I'd Forgotten How Much Fun Excursions Are!

Today we had a class trip! To Plaza Mayor -


- a big square in the middle of central Madrid.

Our mission? To interview English-speaking tourists about their accents for a presentation in English Conversation Class.

Did we choose to accept it? Well... for about 30 minutes of the 3 hours we did. But I'm a new, Australian kid in Madrid! Was the right thing to do our assignment, or to have my friends show me around? I think you know the answer.



We hung out with some buskers, including this guy whose job it is to blow enormous bubbles (so jealous!) -


- and this headless man, who took a liking to Alejandra.


We had a nice chat to some policemen, too, and met their horses. They kindly consented to be interviewed despite being born and bred in Madrid.


Then it was time to introduce me to the famous delicacy of Plaza Mayor - a squid sandwich! (Which, I must say, was actually delicious.)

We bought them from a lovely little establishment which I get the feeling may have been a pub -



- not only because of the poker machine in the corner.


It was nice and warm in there, and the barman/waiter told me some amusing Spanish jokes. It was full of smoke, though, so we decided to sit outside. While we were eating, a caricature artist approached us and offered to do a sketch of the group!

Here she is, with Carlos looking super awkward alongside.


And here's the caricature! (You may or may not be able to see that she spelled my name 'Grais'. 'Grace' is NOT a common name here. No one can pronounce it!)


So yes, that was my day!

What's happening down under? Update me, y'all!

Instituto =/= School

I've survived a week of Spanish school! (Well, four days anyway - today was a pupil free day.)

There are a couple of significant differences between school in Australia and school in Spain for me. You know, besides the whole speaking in Spanish and the International Baccalaureate curriculum. These include:

My school is not a 'school', it is an 'instituto'. 'School' refers to a primary school here. I found this out the hard way, when my host mother told me she'd meet me at 'the school' and I just waited outside the instituto gates for about half an hour before any of us realised what had happened!

I have one class for every subject. My class is made up of about 15 people, all of whom have been lovely and welcoming so far. They're really funny and enjoy playing pranks on the teachers, which is endlessly amusing. They're also really smart - I'm hoping I'll reach the point where I can join in the political debates! Their English is pretty good, and they've got ways of explaining stuff to me when they don't know the words. (To get to 'nuclear power plant' for example, they said 'Place Homer Simpson works!')

My subjects are slightly different. I'm taking Modern History, Maths, Economics, Language, Philosophy, English, English Converstion and Sport. My classes are all kind of cool in their own way.

In History, Language, Philosophy and Economics, the teachers are content with me spending the lesson translating the notes with my dictionary. This is fine by me - though slow, it allows me to have a basic understanding of what's going on and also, obviously, I'm improving my Spanish as I go.

In Sport and Maths I'm expected to know what's going on, so obviously that is totally fun for me. NOT.

Nah, Maths is just differentiation again, which is fine. And my Sport teacher is pretty awesome; we've had gymnastics (in which everyone was impressed by my limited skillz) and hockey (in which I managed to score a goal). So they're all under the impression I'm quite good at Sport - I don't really have the heart to tell them otherwise! They'll find out soon enough.

English is incredibly boring, because the students just spend their time copying notes off the board. English Conversation Class, however, is ridiculous fun! My teacher is wonderfully Scottish, and enjoys using me as a guinea pig. We spend the class learning about English-speaking teenage slang ('phat gear', 'sick crib', 'gnarly skills' and other things I've never heard anyone use!) and discussing different dialects. We've had a bit of fun comparing accents, too.

I also have this period called 'HMC' twice a week. I'm not sure what it is, but we've spent it watching some Uma Thurman movie in Spanish thus far!

I have to think about what to wear everyday. Free dress at instituto is proving so much more trouble than it's worth. Not only do I need to decide what I'm going to wear, but I need to consider things such as the weather, my classes that day - special clothing is needed for sport. Never thought I'd miss the green dress.

The instituto is one big building, rather than grounds. It's quite small and made up of hallways that all look the same. I've gotten myself lost several times!

Nothing is more difficult than going to the toilet at instituto. I honestly mean that. There is an enormous effort required, in which you have to request the green lavatory pass from your teacher, and then walk to the front desk to exchange that for a red lavatory pass, and then find a cleaner and ask them to unlock the bathrooms for you. Then once you get there, the cubicle doors don't have locks and you need to hold them shut. Why? I don't know. I've been avoiding going to the bathroom while there as much as possible, though!

Finally, the hours are quite different. I have instituto from 8:30 to 2:15 every day, with only one break (of 35 minutes) in the middle.

On the whole it has been an absolutely exhausting but rather exciting week. I'm off to play hide and seek with my host siblings!