On Saturday I slept longer than I anticipated, got up, got ready quickly, finished cleaning the apartment, and put the sheets and blankets near the heaters so they would dry faster (no worries, the heaters here are designed so you can put things on them without having anything go up in smoke). Brittany and Roberto got here about 2pm. I met them on El Paseo and then we walked with their stuff up to my apartment. They got to see the apartment for a few minutes, drop off their stuff and then we headed back to El Paseo to get their car and drive to the restaurant. The restaurant really wasn’t that far away but we were going to be driving to the waterfall after lunch. Luis, our tour guide for the day, met up with us at the restaurant. We had about a two hour lunch complete with salad, calamari, patatas bravas, chicken, fries, ice cream and flan, coffee and wine. It was definitely quite the lunch! Brittany and Roberto had compiled a list of questions on their way over (such as “how the heck did you get here?”) so we chatted about my small town life and how beautiful and relaxing Siles is. After lunch we piled into the car, stopped off at Luis’ house for a jacket, at the Mezquita for a bottle of water and then we headed off to Rio Mundo to see the waterfall. I wish we could have gotten to the waterfall about an hour earlier because the light would have been a lot better for pictures, but the drive over there was beautiful. It was really nice to take a little field trip away from Siles. We really don’t go far, but it was a nice escape, especially with Brittany, Roberto and Luis for company. We snapped a bunch of pictures but didn’t stay too long. It was really pretty and made me wish I had a car here so I could make more of these little trips. I’m sure there are a lot of nearby hidden gems that I could see, if only I could get to them. After seeing the waterfall we went back to my apartment, then headed to a café/restaurant I hadn’t been to yet. It had a fireplace so we warmed up, had a beer and some tapas and continued chatting. From there we moved to Mezquita, had more drinks and more food, then went to Menphys were we had another drink, and then to Pub JJ for another drink (granted all of that took place over many hours). Brittany and Roberto got a small taste of most of our hang out spots here in Siles. We had sooo much food today! We got home about 1:30 and went right to bed. I got to test out my futon, which is fairly comfortable except for the fact that it is diagonal. In the morning Luis brought over churros and chocolate and we had breakfast together (admiring the view from my window) before Brittany and Roberto hit the road.
I still haven't figured out what I'm doing for puente or Christmas vacation. I have the 3rd-8th of December off from work and the 23rd of December through the 7th of January. Brittany mentioned that she and Roberto might go to Norway for puente. I've always wanted to go there (although going there in December maybe wasn't my original plan) but we'll see. I can't believe it's already the middle of November. If you have ideas of what I should do for my vacations, let me know! I'm not totally thrilled about the idea of traveling solo but haven't totally counted it out either.
The rest of my Sunday was very unproductive and relaxing. I watched a movie (Definitely, Maybe) and then tried to take a nap. Not long into my nap I got a phone call from one of the dads that wants me to give his daughter private English lessons. He said he was in Siles and wanted to drop by to talk about the specifics of getting lessons set up. (He couldn’t understand me very well over the phone). I shouldn’t have pulled out the hard copy paper of my schedule, because then he could see that I don’t work on Fridays. I had told him I wasn’t available to give lessons on Fridays and I still tried to stick with it, but I failed. I got conned into giving a one hour lesson on Fridays at 7pm. What a lame time. I really wanted to maintain Fridays as my free day to clean house, do laundry, hang out with my friends, etc, but he said that Fridays or the weekends was really the only time he could bring her, at least until Christmas. Grrrrr. I was in a bit of a bad mood after he left, but I listened to some music, got my Bella Baby orders taken care of and tried to get some photos updated and eventually I felt fine. I went to bed super late…one of those days were I did basically nothing and time still managed to just fly past.
Monday:
This morning was my first private English lesson. I got up, rushed to get ready and headed out the door. Luckily Isabel (the woman who I was giving the lesson to) lives right next to Steffi, so I had a pretty good idea about how to get there quickly. I got there and we had breakfast (toast with olive oil and honey and coffee with milk). Her word for the day was ‘wheat bread.’ Isabel is actually a teacher at my school, but she’s on sick leave until about Christmas time. She loves speaking English and wants to pass the level 3 exam so she can be qualified to teach English. We chatted a little bit about learning second languages, the necessity/non-necessity to learn another language in the US, her husband’s work, and our weekends. After breakfast she got out her English book so I could see what she needed to work on. She let me take the book with me so I could prepare for the following week. Isabel asked me if there’s anyway we could do two 45 minute sessions on Monday and Tuesday instead of one hour long session. I generally don’t mind, but told her I can’t do that until I make up some of my October hours at the school. The school is going to pay me for the entire month of October even though I was only there for half of it. To make up for the hours I missed I will be going to the school early and preparing class materials, posters, etc. She said that was fine, and when I was done making up my hours we could switch. I also agreed that instead of paying me at each session she could pay me at the end of the month. I hope this doesn’t end up being a problem. It makes me a little nervous.
I headed out a bit later than 9:45 and rushed off to the school. Luckily I happened to run into Pepe who was in his car. He drove me to school and I got there just in time. Today I got to work with the 5th graders first. Veronica, Migel Angel, Vicente and Angel were with me today (I’m trying really hard to actually learn their names). I had Miguel Angel with me last week as well, and I’m beginning to wonder if it’s Sebas way of giving himself a break. Miguel Angel makes me want to pull my hair out. Today’s session actually ended in tears and bloodshed. Yep. That’s how great it was. Miguel Angel and Angel were screwing around and Miguel Angel knocked Angel in the mouth and cut his gum. He started bawling, of course just as class was supposed to be getting over and Sebas was coming with the other students to tell everyone to go back to their normal classes. Great. That makes me look *real* good. Sebas didn’t seem too concerned though. He reassured me that those two tend to be a handful and overreact. Really it was basically the smallest amount of blood possible to still be considered bleeding, but Angel milked it for all it was worth. Ay, ay, ay. Really, besides that, and the fact that once again the students wouldn’t stop chatting it really wasn’t soooooo bad. We did get all the exercises done, which doesn’t usually happen.
After that fantastic class I had an hour and a half break until my next class. I hung out in the teacher’s room, and tried to find pictures of lungs, heart, etc. for my body systems mural. I also made up a schedule for myself so I could get a better feel for what spaces I had available for private lessons. I chatted with Antonio and some of the other teachers about lesson plans for Christmas and had a cup of coffee and napolitana.
Finally it was time for English class with Ines and the 1st graders. Welcome to extravaganza number two of the day. Inés said the kids were really good last Thursday but on Mondays they tend to be atrocious. They were up and down and chatting and to make matters worse all the toilets were out of order except for one. This class was right after recess, when they get to eat breakfast and drink their juice boxes, so of course every single kid in the class had to go pee…and we’re not talking the can-I-go-to-the-bathroom-to-escape-class “I have to pee” request. We’re talking twenty-some first graders holding their crotches and doing the pee-pee dance. Oh. Joy. By the end of class we had gotten them all to the bathroom, gone over the new English flash cards (talking about toys), sang the One-Two-Buckle My Shoe song and done 2 worksheets in the book. We had a few minutes left so we played a game (reminiscent of Marco Polo only we were sitting in a circle and the person in the middle was blind folded and had to figure out who in the circle was making the cat noises). End of class was signaled by one of the other teachers coming in with a few of Inés’ 2nd grade students who were apparently being extremely difficult. Poor Inés…she got to leave the 1st grade class to go deal with her own class of hyperactive, juiced-up kids…and me? I went home. Thank you God!
When I got home I was determined to be productive (unlike I usually am in the middle of the day during the week). I set up my computer so I could listen to music, then set to work on my list of chores.
-Laundry? Check.
-Dishes? Check.
-Clean kitchen? Check.
-Make bed? Check.
-Finish making schedule I started during recess? Check.
-Compile list of possible Christmas lessons? Check.
-Update photos on Flickr, Tuenti, Facebook and my blog? Check.
-Make lunch? Check.
-Put clothes away? Partial check (some aren’t dry yet).
-Look for pictures of British castles for my 4 year olds to draw? Getting there…
I also chatted with Maria for a little bit. She wanted to see the pictures I took at the park so I got those up and she really liked them. Not bad for an afternoon. My apartment looks a lot better now than when I left the house this morning. The time did go by really quickly though and I still have a lot more to do in the next 2 days. Ahhhhhhh. I hope I can get it all done! The only thing I *have* to get done tonight is finding pictures of those castles. I can find general pictures of castles, but I’m not really sure how to go about finding simple pictures of British castles that 4 year olds can color. Blllllllah. Welcome to the life of teaching I suppose.
Tomorrow is my second time working with the 3-5 year olds at the other elementary school. I’ve been here a month and it will only be my 2nd time working with them (due to my trips to Jaén). Last time I was overwhelmed because the teachers didn’t know I was coming, I didn’t have anything planned, Sebas was out of town and the teachers just turned their classes over to me. I’m hoping it’s going to be worlds better this time. I arranged to work with the 3 year olds during the morning routine when they talk about the weather, the date, the day of the week…stuff like that. The 4 year old class is the only other one I have to plan for, then Sebas is back in town and will be leading the two 5 year old classes. I really, really hope tomorrow goes well. Luckily, even though Monday-Wednesday is overwhelming, it goes by really fast. I like having all my classes crammed together.
I think my cough is starting to get better too. I still have some fits but it seems better. Good thing otherwise I think Luis would have personally drug me off to the doctors to get checked for bronchitis.
I’m enjoying having my heat on, although it makes going outside rather unpleasant. It’s not snowing yet, but it has gotten so cold in the last week!
On another random note, they are opening a gym here in Siles sometime in the next month-ish. I hope it's sooner rather than later. After the last few days I feel gross. So much food! I would love a good run, although running up and down the hills of Siles sounds both painful and awkward. As if I don't have enough people looking at me normally I can only imagine what they would think if they literally saw me running around town. People here don't do that.
Well I’m off to find pictures of castles (as long as my internet works…it started cramping my style about an hour ago and is having a hard time connecting). That’s the internet’s way of saying I get to have a break for the rest of the day, right? Riiiiight.
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