TF (Part II: ...With a Chance of a Fairy Dusting)

We booked a flight to La Coruña that left on Friday. Once again my mental whirlpool caused a travel wave. I did extensive planning to figure out what time I had to get up in order to run, get ready, walk to the bus, take the bus to Sevilla, wait for the airport bus, travel to airport on that bus and be at the airport at noon (45 minutes early -according to the airline rules). It would have been a great plan, except for the fact that I forgot to take into account that the time we got off the Alcalá bus had to coincide with a time that the airport bus passed the nearby stop. This meant that we had to take the slightly earlier bus out of Alcalá. When I realized my mistake about 9:45 AM we had little time to discuss it. We threw the rest of our stuff together and ran out the door (as best we could weighted down by several packs/suitcases).

This is where our transportation fairy (TF) made her appearance. When we got to the bus stop in Alcalá the bus was waiting for us. When we got to Sevilla we barely waited for the airport bus. When we got to the airport there was hardly a line at check-in. We flew through airport security check-point and checked our watches on the other side: 20 minutes until our flight left. 

The Fairy Dust storm didn't stop there. When we got off the plane in La Coruña, we picked up our suitcase and then waited in line at the information desk for a map of the city and airport bus information. We were told that the bus left every half hour from the bus stop 'over there'. We walked outside, found the bus, and paid our fare. As we found seats the bus driver shut the door and started the venture to the city. It was as if the bus had been waiting for us to get there. 

Flags of Galicia, Spain and the EU at the airport.

The information I had from the Internet about the airport bus stops was not helpful (aka accurate, as far as I could tell). We didn't really have any idea where to get off. I was waiting for a sign or a familiar street name to come up, but the road we were traveling down was supposed to be the third stop. After a few stops and a little sweating we realized there was a map of the stops posted above the back door. I got up to look at it at the same time that a woman was asking an old man on the bus where her stop was. (First she asked if he was from there and then she asked where her stop was.) Based on the answers he gave her, I determined that the next stop was ours. 

Once we found the right stop, getting to the hostel was no problem. Working the intercom to get buzzed in was the challenge. The sign said to press the # sign, call the number and press the bell symbol. That's what I tried to do, but never got an answer. I gave up and used my cell phone to call the front desk to tell them we had arrived. The woman was amused that I couldn't work the intercom and after a little chuckle she let us in. Once upstairs (no elevator, as seems to be a requirement to be called a 'hostel'). We checked in and the hotel clerk took several minutes to recommend good places to eat and and the best way to get to them. We dropped off our bags in the room first and decided we would take the long way to one of the restaurants so we could see some of the sights of the city. First stop was the beach. It was an unusually hot and sunny day for April and especially for Galicia, so the beach had some life.

Second stop was the restaurant, but by the time we got there it was closed for the afternoon (It was about 4 PM). We found another non-recommended restaurant close by and ordered wine and a few tapas. I got shrimp with saffron rice (arroz con gambas) and Anna got chicken with a cream sauce (pollo a la crema) that also came with french fries. We shared the zorza de cerdo, which seemed to be spicy pork with french fries.

Recharged and energized, we continued our tour of Galicia:

Torre de Hercules- the oldest working lighthouse in the world.
It is Roman and dates back to the first century.

Bagpipes at the soccer game. I could hear him, but couldn't see him.
I stuck my hand through a bush and took a blind photo.

That's Anna in the center of the compass rose.

The climb back up from the compass rose.

Perhaps I should tell you, if you haven't already Googled it, that La Coruña (or A Coruña) is in the Northwest part of Spain, above Portugal and on the Atlantic. It is much greener and rainier than the southern part of Spain where I currently reside. They also speak Galician and, from our experience this weekend, it seems the bagpipes is their instrument of choice. I hope I just shattered all your stereotypes about Spain (or at least one).

A young lady getting First Communion photos taken.

We were exhausted from taking so many pictures, so we sat by the water and talked and rested a little bit.  For dinner we opted for a low-budget option: empanadas (essentially the original 'Hot Pocket', but without cheese) from the grocery store and ice cream from the best looking ice cream shop we could find.

We made it an early night. The next morning I got up and ran along the beach/coast. We then went walking along the coast in the direction we hadn't yet covered.

The Torre de Hercules from a distance.

There wasn't much going on in this area, so we walked back to town where we stopped for tea for me and hot chocolate and a churro for Anna. Around 11:30 we headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags then went on to the bus stop to catch a bus to the train station. (We were going to Santiago de Compostela, another city in Galicia.) We knew where the train station was (and I remembered seeing it when we were on the bus the day before), but we didn't know exactly which bus would get us there directly. But who needs that when you have a Transportation Fairy?

There was an older lady in sunglasses waiting at the bus stop (The TF herself?). When we couldn't figure out the stop from the information that was posted, it was time to practice my Spanish. I said, 'Pardon me, but do you know which bus to take to get to the train station?' She looked at me for a moment and then removed her sunglasses. She fumbled in her pocket and pulled out her regular glasses. She asked me what I had said. I repeated it. She explained that the 1A (I could write any bus number and you'd believe me, wouldn't you?) would take us to the train station. She said that was the bus she was taking and that she would tell us when we needed to get off. So we followed her on the bus and she alerted us to the stop. She told us to take the bridge over the road and then we'd see the station on the left. Anna thought she said something in English, but I can neither confirm nor deny why I understood what she said.

We hadn't yet purchased train tickets for the journey. When we arrived at the train station we discovered that we had about 10 minutes before the train left. It took a lot of time to decide which return train to take and the ticket machine didn't like the credit card we gave it, so we had to cancel the transaction and start over. The clock was ticking so we decided to just buy one-way tickets and worry about getting back later (this is NOT foreshadowing by the way). The tickets printed out and we walked to the correct platform and onto the train. Not two minutes after finding seats did the train leave the station. And so began Anna's first train ride.

Part III (Santiago de Compostela)...

When we met the transportation fairy (Part I: Foggy...)

I'm kind of forgetful sometimes. Maybe spacey is the better word. My mind is a perpetual whirlpool of facts, ideas, thoughts and songs. There is no 'off' position on my mental whirlpool, so I sometimes forget things, am foggy on the details and/or confuse the facts. I had it in my head that Anna would arrive on the 7th. When I re-read the itinerary she sent me I discovered it was actually the 6th. Luckily I caught it in time so I didn't leave her stranded on the airport. However, my Spanish class ended at noon and her flight got in at 12:50. Getting from the University to the airport in 50 minutes via two buses would take a miracle or maybe just a lot of luck. It wasn't impossible, just unlikely.

I got to the bus transfer point at 12:30 and on the airport bus at 12:50. Needless to say, I was late but fortunately Anna's flight was too. I was relieved to see it marked 'delayed' on the flight status board. It would have been horrible for Anna to have traveled for a day only to arrive in Sevilla and have me nowhere in sight, even though she knew I might be late. When the plane finally did land I thought she might have lost her luggage because she was nowhere to be found. Eventually she appeared, luggage and all. While she may have thought her journey was over, she actually had an hour and a half of bus-riding and a half-mile walk to get to the piso in Alcalá ahead of her. These last legs of the journey went well, except that I had some difficulty steering her suitcase down the sidewalk (suitcases with wheels and Europe do not mix). Anna was able to stay up long enough for some lunch and until I had to go to work. Then she, like so many before her, succumbed to the weight of her eyelids while I went to work. She woke up again when I got back from school and we had some bonding time with my roommates. Anna got to meet Cone (that's co-nay, as in conejo (rabbit)), José's pet rabbit, and show off photos from her trip to Africa (to my roommates, not to the rabbit).

On Thursday morning we slept in but managed to make it to the bank before it closed (at 2). Anna needed to exchange American Dollars for European Euros. To exchange money at a bank you have to have a bank account there, so I got to pretend that Anna's Andrew Jacksons belonged to me. The teller totally fell for it.

At the bank, Anna not only got Euros, but also got to experience some important aspects of Spanish culture. First was the experience of waiting in line. There were maybe ten people milling in the vicinity of the two tellers. You can never tell who is waiting for what or what they are doing there. You just have to take a number and wait until it's called. When it was our turn we went up to the teller and told her we (I) needed to exchange money. She said I had to have an account to do that. I told her I did and so the transaction commenced. (This is Anna's second lesson: random questions and behaviors- at least from an American's perspective.) She asked if I wanted the money in cash or in my account.
'In cash,' I said.
'All of it or part of it?' she asked.
'All of it,' I said.

I had to sign something saying that she was going to give me all of the euros except for 33 cents. I didn't understand why she didn't want to give me the change but I didn't press her for answers. Maybe 'todo' didn't mean what I thought it meant. She then proceeded to give me the (whole number) Euros and we were on our way. Turns out that she deposited the 33 cents in my account and gave us the rest of the Euros in cash. (I owe you, Anna.) Apparently I failed the bank transaction comprehension test.

After the bank we went to school so I could plan out my lesson for later that day and make any necessary copies for it. Anna met a few of the teachers, saw a little of the school and even got to help me find videos for the lesson! The topic was science experiments, so I was going to use videos from MythBusters for a discussion. She got to search for good ones (we decided on an experiment to see if eating poppy seeds made you test positive for drugs and whether or not a ceiling fan could decapitate someone, as you see in horror films). We exited the building around two when the school closed for the afternoon.

We made our way to the bus stop to Sevilla. It was a quick visit. We took a short tour of the cathedral and Barrio Santa Cruz area. Then we had lunch in the Barrio, ate ice cream at my favorite place in Sevilla and then headed back to Alcalá for class.

Fried goat cheese, black olives, bread and a tomato jam.
Anna banished the olives to my side of the plate.

Tortilla Española with a sauce.

Artichokes and ham

The 'Take Anna to Work Day' activities continued with two classes: a fourth year and a second year. In the fourth year class we did the aforementioned MythBusters activity. In the second year class we did two activities:  one with weird US laws (and they had to restate them using 'you must' or 'you mustn't') and a role play shopping activity. You'll have to ask her what she thought of them.

After class we needed some nourishment so we went out to eat at the Mexican restaurant in Alcalá (along with Megan, José, and Clarisse). It was here that I began my longest stretch of days with at least one glass of wine and simultaneously disproved my theory that I couldn't drink wine and run the next day (breaking point TBD). The waitress came by to get our drink order and Anna ordered a 'Dos Equis' without batting an eyelash. She even tackled her meal order in Spanish, including asking for a 'side of guacamole' (with ayuda from her wordsmith friend, José). She fooled me with her skills because a few minutes later I looked right at her and said something to her in Spanish. She started laughing, along with Megan and Clarisse. The comment I made wasn't funny (save your jokes, people) so I didn't understand why they were laughing. 'Who are you trying to talk to?' she asked. I'm a little foggy on those details.

(To be continued...)

But how do you say it in British English?

As I've said before, the students are learning British English and I am learning it right along with them. True that I have a slight advantage because I know American English, but I still learn new words/phrases every day. It's sort of a testament to the fact that the two are different. And the students want to make sure they are learning British English because that is what they will be tested on. If they say something the American way, like: 'At the university you can study Urban Geography,' they would be wrong. They have to say 'At university...' (without the 'the'). They also say 'at hospital' and 'at weekends'. There are differences in verb conjugations too. Learned and learnt, for example.

One day in conversation class I felt like I was being set up. A student was talking and asked how to say 'cola' in English.
"Line," I said.
"Queue," said another student.

Then the speaking student asked how to say 'galleta' in English.
"Cookie," I said.
"Biscuit," said the other student.

I thought the third time would be the charm, but "¿'Farmacia' en inglés?"asked the speaking student.
"Pharmacy or drug store," I said.
The other student shook his head, "Chemist," he said.

So you can see how easily I can lose credibility in a short amount of time and why students are skeptical that the answers I give them are correct.

But there have been a few 'in your face' moments too (I say it all in good fun, of course). The other day students from the second year class were talking about their families. One student asked how many brothers (hermanos) her partner had. 'Hermanos' can mean either 'brothers' or 'siblings' in Spanish so I thought it would be a good opportunity to teach them the word 'siblings'.

"Siblings?" one student asked, "is that British or American?"
"Both," I said.
"But what do they say in the UK?"
"Siblings," I said.
She reluctantly wrote it down. I could see her making a mental note to look it up in her British dictionary when she got home though.

My favorite moment when I was right was in a first year class. The students were going a role-play activity wherein one person was a store clerk and the other was a customer. The script read, 'Hello, how can I help you, Sir.' As you might imagine there are some females in the class too, so they wanted to know how to say the feminine form of 'Sir'.
"Ma'am," I said.
"But what do they say in Britian?" asked the student.
I considered for a moment if there was a more British alternative.
"They say 'Ma'am'," I said.
"Well I'm going to ask José (the teacher) when he gets back." (He was downstairs making copies at the time.)
When José came back the student waved him over to her desk. By this time I was helping another student, but I had one ear on the conversation.
"Ma'am," José said.
"Yesssssssssss," I said to myself.
"I just had to be sure," the student told me. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude."
"It's ok," I replied. "I understand."
And believe me, I do. I don't want to learn the South American word in Spanish. I want to know the Spain Spanish word.