Pomegranate vs. Chiramoya

Ok, I'm guessing you've read the title to this post and you're a little confused, right?  You're probably thinking something along the lines of, what the heck is a chiramoya?  Well, get ready to learn something new about the world because I intend to tell you exactly what a chiramoya is.  As you might've guessed from the context, a chiramoya is a type of fruit.  However it only grows in this part of Spain, which is why you've most likely never heard of it before.

 It's kind of a weird-looking fruit, don't you think?

So now you may be asking yourself, what does a pomegranate have to do with all this?  Good question.  Well, here's the story...

I kept hearing about these chiramoyas and how good they taste, but I had absolutely no idea what they looked like.  When I first arrived in Spain, some of the people at the school described them to me as almost being a type of apple, but sweeter.  So naturally, in my mind I was picturing something that looked similar to an apple.  Well, last week I was in the grocery store and I saw a sign advertising a sale on chiramoyas.  The fruit and vegetable section at Lidl (the grocery store) isn't very well marked though, and I was confused as to where these chiramoyas actually were.  So, I unknowingly picked up a pomegranate thinking, this sorta looks like an apple...  I asked some old lady walking by, but her accent was really thick and she seemed to be confirming that yes, it was indeed a chiramoya.  So I put one in a bag and continued shopping.  I was still unsure if I had the right fruit though, so I asked when I got to the cash register.  The lady told me that it was a granada (still didn't know what it was at that point), and then she showed me a picture of what a chiramoya looks like off of her list of codes for the cash register.  Turns out that I had seen them but decided to pass them by because they looked totally weird and I wasn't sure if they were even edible!  I decided to buy the "granada" and just come back another day for a chiramoya.  The next day I talked to some of the other staff at the school and came to the realization the fruit I had in my possession was a pomegranate.  Someone even informed me of the best way to eat it.  The teacher for Year 3 also had a chiramoya to show me so that I could be assured that when I went to try and buy one I would get the right fruit.  I made another trip to the grocery store after school that day and finally bought a chiramoya!

Ok, so now I had both a pomegranate and a chiramoya... neither of which I had ever tasted before.

Ok, does the pomegranate not look like an apple?  Can you blame me for being confused?

 At this point you may be asking, how do you eat them?  Do they taste any good?  Which one is better?

Whoa, whoa, whoa... slow down.... rest assured that all of your questions will be answered! :)  This is where the "vs." part of the title comes into play.  Luckily for you, I documented my pomegranate/chiramoya experience in pictures.  *HELPFUL HINT: The captions are there for a reason! ;)

Needed materials: a cutting knife and a spoon.

It turns out that the little knife wasn't big enough to cut through the tougher skin of the pomegranate.  So I had to use a slightly bigger knife.

This is what a pomegranate looks like on the inside... I think it's a very interesting-looking fruit.

Someone informed me that the easiest way to eat a pomegranate is to hit the back of it with a spoon to help the fruit fall out... so that's what I did.

This is the part that you eat.

This is what a chiramoya looks like when you cut it in half.  I knew it was ripe because it was soft to the touch (I purposely bought a ripe one), and I was able to cut it with the smaller knife.

You are supposed to spoon out the fruit, and then spit out the seeds.

There were lots of seeds!

They were both really good and it was an interesting experience... but in my book I would say that the chiramoya won.  Why?  Because not only was it easier to eat (I had to hit that pomegranate pretty hard with the spoon), but I also think it tasted better overall.  I would say the pomegranate was definitely juicier, but the chiramoya had a smooth taste to it that is unlike anything I've ever tasted before.  If you ever come to Southern Spain between mid-October and the beginning of January I would definitely suggest that you try a chiramoya.

Well, that is all for now.  Hopefully you'll be hearing from me again soon!

Hasta luego, mis amigos! :)

Pardon?

So, this is going to be a rather random post, but I felt like writing about it today.  Since I'm at a British school and working with mostly British people, I have picked up a few new terms.  Apparently it's rude to say "what" when you don't hear someone very well, and instead they say "pardon".  My students say "what" a lot, and every time this happens my cooperating teacher yells at them telling them how rude it is (they're getting better at remembering now).  It didn't take me long to realize that I had been saying it too!  Yikes!  Well, after I caught on to this, I apologized to my CT (cooperating teacher) and said that I would try to say "pardon" instead.  Easier said than done.

At first it just seemed so completely unnatural to me.  It almost pained me to say "pardon" because it just isn't a word that I use on a regular basis.  When you are used to using a particular expression in particular circumstances, it's hard to change your ways.  Well, I have been trying really hard to remember, and I realized that I've been pretty good this past week.  Not so much at the beginning of the week, but by Friday I was remembering most of the time.  It still feels slightly weird, but I'm getting better nonetheless.

Just another adjustment for me to make here in Spain.  One of many, but it's all good.

Pardon?  Did I hear you say, 'Good job, Kelly'?  Hehe :)

A Change in the Weather

The title for this post is both literal and metaphorical.  Literally, the weather really has changed.  For the very first time since coming here, I've actually been on the verge of saying that I'm chilly in just a t-shirt.  It was also the first time that I've been able to walk home and not be super sweaty and sticky by the time I arrive.  I mean, maybe a little, but not to the usual extent.  The sun stayed hidden the entire day today, and when we took the children to go line up for the buses at the end of the day, it was sprinkling.  I told the children that it was my first rain in Spain since my arrival - haha.  It didn't really rain to hard at all, but I've been told that it can get quite bad in November.  It's a tropical climate here, so that means tropical rainstorms.  I think I will have to invest in a rain-coat.

As for the metaphorical meaning behind this post... well... I'll write about what's been going on and hopefully you'll make the connections.  All of those days of looking for the deeper, literary meanings in high school English classes really do come in handy sometimes!

Well, firstly, in my last blog I totally forgot to mention something pretty significant.  As of yesterday, I've officially taken over teaching all the "maths" lessons!!! (They call it "maths" here, not math)  So I've taught two days of maths so far.  Things went ok yesterday, but honestly I had a lot to improve on.  My classroom management?  Great!  My time management?  Yeah... not so great.  My problem?  I spent too much time talking and not enough time actually allowing the students to have a go.  I think I wanted to make sure that everyone understood the content before I set them loose.  The problem with that, though, is that there is a wide range of abilities in our classroom.  So once the higher-achieving students have a grasp on the lesson they disengage, and the only way to keep them involved is to set them loose and let them put their knowledge to the test.  Well anyway, today I did a recap on yesterday's lesson and allowed more time for them to actually use their knowledge.  And the result?  It went SO much better!  I honestly felt great after teaching today, and now I'll hopefully be able to go into next week much more confident and ready to improve my skills as a teacher even further.

Secondly, I forgot to give an update on that church that I was planning to go to a few weeks back.  Long story short, the church no longer exists and I've been bummed about the idea that I might not get any Christian fellowship during my time here.  However, that all changed this past week.  After sharing my story of the failed church-going event with both Ali and Fiona (my cooperating teacher and the head of primary), each of them pointed me in the direction of the part-time music teacher here at the school.  I had talked to him just a little last week because I've been hoping to find a violin teacher during my time here.  So on Tuesday I talked to him again and asked if he knew of a church that I could attend.  Unfortunately, he told me there are no English-speaking churches here.  BUT... *Note: this is where the story gets good*... It turns out that he and his wife and children are highly involved in ministry and hold Christian meetings of prayer and worship in their home once a week!!!  He invited one of the Danish students, Christina, and I to his home last night to have dinner with him and his family.  Then, after dinner we had a time of worship, followed by talking and prayer.

Seriously.

Talk about awesome!

To make a long story short (not sure if I'm succeeding at the whole 'short' thing), I am now connected with other believers in the area and I'm SO excited about it.  It seems as though God is continually reminding me that He has me in the palm of His hand, and that everything is going to be ok.  Even when things look bleak (like when the church thing fell through), I just need to remember that God has a plan and that everything is going to work out one way or another.

So yeah... this past week has definitely been a change in the weather for me... in more ways than one! :)

Hasta luego mis amigos!

An Interesting Day

So, it's been a while since I've wandered here to write a blog... and for that I apologize.  I've had good intentions, and even started one on all the things that are different here, but I just haven't dedicated enough time to actually finish and post anything.  But not today!  I made up my mind about mid-day that I was going to write something after school because, as the title suggests, it was an interesting day today.  You may be asking, Interesting good or interesting bad?  Well, my answer to that would be... both.  One of the things about working with kids is that there can be so many ups and downs in one day.  It's kind of crazy actually, how you can be cross with them one minute and laughing with them the next!

Well, for starters, we had our class photo taken today.  I wasn't aware of this prior to coming to school, and since we have P.E. on Wednesday mornings I decided to wear my "trainers" (tennis shoes).  All I can say is that I'm glad I was standing behind the students because I'm hoping that my shoes won't be too evident in the picture!  The timetable for the pictures kind of messed up our morning schedule a bit, so we saved P.E. until after the picture because the children change cloths for P.E.  Which brings me to my next item to write about... the fact that the children change in the classroom.  Talk about awkward!!!  I'm bit more used to it now, but the first time they started taking off their cloths in the classroom I started mentally freaking out just a little!  I kept thinking, Is this even legal?!  Turns out that Year 4 is the last year that they do this.  Starting in Year 5, the girls go the bathrooms to change while the boys stay in the classroom.  Anyway... my cooperating teacher was playing music while they were changing, and I witnessed a few of the boys strutting around, topless, and trying to walk like models.  I think they were trying to imitate women, actually.  I found this to be both awkward and funny at the same time.  What did I tell ya?  Interesting day, right?!

So, once we finally made it outside for P.E. (they don't have an indoor gym here), my cooperating teacher had them work on creating a "skeleton dance".  We've been learning about the skeleton, and at the end of next week there is a student exhibition so we're hoping to preform the dance for it.  Let me tell you, watching these kids walk like skeletons and come up with dance moves is the greatest!  They are seriously so stinking cute!  I'm sure you can guess that the first half of the day was definitely the good interesting part of my day.  Well, the second half wasn't quite as great, and by the end of the day I was ready to be done!  Mid-day was a blur to me to be honest, and I can't quite remember exactly what we did... but the last session?  Ugh.  It was I.C.T. (which is basically technology class) and nothing seemed to be going right.  A great deal of the computers weren't working, and the class was absolutely chaotic.  Ok, so maybe it isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be, but the kids were piled 3-5 per computer!  There was also one or two of them wandering around aimlessly (which makes me laugh now looking back on it), and here I was trying to get them with a group or something.  Yeah, interesting day to say the least.

After all the frazzle dazzle of I.C.T. it was finally time to go home, and I was so ready for it!  But then, right at the end, something happened that totally made me smile and think, It's all worth it.  We were walking down to where the students line up for the buses, and one of the boys started teaching me how to say some Spanish words.  I was having a heck of a time correctly pronouncing the word for "bottle" (as in water bottle), and it's so much fun to have your students try to teach you something for a change.  He laughed at me, but he also persisted until I managed to get it right.  Gosh, I love this.  Even though it's challenging, and tiring, and frustrating sometimes... I really do love it, interesting and all.

Week One Complete

Well, it's officially been one week since I arrived in Spain.  It's been a good week, but it feels as though I have been here a lot longer than that.  Coming to a new place is like starting over really, and so the goings are a little bit slow as I try to get settled.  I've spent the past week in the school meeting all the staff and children, and also doing a little bit of exploring in town as well.  I've learned where some of the cash machines are, where to buy groceries, and where to get pistachio ice-cream!!!  (So very delicious!)

In terms of life at the school, I have a feeling that I have a very difficult semester ahead of me.  It turns out that I will have to write a lesson plan for every single lesson that I teach, and that alone makes me want to run screaming for the hills!  Oh wait... I'm already living and working in the hills... drat.  All I know is that it wouldn't be that way if I were student-teaching in America (with a few exceptions), and so I'm kind of frustrated about it.  But I'm trying to suck it up and prepare myself for absolutely no social life once my involvement in the classroom picks up.  Oh wait, don't have much of a social life yet either!  Haha, hopefully that will change after I've been here a little longer. :)

Although the goings have been slow, yesterday (Friday) was a very good day for me.  After school, my cooperating teacher gave me a lift into town and we went and talked to the owner of a newly opened radiology center to see if we could arrange for the children to learn about bones via x-rays.  The guy took about an hour to show us through the entire establishment and explain everything to us.  It was very interesting, and we are hopefully going to bring the children there this coming Thursday for a tour!  My cooperating teacher told me that when you are a teacher you just need to be brave and go talk to people.  That is how you get connected and create opportunities for field-trips and informational visits for your class.  I got to see this first hand, as we just walked into the place and asked... and now we have a visit scheduled in less than a week.  The school-wide topic for the beginning of the year is "Healthy Us" and the children in my class are learning about bones, so this is going to be a very educational visit for them!  Yesterday was also a good day because my roommate, Tom, and I went into town for dinner.  In Spain, people don't eat dinner until after 10 pm, and so we left our apartment at probably 10:30 or so.  The food was fantastic, and afterwards we walked around a bit.  I caved and bought some ice-cream, and I also had a chance to walk onto the beach and put my feet in the ocean for the first time since being here.  Now I'll just have to go visit the beach during the day sometime!

Today has been a lazy day, and all I've managed to get done is some laundry.  Tomorrow I will have to work on my first lesson plan, but I'm excited because tomorrow is Sunday and I'm going to try and attend a church that I found out about online.  Hopefully I will meet some new people! :)

Stay tuned to hear how week two goes... hasta luego! :)

The Hill

I don't think I have mentioned this on the blog yet, but Almuñécar is a very mountainous place.  As a matter of fact, the part of the city where I live is practically built into the mountain... sort of.  Basically I live at the top of a very big hill.  It's about a 5-10 minute walk from the school, which is great, but going into town has proven to be quite the hassle.  Today is my 23rd birthday, and to celebrate I went shopping for groceries, haha!  Not too exciting, but I needed to get a little bit of food to live off of, ya know?  So anyway, my roommate dropped me off in town on his way out to Granada, and before he left he showed me where the grocery store was and explained how to get back home.  After eating I decided that I didn't really feel like exploring too much yet, so I headed to the grocery store to grab a few things and then head back.  

As a side note, while I was at the grocery store I learned how to say cereal in Spanish.  Apparently I was pronouncing it wrong, because when I asked for help finding it the lady was really confused and brought me to some mayonnaise instead.  I finally got my point across when I told her that you eat it with milk, haha!

So anyway, like I was saying, I bought my groceries and headed in the direction of home... back towards the hill.  I walked along the ocean for a while and finally I came to where I was supposed to go up the hill.  Now, let me tell you, this hill is something fierce.  It's no ordinary hill, not like the kind you would find in Minnesota or anything like that.  This is a mountainous hill, and it really stinks to walk up it with a bag of groceries!  I started walking... and walking... and breathing heavy... and walking... and wanting to take a break but knowing that I should probably just push through it... and walking some more.  The thing is, I don't have any other choice while I'm here.  I don't have a car and I live at the top of a giant hill for the next three months.  Therefore, I have come to a conclusion... Not only am I going to come home with a great tan, but I will also come home in great shape from all the walking up and down hills that I'm going to have to be doing in the coming months!  Wish me luck as I begin this strenuous workout plan!

An Unexpected Miracle

I'm in Spain... finally!  Getting here has been quite the journey, but well worth every second of it.  There is just so much I could tell about at this point, but my first day at the school is tomorrow and it's already after 11 pm here.  So I'll keep it to one, short but miraculous, story....

I knew I needed to get from the airport to the train station, but I wasn't sure how this was going to happen. So here I am in the Madrid airport, loaded down with luggage, and wondering what to do next. I had read online that there was supposedly a bus that ran to and from the airport, and that one of the stops was the Atocha train station. So, after trading in the $61 that I happened to have in my purse for about 38 euros, I wandered around and asked a couple people at information stations if there was a bus to the train station. That, and I followed signs with buses on them, haha! When I finally wandered outside and found the bus stop and route information, I came to the realization that the bus I needed to take wouldn't get me to the train station in time. The way I saw it, I only had one other choice: take a taxi. So I headed towards the taxis and asked (in Spanish) how much it cost to get to the train station. I was fairly certain that the guy said 13 euros and that didn't sound too bad, so he helped me load my luggage and we were off. Turns out that I was horribly wrong about the price. As I sat in the back seat I looked at his rear-view mirror to see a price meter going up by 5 euro cents every couple of seconds. I. Was. Horrified. The guy didn't speak any English and my Spanish only goes so far, so trying to communicate the fact that I had a very limited amount of money didn't go too well. He understood me I think, but I had a hard time understanding him. I think that he was trying to tell me that I needed to get money out of an ATM at the train station so that I would have money to eat. He also told me that I needed to practice my Spanish, which is very true. I was praying like crazy during the entire taxi ride that the price would not exceed my funds. I can tell you that God is nothing short of amazing, because when we arrived and it came time for me to pay up, I had just the right amount with a few euros to spare. WOW!! Talk about the goodness of God. He obviously knew that I was going to have to take a taxi, and He knew how much it was going to cost me. I didn't plan to have that money in my purse either. I had planned on finding an ATM and getting euros later on, but it just so happened that there was a money exchange station in the airport right by the baggage claim area.  All coincidence?  I think not.

So here I am.  Safe. Alive.  Here. All to the glory of God!