Now this is what I'm talking about...the real LIVING begins

Yaaay - my first official LEISURE post since I've been back! I was beginning to think my life here in Granada was going to really suck this go-round if I didn't get in some good ol' fashioned chill time with some good people. Just my luck, as I emerged from my cave on Friday evening, feeling for the most part recovered from my week-long battle with la gripa (the flu), I learned that some girls from the house had pulled it together and organized a barbecue for the next day up on the mountain - the same place that Marcia, Ashley, Zevic, Thalia and I went during the summer. This was just what I needed after 6 whole days spent hibernating in my room, listening to everyone having fun without me through the walls in the house. I woke up early, and me and the girls went to AlCampo to buy all the supplies and beer, and we came back to the house to rally the troops - over 18 people had signed up saying they wanted to come!


When we got to the house, everyone was still asleep (go figure) at 1:00pm! As we patiently waited for everyone to get ready, we heard screaming outside and Shell, a girl from Australia, ran to the door yelling, "Blood! Blood!" Well, we didn't know what the hell was happening, but there was a Dutch woman in the street calling for help because she had just been robbed. Apparently, a young Moroccan kid grabbed her bag, which held all her money and the passport she would need to leave Spain in 2 days, so she refused to let go and held onto it tightly as he dragged her, causing her to bang her head open very badly. Blood was literally pouring from this woman's head, so we helped her into the house and called the police. She had a friend with her, and the friend called the Ambulance. We waited about 30 minutes and eventually it was all taken care of, but the woman still was very angry about her money and passport, all her things in her bag. This happened in broad daylight, just around the corner from my house, folks, and it's not the first time. This is the 3rd story I've heard of something like this happening just in the 3 weeks since I've been back, and all reports are near where I live. Lesson learned: I'm going to buy some pepper spray as soon as possible.


Anyway, once all that mess was straightened out, we headed out to the mountain. We threw the coals on the grill and got the fire going, and pretty soon we were cooking. It started to rain just a bit when we first arrived, but it led to some inventive grocery-bag headwear and blanket and/or hat improvisation, which really set the tone for the cookout. Later, the rain cleared up and the sky started doing some pretty incredible things, pushing the clouds around in these beautiful patterns. I'm not sure how many people were there, in grand total, but almost the whole house came this time, and we were quite content with our burgers and beer and scenery. Oh! We even had a little canine companion - Jerome, our old housemate who now lives in the caves, brought Lorita, a 6-wk old puppy who kept us company. She was cute as a button and twice as good-natured - I found myself wishing she was mine more than once (shame on me! I've already got a cat hating me back in the States, how could I possibly care for and then abandon another animal across the ocean?!).


Anyway, it started to get cold on the mountain, so after a few porros and the rest of the beer, we made our way back down the mountain - this time, we had cars to do it in! Both Julie from France and Oscar from Spain (the Basque region, to be exact) have cars here, so that was quite convenient. Although I must say - it felt exotic to be riding in a car in Spain, and I was fascinated to meet someone European (Julie) who found it so difficult to part with their car that they brought it all the way from France; however, cars are a pain in the ass, man. It was so frantic and stressful, just maneuvering everywhere and trying to find where we needed to go while we're trapped inside this huge piece of steel machinery...we had a big clusterfuck after the barbecue just leaving the mountain, trying to get out of the Alhambra parking lot. Then there was this whole need to be back in the Albayzin by a certain time in order to find parking. We were ready to pull our hair out, and I felt sick to my stomach it was so stressful, but hey - I guess some people love their cars so much that the stress becomes...normal? God, I hope this never happens to me. I'll put up with walking through rain, steep hills, streets of dog shit, and angry Spaniards before I'll ever again consider dealing with the headache of driving a car every day. For real, dude. Cars are a nice luxury and all, but it's just not worth it.


Anyway, everyone was exhausted when we got back, so we had hot tea and crepes back at the house, and I went to bed feeling quite content with my first day of recovery from THE PLAGUE.
Some photo highlights:




me and the site of hamburger madness behind me


a table full of Tina residents


the magnificent sky was performing for me


Isabella and her 2 Swedish friends, visiting for dos semanas


Lorita, the 6-wk old barbacoa companion

I want to die

Seriously - this makes it twice this year that I've gotten sick with the same infection - or with what seems to be the same infection. The only difference is that this time I have to work through it and actually leave not only my bed but the house - a very challenging endeavor, indeed, when your whole body writhes in pain and anguish from just thinking about moving and every hour you experience a change in body temperature so severe it sends you either running for more clothes or conversely tearing the clothing from your limbs. Top it off with an achingly sore throat, a cough that would convince passersby that I am a 90-yr old man with emphysema, a congested and runny nose, and now expactorations of a bloody nature (sorry to gross you out, sickness is ugly)...well, I'm have a marvelous time, don't you think?

I was thinking this morning about health. I thought about how this sickness, which I've endured now for almost a full week, could have been much less painful if I had just gone to the doctor at the first signs of illness. So, then I have to consider why I didn't go to the doctor, and why I rarely go to the doctor when I'm ill? Granted, it's rare that I experience illness this severe, esp. two times in the same year, but I think my personal reasons may be two-fold: one, the fact that in America, if you are there without insurance, people will either scoff at you and turn you away, or treat you and send you the astronomical bill. I've always figured a few packs of Tylenol Flu is way cheaper and less embarrassing than having to deal with the humiliation of the American Health System; and two, my mother never took me to the doctor. I remember this one time, when I was sick with what the doctor later said was "the REAL flu," I laid on the couch for 2 FULL WEEKS before the woman took me to a doctor. By that point, not only had I missed a multitude of exams and homework, social club meetings and school what-have-yous, but I had fever blisters inside of my mouth, on my tongue, down my throat, in my nasal passages, in my tear ducts - basically, all nervous tissue in my body had been scorched by the ridiculous fever I'd endured for 2 weeks. When I finally went to the doctor, when my mother relented because she was afraid I had mono, I got some meds and was better in 2 days. I went back to school with scabs from all the blisters all over my face, eyes, and mouth, and everyone asked if I'd gotten beat up. "Nope, my mom is just cheap."

Anyway, I think I've inherited this awful trait of hers, and it occurred to me while being miserable this morning that, even though I don't have insurance here in Spain, most of the uninsured travelers I've spoken to have been treated by doctors and/or hospitals here, and some of them for FREE. Maybe I should head on down to the hospital?? It's certainly a thought. I can't take much more of this.

Connect the Dots

I've felt sick for the past two days - probably of my own doing, since some impromptu drinking ensued on Saturday night and then, without feeling tip-top, I again went out to the Booga last night (but I only had 2 or 3 beers and called it an early night - go me!). Yesterday, it was a headache and nausea, and today my throat hurts too. Just in time for my first full-on week of teaching hours...hooray. I am non-plussed.

I realized after the last post that I left out some details between when I first got my teaching hours with one school and when the second school hired me. The first school (which I am not naming out of concerns for myself and them, due to the working papers thing) apparently sent my C.V. over to the second school. So, I went on an interview without even knowing this school had existed before then. I went into the interview thinking I'd already gotten the job, so I was completely cool and confident, and I killed it. They called me three hours later and promised me up to 20 hours this school year! So that's what happened to take me from just 4/hrs a week to a full-time teaching load, and only in a matter of a week! Go, me.

But what this means is that now I'm teaching 2 days a week from 9am to 9m (roughly, with a few hours here and there for eating and transit). A lot of the hours are one-to-one, which I absolutely love, but the trade-off is that they are mostly "house calls," where I go to the students' homes and teach them there for an hour or two. The other days of the week are fairly easy, though they also require a lot of "bopping around" the city. This is a pain in the butt because it requires taking the bus to the far reaches of the city, then often only having half an hour to get to the next lesson. I'm making it work, but of course being sick (if I am in fact getting sick) will definitely put a drain on my energy levels and make this a lot more difficult. We shall see, we shall see.

In other news, I made some rosemary potatoes today without an oven (not recommended). They became mashed potatoes almost instantly, but they tasted great. I've been experimenting with various grilled cheese sandwiches (gouda, mozarella, edam...the cheese options are astounding in Spain), but I'm learning that the key is the right type of bread.

Hmmm...what else?? Well, I had my first big money hitch that I discovered today. Apparently, when I cancelled my Sprint account, they decided it wasn't necessary to send me an invoice and billed me a whopping $250.98, which I of course didn't have the money in my account to cover, so now I've got two $35 overdraft charges on top of that and my account is more in the red than it's ever been. I can't do anything about it until the end of the month when I get paid, but even then it won't be a full month's work of pay, so...I'm quite angry and stressed out over this. I disputed the charges with both Sprint and my bank, but who knows what will come of it. I don't know when I'll have to top off my phone again either, so I'm reluctant to use my minutes to make long-distance calls and sit in a holding queue for 30 minutes while they jerk me around. Such is life across the sea, I suppose - often inconvenient.

Well, I feel like crap. I'm gonna unplug now.

dot dot dot

And another week goes by...

I have reached Saturday, so I'm taking the opportunity now to post an update since my weekdays here are every so slightly filling to the brim as the two schools for which I am now working keep upping my hours. This is great, right? Of course it's great, for it means I will be able to pay my bills and live a decently comfortable life while here in Granada. It also means I get the experience I need to perpetuate my career as a TEFL teacher - a foot in the door was all it took, and somehow the miracle of a JOB has fallen into my lap.

However...

While on the one hand, I'm working mostly 1:1 hours with one school, AT the school, the other school is a completely different sack of potatoes. It's a really small school, very "hands-on" (their term, not mine), and they send me out on "house calls" most of the time. This means I'm hopping - not the Metro but BUSES - all over Granada, hoofing it from one bus stop to a student's home, then to another bus stop and another student's home...and so on, until I'm completely wrecked by the end of the day, just from going between points A and B, and then lugging all my books up the hill to get home. I came home Tuesday and was so exhausted and famished that I nearly cried into my leftover pasta. What have I done? I was asking myself. But, I woke up the next days and did it all over again, and each time, it seemed a bit less stressful. It helps that I get a few hours here and there in the week to deflate, have a cafe and a cigarette, and gather my mental bearings to prepare for the next student. It also helps that a lot of my students are 1:1, and a lot of them are at similar levels, preparing for the same exams. This eliminates a lot of lesson planning, for which I am unfathomably grateful.

Anyway, I'm doing ok. This is still only the beginning of the school year, and my course load is only 3/4 of the way full. I'm apprehensive about the amount of work it's going to be when my schedule is fully complete, but this way, it allows me to take baby steps towards a full-time work week. By next month, the routine will be much easier, and it will be a lot like carrying a college schedule, so I can certainly handle that.

I really like some of my students, too. There are only two that I'm not quite sure about (a brother and sister learning from home 1 day a week), and I got lost on the way to their first lessons and it was a bit hectic just jumping into the lessons so quickly to save time, so my first impression may be entirely wrong. I have one very bright 16-yr old boy who is at a very advanced level but just has some pronunciation and vocabulary issues. He's into politics and philosophical debate, so it's really fun to talk with him and engage his interests. I think he thinks I'm pretty cool, too :)

Outside of the job, there's no real news. The house is now completely full-up (British English), with all 17 rooms now occupied. It's a great vibe when everyone's here at the same time, but lately there are these lulls when absolutely no one is around, and it's quite creepy. I just hang out in my room, look up some lesson planning ideas on the internet, and wait for people to show up and chat with me.

The most exciting non-job-related thing on the docket for me now is HALLOWEEN! We're throwing a big party in the house and everyone will be in costume. I can NOT wait.

That's all for now. Gonna go down and help a friend pick out some new prescription eyewear - what fun ; )