The first exciting piece of news is that my computer has been able to pick up a wireless network from my apartment, which is going to make my life much easier for the time being. I can't check my email for some reason, but at least I can work on my blog from home.
When I was 15, my parents sent me on a "teen-tour" across the United States, and one of my fondest, in a perverse way, memories, is the day we got stuck in South Dakota, and 10 minutes after getting to our campsite very late (at about 1 a.m.), and being stuck between an overweight girl and a clothes dryer (because the KOA owner wouldn't let us put up tents), a tornado went through the campsite and we spent the rest of the night squeezed with about 100 other people in various reinforced structures.
Sunday was a day that I will put in that category. Thankfully, however, I was more of a witness to the drama than an actor.
It actually kind of started on Saturday night. At about midnight, I came back to the hotel in Madrid after a great evening of roaming around the Plaza Mayor, to find three of the students waiting in the lobby because they were going to go out. Over the course of the next 90 minutes about 35 other students came down on their way downtown to party. I reminded them that we had to get up at 6:30 the next morning to take the bus to Barcelona. They smiled and said that they weren't planning on sleeping the night. Sigh.
The next morning, we had to load all the luggage, and there's a lot of it, onto the bus, and during that time one of the students pushed the backdoor of the bus open forcibly, thereby breaking the door. So just as we were about to leave, we realized this and had to wait an hour until a repairman could come by. Okay, so now we were about 90 minutes late for this trip.
Ireri, the coordinator from Leonardo World (the company the college uses to organize the trip) had the whole day planned, and now, of course, her plan was shot. Meanwhie, two of the students were sick. One of the students got sick during the trip. And a few thought they were getting sick. I guess two nights in a row of partying in downtown Madrid right after arriving in Europe is not good for your health. Everyone slept throughout most of the trip, which was fine, but extremely boring. Everytime I tried to read, I got nauseous, so I spent most of the 8 hours staring out at the countryside, which looks surprisingly like parts of Arizona. And every stop ended up being longer than we wished, so we finally arrived in Barcelona with very little fanfare about 60 minutes late, at about 7 p.m. We had a welcome dinner to go to by 10, and 50 students, teachers, and family members to get to apartments. All of this on one of the busiest streets in Barcelona. It was a madhouse.
The people from Leonardo World and Don Quijote (the language school) did a great job, actually, but inevitably luggage was misplaced, feelings were hurt, etc. But eventually everyone was gone. Ireri came with me to my apartment (more on that later), and we went back downtown for the dinner.
The students not surprisingly were late, a few complaining about their apartments, but actually most of them were pretty happy. We had told them that the dinner was optional, so when a few didn't show up, I didn't think anything of it. Well, at about 11 p.m., one group of 6 female students came in, some were crying, and they were obviously very upset. They had not made it into their apartment. And why, you may ask?
When they got to the apartment, an elderly lady was coming home, and when she saw them she, well basically, freaked out. She started screaming at them in Spanish that they couldn't move in, that there were too many of them, that the last tenants had been so awful that the building wouldn't put up with it. Then! she started pounding on doors, and the other residents came down and all started yelling at them! They grabbed their children, and paraded them around the students, saying, "See, you've woken up our children." They threatened them, including the two Spanish women who had accompanyed them. They were pounding on tables, they called the police. It was a scene!!! Two American students who were living in the apartment tried to help them, but the FC students were, besides freaking out, worried about the two Americans' safety, so they just booked out of there.
This is unprecedented! I've never heard anything like it, have you?! I was flabbergasted. LeonardoWorld had offered to put them up in the dorms for the night, but they were so freaked out by then, that they just wanted to go to a hotel. This would have been fine, but the biggest trade show of the year just opened up in the city, and there are no hotel rooms to be had. My co-teacher, Marcus, essentially saved the day, and for all the FC people reading this, I have to say that my respect for him goes up every day. He basically organized in about 5 minutes 3 other apartments, including his own, for pairs of women to spend the night. It was incredible really, and I just got a call from Ireri saying that they've been moved into their own apartment this evening.
Wow! Drama!
I just can't wait for things to become routine!
My apartment is just as amazing as it seemed in pictures, although I haven't had much time to enjoy it yet. It's amazingly quiet considering how close it is to a many major streets. There's a great little cafe two doors down where I can get cafe con leche and crossants in the morning, and there's a little supermarket about two blocks away. I had a very funny Alice In Wonderland experience this evening. I had bought some food so that I could finally eat at home. The stove is essentially two electrice range-thingys, so I put water on one to cook up some pasta, and I set it to the highest setting -- 6. Well, 60 minutes later the water was still not boiling, and my garlic and onions that I was planning on sauteing with a red pepper and garbanzos had gotten slightly warm on the other burner after about 30. I was just staring at the stove in disbelief -- the stove isn't going to work! Then, I thought, well, maybe the numbers are reversed, so I set both burners to 1. In Spain, at least on my stove, the highest setting for a stove is the lowest number. Sigh.
The meal was great, however. I have to write about the neighborhood, but I'll do that later.
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3 comments:
Wow, Doug! What a hectic start to things, but as all travellers know, those tornados at the KOA days just happen. I hope things are settleing down. Sounds like your life in Spain is going great, except that you have to be the parent and problem solver to the group. I guess Marcus and Leonardo World came through in a big way, so it must be a little reassuring that you aren't out there alone. Have you started the teaching yet? How is that going? The neighborhood sounds great, and I look forward to hearing about your further adventures. My tornado was in Nebraska, by the way-sirens without freight trains, fortunately.
Your story about the drama reminds me of when a friend of mine (a university choir director) took a choir for a singing tour of Europe. Some of the students had never been away from home before, and many of them chose their choir tour as an opportunity to get as drunk as possible, usually the night before early-morning concerts. My friend refused to be their "mommy" so they could learn from their own misbehavior, and she ended up having a lot of fun, leaving people behind once or twice. When she asked me if I wanted to go with her the following year, I said NO! With young-adult kids of my own, I couldn't see the joy in escorting and chaperoning a bunch of brand-new drinkers around Europe. I would have been the one screaming and sending people away!!!
Isn't it great when someone ELSE comes to the rescue? Your stove top story reminds of the old Spinal Tap bit about turning the amp up to 11...
Glad to see your sense of humor is intact!
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