I now have lots of time to think and blog in the middle of the day...so this post is a little longer than usual..stick with me!
A couple of weeks
ago I began giving morning classes twice a week to the babies in the academy.
And when I say babies, I mean infants that can hardly speak Spanish yet. I
think the youngest one is younger than one year, nine months or something
absurdly young like that. So, I have the thrilling task of teaching these non-Spanish
speaking tots how to speak English aka make sounds that sound something like
English words. As a result of this new undertaking, I now spend the entire day
in the budding metropolis that is (NOT) Utrera.
As pueblos go,
Utrera is not too small, 51,630 inhabitants, according to the ever so reliable
Wikipedia, so really it’s more like a small city. Despite this enormous
population, Utrera has a very small town feel. I am so fortunate to be able to
spend three days a week here, so I can really learn what small town life is all
about, and more importantly, so I can be grateful that I live in Sevilla.
 |
| It is a beautiful pueblo..that I cannot deny. |
Coming from a
suburb of NYC, which in fact has fewer inhabitants than Utrera, but living a
lot of my life in the city with over 8 million people, I notice a lot of
differences in the lifestyle. In general, Spain is much more relaxed than what
I am used to, but life in the pueblo is even more tranquilo.
For example, I
finish my morning classes at 1pm (yes, although Post meridiem 1 o’clock is still considered the morning in Spain)
and I don’t begin again in the afternoon until 4:15 or 4:30, depending on the
day. In NYC, 3 hours to kill is no problem at all. Sometimes just to get from
one point to another can take 45 minutes or more. But it isn’t really fair to
compare Utrera to the largest (and best) city in the world. So I won’t. But
even in my little pueblo of Scarsdale, I could go shopping, see a movie, go to
the library, sit in a café…and easily pass the three hours.
Well, here in Utrera, it’s quite
a different story. I was ecstatic last week when I found out there was a
library and I figured out how to get there (for some reason, street sign seem
to be optional (sparse) in the south of Spain). I sat down at one of the study
tables around 1:15, preparing myself to settle in there for the next couple of
hours. I brought my computer so I could use the wifi, I brought my nook to
read, some papers to correct, and my class books to make lesson plans. The time
was flying by; I thought maybe the whole spending the afternoon in Utrera thing
wouldn’t be so bad after all.
However, around 30 minutes after
I arrived, I noticed the people around me began to pack up their things and
leave. I thought, ok they are going home because no one wants to be in the
library at lunchtime (lunch is the most important meal of the day here). About
five minutes after that, all the lights were turned off. Weird, I thought.
Maybe they were trying to conserve energy? Another five minutes and I hear, “Ya
estamos cerrado (We
are now closed)” Closed! I knew stores would close for siesta but the
library????
So, I had to venture on to bigger
and better things. I trekked around the city with my computer and my backpack
and all my books until I arrived at a restaurant that looked comfortable and
inviting (the only establishments open in the middle of the day are restaurants).
The restaurant was an important decision for me because I would be stationed
there for the following two hours until it was time to go to work again. And
this has now become my routine….
Fast forward two weeks to yesterday…November
14….huelga general en Sevilla (maybe all of Spain?) For those of you who don’t
know, huelga means strike. If you ever plan on visiting Spain this is a very
important word to know because here it seems like there is a huelga every other
week. I know, I should be more sympathetic, there is a creesis here and things
are really bad. There are no jobs (unless we keep stores open at mediodía, thus creating
more shifts aka JOBS). The price of education has now gone up to a whopping
1,000€ a year (talk to me when its $50,000 a year). Oh and what is that…you
still don’t have to pay for healthcare…oh yeah.
Sarcasm aside, things are
worse here than they used to be. And in all seriousness, I realize when you
spend your whole life used to one thing (free education, free health care, a
certain salary) it is hard when there is even a slight change. Someone recently
drew my attention to a New York Times article (yes, I do read the articles you
email me) about people in Spain that are so desperate as a result of homes/jobs
lost, that they have resorted to dumpster diving in order to have food to eat,
and other essentials items to live. At first glance I thought, this is an
exaggeration and an awful portrayal of the situation here. Imagine my surprise
when one day, I actually saw a woman jump into a dumpster to collect things
from inside. It broke my heart…
Anyway, I almost forgot there was
a point to what I was saying. So today, huelga general, except for Joanna and
all my coworkers at New England Academy, the small city-town Utrera, has even
less to offer me. The library is closed; many restaurants and stores are
closed. Luckily, the Cuban (?) restaurant (they say its Cuban/Mexican but the
food is 100% Spanish) where I have eaten lunch for the past three days I’ve
worked, is open. And there I am, eating my Spanish food cooked by Cubans
perhaps. For the first time, I am in the company of other diners, remember no
one is working because they are on strike, but I don’t think many people in
Utrera are actually striking (protesting in front of government buildings etc).
Upon my return to Sevilla last night, there were signs that protests had occurred,
flyers everywhere and garbage bags filled with empty beer and alcohol bottles piled
high.
Pues, c’est la vie en España…
For anyone who actually read my
entire rant, thank you. For those of you who skipped right to the bottom, I
completely understand.
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