December???

Whoa, it’s the 1st of December? When did that happen?

I don’t want blogging to become a weekly thing instead of a daily thing, but maybe it will. Things have really started to pick up…well…that or I’m adapting to doing nothing so I’m better at wasting time. It’s amazing how 12 hours of work turns into so much more. Lesson planning and executing and private lessons, as well as all the little projects I’ve been taking on leave me without much time or motivation to update the blog on a nightly basis, although I know I’ll regret it later if I don’t keep it up.

Today was absolute madness. I’m pretty sure it could be classified as a hellion rebellion. Really, it was hard to believe actually. Not only was today my long day but the kids were off the wall crazy. I think it’s because we’ve mixed up the routine a little and have started doing activities related to Christmas. I’ve been told that whenever they get to this point in the school year the kids just start to go nuts. At various points in the day there were desks overturned, kids screaming like banshees up and down the hallways, green paint up to their eyebrows and of course, tears. Heaven help me. It almost didn’t seem real. I was working on a mural in the hallway and all of this seemed to be spinning around me in a dream-like fog.

The third grade class was pretty typical. Read something out of the book, ask comprehension questions, do activities in workbook.

The sixth grade class we started the Christmas cards for Steph’s students. They spent the entire time coloring and we’re going to have to finish on Friday. I only have one class a week with the sixth graders but Sebas has 2 classes with them. I told him I could come in on Friday even though I don’t usually work so we could finish the activity and get them in the mail. The kids really liked this activity. Woo hoo!

After recreo I had my time with Antonio’s 4th graders. They were multitasking. Antonio had said that instead of doing a science lesson with me this week he wanted to do something related to Constitution Day (which is December 6th). I had started a mural in the hallway and brought in images of the different Spanish rights mentioned in the Constitution (not all of them, just the basics). The kids were supposed to color them so we could put them on the mural. Well, half the kids were in class being crazy, the other half were painting green egg cartons for the Charity Christmas Tree in the hallway downstairs and so really it wasn’t much of a lesson. The kids colored the pictures when they were in the room and I pasted them to the mural.

My last class of the day was with the 2nd graders. Oh goodness. What a way to end the day. My feet were aching and I just wanted to sit down. Inés and I went around helping the kids with one of their workbook activities about animals and body parts (sharks with big teeth, fish with big eyes, swordfish with long ‘noses’ etc, etc).

Thank goodness tomorrow is Thursday and my half day.

I went home, ate lunch and fell into bed. My feet and whole body hurt. I chatted with Maria briefly, then decided to take a 20 minute nap. Thank goodness. I certainly didn’t want to get up after only 20 minutes but it did make me feel better. Then it was back to school for the adult class. With my first group we ended up chatting for an hour. The plan is normally to chat for half an hour and then work on grammar for half an hour, but when we checked the time and saw that an hour had already passed we were shocked. Marta, the main teacher, pointed out that next week is “puente” (vacation) and the week after they have an exam, and the week after that Christmas break starts, so I don’t need to come back until after the 7th of January. Whoa! How’s that for an unexpected little break! After that I went to the other group and they were doing a listening activity. I felt bad for them because I even thought it was hard to understand at times because the accent was so thick! We chatted about our weekends, our plans for puente, and Christmas. At one point, all of a sudden, Fernando (the main teacher of this group) got this worried look on his face… “Erica! What are doing for Christmas??” Haha, staying here in good ol’ Siles. I assured him that a friend had invited me to spend the day with her family and that I would be ok.

Fernando’s last day of teaching in Siles is this week (tomorrow). He has been here basically as a substitute because the ‘normal’ English teacher was in a car wreck and on leave. I have never met her. Saturday Fernando and his friends are going out for one last hurrah, so I’ll probably join them. He said if I feel like going to the beach that I could visit him in Huelva. I assured him that after a winter in Siles I would probably need it!

Juan (one of my ‘pupils’) also invited me to go to Madrid for puente with him and his family. I thought about it, but I’ve been to Madrid already, so I think I’ll just stay in Siles for a few days to go out with my friends (including those who aren’t usually here) and then go to Ubeda and Baeza on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for a small trip. Originally I’d been thinking of going to Malaga and Cadiz but decided I didn’t feel like traveling alone in the rain.

Also, I found out last week at our Thanksgiving dinner that Ben and Eve have ginger in their apartment! Eve gave it to one of the teachers in my adult class, who passed it onto me…so this weekend…it’s pie baking time!

A few random side notes I’ve forgotten to mention the last few days…

1.) I scheduled a trip to Murcia next month to visit Brittany and Roberto. I will be going there the 17th and coming back on the 19th.

2.) I bought my very first lottery ticket ever! It’s a Christmas lottery ticket…wouldn’t a few million euros be nice for the holidays! Haha

Daylight savings time is just an excuse to party an hour more

Happy Halloween everyone!

Yesterday I slept in until 12:30. Considering I didn’t go to bed until 3:30 I think that’s just fine. Heck, it was a Saturday on a holiday weekend. The day before I had successfully done one load of laundry of laundry (the little pictures/symbols on the washing machine are not really bilingual) so yesterday I needed to do the rest of my laundry. I don’t have a dryer here. In Murcia I could understand that…I didn’t necessary like it, but I understood it. It doesn’t rain a lot there and the temperature is pretty decent year-round. Here, it was raining yesterday. It started raining Friday night and has been drizzly and very Washington-like ever since. You can’t really put clothes outside on the line to dry if it’s raining. And later this winter when it starts to snow? I REALLY don’t think my clothes are going to dry then. So, this is what life looks like without a dryer…







I do love my towel warmer. I put my jeans on that, and it still took a long time, but I got them dry in one day instead of three. I have clothes on my tables, clothes on the chairs, clothes on the banister and clothes on desk…it’s beginning to sound like a Dr. Seuss story.

I also spent some time doing dishes and sweeping. Dust tends to gather really quickly here so I feel like I need to sweep every couple days.

I showered and got ready, and then got to talk with Brittany a little bit. We didn’t get to chat long because I ran out of money on my phone, but it was still good to talk to her. My plan was to go to Murcia tomorrow (Pepe is going to Murcia to look at a new car and said he could take me) and have coffee with Brittany.

After all that I headed out to do my errands. I went to Pepe’s house to drop off the phone he lent me and confirm tomorrow’s plan. Pepe wasn’t at the house but Rocio was. She said her dad was at Mezquita…of course he was…I think he is there, or in the area 90% of the time. Rocio was prepping her Halloween costume with a friend. Then I headed to Dia. I wasn’t sure what their hours were going to be, or which days they would be open because of the holiday weekend. I stocked up on food and jotted down their normal hours so I would know when to go in the future. I stopped in at Mezquita for coffee but it was really busy and I had my bags of groceries anyways. Pepe was there, and the group from the night before. Pepe said that they decided to go to Murcia next week instead. I was disappointed. I’m not sure when Pepe is actually going to go. He said he was going to go last week, and then moved it to this week, and now its next week. These trips to Murcia are way more complicated than they should be. It’s only a little over 2 hours away but there is only one or two buses that go that route each day, so if I go to Murcia I have to stay overnight at least one night. Brittany doesn’t have an apartment yet and I’m hesitant to shell out the money for a hostel until I start getting paid. Blah. I’m sure I’ll figure something out eventually.

I went back to the house, put my groceries away, send some e-mails, worked on my blog and dried off a little (stupid rain).

I was planning on going out again but wasn’t totally sure what time. This would be my first night here that I had plans to meet people and go out, instead of going by myself. QUITE exciting! The party at Mezquita was suppose to start at 1am and my group said they were going to go at 2am. They also said they were going to go out before the party, so I wasn’t sure what time they were going to call. I decided if they didn’t end up calling I would head to Menphys at 12:30 or 1 and see if they are there.

Later I received a text from Maribel saying they were planning on getting together at Menphys at 11:30. I took my time getting there, knowing it wasn’t likely they would actually be there right at 11:30. Menphys was so crowded. I definitely have to get used to that environment again because I was totally overwhelmed. It was really difficult to hear people, and basically impossible unless they were talking directly to me. I was underdressed too. I went in jeans and a fun shirt but all the girls were in heels and dresses. Part of me wanted to go home and change but I didn't. I should have saved my little black dress for this night instead of Friday. We had a couple drinks they headed to the discoteca at 2am. Cover was 6 euro, but it included a drink, so it wasn’t too bad. The bartender at the discoteca couldn’t understand me, and asked Almudena to clarify for him. It’s so frustrating…I know I’ve only been here a week and I’m not a native Spanish speaker, but I can hold such good conversations with some people and I’ve had many people tell me that I speak Spanish well. But then there are still people I can’t understand, who can’t understand me. Grrr.

It took me awhile to get adjusted to the discoteca. I was even more overwhelmed here. At times I just wanted to head out, or at least go outside for a minute, but I stuck it out. The concept of personal space is completely different here. Luckily the group I was with was really good to me. They kept checking in to make sure I was doing alright and having fun.

They had a special guest at the discoteca last night…Jenny from the show Mujeres y Hombres y Viceversa on Telecinco. I of course had no idea who she was prior to last night, but it was fun. We got a picture taken with her, which hopefully I’ll track down from Maribel at some point.

Gloria is freaking amazing. My night turned around and I had a lot of fun, mostly because of her. I really just can’t even express how grateful I am for her, for taking me under her wing, introducing me to people right and left, and breaking me out of my shell. She also took me up into the DJ area because her boyfriend is the DJ and he did a shout out to us over the PA system. We danced the night away, and I got to chat with quite a few people. I think a lot of the people were pleased to see that I wasn’t super uptight, because up until last night they had only seen me at Menphys trying to maintain conversation with them. I’m very sad that Gloria is only here for the weekend. I told her that I may try to take Laura and Chelsea to Granada, and if we do go, I’ll meet up with her. She is also going to be in town for Christmas break.

When I was in Murcia a lot of American music was played in the bars. I was pleasantly surprised that majority of the music played at the discoteca last night was Spanish. Gloria said yes, things are different in Andalucía.
Last night/this morning was daylight savings time here. I asked around 4am when the discoteca closes and Gloria said 6am because it’s a holiday weekend…and with daylight savings time…it feels like 7am. I think if I can survive last night, I’ll be set for the rest of my time here.













I went to bed at 7am (6am with the daylight savings time adjustment). Holy guacamole. I can’t believe that’s possible in a town this small. My ears were ringing so bad at the end of the night.

I woke up once at 11:30 and was shocked. I didn’t expect to be up until the day was mostly over. I closed my eyes again and didn’t wake up until 3. I tried to make potato wedges but burned them really badly. I think I have a high power oven. It said to cook them 15-20 minutes and by 15 minutes they were totally burnt. It’s a good thing apartments don’t have smoke detectors here because I definitely would have set them all off. And now I’m sitting in bed, enjoying patatas alioli and updating this blog. My only two goals today were to update the blog and finish my conversation cards for my adult English language class. Quite the life I have! And I don’t even have to work tomorrow!

Tonight is Halloween. I’m curious to see how many kids will actually end up going trick or treating since it is raining. I don’t have any candy to give out. Sad. I think there’s a store in town where you can buy it, but I don’t know where it is and it’s probably closed today. It’s definitely not like the bags of candy you buy in the states for Halloween. Who knows, if I end up going trick or treating with my students I won’t need candy anyways.

Random side note...I took this picture of the Siles directory sign. Notice that *the* gas station (gasolinera), *the* pharmacy (farmacia), *the* bus stop (parada bus) and public parking (parking público) are all destination points. Welcome to Siles!

Conversation, culture and café con leche

The rest of today was pretty relaxed. Number one priority was going to the grocery store. I forgot that the grocery store isn’t open on Sundays, so food options yesterday were really limited. While shopping Rocio (Pepe’s daughter) came into the grocery store and asked if I wanted to get coffee with her and Pepe. I paid for my things and then headed over to La Mezquita. We sat and chatted a bit about this, that and the other thing. Juan also showed up. Rocio asked me to go trick or treating with her this Sunday. I was really surprised she was going. Halloween is gaining popularity here in Spain, but I was surprised in a small town that kids dress up and go out. I asked her if everyone participated or if sometimes they got the door slammed in their face by people that don’t celebrate that crazy American holiday. She said, no, everyone gives out candy. My costume options are quite limited so I’ll probably be throwing a white sheet over myself, cutting out eye holes and calling myself a ghost. I believe we are also going to be doing some sort of small celebration at the school. Monday we don’t have school because of Halloween on Sunday. The vacation day is called ‘puente.’ Don’t we all wish we didn’t have to go to school the day after staying out late for Halloween!

Pepe and Rocio are going to look at a car in Murcia on Sunday. They asked if I wanted to come along so I could see my friends there, but because of puente it doesn’t seem like many people are going to be available. I think I’ll probably just hold off and try to find another time to go. Getting to Murcia is a bigger challenge than I anticipated. Bus options out of Siles are very limited and there are only a couple buses that leave Siles each day. So far the best option seems to be going from Siles to Hellín, then Hellín to Murcia. It’s the cheapest and fastest way I’ve found so far. The only problem is that the return trip involves a 5 hours layover in Hellín waiting for the Siles bus. Blah. Hopefully I’ll find people making trips to Murcia often enough that it won’t be a problem. Pepe is going to Murcia at least once. Inés is going to Ikea in Murcia at least once and hopefully I can find others.

After coffee, Pepe, Rocio and the guy from the general store helped show me how to make international calls on the payphone. After that lesson Pepe and Rocio insisted they drive me back up to my apartment. I really, REALLY only live a few minutes away (walking!) but am frequently being offered rides so I don’t have to walk up the hill. I’m thankful for the generosity, but I also like the walk…both for the fresh air and exercise. Oh well…I’m sure when it’s starts snowing I’ll really be thankful.

The rest of the day I lounged around the apartment and went to bed early. I have to be up early the next day to go to Jaén and deal with all the residency paperwork.