Feeling a little more Lucense

Now crossing the two month mark in Lugo and four months in Spain I am feeling a little less on vacation. Every so often I have moments when I realize Spain may not be the country I first imagined. I would like to correct the statement ´the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain´ and say it stays mainly in Galicia. I crave the sunshine that only seems to peak out from behind the clouds on rare occasions. I am also going through vegetable withdrawal and I believe that one cannot live on meat alone though it seems like some people here do. I think if I am offered another strange part of the pig to eat I will become a vegetarian. To counter this carnivorous movement I have been using the Canadian food guide for a couple of English lessons now as a point of discussion.

I am starting to appreciate now how in Canada we have more space to live in, real houses with yards and how women have more of a sense of freedom and independance. Aside from feeling a little homesick I am still challenged by the language, delighted by the friendliness of the people and intrigued by the bizarre and interesting festivals, so I haven´t bought my return ticket yet. One small puzzling difference between the cultures that I recently encountered while trying to help one of the boys with his math homework was that the Spanish write out their long form division differently and I was unable to explain the example in the workbook, but I could get the same answer.

While teaching English I have had some good lessons and some not so good lessons, which has made for an all-round learning experience. For one of my better lessons I had students describing pictures from a Simpsons comic book I borrowed from the library and I have also had a lot of luck with the card game ´Go Fish.´ The game is fun, pratical and with different themed cards you can also expand the student´s vocabulary. While explaining the game to my beginner class in Spanish there was a bit of confusion because they first thought it was a match-making game. I also had an entertaining moment in another class when a man arrived and told me he forgot his carpet at home. That´s how I learned the Spanish word ´Carpeta´ for binder.

To deal with some of the discipline issues I have had with the boys in the family I am living with I have set up a star reward system. Now rather than being forced to speak English they are motivated, maybe a little bribed to do an English activity with me for a star. When they get five stars they can get a pack of football trading cards, football ´Kracks´ or Pokemon ´Bonx.´ I have found some nice picture books at the library of which the older boy can make simple descriptions and the younger boy can answer vocabulary questions. I am trying to make the language learning as natural as possible. I encourage them to tell me to ´be quiet´ or ´to go away´, and at the playground it was easy to teach the words ´push´ and ´in the middle´ while on the merry-go-round and playing Monkey in the middle. Unfortunately our playground trip did not end so well because we had to go home due to the boys spitting at each other and because the rain turned to hail. I used to think that I would like to have kids one day, but I am now having serious doubts.

While in Spain I am trying to live a little a la espagnole and to enjoy life, so I have tried out a couple Yoga and Capoiera classes and most recently Kayaking. The city offers free recreational activities on Friday and Saturday nights, but most start at 11pm and go until 2am. I have only been to a few because I find the time table a little insane.

I had one small tourist detour last week with my language exchange partner where I was taken to visit an archeological site near the town of Villadonga. On the top of a hill you can see the remains of a Celtic Castro or village. When we first got there I saw a sign that read ´Non pisen os muros´ which I mistakenly translated as do not piss on the walls rather than to not walk on them. Needless to say I still have a lot to learn.