Song of the Day §

Artist: Willy Mason
Song: Oxygen

Lyrics:

I wanna be better than oxygen
So you can breathe when you're drowning and weak in the knees
I wanna speak louder than Ritalin
For all the children who think that they've got a disease
I wanna be cooler than t.v.
For all the kids that are wondering what they are going to be

We can be stronger than bombs
If you're singing along and you know that you really believe
We can be richer than industry
As long as we know that there's things that we don't really need
We can speak louder than ignorance
Cause we speak in silence every time our eyes meet.


On and on, and on, and on it goes
The world it just keeps spinning
Until i'm dizzy, time to breathe
So close my eyes and start again anew.


I wanna see through all the lies of society
To the reality, happiness is at stake
I wanna hold up my head with dignity
Proud of a life where to give means more than to take
I wan't to live beyond the modern mentality
Where paper is all that you're really taught to create
Do you remember the forgotten America?
Justice, equality, freedom to every race?

Just need to get past all the lies and hypocrisy
Make up and hair to the truth behind every face
That look around to all the people you see,
How many of them are happy and free?

I know it sounds like a dream
But it's the only thing that can get me to sleep at night
I know it's hard to believe
But it's easy to see that something here isn't right
I know the future looks dark
But it's there that the kids of today must carry the light.


On and on, and on, and on it goes
The world it just keeps spinning
Until i'm dizzy, time to breathe
So close my eyes and start again anew.


If i'm afraid to catch a dream
I weave your baskets and I'll float them down the river stream
Each one i weave with words i speak to carry love to your relief.

I wanna be better than oxygen
So you can breathe when you're drowning and weak in the knees
I wanna speak louder than Ritalin
For all the children who think that they've got a disease
I wanna be cooler than t.v.
For all the kids that are wondering what they are going to be
We can be stronger than bombs
If you're singing along and you know that you really believe
We can be richer than industry
As long as we know that there's things that we don't really need
We can speak louder than ignorance
Cause we speak in silence every time our eyes meet.


On and on, and on, and on it goes
The world it just keeps spinning
Until i'm dizzy, time to breathe
So close my eyes and start again anew

Update...

Estimado auxiliar
Lamento comunicarte que no nos permiten renovarte por 3º año consecutivo.
Si deseas seguir trabajando como auxiliar en Madrid, puedes solicitar trabajar en Centros Concertados bilingües que no ponen esta limitación del tiempo.
Enviad un correo a esta dirección bicucetam@ucetam.es con vuestro cv en el que expliquéis que habéis trabajado como auxiliares en los centros públicos de la Comunidad de Madrid.
Lo siento mucho.
Un abrazo

María José Martínez de Lis
Asesor Técnico Docente
Consejería de Educación
mariajose.martinezdelis@madrid.org
91 720 11 88

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For anyone who doesn't know Spanish who might be reading this, here's the gist:

I sent in my application to renew my position as an ''Auxiliar de Conversacion'' for next year to have it as an option. Two days ago I received this e-mail from the Ministerio de Educacion informing me that I cannot renew for a third year, even though it would only be my second year in the Comunidad de Madrid.

What I will be doing next year and where is still up in the air, but this decision has been made for me, it seems. I will NOT be working as a conversational assitant in Spain next year. (I pretty much had already decided the same thing for my own reasons, but now it's official. Any other suggestions for what to do with my life? ;)


Also, Happy St Patrick's Day!

Clip of info from the Internet: How many Americans have passports by state

http://blog.cgpgrey.com/how-many-americans-have-a-passport-the-percentages-state-by-state/



"One of the things I’ve often heard while living in the European Union is the meme that only 10% of Americans own a passport. This assertion is usually followed by the quazi-urban legend that George W. Bush never had a passport before becoming president. This I’ve never been able to prove or disprove any satisfaction Which, it turns out, is not true.

Such a low number wouldn’t have surprised me. After all, the United States is nearly thrice the size of the EU and borders only two foreign countries, while the EU is made of 27 countries and – depending on how you want to count them – borders another 19.

I wondered aloud about this in my previous post, ‘Work in Progress: The United States Explained‘ and a commentor, Alison, was nice enough to bring this data set about passports from the ever-awesome data.gov to my attention."

Computerless

An update: On Tuesday afternoon my hard drive crashed. I´ve been procrastinating on typing up some retro blog posts, and now I´m wishing I´d done it earlier!

The tech guy at my school is going to try to install Linux because the computer´s shot to the point that reinstalling Windows doesn´t even seem to be working.

So until I figure out how to fix it or get a new netbook, my Internet access will be pretty limited.

Just thought I´d share.


In the meantime, in my new, computer-less life I´ve been pretty productive. My room is cleaner and more well organized than it´s been since I arrived, I made a scarf holder out of some yarn and an old paper towel holder, finished War of the Worlds, ironed and folded all of the clothes in my closet, polished my boots, went to the law library at one of the major universities in Madrid to study my Spanish grammar book for 4 hours, and went out for coffee with friends twice. I´ve also gone to the gym every weekday for the past 2 weeks, washed my dishes and my roommate´s dishes, painted and repainted my nails, watched some crappy programs like Room Raider, Parental Control, and Made on MTV, started a new book about the history of bullfighting, made lists of things to do without a computer and letters I should write, and slept for an average of 9-9.5 hrs every night.

We´ll see how the weekend goes...

Until next time.

Monday

Sarah in Spain

In Plaza Mayor in Madrid

My sister came to visit me in Madrid!

Here's the proof.





New Years Eve Party at Maria's House










Sarah in the Alcazaba in Sevilla










Me on top of the hill in Estepa (Andalucia)
























Thanks for a lovely visit, Sarah!

I feel nice. Like sugar and spice.

I'm listening to James Brown. Just finished making and eating a few snickerdoodles with a mug of cinnamon apple tea. They turned out a bit too crunchy (normal for our oven seeing as it's a piece of crap that burns the tops of things and leaves the centers uncooked) but good other than that.

My roommate, Emma, walked in as they were coming out. She tore a ligament in her knee after falling down yesterday and now has it wrapped up and immobilized in a type of half-cast. I made her try one, and after tasting it she said "I didn't realize how much I needed sugar until I had one!" and then proceeded to eat 4 more :) Nacho, a different roommate who's a good cook and therefore a bit judgmental about food. He had one and came back for seconds.

Thank goodness they ate some. I made enough for at least 8 people.

Which brings me to the title of the post. Snickerdoodles (aka sugar and spice and butter) make people feel good. And sharing snickerdoodles while eating them yourself makes you feel even better. I'm feeling great right now.

And to make things better, I came across this gem on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5HRzaOFhec


Enjoy.