Well, I was in Madrid for a grand total of 18 days between March 26 and April 26; first there was the Fulbright Spain conference in Valencia, then the Europe-wide conference in Berlin. You can see pictures from the Berlin trip (which included other places tacked on at either end) here:
Karlsruhe and environs, visiting my friends Anne and Ben
Berlin
Prague
IMPORTANT: I have made my albums private, so in order to view them you must enter the password "Viajes" (case sensitive!)
Meanwhile, aside from a weekend trip to Granada, I am planning on being monogamous with my beloved Madrid for the rest of my time here. The past couple months have flown by at astonishing speed, leaving me wanting to spend as much quality time with the city as possible. I'll let you know what I get up to!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
On the road again. . .
See pictures from my trips to Pais Vasco (2/22-2/23) and Paris (3/18-3/21)!
Again, I recommend you view the albums in 'slideshow' mode in order to see the captions.
Cheers!
~Talia
Again, I recommend you view the albums in 'slideshow' mode in order to see the captions.
Cheers!
~Talia
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Letters from the Half Way Point
I am writing this entry just past the halfway mark of my grant, having completed five months and now having five months remaining. Somehow, I have a feeling that the second half is going to fly by at a faster pace than the first. Since New Year, I feel like time has been snowballing, each week passing more quickly than the last. So before its June already, I wanted to write down some reflections of the first half of my time in Spain. Here goes;
Madrid: I have a heartfelt appreciation for the metro system (considered one of the best urban public transportation networks in Europe). After the public transport abyss that is L.A. (read: having to drive everywhere), I love how easy it is to use, how extensive the network is, and how safe I feel using it (knock on wood. . .). It has played a huge role in fostering a sense of familiarity with the city. Even though the metro is excellent, Madrid is still an eminently walkable place, a fact that has encouraged me to explore on my own in a way I've never done anywhere else. Despite the fact that I have no problem living here without a car, many Madrileños do: Madrid is still one of the most polluted cities in Europe. There was the equivalent of a smog alert a couple weeks ago when the temperature rose. It's a shame.
I like the vibe of the city itself. I love that there are 'normal' people out in the streets and in bars and restaurants 24 hours a day. I love the preponderance of plazas and little parks in every neighborhood where one can sit and read and people-watch. Despite the stereotype of Castilians as the "coldest" of the Spanish people, my interactions have been generally warm and friendly. I have traveled to other parts of Spain (and hope to hit a few more places in the next few months), and while they have all been great, interesting excursions, I find myself looking forward to being back 'home', which I think says alot about how I have bonded with Madrid. We're amigos. I still give thanks to the apartment gods for the amazing location and atmosphere of my international house of pancakes (final count until June: 2 Greeks, 1 Italian, 3 French, 2 Americans, 1 Brit), which I know has had a huge impact on my attitude towards living here.
I still bemoan the lack of vegetarian options in Spanish cuisine, but have become much more gastronomically adventurous as a result. I have discovered setas (a type of wild mushroom), pulpo gallego (Galician-style octopus), clara con limon (a light beer), mejillones (mussels), chirimoyas (it's a fruit that looks like a shrunken artichoke. . .) and I eat a wider variety of vegetables than I did in the States (beggars can't be choosers). So, ironically, I can thank the more limited nature of food options for expanding my culinary horizons:-). And cheese. I eat alot of cheese.
School: I have mixed feelings about my work experience. I truly like the teachers I work with, and I know my school runs more smoothly than many. Nevertheless, it can be frustrating for an organized person coming from a preparation-oriented professional culture to enter an environment in which there is less advanced planning (i.e. lesson plans more than a few days ahead of time), to make the switch from a culture which emphasizes being punctual to one that is much more laid-back (classes rarely start on time, extended coffee breaks). The upside of this is that professional culture is less formal, colleagues (at least my school) are more jovial and informal and demonstrative in their interactions in a way I find really appealing. The Spanish pride themselves on improvisation, and I definitely feel I have learned to go with the flow more in the last five months (spontaneity and flexibility are good tools to have in your arsenal), though I still struggle with the lack of structure and consistency.
I also feel the bilingual program has a long way to go before it can be considered to be doing justice to its students, most of whom lack the English competency to follow a national curriculum in a second language, a curriculum that is already considered lacking by European standards and among many Spanish educators. There are also almost no resources produced specifically for them, so the bilingual teachers do not have a lot of material support with which to enrich the bilingual program. Largely because of these systemic issues, I have been feeling like my presence in the classroom makes little positive impact on their educational experience. There are days when I feel like it makes no difference if I even show up or not. I guess that's a universal problem for teachers, feeling like you can't reach your kids no matter what you do, but that doesn't make me feel better about feeling ineffective.
As far as my research, I have barely started the more formal work of reading up on pedagogy and educational policy, but I think about the differences between the Spanish and US education systems all the time. More and more, I am hesitant to generalize about either one, as the more I read and the more people I talk to, I realize how little I know and how limited my frame of reference is. Like everything, my view of both has become less black and white. My frustration with the bilingual program has clouded my judgement in some ways, and I need to overcome these biases if I want to develop something credible.
Travel: Since my last update, I've traveled to El Escorial, which is a monastary/library/former royal residence in a pretty little mountain town about an hour outside of Madrid. On the same day, we went to Valle de Los Caidos (the Valley of the Fallen), which is where Franco is buried in a huge underground monument-tomb he had built for himself using slave labor (no pictures allowed inside). It was also meant to honor Nationalists died fighting during the Spanish Civil War, but I was told that now it also meant to honor Republicans as well. How these two purposes coexist I don't quite understand. It was also very strange to see fresh flowers on the marker in the floor where his body is, while tourists and Spaniards wander the intimidating, cavernous space (a church, really). It was another example of the very strange attitude towards the Franco era that Spain seems to have. I don't know if it's acceptance, denial, 'it wasn't so bad'-ness, or what. The transition to democracy was a peaceful one, aided in large part by King Juan Carlos, whose education Franco had overseen, yet no one seems to hold that against him. Many of Franco's government officials stayed on through the transition, being absorbed into the democratic parties that emerged. There were never trials of former regime higher ups responsible for human rights abuses, never really a confrontation of the recent past. Spain underwent incredible economic growth in the 80s and 90s, so maybe the desire for vengeance was diminished, the need for reconciliation not urgent. This is still something I found fascinating and confusing about Spanish culture. It was strange to be in the Valle de Los Caidos, not sure how I should feel about the whole thing, and wondering how I would feel about it if I were Spanish.
On a less somber note, I also went to Barcelona. What a cool city. I'll post a link to my pictures, but I'll sum it up by saying it was a weekend full of Gaudi, Catalan history, and thorough pavement pounding (the Gothic neighborhood, La Rambla, Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, etc). We even made it out to Girona, which is a small city outside Barcelona with a preserved medieval quarter and the remaining part of an old Roman wall surrounding the city that you can walk on top of along the perimeter of the city, high above it.
Next stop: Bilbao, the Basque Country
That's enough for now--onto the downhill part of this 10 month journey.
Madrid: I have a heartfelt appreciation for the metro system (considered one of the best urban public transportation networks in Europe). After the public transport abyss that is L.A. (read: having to drive everywhere), I love how easy it is to use, how extensive the network is, and how safe I feel using it (knock on wood. . .). It has played a huge role in fostering a sense of familiarity with the city. Even though the metro is excellent, Madrid is still an eminently walkable place, a fact that has encouraged me to explore on my own in a way I've never done anywhere else. Despite the fact that I have no problem living here without a car, many Madrileños do: Madrid is still one of the most polluted cities in Europe. There was the equivalent of a smog alert a couple weeks ago when the temperature rose. It's a shame.
I like the vibe of the city itself. I love that there are 'normal' people out in the streets and in bars and restaurants 24 hours a day. I love the preponderance of plazas and little parks in every neighborhood where one can sit and read and people-watch. Despite the stereotype of Castilians as the "coldest" of the Spanish people, my interactions have been generally warm and friendly. I have traveled to other parts of Spain (and hope to hit a few more places in the next few months), and while they have all been great, interesting excursions, I find myself looking forward to being back 'home', which I think says alot about how I have bonded with Madrid. We're amigos. I still give thanks to the apartment gods for the amazing location and atmosphere of my international house of pancakes (final count until June: 2 Greeks, 1 Italian, 3 French, 2 Americans, 1 Brit), which I know has had a huge impact on my attitude towards living here.
I still bemoan the lack of vegetarian options in Spanish cuisine, but have become much more gastronomically adventurous as a result. I have discovered setas (a type of wild mushroom), pulpo gallego (Galician-style octopus), clara con limon (a light beer), mejillones (mussels), chirimoyas (it's a fruit that looks like a shrunken artichoke. . .) and I eat a wider variety of vegetables than I did in the States (beggars can't be choosers). So, ironically, I can thank the more limited nature of food options for expanding my culinary horizons:-). And cheese. I eat alot of cheese.
School: I have mixed feelings about my work experience. I truly like the teachers I work with, and I know my school runs more smoothly than many. Nevertheless, it can be frustrating for an organized person coming from a preparation-oriented professional culture to enter an environment in which there is less advanced planning (i.e. lesson plans more than a few days ahead of time), to make the switch from a culture which emphasizes being punctual to one that is much more laid-back (classes rarely start on time, extended coffee breaks). The upside of this is that professional culture is less formal, colleagues (at least my school) are more jovial and informal and demonstrative in their interactions in a way I find really appealing. The Spanish pride themselves on improvisation, and I definitely feel I have learned to go with the flow more in the last five months (spontaneity and flexibility are good tools to have in your arsenal), though I still struggle with the lack of structure and consistency.
I also feel the bilingual program has a long way to go before it can be considered to be doing justice to its students, most of whom lack the English competency to follow a national curriculum in a second language, a curriculum that is already considered lacking by European standards and among many Spanish educators. There are also almost no resources produced specifically for them, so the bilingual teachers do not have a lot of material support with which to enrich the bilingual program. Largely because of these systemic issues, I have been feeling like my presence in the classroom makes little positive impact on their educational experience. There are days when I feel like it makes no difference if I even show up or not. I guess that's a universal problem for teachers, feeling like you can't reach your kids no matter what you do, but that doesn't make me feel better about feeling ineffective.
As far as my research, I have barely started the more formal work of reading up on pedagogy and educational policy, but I think about the differences between the Spanish and US education systems all the time. More and more, I am hesitant to generalize about either one, as the more I read and the more people I talk to, I realize how little I know and how limited my frame of reference is. Like everything, my view of both has become less black and white. My frustration with the bilingual program has clouded my judgement in some ways, and I need to overcome these biases if I want to develop something credible.
Travel: Since my last update, I've traveled to El Escorial, which is a monastary/library/former royal residence in a pretty little mountain town about an hour outside of Madrid. On the same day, we went to Valle de Los Caidos (the Valley of the Fallen), which is where Franco is buried in a huge underground monument-tomb he had built for himself using slave labor (no pictures allowed inside). It was also meant to honor Nationalists died fighting during the Spanish Civil War, but I was told that now it also meant to honor Republicans as well. How these two purposes coexist I don't quite understand. It was also very strange to see fresh flowers on the marker in the floor where his body is, while tourists and Spaniards wander the intimidating, cavernous space (a church, really). It was another example of the very strange attitude towards the Franco era that Spain seems to have. I don't know if it's acceptance, denial, 'it wasn't so bad'-ness, or what. The transition to democracy was a peaceful one, aided in large part by King Juan Carlos, whose education Franco had overseen, yet no one seems to hold that against him. Many of Franco's government officials stayed on through the transition, being absorbed into the democratic parties that emerged. There were never trials of former regime higher ups responsible for human rights abuses, never really a confrontation of the recent past. Spain underwent incredible economic growth in the 80s and 90s, so maybe the desire for vengeance was diminished, the need for reconciliation not urgent. This is still something I found fascinating and confusing about Spanish culture. It was strange to be in the Valle de Los Caidos, not sure how I should feel about the whole thing, and wondering how I would feel about it if I were Spanish.
On a less somber note, I also went to Barcelona. What a cool city. I'll post a link to my pictures, but I'll sum it up by saying it was a weekend full of Gaudi, Catalan history, and thorough pavement pounding (the Gothic neighborhood, La Rambla, Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, etc). We even made it out to Girona, which is a small city outside Barcelona with a preserved medieval quarter and the remaining part of an old Roman wall surrounding the city that you can walk on top of along the perimeter of the city, high above it.
Next stop: Bilbao, the Basque Country
That's enough for now--onto the downhill part of this 10 month journey.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Winter Highlights
Foreword: This admittedly food-centric entry is dedicated to Jon :-).
Yes, I know, December was a bust as far as blogging. But before starting fresh in the New Year (complete with a resolution to blog more consistently), allow me to share some winter highlights from the past 6 weeks;
Thanksgiving
As the only person I know with a hostel-sized kitchen, I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner attended by 13 Americans and half of my flatmates. It turned out to be one of the best Thanksgivings ever. Everyone one brought a dish with a serving size of about 15, so we had a ridiculous amount of food that was ridiculously tasty. We managed to have every traditional dish except cranberry sauce (which I didn't lose sleep over because I'm not a fan:-)). Stuffing, roasted veggies, risotto, gourmet macaroni and cheese, three types of mashed potatoes (plain, spicy, sweet potato), baked apples, brownies, and more. And of course, turkey (see below for the turkey saga).
My non-American flatmates a) were impressed that Americans can actually cook and bake and produce delicious homemade food, as they generally only see me eat salads and cereal and b) had their stereotypes about how much Americans eat reinforced:-). But it was awesome, by far one of the best experiences I´ve had here. It was such a great feeling to be surrounded by people you truly like and realize how lucky you are to have found them in a foreign country.
The only tricky part was getting the turkey. There is turkey in Spain, of course, but they don´t have ´pavo entero´´(whole turkeys) available until closer to Christmas. Since I was hosting, it was up to me to find the turkey, and I´ll just say the lesson is never send a vegetarian to do a carnivore´s job. I couldn´t find a whole turkey for the life of me, and ended up enlisting the help of one of my (meat-eating) friends. We finally realized that there just wasn´t whole turkey available in Madrid at that time of year, so we settled on a mass of turkey breast that had somehow been shaped into the form of a turkey. It was basically a meat sculpture. Sounds kind of gross, and it kind of was :-). My Greek flatmate had volunteered to cook the turkey, because none of us had a clue, and when we brought back the turkey-shaped turkey that wasn´t actually the whole bird, she was insulted that we would stoop so low. Nevertheless, she cooked and basted that turkey breast monstrosity, god bless her, and by all accounts it tasted great.
Cinderella
My friend Nicole and I were both involved in theater in college. We both were craving the experience again, and we found an English-language theater company, The Madrid Players, that stages a Christmas pantomime every December for the children of Madrid. This year the pantomime was Cinderella, and Nicole and I volunteered to help out backstage (we were both stage managers and are more comfortable behind the curtain than in front of it:-)).
A quick note about the concept of the pantomime. It's a British phenomemon, a specific kind of play that I was unfamiliar with until I got involved with The Madrid Players (which was founded by Brits). It does not, as I first thought, have anything to do with mimes. Rather, it is an extremely campy, colorful, over-the-top rendition of a classic children's story, and one of the hallmarks of a pantomime is the casting of men in at least one of the lead female roles, usually the antagonist (in our case, the ugly stepsisters). A pantomime, while performed for children, also has alot of bawdy, punny humor that only the parents will understand and groan at. At first I was skeptical as to how this thing works, but the actors were great, the scenery and costumes were wonderful, and we had an audience of at least 400 for each of our 5 performances. The audience was mainly ex-pat families but there were also a decent number of Spanish kids as well. The play was mainly in English, but there were plenty of jokes in Spanish (or about Madrid) and even one song that Nicole and I only found out after was a parody of a famous Spanish "Factor X" (an "American Idol" type show) audition.
The 'mice' were all played by children (age 5-12), and one of my responsibilities was to be the kid-wrangler during the shows, making sure they were there for their entrances and keeping them quiet backstage. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, they were sweet kids and there's something about getting kids involved with theater (when it's not in an intense stage-mom way) that you can see is so amazing as a creative outlet and they just have so much fun. Plus, almost all of the kids were flawlessly bilingual, I was so impressed and jealous:-). Most of them seemed to either have one Spanish and one English-speaking parent, or came from two English-speaking parents but had grown up in Madrid and so had picked up the language easily. I couldn't help thinking about the bilingual program where I work and how there have to be lessons it could learn from these families in how to inculcate a second language more successfully.
Overall, fun is the word I would use to describe the experience. It felt so good to be back in theater again, and to do something completely outside of the school/Fulbright world.
Go here to see pictures and 3 short videos from the play!
Holiday Cheer
December was rounded off by Hanukkah and Christmas mini-celebrations. Latke making took place at the Glorieta (my place) and Christmas cookies & cider took place at Caitlin's (my 'cookies' turned out more as one giant, square shaped cookie-thing, but it still tasted good). Two nights of buttery interfaith goodness:-).
After becoming blob-like at Caitlin's, we went for a walk around the city to see the lights. Here are my favorites, taken in the central area around Plaza de Castellano, Serrano, and Paseo del Prado;
Finally, there was an all apartment "Cena de la Navidad" (Christmas dinner) that miraculously managed to get 8 of the 9 flatmates around the table. My contribution was scrambled eggs (cop out you say? I beg to differ!), which joined lasagna, salad, a Greek ham and something dish where I ate alot of the something, fried plantains, and an amazing chocolate cake. Afterwards, we had a secret santa and amazingly, even though we all shopped at the same three places, no one bought the same thing for their secret santa. It was a great mood to leave the apartment in right before we all left for our respective winter holiday destinations.
(In the interest of journalistic integrity, this picture was not actually taken at the cena de la navidad, but rather at a party some weeks before. I just wanted to finally show proof of these 8 other girls I insist I live with, yet which you have never seen:-)).
Happy New Year everybody!
Yes, I know, December was a bust as far as blogging. But before starting fresh in the New Year (complete with a resolution to blog more consistently), allow me to share some winter highlights from the past 6 weeks;
Thanksgiving
As the only person I know with a hostel-sized kitchen, I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner attended by 13 Americans and half of my flatmates. It turned out to be one of the best Thanksgivings ever. Everyone one brought a dish with a serving size of about 15, so we had a ridiculous amount of food that was ridiculously tasty. We managed to have every traditional dish except cranberry sauce (which I didn't lose sleep over because I'm not a fan:-)). Stuffing, roasted veggies, risotto, gourmet macaroni and cheese, three types of mashed potatoes (plain, spicy, sweet potato), baked apples, brownies, and more. And of course, turkey (see below for the turkey saga).
My non-American flatmates a) were impressed that Americans can actually cook and bake and produce delicious homemade food, as they generally only see me eat salads and cereal and b) had their stereotypes about how much Americans eat reinforced:-). But it was awesome, by far one of the best experiences I´ve had here. It was such a great feeling to be surrounded by people you truly like and realize how lucky you are to have found them in a foreign country.
The only tricky part was getting the turkey. There is turkey in Spain, of course, but they don´t have ´pavo entero´´(whole turkeys) available until closer to Christmas. Since I was hosting, it was up to me to find the turkey, and I´ll just say the lesson is never send a vegetarian to do a carnivore´s job. I couldn´t find a whole turkey for the life of me, and ended up enlisting the help of one of my (meat-eating) friends. We finally realized that there just wasn´t whole turkey available in Madrid at that time of year, so we settled on a mass of turkey breast that had somehow been shaped into the form of a turkey. It was basically a meat sculpture. Sounds kind of gross, and it kind of was :-). My Greek flatmate had volunteered to cook the turkey, because none of us had a clue, and when we brought back the turkey-shaped turkey that wasn´t actually the whole bird, she was insulted that we would stoop so low. Nevertheless, she cooked and basted that turkey breast monstrosity, god bless her, and by all accounts it tasted great.
Cinderella
My friend Nicole and I were both involved in theater in college. We both were craving the experience again, and we found an English-language theater company, The Madrid Players, that stages a Christmas pantomime every December for the children of Madrid. This year the pantomime was Cinderella, and Nicole and I volunteered to help out backstage (we were both stage managers and are more comfortable behind the curtain than in front of it:-)).
A quick note about the concept of the pantomime. It's a British phenomemon, a specific kind of play that I was unfamiliar with until I got involved with The Madrid Players (which was founded by Brits). It does not, as I first thought, have anything to do with mimes. Rather, it is an extremely campy, colorful, over-the-top rendition of a classic children's story, and one of the hallmarks of a pantomime is the casting of men in at least one of the lead female roles, usually the antagonist (in our case, the ugly stepsisters). A pantomime, while performed for children, also has alot of bawdy, punny humor that only the parents will understand and groan at. At first I was skeptical as to how this thing works, but the actors were great, the scenery and costumes were wonderful, and we had an audience of at least 400 for each of our 5 performances. The audience was mainly ex-pat families but there were also a decent number of Spanish kids as well. The play was mainly in English, but there were plenty of jokes in Spanish (or about Madrid) and even one song that Nicole and I only found out after was a parody of a famous Spanish "Factor X" (an "American Idol" type show) audition.
The 'mice' were all played by children (age 5-12), and one of my responsibilities was to be the kid-wrangler during the shows, making sure they were there for their entrances and keeping them quiet backstage. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, they were sweet kids and there's something about getting kids involved with theater (when it's not in an intense stage-mom way) that you can see is so amazing as a creative outlet and they just have so much fun. Plus, almost all of the kids were flawlessly bilingual, I was so impressed and jealous:-). Most of them seemed to either have one Spanish and one English-speaking parent, or came from two English-speaking parents but had grown up in Madrid and so had picked up the language easily. I couldn't help thinking about the bilingual program where I work and how there have to be lessons it could learn from these families in how to inculcate a second language more successfully.
Overall, fun is the word I would use to describe the experience. It felt so good to be back in theater again, and to do something completely outside of the school/Fulbright world.
Go here to see pictures and 3 short videos from the play!
Holiday Cheer
December was rounded off by Hanukkah and Christmas mini-celebrations. Latke making took place at the Glorieta (my place) and Christmas cookies & cider took place at Caitlin's (my 'cookies' turned out more as one giant, square shaped cookie-thing, but it still tasted good). Two nights of buttery interfaith goodness:-).
After becoming blob-like at Caitlin's, we went for a walk around the city to see the lights. Here are my favorites, taken in the central area around Plaza de Castellano, Serrano, and Paseo del Prado;
Finally, there was an all apartment "Cena de la Navidad" (Christmas dinner) that miraculously managed to get 8 of the 9 flatmates around the table. My contribution was scrambled eggs (cop out you say? I beg to differ!), which joined lasagna, salad, a Greek ham and something dish where I ate alot of the something, fried plantains, and an amazing chocolate cake. Afterwards, we had a secret santa and amazingly, even though we all shopped at the same three places, no one bought the same thing for their secret santa. It was a great mood to leave the apartment in right before we all left for our respective winter holiday destinations.
(In the interest of journalistic integrity, this picture was not actually taken at the cena de la navidad, but rather at a party some weeks before. I just wanted to finally show proof of these 8 other girls I insist I live with, yet which you have never seen:-)).Happy New Year everybody!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Finally. . .the links are up!
Hello Everyone,
I finally found a good hosting site (photobucket) and posted extended pictures online, if you're interested. I recommend viewing the albums in "slideshow" mode so you can see the larger picture and read the entire caption. Please let me know if you experience problems accessing the albums. . .
Cheers!
~Talia
Toledo (15/9/2007)
Gijon (19/10/2007-21/9/2007)
Gijon "Birds Gone Wild" video
One of the coolest/freakiest natural phenomenon I've ever witnessed.
Cordoba (1/11/2007-4/11/2007)
I finally found a good hosting site (photobucket) and posted extended pictures online, if you're interested. I recommend viewing the albums in "slideshow" mode so you can see the larger picture and read the entire caption. Please let me know if you experience problems accessing the albums. . .
Cheers!
~Talia
Toledo (15/9/2007)
Gijon (19/10/2007-21/9/2007)
Gijon "Birds Gone Wild" video
One of the coolest/freakiest natural phenomenon I've ever witnessed.
Cordoba (1/11/2007-4/11/2007)
Saturday, November 17, 2007
TA meets NBA and NASA
One big advantage of the Fulbright program is that grantees have opportunities to be involved in some really interesting and exciting stuff in our roles as "cultural ambassadors". We get invited to certain events, there are alot of bureaucratic doors open to us (help with research, access to top Spanish and American embassy personnel, etc), and in the case of Teaching Assistants, our schools sometimes benefit from these connections as well.
As part of its philanthropic activities, the NBA (yes, that NBA) sponsors a program called NBA Cares that does community outreach, specifically aimed at youth. Apparently the program has an international dimension, and one thing it does is arrange basketball clinics taught by actual NBA players in public schools around the world. It seems one way they chose which schools the students would come from was through the bilingual program and their respective Teaching Assistants. I am still unclear as to exactly what happened, but the Fulbrighter at my school last year was involved in this program and some students from our school participated in one of these clinics. So this year, about 10 kids from my school were invited to the U.S. Embassy for a reception for the players that came to Madrid for this year's clinic. There were also students from one other school, the one which hosted the clinic this year and I believe received a new basketball court as a gift from the NBA (a school in an underprivileged area). Sorry if that explanation is confusing--as I said, I'm still not clear on the details myself.
I felt embarrassed because I don't follow basketball ("baloncesto"), college or NBA, and my knowledge of players is limited to Michael Jordan. When I got to the Embassy, I had no clue who the players were--I made an educated guess that they were the really tall guys on the receiving end of the receiving line. One of the men was later introduced as Spencer Haywood, a retired NBA legend who made a name for himself in the 70s with the Seattle Supersonics. When I looked him up afterwards, I found out how big he really was back in the day, with the E! True Hollywood Story-esque coda that he was actually kicked off of The Lakers for drug use and was married to Iman before she married David Bowie. . . Anyway, the other two players were actually Spaniards who currently play for the Toronto Raptors: Jose Calderon and Jorge Garbajosa (speaking in picture below). Again, I was clueless but the kids are crazy about these guys, and the girls (only a few were there) were swooning. It was very cute.
The reception was thus an odd mix of formally dressed diplomats and embassy officials, camera-toting press, and t-shirt-wearing 12 year olds. There were brief speeches in Spanish and English, by various Spanish and American officials, thanking the NBA and the players for coming, for promoting sportsmanship as a key to building healthy kids and communities, and for building positive relations between Spain and North America.
The picture at the left are the students from my school who were chosen to attend the reception (all boys, sigh). They are all in the bilingual program, and I have them all in class. It was the first time I'd seen them outside of the school environment, which was strange but fun. There was that moment of "they realize I exist outside of class and I get a glimpse into their non-academic lives". In this last picture on the right, I am standing in between the "Jefe de Estudios" of my school (basically the principle of the middle-school aged kids) and my friend Andrés, the Fulbright TA at the other school that participated in the clinic this year. 
Another opportunity like this happened a few weeks ago when I received an email from an embassy official asking if my school would be interested in having an astronaut come speak to the students. Last year, when Michael Lopez Alegria was based on the International Space Station, 5 bilingual program students at my school were chosen to go to the embassy and participate in a live satellite conference with him and his fellow astronauts. When it was known that he would be visiting Spain (he's American but his parents are Spanish and he was born in Madrid). the Embassy contacted me because of the school's participation last year. They thought it would be a nice full circle thing to have him meet the kids he spoke with from space. Of course we were interested, and after alot of back and forth with the Embassy, we arranged an assembly for the 2nd and 3rd year (equivalent to 8th and 9th grade) bilingual students (about 100 students, plus any teachers who were free that period:-)).
Michael was (I thought) very patient as kids flocked around him as we entered the auditorium asking if they could take pictures with him, which he usually obliged. Aside from that, he seemed like a very down to earth person (no pun intended:-)). He was obviously being shuffled from one place to another all day by the Embassy, this school visit being just one item on the day's itinerary, but he did not act annoyed or make us feel like this was something he was obliged to do. Education (and PR) is part of the job--go up in space, come down and talk about it, for the benefit of both the US and NASA. I think the rest of his trip to Spain he was able to do his own thing, only one day sacrificed to the diplomacy gods.
The presentation went really well. He talked about what it's like to be an astronaut and the goals of his most recent mission (study the effect of a zero-gravity environment on the body, fix broken parts of the space station), and he brought a dvd with footage from inside the ISS: we got to see how they eat, how they sleep, how they use the bathroom, how they exercise, etc. Lots of floating objects and flipping around. Teachers and students alike loved it. When he opened it up for questions, the group was shy, but there were a few brave souls (and curious teachers) who had some good ones. I had to sit on the stage with the Director of Studies, Michael, and the embassy official with whom I coordinated the visit (pictured below). I felt rather silly as I didn't say anything the entire time, but it was a nice gesture on the part of the Director. After the main assembly, the 5 kids who spoke to Michael in space got to come onstage and meet him personally (also pictured below).
There was certainly a blatant propaganda aspect to the whole thing, but that's the job of the Information Office of the Embassy. These kind of events represent an opportunity to create positive associations with the States among young people in Spain. They filmed some of the kids standing around Michael and had them all shout out the name of the Embassy's youth website, a clip which was posted online. They handed out mouse pads and key chains with this website on it as well; the staged, photo op aspect of the whole thing made me a bit uncomfortable but hey, the Fulbright program is part of that game too, so who am I to complain? And in the end the kids got to hear a real live astronaut whose experiences are fascinating and part of an international scientific effort. Cool.
As part of its philanthropic activities, the NBA (yes, that NBA) sponsors a program called NBA Cares that does community outreach, specifically aimed at youth. Apparently the program has an international dimension, and one thing it does is arrange basketball clinics taught by actual NBA players in public schools around the world. It seems one way they chose which schools the students would come from was through the bilingual program and their respective Teaching Assistants. I am still unclear as to exactly what happened, but the Fulbrighter at my school last year was involved in this program and some students from our school participated in one of these clinics. So this year, about 10 kids from my school were invited to the U.S. Embassy for a reception for the players that came to Madrid for this year's clinic. There were also students from one other school, the one which hosted the clinic this year and I believe received a new basketball court as a gift from the NBA (a school in an underprivileged area). Sorry if that explanation is confusing--as I said, I'm still not clear on the details myself.
I felt embarrassed because I don't follow basketball ("baloncesto"), college or NBA, and my knowledge of players is limited to Michael Jordan. When I got to the Embassy, I had no clue who the players were--I made an educated guess that they were the really tall guys on the receiving end of the receiving line. One of the men was later introduced as Spencer Haywood, a retired NBA legend who made a name for himself in the 70s with the Seattle Supersonics. When I looked him up afterwards, I found out how big he really was back in the day, with the E! True Hollywood Story-esque coda that he was actually kicked off of The Lakers for drug use and was married to Iman before she married David Bowie. . . Anyway, the other two players were actually Spaniards who currently play for the Toronto Raptors: Jose Calderon and Jorge Garbajosa (speaking in picture below). Again, I was clueless but the kids are crazy about these guys, and the girls (only a few were there) were swooning. It was very cute.
The reception was thus an odd mix of formally dressed diplomats and embassy officials, camera-toting press, and t-shirt-wearing 12 year olds. There were brief speeches in Spanish and English, by various Spanish and American officials, thanking the NBA and the players for coming, for promoting sportsmanship as a key to building healthy kids and communities, and for building positive relations between Spain and North America.
The picture at the left are the students from my school who were chosen to attend the reception (all boys, sigh). They are all in the bilingual program, and I have them all in class. It was the first time I'd seen them outside of the school environment, which was strange but fun. There was that moment of "they realize I exist outside of class and I get a glimpse into their non-academic lives". In this last picture on the right, I am standing in between the "Jefe de Estudios" of my school (basically the principle of the middle-school aged kids) and my friend Andrés, the Fulbright TA at the other school that participated in the clinic this year. 
Another opportunity like this happened a few weeks ago when I received an email from an embassy official asking if my school would be interested in having an astronaut come speak to the students. Last year, when Michael Lopez Alegria was based on the International Space Station, 5 bilingual program students at my school were chosen to go to the embassy and participate in a live satellite conference with him and his fellow astronauts. When it was known that he would be visiting Spain (he's American but his parents are Spanish and he was born in Madrid). the Embassy contacted me because of the school's participation last year. They thought it would be a nice full circle thing to have him meet the kids he spoke with from space. Of course we were interested, and after alot of back and forth with the Embassy, we arranged an assembly for the 2nd and 3rd year (equivalent to 8th and 9th grade) bilingual students (about 100 students, plus any teachers who were free that period:-)).
Michael was (I thought) very patient as kids flocked around him as we entered the auditorium asking if they could take pictures with him, which he usually obliged. Aside from that, he seemed like a very down to earth person (no pun intended:-)). He was obviously being shuffled from one place to another all day by the Embassy, this school visit being just one item on the day's itinerary, but he did not act annoyed or make us feel like this was something he was obliged to do. Education (and PR) is part of the job--go up in space, come down and talk about it, for the benefit of both the US and NASA. I think the rest of his trip to Spain he was able to do his own thing, only one day sacrificed to the diplomacy gods.
The presentation went really well. He talked about what it's like to be an astronaut and the goals of his most recent mission (study the effect of a zero-gravity environment on the body, fix broken parts of the space station), and he brought a dvd with footage from inside the ISS: we got to see how they eat, how they sleep, how they use the bathroom, how they exercise, etc. Lots of floating objects and flipping around. Teachers and students alike loved it. When he opened it up for questions, the group was shy, but there were a few brave souls (and curious teachers) who had some good ones. I had to sit on the stage with the Director of Studies, Michael, and the embassy official with whom I coordinated the visit (pictured below). I felt rather silly as I didn't say anything the entire time, but it was a nice gesture on the part of the Director. After the main assembly, the 5 kids who spoke to Michael in space got to come onstage and meet him personally (also pictured below).
There was certainly a blatant propaganda aspect to the whole thing, but that's the job of the Information Office of the Embassy. These kind of events represent an opportunity to create positive associations with the States among young people in Spain. They filmed some of the kids standing around Michael and had them all shout out the name of the Embassy's youth website, a clip which was posted online. They handed out mouse pads and key chains with this website on it as well; the staged, photo op aspect of the whole thing made me a bit uncomfortable but hey, the Fulbright program is part of that game too, so who am I to complain? And in the end the kids got to hear a real live astronaut whose experiences are fascinating and part of an international scientific effort. Cool.
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