A picture...

... is worth a thousand words. I'll save myself the typing and let you all interpret this GREAT drawing from one of my second graders. :) This is part of a book of pictures they put together as a good bye present for me.

(I finished at the school last Thursday.)

I love Andalucia!

So, I realize it's a commercial, but it's just too good. I've been meaning to put this on the blog for some time now. It's an add for the local beer here in Sevilla: Cruzcampo, and it's bursting with Andalusian pride. I think it came out around Christmas, and for some reason it's no longer on TV; however in the few weeks that it was running, EVERYBODY was talking about it. Honestly, the first time I saw it, it brought tears to my eyes and I found myself swelling with pride for my newly adopted home.

It's in Spanish, but I think the images speak for themselves.

Enjoy. :)

Nuestra Señora de la Fuensanta

My weekly bike exploration took me to the nearby town of Corcoya today. The patron of Corcoya, and apparently the entire region, is the Virgen of Fuensanta. I knew that she had an ermita in Corcoya because last year my friend told me that for the romeria in Corcoya a lot of people from La Roda make the pilgrimage (walking) to visit her in the ermita. However, I had never been.

The chapel is really beautiful, at least outside. It was closed so I didn't get a chance to see the interior. The building is from the 17 century; although the discovery of the Virgen de la Fuensanta, according to legend, was somewhere around 1384.

Another interesting feature of the ermita and its surroundings are the "cuevas del Tempranillo". The ermita de la Fuensanta is one of the stops on the "Ruta del Tempranillo". Until today, I thought that this ruta was some kind of wine tour: tempranillo is a common wine grape here in Spain, though I'm not very knowledgeable in viticulture and they may not even grow around here.

In any case, today I discovered that the so called "Ruta del Tempranillo" is named for Jose Maria Hinojosa alias "El Tempranillo". During a romeria he got into a knife fight over a woman and ended up killing the other man. From that day on he was running from the law; but since Andalucia in those times was a dangerous place to travel alone, he rounded up some men and headed a group of bandoleros.

He and his bandoleros became well known for robbing wealthy travelers and imposing fees on the stages using the roads in his area. People called him the King of Sierra Morena (the mountains in this area). There was even an award of six thousand reales for his capture: dead or alive. However, he could not be caught and legend has it that he became a sort of Andalusian Robbin Hood--famous for stealing from the wealthy and giving to the poor.

His connection to the ermita comes from his supposed faith in the Virgen de la Fuensanta. He used to visit the ermita often and would sleep in the little caves nearby so no one would know he was there. This was supposedly a safe haven for him, where he could get some peace and quiet from his life on the run. It was also at this chapel where finally in 1832, King Fernando VII officially pardoned him and he and his men became law enforcement in the local sierra.

(Above are the caves)

Only a year after his pardon, on a mission to capture a group of thieves, he was mortally wounded (a gunshot) and died in the nearby town of Alameda.

Interesting, huh? I had no idea...all this time, I've seen the signs for the "Ruta del Tempranillo" and thought I needed to get out there and do some wine tasting! Oops! I guess you learn something new every day.

A Biologist's Mother's Day Song

Thank you, Leah for showing me this awesome song! I love it! This one is for all the moms out there--especially mine. :)

I love you!

The Final Showdown

First I think I should just point out, since it is pertinent, that I am so glad spell check exists. I think it's quite possible that without the help of Google's red squiggles under my mistakes, I would be far too self-conscious to write with any authority on today's Spelling Bee final! :)

I'll get right to the meat of my post since I'm just to excited to tell a good story at the moment.

The Bee was a GREAT (that's G-R-E-A-T) success! I am so proud of the kids at school. They all worked so hard; honestly, when I think about it I tear up. I think part of it is my own sympathy because I HATED spelling with a passion growing up (I hated most things I wasn't good at growing up...hmmm). And as a learner of a second language I can also appreciate just how hard it is to make sense of words and letters and sounds. English is hard enough for native speakers to spell, but throw it in as a second language and spelling in the English alphabet... that's just impressive.

The entire school witnessed the showdown between the three winners from each cycle and it was every bit as exciting as the class and cycle level contests. We did finally end up with just one winner...although it later turned out that through our mistake a word that wasn't on the eliminated kid's list made it into the final round--Oops! We gave him a prize, apologized and called it a tie.

I'll get to the pictures now, but first I want to point out just how incredible it was that there were approximately 340 students, plus their teachers in the gym and you could hear a pin drop at the beginning of the Bee.

In case you don't know, working in a Spanish elementary school is a sure way to progressively go deaf (no joke). Not only are the kids really loud, but the teachers' number one way of shutting them up is to yell even louder...or make more noise by other means (ie. hitting the chalk board or whistling). The fact that we were in a huge gym with horrible acoustics and we only had to remind them four or five times to keep it quiet (and this was at the slightest sign of a murmur), is proof in itself of just how excited they were to watch the Spelling Bee. I think this fact alone stands as proof of our success.

Once again we asked the kids to applaud in sign language--it worked like a charm. There's something so cute about seeing a gym full of quivering hands. :) The contestants did a wonderful job, and our director (principal), who has been out of the loop with all of this, was really impressed by the kids' level and skill. I'm glad we did this in front of the whole school. Convincing the director that the whole school's participation was key to the success of the contest wasn't really that easy. But as it worked out, all the kids got the recognition they deserved, and Manolo (director) got to see just what an achievement this really is. I think the continuation next year is in the bag.

The poor little boy representing first cycle was sick and didn't come to school, but his grandma brought him during the last period so that he could compete. She came equipped with a plastic bag, in case he threw up! According to one girl in his class, he would have gotten worse had he not been able to participate. ;) He did a great job and his grandma was duly impressed.

She had been a teacher in Casariche and later at a nearby school where she served as director for 23 years. Afterwards, I went up to her to specifically congratulate her on her wonderful grandson, and she said, "I wanted to talk to you. I just wanted to say, congratulations on a great job! These are the kinds of things that get kids motivated and excited about learning. You guys have done an excellent job." I was very touched, not only because she was a grandma of a contestant and word will get out in Casariche that this was a great event; but because she's had many years of experience as a teacher/director. She knows what she's talking about. Of course, Manolo (our director), heard all the same praise and his chest puffed up to about twice the size... part of why I say next year's contest is in the bag. Many, many of the other teachers also congratulated us on our enormous success. I am quite pleased.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that I'm working in Casariche again next year? I'm really excited by the prospect of continuing and especially of continuing the Spelling Bee. Next year my goal is to make it a county-wide contest. I want to invite other schools to participate so this can be a contest on an even bigger scale, plus, that way students would only compete with kids from their own cycle. That's obviously more fair.

So, here I sit: on my couch with a bottle of wine, a plate of cheese and my Spelling Bee pin savoring the sweet taste of success.

Happy Thursday, everyone!

A full day

Granted I did wake up late-ish (10:30), I've had an extremely productive day. For one, I finally planted my tomato starts that were bursting out of their little plastic tray--I think about 15 total. This sounds easy, but planting the little guys was a lot more work than you probably care to read about! (note: that fact doesn't mean I won't write about it!) Remember my poor twisted carrots and mini potatoes from last year?? This morning I dug nearly a foot down over an area of about 4'X4' to really loosen up the dirt. A rototiller is what I really needed.

Needless to say, my hands hurt as I'm typing this.

I added some soil and really stirred it up, so I hope this will be enough to make my tomatoes happy. If they all survive I'll be making gazpacho like mad this summer just to keep up with production! ;) I also planted some potatoes and garlic...even though I know it's not really the right time of year to plant. I had an entire head of garlic that was sprouting in my kitchen so I thought I might as well give it the chance to grow. The same is true of the potatoes.

And this afternoon I went for another bike ride. I discovered a place called "Hoyo Grande," which, as its name indicates, is a big hole. Apparently it used to be a subterranean cavern, but it caved in probably centuries ago. It's now full of all kinds of vegetation. I didn't go down into it, although you can. When I go with Angelines we'll venture in together... I wasn't feeling brave enough on my own, even though it didn't look too complicated.

I'm completely worn out after all my digging and the long bike ride. So if you'll excuse me, I'm off to bed.

A bit of poetry

If you remember, on my visit to Massachusetts, my mom and I got stuck in the snow in Bennington, VT. We bought a book of poems and Robert Frost kept us company on the slow, slippery way home.

The book has turned out to be a jewel: one of those books that smells wise. Its tattered cover and thin, yellowed pages make me sad to think some day the classics will all be republished electronically. A computer screen is a poor second to a typed page. Books have a sage presence, where the glare from a screen reeks of inconstant, frivolous technology. And although they say some day we'll be able to interact with electronic books in ways that will "improve the reading experience", I'll stick with my books.

Anyway, back to my lovely old book: in it I read an excerpt from Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Criticism" and decided to read the whole thing. Of course, my only access to the poem is online being that the Spanish library system is HORRIBLY sub-par and even if it weren't, finding Pope in English in a town of 5,000 people would be quite a challenge.

Here you have some of my favorite passages. These are the parts I would have underlined and commented on had I had a real book in my hands.

Enjoy:

A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring:
There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fir'd at first Sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless Youth we tempt the Heights of Arts,
While from the bounded Level of our Mind,
Short Views we take, nor see the lengths behind,
But more advanc'd, behold with strange Surprize
New, distant Scenes of endless Science rise!
So pleas'd at first, the towring Alps we try,
Mount o'er the Vales, and seem to tread the Sky;
Th' Eternal Snows appear already past,
And the first Clouds and Mountains seem the last:
But those attain'd, we tremble to survey
The growing Labours of the lengthen'd Way,
Th' increasing Prospect tires our wandering Eyes,
Hills peep o'er Hills, and Alps on Alps arise!

(...)

Poets like Painters, thus, unskill'd to trace
The naked Nature and the living Grace,
With Gold and Jewels cover ev'ry Part,
And hide with Ornaments their Want of Art.
True Wit is Nature to Advantage drest,
What oft was Thought, but ne'er so well Exprest,

(...)

Words are like Leaves; and where they most abound,
Much Fruit of Sense beneath is rarely found.
False Eloquence, like the Prismatic Glass,
Its gawdy Colours spreads on ev'ry place;
The Face of Nature was no more Survey,
All glares alike, without Distinction gay:
But true Expression, like th' unchanging Sun,
Clears, and improves whate'er it shines upon,
It gilds all Objects, but it alters none.

(...)

Be not the first by whom the New are try'd,
Nor yet the last to lay the Old aside.

(...)

Avoid Extreams; and shun the Fault of such,
Who still are pleas'd too little, or too much.
At ev'ry Trifle scorn to take Offence,
That always shows Great Pride, or Little Sense;
Those Heads as Stomachs are not sure the best
Which nauseate all, and nothing can digest.
Yet let not each gay Turn thy Rapture move,
For Fools Admire, but Men of Sense Approve;
As things seem large which we thro' Mists descry,
Dulness is ever apt to Magnify.(...)

Some ne'er advance a Judgment of their own,
But catch the spreading Notion of the Town;
They reason and conclude by Precedent,
And own stale Nonsense which they ne'er invent.

(...)

The Vulgar thus through Imitation err;
As oft the Learn'd by being Singular;
So much they scorn the Crowd, that if the Throng
By Chance go right, they purposely go wrong;
So Schismatics the plain Believers quit,
And are but damn'd for having too much Wit.

(...)

We think our Fathers Fools, so wise we grow;
Our wiser Sons, no doubt, will think us so.

(...)

Be silent always when you doubt your Sense;

And speak, tho' sure, with seeming Diffidence:

Some positive persisting Fops we know,

Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so;

But you, with Pleasure own your Errors past,

An make each Day a Critick on the last.

'Tis not enough your Counsel still be true,
Blunt Truths more Mischief than nice Falsehood do;

(...)

http://poetry.eserver.org/essay-on-criticism.html

Romeria 2010--Viva San Pancracio!

That's right, this past weekend was our romeria! For any of you who don't know or don't remember, a romeria is a kind of festive pilgrimage that usually happens in the country. Our romeria is in honor of San Pancracio (Saint Pancras). He was a fourteen-year-old Roman martyr and is now the patron saint of youth, work, health and bread.

If you're observant in Spain, you'll notice that many businesses have little statues of him in their places of work, almost like the cat with a raised paw in the Chinese culture. As an offering he receives parsley (according to a google search, parsley represents "useful knowledge"). Spaniards also put a 25 pesetas on his outstretched finger coin--that's a coin that has a hole in the middle.

Our romeria begins on Friday with the bajada. The city provides a bus and shuttles people up to the ermita (that's like a mini church...by the way, it's also where Angelines and I got married). Then we walk the saint down to the town. The people take turns carrying him on the 7km walk back to town. San Pancracio stays the night at one of the founders' homes and the brotherhood invites the people who accompanied the saint to a small appetizer and drinks.

Saturday evening is a procession around town where the saint is pulled by oxen. Each year a different street asks to host the saint and the Saturday festivities. The procession ends in this street and the saint is taken from the cart to the altar that all the neighbors have prepared for him. Then there's dancing with live music, an open bar and food provided by the neighbors of the street. All of this is open to the whole town.

Sunday is "el camino". We leave around 10am and walk back up to the ermita with the saint on his ox cart and most of us romeros dressed in typical flameco style, or jeans and a white shirt.

This year was a different romeria. I was much more involved than I ever have been simply because two of our most devoted members didn't attend most of the activities this year. Remember my friend's father died? Well, he chose not to come with us until Sunday...and his partner also abstained until el camino. They have both got incredible sevillana repertoires, so not having them with us on Friday especially was really difficult. Sevillanas are a specific kind of flamenco style song that is usually accompanied by clapping, drums, castanets, and dancing.

Typically we sing and make music all the way down the hill to town as we carry the saint. This year wasn't an exception, but it took us a bit to warm up without my friend there to get us going...and we had to repeat the five sevillanas that EVERYONE knew since none of us could remember others.

I have been listening to sevillanas in the car for about three months now; so my frustration was not being able to begin very many...since I actually know quite a few! I can follow along or end lots, but stating and singing to the end is another story. All the same, I was glad I had been practicing because I was able to join in the celebrations vocally. However, for the entire bajada and camino I played the drum so even when I didn't know the words I could participate. Acutally, I still find in incredibly difficult to walk, play drum, and sing all at once. Maybe I'm not as coordinated as I'd like to think, but the professional tamborilero who was payed to play along the camino also confided in me at one point that he thought it was hard to play and walk, too. ;)

Having the drum was pretty cool. At the very beginning of the walk down, a kid who used to be in my classes here in La Roda decided that I was the person to be with since I had the drum. He spent the entire walk by my side suggesting the same two sevillanas over and over again, bless his heart. Toward the end he grabbed girl his age to come be with us, so depending on who else was singing, if anyone else was singing, the three of us were our own little choir.

(These are my choir)

It was sad not to have the same atmosphere as other years with my friends singing one song after another, but I also thought it was good and really important that the rest of the people on the way down have the chance to sing. It's not so much that they don't normally have that chance, just that usually we all follow the lead of the person who knows the most sevillanas and sings the loudest. It was touching to see this 12 year old kid getting so into it on the way down.

And on Saturday when we did the procession around town, it was the same story. He came running up to me first thing asking where the drum was and telling me that he was going to walk with me. After our practice on Friday night, we really did much better Saturday, and we had more vocal/instrumental support.

This year, once again I had a visitor for San Pancracio--Kristen, my co-auxiliar. :) It was lots of fun to have her because it's always fun showing people new things; it's almost like getting to re-experience them for yourself. Kristen was especially easy to have because she speaks great Spanish and already knew a lot of my friends in the brotherhood. It was a good thing, too, or she might have felt very alone all weekend! On the way down Friday and on the way back up Sunday, I kept losing her in the crowd. Finally I gave up looking for her because I figured if she needed me, I was pretty easy to find--you couldn't mistake the drumbeats! We had a really good time and I was really glad that she was able to be part of the romeria.

It turns out that there are only two other romerias in all of Spain dedicated to San Pancracio. One is in Murcia (another state) and the other is in Valverde de Camino, Huelva, right here in Andalucia. Last year, our secretary got in touch with the group in Valverde and we decided to become sister brotherhoods (haha). Their romeria is usually in June and so some of us went to visit as representatives from La Roda. It was wonderful and they were so amazingly hospitable and kind and excited to meet us and show us how they did things. We were really touched.

This year thirty representatives from Valverde del Camino came on Sunday to make the walk back up to the ermita and take part in the day's celebrations! Of course, all of us who had been to Valverde were really excited, but also nervous, feeling that we had to reciprocate the same great hospitality...and on a much tighter budget! Everyone was worried about food, about bathrooms (we usually just find a good bush on the hill), etc. In the end, I can confidently say we outdid ourselves. ;) We had FAR too much food, a guy in our brotherhood built a bathroom, we had a mic for the mass in the ermita... it was really quite impressive. And our brothers from Valverde were impressed.

After the mass in the ermita there was a small, very emotional, ceremony with the mayor and the two presidents from each brotherhood. We exchanged gifts and each said some really beautiful things. I was crying. It was beautiful to see the good faith between two groups of people who really hardly knew each other. We spent a great afternoon together and when it was time to leave we went with them to say goodbye to San Pancracio. This is a picture of most of us on the steps of the ermita.

I've washed my dress, hung up my medallas and have yet to clean my boots.

Until next year...

Viva San Pancracio!!!

Spelling Bee Madness!

I can't remember if I've blogged about the Spelling Bee that Kristen and I have organized in Casariche. Sorry if I repeat myself.

We've been working on ABC's and spelling since Easter in preparation for the First (I hope annual) All-School Spelling Bee. This is of course in English. We did a preliminary written test in order to weed out some of the kids who hadn't studied or really had no interest. The test consisted of students writing the word said, something a lot more difficult for Spanish speakers to do that we English speakers many times realize. Spanish is, after all, nearly 100% phonetic. One girl in Second grade got 100%! I was so proud of her. :)

This week we've begun the first round at the class level. This time it's like a normal spelling bee except that we changed one rule and that is that if students recognize that they've made a mistake spelling before they finish, they can correct themselves starting over from the beginning of the word. The purpose at this level is to get one winner from each class who will then compete with the other winners from his/her cycle (the cycles are 1st/2nd, 3rd/4th and 5th/6th).

Yesterday in my first class (fourth grade) we got through about 40 words and there were two students who just kept going. I made each round of words more difficult, but even Wednesday, February, and Shoulders failed to knock one or the other out! Class time was up and the teacher suggested that they should both pass to the next round. After consulting with my co-auxiliar and our bilingual coordinator, we agreed--both will compete at the cycle level.

I was bragging about that fourth grade class until I got into my all-time favorite (p.s. had to count that spelling wrong yesterday when a girl left the u out of "favourite") class--second grade B. These kids are amazing and I knew it was going to be a really exciting competition. I told Kristen she should skip out on her class with the three year olds and come to watch. I'm glad she did because had I told her later what happened, she probably wouldn't have believed me!

Eight kids from this class qualified to pass and all of those eight had higher than a five (50%) on the preliminary test. Just for reference, in most of the other classes the highest scores were fives and many kids passed on with threes. The spelling began. The first round finished and not one error! After four rounds we finally knocked one kid out and there were a few with errors (we did double elimination). I used up all fifty words on my sheet and there were still five students who hadn't made two mistakes the whole time!

We're talking about second grade!! They're spelling in English, a second language, using the English Alphabet. That's really tricky, too, because in Spanish the letter i is pronounced "ee"... along with other letter sound difficulties--that's confusing! I almost had tears in my eyes as these kids nailed every single word--horse, Saturday, Wednesday, February, Scissors--I'm going to upload the list for you to see.

Probably one of the cutest things was the class's reaction. I told them ahead of time that there was no clapping and no talking. The only thing they could say was "good job" when a student finished spelling and they had to "clap" in sign language. Sign language clapping, if you don't know, is similar to what happens at a basketball game in high school when the opposite team's making a free-throw: open palm hand shaking, but no noise. You should have seen these kids shaking their hands like mad and repeating over and over, "Good Job!" It was just too adorable.

I was thinking about it later and I don't think that a lot of native English speakers could do what these kids did. I know that when I was in second grade I couldn't have done this. Spelling in English is really tough. I remember on my end of the year State tests that I scored 30% on the spelling portion!! (Yeah, never was a star speller...thank God for spell check!) And developmentally it's really almost absurd to ask such little kids (we did this in first grade, too) to visualize a word and then spell it out loud. For young kids there's a BIG difference between being able to write a word correctly and being able to spell it out loud. That said, there was a girl in first grade who correctly spelled table! There's a silent e at the end...not to mention that the long a sound in Spanish is represented by two vowels (ei).

I was happily surprised and VERY impressed.

Needless to say I came home from school glowing with pride for my little spellers. Angelines is probably tired of hearing about how cool it was and how difficult and what an amazing feat this really is. ;)

I can't wait for the school level competition...We're going to have to come up with a really tough list unless we want everyone to tie!

Wedding Bells

I had a great time in Alicante with the family. I don't know why I had the impression that this side of the family was more formal and distant than the family here in La Roda, but that was absolutely not the case. They are just as open and fun as the rest of the family (I'm glad). I think I have now officially met the entire family, with the possible exception of second cousins, etc. :)

The wedding itself was lovely, but personally I liked mine better. ;) It was VERY fancy! They were married in a beautiful Gothic church in Valencia, which was an hour and a half bus ride from Alcoy, Alicante where we stayed. And the groom (he's our cousin) was insistent that the guests be inside and seated when the bride arrived. I know that's the norm in the US, but it isn't necessarily here. A lot of times the guests wait outside to see the bride arrive. (Remember my wedding??)

The wedding ceremony was quite long, but it was nice that they had an organist, a violinist and a soprano singing some interludes. That's probably the most personalized wedding I've been to so far. Catholic weddings are pretty boring in my opinion--a lot about God and very little about the love between the wedding couple. In my mind that's just silly, but that's probably because I'm not Catholic.

The reception was at a beautiful local, Jardin de Azahares, in the middle of the Valencian orange groves. This time of year with the blooming trees it smelled delicious! We were served an outrageous amount of canapés, all of which were very ostentatiously presented. My favorite were the poached quail eggs served in a mini pie crust lined with tomato sauce! The best part was that the man was right there, cracking quail eggs like mad into the plate of boiling water and then fishing them out to serve us. :)

The actual meal wasn't as exciting, but I did take pictures of everything they brought to the table. One of the cousins commented, "you really like taking photos", to which I responded, "I like food more!" ;)

When we finally finished eating there was very little time left to dance because the bus was leaving at a scheduled time. We only danced for about 2 hours before we had to climb back on the bus and head back to Alcoy. I was proud of myself that I got my mother-in-law out to dance. She's resistant to do anything "fun" since her husband died a year and a half ago. Mourning is taken seriously especially among the older people of Spain. Little by little we're getting her out a bit more though.

The drive was really REALLY long. When I think about it, I suppose only about like driving from Portola to S.F. the difference being that our cars at home have cruise control and our car here doesn't. My right calf was cramped from having my foot on the accelerator the whole time. :p The trip was exhausting, but it was well worth it. Angelines's mom had a really wonderful time. She hadn't been back to Alcoy to see her in-laws for about 18 years!

I've got to get ready for school.

besitos.