Today was a crazy day, and kind of sad. Inés got a new job in Orcera and is no longer working at the school. I found out on the day of the field trip to Jaén that she had received the new job and that she would be replaced sometime in January. No one knew though exactly when she would be replaced. They were just waiting for her Ministry of Education assigned replacement to show up on our school doorsteps. Inés was at school on Monday, I was at the infantil on Tuesday and today when I went to school she wasn’t there. I’m assuming she probably said her goodbyes at the staff meeting last night. I’m not required to go to the staff meetings so I got the not-so-fun surprise this morning. I was thinking that at least her replacement would probably be someone else that speaks English, since Inés is responsible for some of the English classes, but that’s not the case. Since the new teacher, Antonio (yes, we now have 2 teachers named Antonio at the school) doesn’t speak English there was a bit of shuffling with the schedule today. When I showed up in the English classroom with Sebas he told me that I needed to go to Antonio (not the new teacher)’s classroom and that he was going to be teaching the 3rd grade English class from now on. Huuuuuuh? They are reassigning Sebas to something different for that hour (but they don’t know what yet) which really baffles me. Inés leaving doesn’t impact this class at all and Sebas is still at the school and available to teach the class, so I don’t know why they switched. Anyways, after the 3rd grade class with Antonio I had class with the 6th graders with Sebas. After that it was time for recess. During recess I finished preparing a game of Memory using the new science vocabulary words for the 4th graders. They are starting a new chapter about the muscular, skeletal and excretory systems. Antonio and I talked and thought we would try restructuring that class so the kids could have more time practicing with me in a smaller group. Instead of doing the class all together we split the class in two 30 minute chunks. Antonio taught the new material in one classroom with 10 students and I played the Memory game to practice vocabulary and pronunciation in another room with the other 10 kids. I really thought it would be fun…and to a certain extent it was but the kids are so disobedient. It really took the fun out of it. They would not participate in saying the words with me, they would secretly move the cards to new places or turn over multiple cards, or sneak peeks and cheat…I was fed up by the time both groups had come through. Theeeeeeeen I had to go to the 2nd grade classroom. Inés was the 2nd grade teacher so I was with Antonio (again, not the new teacher). Antonio is responsible for teaching the 2nd graders English now. However, because Inés was replaced so quickly Antonio had to immediately step into this role without knowing where in the book the kids were, where the materials in the class are, what Inés usually does with the kids or how to incorporate me. It was chaos and after such a long day Antonio and I were wiped. I’m sure in a week or so we’ll get it all figured out, but I was seriously so tired by the end of the school day.
I went home and sat in bed for awhile, but a little after 4pm I had to head back to the school for the adult class. This was my first time going to the adult class in weeks and the first time going since Fernando left. Sad day. Seems like all the teachers I connect with the best end up leaving! The first hour (with the first group of adults) went pretty well. We talked about our Christmas vacations and then did a grammar exercise. The second group was more challenging. They can’t speak English as well so their descriptions of their vacations were very short and didn’t take up all the class time. We had to improvise from there. It was slow going for awhile, but eventually we clicked and got conversation rolling a little. Fernando’s replacement is from Granada. She invited me to go on walks with her and some other people on Mondays.
After class I was planning on going directly to the gym but decided to go to the grocery store first. I went to Día, then to my apartment to drop off the food. I changed my clothes and headed off for another workout.
I ran into Diego on my way to the gym. Diego is another new teacher that started just before Christmas break. He was actually in Siles at the beginning of the school year (and living in my apartment!) but got a leave of absence until now. I stopped and chatted with him for a bit. We were both frustrated with how hard it is to get to kids to behave and how hard it is to plan lessons that they can learn from and also think are fun.
Anyways, off to the gym I continued. I have two preset workouts that the trainer made for me that I alternate through. It’s interesting because some days it seems so hard and other days it seems so easy, even though the weight, repetitions and exercises are the same. I stayed a little extra time on the elliptical after finishing my lifting exercises because I knew there were Oreos waiting for me at home. :)
I hope I sleep better tonight. The last couple nights have been awful. I’ve had this stupid cough for several weeks now, but starting last Friday it got significantly worse and has been keeping me awake (or waking me up). The last two nights I’ve actually ended up throwing up because the cough is so strong and persistent. Lame. I went to the doctors yesterday to get it checked out. I really like the socialized medical system, but at the same time I left the doctor’s office a little wary and unsatisfied. Both times I’ve gone in the doctor asks me what’s going on and will maybe ask a couple questions from the information I give him and then he writes me a prescription. No, that doesn’t sound so bad, but especially this time my main concern was my lungs. I feel like I’ve just had fluid sitting in the very bottom pit of my lungs for weeks and he didn’t even listen to my chest or breathing. No examination whatsoever. He told me it’s the season for being sick, take the medicine he prescribed and I should feel better, but if not I could take the medicine from the second prescription he was giving me ‘just in case.’ He didn’t even know what “Hand Foot Mouth” disease was went in with it last month. He just prescribed me a medicine for a skin infection that wasn’t going to do anything. At least medicine is super cheap! I got both of my prescriptions for 3 euro and some change, with no co-pay and a free doctor’s visit. That part is pretty sweet. I feel like the medicine is helping, but not in a way that is giving me immediate relief. The medicine is just supposed to help me expel the mucous in my lungs. Yes, ultimately that is what I need, however, it doesn’t stop my cough, it encourages it. At least my coughs do seem more effective. C’mon cough, just take a little break so I can get some decent sleep and have the energy to deal with all those kids!
Side note…my goal of going out everyday to work in my Spanish workbooks and sit in Mezquita…not going to happen. Not a chance! My life went from being super relaxing, with too much free time, to absolutely jam-packed overnight. I’ve added a bunch of new private lesson students, the intercambios with Paco and books I’ve received from him to read, the trips to the gym and classes are back in session which means lesson planning. At least I can’t say I’m bored anymore!
Also, a group of 4th grade girls asked for my autograph today. Haha. They were actually asking for all the teachers’ autographs, but I still thought it was pretty funny. Ohhh kids.
Showing posts with label sick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sick. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Doctors, kids and clowns
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.
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.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
My Poor Lungs
Ok, I really thought that this never-ending cough would finally go away when the new smoking laws kicked in, but apparently that isn’t the case. For awhile I really felt like my cough was getting better but the last 24-48 hours I’ve spent nearly hacking up both of my lungs. That means another trip to the doctor for me tomorrow. I’m not really sure how I’m going to schedule that. I may have to miss one of my classes. I’m going to call and try to get an appointment but if I can’t I’m going to have to show up tomorrow after my classes and hope that they’ll see me anyways. Grrrr. Luis said I need to lay off the cigarettes. Ha…Ha…Ha. Lots of good it’s doing me to be one of the 4 people in this town that don’t smoke.
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.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Happy New Smoking Law Day!
As of January 2, 2011 smoking is no longer allowed inside bars and restaurants here in Spain. Oh happy day!
I also read an article that said smokers will also be prohibited on television broadcasts, near hospitals or in school playgrounds.
It was really interesting to see the bars and restaurants today with people huddled up on the sidewalk.
I only hope that these new smoking laws don’t leave me hanging out solo in the bars and restaurants…well…me and the 3 or 4 other people I’ve found in this town that don’t smoke.
Make I’ll finally kick this cough!
I also read an article that said smokers will also be prohibited on television broadcasts, near hospitals or in school playgrounds.
It was really interesting to see the bars and restaurants today with people huddled up on the sidewalk.
I only hope that these new smoking laws don’t leave me hanging out solo in the bars and restaurants…well…me and the 3 or 4 other people I’ve found in this town that don’t smoke.
Make I’ll finally kick this cough!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Warning: HUGE catch-up blog
Whoa. I haven’t updated in 2 weeks? I’m such a slacker!
Ok, let’s back up to Tuesday the 7th. It was puente (vacation) and I decided to go to Ubeda for the day to do some Christmas, grocery and clothes shopping. Ubeda is about a 2 ½ hour bus ride from Siles. I got up super early to catch the 6:30am bus hoping I could get to the stores right when they open and have all day to do my shopping and sight seeing. Well, this ended up not being the best plan because I had to wait for over an hour when I got to Ubeda for all the shops to open. I stopped and got breakfast and a coffee and went for a walk. There were lots of clothes and shoes, but nothing really struck me for Christmas gifts. I wandered around for a long time and actually ran into two other girls from Siles that I know who had taken the 8am bus. I wandered into the monument area of town to take a break from shopping. This really wasn’t a super fun trip. It was raining and I was cold (like every other time I’ve tried to leave Siles and do some traveling…I think I might be cursed). I tried to take some pictures but I was juggling my camera, my umbrella (which broke in the wind) and my backpack. I was irritated. Eventually it was getting to be the middle of the day and the stores were starting to close. I decided I wanted to head back to the bus station and go back to Siles. I didn’t feel like spending the rest of the day there. I was tired, hungry and wet. As I was heading back to the bus station I debated whether or not to stop at the grocery store. I had been saving that as my last stop so I didn’t have to carry the weight around town. I was cutting it close and I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to the bus on time if I stopped. I ended up stopping anyways. It was one of the reasons I went to Ubeda and it wasn’t going to be worth another 6 hours in the bus and 20 euro to come back later. I wandered around the grocery store trying to find the things I wanted…no luck…NOTHING on my list was there. I rushed off to the bus station but I didn’t make it in time. The next bus wasn’t for 7 hours. Uhhhhhhhhhh, awful. I decided to buy a ticket to La Puerta and hope for the best once I got there. I was only going to have to wait 3 hours for the bus to La Puerta. I went in search of food but a lot of places were closing for siesta. I found a little café and had a coffee and a bocadillo (sandwich). I hung out there for awhile then decided to try and find the even bigger grocery store since I had time to kill. I got directions and headed off. Jackpot. I found a Carrefour and even though they didn’t have everything I wanted, they had most of it. There was even a movie theater and I considered staying catching a movie and taking the later bus after all. I did my shopping and then was running out of time so I basically ran back to the bus station. I got there just in time. The roads heading back were crazy. It had been raining all day and the ground just couldn’t soak it all up. There was water on the roadways and visibility was pretty low…which is scary because the roads are so dark and windy. I knew Ben and Eve were in Morocco for break so I was nervous that there wouldn’t be a bus to Siles, that I wouldn’t have a place to stay or that I would have to call someone to come get me (and I would feel bad because that’s a 45 minute roundtrip with no benefit to them). I got to La Puerta and luckily for me it was Tuesday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there is a bus from La Puerta to Siles at 7:10pm…10-15 minutes after we arrived in La Puerta. Perfect! Only downside is that it is the bus that goes to all the small towns in the area, so even though La Puerta and Siles are only 20 minutes apart by car it’s an hour-long bus ride. Bllllllllah. It’s one of the worst parts of these little trips I’ve been taking...after a long day of walking in the rain and being cold that last hour being SO CLOSE really sucks. Then, to make matters even more interesting we got stuck in Orcera. There were cars parked on both sides of a road and the bus driver tried to make it through…unsuccessfully. We had cars honking all over the place and people coming out of the woodworks to give their 2 cents on the situation and offer solutions. After basically a town meeting in the street the owner of one of the parked cars got into his car and moved it, giving us enough space to get through. The length of time it took to come up with this solution was really amazing. Also, I was the only one on the bus. Whenever I take the 7pm bus from La Puerta I’m always the only one. So I’m sitting there in a dark bus, by myself, munching on an empanadilla and just laughing at the chaos that this day has turned into. We were finally on our way again and I got back to Siles around 8:15pm. Finally! I think I’ve decided not to do anymore traveling until spring unless it is absolutely necessary (not including my trip to Murcia of course). These solo trips in the rain just aren’t very much fun.
Next day…Wednesday the 8th…once again I got sick. Without fail (no matter how many clothes I bring, if I bring an umbrealla, etc) nothing keeps me from getting sick on these rainy solo trips. I didn’t feel super awful initially and spent the morning relaxing, cleaning, laundry, etc. In the afternoon Luis asked if I wanted to get a coffee so I met him at the Parador café that has the chimney. Thank goodness because I was feeling chilly. I hadn’t seen Luis in a few days because he had been sick. He had gotten a fever and then this super painful blister-like rash showed up on his hands and feet. It’s called “Mouth Hand Foot” disease. His nephew had been here a week or two before with the same sickness except his dermatologist had said that it wasn’t contagious. LIES! That’s when Luis told me that it takes about 7 days to incubate in your system before you see the symptoms. Ohhhhh crap. I had dinner with Luis the previous Thursday and spent all evening on Saturday with him. We both started thinking positive thoughts that the sickness I had been feeling all day was from walking around in the rain, and not the same thing that he had.
We left Parador to go over to Mezquita and get something to eat. Luis’ parents were there. When they were done hanging out with their friends they came over to say hi. I introduced myself but his mom said “Oh I know who you are.” Haha, uh oh! Almudena and Maria were also there so I briefly went over to say hi. Luis and I had some wine, tostadas and pâté and then decided to head off to see if Steffi and Edu wanted to hang out. Luis said “I’m going to send them a message that sounds like you wrote it.” Heeeeey, wait a minute…that means that I speak differently than you! What makes a text message sound like it’s from me? Luis started going through text messages that I had sent him and explaining how he would say it. Good learning experience. Anyways, we sent a message to Steffi and she said they were having a mini ‘80s party at their house. The first time I read the text message I thought they meant they were partying as if they were 80 years old (meaning not doing anything) but the second time I understood. We got ready to leave Mezquita and the waiter told us that our bill had been paid (Thanks Luis’ parents!). We headed over to Steffi and Edu’s house and Edu was hanging out in the kitchen with his flashy rockstar sunglasses and they had their new 80s music CD blasting. It was a really good mix! We chatted for several hours but I progressively felt sicker and sicker. Eventually I decided it was time to go home. I was freezing and could tell I had a fever. Fausto, one of the other guys that had been at Steffi and Edu’s house had a car there and drove me home. I immediately climbed into bed with 5 blankets and went to bed (at 9pm…super early here).
The next day (Thursday the 9th) my alarm went off and I laid in bed debating for half half an hour whether or not I should go to school. My to-do list won. I had so much to do that day plus it was my short day…I only had to go to two classes. I got up, showered and got ready to go to school. I kept switching from being cold to sweating profusely. I layered up and headed to school. I was surprised that it wasn’t cold when I went outside…go figure since I had layered up so much. Throughout the day I actually felt better. Getting up, showering and moving about made me feel better. In my third grade class I tried to teach them Silent Night via the teacher’s request. It didn’t go that well. It’s a hard song to teach, especially when I don’t sing! Oh well.
Friday (the 10th) I got the confirmation I didn’t want…I had the same thing as Luis. The spots had started showing up on my hands the night before and were noticeable worse when I woke up. It still wasn’t nearly as bad as Luis but I went to the doctor to get medicine anyways since the doctor’s office wasn’t going to be open all weekend when I would probably need to go. I actually didn’t end up with very many spots on my hands but my feet were covered. It hurt to walk. It felt like I was walking for hours on end in high heels with really dry feet up and down the hills of Siles. Yeah, not fun. Luis was already over the worst of it and volunteered himself to take care of me all weekend. His mom had babied him all week because he was in such pain. He was anticipating that I probably would be too (although we were both hoping that wouldn’t be true), and since I was here alone he didn’t want me to be stuck in bed unable to make food, walk or do any other basic task.
Saturday I was home all day but super restless by the time nighttime came around. We decided to go to Menphys for one drink just to get out of the house a little. Well…in true Spanish style “one drink” wasn’t true. We went to 1900 after Menphys. I was glad we got out for a little while though.
Overall the sickness didn’t end up being too bad. It hurt to walk for about 2 days but I didn’t end up getting very many blisters on my hands. I definitely didn’t have as much pain as Luis and my skin didn’t peel. Plus, since Luis made me dinner every night I ate way better than I usually do! Haha.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I had class like normal. I had one private lesson on Monday and one on Tuesday but the rest of the week was pretty typical.
Thursday was a different story. Earlier in the week I had talked to Inés and she said that the 1st-4th graders were going on a field trip to Jaén on Thursday and that if I wanted to come I could. I called the extranjería to see if my residency card was ready. Thursday was going to be day 38 after my appointment and they had told me that I needed to wait 40 days to pick up my card…so close! I called and, lucky me, it was ready! Thursday morning we all had to be at the bus stop at 7:45am. It was freezing. We all piled onto the bus and started the 2 ½ hour trip to Jaén. I’m not really sure which is worse…4-4 ½ hours in a quiet bus or 2 ½ hours in a bus full of crazy children. Almost immediately we got the inevitable question “Are we almost there?” We arrived at Feduca (the carnival where the kids were going on their field trip) in Jaén a little before 11. I asked for directions to the bus stop and headed on my way while the remaining teachers and kids headed in for a chaotic day of fun. The guys who had given me directions said I needed to go to “not this roundabout, but the next one.” I walked and almost immediately passed the first roundabout. I figured the next one wouldn’t be far away…so I walked…and walked a little more (now on the side of a 4 lane road) until I got to a gas station. I stopped and asked where the bus stop was. He pointed me a little bit further and said it was next to the Corte Ingles sign…on the other side of the road. “Umm, is there a crosswalk somewhere?” “No,” he said as he started a mini game of charades, “you have to look both ways and then run!” And that’s what I did. I found one bus stop, but it was only for days when there are football games…and I found another bus stop…same thing…finally there was a third bus stop that was for normal days. The guys back at Feduca had told me that the bus was going to come in about half an hour. It had taken me about half an hour to walk to the bus stop. I waited for the bus for awhile, but then was afraid I had missed it. I decided to head towards the city center on foot. Of course about 5 minutes later the bus passed me. I eventually got to another bus stop that took me into the city center, really close to the extranjería. Just as I was about to walk in the door I realized that I was supposed to go to the bank and pay for my card first. It’s a different set-up here than in the US. You go to the bank to pay these fees instead of paying directly at the extranjería office. I went to one bank but the teller said I couldn’t pay for it there, that I could go to any other bank, but not there. Umm…ok…so I went to another bank. When I got to the next bank the teller told me he couldn’t do it. “Por qué? Why?” I asked. “It’s not the right hour.” Whaaaaaaat? The right HOUR? Apparently you can only pay things like this on certain days at certain times. For a country that seems so lax on schedules I have a hard time understanding why things like paying a 10 euro fee have to be done at specific hours. He decided to try running it through the system for me, but said it wasn’t working. Feeling defeated and like I had made the trip to Jaén for nothing I headed towards the door. Just as I was about to leave he shouted after me to come back…it was working. Thank goodness! I paid the fee and headed back to the extranjería. I showed up, waited in line a bit and was seen shortly after and handed my residency card. Woo hoo! Victory! It only took 3 trips to Jaén to get it!
After that I wandered around the city a bit, then got something to eat. I chuckled a little bit when the other people at the café all ordered beers. It seemed so early but I looked at my watch and it was already 1pm. Oh, ok…it’s 1…beers are no big deal at this hour. Haha. Afterwards I started to look for a bus to take me back to Feduca. I debated taking a taxi too but figured it would be expensive. As I walked around I stopped in at a clothing/shoe store when a pair of red heels caught my eye. I bought a new red dress for New Years Eve and a new pair of red shoes to go with seemed like a good idea…wrong…I went in and all of the shoes had super high heels. I don’t know how women here do it! I can’t go out for hours and hours in heels none the less ones that are that high!
Anywho, I continued my trek, bought a brownie, looked at some nativity scene displays and found the bus. I was told the bus comes every half an hour on the hour and half hour. At 2 the bus arrived but the bus driver told me he was doing a different route that wasn’t going to go by Feduca…I had to wait until the 2:30 bus. Hmmm, I had to be back at Feduca by 3pm to catch the bus with the kids back to Siles. That was pushing it a little…especially since I thought the bus was going to the same bus stop that I had been at before and not directly to Feduca, so I would have to walk as well. A taxi dropped someone off across the street and I asked him how much it would be…4 euros and a little bit. Oh, is that all? Taxi it is. The driver was super nice and told me about one other time he drove 2 Americans. We also chatted about teaching and careers. He dropped me off at the door of Feduca and I had plenty of time left over.
I went in to search for Inés to let her know that I was back. I ran into Eve first, who had her arms full of the kids’ balloons. Next I ran into Antonio who was hanging out with a group of kids and a potter that was helping the kids make ashtrays, jars and bowls out of clay. Antonio also got to make a jar and eventually I did too. I waited for awhile to let all the kids go first. The potter had quite a bit of fun with me. He showed me how he could make an ashtray without even looking. It’s true! He was rather impressive. Then he had me sit down so “I” could make a jar (really he does all the work, but you get your hands all covered in clay and you feel like you got to do something). We made my jar but he wasn’t done with me yet. He told Antonio to get ready with the camera and then sculpted something underneath my hands so I couldn’t see. At the very last minute before the photo was taken he backed away to reveal (and capture in a photograph)…me…and a giant clay penis. Wooooonderful. Haha. Yes, we were at a kids’ fair, but that didn’t stop him. We laughed it off and then it was time for us to leave. We got all the kids’ coats and backpacks and headed out into the hallway to eat lunch before getting on the bus. We ushered kids into the bathroom to avoid making 50 stops on the way home and two poor little girls got stuck in one of the stalls. The door got jammed and they were hysterical. I kept trying to reassure them that I was there, I knew they were there, we weren’t going to leave without them and that security was coming to fix the door but they were just screaming. We got the door undone, finished eating and headed to the bus. All the teachers were thinking that after running around all day the kids were probably all going to crash and sleep on the way home. Soooo wrong. I think 2 kids slept. The rest were just as wound up as ever! It was amazing. I just couldn’t believe it. All the teachers were exhausted but the kids are like little energizer bunnies! We dealt with kids beating each other with balloons and screaming and standing up on the bus the whole way.
(Bathroom break means a bus load of kids running off into the olive groves to pee...on the way back they all squated next to the wall of a public swimming pool in plain sight. Funny sight.)
I was tired and stressed. We were supposed to be back in Siles at 5:30 but that didn’t happen. I was supposed to have a private lesson (with the family that constantly shows up early) at 6:30. I had called them earlier in the day to warn them that if they came before 6:30 I wouldn’t be there, but we didn’t get back to Siles until 6:45. I ran up to my apartment thinking they would be waiting but they weren’t there. They hadn’t called me so I wasn’t sure if they were coming later or not coming at all. Around 7pm I got a call from the dad saying they showed up at 6:30 but I wasn’t there. I explained the situation and they came over for the lesson. We got done around 8-8:15 and I was flustered. I ate some dinner, then met Luis at 1900 for a drink. We planned on staying for one drink since we still had to pack for our trip to Murcia and be up early the next day…but like I said earlier…just one drink never happens. We were out for several hours then I went home to sleep a little.
Luis came by early the next morning to give me a suitcase (both of mine are huge and unnecessary for a weekend trip). We headed off to meet Carlos (a friend of Luis’ dad) at 7:55am. He had to go to Hellín and said we could go with him. We rode with him to Hellín and took a bus from there to Murcia. The whole trip took 3 hours instead of the 8-9 hours it would have taken us if we had to take a bus the whole way.
When we showed up in Murcia there was a map with a list of hotels, restaurants, etc so we jotted down the numbers of some hotels and went to the payphone to see if they had empty rooms. We headed off to one of the cheaper hotels in a good, central location. They had rooms available so we dropped our stuff off, showered and got ready and went exploring. We went to Movistar first to put some more money on my phone, then called Brittany to let her know that we were there. Afterwards we stopped in at Intersport and I bought a new winter hat. I don’t usually like the way I look in hats but I think this one is pretty cut. After that we checked out the Christmas market. There were lots of nativity scenes, jewelry, food, wine and lots of other stuff. Then we decided to get a little something to eat…not a lot because we brought food that was waiting for us in the hotel. We stopped at Café del Arco which is one of my favorite lunch spots in Murcia. We had chicken and fish croquetas with special sauces and they were divine. We finished up the croquetas and wine and headed back to the hotel for siesta. Brittany called us later to let us know that we could meet them at 9pm in Plaza Santa Domingo. She had to work all day. At 9 we headed over to Plaza Santa Domingo and there was a ton of people. There was some sort of youth celebration going on that included a small concert. Brittany called us up to let us know they were having a hard time finding parking. We decided to meet them over by the university instead. We stopped in at a bar/café called La Toga (formerly Las Palmeras). It’s been renovated since I studied in Murcia and is way classier. We had a drink while we were waiting for Roberto and Brittany. They showed up, we stayed for a little while and then we headed over to Troya. Troya is mostly beer. We had a drink there then it was finally time for our dinner reservations. Our reservations were at 10:45pm for dinner. A lot of businesses/schools/etc are having their Christmas dinners with their employees this week so we couldn’t get reservations any earlier. Once we got to the restaurant they weren’t quite ready for us so we had a beer outside while we were waiting. Eventually we got in and oh my goodness…it was worth the wait. The food was SO good. It’s the best Italian food I’ve had in my life. We had wine and appetizers, main courses and dessert and were SO stuffed. I had tortellini with vegetables and the sauce was incredible. They make all their own pasta at this restaurant. It’s a really good thing we don’t have good restaurants like that in Siles because I would probably weigh 500 pounds by June. After dinner we went to the Roneria for a little bit. The Roneria specializes in rum and they have tons of different kinds. We each had a drink but were so full and tired we went home/back to the hotel after that drink.
Saturday Brittany had a lunch with her co-workers. She didn’t get done until 7 or 8pm. We spent most of the day relaxing and walking around a little. It was raining, so we basically only left to get lunch and later to meet Brittany and Roberto. (Rain…I told you! I’m cursed! It only rained like 4 times the entire time I studied in Murcia…I leave Siles and what do I find? Rain!) We went in search of a kebab place that’s supposedly really good but couldn’t find it, so we ate at a different kebab place instead. I haven’t had a kebab in so long so that was on my Murcia-visit-to-do list. After lunch we went back to the hotel for a siesta, which I thought was hilarious. We only left the hotel for lunch but like clockwork, after eating Luis wanted his daily siesta. I didn’t think I would sleep but I actually fell asleep for a couple hours.
Later we headed off to a café for a coffee, then we went to the Cathedral plaza while we were waiting for Brittany and Roberto. We went and saw the Nativity scene display then went to Fizpatricks with Brittany and Roberto for a drink. I got a hard cider which was huge! I was expecting a normal bottle but it was giantic. After that we headed off to a tapa dinner at Las Ventales. We wanted a lighter dinner than the day before. They said the wait was half an hour but I bet we waited at least an hour. It was packed. We had ensaladilla rusa (another Murcia-to-do) and a beer and then got to sit down. We had an assortment of tapas for dinner and then headed to El Ahorcado Feliz (translation: The Happy Hanging Man…very cool atmosphere actually) for a drink before calling it a night.
Sunday we slept until 10:30, got some croissants for breakfast, left our suitcases at the front desk (we had to check out but they said we could leave our stuff there) and headed out to walk some more. We went into the cathedral to see the inside, saw some people blowing huge bubbles for the kids in Plaza Santo Domingo and got another kebab for lunch at a better restaurant. It was huge and once again we were stuffed. We headed back to the hotel, had a coffee in the hotel restaurant, sat and relaxed a little, then called a taxi to take us to the bus station. The bus was supposed to leave at 3:45pm. At 3:45 there was no sign of our bus and Luis looked at the schedule…oh…there is no 3:45 bus on Sundays. Then we looked at our tickets…the bus wasn’t going to leave until 5pm. Laaaaaame. I was cold so we went into the bus station café. Luis had another coffee and I had some tea. I woke up feeling a little sick (with a cold) so I was less than thrilled about the idea of sitting at the bus station an extra hour and a half. Eventually our bus showed up and we headed to Hellín. I tried to sleep on the bus but was unsuccessful. Luis parents picked us up in Hellín and drove us back to Siles. I forgot that I had turned the heat off in my apartment Friday morning because I was really hot getting ready so it was freezing in my apartment. I bundled up under the covers, chatted with my parents and tried to get caught up on my e-mails and Facebook messages. This was the first time in I don’t know how long that I didn’t use my computer for 3 days. I didn’t have any lessons to plan, and was still feeling sick so I ate something and headed to bed.
Today I woke up late and wasn’t going to make it to my morning private lesson on time, so I called and rescheduled. I headed to school and had class with the 5th graders. During break I worked on some more Christmas cards, then I had class with Inés and the 1st graders. Afterwards I finished up the Christmas cards and headed to the post office. I mailed almost all of the rest of my cards and presents and headed home. The lady at the post office said if I don’t hear anything about my package to come back tomorrow and she would call the other post office and see what’s going on. I went home and tried to tidy my apartment but didn’t get as much done as I wanted. The afternoon just zoomed right by. I wanted to get my blog and photos updated and that took quite awhile. I still have to figure out what I want to do with the 4 year olds tomorrow.
On a random note, I found out that Inés was offered and accepted another job. Starting in January she won’t be at the school anymore. I’m pretty sad about that. I guess Javi (the principal) will take over the role of being my coordinator, but I don’t see or talk to him as much.
Wednesday we are having a lunch with all the teachers in a restaurant in town and doing a secret Santa gift exchange. Here they call it an “invisible friend.”
Thursday the infantil (with the 3-5 year olds) and the colegio (1st-6th grade) will all be having breakfast together and the older kids will be singing Christmas songs for the younger kids. There is also supposed to be a surprise Santa showing, so maybe I’ll get my annual Santa Photo after all!
Then Friday is Christmas Eve and holiday break starts! Woo hoo!
(I bought a strand of Christmas lights for my window!)
(Siles under a cloud of chimney smoke)
I’m sure I missed something about the last 2 weeks, but this is the gist of it. I’ll try to stay more on top of it from now on, but no promises! I don’t know where the time goes every day!
Ok, let’s back up to Tuesday the 7th. It was puente (vacation) and I decided to go to Ubeda for the day to do some Christmas, grocery and clothes shopping. Ubeda is about a 2 ½ hour bus ride from Siles. I got up super early to catch the 6:30am bus hoping I could get to the stores right when they open and have all day to do my shopping and sight seeing. Well, this ended up not being the best plan because I had to wait for over an hour when I got to Ubeda for all the shops to open. I stopped and got breakfast and a coffee and went for a walk. There were lots of clothes and shoes, but nothing really struck me for Christmas gifts. I wandered around for a long time and actually ran into two other girls from Siles that I know who had taken the 8am bus. I wandered into the monument area of town to take a break from shopping. This really wasn’t a super fun trip. It was raining and I was cold (like every other time I’ve tried to leave Siles and do some traveling…I think I might be cursed). I tried to take some pictures but I was juggling my camera, my umbrella (which broke in the wind) and my backpack. I was irritated. Eventually it was getting to be the middle of the day and the stores were starting to close. I decided I wanted to head back to the bus station and go back to Siles. I didn’t feel like spending the rest of the day there. I was tired, hungry and wet. As I was heading back to the bus station I debated whether or not to stop at the grocery store. I had been saving that as my last stop so I didn’t have to carry the weight around town. I was cutting it close and I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to the bus on time if I stopped. I ended up stopping anyways. It was one of the reasons I went to Ubeda and it wasn’t going to be worth another 6 hours in the bus and 20 euro to come back later. I wandered around the grocery store trying to find the things I wanted…no luck…NOTHING on my list was there. I rushed off to the bus station but I didn’t make it in time. The next bus wasn’t for 7 hours. Uhhhhhhhhhh, awful. I decided to buy a ticket to La Puerta and hope for the best once I got there. I was only going to have to wait 3 hours for the bus to La Puerta. I went in search of food but a lot of places were closing for siesta. I found a little café and had a coffee and a bocadillo (sandwich). I hung out there for awhile then decided to try and find the even bigger grocery store since I had time to kill. I got directions and headed off. Jackpot. I found a Carrefour and even though they didn’t have everything I wanted, they had most of it. There was even a movie theater and I considered staying catching a movie and taking the later bus after all. I did my shopping and then was running out of time so I basically ran back to the bus station. I got there just in time. The roads heading back were crazy. It had been raining all day and the ground just couldn’t soak it all up. There was water on the roadways and visibility was pretty low…which is scary because the roads are so dark and windy. I knew Ben and Eve were in Morocco for break so I was nervous that there wouldn’t be a bus to Siles, that I wouldn’t have a place to stay or that I would have to call someone to come get me (and I would feel bad because that’s a 45 minute roundtrip with no benefit to them). I got to La Puerta and luckily for me it was Tuesday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there is a bus from La Puerta to Siles at 7:10pm…10-15 minutes after we arrived in La Puerta. Perfect! Only downside is that it is the bus that goes to all the small towns in the area, so even though La Puerta and Siles are only 20 minutes apart by car it’s an hour-long bus ride. Bllllllllah. It’s one of the worst parts of these little trips I’ve been taking...after a long day of walking in the rain and being cold that last hour being SO CLOSE really sucks. Then, to make matters even more interesting we got stuck in Orcera. There were cars parked on both sides of a road and the bus driver tried to make it through…unsuccessfully. We had cars honking all over the place and people coming out of the woodworks to give their 2 cents on the situation and offer solutions. After basically a town meeting in the street the owner of one of the parked cars got into his car and moved it, giving us enough space to get through. The length of time it took to come up with this solution was really amazing. Also, I was the only one on the bus. Whenever I take the 7pm bus from La Puerta I’m always the only one. So I’m sitting there in a dark bus, by myself, munching on an empanadilla and just laughing at the chaos that this day has turned into. We were finally on our way again and I got back to Siles around 8:15pm. Finally! I think I’ve decided not to do anymore traveling until spring unless it is absolutely necessary (not including my trip to Murcia of course). These solo trips in the rain just aren’t very much fun.
Next day…Wednesday the 8th…once again I got sick. Without fail (no matter how many clothes I bring, if I bring an umbrealla, etc) nothing keeps me from getting sick on these rainy solo trips. I didn’t feel super awful initially and spent the morning relaxing, cleaning, laundry, etc. In the afternoon Luis asked if I wanted to get a coffee so I met him at the Parador café that has the chimney. Thank goodness because I was feeling chilly. I hadn’t seen Luis in a few days because he had been sick. He had gotten a fever and then this super painful blister-like rash showed up on his hands and feet. It’s called “Mouth Hand Foot” disease. His nephew had been here a week or two before with the same sickness except his dermatologist had said that it wasn’t contagious. LIES! That’s when Luis told me that it takes about 7 days to incubate in your system before you see the symptoms. Ohhhhh crap. I had dinner with Luis the previous Thursday and spent all evening on Saturday with him. We both started thinking positive thoughts that the sickness I had been feeling all day was from walking around in the rain, and not the same thing that he had. We left Parador to go over to Mezquita and get something to eat. Luis’ parents were there. When they were done hanging out with their friends they came over to say hi. I introduced myself but his mom said “Oh I know who you are.” Haha, uh oh! Almudena and Maria were also there so I briefly went over to say hi. Luis and I had some wine, tostadas and pâté and then decided to head off to see if Steffi and Edu wanted to hang out. Luis said “I’m going to send them a message that sounds like you wrote it.” Heeeeey, wait a minute…that means that I speak differently than you! What makes a text message sound like it’s from me? Luis started going through text messages that I had sent him and explaining how he would say it. Good learning experience. Anyways, we sent a message to Steffi and she said they were having a mini ‘80s party at their house. The first time I read the text message I thought they meant they were partying as if they were 80 years old (meaning not doing anything) but the second time I understood. We got ready to leave Mezquita and the waiter told us that our bill had been paid (Thanks Luis’ parents!). We headed over to Steffi and Edu’s house and Edu was hanging out in the kitchen with his flashy rockstar sunglasses and they had their new 80s music CD blasting. It was a really good mix! We chatted for several hours but I progressively felt sicker and sicker. Eventually I decided it was time to go home. I was freezing and could tell I had a fever. Fausto, one of the other guys that had been at Steffi and Edu’s house had a car there and drove me home. I immediately climbed into bed with 5 blankets and went to bed (at 9pm…super early here).
The next day (Thursday the 9th) my alarm went off and I laid in bed debating for half half an hour whether or not I should go to school. My to-do list won. I had so much to do that day plus it was my short day…I only had to go to two classes. I got up, showered and got ready to go to school. I kept switching from being cold to sweating profusely. I layered up and headed to school. I was surprised that it wasn’t cold when I went outside…go figure since I had layered up so much. Throughout the day I actually felt better. Getting up, showering and moving about made me feel better. In my third grade class I tried to teach them Silent Night via the teacher’s request. It didn’t go that well. It’s a hard song to teach, especially when I don’t sing! Oh well.
Friday (the 10th) I got the confirmation I didn’t want…I had the same thing as Luis. The spots had started showing up on my hands the night before and were noticeable worse when I woke up. It still wasn’t nearly as bad as Luis but I went to the doctor to get medicine anyways since the doctor’s office wasn’t going to be open all weekend when I would probably need to go. I actually didn’t end up with very many spots on my hands but my feet were covered. It hurt to walk. It felt like I was walking for hours on end in high heels with really dry feet up and down the hills of Siles. Yeah, not fun. Luis was already over the worst of it and volunteered himself to take care of me all weekend. His mom had babied him all week because he was in such pain. He was anticipating that I probably would be too (although we were both hoping that wouldn’t be true), and since I was here alone he didn’t want me to be stuck in bed unable to make food, walk or do any other basic task.
Saturday I was home all day but super restless by the time nighttime came around. We decided to go to Menphys for one drink just to get out of the house a little. Well…in true Spanish style “one drink” wasn’t true. We went to 1900 after Menphys. I was glad we got out for a little while though.
Overall the sickness didn’t end up being too bad. It hurt to walk for about 2 days but I didn’t end up getting very many blisters on my hands. I definitely didn’t have as much pain as Luis and my skin didn’t peel. Plus, since Luis made me dinner every night I ate way better than I usually do! Haha.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I had class like normal. I had one private lesson on Monday and one on Tuesday but the rest of the week was pretty typical.
Thursday was a different story. Earlier in the week I had talked to Inés and she said that the 1st-4th graders were going on a field trip to Jaén on Thursday and that if I wanted to come I could. I called the extranjería to see if my residency card was ready. Thursday was going to be day 38 after my appointment and they had told me that I needed to wait 40 days to pick up my card…so close! I called and, lucky me, it was ready! Thursday morning we all had to be at the bus stop at 7:45am. It was freezing. We all piled onto the bus and started the 2 ½ hour trip to Jaén. I’m not really sure which is worse…4-4 ½ hours in a quiet bus or 2 ½ hours in a bus full of crazy children. Almost immediately we got the inevitable question “Are we almost there?” We arrived at Feduca (the carnival where the kids were going on their field trip) in Jaén a little before 11. I asked for directions to the bus stop and headed on my way while the remaining teachers and kids headed in for a chaotic day of fun. The guys who had given me directions said I needed to go to “not this roundabout, but the next one.” I walked and almost immediately passed the first roundabout. I figured the next one wouldn’t be far away…so I walked…and walked a little more (now on the side of a 4 lane road) until I got to a gas station. I stopped and asked where the bus stop was. He pointed me a little bit further and said it was next to the Corte Ingles sign…on the other side of the road. “Umm, is there a crosswalk somewhere?” “No,” he said as he started a mini game of charades, “you have to look both ways and then run!” And that’s what I did. I found one bus stop, but it was only for days when there are football games…and I found another bus stop…same thing…finally there was a third bus stop that was for normal days. The guys back at Feduca had told me that the bus was going to come in about half an hour. It had taken me about half an hour to walk to the bus stop. I waited for the bus for awhile, but then was afraid I had missed it. I decided to head towards the city center on foot. Of course about 5 minutes later the bus passed me. I eventually got to another bus stop that took me into the city center, really close to the extranjería. Just as I was about to walk in the door I realized that I was supposed to go to the bank and pay for my card first. It’s a different set-up here than in the US. You go to the bank to pay these fees instead of paying directly at the extranjería office. I went to one bank but the teller said I couldn’t pay for it there, that I could go to any other bank, but not there. Umm…ok…so I went to another bank. When I got to the next bank the teller told me he couldn’t do it. “Por qué? Why?” I asked. “It’s not the right hour.” Whaaaaaaat? The right HOUR? Apparently you can only pay things like this on certain days at certain times. For a country that seems so lax on schedules I have a hard time understanding why things like paying a 10 euro fee have to be done at specific hours. He decided to try running it through the system for me, but said it wasn’t working. Feeling defeated and like I had made the trip to Jaén for nothing I headed towards the door. Just as I was about to leave he shouted after me to come back…it was working. Thank goodness! I paid the fee and headed back to the extranjería. I showed up, waited in line a bit and was seen shortly after and handed my residency card. Woo hoo! Victory! It only took 3 trips to Jaén to get it!
After that I wandered around the city a bit, then got something to eat. I chuckled a little bit when the other people at the café all ordered beers. It seemed so early but I looked at my watch and it was already 1pm. Oh, ok…it’s 1…beers are no big deal at this hour. Haha. Afterwards I started to look for a bus to take me back to Feduca. I debated taking a taxi too but figured it would be expensive. As I walked around I stopped in at a clothing/shoe store when a pair of red heels caught my eye. I bought a new red dress for New Years Eve and a new pair of red shoes to go with seemed like a good idea…wrong…I went in and all of the shoes had super high heels. I don’t know how women here do it! I can’t go out for hours and hours in heels none the less ones that are that high!
Anywho, I continued my trek, bought a brownie, looked at some nativity scene displays and found the bus. I was told the bus comes every half an hour on the hour and half hour. At 2 the bus arrived but the bus driver told me he was doing a different route that wasn’t going to go by Feduca…I had to wait until the 2:30 bus. Hmmm, I had to be back at Feduca by 3pm to catch the bus with the kids back to Siles. That was pushing it a little…especially since I thought the bus was going to the same bus stop that I had been at before and not directly to Feduca, so I would have to walk as well. A taxi dropped someone off across the street and I asked him how much it would be…4 euros and a little bit. Oh, is that all? Taxi it is. The driver was super nice and told me about one other time he drove 2 Americans. We also chatted about teaching and careers. He dropped me off at the door of Feduca and I had plenty of time left over.
I went in to search for Inés to let her know that I was back. I ran into Eve first, who had her arms full of the kids’ balloons. Next I ran into Antonio who was hanging out with a group of kids and a potter that was helping the kids make ashtrays, jars and bowls out of clay. Antonio also got to make a jar and eventually I did too. I waited for awhile to let all the kids go first. The potter had quite a bit of fun with me. He showed me how he could make an ashtray without even looking. It’s true! He was rather impressive. Then he had me sit down so “I” could make a jar (really he does all the work, but you get your hands all covered in clay and you feel like you got to do something). We made my jar but he wasn’t done with me yet. He told Antonio to get ready with the camera and then sculpted something underneath my hands so I couldn’t see. At the very last minute before the photo was taken he backed away to reveal (and capture in a photograph)…me…and a giant clay penis. Wooooonderful. Haha. Yes, we were at a kids’ fair, but that didn’t stop him. We laughed it off and then it was time for us to leave. We got all the kids’ coats and backpacks and headed out into the hallway to eat lunch before getting on the bus. We ushered kids into the bathroom to avoid making 50 stops on the way home and two poor little girls got stuck in one of the stalls. The door got jammed and they were hysterical. I kept trying to reassure them that I was there, I knew they were there, we weren’t going to leave without them and that security was coming to fix the door but they were just screaming. We got the door undone, finished eating and headed to the bus. All the teachers were thinking that after running around all day the kids were probably all going to crash and sleep on the way home. Soooo wrong. I think 2 kids slept. The rest were just as wound up as ever! It was amazing. I just couldn’t believe it. All the teachers were exhausted but the kids are like little energizer bunnies! We dealt with kids beating each other with balloons and screaming and standing up on the bus the whole way.
(Bathroom break means a bus load of kids running off into the olive groves to pee...on the way back they all squated next to the wall of a public swimming pool in plain sight. Funny sight.)
I was tired and stressed. We were supposed to be back in Siles at 5:30 but that didn’t happen. I was supposed to have a private lesson (with the family that constantly shows up early) at 6:30. I had called them earlier in the day to warn them that if they came before 6:30 I wouldn’t be there, but we didn’t get back to Siles until 6:45. I ran up to my apartment thinking they would be waiting but they weren’t there. They hadn’t called me so I wasn’t sure if they were coming later or not coming at all. Around 7pm I got a call from the dad saying they showed up at 6:30 but I wasn’t there. I explained the situation and they came over for the lesson. We got done around 8-8:15 and I was flustered. I ate some dinner, then met Luis at 1900 for a drink. We planned on staying for one drink since we still had to pack for our trip to Murcia and be up early the next day…but like I said earlier…just one drink never happens. We were out for several hours then I went home to sleep a little. 
Luis came by early the next morning to give me a suitcase (both of mine are huge and unnecessary for a weekend trip). We headed off to meet Carlos (a friend of Luis’ dad) at 7:55am. He had to go to Hellín and said we could go with him. We rode with him to Hellín and took a bus from there to Murcia. The whole trip took 3 hours instead of the 8-9 hours it would have taken us if we had to take a bus the whole way. When we showed up in Murcia there was a map with a list of hotels, restaurants, etc so we jotted down the numbers of some hotels and went to the payphone to see if they had empty rooms. We headed off to one of the cheaper hotels in a good, central location. They had rooms available so we dropped our stuff off, showered and got ready and went exploring. We went to Movistar first to put some more money on my phone, then called Brittany to let her know that we were there. Afterwards we stopped in at Intersport and I bought a new winter hat. I don’t usually like the way I look in hats but I think this one is pretty cut. After that we checked out the Christmas market. There were lots of nativity scenes, jewelry, food, wine and lots of other stuff. Then we decided to get a little something to eat…not a lot because we brought food that was waiting for us in the hotel. We stopped at Café del Arco which is one of my favorite lunch spots in Murcia. We had chicken and fish croquetas with special sauces and they were divine. We finished up the croquetas and wine and headed back to the hotel for siesta. Brittany called us later to let us know that we could meet them at 9pm in Plaza Santa Domingo. She had to work all day. At 9 we headed over to Plaza Santa Domingo and there was a ton of people. There was some sort of youth celebration going on that included a small concert. Brittany called us up to let us know they were having a hard time finding parking. We decided to meet them over by the university instead. We stopped in at a bar/café called La Toga (formerly Las Palmeras). It’s been renovated since I studied in Murcia and is way classier. We had a drink while we were waiting for Roberto and Brittany. They showed up, we stayed for a little while and then we headed over to Troya. Troya is mostly beer. We had a drink there then it was finally time for our dinner reservations. Our reservations were at 10:45pm for dinner. A lot of businesses/schools/etc are having their Christmas dinners with their employees this week so we couldn’t get reservations any earlier. Once we got to the restaurant they weren’t quite ready for us so we had a beer outside while we were waiting. Eventually we got in and oh my goodness…it was worth the wait. The food was SO good. It’s the best Italian food I’ve had in my life. We had wine and appetizers, main courses and dessert and were SO stuffed. I had tortellini with vegetables and the sauce was incredible. They make all their own pasta at this restaurant. It’s a really good thing we don’t have good restaurants like that in Siles because I would probably weigh 500 pounds by June. After dinner we went to the Roneria for a little bit. The Roneria specializes in rum and they have tons of different kinds. We each had a drink but were so full and tired we went home/back to the hotel after that drink.
Saturday Brittany had a lunch with her co-workers. She didn’t get done until 7 or 8pm. We spent most of the day relaxing and walking around a little. It was raining, so we basically only left to get lunch and later to meet Brittany and Roberto. (Rain…I told you! I’m cursed! It only rained like 4 times the entire time I studied in Murcia…I leave Siles and what do I find? Rain!) We went in search of a kebab place that’s supposedly really good but couldn’t find it, so we ate at a different kebab place instead. I haven’t had a kebab in so long so that was on my Murcia-visit-to-do list. After lunch we went back to the hotel for a siesta, which I thought was hilarious. We only left the hotel for lunch but like clockwork, after eating Luis wanted his daily siesta. I didn’t think I would sleep but I actually fell asleep for a couple hours.
Later we headed off to a café for a coffee, then we went to the Cathedral plaza while we were waiting for Brittany and Roberto. We went and saw the Nativity scene display then went to Fizpatricks with Brittany and Roberto for a drink. I got a hard cider which was huge! I was expecting a normal bottle but it was giantic. After that we headed off to a tapa dinner at Las Ventales. We wanted a lighter dinner than the day before. They said the wait was half an hour but I bet we waited at least an hour. It was packed. We had ensaladilla rusa (another Murcia-to-do) and a beer and then got to sit down. We had an assortment of tapas for dinner and then headed to El Ahorcado Feliz (translation: The Happy Hanging Man…very cool atmosphere actually) for a drink before calling it a night.
Sunday we slept until 10:30, got some croissants for breakfast, left our suitcases at the front desk (we had to check out but they said we could leave our stuff there) and headed out to walk some more. We went into the cathedral to see the inside, saw some people blowing huge bubbles for the kids in Plaza Santo Domingo and got another kebab for lunch at a better restaurant. It was huge and once again we were stuffed. We headed back to the hotel, had a coffee in the hotel restaurant, sat and relaxed a little, then called a taxi to take us to the bus station. The bus was supposed to leave at 3:45pm. At 3:45 there was no sign of our bus and Luis looked at the schedule…oh…there is no 3:45 bus on Sundays. Then we looked at our tickets…the bus wasn’t going to leave until 5pm. Laaaaaame. I was cold so we went into the bus station café. Luis had another coffee and I had some tea. I woke up feeling a little sick (with a cold) so I was less than thrilled about the idea of sitting at the bus station an extra hour and a half. Eventually our bus showed up and we headed to Hellín. I tried to sleep on the bus but was unsuccessful. Luis parents picked us up in Hellín and drove us back to Siles. I forgot that I had turned the heat off in my apartment Friday morning because I was really hot getting ready so it was freezing in my apartment. I bundled up under the covers, chatted with my parents and tried to get caught up on my e-mails and Facebook messages. This was the first time in I don’t know how long that I didn’t use my computer for 3 days. I didn’t have any lessons to plan, and was still feeling sick so I ate something and headed to bed.
Today I woke up late and wasn’t going to make it to my morning private lesson on time, so I called and rescheduled. I headed to school and had class with the 5th graders. During break I worked on some more Christmas cards, then I had class with Inés and the 1st graders. Afterwards I finished up the Christmas cards and headed to the post office. I mailed almost all of the rest of my cards and presents and headed home. The lady at the post office said if I don’t hear anything about my package to come back tomorrow and she would call the other post office and see what’s going on. I went home and tried to tidy my apartment but didn’t get as much done as I wanted. The afternoon just zoomed right by. I wanted to get my blog and photos updated and that took quite awhile. I still have to figure out what I want to do with the 4 year olds tomorrow.
On a random note, I found out that Inés was offered and accepted another job. Starting in January she won’t be at the school anymore. I’m pretty sad about that. I guess Javi (the principal) will take over the role of being my coordinator, but I don’t see or talk to him as much.
Wednesday we are having a lunch with all the teachers in a restaurant in town and doing a secret Santa gift exchange. Here they call it an “invisible friend.”
Thursday the infantil (with the 3-5 year olds) and the colegio (1st-6th grade) will all be having breakfast together and the older kids will be singing Christmas songs for the younger kids. There is also supposed to be a surprise Santa showing, so maybe I’ll get my annual Santa Photo after all!
Then Friday is Christmas Eve and holiday break starts! Woo hoo!
(I bought a strand of Christmas lights for my window!)
(Siles under a cloud of chimney smoke)I’m sure I missed something about the last 2 weeks, but this is the gist of it. I’ll try to stay more on top of it from now on, but no promises! I don’t know where the time goes every day!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Another typical day in Siles
I really, really didn’t want to get up this morning, but it has turned into a very productive day. I visited the panaderia this morning to pick up a napolitana, then headed off to school. I ate my breakfast, bought a coffee and started working on my jeopardy board for the third grade science class.
I had class with the 4th graders and then headed down for the 3rd grade science lesson. We are at the end of a unit and they are going to have a test soon, so Maria del Mar wanted me to plan some sort of review lesson. I made the Jeopardy board with the categories invertebrates, vertebrates, ‘valoro mi mundo’ (about extinction, conservation, etc), and new words (words we didn’t get a chance to cover in class but that they should know). The new words category was a bonus and worth double the points. Overall it wasn’t quite as successful as I would have liked but the kids seemed to enjoy it. They didn’t remember hardly any of the words we’ve covered and were constantly looking things up in the dictionary. Also, some of the kids just didn’t get it…they would call out words that had already been guessed without consulting their team, or they would tell me over and over the same guess even though I told them it was wrong. Oh well…you live, you learn.
After class I had another cup of coffee. Thursdays are my half day but I decided to stay late to get more stuff done. I still had to finish up the Constitution Day mural and work on various Christmas activities. The egg carton Christmas tree is going up in the hallway and I am responsible for making the “Charity Christmas Tree” lettering. There’s also a Christmas mailbox and I need to make lettering for that too. Maria del Mar said next week we can do a Christmas lesson instead of a science lesson since they are at the end of the unit and we don’t have that much time left until Christmas break.
When I was working on the Constitution Day mural in the hallway I was so happy that the sun had finally decided to reappear. It’s been so rainy and gross here lately. Very Seattle-ish. I got paid again, which I wasn’t expecting. The school still hasn’t received money from the Ministry of Education to pay me so they are using their reserve and supply money to pay me. I didn’t think I was going to get paid for another couple of weeks so it was a lovely surprise. When I got the check I decided to leave school so I could try to cash it. When I got to the bank the door was closed and I was a bit frustrated. They were supposed to be open for another 15-20 minutes. Oh well, that’s life in Spain (Later I found out I was actually the idiot. One of the doors is always closed and you have to go in the other way). In the time I walked from the school to the bank the weather did a complete 180. It started hailing, and was windy with a mixture of a little snow and thunder. Madness! So much for my sun! I stopped at Mercardo Gerardo to pick up some groceries and Edu was laughing about all this crazy weather.
I picked up some bacon for dinner tonight (pasta carbonara is on the menu) and then headed across the street to another little shop. I had never been in before so I decided to check it out and see what was there. I met the people working there who were super nice. They chatted with me and I just looked around. On my way home I passed several shops selling Christmas stuff. I think I might pick up a strand of lights or something to make my apartment at least *a little* festive. I went home, had lunch, cleaned, and organized my fridge and cupboard. After having people over for a couple dinners I have so much more food than I did initially. I don’t know how I’m going to get through it before it all goes bad.
I got the ginger from Eve yesterday. I was going to bake my pumpkin pie today (finally!) but I forgot to take the pumpkin out of the freezer to thaw…maybe I’ll do it later…maybe tomorrow…
My private lesson in the afternoon got cancelled and then Luis came over to make me dinner. He is studying to be what I believe is the equivalent of a Certified Nursing Assistant. He had brought over some things he needed to study and I showed him the medical vocab that I have to study for my state medical interpreter’s test…basically the same stuff so maybe I’ll have him start quizzing me. We had dinner but he ended up spiking a high fever and headed home. Here’s hoping I don’t end up sick too!
I had class with the 4th graders and then headed down for the 3rd grade science lesson. We are at the end of a unit and they are going to have a test soon, so Maria del Mar wanted me to plan some sort of review lesson. I made the Jeopardy board with the categories invertebrates, vertebrates, ‘valoro mi mundo’ (about extinction, conservation, etc), and new words (words we didn’t get a chance to cover in class but that they should know). The new words category was a bonus and worth double the points. Overall it wasn’t quite as successful as I would have liked but the kids seemed to enjoy it. They didn’t remember hardly any of the words we’ve covered and were constantly looking things up in the dictionary. Also, some of the kids just didn’t get it…they would call out words that had already been guessed without consulting their team, or they would tell me over and over the same guess even though I told them it was wrong. Oh well…you live, you learn.
After class I had another cup of coffee. Thursdays are my half day but I decided to stay late to get more stuff done. I still had to finish up the Constitution Day mural and work on various Christmas activities. The egg carton Christmas tree is going up in the hallway and I am responsible for making the “Charity Christmas Tree” lettering. There’s also a Christmas mailbox and I need to make lettering for that too. Maria del Mar said next week we can do a Christmas lesson instead of a science lesson since they are at the end of the unit and we don’t have that much time left until Christmas break.
When I was working on the Constitution Day mural in the hallway I was so happy that the sun had finally decided to reappear. It’s been so rainy and gross here lately. Very Seattle-ish. I got paid again, which I wasn’t expecting. The school still hasn’t received money from the Ministry of Education to pay me so they are using their reserve and supply money to pay me. I didn’t think I was going to get paid for another couple of weeks so it was a lovely surprise. When I got the check I decided to leave school so I could try to cash it. When I got to the bank the door was closed and I was a bit frustrated. They were supposed to be open for another 15-20 minutes. Oh well, that’s life in Spain (Later I found out I was actually the idiot. One of the doors is always closed and you have to go in the other way). In the time I walked from the school to the bank the weather did a complete 180. It started hailing, and was windy with a mixture of a little snow and thunder. Madness! So much for my sun! I stopped at Mercardo Gerardo to pick up some groceries and Edu was laughing about all this crazy weather.
I picked up some bacon for dinner tonight (pasta carbonara is on the menu) and then headed across the street to another little shop. I had never been in before so I decided to check it out and see what was there. I met the people working there who were super nice. They chatted with me and I just looked around. On my way home I passed several shops selling Christmas stuff. I think I might pick up a strand of lights or something to make my apartment at least *a little* festive. I went home, had lunch, cleaned, and organized my fridge and cupboard. After having people over for a couple dinners I have so much more food than I did initially. I don’t know how I’m going to get through it before it all goes bad.
I got the ginger from Eve yesterday. I was going to bake my pumpkin pie today (finally!) but I forgot to take the pumpkin out of the freezer to thaw…maybe I’ll do it later…maybe tomorrow…
My private lesson in the afternoon got cancelled and then Luis came over to make me dinner. He is studying to be what I believe is the equivalent of a Certified Nursing Assistant. He had brought over some things he needed to study and I showed him the medical vocab that I have to study for my state medical interpreter’s test…basically the same stuff so maybe I’ll have him start quizzing me. We had dinner but he ended up spiking a high fever and headed home. Here’s hoping I don’t end up sick too!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Weekend visitors and a crazy Monday
Saturday and Sunday:
On Saturday I slept longer than I anticipated, got up, got ready quickly, finished cleaning the apartment, and put the sheets and blankets near the heaters so they would dry faster (no worries, the heaters here are designed so you can put things on them without having anything go up in smoke). Brittany and Roberto got here about 2pm. I met them on El Paseo and then we walked with their stuff up to my apartment. They got to see the apartment for a few minutes, drop off their stuff and then we headed back to El Paseo to get their car and drive to the restaurant. The restaurant really wasn’t that far away but we were going to be driving to the waterfall after lunch. Luis, our tour guide for the day, met up with us at the restaurant. We had about a two hour lunch complete with salad, calamari, patatas bravas, chicken, fries, ice cream and flan, coffee and wine. It was definitely quite the lunch! Brittany and Roberto had compiled a list of questions on their way over (such as “how the heck did you get here?”) so we chatted about my small town life and how beautiful and relaxing Siles is. After lunch we piled into the car, stopped off at Luis’ house for a jacket, at the Mezquita for a bottle of water and then we headed off to Rio Mundo to see the waterfall. I wish we could have gotten to the waterfall about an hour earlier because the light would have been a lot better for pictures, but the drive over there was beautiful. It was really nice to take a little field trip away from Siles. We really don’t go far, but it was a nice escape, especially with Brittany, Roberto and Luis for company. We snapped a bunch of pictures but didn’t stay too long. It was really pretty and made me wish I had a car here so I could make more of these little trips. I’m sure there are a lot of nearby hidden gems that I could see, if only I could get to them. After seeing the waterfall we went back to my apartment, then headed to a café/restaurant I hadn’t been to yet. It had a fireplace so we warmed up, had a beer and some tapas and continued chatting. From there we moved to Mezquita, had more drinks and more food, then went to Menphys were we had another drink, and then to Pub JJ for another drink (granted all of that took place over many hours). Brittany and Roberto got a small taste of most of our hang out spots here in Siles. We had sooo much food today! We got home about 1:30 and went right to bed. I got to test out my futon, which is fairly comfortable except for the fact that it is diagonal. In the morning Luis brought over churros and chocolate and we had breakfast together (admiring the view from my window) before Brittany and Roberto hit the road.
I still haven't figured out what I'm doing for puente or Christmas vacation. I have the 3rd-8th of December off from work and the 23rd of December through the 7th of January. Brittany mentioned that she and Roberto might go to Norway for puente. I've always wanted to go there (although going there in December maybe wasn't my original plan) but we'll see. I can't believe it's already the middle of November. If you have ideas of what I should do for my vacations, let me know! I'm not totally thrilled about the idea of traveling solo but haven't totally counted it out either.
The rest of my Sunday was very unproductive and relaxing. I watched a movie (Definitely, Maybe) and then tried to take a nap. Not long into my nap I got a phone call from one of the dads that wants me to give his daughter private English lessons. He said he was in Siles and wanted to drop by to talk about the specifics of getting lessons set up. (He couldn’t understand me very well over the phone). I shouldn’t have pulled out the hard copy paper of my schedule, because then he could see that I don’t work on Fridays. I had told him I wasn’t available to give lessons on Fridays and I still tried to stick with it, but I failed. I got conned into giving a one hour lesson on Fridays at 7pm. What a lame time. I really wanted to maintain Fridays as my free day to clean house, do laundry, hang out with my friends, etc, but he said that Fridays or the weekends was really the only time he could bring her, at least until Christmas. Grrrrr. I was in a bit of a bad mood after he left, but I listened to some music, got my Bella Baby orders taken care of and tried to get some photos updated and eventually I felt fine. I went to bed super late…one of those days were I did basically nothing and time still managed to just fly past.
Monday:
This morning was my first private English lesson. I got up, rushed to get ready and headed out the door. Luckily Isabel (the woman who I was giving the lesson to) lives right next to Steffi, so I had a pretty good idea about how to get there quickly. I got there and we had breakfast (toast with olive oil and honey and coffee with milk). Her word for the day was ‘wheat bread.’ Isabel is actually a teacher at my school, but she’s on sick leave until about Christmas time. She loves speaking English and wants to pass the level 3 exam so she can be qualified to teach English. We chatted a little bit about learning second languages, the necessity/non-necessity to learn another language in the US, her husband’s work, and our weekends. After breakfast she got out her English book so I could see what she needed to work on. She let me take the book with me so I could prepare for the following week. Isabel asked me if there’s anyway we could do two 45 minute sessions on Monday and Tuesday instead of one hour long session. I generally don’t mind, but told her I can’t do that until I make up some of my October hours at the school. The school is going to pay me for the entire month of October even though I was only there for half of it. To make up for the hours I missed I will be going to the school early and preparing class materials, posters, etc. She said that was fine, and when I was done making up my hours we could switch. I also agreed that instead of paying me at each session she could pay me at the end of the month. I hope this doesn’t end up being a problem. It makes me a little nervous.
I headed out a bit later than 9:45 and rushed off to the school. Luckily I happened to run into Pepe who was in his car. He drove me to school and I got there just in time. Today I got to work with the 5th graders first. Veronica, Migel Angel, Vicente and Angel were with me today (I’m trying really hard to actually learn their names). I had Miguel Angel with me last week as well, and I’m beginning to wonder if it’s Sebas way of giving himself a break. Miguel Angel makes me want to pull my hair out. Today’s session actually ended in tears and bloodshed. Yep. That’s how great it was. Miguel Angel and Angel were screwing around and Miguel Angel knocked Angel in the mouth and cut his gum. He started bawling, of course just as class was supposed to be getting over and Sebas was coming with the other students to tell everyone to go back to their normal classes. Great. That makes me look *real* good. Sebas didn’t seem too concerned though. He reassured me that those two tend to be a handful and overreact. Really it was basically the smallest amount of blood possible to still be considered bleeding, but Angel milked it for all it was worth. Ay, ay, ay. Really, besides that, and the fact that once again the students wouldn’t stop chatting it really wasn’t soooooo bad. We did get all the exercises done, which doesn’t usually happen.
After that fantastic class I had an hour and a half break until my next class. I hung out in the teacher’s room, and tried to find pictures of lungs, heart, etc. for my body systems mural. I also made up a schedule for myself so I could get a better feel for what spaces I had available for private lessons. I chatted with Antonio and some of the other teachers about lesson plans for Christmas and had a cup of coffee and napolitana.
Finally it was time for English class with Ines and the 1st graders. Welcome to extravaganza number two of the day. Inés said the kids were really good last Thursday but on Mondays they tend to be atrocious. They were up and down and chatting and to make matters worse all the toilets were out of order except for one. This class was right after recess, when they get to eat breakfast and drink their juice boxes, so of course every single kid in the class had to go pee…and we’re not talking the can-I-go-to-the-bathroom-to-escape-class “I have to pee” request. We’re talking twenty-some first graders holding their crotches and doing the pee-pee dance. Oh. Joy. By the end of class we had gotten them all to the bathroom, gone over the new English flash cards (talking about toys), sang the One-Two-Buckle My Shoe song and done 2 worksheets in the book. We had a few minutes left so we played a game (reminiscent of Marco Polo only we were sitting in a circle and the person in the middle was blind folded and had to figure out who in the circle was making the cat noises). End of class was signaled by one of the other teachers coming in with a few of Inés’ 2nd grade students who were apparently being extremely difficult. Poor Inés…she got to leave the 1st grade class to go deal with her own class of hyperactive, juiced-up kids…and me? I went home. Thank you God!
When I got home I was determined to be productive (unlike I usually am in the middle of the day during the week). I set up my computer so I could listen to music, then set to work on my list of chores.
-Laundry? Check.
-Dishes? Check.
-Clean kitchen? Check.
-Make bed? Check.
-Finish making schedule I started during recess? Check.
-Compile list of possible Christmas lessons? Check.
-Update photos on Flickr, Tuenti, Facebook and my blog? Check.
-Make lunch? Check.
-Put clothes away? Partial check (some aren’t dry yet).
-Look for pictures of British castles for my 4 year olds to draw? Getting there…
I also chatted with Maria for a little bit. She wanted to see the pictures I took at the park so I got those up and she really liked them. Not bad for an afternoon. My apartment looks a lot better now than when I left the house this morning. The time did go by really quickly though and I still have a lot more to do in the next 2 days. Ahhhhhhh. I hope I can get it all done! The only thing I *have* to get done tonight is finding pictures of those castles. I can find general pictures of castles, but I’m not really sure how to go about finding simple pictures of British castles that 4 year olds can color. Blllllllah. Welcome to the life of teaching I suppose.
Tomorrow is my second time working with the 3-5 year olds at the other elementary school. I’ve been here a month and it will only be my 2nd time working with them (due to my trips to Jaén). Last time I was overwhelmed because the teachers didn’t know I was coming, I didn’t have anything planned, Sebas was out of town and the teachers just turned their classes over to me. I’m hoping it’s going to be worlds better this time. I arranged to work with the 3 year olds during the morning routine when they talk about the weather, the date, the day of the week…stuff like that. The 4 year old class is the only other one I have to plan for, then Sebas is back in town and will be leading the two 5 year old classes. I really, really hope tomorrow goes well. Luckily, even though Monday-Wednesday is overwhelming, it goes by really fast. I like having all my classes crammed together.
I think my cough is starting to get better too. I still have some fits but it seems better. Good thing otherwise I think Luis would have personally drug me off to the doctors to get checked for bronchitis.
I’m enjoying having my heat on, although it makes going outside rather unpleasant. It’s not snowing yet, but it has gotten so cold in the last week!
On another random note, they are opening a gym here in Siles sometime in the next month-ish. I hope it's sooner rather than later. After the last few days I feel gross. So much food! I would love a good run, although running up and down the hills of Siles sounds both painful and awkward. As if I don't have enough people looking at me normally I can only imagine what they would think if they literally saw me running around town. People here don't do that.
Well I’m off to find pictures of castles (as long as my internet works…it started cramping my style about an hour ago and is having a hard time connecting). That’s the internet’s way of saying I get to have a break for the rest of the day, right? Riiiiight.
On Saturday I slept longer than I anticipated, got up, got ready quickly, finished cleaning the apartment, and put the sheets and blankets near the heaters so they would dry faster (no worries, the heaters here are designed so you can put things on them without having anything go up in smoke). Brittany and Roberto got here about 2pm. I met them on El Paseo and then we walked with their stuff up to my apartment. They got to see the apartment for a few minutes, drop off their stuff and then we headed back to El Paseo to get their car and drive to the restaurant. The restaurant really wasn’t that far away but we were going to be driving to the waterfall after lunch. Luis, our tour guide for the day, met up with us at the restaurant. We had about a two hour lunch complete with salad, calamari, patatas bravas, chicken, fries, ice cream and flan, coffee and wine. It was definitely quite the lunch! Brittany and Roberto had compiled a list of questions on their way over (such as “how the heck did you get here?”) so we chatted about my small town life and how beautiful and relaxing Siles is. After lunch we piled into the car, stopped off at Luis’ house for a jacket, at the Mezquita for a bottle of water and then we headed off to Rio Mundo to see the waterfall. I wish we could have gotten to the waterfall about an hour earlier because the light would have been a lot better for pictures, but the drive over there was beautiful. It was really nice to take a little field trip away from Siles. We really don’t go far, but it was a nice escape, especially with Brittany, Roberto and Luis for company. We snapped a bunch of pictures but didn’t stay too long. It was really pretty and made me wish I had a car here so I could make more of these little trips. I’m sure there are a lot of nearby hidden gems that I could see, if only I could get to them. After seeing the waterfall we went back to my apartment, then headed to a café/restaurant I hadn’t been to yet. It had a fireplace so we warmed up, had a beer and some tapas and continued chatting. From there we moved to Mezquita, had more drinks and more food, then went to Menphys were we had another drink, and then to Pub JJ for another drink (granted all of that took place over many hours). Brittany and Roberto got a small taste of most of our hang out spots here in Siles. We had sooo much food today! We got home about 1:30 and went right to bed. I got to test out my futon, which is fairly comfortable except for the fact that it is diagonal. In the morning Luis brought over churros and chocolate and we had breakfast together (admiring the view from my window) before Brittany and Roberto hit the road.
I still haven't figured out what I'm doing for puente or Christmas vacation. I have the 3rd-8th of December off from work and the 23rd of December through the 7th of January. Brittany mentioned that she and Roberto might go to Norway for puente. I've always wanted to go there (although going there in December maybe wasn't my original plan) but we'll see. I can't believe it's already the middle of November. If you have ideas of what I should do for my vacations, let me know! I'm not totally thrilled about the idea of traveling solo but haven't totally counted it out either.
The rest of my Sunday was very unproductive and relaxing. I watched a movie (Definitely, Maybe) and then tried to take a nap. Not long into my nap I got a phone call from one of the dads that wants me to give his daughter private English lessons. He said he was in Siles and wanted to drop by to talk about the specifics of getting lessons set up. (He couldn’t understand me very well over the phone). I shouldn’t have pulled out the hard copy paper of my schedule, because then he could see that I don’t work on Fridays. I had told him I wasn’t available to give lessons on Fridays and I still tried to stick with it, but I failed. I got conned into giving a one hour lesson on Fridays at 7pm. What a lame time. I really wanted to maintain Fridays as my free day to clean house, do laundry, hang out with my friends, etc, but he said that Fridays or the weekends was really the only time he could bring her, at least until Christmas. Grrrrr. I was in a bit of a bad mood after he left, but I listened to some music, got my Bella Baby orders taken care of and tried to get some photos updated and eventually I felt fine. I went to bed super late…one of those days were I did basically nothing and time still managed to just fly past.
Monday:
This morning was my first private English lesson. I got up, rushed to get ready and headed out the door. Luckily Isabel (the woman who I was giving the lesson to) lives right next to Steffi, so I had a pretty good idea about how to get there quickly. I got there and we had breakfast (toast with olive oil and honey and coffee with milk). Her word for the day was ‘wheat bread.’ Isabel is actually a teacher at my school, but she’s on sick leave until about Christmas time. She loves speaking English and wants to pass the level 3 exam so she can be qualified to teach English. We chatted a little bit about learning second languages, the necessity/non-necessity to learn another language in the US, her husband’s work, and our weekends. After breakfast she got out her English book so I could see what she needed to work on. She let me take the book with me so I could prepare for the following week. Isabel asked me if there’s anyway we could do two 45 minute sessions on Monday and Tuesday instead of one hour long session. I generally don’t mind, but told her I can’t do that until I make up some of my October hours at the school. The school is going to pay me for the entire month of October even though I was only there for half of it. To make up for the hours I missed I will be going to the school early and preparing class materials, posters, etc. She said that was fine, and when I was done making up my hours we could switch. I also agreed that instead of paying me at each session she could pay me at the end of the month. I hope this doesn’t end up being a problem. It makes me a little nervous.
I headed out a bit later than 9:45 and rushed off to the school. Luckily I happened to run into Pepe who was in his car. He drove me to school and I got there just in time. Today I got to work with the 5th graders first. Veronica, Migel Angel, Vicente and Angel were with me today (I’m trying really hard to actually learn their names). I had Miguel Angel with me last week as well, and I’m beginning to wonder if it’s Sebas way of giving himself a break. Miguel Angel makes me want to pull my hair out. Today’s session actually ended in tears and bloodshed. Yep. That’s how great it was. Miguel Angel and Angel were screwing around and Miguel Angel knocked Angel in the mouth and cut his gum. He started bawling, of course just as class was supposed to be getting over and Sebas was coming with the other students to tell everyone to go back to their normal classes. Great. That makes me look *real* good. Sebas didn’t seem too concerned though. He reassured me that those two tend to be a handful and overreact. Really it was basically the smallest amount of blood possible to still be considered bleeding, but Angel milked it for all it was worth. Ay, ay, ay. Really, besides that, and the fact that once again the students wouldn’t stop chatting it really wasn’t soooooo bad. We did get all the exercises done, which doesn’t usually happen.
After that fantastic class I had an hour and a half break until my next class. I hung out in the teacher’s room, and tried to find pictures of lungs, heart, etc. for my body systems mural. I also made up a schedule for myself so I could get a better feel for what spaces I had available for private lessons. I chatted with Antonio and some of the other teachers about lesson plans for Christmas and had a cup of coffee and napolitana.
Finally it was time for English class with Ines and the 1st graders. Welcome to extravaganza number two of the day. Inés said the kids were really good last Thursday but on Mondays they tend to be atrocious. They were up and down and chatting and to make matters worse all the toilets were out of order except for one. This class was right after recess, when they get to eat breakfast and drink their juice boxes, so of course every single kid in the class had to go pee…and we’re not talking the can-I-go-to-the-bathroom-to-escape-class “I have to pee” request. We’re talking twenty-some first graders holding their crotches and doing the pee-pee dance. Oh. Joy. By the end of class we had gotten them all to the bathroom, gone over the new English flash cards (talking about toys), sang the One-Two-Buckle My Shoe song and done 2 worksheets in the book. We had a few minutes left so we played a game (reminiscent of Marco Polo only we were sitting in a circle and the person in the middle was blind folded and had to figure out who in the circle was making the cat noises). End of class was signaled by one of the other teachers coming in with a few of Inés’ 2nd grade students who were apparently being extremely difficult. Poor Inés…she got to leave the 1st grade class to go deal with her own class of hyperactive, juiced-up kids…and me? I went home. Thank you God!
When I got home I was determined to be productive (unlike I usually am in the middle of the day during the week). I set up my computer so I could listen to music, then set to work on my list of chores.
-Laundry? Check.
-Dishes? Check.
-Clean kitchen? Check.
-Make bed? Check.
-Finish making schedule I started during recess? Check.
-Compile list of possible Christmas lessons? Check.
-Update photos on Flickr, Tuenti, Facebook and my blog? Check.
-Make lunch? Check.
-Put clothes away? Partial check (some aren’t dry yet).
-Look for pictures of British castles for my 4 year olds to draw? Getting there…
I also chatted with Maria for a little bit. She wanted to see the pictures I took at the park so I got those up and she really liked them. Not bad for an afternoon. My apartment looks a lot better now than when I left the house this morning. The time did go by really quickly though and I still have a lot more to do in the next 2 days. Ahhhhhhh. I hope I can get it all done! The only thing I *have* to get done tonight is finding pictures of those castles. I can find general pictures of castles, but I’m not really sure how to go about finding simple pictures of British castles that 4 year olds can color. Blllllllah. Welcome to the life of teaching I suppose.
Tomorrow is my second time working with the 3-5 year olds at the other elementary school. I’ve been here a month and it will only be my 2nd time working with them (due to my trips to Jaén). Last time I was overwhelmed because the teachers didn’t know I was coming, I didn’t have anything planned, Sebas was out of town and the teachers just turned their classes over to me. I’m hoping it’s going to be worlds better this time. I arranged to work with the 3 year olds during the morning routine when they talk about the weather, the date, the day of the week…stuff like that. The 4 year old class is the only other one I have to plan for, then Sebas is back in town and will be leading the two 5 year old classes. I really, really hope tomorrow goes well. Luckily, even though Monday-Wednesday is overwhelming, it goes by really fast. I like having all my classes crammed together.
I think my cough is starting to get better too. I still have some fits but it seems better. Good thing otherwise I think Luis would have personally drug me off to the doctors to get checked for bronchitis.
I’m enjoying having my heat on, although it makes going outside rather unpleasant. It’s not snowing yet, but it has gotten so cold in the last week!
On another random note, they are opening a gym here in Siles sometime in the next month-ish. I hope it's sooner rather than later. After the last few days I feel gross. So much food! I would love a good run, although running up and down the hills of Siles sounds both painful and awkward. As if I don't have enough people looking at me normally I can only imagine what they would think if they literally saw me running around town. People here don't do that.
Well I’m off to find pictures of castles (as long as my internet works…it started cramping my style about an hour ago and is having a hard time connecting). That’s the internet’s way of saying I get to have a break for the rest of the day, right? Riiiiight.
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