Huelga = No School!

That's because "huelga" is Spanish for strike. I'm not exactly sure why they're striking though. Lots of schools are striking because the government wants to create a citizenship class for the equivalent of 8th grade that would be taught in English. The fact that it would be taught in English is one problem people have with it, but also because it would deal with topics like abortion, homosexuality, etc. I've heard varied things on this: some people don't want the school/government explaining those things to kids, thinking the parents should do it, while other people just don't think it should be taught. Anyways, that is one reason some students and schools are striking. But they passed out a sheet that explained why we were striking at our school. I didn't quite understand it, so I put it through a translator, and this is what it said:

1."In the last years there has been a gradual privatization of the public education; the investment has been reduced while it has increased the dedicated money to the private-arranged education."

2. "The Bolonia plans mean the privatization of the university affirming that they compare to us with Europe, with the mentioned plans the present diplomaturas and degrees to transform them into graduates and postgraduates that besides consisting of an own test of access can arrive at 3.500€ of cost; the scholarships will not get to cover those amounts. They want to replace the scholarships by bank loans, that they will have to return when it is begun to work.

3. "The new selectividad (basically their ACT/SAT) introduces an oral test of foreign language and hardens the access to the more demanded university careers than they will enter more than the own baccalaureate."

So it's one or the other. Or maybe a combination of the two. Whichever it was, I didn't have to go to school. And since I won't be here next year for any of the changes to affect me, the fact that I didn't have to go to school is what mattered the most to me. =)

Update 12/18/2008: Yesterday we were supposed to have another strike, but the radio that morning said the strike was called off because they would not be having the citizenship class. So i went to school, where it appeared I was the only one. I finally got in touch with Sofia (who was still sleeping), who explained that the strike had only been canceled for the teachers. I saw the paper today that said that the Community of Valencia had voted to not instate the citizenship class. And since we still had a strike, I'm thinking the other three reasons are why we are striking.

Currently listening to:
Song: Change
Artist: 3 Doors Down
Album: Away From the Sun

Altea - A Weekend in English!

This weekend Maddy invited Cassie and I to come visit her in her host town of Altea. For those that don't remember, Cassie is living in Alcoy, to the northwest and inland of Alicante, and Maddy is living in Altea, north of Alicante along the coast.

The preceding days were spent exchanging Facebook messages and then phone calls until it was all settled. Friday afternoon, I met Cassie at the bus station in Alicante, where her host parents had dropped her off, and we went and bought our tickets to Benidorm, the bus station nearest Altea. We spent the bus ride catching up and enjoying the opportunity to speak English. After about an hour, we arrived in Benidorm.

Maddy, her host mom, and her host brother, Andrés, met us at the station and we went to Altea. We wandered around the town with Maddy as our guide, but unfortunately, the sun had already set, so we couldn't really enjoy the beach. But we made the most of it. We played on the toys that are on the beach, that technically are for children; but we're exchange students, so what's the difference? We ate dinner with Ana, Maddy's 13 year old host sister, Ana's 17 year old boyfriend Kay (who doesn't look 17...), and a friend of theirs. After that we wandered a little more. On our travels, we bumped into another group of youngsters. Some of them knew Kay and Ana, and one of the boys began to chase Kay. Kay ending up hiding behind our group and the boy asked me, in Spanish of course, to go block Kay so he couldn't get away. Not wanting to get in the middle of it, I told him in English I didn't know what he was asking me to do. His response was the repeat his request, but this time in English with a British accent! It was hilarious. Eventually we tired out and went to Maddy's house where we watched a movie in English before going to bed.

Saturday, we slept in a little bit, before going to met Maddy's host club's president, who was also Maddy's tutor. It's a small club. He had invited us to grab a quick bite to eat before lunch (a typical Spanish thing apparently). Maddy, her host mom, Cassie, and I met him and his wife at a cafe and we talked a little about how our exchanges were going, but mainly Maddy's host mom and the president talked about ideas for things Rotary could do. She had to go eventually, and the rest of us continued to another place and ate some tapas. Since the president and his wife were Austrian, they knew German as well as Spanish, but they also knew English, so our conversation switched between Spanish and English with the occasional German comment between themselves. We went home for lunch, and decided to rest after lunch and watch a movie before going to the beach. But by the time the movie had finished, it was night again! So we went out around town and did some shopping, they wanted some scarves and we all bought some things for our Rotary jackets.

The street with the shops, the are slightly aimed at the tourists.


The Spanish flags we bought for our jackets.

The next day, Maddy's host mom asked if we wanted to go pick mandarins, another typical Spanish activity, but when we got to the fincha (plot of land) where we were going to pick them, we found out that they weren't ripe yet. They had a bunch from another area, which we bought two crates of, but none ready to pick. Since we really had wanted to pick them though, we figured something out:

"Picking" mandarins.

After that, we went to the trail to hike out to the lighthouse. It was 2km, which is a little over a mile. The views along the way were amazing.

We stopped at one spot, overlooking the Mediterranean, instead of the bay (in the above photo, it's the bay, not the Mediterranean). There was a sign that said "Out of route," but there were some paths and we saw people out there, so we jumped the rail fence and explored a little. It was breathtaking. We found an overhang, and stopped to have lunch, overlooking the Mediterranean. It's still one of the best memories.

Having lunch, overlooking the Mediterranean.

We continued on to the lighthouse, but the gate was locked and there was a sign saying "End of Route." However, Maddy says no one respects the sign, and the last time she went there with some friends from school, they went up to the lighthouse and there were people there. So we continued up to the lighthouse.

"Jumping" the fence to continue to the lighthouse.

After looking around at the lighthouse, we headed back and then went down to the beach. From there, we followed the beach back to Altea. It was about a 30 minute walk along the beach, which with all the walking to and from the lighthouse, plus down to the beach, made for quite a bit of travel. The beach was interesting though, because it is a pebble beach, not sand. I collected a stone, that now adorns my jacket. Once we got back to Maddy's house, we lounged around waiting for her host parents to return and take Cassie and me to the bus station so we could go home. Cassie's host parents picked her up at the bus station and I walked to the bus stop to go home. It was a great weekend.

Currently listening to:
Song: Lose Yourself
Artist: Eminem
Album: 8 Mile Soundtrack

Zaragoza

I finally got to met the rest of the family, mostly.

One night, we headed over to Elche, about 20 minutes away, and I met Pep's mother and a couple other relatives. One uncle is a history teacher and we had a very interesting discussion about the European mindset of superiority from being colonizers and the US saving Europe during WWII. It was very interesting and I'm looking forward to the next time we go to Elche.

Anyway, this weekend, we went to Zaragoza and I got to met Elena's family. All of her family. Her family is from Zaragoza, and with the exception of her, the all are still there.
Brother Ignacio, his wife Marichu, and kids, Juan and Ana.
Brother Alberto, his wife Rosa, and their kids, Paula and Daniel.
Sister Sylvia, her husband Alfonso, and their kids, Ines and Andrea.
I don't really know the ages of the kids, but I think Dani is 5, Ana is 5 or 6, Andrea is 15, I think, but those are the only ages I know.
Luis, Pep, and Elena were staying with her parents, but that filled all the extra beds, so I spent the weekend around the corner in Ignacio's flat.

I got a tour of a little bit of Zaragoza. We went to the Cathedral of Pilar, which is an important landmark and church in Zaragoza. We also passed through a few other parts of the city. We went into the church, but they don't allow pictures inside, so I didn't get any, but it was amazing. I found a map that detailed a few points of interest within the cathedral and noticed that there was an elevator in one of the towers that allowed people to see a panoramic view of Zaragoza. I asked Elena if we could go up there in the elevator and she asked me what elevator? Seeing as how see grew up here, that made me laugh (later, she asked her parents and siblilngs, and she had been up there, awhile ago, but she didn't remember it). The view was amazing!

The roof of the cathedral.

We went out to tapas again (which we did in Elche), which is something I really enjoy. Tapas are small types of food, that can be specific to the town, the region, or maybe even the restaurant. Usually tapas are a slice of bread with some kind of topping, like cheese, meat, and a pepper. Or it can be something like a stuffed baked potato. Whatever it is, every type of tapas I tried, I loved! Unfortunately, according to Pep and Elena, Alicante is one of the few regions that doesn't do tapas very well. After that, the parents went to a movie, while Andrea, Luis, and I went around town. We rented bikes, which was really cool. There were these sites all over the city. I'd never seen them before, but Elena says they're pretty common in Europe.

The bike rental rack. Just swipe the bike rental card (it's almost like having a bus card) in front of the scanner on the end.

Luis and I on our bikes. The cathedral is in the background.

After riding around for awhile, we went to see something in theater in Zaragoza. It turned out to be a reading of "Don Juan," I believe. But it was very hard to follow. Because each character had a reader at a stand with the name on the stand. But there were usually two stands for character and sometimes even two people at the same stand. The only way of knowing who was talking was by finding the person whose mouth was moving, which was easier said then done!

The next day, we had lunch at a Turkish restaurant with the entire family. Turkish and Chinese restaurants are about as common here as Mexican and Chinese restaurants in the US. Anyways, I like Turkish food. I think Dani and I really hit it off, because Dani was asking if we really had to leave and if they could come back next weekend...and bring Erik. It was a nice weekend.

Currently listening to:
Song: The Middle
Artist: Jimmy Eat World
Album: Bleed American