End of Jaén..new travels

Well, I can't believe time has flown by so fast. It has been aboslutely incredible the last 3 months. The travels on the weekend, the people met - Spaniards, Canadians in the program and others in Jaén, international students - the teaching, the experiences. All have been wonderful and I feel incredibly fortunate for this opportunity. It was about this time last year when I was wondering after applying if I would get the opportunity. Really glad I did so thank you U of L and the people involved.
The last week or so has been busy saying goodbyes, doing last minute things, still experiencing the culture and having visitors from Canada. On Monday, Erika (my prof from U of L), came to visit for a few days. We had a meeting about the Mobility Program, with all of the Canadian students except one, and then had a fantastic Spanish dinner. Such great hosts the people were at the restaurant. Saying goodbye to lots of people and really glad to have met them. One last night out tonight with most of the Canadian students and most of us are off tomorrow!
Teaching has been awesome the last 2 weeks as it has been games and this week, teaching them line dancing. Has been really fun and the kids seem to enjoy it. Will miss the school - the teachers, the students, the lifestyle. Quite a gig out here..hope to come back in the next few years.
I leave tomorrow for Malaga, fly out on Saturday morning to Barcelona where I will met my brother Luke who is flying in from Singapore. He has holidays from teaching so we're spending 3 weeks together in France and Spain. We have 10 days together, then we meet up with May and Pam in Paris, come back down to Barcelona where we meet Dalia, Luke's wife, and we start a one-week tour of Spain with me as the guide!! Poor Luke, Dalia, Pam and May!! No, we have lots of stuff planned - Alhambra in Granada, the Mezquita in Cordoba, flamenco dancing, arab spa, staying in the mountains..hopefully everything works out!!!
And then I'm off with May and Pam to Greece and Italy for a month before heading over to the Philippines with May and we're meeting her fam there for 2 weeks. Then back to Germany for World Cup where I hope to meet up with some fellow Albertans in Switzerland and then after that, either back to Spain or Eastern Europe for 2 weeks. I don't know...we'll see.
That is more or less the rough plans. Hopefully no major hiccups occur, but you never know.
I hope to keep up to date with this blog but that all depends on internet access and if there is time.
Best of luck to all and we'll be in touch!
Adam

Bullfight

This weekend Eric and I went to a bullfight, here in Jaen. It was a charity event, with some pretty big names I guess making an appearance. We had heard our fair share of people pointing out the negatives of it all (the bulls are all drugged up, hallucinating, torture of the bulls as they are wailing in pain, etc.), but I for one wanted to check it out myself.

Needless to say, the show was pretty interesting. There was a total of 7 bulls over a 3 hour show. The first bull consisted of a matador on a horse, shoving small spear-like things into its neck/back (from on top of the horse), and later trying to "peg" on smaller spears, more of a challenge since they have to get closer to the bull. Later, he dismounted, did his ole thing, and this is all culminated by the matador, positioning himself directly in front of the bull, raise his sword, and thrust it into the neck/back (much like the first picture here on the left). The sword is about 2 feet long I would say and it goes all the way in...at least on this one it did. He was the only bull to drop instantaneously. Later, one of the extra matadores (matadores in training who are around the ring with pink sheets throughout the show), then shoves a small spike into the back of the skull, thus killing it. Then, two horses come out and drag the bull out of the ring, much to the delight of the crowd.

The second matador, who was one of the most impressive, fit the stereotypical matador..minus the glitsy outfit. Tight pants, hat, sword, red sheet, and moved around artistically as the bull would race after him time after time. These last 6 bulls were killed in a different manner than the first. The bull would race out, a training matador would do its thing on it for a minute or so, the bull would then attack one of the 2 horses in the ring now (who are in full armor since the bull essentially rams into it while the horseman spears it in the back. This is said to tire the bull out and to start the bleeding) Now, two other matadores in training, would position themselves in the middle of the ring, and as the bull races towards them, they would dodge it and drove the tips of two spear like things into its back. This is what is always hanging off the back of the bull in the pictures. There are 4 spears stabbed in like this. Then, the matadore of the show, enters, does his thing for 10 minutes, very fancy, very artistic, teasing the bull hera and there and at times, quite impressive considering it is a 1000 lbs beast with a few centimeters of them. (at one point, one of the matadores let the bull pass, and as it came around again, the matadore stepped in front of it and proceeded to run backwards, with his hand on the bulls head, for a good 10 seconds while the bull would continue running..) But after the artistic flare part, he grabs his sword, positions himself, and thrusts the sword in.

However, out of these last 6 bulls, none of the dropped instantaneously. They would continue struggling, eventually begin to tire (and of coure, the interior bleeding all the while killing them), then collapse. It is part of the game of after thrusting the sword in, to see if you do indeed drop it. If not, you wait and judge to see if another blow is needed. At times the matadore was ready to strike again as the bull was just sitting there, but then the bull would begin to swagger, blood would rush out of its nose, and then collapse. And then the spike thing happens, eventually killing it.

One more twist, after the bull is dragged out, everyone starts waving a white piece of cloth. The president of the bull fighting who is in attendance, then shows one, two, or three pieces of cloth. Essentially, this is to show how good of a show it was. For one and two pieces of white cloth from the president, the ears are sawed off. If it is really good, which the 4th matadore was, the 3rd piece of cloth is shown and the tail is then sawed off. Then, the matadore walks aroud the stadium, to a standing ovation and proceeds to throw the ears into the lucky people in the audience! One little boy got the tail and he looked happier than I have ever looked at Christmas time! All the while, people are throwing anything into the stadium - flowers, shirts, hats, etc. - and the matador then throws it back to the audience (and the audience then gives it back to the person eventually..) This is to show appreciation for the fight...

So, I hope I have depicted this even quite accurately. It is quite the spectacle but definitely not for the weak-stomached. To see a 1000 lbs animal, crumble to the ground and then have a spike driven can be disturbing at times. And the blood-drenched back is hard for some. I am not quite sure of the consequences of each sword and stake used, but Eric and I imagined that the sword would be driven vital organs, thus causing internal bleeding and slow death. Hence, why 3-5 minutes may go by before the bull eventually falls after the sword is driven in by the matadore. And the stake is to finish it off, and Eric believes the brain stem is severed...or something to that detail since the bull turns over and is rigid-like.

Please don't jump to conclusions about this sport, or event. I am sure outsiders could view many north american spectacles as horrific to animals and to people. Take it as it is - a different custom that has been around for centuries, and part of their culture.

My last week here...crazy to believe it and it will go by so fast..

Valencia...Las Fallas

Well,
Another weekend has passed and another great experience. We went to Valencia this last weekend (Eric, Conrad and I and we met my friend Kristin from Murcia there). We left Thursday evening, arrived rather late and couldn't get into our campsite, so we camped off the main road, by the ocean more or less. Friday, we settled into our campsite, which was south of Valencia - about 20 km, and almost wished we had stayed in the woods. The campsite had a lot for us of about 20 X 25 ft. However, this was covered with a layer of gravel. Of course, we brushed away the rocks and then tried for an hour of pushing/hammering in the pegs for the tent. We did eventually get it set up, had a quick nap since the night before was a little late, and then headed off for the day.

We arrived at 1, proceeded to the main square where we were told there were fireworks and firecrackers at 2pm every day. We couldn't make our way into the main square since it was already packed and the all the streets leading into it were as well. So we settled for our spot about 50 meters back from the square and listened to 5 minutes of deafening firecrackers and fireworks display. It makes sense now whey they have most firework shows not in the middle of a city! We hung around until 5, picked up Kristin, went back to the campsite, made a quick salad, and then headed back in around for St. Patties day festivities.

After the first Irish pub, we went through a few side streets and found ourselves at paella competition. I have had paella before in Linares (see blog entry), which is essentially rice, chicken and shrimp mixed with saphron spice and water and other vegetables. But these people were having a competition of in the open street, all of them had wood fires and a little stand to mount there huge bowl/plate that they would make their paella in. We watched a few people make it, then I started up a conversation with a few older guys (in the 40s) about what they were doing. They knew I spoke english by my broken spanish accent and proceed to tell me that one of the guys is moving to St. John's NB in July for 3 months. We met him, his family, his sisters family and they offered us to join them in eating the paella. FANTASTIC!! After a few hours with them, we continued onto another Irish pub and drank a few more rounds until about 4...

Next day, we headed back in about 3pm, and really took it easy. Toured around to see most of the fallas. I'll explain quickly what they are. They are huge caricatures made by people from the surrounding villages and areas that are sometimes depictions of society or satirical. Or, they could just be interesting figures. (this ranges from a falla dedicated to Disney images, to one of Bush and Bin Laden playing guitar together..) The whole purpose of this week long festival is to display these all over old Valencia, in the intersection of those narrow streets. Now, imagine sometimes huge fallas about 10-15 meters high and taking up the intersection. This whole festival culminates on Sunday evening, when they are all burned (except the best one) at midnight!! (They are often made of styrofoam with a wooden skeleton/infrastructure). To finish off Saturday, we headed out for dinner in a near buy village, went to the beach, had a bottle of wine and played with some firecrackers...Eric went crazy with these things. You could buy them in almost any little convenience store for cheap...really cheap.

Another aspect of this festival is the firecrackers. Since they can be bought anywhere, anybody has them. Little kids will be setting them off in the street beside you, and Eric for that matter, so the first day you are on the edge all the time..explosions all around you, all the time. By Sunday, I had grown accustomed to the noises and didn't jump everytime an unexpected explosion happened. And you could imagine the noise when they are set off in little narrow streets...

Anyways, Sunday was spent all day in Valencia. A little Bodellon in the local park (which was the old river that went through the city but when it flooded in the 50's, they redirected it around the city and converted the ancient river bed and walls into nice parks), then waited in an intersection with a falla that we wanted to watch burn. Around 10:30, they set off the smaller one. Then at midnight, they have a 3-4 minute firecracker/firework show and then the actual falla is lit using firecrackers that were laced around the caricatures and figures. This is quite humourous since people are gathered around for the display, move back a bit when the firecrackers go off, then slowly as the whole display goes up in flames, they get hit with the intense heat wave. So incredible...As you'll see in the pictures, it looks like a huge blaze which it was! So crazy that they have this in the little streets, but there were firefighters on hand spraying the surrounding buildings and trees to prevent anything. (that is a disclaimer for all of you people reading this thinking "what is wrong with Spaniards? Huge bonfires in the middle of their small streets?" Then, we went to the main square for the huge burning of the main falla after a very impressive firework display, synchronized to 2 Valencian classical songs. Oh yeah, we were in the main square again at 2 that Sunday to see the fireworks and firecracker display (I wore my ear plugs since we were in the actual square and the vibrations from the display really were deafening. Also, to give the magnitude of some of the noises, we could actually feel the power from the explosions at times.... In the pictures, that is what the picture of the mass gathering of people with the fenced off area. This area is the size of a basketball court and is devoted solely to the firework and firecracker display at 2pm and 1am every day.

All in all, a great weekend. This weekend is busier than ever with last classes for my one group of kids, spanish classes at the university, trying to plan our last time things with people and so on...will get to go to a bull fight this Saturday in Jaén. Will be interesting to see...Also have to pack and get everything organized for my 3 months of travel...
Thank you to those who have read this novel of an entry...pictures should be up this weekend..
AT

Jack and Barcelona

Here is my boy, Jack Johnson. For all of you that don't know him, he is an American artist with a good little sound. I ventured off this weekend to Barcelona to see him play Saturday night. A lot of traveling time (10 hrs there and back) but he was well worth it. Such a good artist live, and his opening bands - Matt Costas and ALO (who features the pianist from Jack's band..very talented musician) were both very good. It was a rather small venue. In the same stadium from the '92 olympics in Barcelona, it filled the floor and most of the seating in the first row. Really great since we managed to end up front row, a bit to his right. Maybe 30 feet from him and the stage. Great for Kristin who came since she is a little shorter so she loved actually seeing him! And, two Scottish gals asked if they could stand in front of me as they thought I could see from anywhere in the crowd! I complied and they were quite fun gals.

We met, or I should say Kristin met, one of the few spaniards who were there. The audience composed mostly of foreigners - Americans on exchanges, French and other nationalities. The spaniards just explained that Jack isn't that big in Spain, or at least to spaniards. Unfortunately there were a few American gals (4 of them and then one guy later) who really irritated the crowd around us, and the Scottish gals. In my view, they were being quite obnoxious, dancing around, a little drunk, and bumping into people non-stop. Of course, they argued they were just having a good time but others didn't see it that way. Nor did I. Very arrogant of them and obnoxious. But what can you do. Too bad since I'm sure some people will remember those Americans and group most Americans under that umbrella..which I can attest isn't true for all of our neighbors to the South. Anyways, we went with out with the Spaniards after for a drink in Barcelona and it was nice to meet them. I was quite tired and out of it so Kristin did most of the conversing. Thanks Kristin!

We walked around the rest of the night, sticking to the main roads as the Spaniards warned us of some gangs that are in Barcelona, and other major cities in Spain. Which was a good thing since we had planned to go to the Barrio Gothic (an older part full of Gaudi pieces and other interests) but they advised against it. And after asking some more students today at school, there are some rival gangs in Spain. The Latin Kings and the Netas. Very dangerous at times as the stories go.

I eventually left Barcelona Sunday morning around 8am, and after pulling an all nighter...alright, a few naps here or there on a park bench and in the train station. Good to nap on the train but when I was awake, it is quite the scenery here in Spain. From the awesome Mediterranean ocean along the coast - Barcelona and Valencia, and then into the interior full of fields. Closer to the south, we approached some mountain ranges, or Sierras. And typical to Jaen and its province (Andalucia), the olive tree farms were abundant as I approached home. Very diverse as I saw throughout my train rides this weekend. What a country..

Time is winding down fast. The next two weeks are my last, and I'm trying to organize some fun classes. For the older ones, we might do some educational two-stepping. Teach them a few moves here and there and a line dance, country style. Nothing like exposing them to some cultural Albertan dancing. Headed to the University almost every day to teach a few classes here and there, as well as have night classes for Spanish. And then there are some classes I'm assisting with, some conversational classes. I've found a few language partners to practice my Spanish, and their English. So, things are shaping up to be quite busy for the last 3 weeks. It is a shame that the month of February was the University's exam week as I would have liked to had the opportunity to participate like this the whole time we were here. But, all you do is enjoy what is left right.

And on top of all this stuff, still have Las Fallas this weekend in Valencia for 4 days. Going to be quite the show as they say it is better than Cadiz, the huge carnival at the end of February that I went to.

Take care and for those Jack fans, enjoy the pics on the yahoo link.

Adam

University classes

Hello all
I have had the opportunity this week to join a few univeristy classes. I have met a few profs on my own, and they have let me teach 2 classes this week, and more for next week and then the week following. As well, I have observed a few other English classes and one French classes. Really useful to see a person with more experience handle their class, the material and little things they do while teaching.

The teaching last night went well. Similar to the high school situation by taking a text from the text book, reading it and discussing it. On a whole, there were some students whose English was very good and contributed regularly. But, there was the odd student who didn´t comprehend what I was saying or what the text was suggesting. They were 2nd year University students so that did come as a bit of a shock. But, a good experience overall since it was nice to talk to some students who were more mature, and some were my age or older. And oddly enough, a few guys from my University Residence were in the class. I'll have to ask them at lunch what they thought of the class. I didn't have an issue with the older students surprisingly, as it worked out well..they were less shy than other people to contribute. Always funny with the languages. I guess you can never escape the mentality of students to be reluctant to contribute in another language. I am getting better at encouraging them to speak which is very useful for me.

I am off to Barcelona this weekend for a concert with my friend Kristin from Murcía. Very very excited but a lot of traveling time to do and hopefully I can do some planning during the 8 hr train ride there and back on Saturday and Sunday..but realistically, I don't think so.

Next weekend have 3-4 more classes with University people, some observing, one participating in with the language assistant and the other two teaching. Should be great....and don't worry, still keeping up at the high school. Always good times...

Take care all
Adam

Gibraltar

Crazy to visit this little piece of rock, 5 km by 1km, right at the southern tip of this Iberian peninsula. After a 5 hour bus ride there, we arrived in this little piece of UK culture. From double decker buses, to many students running around in little uniforms (reminded me of Hogwarts), to hearing that oh so familiar language..with that slightly different accent.

We treated ourselves to some good ol´ fish n´ ships right away, and then after looking around for the best deal, within the time limit of 4 hours, we decided to take a taxi tour, which was probably the best deal. We went to the southern tip (Jews gate or Hercules pillars), and luckily we saw the coast of Africa. After many pictures of Africa, and then southern-most point of Spain to the West, we proceeded up to St. Michael´s cave. This is a cave full of staglamites and a few stalamites. Interesting the legends of these were first thought of the passage that brought over the famed Gibraltar apes (macaques I believe and they weren´t monkeys the local driver told us because they don´t have tales...whether this is true, I hope someone will let me know in the future). But the caves were very interesting.

Then we proceeded along the face of the mountain by taxi to where the macaques were. Everyone eventually took a picture with them, and a few unfortunate Canadians, had other macaques jump on them unexpectandly after the other macaque had left. Quite humourous I thought.

We then went to the final destination of the 2 hour tour, the Great Siege tunnels (there was a famous seige during 1779-1783 where the Brits held off the Spanish for control of the rock). So there are tunnels throughout the northern face of the rock, with little areas to shoot cannons out of every 30 meters or so. And this was their success to winning according to some of the history blurbs. Quite interesting though to think back to that day and age, and what it must have been like to survive around that time...

Surprisingly, this is all we accomplished in our 4 hours. That was really enough time I thought because yes it might have been nice to look around and buy a few things, but we all know that I´m not one to buy little trinkets here and there, especially not while I´m traveling. So, we hopped back on the bus for a 5 hour journey home.

I hope to get the pictures up soon but we´ll see if I have the time.
Teaching is still going well. Lessons are going well, at least in my mind, and there has been some positive feed back. This week, I´m going to venture into a few University classes, as I´ve made some contacts with 2 profs, and they´ve asked me to come speak for a bit. Will be a good experience I think, with the older ages and higher level of English..possibly.

Take care all and I hope this finds you well,
Adam

pictures

here are updated pics of CADIZ and some hikes and nightlife in the Jaen folder (as well as a visit to the Nature reserve from last week)

http://photos.yahoo.com/abenturner

Take care
Adam

(my shortest entry ever...there you go all you people saying that they are too long..)