Christmas is a'coming, plus language lessons and foooood

Today was both crazy and exhausting, and uneventful at the same time. As I've mentioned before, Tuesdays are just plain madness. Working in the morning, off to my business Spanish class at the university, to the gym, then off to my other Spanish class. I leave the house at 8:30am and besides the 15 minutes I have to shower and get ready after going to the gym, I don't get back until 10pm. Sitting in my Spanish class (7:30-9:30pm) I just had this vision of my extremely heavy head being filled with advanced Spanish knowledge clunking down on my desk like a giant paperweight...that's about how good I felt. I was wiped.  There was definitely a feeling of disconnect between my brain and my mouth. I basically felt like doing nothing but staring blankly the entire time I was there. I would like to take this Spanish class again in the spring so I can take C2 (the highest level) but if it's scheduled this late again, I don't think I can do it. I've taken late classes before...but not typically when I've spent the rest of the day running around.

Anyways, on a totally different note, I have my flight booked to come home for Christmas!!! "¡qué rollo!" The prices were outrageous, and the choices of connections were awful, but I'm really excited that I get to come home for Christmas this year. I can't believe it's already the end of November!!! Time is absolutely FLYING by. The trip home should be quite the adventure. I'm planning on taking an evening bus or train from Jaen to Madrid on December 20th (Tuesday). Once I get there, I'll either check my bags, put them in a locker at the airport, or leave them at a friend's house for a couple hours (anyone want to volunteer their house?). Then into the city I'll go to see the Madrid Christmas lights and get some dinner. One website says that the Christmas lights get turned off at 10pm on Tuesdays, so after that I'll head back to the airport and hang out until my flight leaves. Yuck. I'll probably be really screwed up since I arrive in Seattle around noon, but will probably be completely exhausted after traveling for so long.

Today we started Christmas lessons. It's still a little bit early, but since I only see each class every 2 weeks, and we have Monday, Tuesday and Thursday off next week we have to get started now. To be perfectly honest I had no idea what to do with them. I like doing the fun artsy stuff with the kids, but I need to find a way to include more conversation in it. That didn't really happen today. In one of the classes the kids got a piece of green paper and they had to cut out 2-4 hand prints and we made a Christmas tree out of their hand prints. We'll add decorations with vocab words next week. We're also planning on making a Christmas tree out of recycled products (probably boxes), Christmas cards and each class is singing a Christmas carol, which I'm supposed to record and make into a video for our eTwinning international project. Sounds like it will be a busy couple weeks.

In the other class I had today (with the 1st graders) they each took turns recording an introduction of themselves..."Hello! My name is ____. I'm ____ years old. I love _____." Lorena (the main teacher) recorded them while I practiced with the kids who were getting ready to record.

Some of the most common mistakes the kids make are these:
-any word that starts with 's' they will pronouce as 'es' (examples: espanish, eschool)

-however, if a word ends in 's' they just won't say the 's' at all (example: friend(s)...oh, you only have 1 friend. That sucks for you. Many times we have to emphasize it "friendsssssssssssssssss" until they say the 's')

-any word that ends in "e" they will say "a." The Spanish 'e' is pronounced like our 'a' and the kids try to sight read, which really doesn't work. Almost makes them sound Canadian, eh. (Examples: love=love-eh, live=live-eh)

-I. The pesky one letter word that is EVERYWHERE.  They pronounce "I" like "E." (Examples: I'm=EE'm).

-I's and E's get mixed up in other situations too...Example, sheets...with Spanish pronunciation? Shits. Beaches? Bitches. There have been some other good ones too. I'll have to start jotting them down for a good laugh.

After correcting them 50 gagillion times I almost want to give up. Yep, I know what you're talking about. No other American that hasn't studied Spanish will understand you, but I get it. Ok...let's try it again.

One of the hard parts for them is connecting how English is written with how it is pronounced. Spanish is phonetic. You really can sound words out. They are written like they are spoken. English isn't that way. The kids can repeat after me just fine. They sound great when they do that, but give them a phrase on the board to say, and even if you tell them what it says and how to say it, them get totally lost.

As a side note, I made the pecan-crusted chicken recipe, except this time I used crushed almonds. I didn't think it would make that big of a different and the recipe said you could use other nuts. I was surprised at how much it changed the flavor. It was still really good, but it was much sweeter. Interesting...

Another random side note...did you know you can get a Master's degree in olive oil here? If I haven't made it clear yet, let me reinforce the point...these people are big olive oil fans. I've used more olive oil in the last 2 months than I think I ever have in my cooking. I finished off my first full bottle of it today. Time to go get another!