Tuesday I felt pretty tired, unmotivated and useless all day. I wanted to take a nap but had too much to do in between class and my private lesson. I woke up, had a napolitana for breakfast and headed off to teach the pequeños (the 3-5 year olds). Today was only my second time working with them, but it was worlds better today than 2 weeks ago. The first class was with the 3 year olds. We went over colors, the weather and the days of the week. Next was the 4 year olds. This was the only class I had to prepare something for. I had made flashcards to put up on the wall for the 3 year olds a week or two ago. Someone had told me that they were learning about castles so the night before I had tried to find pictures of English castles easy enough for them to color (I couldn’t use American castles since…well…we don’t have any). I didn’t have much luck with that so I tried to think of something to do with the White House. I made a color-by-number worksheet with some vocabulary but that didn’t seem like much fun since…well…the house is white. I added a flag on the back for them to color. As soon as I finished the worksheet I decided it was too complicated for 4 year olds. Back to the drawing board. I decided to do something with Thanksgiving instead. We ended up making the traditional turkeys made by tracing their hands and then I had “Happy Thanksgiving” written in dashed lines for them to trace. It was the best lesson I’ve had with the 4 year olds but it was also hectic. The 5 year old classes were easy. Sebas was in charge and we just had to teach them a song and dance moves about autumn. I know singing and dancing is a good way to teach the little kids but when I’m in charge of lesson planning I kind of avoid it. Making up songs and dances just really isn’t my thing. It’s a little funny that I’ve overcome so many uncomfortable situations (like going to bars solo) but singing and dancing in front of the kids still just makes me uneasy. I had my private lesson from 5-6 and then got a drink with Luis. I headed home, tried unsuccessfully to be productive and decided to go to bed.
On Wednesday I got paid! Heck yes!
On Thursday I had my most successful science class, and it went great, even though the normal teacher wasn’t there. We were talking about invertebrates. I had printed out pictures of the invertebrates mentioned in that chapter of their book. I also printed out flashcards that had the names of these animals in English and another set in Spanish. I put up the pictures on the chalkboard and then put the Spanish word up next to them. As a class we went through and I taught them the English word, and stuck the flash card up next to the picture. We did this for each animal and they repeated the word back to me. After the last animal I took the English flashcards down again and lined them down the side of the chalkboard. Next we went through again and the kids had to tell me which English word went to which animal. When that was done I gave them a crossword I had made. The clues were the words in Spanish and they had to put the word in English in the crossword. It was perfectly timed and went pretty well. I was very happy and proud that I managed to plan a successful lesson.
After classes I went to the bank to cash my check and then went to the farmer’s market. I was on a mission. Find a pumpkin for Thanksgiving dinner. I didn’t have any luck. However, as I was searching I ran into Fernando. It was a little funny because it was the first time I saw him struggle with English. His English in class is really good. I had caught him off guard and he had to re-set his brain to think and speak in English. I know exactly how that is. If I’m at home chatting with friends or family in English, or listening to music or TV shows in English and then I go out in the town I have to make a conscious effort to switch over. It really feels like I have to do a quick re-boot of my brain. Fernando was on his way to have coffee with another teacher who is new in town and he invited me to tag along. We had coffee and then as we were heading out I caught the tale end of the farmer’s market on El Paseo (the farmer’s market is divided into two parts…one is mostly fruits and veggies and one has everything. I had already gone to the one with fruits and veggies but not the main one.) There I made my first non-essential, semi-practical purchase…a new purse. I actually had a practical purpose in mind for it, but it was my first fun purchase since I could enjoy finally being paid. I wanted a purse that wasn’t too big, but big enough to put my high heels in if I was at the discoteca and in agony. Here it is…
There were also people there selling clothes and I almost bought some sweaters/coats/sweatshirts but decided that I will wait until next week for that. The vendors were trying to tear everything down. Thursday was shaping up to be a pretty good day until a little later that afternoon. I got a call from a dad of one of my private lesson students. This is the same dad that roped me into giving his daughter a lesson on Fridays when I didn’t want to work. Around 4pm on this THURSDAY he calls me. This is approximately the conversation we had:
“Hey, we’re going to come today.”
“Ummm…but it’s Thursday? Didn’t we decide Fridays at 7?”
“Yes, but I have to go to Jaén tomorrow, so we’re going to come today.”
“Ummm…ok?? What time?”
“What time is good for you?”
“How about 6:30?
“6:30. Great. We’ll see you then.”
I’m grumpy. I’ve had a weird vibe from this family since the beginning and I’m just not thrilled about working with them. This makes that even worse. I putz around a little and then decide to take a little nap.
Fast forward to 5:45. I’m taking a nap. My doorbell rings. (Here we have phone-like devices that open the door. I’m taking to the dad through this.)
“Hello???”
“Hey, it’s us!”
“Your lesson is at 6:30.”
“Oh…Ok…we’ll come back.”
This family lives in a town about 20 minutes from here. What are they going to do, sit outside my door for 45 minutes? I head upstairs.
“Would you like to have the lesson now?”
“Yes! That would be great.”
Uhhhh huh. Sure. Not like I have a schedule for a reason or anything, or that I wanted to continue my nap. We have our lesson and this little girl is kind of shy. Her dad had her bring her school English book so we could practice the same things that they are learning in school. Only problem? It’s a 3 part set…a class book, a work book and a CD. She brought the class book and nothing else. Many of the class book exercises involve listening to the CD for the answers. Blaaaaaah. I told them to bring everything next week.
Recapping this week it doesn’t seem so bad, but it really just felt like an off week for me. It was the first time I felt lonely which is a little ironic since I’ve finally made friends. I think that’s part of it though. If you don’t have friends you expect to be lonely and try to deal with it or change it. I had friends but really wasn’t able to get together with anyone last week. That mixed with the fact that Thanksgiving and the holiday season are approaching contributed to my loneliness. My friends and I had planned on having a Thanksgiving dinner at my house this week but slowly more and more people were dropping out, so something I had been really excited about was just making me sad. I talked to Ben and Eve over the weekend and they said they struggled last week as well. We must just be at that point in our journey.
So, by Friday I really, really wanted to get out and do something. I wish the discoteca was more happenin’ on a weekly basis. It seems like most people don’t go unless it’s a special occasion. I had talked to Fernando and he said that he was going to be going out with the same group of teachers I went out with a couple weeks ago. Yes. Thank goodness…short lived…Fernando sent me a message Friday afternoon saying he had changed his mind and they weren’t going out after all. I started going through my list of friends and got basically the same answer from everyone “No, I don’t think we’re going out tonight.” Uhhhhhhhh. Sucky. Luis called a little later saying him and Fausto were going to grab a drink but not staying out late, and I could join if I wanted to. Then Ben and Eve contacted me and said if I could find a ride to La Puerta I could go out with them. There was only one more mini-bus left to La Puerta so I decided I would stay in Siles Friday night and go to La Puerta on Saturday to meet up with them. Finally Fernando contacted me again and said the group had convinced him to go out and everything was going on as originally planned. Yessssssssssss. I met Luis and Fausto for a drink, and Luis showed me the Thanksgiving menu he had prepared. Even though 4 of our friends have bailed on the dinner we’re still going to have it. It may only be Luis, me and one or two others, but we’re going to have it. Thank God for Luis. With so many people bailing I thought the dinner was going to get cancelled and I’d be eating alone. When I showed up at Mezquita and he had that menu prepared I was so thankful. He seems excited about it (and he’s cooking!) It’s definitely Spanish and not the traditional Thanksgiving meal but it sounds like it’s going to be fantastic. We’re going to have Thanksgiving dinner on Friday instead of Thursday so we have the freedom to go out afterwards if we want, and people don’t have to worry about leaving early to go to bed because of work/school/etc in the morning.
After I met up with Fausto and Luis we headed over to 1900 (another bar) to meet up with the teachers. For a group that didn’t want to go out they sure were crazy. We didn’t go home until about 3:30am. We stayed at 1900 most of the time, but headed to Nicols for one drink at the end of the night. There I met Paco and Gregorio. Gregorio I had met previously because he is the one guy with a scanner in town and does things like photocopies, sells electronics, etc. Paco is his friend that Luis also knows. In order to go to La Puerta in the morning I was going to have to take the 8am bus (rough after staying out until 3:30am). The only other bus I could take was at 3pm, but Eve and Ben wanted me there by noon so we could go to a country house and celebrate their friend’s birthday. Luckily Paco offered to drive me there in the morning. I was a little hesitant because at 3:30am in a bar Paco was a little tipsy. I was afraid he wouldn’t remember, I would have missed the bus and wouldn’t be able to meet Ben and Eve. Luis assured me that if Paco said he was going to take me, he was going to be there and take me. Well…ok. It only got me about an hour and a half more of sleep, but it was worth it.
Around 3:30-4am I went home and climbed into bed. I woke up to my phone ringing at 9am. Dang it. It was Paco calling to say whenever I was ready he was ready. He was supposed to pick me up at 9 and I hadn’t heard my alarm. I rushed to shower and get ready and ran out the door. Paco was there with a headache, but very friendly and ready to take me to La Puerta. He has olive fields and was going to work in the olive fields. We got to La Puerta, had a cup of coffee and then I walked over to Ben and Eve’s house. Supposedly their friend Alberto was going to pick us up about noon. In reality he ended up picking us up around 1:30pm so in the meantime we chatted about teaching, watched some web mini-series and drank tea. Alberto came and picked us up and we headed to the ‘cortijo’ (little house in the country). It was a gross, rainy day that didn’t seem like a very good day for a party but at least we were inside with a fire, so it ended up being fine. The lights flickered on and off all day and the music cut in and out. Eventually some people took over playing instruments themselves and people danced around. This party was a joint birthday tradition and a bunch of Alberto’s friends were in town to celebrate. From 1:30-10:00 we drank, ate and danced. Seriously it’s hard to describe Spanish parties. You both completely know what to expect, and have no idea what to expect at the same time. Complete craziness. We had tapas, lunch, drinks, dessert and then things seemed to be winding down a little. Some people disappeared but we continued hanging out. (We were after all car-less and there until Alberto decided it was time to go). It seemed things were dying down and I wondered if the party was going to end earlier in the day so they could all go back to La Puerta and party there at night. Wrong. Around dinner time the people that had disappeared all reappeared with even more people, and the party started over again. One of the guys that was there was the bartender from Menphis in Siles. When I initially walked in he shouted “SILES!!!” when greeting me. He was the one who ended up taking me back to Siles on his way to work so I didn’t have to spend the night and try to find a bus the next morning. When I got back to Siles I was exhausted, but I hopped in the shower and changed (I felt gross since I didn’t really get a chance to wash my hair or anything in my morning rush). I went down to Nicols to meet Luis and his brother Javier. Javier and his son are in town from Granada. I think I may end up taking pictures of his son sometime this week like I did with Almudena’s daughter. Anyways, we sat and chatted. I had some Coca-Cola and then around 2:30am headed home. My head hardly hit the pillow and I was out like a light.
Luckily for me the next day was Sunday and I could sleep in and re-coup from a crazy weekend. Seriously friends…if this is your idea of “not going out” you shouldn’t move to the US. You’ll be really, really disappointed when you do try to go out.
Yesterday (Monday) I had two classes and then I went shopping. First I bought a couple baking dishes. I was going to cook chicken parmesan on Sunday but didn’t have anything to cook it in, so I was going to try it yesterday instead. After that I went to Mercado Gerardo where Edu (Stefi’s husband) works. I picked up some milk and tomato sauce and chatted a little bit with Edu. Stefi and the kids are in Holland for the week visiting Stefi’s parents. Edu is planning on having Thanksgiving dinner with us on Friday (although Luis is a little afraid he’s going to bail at the last minute too). After that I went to the frutera (person who sells fruit) next door and lo-and-behold! A pumpkin! I proudly purchased my pumpkin and was in high spirits as I accomplished my to-do list and headed back home.
Upon arriving home I saw a letter attached to my door. My cousin Garrett had sent me a letter! Yesssss. This day was really shaping up. I got a load of laundry in the washing machine, started to make chicken parmesan and chatted with Maria online. We decided to get together with Almudena and all have dinner at my house. We went over to Almudenas house around 4:30, hung out with Adriana (her daughter) and discussed what we would make for dinner. At six I had plans to meet Luis at the grocery store so we could see if they had everything we were going to need for Thanksgiving. It was good timing because right at 6 Almudena and Maria were ready to go to the grocery store to buy things for the dinner at my house. We all shopped, got some tortilla, tuna, lettuce, tomato, and hot dogs and headed out. Almudena had to work at 6:30 and I had a private lesson at 8. 
Adriana (Almudena's daughter) went with us to the grocery store. She was playing with the cashier and another woman that works there. They put price tag stickers on her and tried to ring her up and gave her a receipt. haha) At 9:15 everyone gathered at my place (Almudena, Rulo (Almudena’s boyfriend), Maria, Luis and me). Almudena prepared a ‘tortilla rellena’ (stuffed Spanish tortilla) and we had wine, listened to music, and looked at my pictures of Siles and my life in the US. I also showed them a video of my church. They were flabbergasted. Here there is only one church and it has Catholic mass. Seeing my contemporary church with coffee, a band and computer screens was just crazy for them. I miss going to Eastlake. I think I’m going to go to the mass here for Christmas but other than that I haven’t been going. One of my goals before I got here was to find a church to go to (since during my stay in Murcia I didn’t go to church at all). However, I didn’t really expect that there wouldn’t be ANY protestant options for church-going.
Anyways, everyone that was at my house last night (expect me of course) smokes. It’s SO normal here. I’ve only met one other person here so far who doesn’t smoke. My apartment was completely filled with smoke by the end of the night. It’s cold outside so lately people just light up without opening windows or anything. My lungs are not happy with me today, and I feel like I was the one smoking. Luckily most of them are pretty respectful about at least not blowing smoke in my face, but with 4 people smoking for 3 hours in an apartment as small as mine…the smoke really can’t be avoided.
I really enjoyed having everyone over last night. I hope we do it frequently.
I feel like I’ve gotten comfortable with my group of friends. I want to spend time with them, but I also feel like I should still be going out to try and meet new people. I still don’t have anyone that I can take trips with. Everyone here works or has other obligations on the weekends and can’t just leave like me. I don’t mind doing small trips by myself but they are always more fun with other people. Today I was back with the ‘pequeños.’ The three year old class was basically the same, but we add a couple new words every week. For the 4 year old class I had printed out 8 pictures of different toys. They said “B is for ball, T is for teddy bear,” etc, etc. We went through and I taught them the words and then I gave them a color-by-number worksheet of a toy drum. This was great because it combined learning colors, numbers and toys. We didn’t have time to finish, but I was still happy with how well the kids did. Initially it looked like they were going to struggle, but they really did a great job once they got the hang out it. I asked the teacher (Ana) if it was an appropriate activity for their age level and she said yes, it was perfect. Next we had ‘desayuno’ and ‘recreo’ (breakfast and recess) for an hour. The kids at the other school only get 30 minutes but the little ones need more time to run around. After recreo Sebas was at the school and we worked with the two 5 year old classes together. There was a small word search that the kids didn’t understand at all (it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who makes activities too hard sometimes) and then a coloring activity that the kids could cut out and paste into a bookmark. The first class of 5 year olds was craaaaaaazy and hard to tame. It didn’t help that the main teacher was trying to build a cardboard castle in the room and the kids were way more interested in that than our lesson. The second class we did the same activity, tweaked a few details and it went much better.
After class I went home, ate some leftover tortilla rellena from last night, watched How I Met Your Mother, and took a small nap. I had another private lesson from 5-6 and have been relaxing (and catching up on this blog) ever since.
I also listened to my first Christmas song of the season. Normally my rule is that I don’t listen to Christmas music until Thanksgiving, but hey, there is no Thanksgiving here so I get to listen to it early…right? Heck, it’s only a couple days early anyways. I went to Napster to play a Christmas radio station or playlist and the first song that tried to play was Lady Gaga’s “Christmas Tree.” I didn’t feel that was the right tone I wanted for my first Christmas song of the season so I skipped ahead to the Glee cast’s version of “Baby its Cold Outside.” That seems like a more appropriate song to the holiday season, especially since it is freakin’ cold outside! They are predicting possible snow here this weekend. I also listened to Miranda Crosgrove’s “Christmas Wrapping” which also seemed appropriate.
“Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! But I think I'll miss this one this year.”
I think I’m going to end up spending the day with Almudena and her family for Christmas. I also received an invitation from one of the teachers to go to Cordoba but I think I’d prefer to stay here with a friend and have the possibility of traveling last minute and sleeping in my own bed. After having Almudena and Rulo over for dinner last night I feel better about having Christmas with them without it being an intrusion. I really want to do something fun for New Years. Hopefully something good comes up.
On a random note, this is another note I received from my student Marta.
I think I should put it on my bathroom mirror and be reassured on a daily basis that I’m basically the most wonderful, prettiest person on the planet. Haha. Another random fact: There are no elevators in Siles (at least that I’ve seen). I didn’t realize this until Brittany and Roberto visited. Most people here live in multi-story apartment buildings but still there are stairs everywhere, not elevators. I was talking with Ben and Eve this weekend and they said it’s basically the same in La Puerta. There is an 89 year old man in their building and it takes him about 20 minutes to get down all the stairs. I’m always amazed too, to see the elderly people here hiking up the hills. Go them!
Tomorrow the 4rd grade science class is having a test so I don’t have to prepare anything. Ahhh, how nice! It will be a little boring tomorrow when I’m sitting in class watching them take a test, but really, I don’t mind. Antonio wanted me to prepare the test but I told him I wasn’t comfortable with that. I don’t want to make a test that’s way too easy or impossible so I told him if he would prepare this test I would look it over and know what to prepare for future tests. It will be interesting to see what it’s like. The 4th graders have an extremely hard time paying attention, and I don’t think a lot of them do the work that they have to study…so we’ll see how the test goes.
Also tomorrow I’m doing a Thanksgiving lesson with Inés and her second graders. On Monday Inés and I are going to be doing the same lesson with the first graders. Lots of people here think that Thanksgiving and Christmas are the same, or very close together. Most people are surprised to hear that Thanksgiving is this week. I believe Inés wants to do more turkey handprints with the kids and then have them write what they are thankful for. We are going to put them all on a mural and put it up in the school hallway.
Ok. This is definitely the longest blog post I’ve ever written. I’ll try to be better about keeping up with the blog and not letting another week go by without a post.
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