US Election

Aside from the bickering and misleading ads, I actually enjoy election seasons. The funny SNL bloopers, political cartoons, post-debate reviews, polls, and constant reminder that I should be staying abreast of economic issues are all pretty interesting.

This is the first election where I am eligible to vote (sent in my ballot two weeks ago) despite being substantially more engaged in the political process in 2008 when I organized for Obama's Presidential campaign. If I had the opportunity to do the same for Obama this year, I certainly would repeat it. On issues such as healthcare reform, sensible and just taxation on millionaires and billionaires, the economy, civil rights (for women and the LGBTQ community), ending the Iraq war, and placing a pathway to the end of the war in Afghanistan, Obama has my critical support.

I am critical of Obama, but even on points of criticism, I know Romney's view would be more devastating to our country, and the world. As a reminder, however, elections in America are simply about choosing the better candidate (or, lesser of the two evils) of the two presented. For me, fighting for the better option is enough of an impetus to get up and be involved in the political process.

The thing is . . . I'm kind of not in the US this time around.

If you have been an expat in a foreign country during an election year--and have done a pretty commendable job of integrating yourself in the local culture--you can easily relate to the questions always being asked about the two candidates and the election in general. As humble as I try to be about America's worldwide dominance (for better or for worse; though I'm sure that dominance will look quite different in the coming decades), I have realized that an enormous amount of people around the world are watching and waiting to see what goes on in the US election season and its result.

If you were not aware of the foreign perception of Obama vs. Republicans, favoritism for Obama would be an understatement. When people think of Romney, they think of Bush (and with good reason). On foreign affairs, massive tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires, anti-women and anti-LGBTQ views, increased debt burden on the middle class, hurting public education, raising student debt, deregulating the economy, anti-environment, anti-clean energy, privatization of social security, war hawkish rhetoric, and increasing defense spending by trillions of dollars, I can see why they relate Romney to Bush.

Also, people abroad have taken notice of Romney's fair share of Bush-esque bloopers. They have never been less than excited to share their laughs with me. Let me share a couple of quotes with you:






Lastly, what would a post about the elections be without a plug on voting!?

Well, I actually believe that telling everyone to vote would be an irresponsible action. Unfortunately, uncontrolled Super PACs have taken a massive control on our country's dissemination of political "information" leaving many voters with nothing more than a few sound bites of ridiculous partisan statements to comprise the foundation of their vote. I do not ask that everyone votes; I simply ask that if you decide to vote, please do so after making an honest effort to find credible information about each candidate.

I mean, really, we only have two options for president. Don't be lazy. We never know how the balance in the senate and the house may turn out, so it's even more critical that you "voice" an educated opinion. 

Peace,

Ameer

Spanish Picnic

Yesterday, a group of 7 Spanish friends and I celebrated a birthday of one of the friends by having a picnic. We took the telefericos to the farthest end of a park in Madrid called Casa de Campo where we had the picnic.

The actual picnic "español" consisted of baguettes, chorizo and salami slices, cheese, olives, pickles, tortilla español (kind of like an omelette, but much better), and, of course, a birthday cake! great food and great company!

Happy Birthday, Carmen! 

What am I doing here, you ask?

I guess I have not really explained why I am in Madrid, and what I am doing here. According to the last blog post, you can guess I had a pretty rough, yet "successful" undergraduate career. Thus, I could not see myself going straight to medical school without taking a year to not only recharge batteries, but truly appreciate life in all its forms. I didn't "live" those years in undergrad when I was in the US, and imagining myself 21, starting medical school, and continuing life without "living" an important period of anyone's life was something I could not accept. If I thought I was a robot during undergrad, I knew it would only get worse in medical school (even though I think I would enjoy my course material more in medical school). By no means did I ever second guess my desire to go into med school; academically, I was ready, but mentally I was not there yet. I would not necessarily call it burnout, because I have an immense capacity (and desire) for work. It was more of a realization that this immense capacity has had it's drawbacks.

Another important thing to remember is that I'm not the typical pre-med--I've always wanted a global career and mobility. In addition, when practicing in the US, I primarily want to work with medically underserved populations in urban areas and that typically necessitates a great level of Spanish. However, I am only fluent in English. Thus, when the opportunity to spend a year living in Madrid--immersed in Spanish-- came up, there was no way I could deny the offer.

Thus, here I am. I accepted an offer teaching Science and English (both taught in English) at a school here in Madrid through the national government of Spain. Basically the government sends you to work at a colegio (primary school, 1st grade-6th grade) or secondary school (7th-12th) to act as kind of a supplemental teacher. Thus, I don't have my own classes that I am responsible for, but my job consists of taking a group of 3 or 4 students at a time out of their 18-25 student class, and tutor-teaching them the material that they're working on. The school is a bilingual school, meaning that some courses are presented in English. When I am not tutor-teaching, I lead classroom lesson activities or lead "science experiments." For example, next week I'm showing the kids how the diaphragm of our body helps us breath by using soda bottles for a demonstration! You probably also remember this activity from elementary school

 

So how is all this going so far? I love it. We have two classes (45 min each) in the morning and then a 30-minute break where all the teachers eat a full spread of coffee, tea, toast, french bread, chorizo, salami, yogurt, fruits of all kind, and more (for free!) while the kids have recess. Then, we have two more classes, and then a 2-hour lunch period. During that period I typically play soccer or basketball with the 6th graders and then eat lunch. Afterwards, we then have our last two classes. I promised the kids that next week I'll bring my American football to teach them the "other" beautiful game (thanks, John, for sending over the football).

At my school, there are three other "auxiliares," as we're called, who are American and recent-grads as well. We all hang out during lunch and the break.

Peace!

Ameer

A New Lifestyle

For the past four years of my life I have been busy as hell with classes, research, and a state of juggling countless projects and involvements at one time. I am currently in my second week of work at the Colegio, and it still feels weird coming home, finishing up any errands, cooking, and still having several hours free to do anything I want before going to sleep. In fact, I sometimes don't know what to do in those hours, because hanging out with friends is not considered work (rightly so), so I feel "uncomfortable" doing it every evening.

It sounds ridiculous, and it's a bit difficult to explain if you've never been in the same situation. Before, I would only watch sports or do something leisurely in an effort to maintain sanity from my other work. In other words, leisure activities were used to alleviate my work-heavy lifestyle. Now, with a normal work schedule the work-heavy lifestyle is gone, and leisure activities have less purpose and attractiveness. Taking a "global news and facebook-ing break" when studying was an act of relief, but now it's "just another news article" or some ridiculous status update from someone I forgot to block.

So, then, what have I done? I started offering private lessons to two sons of a couple that lives in my neighborhood (Arguelles) for when I come back from work at the colegio. It's just an hour Mon-Thurs with each son on alternating days, but it should help my transition to this "new lifestyle." Generally, however, I think I'm easing into this new lifestyle. There are many things to get involved with in the beautiful and large city that is Madrid. Truthfully speaking, this less-stressful and slower-paced lifestyle (not to offend anyone working normal hours like humans should) is something I wanted for my gap year, though I knew it would be a challenging transition.

If you were wondering about how my new job is going, the flat I moved into, life in general in Madrid, other interesting elements of Spanish society, and the past two weekends in Lisboa, Portugal, it's all been great and interesting (with respect to Spanish societal characteristics). I'll get to that stuff in other posts.

Peace

Ameer