TEFLees in Spain

My parents did finally make it in okay, after all the months of planning and whatnot, and I have to say the weekend was a great success. It was fun to show off my newly acquired Spanish skills, or at least to boost my confidence in knowing that for once, my Spanish was better than the rest of the group, which left me in charge for the first time of the communication process. In the end really I realized that all the stress and worry was totally unwarranted. Having been here for so long, I’d forgotten how exciting this city can be to a fresh pair of eyes, and how the littlest things, from the dirtiest café to the intersection jugglers, to the dozens of fountains and plazas, to the busy hustling and drama of the Spanish themselves, is impossible not to fascinate.

Five days is quite a short amount of time to squeeze in all that Madrid has to offer, and as anyone who’s lived here can attest, five months won’t get you much closer to fully understanding and appreciating this city and its inhabitants either. As a friend of mine who’s been living here for a while related, “Even after five years here, after all the classes I’ve taught and all the nights out with Spanish friends, I have to admit that I’m not even close to understanding the Spanish people in their entirety.” It is indeed a complex and fascinating culture worth taking time to study and explore, but in five nights we did all we could do – walking and watching and stuffing ourselves with beer, wine, and massive varieties of tapas. The weather couldn’t have been more cooperative for early spring, and our day trips to Toledo and Segovia acted as pleasantly surprising contrasts to the modernity of Spain’s capital. In the end it was really more about enjoying each other’s company than sprinting from site to site, and I had to laugh at myself when they left for ever having worried that any sane person could ever be bored for five nights in this sleepless city.

Recently I had the pleasure of testing out my hand for the first time as a tour guide in Madrid. My clients were a lovely couple from Florida who were visiting Madrid for the first time. They spoke no Spanish, had no previous knowledge of the city, and no specified preferences as far as itineraries were concerned. Their stay was only a short five nights here, but this middle aged couple did at least indicate prior to arrival that they would like to visit the medieval towns of Toledo and Segovia, and spend as much time with their tour guide as possible. I was also able to gather from our email and Skype chat correspondences that they had two children in their twenties – the older, a female nurse; the younger, a male who’d just recently graduated college –  and that their favorite child by far was the male, due in part to his boyish good looks, superior intelligence, and impeccably witty writing talent. So, who was this mystery couple of whom I speak? Well, my parents, of course.

The planning began months in advance, with much speculation and guesswork going into deciding when Madrid’s wily weather would yield the most agreeable, cloud-free afternoons. We then chose a hotel, flight date, and our day trip destinations. It was obvious, as mentioned above, that Toledo and Segovia were to be the most suitable options for Spanish newbies. From there the ball was totally in my court. As a “local” it was completely up to me to take the information I had about these clients, and put it into a logical itinerary of restaurants, tapas bars, historical sites, and miscellaneous activities. And I will admit, being that Madrid is such a gi-normous city with seemingly endless amounts of bars and restaurants (the most per square kilometer of any city in the world, I’ve been told), that the more I researched, the more I realized how daunting this task would be. And the more recommendations I gathered from students and friends, the more overwhelming this task became, therefore causing this already easily stressed individual to toss and turn in sleepless thought and indecision for the few weeks leading up to their arrival.

Okay, so what’s the big deal exactly? Why all the worry? Well, I have my parents to thank for co-sponsoring my trip here, first of all, and I wanted to make sure that they’d have a great time. Secondly, I’m an OCD perfectionist. If someone’s coming to visit me – friends, family, or other – I’m going to make sure that their stay in my surrogate motherland is as pleasant and pleasurable as possible. There was another reason for this that spawned from more selfish pursuits though. There are many things I love in life, but sitting atop the list, as my friends make a hobby of pointing out, is most definitely without question, food. Cooking it, eating it, ordering it, whatever – there’s nothing better in my book than trying and tasting all the delicacies that the Spanish soil can dish out. And as I mentioned before, there’s no better place in Spain to do this. Madrid is a culinary playground of flavors – the melting pot of Spain in both its population and its cuisine. From the strange (tripe stew) to the simple (egg and potato pie, or tortilla), my taste buds are in this city like a kid in a candy store. So, tangents aside, the point I want to make is that having my parents in town was finally going to give me the opportunity to dine in the places I can’t usually afford. And there are many. So many in fact that I nearly fell victim to indecision.