Making Spain Awkward... one thumbs up at a time

I have to start this post off with one word: Cockroaches. As in yes, we have cockroaches in our bathroom. Last weekend, I was the first to stumble upon a cockroach as it scampered out of the tub. Needless to say, I ran screaming out of the bathroom to get away from it. Rachel and I returned only seconds later armed with sturdy shoes as weapons for a showdown. The cockroach at this point was long gone. Over the next few days, as my account of the cockroach became more and more exaggerated (I swear it was 10 inches long!), my roommates started to think that I was making it up. Until we heard a familiar scream coming from the bathroom… Carmen had found another cockroach. This time she saw it escape through a crack between the tub and the tile wall, where we figure that more are probably hiding. Later that night, Rachel also had her first sighting and was able to corner and kill one while another ran off. We finally decided it was time to take action, so we bought some spray and roach traps. After spraying all around the tub, I entered the bathroom to find a seemingly dead cockroach belly up on the floor. Chuckling to myself, while thinking “Briana: 1, Cockroaches: 0,” this beast had the last laugh by coming back to life in my hand and squirming around. Touché my friend.

On a non-insect related note, this week has been great and frustrating at the same time. I’m realizing more and more how messed up the Spanish education system is as these kid continue to not learn anything. They talk throughout class, are unresponsive when you ask questions, and keep talking even if the teacher is in their face screaming at them - which happens several times a class. A few times a week I take a group of 5-7 older students for a discussion section, in which it is just me and the students. The success of these sessions ranges widely, mostly due to how cooperative the students are. This week, I had a really great session with the 6^th graders who all listened and participated. My 5^th graders presented more of a challenge. They talked in Spanish the whole time, would not listen to others’ answers, and jumped around the room. Even though they are in the 5^th grade and have had 5 years of English classes, they are either unable or unwilling to answer the most basic questions. I asked one boy, whose twin brother Alejandro is in the same class, if he had any brothers, to which he responded no. Alejandro was sitting right across from him at this point. So I asked again, do you have any brothers? He responded no. So then I asked, Who is Alejandro? He responded, in Spanish, Alejandro es mi hermano (my brother). I honestly don’t know if these kids are just fucking with me, or if they really don’t know the meaning of the word brother.

Besides this one frustrating day, school has been better in a lot of ways. It really depends a lot on the class I am with – some classes are so excited to see me and start clapping and yelling HELLO BRIANA! when I walk in the door. Others couldn’t care less that I am there. The latter are also the classes that can’t speak or understand English and don’t want to try. The classes that do try and do know at least a little English are the ones that are getting me through. Friday, for example, one of my favorite students, Enrique, came up to me with a regalito (gift). He remembered from weeks ago that my favorite color was purple, so he gave me a purple bracelet, saying “your favorite color it’s pur-play. This gift is pur-play”. So adorable.

Friday afternoon we met up with a few girls from our program to go wedding dress shopping with Laura! We met at San Salvador, had a mid-afternoon drink, and then headed down the street to one of Sevilla’s many tiendas de novia. After finding some success, we headed to one of Rachel and my favorites, Cien Montaditos, for dinner. Saturday, we were invited to Antonia’s for lunch where she was having a big lunch party with about 14 Spaniards. The Cruzcampo and tinto were flowing, making it a kind of funny and confusing situation. I never realized how exhausting it is trying to keep up with a conversation in Spanish, but it definitely can be when you have that many people energetically talking and hand gesturing all at once.

Saturday night, we had a surprise party for Carmen’s friend Carlos at his favorite restaurant, Foster’s Hollywood (it’s an American restaurant!). He thought that he was just going out to dinner with his girlfriend Patri, and looked pretty shocked to see us all sitting there waiting for him. After a long dinner with cake, presents, and a few rounds of cumpleaños feliz, we headed to a club where we were supposedly on the list to get in for free. The problem, however, seemed to be that Rachel and I had American IDs… because of this we all had to pay a euro to get in. Discrimination at its best, huh? At least we were assured that we were probably the only Americans there, making it a far cry from Buddha. Although it was mostly Spanish music and techno, some musical highlights of the night included the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song and Who let the dogs out. What decade are we living in? Rachel and I being the americanas that we are taught our friends American awkwardness at its best – the double thumbs up photo pose. We are making Spain awkward… one thumbs up at a time.