Public vs. Private Schools

I wanted to write a small post about some of the people I've met here in Cartagena, Spain, and other travels. I had one of my private conversation classes today, with a girl who is 12 years old. Although she is only 12, I have always seen her as older because she can carry on interesting, intellectual conversations.  Her English is excellent for her age. I find that most of the people I give classes too (besides the toddlers) are people that share common interests with me, as well as common perspectives.

For example, today with the 12 year old, we came to the subject of private and public schools. All of my private toddler classes go to private elementary schools. When I asked one of the mothers about this, she said it was because private schools are safer and don't have so many kids from outside like Latin America…I didn't know what to say. And this is the mother of the two little boys that I adore. She loves Thai food and asian food though, and is always interested in my travels, so I always thought she was open and free minded. But when I heard that it got me thinking. And it made me sad.

I told my student that I had always gone to public schools, she responded by saying she prefers public schools. I asked her why. Her first reason was that it was so she could meet people from other countries (and therefore backgrounds, religions, beliefs, etc.) She said she liked meeting new, interesting, and different people. I would have never thought of a reason like that at her age! I was impressed and so happy to hear that! I told her about the other family with kids in private schools. She shook her head and said that it doesn't' matter where we're from but that we are all just people. She blew my  mind. I don't know if she gets it from her parents (of course a little bit because they are the ones that decided on public schools, they definitely could have afforded private), or if she is developing it on her own. Although, when I told her mom I loved Morocco, she gave me a "meh" face and said that it never called her attention, and had no intention of going there.

Anyway, it was a nice change from the majority of families I see here that are religious, traditional, and haven't ever thought of traveling outside of Europe. My 12 year old student and I talk about all the places we want to go, all the time!

Another person I have a good connection with is the class right before that with a man in his late 40's or early 50's, a father-like figure. He has traveled a lot, and has lots of stories to tell. We too share similar perspectives on life, politics, and travel. Half the things we talk about are travel. He is planning a trip to Thailand in the next year, I have given him tips on places to visit.

It's these liberated, open-minded, different people. It's nice to know that as I travel, I will meet others who like to travel. It's inevitable. Do what you like to do and you'll meet others just like you. Even people that want to take English classes with you, obviously they want to learn for some reason, to travel? Probably!

In hostels, you meet great people. On trips you meet great people. Whether it is your crazy tour guide, or people who decided to drop everything and travel the world, or a girl doing the PeaceCorps. There's so much to see! So many different people and cultures to meet! I may be biased, but I think everyone needs to travel, outside their comfort zones. It'll give you a more worldly perspective.

Morocco

It’s always a strange feeling coming back to your everyday routine after a vacation, especially if you have had an adventure.  I saw somewhere online that “It’s not because it’s Monday, it’s because of your job”, meaning that if you hate getting up on Mondays, it’s probably because you hate your job and are in the wrong profession. I’ve found myself waking up each morning thinking about this, getting up to teach. Why do I dread waking up early to go teach if that’s the profession I want to pursue? Then again, this is a teaching ASSISTANT job, and a lot of the time I don’t do much in the classroom and find myself looking at the clock. Maybe if I was the main teacher and was able to plan my own lessons I would be more excited to wake up in the morning and go teach. When I taught Spanish in the U.S. I don’t remember feeling this way about teaching, I was always ready and prepared.

Anyway, it’s the first day back from Semana Santa vacations, and so far I have just sat in the classroom while the kids watched a movie.

For Semana Santa we got a little over a week for vacation. My friend Rio (who is also from Berkeley but teaches in Madrid) and I went to Morocco for a week. He was a great traveling companion. It always tests your friendship when you travel one-on-one with someone. And this was a great experience! Also probably helps that we grew up in the same environment our whole lives.

Packing was hard, I brought mostly conservative clothes, but then realized short sleeved shirts aren’t that bad. They knew I was a tourist no matter what I wore.

We met in Algeciras (I had to take a 9 hour bus ride from Murica that left at 4:30am, and was an hour late) and then took a short bus ride down to Tarifa. Tarifa is the most southern point city in Spain and is known for it’s windy beaches, so many people travel there to windsurf. It was a small hippy town, which we liked for the chill environment and vegan/organic food choice. We split a tasty paella. The next morning we took the ferry to Tangier, about a 45 minute ride. We spent the entire ride in line waiting for our passport stamps. But a nice Moroccan lady helped us with our Arabic pronunciation.

I would say Tangier was the most intense arrival, because it was our first city. We walked off the boat, and felt like we couldn’t trust anyone. Travel books inform you but also make you kind of paranoid. We had no map, no GPS, and no sense of direction. Luckily with Rio’s bit of French, we asked multiple people for directions until we made it to our hostel. The last man who helped us seemed offended that we were hesitant to follow him. In the end he said “remember we’re all one human race, we have to help each other”. But generally people do offer to lead you places in exchange for a small payment. For example, later that day we were trying to find this café known for it’s tea and view of the sea. It would have been impossible to find it if it weren’t’ for these two little boys that showed us the way. Yea we gave them 10 dirham in the end (1 euro), but they were kids, and it was a fun experience speaking in multiple languages with them. Whenever we decided to follow people I was always afraid they’d lead us the wrong way and rob us, but we were always lead to the right place. Better to be safe than sorry though, especially when you’re a vulnerable tourist.

We didn’t spend our whole time in the old part of town (the medina), we ventured off to the new town, which was nice. It’s amazing to see the differences. In the old town the women are more traditionally dressed, prayer goes off 5 times a day, and it’s a bit dirtier. In the newer parts of the cities we visited, more women dressed similar to the way I dress, but skin always covered. The environment seemed more relaxed, at least for me. Drinking is not illegal in Morocco, but prohibited within the medina. We were able to get a beer made in Fez at one of the discotecas on the beach. We also got a bunch of free food at this one restaurant where we had dinner. It was there that we discovered “harira” soup, the soups in Morocco are amazing.

One thing in Morocco (depending on the city) is you never really know what buses and times will be available. Our trip got postponed twice because of buses being full. Luckily we got out of Tangier the same day we wanted, just a few hours later. We took a 3 hour bus to our next city Chefchaouen. The bus was one of the cheaper ones, so two boys sat on top of each other right next to me. People sat in the aisle way or on the steps of the bus as well. No air conditioning, but with the windows open it was fine.

Chefchaouen was our favorite city. All the buildings are painted different shades of blue. Someone told us it was to keep mosquitos away, not sure if it’s true, because I got bit. Chefchaouen is known for growing hashish, maybe that’s why everyone there was so relaxed. It is situated in the Rif mountains, so there were beautiful views all around. We hiked one of the smaller mountains with new friends we made at tour hostel, we watched the sunset from the top. While hiking we saw a huge heard of goats, followed by a few dogs and their herder. We exchanged waves. And man, can goats climb! During our stay, we were tricked in to buying rugs. Well, not really tricked because we wanted to buy rugs initially. We were approached by a three-toothed old man, who offered to show us his friend’s factory. We went, and ended up drinking tea with the rug man Abudla for about 2 hours while we looked at rugs and bargained. I got a blue rug made out of cactus, and Rio got a blue blanket, “student price” said Abdula. We were exhausted by the end of the transaction. Then, the three-toothed man brought us to his other friend’s restaurant. We decided to just eat there. It was cheap anyway. The people we met in Chefchaouen were great, by the end it seemed we had formed a tight group in such little time. It was weird, meeting so many people during our trip and saying so many goodbyes.

We ended up staying 2 nights in Chefchaouen because the bus was full until the next day. But if we would have left we wouldn’t have met the people and done the things we did with our extra time. It’s nice letting your trip plan itself.

After saying bye to our new friends at the bus station, me and Rio cried as we said bye to what felt like a new home. Well we didn’t really cry, but it was sad to say bye to such a beautiful city and experience. You always have to keep going though. The next bus was the fancier bus that had air conditioning; about a 4.5 hour ride to Fez. We had had issues deciding if we wanted to spend 2 nights in Fez and 1 in Marrakech, or vic versa. We had to re-arrange our plans because we spent an extra day in Chefchaouen. We decided on 2 nights in Fez, which we regretted in the end.

Rio had heard from multiple friends that Fez was amazing, but it’s all personal opinion. For us, Fez was super intense because of the enormous medina, and people everywhere looking at us like money. Fez has the oldest and biggest medina in Morocco, it was the dirtiest of the cities we visited. After arriving the first night, we took a walk around the area. There was nothing really, expect a few stores, and multiple people offering us tours, places to eat, etc. Even the next day when we found the main street, we weren’t impressed with the city. I liked the new part of the city that we drove through upon arrival. The medina had tight streets, packed of people, I was expecting more of a plaza with wider streets.

My favorite thing that we did was hike up to a small castle on the outskirts of the city for a view. It was quite and far away from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

The hostel where we stayed was ridiculous. You could stay there and never leave the comfort of the hostel, they were total self-sufficient. They had food, t.v., laundry, tours, cooking classes, etc. which I guess is nice if you’re traveling alone and afraid to venture off into the city. We met a lot of people there too, and met up with one of our friends who we had met in Chefchaouen. Another girl who had been there two years took the train with us to Marrakech.

It’s amazing how many people we met, makes me excited to travel to Italy alone. I love hearing about where they come from, what they’re doing, and where they’re going. It gives me ideas for my travels.

We took a 9 hour train ride to Marrakech, it left at 6:50am. We were able to take the taxi with a few friends we had met there, 2 of them were going the opposite way up north though. Me and Rio went with the girl who had been there for 2 years, she had also adopted a 5 day old cat from the streets. The train ride went by fast, but the last 2 hours were rough. There were 3 older women sitting next to us who were traditionally dressed, and traveling with two kids. At first I thought they were talking about me, maybe because I was sitting cross-legged and showing my feet (which is disrespectful there, similar to in Thailand). But then a while later while I was eating some almonds, they offered me some bread. It was amazingly nice. I guess they thought that nuts is no way to nourish hunger. The bread was filled with sesame seeds and other herbs, it was delicious. I shared some with Rio, and then they gave us a bit more. Our friend was able to speak Arabic with them, I wish I could have communicated. At least I knew “shokran” which means thank you.

Arriving to Marrakech was a nice experience. It was a bit more developed and clean. There were a lot of palm trees, and I always get a good feeling when I see palm trees. We walked a bit down the street from the station to find a decently priced taxi. We had a funny experience when we were deciding between taxis and we turned our heads to one guy stopped in traffic. Right when Rio said “what about that guy” we looked over and the guy gave us a head nod, a wink, and a smile. It was like we were hookers he was trying to pick up off the street. We had a good laugh, and so did the guy when he saw us burst into laughter. He picked up another lady on the way, which is normal. Shared taxis, and only 3 to a taxi, are the norms in Morocco.

Marrakech has a very beautiful old mosque. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed into most mosques. The city had a huge plaza, with lots of orange juice stands and cobras and monkeys. During the night it was packed with restaurants. We went to an artisanal area with shops where the artists sold their artwork directly. There were set prices, so no bargaining. It was a nice change from bargaining in the medina and souks. I got a painting. Of course, we also made our way to the souks and I bought some teacups to go with my tea pot. Marrakech is where my bargaining was at its best. We only stayed one night, and got up early to catch our flight at 9am. We had a 6 hour layover in Casablanca, and they wouldn’t let us leave the airport, so that was fun…finally, we arrived in Madrid, drank some cañas, and had some tapas. Probably will go back to Madrid this weekend to see some flamenco and just enjoy city life. Two of our friends from Brazil that we met in Chefchaouen might be there too. Cartagena just isn’t doing it for me anymore.

So some typical food in Morocco. There’s couscous, which comes vegetarian or with different types of meat. Tajine, which is kind of like a curry with meat, and good for dipping bread in. Pastilla, which is a pastry filled with chicken, nuts, and cinnamon, interesting mix of flavors. Harira, a soup with garbanzo beans, small noodles, and chicken broth. Mint tea, which is basically green tea with mint and a TON of sugar. I also got this eggplant past/dip that was delicious.

Some words I learned:

“shorkan”-thank you

“beslama”-bye

“salam”-hello

“la”-no

“shahal taman”-how much is it

“bezaf”-too expensive

Overall I really liked my experience there, but I didn’t get to see any camels…we didn’t have enough time to do a desert tour. But I did eat camel, which was tasty.  If I ever go back I’ll go back to Chefchaouen and Marrakech, and spend a few nights in the desert.

Cordoba

Well I finally went to Cordoba, and it was just as nice as I thought it would be. Everyone told me a day or a night would be sufficient, but I spent 3 full busy days there, with time to relax too.

I don't think one day in any city is sufficient, if you really want to get "to know" the city. For example, I thought a day trip to Toledo was enough. So I made a day trip to Toledo…then another, and then another. There's always something new to find. Even in small towns or "pueblos", well I guess there are exceptions.

I stayed in the best place I've ever stayed, I think, at least here in Spain. It was an ancient Andalusian house, made from stone with a central patio in the middle of all the rooms. Surprisingly, it was kind of like a hostel even though I found it on airbnb. There were a lot of people staying there, I wasn't sure how many rooms there actually were. The lady was nice, don't think her first language was Spanish, but it wasn't English, because she didn't begin speaking to me in English when I told her I was from California. She kind of reminded me of my grandma.

Cordoba is hot. The way cities are built in Southern Spain are with small, narrow, streets, allowing the air to pass through and preventing the sun from beaming down on the walls. Also, the central patios in every house allows an opening up and through the house so air can flow. The streets are made with cobblestone so that it allows air to pass as well. When walking barefoot (way back in the day), in order to prevent your feet from burning, the streets were made this way so there was space between the stones to keep it cool. The fact that the houses are made of stone provides natural air conditioning, no joke! I would walk out of the hot streets into the cool and shady house. It was amazing, the stones were kept cold because they were out of the sun and kept the place cold. That'd be a good idea for houses in Thailand…all we have in my grandma's house there are tons of fans. And the canal I guess.

This was the first trip I took alone, I hope my mom is okay with that. It was nice, I got to do everything I wanted at my own pace and when I wanted. The Cathedral/Mosque was smaller than I expected, but it was amazing to see the Christian, Catholic, and Islamic fusion inside and out. There was an Alcazar, which I almost liked better than the one in Sevilla, but the one in Sevilla is bigger I'll give it that. I enjoyed "salmorejo" which is similar to "gazpacho", which is basically cold tomato soup, popular in the south because of the hot weather. I use to not like gazpacho when I first studied in Madrid, but now it's grown on me. I admit that there will be some Spanish food that I'll miss when I'm back in the states, and I'll just have to make it.

Taking the bus was okay, 7 hours both ways. But I got to see a lot of landscapes. I love how there are just all these random ancient buildings all around. Not only castles at the top of hills, but little buildings that were probably old bathrooms or who knows what, that are left over. They just sit in the middle of the fields, the grass, or the farms. They would make for good pictures, if only I had a car!

I'm too scared to drive here…the small european streets are too intense.

I won't even be here in Cartagena a week, we're off to Morocco this Saturday, I'm ready for something a little different. Or very different. Semana Santa begins Friday, Viernes de Dolores. I'm really excited to finally see the processions. I've seen videos and they seem intense. The first one is Friday at 3:30am, apparently everyone goes out at that time to see the first procession! And I'll be there!  Lots of my students are participating in the processions in the area, probably won't see them though.

Spring has brought around flowers that smell like the flowers that grow around the Thai Temple in Berkeley. They're not exactly the same, but the smell is.