Erica está en España: Mingling with los maestros

This morning I woke up early so I could head off to the park and finish getting my Halloween lesson prepared for school today. I meant to do it before now but just didn’t get it done. So, there I was at the park in the morning trying to put together a word search and Halloween flashcards. I certainly was cutting it a little close and almost didn’t get it done, but it was fine. I would have like to have tweaked a couple other things but it all worked out.

I headed off to Ruiz Jimenez and saw the 3rd graders and my two classes of 5th graders. We went over the vocabulary, then they did the word search, and then I passed out the A4 sized flashcards (A4 paper is the standard here, not 8 1/2x11 like we use in the US) and they colored them so we could put them up around the room. During recess I ran back to my house to drop off my computer and backpack that I had used to prepare everything that morning. We were going to the feria after school and I didn’t want to take it with me.

After school Maria del Mar (the PE teacher), Irene (my coordinator) and me headed to Irene’s house so they could change. From there we hopped on the bus to the fair. The feria buses don’t say what route they are running. The front just says “Feria.” Of course we hopped on a bus that wasn’t taking a long, roundabout way to get there and the bus driver was driving SO slow. We have no idea why but he was just creeping along. We finally got the fair and met up with all the other teachers and some of their significant others that were already there. We had a big lunch of paella, chorizo, morcilla, revuelto, migas and of course drinks. I posted a picture last year of a lunch at Luis’ house where I ended up with like 4 or 5 glasses. This was the same thing. I had a tinto verano (red wine with lemon soda) glass, a white wine with sprite glass, a red wine with Coca-Cola (calimocho/kalimotxo), a vodka caramelo shot, and sidra (cider). They just kept passing me more and more things to try. I had my own little collection of glasses by the time lunch was over.

Everyone just seemed really happy. Yes, there was alcohol involved, but it was different. I had been to the feria two other times at night and it’s always overwhelming, with tons of people, and some getting into fights but this just genuinely seemed like a bunch of people enjoying themselves without getting in trouble. There were people dancing, toasts going up at all the tables, people popping bottles of cider, clapping and singing. There was also a photographer there from the Jaén newspaper, and our photo appeared in the paper the next day.

One of the teachers at my school really wanted to dance, and no one was taking him up on his offer, so I said, “well…if you don’t mind teaching me, I’ll dance!” He tried to teach me flamenco but I’m certainly not up to his level of expertise. Haha. It was fun though. From there we headed to another ‘caseta’ (tent/hut/stand) that was basically a discoteca. We danced for hours and had more drinks (tequila shots, mojitos and vodka/sprites). Whoa. Haha. How many of us in the US go out for “lunches” like this with our co-workers/bosses? Haha.

When Irene left I decided to head out too. I stopped for a kebab for dinner and then headed home only to find a small party at my apartment. Luisa had some of her German friends over. She reassured me that they would be leaving soon and they’d try to keep the noise down. I in turn reassured her that I was tipsy enough if I laid down to sleep I wouldn’t hear a thing. Sure enough, I was out. I was glad I had at least one good day at the fair. It’s such a big deal here and people rave about it, but I generally find it overwhelming. I really did have fun there with my co-workers though.