Today’s highlight: all of the 5 year old students in one class spontaneously decided to run up and give Sebas a big hug, resulting in a big group class hug and moment of cuteness. I wanted my camera SO bad.
I missed my first two classes today. I had a doctor’s appointment to get my cough checked out. I was a couple minutes late to my appointment and was still filling out paperwork when I heard my name called in the other room. I wasn’t too worried though. I knew they would still see me. What I *didn’t* know was that those couple minutes were going to end up costing me 30-45 minutes. I finished up my paperwork, then went to the waiting room. The doctor finished up with the patient he had seen instead of me, then did a consultation for a patient with another doctor. When he came back out of his office he was dressed in his street clothes and had his bag. He saw me, said “You can wait, right? I’m going to go have a coffee.” Hmmmm…well…yes…I can wait…I don’t really have a choice. But really??? The doctor’s office opens at 8am I think and closes at 2pm. My appointment was at 10am. 6 hours…that’s not even a full workday! And you need a coffee break in the middle? That’s why so many Americans have their giganto cups of coffee with them at their desks! So we don’t have to leave in the middle of the work day to get a coffee in a restaurant. He eventually came back, saw me first, got me a prescription and sent me on my way.
From there I headed to the post office and the pharmacy. I realized that you never want to try to go to either of these places around 11am. Apparently that’s peak time for running errands. Both places were packed (ok…well… “packed” in a Siles, small-town way). I decided to deal with the post office first. I tried to get the lady there to clarify some of the charges, or see if she could call the main Correos or the customs people to talk down the charges a bit. She thought the charges were absolutely ridiculous but could do nothing about it. She gave me their phone number and recommended I call them to try and explain person to person the situation and see if they would waive the importation fees. Grrrr. The pharmacy was a little more uplifting. I was worried a little bit when I realized that I only had 20 euro with me. I wasn’t sure how much these two prescriptions were going to cost and no one in this town takes debit or credit cards. Cash only! Silly me…both prescriptions together, TOTAL, cost a little over 3 euros. I thought I had misunderstood the cashier. Sweet deal! It makes it seem even better because the 1 euro is a coin, not a bill, so I paid for my entire prescription in coins. Seems like nothing!
After this I headed up to the infantil. On my way I saw Luis’ dad who was pacing outside a café with his umbrella and cigarette. The new smoking laws in action! Luis’ mom was inside with Carlos (Luis’ nephew who is back in town visiting). He invited me in to have coffee with them but I had to get up to the school. I made two more quick stops to pick up a napolitana and something to drink. When I got to the school it was recess time. I could have had that coffee after all. I sat and chatted with the teachers, then it was time to work.
I was working with Sebas. I had seen him at the gym for the first time yesterday and today we chatted a bit about the gym and how sore and tired he was. Theeeeen we got to sing and dance with the little kids. I went over the days of the week and weather with them like normal. We taught them a song from their book about winter and invented some last minute dance moves to go with it. I don’t mind singing and dancing with the little kids when other teachers are dancing with me. It’s just when I’m planning and executing a lesson alone that I avoid it (even though I know it’s a good way for the little kids to learn). After that we did an activity in their book to try and teach them the number seven in English. The kids can count from one to at least ten without any difficulty. However, today we tried to get them to count backwards and they couldn’t do it at all. I thought it was very interesting. We tried to write the numbers on the board and even point to them in the correct order but they would always count up. 7…8…no, no we need six next…6….7….no, no, you have to go to five after that….5….6…ohhh geez. When the first class of 5 year olds was done Sebas and I took a quick breath in the hallway then headed in for round two (there are two classes of 5 year olds). We did the exact same lesson. The only difference was the random group hugs that happened 3 times
(twice to Sebas, once to me). Ahhh, yes kids, we love you too.
I also had my first intercambio with Pacolmo the clown today. It wasn’t what I thought it would be but it was still good. I met Paco at the ayuntamiento (city hall building) at 6:30 and was greeted by his big, friendly dog whose entire demeanor says “I’m happy and I want to be friends with you!” Several people had told me that Paco is “buena gente” (a good person) so I wasn’t *too* nervous as we walked down the long winding road to his house in the dark. He lives in the town, but on the outskirts. He showed me his stable, and the garden, and then his rehearsal room (which was of course filled with hats to juggle, unicycles and clown costumes). We went throughout the room and made little flashcards for him to put up so he could remember all the important vocabulary related to his job. We stayed there for quite awhile and then eventually headed into the house. Paco and his wife built the house a couple years ago using a lot of recycled things. For example their marble countertop was taken from a fabric shop that was doing some renovating. He has a room with a fireplace that is done in a Moroccan theme. It has a giant L-shaped sofa with tons of pillows and Moroccan hand sewn fabrics. Paco has done a lot of traveling so he has cultural decorations from all over the world inside his house. I got to meet his 10 year old son, and 14 year old daughter, but his wife wasn’t home. He let me look at his book collection and handed me two books he thought I should read. (I wanted to do some reading while here to improve my language abilities…looks like Paco is giving me the shove I need to actually get it done). I thought I was going to be there for about an hour, like my normal private lessons, but I was there for over two hours (maybe I should have rethought doing these intercambios twice a week). I really wanted to go to the gym so I brought my workout clothes with me to Paco’s house. I was planning on going straight to the gym from his house but when I finally headed out I realized I forgot my tennis shoes. It was going to take too much time to go home, get my shoes, change and still have time to walk to the gym before they closed. Oh well…I’ll have to make up for it tomorrow.
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