Whirlwind

Spaniards in Cadiz walk slower than their babies crawl. On my daily walk to class, I am by far the fastest walker. While the locals stop to chat with everyone they see on their (seemingly) aimless strolls, I zip through their social scenes like a silent roadrunner. This makes me feel both invisible and blatantly foreign. Even the stray dogs mosey around as if they could sniff and lick the grimy cobblestone streets forever. But the last two weeks spared no time for such “jollying about,” as my British tutors would say.


Elementary students and teachers after last class

In Spain’s most relaxed region, I surrendered my snazzy Ironman watch not to beachcombing and siestas, but to a whirlwind of job searching, teaching, and paper writing. Depending on the day and my Inbox, I was going to work in Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Spain. I delved into the difficulties of teaching adults who don’t even know the word “bed,” and absorbed a lot of criticism from my teachers. I wrote twenty pages on one student’s English progress, and took my TESOL exam. To my brief relief, I completed the course on Friday and toasted to being a true blue, certified English teacher.


Celebrating completion of the TESOL course

The next morning, I was off to Malaga for a long-awaited Paco de Lucia concert and a very conveniently-located job interview. Malaga is a Mediterranean metropolis with a reputation for being ostentatious and saturated with British ex-pats. One of my tutors described it as the Can Cun of Spain. It’s nothing like Can Cun, in my opinion, but it does boast the birthplace of Picasso and vacation destination for the Gettys. The city leans against bright green mountains and faces the cerulean sea. Moorish castles perched on hills tower over the traffic and apartment complexes, and palm trees line the wide pedestrian thoroughfares. But most importantly, the language school where I interviewed is well-structured and has a strong reputation. The school’s director offered me a job on the spot and drove me all over the city. His hospitality coupled with the city’s offerings of art museums and miles of beach had me sold. Anyway, I can always work in Venezuela or Costa Rica next year.

It was nice returning to Cadiz with a job.

I just sped home from my last TEFL class and will board a bus back to Malaga in 2 hours. Luckily, my friend Adam is also trudging onward to Malaga to work at my school, and Lindsay is tagging along until she moves to Portugal. Having friends around will take the edge off of apartment searching in a foreign country.


Malaga, my new home for nine months

Orientation is tomorrow, and classes start Monday! Hopefully by my next blog entry, I’ll have found a place to live and slowed down enough to walk like the Andalucians.

Throngs of Babies and Oodles of English

Sunset on La Caleta, prime thong baby site

Picture this juxtaposition: gaggles of Wifi users hunched over their laptops on the steps of an ostentatious cathedral in Europe’s oldest city. I feel funny leaning against this heavy cathedral door, doing something so modern when I could be inside looking at bloody crucifixes and portraits of dead monks.

Though it has wifi in certain plazas, (in an effort to attract more tourism), Cadiz is a slow-paced, old fashioned city. It teems with Moorish architecture and narrow roads not much wider than American SUVs. It’s a sun-drenched tourist destination, buzzing with a slew of Spanish accents (all of which unfortunately contain the theta), and hoards of babies and old people.

These two populations have a lot in common, really – status, power in numbers, and pleasantly plump. These babies are thicker than American babies that strolled into the Purple Glaze all summer. So plump they can’t move. They lie flat in their reclining strollers, looking like dolls in fashionable onesies. And the old folks sit around like Humpty Dumpties, expecting you to yield, dodge, or help whenever they choose to move. But the babies really crack me up. Lap dogs have become accessories in the U.S., but babies are accessories and status symbols here. And they stay out later than I do! I’ve noticed babies fast asleep, flung over their fathers’ shoulders at three am in plazas and bars. They’re always dressed to the max, sporting rhinestone studded earrings and completely color-coordinated shoes, clothes and strollers. But the beach is a different arena. The other day I actually saw a four-year-old wearing a thong. (And of course no top!) In Spain it’s normal for girls to build sand castles topless on the beach, but in thongs?! How does a four-year-old find this at all appealing and comfortable? Maybe her mother wanted to show off her cute baby bottom. Not long after my first thong baby sighting, I saw a little boy running loosey goosey, hunting for seashells.

You only need to spend thirty minutes in Cadiz to notice the babies and elderly. If you see a young woman walking down the street without a stroller, she’s usually pregnant. Or, in the words of my new British friends, “She’s got a bump due to drop any minute."


Pedestrians gaze at Moorish architecture and the Atlantic

My TEFL (same as TESOL, fyi) tutors and six of fifteen classmates are British, so my version of the mother tongue has improved leaps and bounds. I say “quite” “a bit” and “have a think” quite a lot. Another interesting accent I’ve picked up is the non-native English accent. Thanks to my students, I can fake a Spaniard trying to speak English pretty well. But Spanish has been useful only at the grocery store and my regular cafe. From sunup to sundown my class is inside the TEFL building, teaching, dissecting and breathing the English language. It’s strange to leave my flat in the morning, walk seven minutes through Spain, and enter through the doors to Planet English. Ten or more hours later I leave this little bubble and weave through Spanish babies and grandparents, only to do my English lesson plans and papers. So, besides the babies and old people, I really haven’t discovered much of Cadiz or Spain. It’s all good, though. Classes are fun and so far I love teaching.



A few English students and fellow TESOL trainees

I'm applying for jobs in lots of different countries. Until then, I’ll be a TESOL teacher/student by day, and thong baby spy by night!