Yesterday was pretty relaxed and non-productive. I had my lesson with Elena at 6pm and then went to the gym afterwards. Luis told me to come over to his house when I was done so I could pick up some coats. I’ve had some coats with me, but I kept anxiously awaiting the arrival of my winter coat. My parents had included it in the boxes that they sent (the ones that never arrived). When Luis’ mom found out I didn’t have a true winter coat with me so quickly set out to remedy the situation. Anyways. I went to his house and left with a huge bag of 3 coats (one for everyday, one that’s waterproof and one when I want to dress up a little) as well as a pair of boots. My boots are destroyed. I need to buy some new ones but just can’t shell out the money right now. The boots she gave me to wear are too big but she said I could stuff a sock or something in there so I at least had a pair of boots to wear if I needed them. Carlos (Luis’ nephew) is also back in town. He’s been staying at Luis’ house. While we were trying on coats and boots they had Carlos’ English music CD playing. It was pretty cute. Afterwards I headed home to shower and change, then went out to 1900 and Nicols for awhile.
Today I slept in. Luis came over to make lunch at my house, then had to leave to help haul a fridge up a couple flights of stairs. His parents have an extra flat that they are renting to two of the teachers. The apartment needed a new fridge so Luis and his brother were the lucky ones elected to drag it upstairs (since there isn’t an elevator). I showered and got ready, then went over to Luis’ house to help his mom burn some photo CDs. We got some of them burned, but eventually gave up. I decided to burn the rest at home and we had some tea instead. I don’t think my computer liked the type of CDs we were trying to use and I had others in my apartment. Luis and I went back to my apartment to make dinner, then just relaxed and watched TV. I believe Luis watched a movie, but I just fell asleep on the couch. Ooops. Guess I’m not a very good hostess!
Showing posts with label Nicols. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nicols. Show all posts
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Party Hard, Sleep Hard
Today was fairly relaxing. I went about my usual, uneventful day. I went to the gym, relaxed…really nothing exciting. The one thing I had planned was that I was possibly going to get together with Gloria at night.
Today was one of those days that unexpected, epic nights out occur. I started off at Menphys. Almudena, Maria, and a bunch of the other girls I had met on previous weekends out where there. They seemed surprised to see me. I was a little annoyed to see them…not because I didn’t want to hang out with them, but because I haven’t figured out why they don’t invite me to hang out with them. They always welcome me in if I happen to show up at a place where they are at, but they never call/text/tell me when they are going to do something. I’m not really sure what I have to do to change that. Anyways, I hung out with them for a little bit because Gloria wasn’t quite there yet.
It was my first night out with the new smoking laws. I’m glad the new smoking laws are in effect, but it doesn’t solve all the problems. The main problem I have is that I’m one of maybe half a dozen people in this town that don’t smoke. All the smokers seem to save up then all go outside at the same time to smoke together. This leaves me with two choices…stay inside by myself, or go outside with all the smoke. So much for getting away from the smoke!
I hung out with Gloria and her friend Elizabeth for the rest of the night. I also chatted with several other people they introduced me to, all of which are only here for the week. I seem to be really good at making friends with people that aren’t actually living in Siles right now. I really enjoyed hanging out with Gloria and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Gloria are both learning English so we switched back and forth from Spanish to English.
I didn’t realize the discoteca was going to be open…it was a Wednesday after all. All of a sudden Gloria and Elizabeth grabbed their coats and said they were going to the discoteca. I was surprised. Apparently because the following day was a holiday (3 Kings Day) the discoteca was open. We danced the night away and around 5:30 or 6 I got home. I crashed IMMEDIATELY. I was SO tired, but it was nice to have a good night out and not be home.
The next day I didn’t do anything. I slept literally all day (and no, I didn’t have the hangover of the century. I was just totally wiped. I think it’s because I was getting sick). I had been told that Three Kings Day was mostly for the kids, and that the only thing they do is play with their toys in the streets and at the park with the other kids, so I didn’t feel too bad about not getting out of the house (although in hindsight I know I probably should have at least taken a stroll to see if anything was going on). I had been planning on grabbing a coffee with Gloria before she went back to Granada but that didn’t happen. I didn’t hear from her and I was pretty content sleeping the day away.
I slept for almost 30 hours straight, with short breaks to go to the bathroom and get something to drink. I woke up at 2:30am. I didn’t think I was going to be unable to get back to sleep and that I had totally screwed up my internal clock. Luckily for me I watched on episode of Glee and fell right back asleep. I didn’t wake up again until 12:30. CRAZY! I was planning on going to the gym but was feeling a bit weak after being in bed so long. Luis sent me a text asking if I wanted him to come over and have dinner. We ended up going to Mezquita instead to eat calamares and gambas (shrimp). After that we grabbed a drink at Nicols and called it a night.
Today was one of those days that unexpected, epic nights out occur. I started off at Menphys. Almudena, Maria, and a bunch of the other girls I had met on previous weekends out where there. They seemed surprised to see me. I was a little annoyed to see them…not because I didn’t want to hang out with them, but because I haven’t figured out why they don’t invite me to hang out with them. They always welcome me in if I happen to show up at a place where they are at, but they never call/text/tell me when they are going to do something. I’m not really sure what I have to do to change that. Anyways, I hung out with them for a little bit because Gloria wasn’t quite there yet.
It was my first night out with the new smoking laws. I’m glad the new smoking laws are in effect, but it doesn’t solve all the problems. The main problem I have is that I’m one of maybe half a dozen people in this town that don’t smoke. All the smokers seem to save up then all go outside at the same time to smoke together. This leaves me with two choices…stay inside by myself, or go outside with all the smoke. So much for getting away from the smoke!
I hung out with Gloria and her friend Elizabeth for the rest of the night. I also chatted with several other people they introduced me to, all of which are only here for the week. I seem to be really good at making friends with people that aren’t actually living in Siles right now. I really enjoyed hanging out with Gloria and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Gloria are both learning English so we switched back and forth from Spanish to English.
I didn’t realize the discoteca was going to be open…it was a Wednesday after all. All of a sudden Gloria and Elizabeth grabbed their coats and said they were going to the discoteca. I was surprised. Apparently because the following day was a holiday (3 Kings Day) the discoteca was open. We danced the night away and around 5:30 or 6 I got home. I crashed IMMEDIATELY. I was SO tired, but it was nice to have a good night out and not be home.
The next day I didn’t do anything. I slept literally all day (and no, I didn’t have the hangover of the century. I was just totally wiped. I think it’s because I was getting sick). I had been told that Three Kings Day was mostly for the kids, and that the only thing they do is play with their toys in the streets and at the park with the other kids, so I didn’t feel too bad about not getting out of the house (although in hindsight I know I probably should have at least taken a stroll to see if anything was going on). I had been planning on grabbing a coffee with Gloria before she went back to Granada but that didn’t happen. I didn’t hear from her and I was pretty content sleeping the day away.
I slept for almost 30 hours straight, with short breaks to go to the bathroom and get something to drink. I woke up at 2:30am. I didn’t think I was going to be unable to get back to sleep and that I had totally screwed up my internal clock. Luckily for me I watched on episode of Glee and fell right back asleep. I didn’t wake up again until 12:30. CRAZY! I was planning on going to the gym but was feeling a bit weak after being in bed so long. Luis sent me a text asking if I wanted him to come over and have dinner. We ended up going to Mezquita instead to eat calamares and gambas (shrimp). After that we grabbed a drink at Nicols and called it a night.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Holidays in Spain
Happy 2011!
Here’s a bit of a summary of how I spent my holidays…
Christmas Eve I was at home most of the day. Originally I was suppose to be with Almudena and her family that day, but they decided to spend Christmas Eve with her boyfriend’s family and it wasn’t really her place to invite me to that. So then I talked to Stefi and Edu about maybe spending Christmas Eve with them. They said that if Edu’s mom ending up coming over to their house for Christmas Eve that I could join them, but if she refused and they had to go to her house that I wouldn’t be able to come. It ended up that I wasn’t going to be able to go with them. Luckily for me Luis’ family doesn’t do anything for Christmas Eve, so he came and spent the day with me at my apartment. He made ham and mushroom risotto for lunch and brought a bottle of cava. Cava is like champagne, except since it’s from Catalonia it has a different name. We hung out most of the day and for dinner he cooked two other kinds of risotto…salmon risotto, and a chicken and cheese risotto. All of it was fantastic. After dinner I got dolled up in the dress I bought in Ubeda and a pair of heels (my first time attempting to wear heels for a night out in Siles). We met Luis’ brother at Pub JJ for a drink because Nicols wasn’t open yet (not open yet…at midnight!). After Pub JJ we went to Nicols and hung out for awhile. We had a drink, chatted and were given souvenir Nicols’ Santa hats. We left Nicols around 1:30 and walked to Luis’ house to get the car. (I can’t remember why we needed it). However, someone had parked behind the car and we couldn’t get it out so Luis’ brother and I walked up to my apartment while Luis got some things out of the house. At 2am I got to web chat with my family, and about 30 extended family members who were at my cousin’s house having Christmas Eve dinner. They took turns passing the computer around and then they put the computer at the end of the table so I could be apart of the dinner table prayer. Everyone started singing and I could tell Luis and Javi were amused and wondering what was going on. I ended the chat and then headed back out. We went to 1900 for awhile but it was really frustrating. The music was turned up RELALY loud making conversation virtually impossible for me. Plus, I got introduced to a guy whose accent I couldn’t understand very well, and who kept talking about things he didn’t really like about the US. I kept looking for a way out of the conversation, but it took awhile. Luis, Javi and I didn’t stay for too much longer. Javi went home and Luis and I went to the discoteca. Luis introduced me to a bunch of people at the discoteca, including a guy named Tom who is auditioning for a TV host role in Madrid. We drank and danced the night away, and I finally went to bed about 8am.
I like the fact that Spaniards have big crazy nights out for Christmas Eve, but I think there is one flaw in the tradition. Usually people here have a nice dinner for Christmas Eve, and a nice lunch for Christmas day. It was the first time in my life I’ve set an alarm for noon knowing I would only be getting four hours of sleep. It’s too bad people don’t have a nice dinner for Christmas instead of lunch so we have more time to recuperate after the previous night’s celebrations.
Christmas day starting off a little frantic and frustrating. I didn’t wake up right when I should have and so I rushed to get ready (I had been led to believe that people dressed up for Christmas). A couple weeks ago Almudena had told me that the lunch would be at her parents’ house. Last night when I saw her at the discoteca I confirmed with her and she said, no, the lunch was going to be at her house. This led to a whole slew of confusion on Christmas day, and me eventually showing up late to her parents where everyone was there waiting for me so they could eat. After eating our meat and seafood lunch (that’s the typical Christmas meal here) Almudena wanted me to take some pictures of the kids so we had a mini photo shoot with everyone that was there. Overall I was only at Almudena’s parents’ house about 2-3 hours, which is comparison to some lunches I’ve gone to is pretty short. I went home, relaxed and slept the rest of the day. A lot of people decided not to go out Christmas night because Christmas Eve had been so crazy.
New Years Eve I went to Hostal Cruz (a restaurant) with Luis and his parents. We had a big expensive meal (which Luis’ parents were generous enough to treat me to) and chatted with the people all around us. It felt like a big family gathering the way it was set up, except it was just a bunch of random people from the town all together. I met a lot of people, most of whom initially used Luis as my interpreter because they didn’t think I spoke Spanish. One of the older gentlemen there said that I could be Miss America or Miss North America. Haha. I got seated next to a girl from Germany (who is dating a guy living in Barcelona, originally from Siles). More than one person commented on the fact that they put the two guiris (foreigners) together. We had lots of tapas, wine, beer, our main courses, dessert and polvorones (cookies, chocolates, sweets). I had fish for my main course and Luis ordered the meat so we could try both. I really liked the meat dish and wish I had ordered it! We watched the countdown on TV and I was excited to eat my 12 grapes. Spaniards eat 12 grapes at midnight (one with each strike of the clock) and it’s supposed to bring you good luck in the coming year. The only thing that made this a little challenging was that the seeds aren’t pitted so you have to stuff a bunch of grapes in your mouth, eat around the seeds and then pick the seeds out after the clock has struck 12 times. Supposedly in some cities they were selling pitted grapes for New Years but sadly, Siles was not one of these towns. I guess that just makes my experience all the more authentic. The restaurant owner also gave everyone a bag of goodies (party hats, noisemakers, etc) to don while ringing in the New Year. After eating the grapes everyone went around the room wishing everyone a Happy New Year (¡Feliz año!) with the normal cheek kisses. Shortly after, the younger generations headed off to the bars. Luis and I headed off to Nicols. Luis’ parents stayed at Hostel Cruz but not for very long. We had a few drinks, chatted it up with people, hung out with the German girl and her Spanish boyfriend and eventually decided to go back to Hostal Cruz so I could see the older generation living it up. Haha. They were listening to music and dancing, and Ana, Luis “second mother” (who is super tiny) tried teaching me to dance. We stayed there for a little while, then headed off to Menphys. We ran into Maria and Almudena on the way. They were heading over to the discoteca so we decided to go straight there instead. Luis called up a friend in Barcelona to say ‘happy new year’ and then we went inside. It actually wasn’t too crowded when we showed up (around 3am). It didn’t take too long though before the place was PACKED. You really couldn’t dance. You just had to move around in the same place. I like going out in Spain but nights like this still stress me out. Maybe it’s because I treasure my American concept of personal space. Even if there is space it seems like people will just run into you without making much of an effort to go around. We stayed there for awhile, had a few drinks (I eventually changed out of my high heels and into the flats I stowed away in my purse) and later on we headed back to Nicols. It was a little less stressful there. I’m glad we went to the discoteca but *uffff* SO many people. I preferred Christmas Eve in the discoteca when there were still a lot of people, but not as many. I believe I finally went to bed around 7-8am.
And thaaaaaaaat was my holiday season in a nutshell. A *small* change from the typical low-key family gatherings I usually go to! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!
¡Feliz navidad! ¡Feliz año Nuevo!
Here’s a bit of a summary of how I spent my holidays…
Christmas Eve I was at home most of the day. Originally I was suppose to be with Almudena and her family that day, but they decided to spend Christmas Eve with her boyfriend’s family and it wasn’t really her place to invite me to that. So then I talked to Stefi and Edu about maybe spending Christmas Eve with them. They said that if Edu’s mom ending up coming over to their house for Christmas Eve that I could join them, but if she refused and they had to go to her house that I wouldn’t be able to come. It ended up that I wasn’t going to be able to go with them. Luckily for me Luis’ family doesn’t do anything for Christmas Eve, so he came and spent the day with me at my apartment. He made ham and mushroom risotto for lunch and brought a bottle of cava. Cava is like champagne, except since it’s from Catalonia it has a different name. We hung out most of the day and for dinner he cooked two other kinds of risotto…salmon risotto, and a chicken and cheese risotto. All of it was fantastic. After dinner I got dolled up in the dress I bought in Ubeda and a pair of heels (my first time attempting to wear heels for a night out in Siles). We met Luis’ brother at Pub JJ for a drink because Nicols wasn’t open yet (not open yet…at midnight!). After Pub JJ we went to Nicols and hung out for awhile. We had a drink, chatted and were given souvenir Nicols’ Santa hats. We left Nicols around 1:30 and walked to Luis’ house to get the car. (I can’t remember why we needed it). However, someone had parked behind the car and we couldn’t get it out so Luis’ brother and I walked up to my apartment while Luis got some things out of the house. At 2am I got to web chat with my family, and about 30 extended family members who were at my cousin’s house having Christmas Eve dinner. They took turns passing the computer around and then they put the computer at the end of the table so I could be apart of the dinner table prayer. Everyone started singing and I could tell Luis and Javi were amused and wondering what was going on. I ended the chat and then headed back out. We went to 1900 for awhile but it was really frustrating. The music was turned up RELALY loud making conversation virtually impossible for me. Plus, I got introduced to a guy whose accent I couldn’t understand very well, and who kept talking about things he didn’t really like about the US. I kept looking for a way out of the conversation, but it took awhile. Luis, Javi and I didn’t stay for too much longer. Javi went home and Luis and I went to the discoteca. Luis introduced me to a bunch of people at the discoteca, including a guy named Tom who is auditioning for a TV host role in Madrid. We drank and danced the night away, and I finally went to bed about 8am.
I like the fact that Spaniards have big crazy nights out for Christmas Eve, but I think there is one flaw in the tradition. Usually people here have a nice dinner for Christmas Eve, and a nice lunch for Christmas day. It was the first time in my life I’ve set an alarm for noon knowing I would only be getting four hours of sleep. It’s too bad people don’t have a nice dinner for Christmas instead of lunch so we have more time to recuperate after the previous night’s celebrations.
Christmas day starting off a little frantic and frustrating. I didn’t wake up right when I should have and so I rushed to get ready (I had been led to believe that people dressed up for Christmas). A couple weeks ago Almudena had told me that the lunch would be at her parents’ house. Last night when I saw her at the discoteca I confirmed with her and she said, no, the lunch was going to be at her house. This led to a whole slew of confusion on Christmas day, and me eventually showing up late to her parents where everyone was there waiting for me so they could eat. After eating our meat and seafood lunch (that’s the typical Christmas meal here) Almudena wanted me to take some pictures of the kids so we had a mini photo shoot with everyone that was there. Overall I was only at Almudena’s parents’ house about 2-3 hours, which is comparison to some lunches I’ve gone to is pretty short. I went home, relaxed and slept the rest of the day. A lot of people decided not to go out Christmas night because Christmas Eve had been so crazy.
New Years Eve I went to Hostal Cruz (a restaurant) with Luis and his parents. We had a big expensive meal (which Luis’ parents were generous enough to treat me to) and chatted with the people all around us. It felt like a big family gathering the way it was set up, except it was just a bunch of random people from the town all together. I met a lot of people, most of whom initially used Luis as my interpreter because they didn’t think I spoke Spanish. One of the older gentlemen there said that I could be Miss America or Miss North America. Haha. I got seated next to a girl from Germany (who is dating a guy living in Barcelona, originally from Siles). More than one person commented on the fact that they put the two guiris (foreigners) together. We had lots of tapas, wine, beer, our main courses, dessert and polvorones (cookies, chocolates, sweets). I had fish for my main course and Luis ordered the meat so we could try both. I really liked the meat dish and wish I had ordered it! We watched the countdown on TV and I was excited to eat my 12 grapes. Spaniards eat 12 grapes at midnight (one with each strike of the clock) and it’s supposed to bring you good luck in the coming year. The only thing that made this a little challenging was that the seeds aren’t pitted so you have to stuff a bunch of grapes in your mouth, eat around the seeds and then pick the seeds out after the clock has struck 12 times. Supposedly in some cities they were selling pitted grapes for New Years but sadly, Siles was not one of these towns. I guess that just makes my experience all the more authentic. The restaurant owner also gave everyone a bag of goodies (party hats, noisemakers, etc) to don while ringing in the New Year. After eating the grapes everyone went around the room wishing everyone a Happy New Year (¡Feliz año!) with the normal cheek kisses. Shortly after, the younger generations headed off to the bars. Luis and I headed off to Nicols. Luis’ parents stayed at Hostel Cruz but not for very long. We had a few drinks, chatted it up with people, hung out with the German girl and her Spanish boyfriend and eventually decided to go back to Hostal Cruz so I could see the older generation living it up. Haha. They were listening to music and dancing, and Ana, Luis “second mother” (who is super tiny) tried teaching me to dance. We stayed there for a little while, then headed off to Menphys. We ran into Maria and Almudena on the way. They were heading over to the discoteca so we decided to go straight there instead. Luis called up a friend in Barcelona to say ‘happy new year’ and then we went inside. It actually wasn’t too crowded when we showed up (around 3am). It didn’t take too long though before the place was PACKED. You really couldn’t dance. You just had to move around in the same place. I like going out in Spain but nights like this still stress me out. Maybe it’s because I treasure my American concept of personal space. Even if there is space it seems like people will just run into you without making much of an effort to go around. We stayed there for awhile, had a few drinks (I eventually changed out of my high heels and into the flats I stowed away in my purse) and later on we headed back to Nicols. It was a little less stressful there. I’m glad we went to the discoteca but *uffff* SO many people. I preferred Christmas Eve in the discoteca when there were still a lot of people, but not as many. I believe I finally went to bed around 7-8am.
And thaaaaaaaat was my holiday season in a nutshell. A *small* change from the typical low-key family gatherings I usually go to! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!
¡Feliz navidad! ¡Feliz año Nuevo!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Déjame en paz!
Well last night I didn’t end up going to bed right away. I stayed up late trying to prepare for my lessons and in the morning I woke up late. I was supposed to have a lesson with Isabel before school but I called and asked to reschedule. It was just going to make my morning so stressful. I headed to the ATM, the panadería (oh you tempting chocolate Napolitanas) and then to school. I sat in the teacher’s lounge and tried to update my agenda and relax a few minutes before class. There is snow at the altitudes just above us. Snow is coming!
After that I headed up to the English room and talked to Sebas about mixing up our routine. Usually he gives me 4-6 kids and we read something from their book, and then do some exercises in their accompanying activity book. I proposed that with the eldest kids we make Christmas cards and send them to Steph’s students (My friend Steph works in a Spanish immersion school in Vancouver). That way they could interact with students from the US and use their English in a fun way. It would also give me us a chance to teach them some Christmas vocabulary. He loved the idea. After that I had class with the 5th graders and then had a break to work on stuff for my private lessons, as well as get things prepared for Thursdays Christmas card making/lesson extravaganza. I printed out a bunch of Christmas drawing pages I had found so the kids could color them, cut them out and include them on their Christmas cards. I also helped Antonio and Silvia put up the backdrop for our “Charity Christmas Tree.” The kids are painting egg cartons green and we are putting them up in the form of a Christmas tree. I’ll try to put up a picture later when it’s done. We are putting boxes under our “Christmas tree” and collecting donations for people that don’t have enough for the holidays. After that I was supposed to work with the 1st graders. Inés is usually with me during this time, and we had planned on having the 1st graders make the typical Thanksgiving hand-turkeys so we could put it on our mural. I think I forgot to mention this mural before. Hehe. This is another thing I will need to get a picture of. I drew a basic, cartoon-ish turkey that says “I am thankful for…” The kids traced their hands and made turkeys out of them, then we cut the hands out and pasted them onto the mural as the feathers of the turkey on my poster. With just the second graders we didn’t have enough hands/turkeys so we were going to do the exercise with the first graders too. Well, Inés wasn’t at school on Monday and the normal 1st grade teacher was frazzled because the kids were being crazy. She asked if I could wait until 1pm to try and do the lesson…that’s only 45 minutes later so I said sure. I hung out until 1 but then the teacher asked if we could just do it the next week. I felt bad for her. She seemed exhausted and overwhelmed. Sure…one less lesson I have to plan I guess! I went to the small market/grocery store next to my house (Juani’s) and picked up some cream cheese, lasagna and chocolate. Quite the shopping trip, right? Haha. After that I went home, did laundry, had lunch, consolidated by clothes on the ‘tendedero’ (my new clothes rack) so they didn’t take over the entire apartment, chatted with Maria and then took a short nap.
I woke up and received a text message that I should come to her apartment right away so we can meet and go somewhere to watch the futbol (soccer) game. Barcelona and Madrid were playing so it was a big game. I met Almudena at her apartment and she was juggling dinner and laundry and cleaning the apartment. We headed off to Mezquita, had a mosto and watched the beginning of the game but there weren’t any seats. We got their too late. Almudena is a Barcelona fan but Rulo and Maria and a bunch of others are Madrid fans. I lean towards Madrid although I haven’t fully formed an alliance yet. Most of the people in Mezquita were Madrid fans. Shortly after we headed over to Nicols. Nicols was filled with all the Barcelona fans. Almudena’s parents were there as well as a couple other friends of hers. There were still no seats but the environment in Nicols was better…mostly because it was filled with Barcelona fans and Madrid was getting their butt kicked. The final score was 5-0. Yikes. It was really funny to see Almudena’s dad. He comes off as being SO serious all the time, but every time Barcelona scored he was up dancing and cheering. Luis showed up sometime in the second half and hung out with us. Also the group of teachers I’ve been going out were there too. When the game ended Almudena headed home but I stuck around with Luis and the other teachers. I had planned on going right home after the game…it was a Monday after all and I needed to teach in the morning. Haaaaaaaha. Foolish me. Going home after a big game, even if it is a Monday? Noooooo. Not until 2:30am.
A guy Luis knew (as well as a bunch of others throughout the night) came over and was trying to convince me to root for Barcelona. I mentioned that my dad had a Barcelona jersey and he got really happy and Luis buried his face in his hands. Haha. I told them I would watch the rematch in May and then decide who “my” team would be.
We were at Nicols for quite awhile. Initially I had fun there but there was a group of guys there that I’ve had a hard time with since the beginning of my stay here. I don’t understand them and I know they are saying suggestive things. I always get really uncomfortable and although I know good things to say/do in English, Spanish leaves me at a loss. It’s more upsetting and frustrating that my Spanish isn’t good enough to defend myself than the actual things they are saying. They say “Oh, I’m just joking” but then they continue. They’ll say something, and even though I don’t understand the words, the fact that the other guys around him start cracking up put up a large red flag. Luis was close by and keeping an eye on the situation, but also told me that he wanted me to learn how to defend myself. When I shoved a guys arm off from around my shoulders Luis stepped in. I’m sure I was visibly frazzled and Luis talked to them. We stayed for a little while longer but not long. We headed over to Pub JJ. Luis could tell I was upset, and he thought I was mad at him for not knocking their lights out. No…starting or dealing with a bar brawl really wouldn’t have made me feel any better. I explained my language frustrations and he started trying to teach me phrases for situations like that. At Pub JJ we ran into another guy we knew, and another guy that had studied English awhile back. The guy we knew started teaching me Spanish tongue twisters. I didn’t stay too long. I had a Coke, chatted it up with our little group long enough to relax and feel better, then headed home. 2:30am. Goodness. On a Monday!
After that I headed up to the English room and talked to Sebas about mixing up our routine. Usually he gives me 4-6 kids and we read something from their book, and then do some exercises in their accompanying activity book. I proposed that with the eldest kids we make Christmas cards and send them to Steph’s students (My friend Steph works in a Spanish immersion school in Vancouver). That way they could interact with students from the US and use their English in a fun way. It would also give me us a chance to teach them some Christmas vocabulary. He loved the idea. After that I had class with the 5th graders and then had a break to work on stuff for my private lessons, as well as get things prepared for Thursdays Christmas card making/lesson extravaganza. I printed out a bunch of Christmas drawing pages I had found so the kids could color them, cut them out and include them on their Christmas cards. I also helped Antonio and Silvia put up the backdrop for our “Charity Christmas Tree.” The kids are painting egg cartons green and we are putting them up in the form of a Christmas tree. I’ll try to put up a picture later when it’s done. We are putting boxes under our “Christmas tree” and collecting donations for people that don’t have enough for the holidays. After that I was supposed to work with the 1st graders. Inés is usually with me during this time, and we had planned on having the 1st graders make the typical Thanksgiving hand-turkeys so we could put it on our mural. I think I forgot to mention this mural before. Hehe. This is another thing I will need to get a picture of. I drew a basic, cartoon-ish turkey that says “I am thankful for…” The kids traced their hands and made turkeys out of them, then we cut the hands out and pasted them onto the mural as the feathers of the turkey on my poster. With just the second graders we didn’t have enough hands/turkeys so we were going to do the exercise with the first graders too. Well, Inés wasn’t at school on Monday and the normal 1st grade teacher was frazzled because the kids were being crazy. She asked if I could wait until 1pm to try and do the lesson…that’s only 45 minutes later so I said sure. I hung out until 1 but then the teacher asked if we could just do it the next week. I felt bad for her. She seemed exhausted and overwhelmed. Sure…one less lesson I have to plan I guess! I went to the small market/grocery store next to my house (Juani’s) and picked up some cream cheese, lasagna and chocolate. Quite the shopping trip, right? Haha. After that I went home, did laundry, had lunch, consolidated by clothes on the ‘tendedero’ (my new clothes rack) so they didn’t take over the entire apartment, chatted with Maria and then took a short nap.
I woke up and received a text message that I should come to her apartment right away so we can meet and go somewhere to watch the futbol (soccer) game. Barcelona and Madrid were playing so it was a big game. I met Almudena at her apartment and she was juggling dinner and laundry and cleaning the apartment. We headed off to Mezquita, had a mosto and watched the beginning of the game but there weren’t any seats. We got their too late. Almudena is a Barcelona fan but Rulo and Maria and a bunch of others are Madrid fans. I lean towards Madrid although I haven’t fully formed an alliance yet. Most of the people in Mezquita were Madrid fans. Shortly after we headed over to Nicols. Nicols was filled with all the Barcelona fans. Almudena’s parents were there as well as a couple other friends of hers. There were still no seats but the environment in Nicols was better…mostly because it was filled with Barcelona fans and Madrid was getting their butt kicked. The final score was 5-0. Yikes. It was really funny to see Almudena’s dad. He comes off as being SO serious all the time, but every time Barcelona scored he was up dancing and cheering. Luis showed up sometime in the second half and hung out with us. Also the group of teachers I’ve been going out were there too. When the game ended Almudena headed home but I stuck around with Luis and the other teachers. I had planned on going right home after the game…it was a Monday after all and I needed to teach in the morning. Haaaaaaaha. Foolish me. Going home after a big game, even if it is a Monday? Noooooo. Not until 2:30am.
A guy Luis knew (as well as a bunch of others throughout the night) came over and was trying to convince me to root for Barcelona. I mentioned that my dad had a Barcelona jersey and he got really happy and Luis buried his face in his hands. Haha. I told them I would watch the rematch in May and then decide who “my” team would be.
We were at Nicols for quite awhile. Initially I had fun there but there was a group of guys there that I’ve had a hard time with since the beginning of my stay here. I don’t understand them and I know they are saying suggestive things. I always get really uncomfortable and although I know good things to say/do in English, Spanish leaves me at a loss. It’s more upsetting and frustrating that my Spanish isn’t good enough to defend myself than the actual things they are saying. They say “Oh, I’m just joking” but then they continue. They’ll say something, and even though I don’t understand the words, the fact that the other guys around him start cracking up put up a large red flag. Luis was close by and keeping an eye on the situation, but also told me that he wanted me to learn how to defend myself. When I shoved a guys arm off from around my shoulders Luis stepped in. I’m sure I was visibly frazzled and Luis talked to them. We stayed for a little while longer but not long. We headed over to Pub JJ. Luis could tell I was upset, and he thought I was mad at him for not knocking their lights out. No…starting or dealing with a bar brawl really wouldn’t have made me feel any better. I explained my language frustrations and he started trying to teach me phrases for situations like that. At Pub JJ we ran into another guy we knew, and another guy that had studied English awhile back. The guy we knew started teaching me Spanish tongue twisters. I didn’t stay too long. I had a Coke, chatted it up with our little group long enough to relax and feel better, then headed home. 2:30am. Goodness. On a Monday!
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