Filmoteca: One of my pastimes in Albacete

One of my biggest issues with Spanish culture is the complete lack of original version films at the local movie theaters. They are all dubbed with very fake-sounding, deep Spaniard Spanish voices. So, unless I'm in a big city like Madrid or Barcelona, there is no possible way to watch a movie in English.

My only option is to visit the old movie theater in the main square of the city. The filmoteca is located in the Cine Capitol, a movie theater built in the 1930s.  Over a decade ago it was transformed in what we call now the filmoteca and plays all films in original version with Spanish subtitles. Whether the film is French, American or Italian, it is heard in the real language.

Cine Capitol many, many years ago

The entrance to the theater and where they display their current showings

 While in regular movie theaters tickets cost between 7 - 9€, the filmoteca is a steal at 1.5 - 2€. The only drawback is that new releases are not shown; mostly old, classic films but some recent ones that were in theaters a year or two ago. 

At the end of each month the theater releases its program for the following month, usually containing a theme. For example in November they are paying a tribute to Marilyn Monroe and showing a few of the films she starred in. Some past themes include tributes to famous directos or to a particular country.

Last night I went with a friend to watch The Seven Year Itch, one of  Marilyn Monroe's most famous films. Because snacks are not sold in this theater, I snuck in a protein bar but other times I’ve brought in entire bags of chips and candy to share with others.

Marilyn Monroe in The Seven-Year Itch

Iconic scene from the film

Sometimes I go with one friend and some films we end up being 12 people. It's a nice option to have on any night of the week and for 1.5€ it’s the cheapest thing to do in this city that doesn’t include drinking.

Movie-goers waiting in line outside the theater

Pero que haces aquí?!

Whenever I meet new people here they're curious to find out why an American girl from Miami, FL is living in this small Spanish city.

So what exactly brought me to Albacete?

Well over two years ago in my first blog entry I wrote about the scholarship/grant I had applied for to teach English in the bilingual sections of public schools in Spain. That government-funded program sent me to a secondary school (here it's 7th - 12th grade) in Albacete, and I was there for two years working with the teachers and 7^th – 9^th grade students.

The job was pretty easy. It consisted of working 12-13 hours a week in the bilingual classrooms. Each grade takes English and in addition to that they also take three subjects taught in English. Some classes I worked in were Natural Science, Art and Biology.

In English class we usually played games and did interactive activities where the students were forced to speak and practice their English. Some days I gave a presentation about my life or American culture topics such as Thanksgiving Day, Black History month and High School life to name a few. The students were usually curious about what life in the States really is.

The other hours were dedicated to helping the teachers of other subjects. Depending on the teacher and the subject my involvement in the class differed. In art for example, we paid extra attention to improving the students’ pronunciation of the vocabulary they were learning. I would walk around and ask the students to explain in their own words what assignment they were working on. But in one of the science classes I was in charge of teaching the lesson. Sometimes it involved a worksheet and some exercises related to what they were studying. Here we would practice reading aloud, reading comprehension and most of all practicing their speaking skills. If at any moment I wasn’t sure about what to ask or where to take the lesson, the teacher sat in the back and helped me lead the class.

On my last day at IES Universidad Laboral

One of my students participating in a Thanksgiving Day activity
(I would like to post more pictures of me in the classroom but in Spain it's illegal to post pictures of minors) 

Because the job consisted of working for a few hours in the mornings I had plenty of extra time to give private classes. Some were with my own students at the high school while others were with teenagers whose mom or dad got my number from some other mom or dad. By the second year I was refusing new students every other week because I simply didn’t have the time to give more classes.

Most of the students in the bilingual section understand a lot of what I’m saying and can actually carry on a conversation in English. Some days I visited English classes in the non-bilingual sections and I saw for myself the impact the bilingual section and native speakers have on the students. In the other classes the students are rarely forced to speak English. Most of the curriculum consists of grammar and rephrasing. Basically a student can translate a whole piece of text but were incapable of having a conversation about what they did that past weekend.

this is a joke describing how some English-learning students can be

I was lucky to be in the same school both years. This allowed me to get to know the teachers and especially the students and watch them improve their English. I got the chance to work alongside some really great teachers who really love what they do.

Unfortunately, by the end of my second year the government had announced that they intended to cut the program for the following year due to the budget cuts in the education sector.

banners made by my seventh graders

A sign made by a student on the last day of my first year at the school

I didn’t want to end my work in teaching ESL so I’ve decided to do my Masters in English in Secondary schools. This will allow me to work in semi-private and public schools (if I take the state exam called the oposición). The masters lasts one year and consists of the first semester taking classes and the second semester interning at a public school for a few months and then presenting a final project.  I’m halfway done with my classes and eager to begin the ones that pertain to my specialty, English.

"Albacete, the best city in the world."

The title for this entry is a quote from one of my good and first Albaceteño friends, Julian. Ironically though, he said it while eating lunch at Potbelly’s (or was it Poboys?) in Tallahassee over five years ago before I had ever even visited Albacete. I laughed at his comment because I had never heard anything about this Spanish city but for some reason the comment stuck with me after all these years.

Albacete is the name of the province and capital city where I live in Spain. It’s located in one of the country’s largest autonomous communities, Castilla La Mancha. The region is best known for it’s plain landscapes, being the setting for Miguel de Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote and it’s Manchego cheese.

Albacete capital has a population of about 170,000 and is the most populous city in the region, size-wise though; it’s pretty darn small. I can walk from one end to the other in just under 40 minutes. Most people live in apartment buildings that are built one next to the other but there are houses in the outer part of the city called chalets.

I would describe the people here as middle-class society and being extremely social, hospitable and friendly people.

Although being one of the lesser-known capital cities in Spain, it offers most of the main necessities any city needs such as shopping malls, movie theaters, a variety of shops, a train station and not one but three McDonalds.

I can’t talk about Albacete and not mention la feria, the annual fair that takes place September 7^th – 17^th. This fair has beginnings dating back to three centuries ago. In fact the city celebrated its tercentennial fair in 2010. That’s over 300 ferias! For ten days the city takes a break from the daily routine of work and school and dedicates a good chunk of the day (or night in my case) spending it at the recinto ferial or fairgrounds to eat, drink and meet up with friends.

Over all, Albacete is a very comfortable city to live in and has most of the things I could ask for in a small city. I would like to give you a warm welcome to the place I now call home.

Restaurants in Barcelona: Wushu

Pictures by Me

There are few places in Barcelona that carry the important three Bs. Those Bs being Spanish ofcourse: bueno, bonito and barato. In other words, good, pretty and cheap. Wushu, an Asian-fusion restaurant, is conveniently located on Avenida Marqués de l´Argentera right on the edge of Borne and Barceloneta neighborhoods.

Sure there are places in Barcelona one can eat decent food but at what price? Luckily, today there are more and more trendy looking restaurants, with okay food and not too expensive. I wouldn't go as far as calling many of them cheap, however.

Wushu, on the other hand, is cheap. For 12€, the lunch menu provides a three-course meal including a drink and a coffee or tea. I always start with the Asian salad, a nice mixture of flavors and textures that cleanse the palette. Then, the second course might vary by week or month. But there is usually a chicken, meal, vegetarian and seafood dish. Even if there is no room for dessert, I manage to find space. It's hard to resist any one of their homemade creations. Some of the past have been small individual portions of: strawberry cheescake, apple-crumble, carrot cake with icecream and chocolate mousse. Although not on the lunch menu, every now and then I opt for the brownie with peanut-flavored ice cream.

Food might be the number one thing to consider when choosing a restaurant, but I prefer the dining experience overall.

Because servers in Spain are paid on a wage based on salary and not tips like in the US, they’re minimally motivated to give satisfactory service. But the ladies at Wushu are the opposite. They always try to squeeze me into a table, check back on their guests and once even brought me milk and a napkin to help me when I got chili-pepper in my eye.

I’ve been a regular at Wushu since my first time visiting back in October 2009. Ever since then a week doesn’t pass by that I don’t come here for lunch with the adoptive brothers or with others. Every person I have brought along gets hooked to the place and sooner or later revisits on their own.

Website

Reviews

The Flying Dutchmen: My Adoptive Family in Barcelona

Living abroad, even in a cosmopolitan city like Barcelona, comes with a few setbacks. There are just some things that are completely irreplaceable. I’ve yet to find a bar or bartender who can make a mojito like the one at home. Whenever I make a trip to the US, I come back stocked with all my favorite bath products. But what can you do when what you miss most is the feeling of having your family near you?

I was lucky enough to have found adoptive parents while living in Italy. Karin, an old childhood friend of my dad was married to a French diplomat and had been living in Rome for a few years. They took me in as their adoptive daughter for most of my stay in the Eternal City. Whether it was a home-cooked meal or a Sunday drive out to the countryside, having them close gave me the comfort of having family nearby. I was sad to say goodbye after leaving, but another adoptive family was waiting for me in Barcelona.

Where can one even begin to explain the crazy Dutchmen?

Being a petite girl at only 5’3, I stand a good 12 or 13 inches below my adoptive brothers. It’s their half-Dutch-half-Spanish background that makes them stand out like sore thumbs in Barcelona among the shorter, thinner and dark-haired Catalans. But it’s heart and hospitality, not their size, that makes Max and Jose Casbas bigger than all the Spaniards in my life.

The brothers have always made my stay in Barcelona feel like home since my first time visiting the city in 2002. Whether I visited alone for a weekend, with friends or the entire Pimentel family either Max or Jose welcome us into their homes.

But how in the world did a 23-year-old enter the family of the thirty-something brothers?

Over a decade has passed since since the Casbas brothers entered the Pimentels’ circle. While my dad worked in a multi-national corporation he was in charge of Max’s division overseas in Holland. They hit it off right away. When Mr. Leonardo Pimentel would visit Amsterdam for work, it was Max showing him and my mom around. Max also traveled often to Venezuela for business trips and my dad would show him around over there. Slowly, the Pimentels met the entire Casbas clan: Jose and Ana.

Since 2005 all three brothers moved from Amsterdam to Barcelona and since last year their parents retired just a 15-minute drive outside the city.

Today, Max and Jose have their own business and work together in the Borne neighborhood.

Weekly Lunches with the Brothers

It’s hard to remember the first of my weekly lunches with the brothers. The tradition began somewhere in the first weeks of living in Barcelona. My parents had just left and either
Max and Jose would BBM me asking if I would be able to make it to lunch with them. Most days I was not in their part of town until the afternoon for class. Other days I woke up way past noon and knew it’d be impossible to make it on time.

It has to be mentioned that they eat lunch everyday promptly at 13:00 or 13:30, depending at what restaurant we eat at. If I am not ringing their office’s doorbell by 12:59 I can expect my BlackBerry to start vibrating with messages asking where I am. My tardiness got to the point where I found myself jogging to their office from the nearest metro stop and getting to lunch all sweaty. Running on Latin time is no excuse for these hungry men.

Time passed and weekly lunches turned into home-cooked meals.

Every now and then I get an invitation on a Saturday for a Mexican or Thai feast at Max’s apartment. The meal might consist of Max, Jose, Ana, their significant others, the parents...and me! Making me part of their close-nit family keeps the feeling of my far-away family nearby.

Some days, when passing through the neighborhood on my way to class, I’ll stop by their office just to catch up. We usually end up at Adriatico, the bar right underneath their office, for a quick cortado and people watching until we all must continue with our daily duties.

Some of our favorite places to eat:
-Wushu
-Salero
-Adriatico

the beginning of an era

Since college graduation

In March 2009 I moved to Rome with the intention of staying six months in order to improve my Italian. It didn't take me long to realize I would not be returning to the States any time soon. The six months in Rome flew by. Before I knew it, I was on a plane back to Florida on the day before my 23rd birthday. Spending time at home was great, especially because I knew I'd be returning to Europe a few weeks later.

I moved to Barcelona in October of that year to do a Masters in Graphic Design. Although I never studied Graphic Design in college, it remained a hidden interest of mine since I took visual design courses two years prior. The Masters lasted until July and as far as I was concerned I'd go back to Weston, FL to get back to my real life. Once again in Europe I could not even think about what my life would be like if I was forced to return home. I needed a way to stay in Spain, but not being European, finding a job would be difficult.

Finding a way to live and work in Spain

Just before going home for the winter holidays I remembered that the Ministry of Education of Spain sponsored a program to bring Americans to help students learn English. It took me about 1.7 seconds of Googling to find out that applications for the 2010-2011 school year had just opened up the week before. I read all the information to see if it was something I'd be qualified and interested to do.

Program requirements:

• hold a U.S. or Canadian passport
• be a native English speaker
• be in your junior or senior year of college or graduated with a diploma
• have an intermediate level of Spanish

Background info:

• mid-September to mid-June
• 700 Euros/month
• 12 to 16-hour work weeks
• school holidays off

What the job entails

Basically the job is to work with the teachers in bilingual public schools and help the students out with English. The students are anywhere from kindergardners to high school students. The grantee(me) also plans activities with the teachers in order to make learning English more effective and interesting. English in education is fairly new. Today, most students are learning English since their first years in school. Most of my Spanish friends in their mid-twenties didn't take up the language until their last years in high school. They might be able to read a text and coprehend it, but to carry on a conversation is rare. In most of these cases it's because the teachers are usually Spaniards who only teach reading and writing , but lack pronounciation and conversation skills. (Application for 2011-2012 school year)

I fulfilled all the requirements so it couldn't hurt to just apply. It didn't hurt at all but it was a little tedious. The process involved signing up on-line, creating your CV, writing a short essay and sending a bunch of legal documents. Luckily, I had kept copies of most of the needed documents from the Spanish Visa application. Three weeks passed from the moment of signing up to when I got my confirmation that they had successfully received all the paperwork. I was application number 265. My odds were almost guarenteed. There were around 1,200 spots available and were given on a first-come-first-serve basis. On May 12th 2010, I got the e-mail I was longing for, my acceptance to be an Auxiliar de Conversacion in Castilla-La Mancha.