Manners

I have to vent. I'm tired of the lack of manners here.

Students don't say thank you, please or excuse me. Without fail, every day I end up helping a student with an article of clothing. Now I know my 3 year old children can't truly be expected to have stellar manners quite yet, but in the 6 months I have been helping with zippers, buttons, lunch boxes and runny noses, not once have I heard a single 'gracias' - from any student of any age. And they don't say please, they give orders. "Look at this, read this, do this, give me this" AHH! Never have I heard an 'excuse me" In fact, I have a 5 year old student who I'm actually scared might run me over one day. She has incredible strength for a child. Students don't raise their hands to speak, they yell to get your attention, they hit you to get your attention, they tug at your shirt, they openly yell how your blackboard drawings are ugly (yes this has happened to me - sorry I can't draw monsters!). Anybody who is a teacher in the United States - is this normal?

I know I can't blame the children because their parents are the exact same way. Walking down the street is quite the task. Nobody moves out of the way. Sometimes they watch you coming, stare at you, and still proceed to hold their ground or even move directly into your path if they weren't there already. It's absurd. I have finally learned to stay strong while I'm walking..but this is almost worse as it usually results in a lot of shoulder bumps. I also struggle at the grocery store. Sometimes people stand directly in front of a certain selection of items, see you coming up to that same section, and continue to block access to ALL of the pasta. As I was leaving the store the other day I went pretty well out of my way to hold open the door for a lady walking in on her phone. She didn't even glance at me. You're welcome!!

Granada

Early in February I went to Granada. I work with a girl whose boyfriend lives there. We took the train over together for the weekend. Traveling by train is so much better than traveling by bus! You have outlets, foot rests, overhead compartments, fold out trays, hooks for bags and jackets, bathrooms, drink and snack machines. Luxury compared to the bus. It was my first time riding in a train and I loved it.

It was a lot colder in Granada than in Huelva but the trip was amazing nonetheless. The city is beautiful. It's situated in between the mountains but is also located rather close to the beach. One of the main attractions there is a place called the Alhambra. It's a big castle located up on a hill overlooking the city. The first night in Granada I met up with my friend and some other people who live in town. We went on a little tapa tour? Tapas are Spanish appetizers, if you will. Here in Huelva they are normally a bit smaller than what we know to be "appetizers" in the US. And, here in Huelva you pay one euro for a beer and if you want a tapa you pay another two or three for that as well. In Granada it's different. You pay maybe two euros for the beer and it comes with a free tapa. This is practiced all over the city. It's great. So the first night we traveled around visiting many bars while drinking wine and trying all the 'free' tapas. Near the end of the night we climbed up into the older, arabic part of town. Here, the streets are very narrow and made of stones. The buildings are also much older and the area is anything but flat. From up there, you are about the same height as the Alhambra and have a nice view of both it and the city below it. The view is amazing. After a few photos we munched on some kebabs and called it a night. Kebab (because I did not know what it was before )... "is a wide variety of meat dishes originating in Persia and later on adopted by the Middle East,Turkey and Asia Minor, and now found worldwide. The traditional meat for kebab is lamb. In the Middle East, kebab includes grilled, roasted, and stewed dishes of large or small cuts of meat, or even ground meat; it may be served on plates, in sandwiches, or in bowls". I like to think of it as a strange and slightly less delicious but still yummy gyro type thing.

The next day I traveled up to the Alhambra for a tour. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, because I was there in early February, it was still quite cold so many of the flowers hadn't bloomed yet. Same with the plants and trees I guess. I hope to be able to go back sometime later this spring when it's warm. There were so many things in the city that I didn't get to see or that weren't open on the weekend. The main things I want to return to see are the caves and the Arab baths. Scattered throughout the city are many Arab baths. Unfortunately, the majority were closed over the weekend. Also, up on the mountainside there are caves. You can visit the cave museum or also wander around the area by yourself. I guess many people have transformed the caves into homes and will sometimes let you take a peek. Anyways, next time I am there, I need to check out the caves and the baths. But the Alhambra was definitely neat. It had great views above the city and I had never really toured a big castle before so in general it was just interesting to see. I spent that evening with my friend and her friends again. We didn't travel around to different bars that night but decided to stay at one bar that served sushi tapas. It was very refreshing. Huelva does not have very much food variety. We don't have mexican, american, greek. And definitely no sushi. Really the only thing here besides Huelvan food is italian. We do have a few italian restaurants that are pretty good. So anyways, it was nice to have some sushi!

I guess I spent the majority of my time wandering around. The city itself has quite a large population and I'm sure is a big place, but I found that I was able to navigate the city center very well. Wandering through the streets I ended up discovering many little plazas with fountains or interesting restaurants. It's just such a great and unique city to explore. You never know what you will find around the corner. You might find an arab bath, a church, a great plaza, a view of the Alhambra, a beautiful fountain, a view of the mountains. Also, it's a college town so there were people there from all over. Walking down the streets I would hear Spanish, English, French, Italian..everything. Just a wonderful place. I really hope I can return when it warms up!