Posted by Chris Showers on April 28th, 2009.
Today I woke up around 6:00 AM and went to school like normal; however, when I arrived I got quite the surprise. In fact, as soon as I walked through the door, I was surrounded by my coworkers telling me that the European Health Commissioner had recommended that nobody travel to the USA or Mexico because of a recent swine flu outbreak. This came as quite a shock to me because I hadn’t really watched the news yesterday and I had no idea that there had even been a swine flu outbreak in the USA. Thus, as soon as I had a few moments at school, I went online and found this article which does confirm that EU officials are cautioning European travelers not to go to America. Apparently, there are also some confirmed cases of people in Europe having the disease and authorities say that the people here who have contracted swine flu have had some type of recent contact with either the USA or Mexico.
The whole “swine flu scare” that is occurring right now in Spain reminds me a little of what happened in the USA a few years ago when mad cow disease broke out in Europe. People from the USA who traveled to Europe were cautioned not to eat beef and generally Americans were a bit afraid that if they went to Europe, they would contract mad cow. Now, the same thing seems to be happening, but reversed: it’s now the Europeans who are afraid to travel to America for fear of getting ill. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on April 27th, 2009.
 A man sells roses on Sant Jordi in Barcelona. Well, I’m finally back from my school trip to Barcelona and I’m still alive after spending four days with sixty students. Honestly, the students were for the most part well-behaved and we, the teachers, really didn’t have to discipline anyone very much at all — so, it was a good trip.
I wanted to write a little something in this post about an interesting holiday that I just happened to be in Barcelona to see. It’s the day of Saint George (“Sant Jordi” in Catalán) and it’s celebrated on April 23. You see, Barcelona is quite well-known for its Saint George celebration because there it is customary for men to give women a rose on this day. Thus, as you can see in the above picture, “Las Ramblas” in Barcelona gets FULL of people buying roses at outdoor stands that are setup just for the occasion. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on April 20th, 2009.
Hello all! I just wanted to write a quick post to let you know that tomorrow morning I am going on a school trip to Barcelona with my students and, thus, won’t be updating the blog for a few days. I will be returning around the beginning of next week so stay tuned for updates (and Barcelona pictures) at that time! Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on April 19th, 2009.
 Nothing like some spaghetti sauce from a box rather than a jar. Yum! Ever since arriving in Spain in September, I have been eating my spaghetti without sauce. I would put butter on it, or maybe some cheese, but never spaghetti sauce. Why? Here in Spain spaghetti sauce is only sold in boxes – not in jars — and until recently I just couldn’t bring myself to eat “fried tomato” from a cardboard box. In the USA when you want to have some sauce with your spaghetti, you buy a little Ragú in a jar and have at it. For the longest time, I just couldn’t comprehend how “cardboard box sauce” could be the same.
Anyway, things have changed now. I finally got tired of eating my spaghetti dry and bought a box of “fried tomato” at the supermarket down the street. As you can see in the above photo, the box came complete with a picture of a tomato on the front (for us foreigners to easily recognize it) and there was even an “easy open top.” Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on April 17th, 2009.
In the USA I always go to the dentist twice a year to have a routine checkup and to get my teeth cleaned. This month I was due for an annual cleaning and I decided that, since I’m living in Spain now, I may as well get it done here. I had never actually been to a dentist in Spain before so I was a little unsure of what to expect. Nonetheless, I figured that it couldn’t be much different from the USA… and really the checkup itself wasn’t that different, although the dentist’s personality sure was.
My dentist in America barely talks to me and the truth is that I am quite used to going in, having my teeth cleaned, and leaving without much more than a “how are you” being exchanged. Here in Spain, however, the dentist that I saw had a bit of a different “approach” to dealing with his patients — I guess the best way to put it is that he was quite outspoken. In fact, the first thing that he said to me after taking a quick peek inside my mouth was “joder” (fuck). Now, “joder” is something that you never want any doctor to say the minute he lays eyes upon you and, when I heard this one little word, I instantly began to fear the worst. I immediately asked the dentist what was wrong and he began to explain to me that I had the largest teeth he had ever seen in his life. He went on to say that he hopes I never have to get a tooth pulled because those big chompers of mine must surely have some humongous roots and therefore yanking on them would hurt a lot. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on April 15th, 2009.
It’s been a few days since I’ve posted. That’s because I teach English at a local high school here in Burgos and am one of the teachers in charge of an upcoming trip to Barcelona for the students in 4° ESO (tenth grade for all you people from the US out there). The trip is next week and I’ve been so busy getting things ready for it that I haven’t had a lot of time to write a post.
You know, when I signed up to help lead this trip it sounded like fun to me; however, as the departure date approaches, I’m suddenly beginning to realize the magnitude of what I’ve gotten myself into. Imagine this: four “fun-filled” days in Barcelona (a six-hour bus ride away) with about sixty adolescent Spaniards and only myself and one other teacher to bring “law and order” to the group. Continue reading this post…
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