Hello from Lisbon! I’ll be back soon with a blog about the weekend trip, but I had a few highlights from the week in Madrid I wanted to share first!
After school on Wednesday, my roommates were running around getting ready to head out. “Where are you going?” I asked, “the movies!” they responded and promptly invited me to join them and their friends to see Wuthering Heights (in English). I thought about it for a minute, then decided I had nothing better to do and quickly got dressed to join them.
We met up with six more of their friends in the line for popcorn while I bought my ticket online, a refreshing 5 euro movie ticket (they were shocked to learn how much I’ve spent on tickets for random movies in the US). The theater was packed with people our age, and I was again surprised when every seat in the entire place filled up. For a random weeknight, and a movie that had already been out for a little while, it was wild to me that the place was so busy. Apparently Wednesday are discount nights, but the tickets are like one euro cheaper, so not that much 🙂 Somehow, there were three different lines to wait in, which we did very patiently in very Spanish style (I’ve noticed that Spanish people seemingly just love to wait in line).
The popcorn was good! Not too artificial tasting, and there were only a few minutes of previews before the movie started. I had no idea what to expect going into the movie, and while it wasn’t the best one I’ve seen, I think that I enjoyed it. The story was tragic, but the costumes and set was excellent. In reading about some of the commentary after, it seems like overall the movie got very mixed reviews. I definitely want to go back and see Hamnet soon since I just finished the book. I’ve heard good things about that one.
On Thursday morning, I organized a trip to bring the whole Middle and Upper Schools to an ice skating rink nearby. We had to pay for 50 kids worth of tickets at a minimum, so we decided to bring everyone. With absences, it ended up being just the right number. As everyone arrived, we loaded up into a bus and headed to the ice rink about 15 minutes away. Five other teachers very graciously joined me and the 41 kids.
They had a blast on the ice. Despite the terrible plastic rental skates, I had a lot of fun too! The ice rink had monitors who organized some skating drills, and after 90 minutes, everyone had made some good progress on their skating. I chatted with one of the monitors some more about youth and adult hockey in Madrid and I may try to get involved in the next few months. We’ll see!
After work on Thursday, I had my (mostly) weekly dinner with Hannah at my apartment. She brought over ingredients and showed me a very tasty chicken recipe. Then, I headed out for a very late (well, late by my standards) meet-up with the group of monitors and teachers from the ski trip. The organizer/trip company owner said it’s his tradition to bring out monitors after a trip. We met at a tapas bar conveniently only a 15-minute walk from my house, and I enjoyed seeing everyone again.
By the time I finally headed back home, it was far too late to be awake on a school night, but I still had to pack for my trip! Since Manny missed coming in December and his school breaks are filled with sports this whole year, we arranged an impromptu weekend (long weekend for him) trip to Lisbon! I’ve been planning it for a few weeks, and was very much looking forward to seeing him.
After school ended on Friday, I was going to catch an Uber straight to the airport. I’m pushing my departure time abilities further and further up. I leave school at 4:20pm and a few weeks ago comfortably made a 6pm flight. Yesterday, my flight was at 5:40. As I was headed out, one of the teachers with a car very graciously offered to drop me at the airport. I cancelled my Uber which was still a bit of a ways away and took her up on the offer. I hit a record school school door-to-plane gate time of 19 minutes 🙂 With plenty of time to spare, I got a coffee and a snack and boarded the flight!
I’ll pick up from my arrival in Lisbon on the next post in a few days! Thinking about you all and wishing you the best. Somehow, I’ve got no photos from the week, so I’ll share my first one with Manny!
Abe Tolkoff 