Yesterday Paco, one of the clowns from the payaso show in October came to the infantile to find me and talk about private lessons. We decided to do an intercambio instead. PAco is going to teach me Spanish and I’m going to teach him English. We’re going to start after New Years. Hopefully this will help me improve my Spanish. I really feel like I’ve been hitting a plateau lately.
Today I woke up and headed to the Bazar to buy frames for my “amigo invincible” (secret santa) gift. After that I headed to Casa Gregorio to print pictures and buy chocolate. I printed out two of the pictures I’ve taken from my window…one in the snow and one bright one at sunset.
After getting the pictures printed I had to head to another store to buy a new curling iron. This was frustrating because it’s not an expense I wanted to deal with. It was more expensive than the one I brought from the US and it’s only a curling iron, not a curling/straightening iron-in-one.
Finally I headed off to school. We didn’t do much. I had lessons planned but the kids were just watching movies and preparing for their Christmas performance for the next day. I spent time prepping my amigo invincible gift and then helped Inés with an exercise her kids were working on about clothing and what they were wearing (in English).
I received my paycheck at the very end of the day so I ran to the bank. I got there just as they were about to close. Lucky me! I only had a few euros left for this month and was afraid I was going to have to wait until after Christmas break to get paid.
After the bank I ran home to drop my stuff off. On my way I saw the rest of the teachers’ cars heading towards the restaurant for our Christmas lunch so I rushed quickly off to my apartment. I had wanted to get myself dolled up a little but didn’t have time in the morning. I thought I was going to have time after school (we were supposed to be meeting at the restaurant until 2:30 or 3). I threw a couple curls in and ran off to the restaurant. I walked into the restaurant (Hostal Cruz…where I spent my first night in Siles) and there were only three people there. The rest had decided to go to Mezquita and have a drink first. When they finally showed up the girls were all made-up. Even the PE teacher who I’ve only ever seen in workout clothes was really spiffed up.
All us teachers hung out together from 3-11:45pm. I wish we could do it more often. We had tons of tapas, wine and beer. I didn’t even need the main course by the time it came around, but ate it anyways. We exchange our amigo invincible gifts and I got some great stuff. I got a new purse with a new smaller handbag inside with a bracelet. I have no idea how she got it for 10 euro (the gift price limit). Everyone was singing villancicos (Christmas carols), playing the guitar and telling jokes. They got me to sing a little bit of “Last Christmas” although I couldn’t remember a lot of the lyrics. When we were done at the restaurant I dropped my stuff off in Maria del Mar’s apartment (right on El Paseo) and we all headed over to Nicols (a bar) for karaoke and more drinks. We were there for quite awhile and I joined in songs when I thought I had a chance at keeping up. We headed over to Mezquita so some people could eat and got one more drink. I saw Maria and Gloria when I was there. Gloria is back in town for Christmas break. After that it was time to go home and sleep. I never would have guessed that a “lunch” with my co-workers would last 9 hours! I had fun though. I really wish I could spend more time outside of school with the teachers but it’s challenging. During the week most of them are studying for their upcoming exams and on the weekends they all go back to their hometowns.
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