Listening to: Hurts - It's a wonderful life
Time in Madrid is nearly over, I and a collegue handed in our notices this afternoon after a numbing session on speaking activities only made tolerable by the hi-jacking of a conversation exercise by the younger staff from 'guess the conversation' - observation to sex. Amazing how many aspects you can relate really!
Plenty of reasons, mainly focusing on the fact I need more time for my other commitments and potential business launch in a few months. I like my collegues, some of the classes are great fun but I would prefer to spend the 6/7 hours a day rather than in a mole-like fashion underground plus classes actually doing something more productive. It just wasn't the job for me, bit of a raw deal, and frankly, I need a break from teaching for a while. Made some good friends here certainly and some that are now back in their own countries.
I'm off to attempt another flight to go crawl under a crevice in london for a month or two, then we'll see where things lead. This time, note to self, do not book the earliest, trying to get from embajadores to barajas at 3 in the morning is chaos in madrid.
adiós, te quiero madrid!
about time I suppose!
So, Madrid. Been to see some great places including Toledo, partied in many a bar and enjoyed tapas-hopping, and my spanish is coming along slowly. Wherever i end up i'll be working on improving that. It's 9.29pm here, a normal day at work, and i'm off to see Primal scream on friday, which i'm really looking forward to.
Met some great people from all walks of life, including history-loving american majors, stereotype sheila-stating Australians, and a few Canadians with too much facial hair. Kiwis who chat to me in Japanese. Irish guys with odd hairstyles. Old school english gentlemen. Hot Scots. Spanish who can't get their head around regular verb past 'ed' endings i.e the stereotypical 'it's complicate'.
The job has improved somewhat; It's easier once you know the metro, although the hours can be an absolute pain sometimes. Most of the students are fine and rather varied, among some l'oreal managers and government president types on my timetable. A slight difference to kids!
The people I work with are perhaps the most eclectic bunch to be thrown together, but they're really good fun. Now people are settling there's a better sense of a social group and life seems more fun.
But I still can't work out those blasted spanish verb endings!
The first poem i've had inspiration to write in years.
So.. i'm working in madrid.
The hours are ridiculous and in split-shifts; the prep and paperwork required usurps most of the weekend, and you collapse into bed at 8pm some weekdays, but why should I complain?
Outside my flat (gorgeous) there are skips we use to chuck in random rubbish. every day without fail i see people rooting through the remains of the skip, flat refuse and my bag of rubbish filled with diet coke cans and the occasional noodle packet.
These people are so poor that, dragging a dirt-incrusted trolley behind them, anything can be of use. I even saw a urine soaked and smelling mattress, full of holes and stained with all manner of things, vanish into one of the said trollies.
I'm feeling not so much homesick as sad at my own reflections; that i feel within my selfishness i have a right to moan when there are people living like that right outside my doorstep. I can't settle in madrid, feeling i have left things unfinished in the uk and being unsure whether i will have paid off any debt at all by xmas, but also the guilt trip is quite profound. I could afford a trip back to see the folks; these people couldn't afford clothing.
Perhaps i should move into charity work..
Listening to: Curse of the Dragonflies - Leon's Revenge
After returning and single handedly causing chaos across 4 countries... here is the recipe:
Step 1. Book a late flight with Flybe online.
Step 2. Have no printer but take down the confirmation number only.
Step 3. Get to check-in, cause chaos as you're not on the system.
Step 4. Leave Check-in 30 minutes later, on the system.
Step 5. Board plane.
Step 6. Make sure baggage are not told about the 'extra passenger' who paid but booked late enough to not be on the system.
Step 7. Make the plane 72 minutes late to depart due to an 'extra' bag (which obviously must be a bomb) - resulting in frog marching all passengers off to personally claim all luggage.
Step 8. Take off.
Step 9. Get back to the UK.
Step 10 and beyond: Cause delay on the plane that after the UK should be going to Bergerac; when it gets there late have the return cancelled as well as the following day due to flight slots, plus delaying 2 other flights due to late departure. causing problems in Austria, UK, France and a German flight.
Flybe cost me £70; I cost them £Thousands.
Priceless. Serves you right for putting a crying baby near me.
****
Madrid on the 14th.
Listening to : stonesour - xxyz rd
So, as i'm sitting in Saltzburg airport, waiting for a plane I, by rights, shouldn't be on, a coffee and ipod for company, and wondered about the transient nature of airports.
For some, just a means of business and travel, some - escape, some - just a job. To me, I always have a trance of sadness in them. Waiting - waiting for what? Just for the gate to come up. Some people are embracing, saying goodbye, others are hissing in impatience over delayed flights, for me, the amount of airports i've been in, it's transient nature is almost commonplace. The coffee is overpriced, the uniformed staff occasionally seen dashing about in a state of panic wear the same expressions, and the souvenirs are all brought in aimed at non-budget fliers.
Although, sometimes, the unexpected takes place. Like recieving a text from someone you never thought to hear from again - which makes you forget (or perhaps emphasizes?!) where you are for a split second. Or the person next to you as you arrive back who obviously isn't expecting someone to be there and drops their bag and makes a running leap. Or the guy that gets hauled off by security for refusing to stop smoking in the departure lounge.
