we were to use this to cook. It is a portable stove with only one burner.

As my days turn more into camping trips, I try to keep positive and explore different streets in the city. A and I went antique window-shopping last week and came across some beautiful buildings. I wonder what it would be like to live here.













We had an extended weekend because Monday is a puente or holiday. During the weekend, we traveled up to Plaza de Castilla to take some night pictures. There are some great office buildings up here that are constructed at a slant. I will post pictures of those soon. In the meantime, here's a picture of a statue in the area.




And now a short story about tests. This week, I received two new clients for English tutoring. They specifically want to prepare for the TOEFL exam. I hope that I will be able to adequately prepare them because I am a horrible test taker myself. I decided to apply for graduate school for next year, so I will be taking the GRE test here in Madrid. The test will take place at Universidad Europa de Madrid. Even though Madrid is in the name, the silly place is a half hour outside of the city! A and I decided to take the bus and try to find the place before test day. It was really nice to get out of the city and see the landscape. I must note that there was graffiti everywhere we looked. Here's a shot of the mountains outside of Madrid. Absolutely beautiful.



We took the bus to the end of the line and found the university. Our trip was a success, but it was a bit scary out there since it seemed so desolate. I was worried that there wouldn't be another bus to take us home! Fortunately, one showed up a few minutes later. Here is a picture of the university grounds.



Well, I better get back to studying and preparing for class tomorrow! Next week...Toledo!

Barrio de las Letras

What a week! A and I are beginning to work as English teachers in Madrid, and it is quite taxing! Most of our classes are held way up north in offices. I really like it up there; it's much more scenic and contains highways. It kind of reminds me of West Virginia and every now and then I get a little homesick. The only downside is that our commute can take from an hour to an hour and a half! Thank goodness I found a library with some books in English!


This weekend, I decided that I wanted to actively visit the historical sites where some of the greatest Spanish writers once resided. Spain's most famed writers are Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega. In fact, both of their houses are on the same street! Here is a picture of the plaque outside of Cervantes's house.I believe that the plaque states that he lived and died in this house. Coincidentally, he died the same day and year as Shakespeare.

As you meander down this street a bit more, past the posh clothing stores, which I doubt get any business in this terrible economy, you come across Lope de Vega's house. In a time when most of the citizens of Madrid were impoverished, this house really stood out, and it still stands out today. It is quite a big house to have in the downtown area!



Lope de Vega was born in Madrid, but then traveled around Spain. He returned to Madrid and lived in this house for the last couple of decades until his death. It is here that he write Fuenteovejuna, one of his most popular plays. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside of the house, but they did let us take pictures of their garden. Here's a picture of part of the garden and a well, which was rare to have in the 17th century!



Lope de Vega and his family used this garden for food. They would plant their vegetables here.



Anyway, that was our trip down literature lane. For anyone who was bored to tears by this post, I will end with a picture A took while I wasn't looking. At a store across the street from Lope de Vega's house, the owners drew this sign on a whiteboard. A thought it was hilarious and worthy of capturing on film. Hope you enjoy.

Morning Review

It's mid-morning here in Spain and I am attempting to wake up and have my first cup of coffee. As I try to embrace a new day, I thought I would take this time to post up some of the interesting stories and pictures from the last two weeks. To make the post look nicer, I'm going to randomly add some pictures that I haven't been able to post. Some really don't need captions--they're just cool statues on top of buildings.

Coffee...check. Muffin...check. Here we go.


A few Fridays ago, A and I were invited to a friends' new apartment in the north of town. It was the home of some fellow Ttmadrid graduates originally from England. They have been kind enough to help "amend" our English and provide us with charming new phrases like "knickers" and "biscuits." A and I are not the partying type, so we deliberated as to how long we would stay at the party. Our decision was to stay until the cops came. That evening, the possibility proved true. While we were all together at the apartment, the neighbors had complained about the noise and called the police. The next thing I know, I have to leave the apartment and it's only midnight. A Spaniard friend informed me that citizens can call the police for a noise disturbance after 11pm on weekends!

Nonetheless, there was no harm done (thank goodness!) There were so many people in the apartment that the cops didn't stop each one of us and ask for our passport. For A and I, this was an exciting night. In the multitude of years we resided in New York City, we never encountered the "fuzz" if you will. We finally got to don the renegade regalia we had always dreamed of.

Except we didn't really want to be rebels. We want to be comfortable legal citizens! This brings me to my next story in the unending saga of getting me my legal documents in Spain. A is an EU citizen because he has dual citizenship with Italy. This has made his paperwork in Spain work out seamlessly. Since I am married to him, I have to report that I am currently organizing my paperwork. I am technically legal, but the stupid consulates are taking so long to send us our important information. (Long story short, my marriage license may or may not be headed to Italy right now).

My experience with the job hunt has been affected by my current legal status. The Spanish have cracked down on businesses that hire teachers who do not have their legal paperwork in order. It used to be much easier for Americans to come into the country and find work. Nowadays, it proves challenging. And though I am on my way to obtaining all the necessary documents, many agencies inform me that they can't hire me until I have the papers in hand.

Last week, I received a call from one of those agencies. They were frantic to find an English teacher to start that day teaching a one-to-one class. They wanted to know if I had my paperwork in order yet (the Spanish don't exactly understand the slowness of their own country). The agency offered to help me get my social security that day if I brought all the documents I already had. Well, I jumped at the chance and the next thing I know, A and I are walking to the Ministry of Work with one of the agency employees who speaks very little English. I just nodded the entire time we walked over. Once we got to the office, they saw us, gave me a paper and we were done. They didn't even look at our marriage license to make sure the names were correct!

I began to teach the one-to-one class, but then the agency contacted me again, wondering if I had finished my legal paperwork. Of course I hadn't, but I was sure that they knew why. After a week and 3 teaching days, they had to let me go. They needed me to have another identification document, which I cannot get yet. I was pretty annoyed at them for their unorganized workstyle, but I accepted this as a positive point. I wasn't sure if I would have been happy working with them anyway.

Even though I have lost my first job, I still have a lot of teaching hours. Next week, I begin teaching 11 hours worth of classes! This means I need to start making some lesson plans this weekend!

Last Sunday marked our first 3 months being married. Honestly, all the adjusting, moving and transitions has made this time fly by. It was funny that while we were out that weekend, we stumbled upon a couple who had just gotten married and were having pictures taken. I decided to take a picture as well...

In honor of our 3 months of marriage, we decided to finally go out and have some paella. We found a little restaurant around the street from where we live. If you got two paellas, you got a free pitcher of sangria. Bon appetite!

Museums and mayhem!

Now that we have internet in our apartment, it's time to sort out our photos and let you in on how we are doing. We moved to Sol where we are walking distance from a plethora of museums, parks and famous, touristy places. Right after we moved into our new apartment, we headed on over to the Reina Sofia, a modern art gallery with some great (and some real odd) masterpieces. This is a picture of the outside of the building.

The Reina Sofia is best known for its collection of surrealist paintings and, of course, Picasso's Guernica. This painting is huge. There's always a large group taking pictures and admiring it. When you see it in person, it's much more powerful. Here's the best shot I could get of the painting. It's so big, I had a hard time trying to get the full picture, especially without random people in it. I really liked this museum. It has this lovely courtyard with outside sculptures. Here's a shot from the hallway.

We decided to walk farther down the street and looked into this train station. This might be the train station that A and I have to take when we travel to other parts of Spain. Anyway, when you enter the station, it's like a giant terrarium. All these plants in the center of the place.

As we were walking inside the station, we noticed there was a small pond where a lot of Spaniards had gathered to look. When we come up, we noticed that there were hundreds of turtles in this pond! Other than the fact that it smelled terrible, it was really neat!

That's all for right now. I have more to share, but we have to run over to mass at 7:30. We believe that Lope de Vega, a famous Spanish playwright, is buried in this church. We're going to find out and tell the 5 people we know who may be interested in that piece of information...

And we're back!

Hello all!

So sorry that we haven't posted in ages! It's been a mess of transitioning and settling into Spain.

The first news is that we graduated and received our TEFL certificates! Now we can teach English! Right after our graduation and farewell party, A and I moved to Sol. We are now in a tiny apartment where you can just see Puerta del Sol (if you strain your neck to the right).

The area is a complete change from Cuarto Caminos. Every time we leave the apartment, we are bombarded by people outside. It's a lot like living in Times Square. It also feels like everything takes so long to do because there are so many slow people walking ahead of you. At the moment, they are renovating Puerta del Sol. This means that at 8:30 every morning, you can hear constant jack hammers for the entire day. Not my cup of tea. Fortunately, they have made a lot of progress and seem to be finishing up.

A and I are currently in the middle of finalizing job opportunities. Since we are freelance, this means we are interviewing all over the city and trying to get job prospects where ever possible. A has already begun teaching a class in the north of town. I hope to set up hours this week.

Anyway, that's all for now. We have been pretty boring trying to stay home and save money. Now that our internet is hooked up, I will post pictures soon!