Today I feel very lucky. I rode back across the city on my magic bike and bought some stewing pork (cause they have that instead of stewing beef), and made myself some stew with vermouth out of a 2 liter jug that we got from some guys with their own bodega near Arcos.
This evening I realise how good English speakers have it. The priviledged position anyone with English speaking background has in the world.
In a place where there are fires on the street from garbage bins being burned in garbage strike protests, because there is not enough money to pay people and nobody has work, any English speaker can do okay.
My student who I saw tonight is a really wonderful girl, probably slightly younger than me. She has a music degree but has for some reason suddenly been thrust into the position of bilingual science teacher for 9-year olds. Her English pronunciation is excellent and her accuracy is impressive. I have not met anybody who thinks so carefully while speaking, in order to get the grammar right before it comes out her mouth. She is also really a great person - very warm, very funny.
But today she was in an awful state of mind, completely stressed and near collapse. She has an Australian as a helper in her class, and her students all are supposed to be bilingual. Some may even be English native speakers or have lived abroad or something. She is embarassed in front of them all to begin with, about her pronunciation, but next week there will be bilingual English teachers visiting from England and Italy, and she will have to play hostess both during school hours and in a range of activities outside. A law was passed recently that requires almost everybody (anyone who wants to have a Masters degree or teach in any school or university) to pass certain Cambridge English exams. On top of all this she thinks she will lose her job next year if she cannot get the certificate by May.
Anyways, I am feeling like I have it really easy, after talking to her tonight. (A few weeks ago we had to go through the entire teaching section on the reproductive system, and correct pronunciation of all the body parts and stuff like that. Funny enough for two mature women but much funnier for her 9-year olds). On the other hand, she and her boyfriend have at least one expensive car and a nice apartment whereas I have a well, a house that is interesting... and a rusty, magic bike.
I can't remember ever having a bike like this. It is old fashioned, painted black, and the struts holding the mud guard onto the wheel fork as well as a bunch of other bolts are totally rusty. We got it second hand, from a bike renovation guy with a warehouse outside of town. 90€ is a lot for a second hand bike but it has some kind of amazing bearings or something. There is only one gear, but I can't see the need for any more. The one gear is so perfectly balanced between getting uphill and going surprisingly fast on long stretches... I don't understand how it does it. You pedal a little bit and it just seems to keep rolling and rolling. It's very weird. It goes great but doesn't stop so well - the breaks leave a little to be desired. I think I've gotten used to them so it's not too dangerous. Other times people have to get out of my way or I have to weave around them.
In Andalucia people don't need to wear helmets. It's also not a problem to ride on the sidewalk, whereas I consider it rude at home. It's just the way things are here. Luckily there's a bike path down the most main road of the city, going from the center all the way out to the North edge, where most of my students are. It's lined with palm and orange trees. They're blooming right now, some of them. The dates have fallen off the palms back a while ago.
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