Gym, Letters and a Visitor

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this in my blog yet, but during Christmas break a gym opened up here in Siles. I started going because I had so much free time and it was something to do. Originally I was going with Almudena, and she would pick me up in her car but our schedules aren’t meshing very well anymore. That means I get to walk to the gym and back. Really, it isn’t that far. It is however the worst part of going to the gym because after working out my body is hot and it’s really cold outside. The contrast isn’t fun, comfortable or good for me. However, I am loving going to the gym 4-5 days a week. The gym isn’t open on the weekends so I feel more motivated to make sure I go Monday through Friday since I automatically get 2 days off.

Today I did 5 miles on the treadmill. Several years ago I used to love to go run 3 miles but I haven’t been able to do it in a long time. My knees, motivation and time restraints seemed to give me a plethora of reasons not to get it done. I also did 10 minutes on the bike and my entire weight-lifting workout (upping the weight for lots of the machines). Needless to say it was a good workout day (with the exception that dropped a weight on my pinkie and am a little afraid I might lose the nail). It’s really nice because the two guys that run the gym are basically my personal trainers, except I don’t have to pay extra for them. The gym is, of course, smaller than the YMCA I go to in the US but I like it. I still have everything I need and the smaller, tighter environment leaves me more accountable and the trainers more accessible. They know when I show up and when I don’t.

It was also a good day because I got mail. Sadly it still wasn’t my long-lost Christmas packages but I was still very happy. I got Grace and Espen’s wedding save the date and I got a Christmas card from Stephanie and Kyle with the letters that Stephanie’s students wrote my students. I love seeing little envelopes in front of my door when I get home.

Also, Inés stopped in today to say today. She didn’t even know it was her last day until it was her last day. I can’t believe the turn around in those situations is so fast! It was really good to see her. The guy who replaced Inés is already gone. A new teacher named Eugenia is here now and will be teaching Inés second graders as well as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade English classes. Like I originally thought the Ministry of Education was supposed to send a replacement for Inés that speaks English, so “New Antonio” couldn’t stay. At least that makes mentioning Antonio(s) in my blog a little easier!

Hope to see you soon Inés

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.

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!

The Week Recap

Ok, so my first three weeks here I was really good at blogging, but week 4 I was really bad. Because of that, this is going to be one giant hodge-podge of a post. It’s also going to be long…sorry!

Tuesday I felt pretty tired, unmotivated and useless all day. I wanted to take a nap but had too much to do in between class and my private lesson. I woke up, had a napolitana for breakfast and headed off to teach the pequeños (the 3-5 year olds). Today was only my second time working with them, but it was worlds better today than 2 weeks ago. The first class was with the 3 year olds. We went over colors, the weather and the days of the week. Next was the 4 year olds. This was the only class I had to prepare something for. I had made flashcards to put up on the wall for the 3 year olds a week or two ago. Someone had told me that they were learning about castles so the night before I had tried to find pictures of English castles easy enough for them to color (I couldn’t use American castles since…well…we don’t have any). I didn’t have much luck with that so I tried to think of something to do with the White House. I made a color-by-number worksheet with some vocabulary but that didn’t seem like much fun since…well…the house is white. I added a flag on the back for them to color. As soon as I finished the worksheet I decided it was too complicated for 4 year olds. Back to the drawing board. I decided to do something with Thanksgiving instead. We ended up making the traditional turkeys made by tracing their hands and then I had “Happy Thanksgiving” written in dashed lines for them to trace. It was the best lesson I’ve had with the 4 year olds but it was also hectic. The 5 year old classes were easy. Sebas was in charge and we just had to teach them a song and dance moves about autumn. I know singing and dancing is a good way to teach the little kids but when I’m in charge of lesson planning I kind of avoid it. Making up songs and dances just really isn’t my thing. It’s a little funny that I’ve overcome so many uncomfortable situations (like going to bars solo) but singing and dancing in front of the kids still just makes me uneasy. I had my private lesson from 5-6 and then got a drink with Luis. I headed home, tried unsuccessfully to be productive and decided to go to bed.

On Wednesday I got paid! Heck yes!

On Thursday I had my most successful science class, and it went great, even though the normal teacher wasn’t there. We were talking about invertebrates. I had printed out pictures of the invertebrates mentioned in that chapter of their book. I also printed out flashcards that had the names of these animals in English and another set in Spanish. I put up the pictures on the chalkboard and then put the Spanish word up next to them. As a class we went through and I taught them the English word, and stuck the flash card up next to the picture. We did this for each animal and they repeated the word back to me. After the last animal I took the English flashcards down again and lined them down the side of the chalkboard. Next we went through again and the kids had to tell me which English word went to which animal. When that was done I gave them a crossword I had made. The clues were the words in Spanish and they had to put the word in English in the crossword. It was perfectly timed and went pretty well. I was very happy and proud that I managed to plan a successful lesson.

After classes I went to the bank to cash my check and then went to the farmer’s market. I was on a mission. Find a pumpkin for Thanksgiving dinner. I didn’t have any luck. However, as I was searching I ran into Fernando. It was a little funny because it was the first time I saw him struggle with English. His English in class is really good. I had caught him off guard and he had to re-set his brain to think and speak in English. I know exactly how that is. If I’m at home chatting with friends or family in English, or listening to music or TV shows in English and then I go out in the town I have to make a conscious effort to switch over. It really feels like I have to do a quick re-boot of my brain. Fernando was on his way to have coffee with another teacher who is new in town and he invited me to tag along. We had coffee and then as we were heading out I caught the tale end of the farmer’s market on El Paseo (the farmer’s market is divided into two parts…one is mostly fruits and veggies and one has everything. I had already gone to the one with fruits and veggies but not the main one.) There I made my first non-essential, semi-practical purchase…a new purse. I actually had a practical purpose in mind for it, but it was my first fun purchase since I could enjoy finally being paid. I wanted a purse that wasn’t too big, but big enough to put my high heels in if I was at the discoteca and in agony. Here it is… There were also people there selling clothes and I almost bought some sweaters/coats/sweatshirts but decided that I will wait until next week for that. The vendors were trying to tear everything down.

Thursday was shaping up to be a pretty good day until a little later that afternoon. I got a call from a dad of one of my private lesson students. This is the same dad that roped me into giving his daughter a lesson on Fridays when I didn’t want to work. Around 4pm on this THURSDAY he calls me. This is approximately the conversation we had:

“Hey, we’re going to come today.”
“Ummm…but it’s Thursday? Didn’t we decide Fridays at 7?”
“Yes, but I have to go to Jaén tomorrow, so we’re going to come today.”
“Ummm…ok?? What time?”
“What time is good for you?”
“How about 6:30?
“6:30. Great. We’ll see you then.”

I’m grumpy. I’ve had a weird vibe from this family since the beginning and I’m just not thrilled about working with them. This makes that even worse. I putz around a little and then decide to take a little nap.

Fast forward to 5:45. I’m taking a nap. My doorbell rings. (Here we have phone-like devices that open the door. I’m taking to the dad through this.)

“Hello???”
“Hey, it’s us!”
“Your lesson is at 6:30.”
“Oh…Ok…we’ll come back.”

This family lives in a town about 20 minutes from here. What are they going to do, sit outside my door for 45 minutes? I head upstairs.

“Would you like to have the lesson now?”
“Yes! That would be great.”

Uhhhh huh. Sure. Not like I have a schedule for a reason or anything, or that I wanted to continue my nap. We have our lesson and this little girl is kind of shy. Her dad had her bring her school English book so we could practice the same things that they are learning in school. Only problem? It’s a 3 part set…a class book, a work book and a CD. She brought the class book and nothing else. Many of the class book exercises involve listening to the CD for the answers. Blaaaaaah. I told them to bring everything next week.

Recapping this week it doesn’t seem so bad, but it really just felt like an off week for me. It was the first time I felt lonely which is a little ironic since I’ve finally made friends. I think that’s part of it though. If you don’t have friends you expect to be lonely and try to deal with it or change it. I had friends but really wasn’t able to get together with anyone last week. That mixed with the fact that Thanksgiving and the holiday season are approaching contributed to my loneliness. My friends and I had planned on having a Thanksgiving dinner at my house this week but slowly more and more people were dropping out, so something I had been really excited about was just making me sad. I talked to Ben and Eve over the weekend and they said they struggled last week as well. We must just be at that point in our journey.

So, by Friday I really, really wanted to get out and do something. I wish the discoteca was more happenin’ on a weekly basis. It seems like most people don’t go unless it’s a special occasion. I had talked to Fernando and he said that he was going to be going out with the same group of teachers I went out with a couple weeks ago. Yes. Thank goodness…short lived…Fernando sent me a message Friday afternoon saying he had changed his mind and they weren’t going out after all. I started going through my list of friends and got basically the same answer from everyone “No, I don’t think we’re going out tonight.” Uhhhhhhhh. Sucky. Luis called a little later saying him and Fausto were going to grab a drink but not staying out late, and I could join if I wanted to. Then Ben and Eve contacted me and said if I could find a ride to La Puerta I could go out with them. There was only one more mini-bus left to La Puerta so I decided I would stay in Siles Friday night and go to La Puerta on Saturday to meet up with them. Finally Fernando contacted me again and said the group had convinced him to go out and everything was going on as originally planned. Yessssssssssss. I met Luis and Fausto for a drink, and Luis showed me the Thanksgiving menu he had prepared. Even though 4 of our friends have bailed on the dinner we’re still going to have it. It may only be Luis, me and one or two others, but we’re going to have it. Thank God for Luis. With so many people bailing I thought the dinner was going to get cancelled and I’d be eating alone. When I showed up at Mezquita and he had that menu prepared I was so thankful. He seems excited about it (and he’s cooking!) It’s definitely Spanish and not the traditional Thanksgiving meal but it sounds like it’s going to be fantastic. We’re going to have Thanksgiving dinner on Friday instead of Thursday so we have the freedom to go out afterwards if we want, and people don’t have to worry about leaving early to go to bed because of work/school/etc in the morning.

After I met up with Fausto and Luis we headed over to 1900 (another bar) to meet up with the teachers. For a group that didn’t want to go out they sure were crazy. We didn’t go home until about 3:30am. We stayed at 1900 most of the time, but headed to Nicols for one drink at the end of the night. There I met Paco and Gregorio. Gregorio I had met previously because he is the one guy with a scanner in town and does things like photocopies, sells electronics, etc. Paco is his friend that Luis also knows. In order to go to La Puerta in the morning I was going to have to take the 8am bus (rough after staying out until 3:30am). The only other bus I could take was at 3pm, but Eve and Ben wanted me there by noon so we could go to a country house and celebrate their friend’s birthday. Luckily Paco offered to drive me there in the morning. I was a little hesitant because at 3:30am in a bar Paco was a little tipsy. I was afraid he wouldn’t remember, I would have missed the bus and wouldn’t be able to meet Ben and Eve. Luis assured me that if Paco said he was going to take me, he was going to be there and take me. Well…ok. It only got me about an hour and a half more of sleep, but it was worth it.

Around 3:30-4am I went home and climbed into bed. I woke up to my phone ringing at 9am. Dang it. It was Paco calling to say whenever I was ready he was ready. He was supposed to pick me up at 9 and I hadn’t heard my alarm. I rushed to shower and get ready and ran out the door. Paco was there with a headache, but very friendly and ready to take me to La Puerta. He has olive fields and was going to work in the olive fields. We got to La Puerta, had a cup of coffee and then I walked over to Ben and Eve’s house. Supposedly their friend Alberto was going to pick us up about noon. In reality he ended up picking us up around 1:30pm so in the meantime we chatted about teaching, watched some web mini-series and drank tea. Alberto came and picked us up and we headed to the ‘cortijo’ (little house in the country). It was a gross, rainy day that didn’t seem like a very good day for a party but at least we were inside with a fire, so it ended up being fine. The lights flickered on and off all day and the music cut in and out. Eventually some people took over playing instruments themselves and people danced around. This party was a joint birthday tradition and a bunch of Alberto’s friends were in town to celebrate. From 1:30-10:00 we drank, ate and danced. Seriously it’s hard to describe Spanish parties. You both completely know what to expect, and have no idea what to expect at the same time. Complete craziness. We had tapas, lunch, drinks, dessert and then things seemed to be winding down a little. Some people disappeared but we continued hanging out. (We were after all car-less and there until Alberto decided it was time to go). It seemed things were dying down and I wondered if the party was going to end earlier in the day so they could all go back to La Puerta and party there at night. Wrong. Around dinner time the people that had disappeared all reappeared with even more people, and the party started over again. One of the guys that was there was the bartender from Menphis in Siles. When I initially walked in he shouted “SILES!!!” when greeting me. He was the one who ended up taking me back to Siles on his way to work so I didn’t have to spend the night and try to find a bus the next morning. When I got back to Siles I was exhausted, but I hopped in the shower and changed (I felt gross since I didn’t really get a chance to wash my hair or anything in my morning rush). I went down to Nicols to meet Luis and his brother Javier. Javier and his son are in town from Granada. I think I may end up taking pictures of his son sometime this week like I did with Almudena’s daughter. Anyways, we sat and chatted. I had some Coca-Cola and then around 2:30am headed home. My head hardly hit the pillow and I was out like a light.




Luckily for me the next day was Sunday and I could sleep in and re-coup from a crazy weekend. Seriously friends…if this is your idea of “not going out” you shouldn’t move to the US. You’ll be really, really disappointed when you do try to go out.

Yesterday (Monday) I had two classes and then I went shopping. First I bought a couple baking dishes. I was going to cook chicken parmesan on Sunday but didn’t have anything to cook it in, so I was going to try it yesterday instead. After that I went to Mercado Gerardo where Edu (Stefi’s husband) works. I picked up some milk and tomato sauce and chatted a little bit with Edu. Stefi and the kids are in Holland for the week visiting Stefi’s parents. Edu is planning on having Thanksgiving dinner with us on Friday (although Luis is a little afraid he’s going to bail at the last minute too). After that I went to the frutera (person who sells fruit) next door and lo-and-behold! A pumpkin! I proudly purchased my pumpkin and was in high spirits as I accomplished my to-do list and headed back home. Upon arriving home I saw a letter attached to my door. My cousin Garrett had sent me a letter! Yesssss. This day was really shaping up. I got a load of laundry in the washing machine, started to make chicken parmesan and chatted with Maria online. We decided to get together with Almudena and all have dinner at my house. We went over to Almudenas house around 4:30, hung out with Adriana (her daughter) and discussed what we would make for dinner. At six I had plans to meet Luis at the grocery store so we could see if they had everything we were going to need for Thanksgiving. It was good timing because right at 6 Almudena and Maria were ready to go to the grocery store to buy things for the dinner at my house. We all shopped, got some tortilla, tuna, lettuce, tomato, and hot dogs and headed out. Almudena had to work at 6:30 and I had a private lesson at 8.
Adriana (Almudena's daughter) went with us to the grocery store. She was playing with the cashier and another woman that works there. They put price tag stickers on her and tried to ring her up and gave her a receipt. haha)

At 9:15 everyone gathered at my place (Almudena, Rulo (Almudena’s boyfriend), Maria, Luis and me). Almudena prepared a ‘tortilla rellena’ (stuffed Spanish tortilla) and we had wine, listened to music, and looked at my pictures of Siles and my life in the US. I also showed them a video of my church. They were flabbergasted. Here there is only one church and it has Catholic mass. Seeing my contemporary church with coffee, a band and computer screens was just crazy for them. I miss going to Eastlake. I think I’m going to go to the mass here for Christmas but other than that I haven’t been going. One of my goals before I got here was to find a church to go to (since during my stay in Murcia I didn’t go to church at all). However, I didn’t really expect that there wouldn’t be ANY protestant options for church-going.

Anyways, everyone that was at my house last night (expect me of course) smokes. It’s SO normal here. I’ve only met one other person here so far who doesn’t smoke. My apartment was completely filled with smoke by the end of the night. It’s cold outside so lately people just light up without opening windows or anything. My lungs are not happy with me today, and I feel like I was the one smoking. Luckily most of them are pretty respectful about at least not blowing smoke in my face, but with 4 people smoking for 3 hours in an apartment as small as mine…the smoke really can’t be avoided.

I really enjoyed having everyone over last night. I hope we do it frequently. I feel like I’ve gotten comfortable with my group of friends. I want to spend time with them, but I also feel like I should still be going out to try and meet new people. I still don’t have anyone that I can take trips with. Everyone here works or has other obligations on the weekends and can’t just leave like me. I don’t mind doing small trips by myself but they are always more fun with other people.

Today I was back with the ‘pequeños.’ The three year old class was basically the same, but we add a couple new words every week. For the 4 year old class I had printed out 8 pictures of different toys. They said “B is for ball, T is for teddy bear,” etc, etc. We went through and I taught them the words and then I gave them a color-by-number worksheet of a toy drum. This was great because it combined learning colors, numbers and toys. We didn’t have time to finish, but I was still happy with how well the kids did. Initially it looked like they were going to struggle, but they really did a great job once they got the hang out it. I asked the teacher (Ana) if it was an appropriate activity for their age level and she said yes, it was perfect. Next we had ‘desayuno’ and ‘recreo’ (breakfast and recess) for an hour. The kids at the other school only get 30 minutes but the little ones need more time to run around. After recreo Sebas was at the school and we worked with the two 5 year old classes together. There was a small word search that the kids didn’t understand at all (it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who makes activities too hard sometimes) and then a coloring activity that the kids could cut out and paste into a bookmark. The first class of 5 year olds was craaaaaaazy and hard to tame. It didn’t help that the main teacher was trying to build a cardboard castle in the room and the kids were way more interested in that than our lesson. The second class we did the same activity, tweaked a few details and it went much better.

After class I went home, ate some leftover tortilla rellena from last night, watched How I Met Your Mother, and took a small nap. I had another private lesson from 5-6 and have been relaxing (and catching up on this blog) ever since.

I also listened to my first Christmas song of the season. Normally my rule is that I don’t listen to Christmas music until Thanksgiving, but hey, there is no Thanksgiving here so I get to listen to it early…right? Heck, it’s only a couple days early anyways. I went to Napster to play a Christmas radio station or playlist and the first song that tried to play was Lady Gaga’s “Christmas Tree.” I didn’t feel that was the right tone I wanted for my first Christmas song of the season so I skipped ahead to the Glee cast’s version of “Baby its Cold Outside.” That seems like a more appropriate song to the holiday season, especially since it is freakin’ cold outside! They are predicting possible snow here this weekend. I also listened to Miranda Crosgrove’s “Christmas Wrapping” which also seemed appropriate.

“Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! But I think I'll miss this one this year.”

I think I’m going to end up spending the day with Almudena and her family for Christmas. I also received an invitation from one of the teachers to go to Cordoba but I think I’d prefer to stay here with a friend and have the possibility of traveling last minute and sleeping in my own bed. After having Almudena and Rulo over for dinner last night I feel better about having Christmas with them without it being an intrusion. I really want to do something fun for New Years. Hopefully something good comes up.

On a random note, this is another note I received from my student Marta.
I think I should put it on my bathroom mirror and be reassured on a daily basis that I’m basically the most wonderful, prettiest person on the planet. Haha.

Another random fact: There are no elevators in Siles (at least that I’ve seen). I didn’t realize this until Brittany and Roberto visited. Most people here live in multi-story apartment buildings but still there are stairs everywhere, not elevators. I was talking with Ben and Eve this weekend and they said it’s basically the same in La Puerta. There is an 89 year old man in their building and it takes him about 20 minutes to get down all the stairs. I’m always amazed too, to see the elderly people here hiking up the hills. Go them!

Tomorrow the 4rd grade science class is having a test so I don’t have to prepare anything. Ahhh, how nice! It will be a little boring tomorrow when I’m sitting in class watching them take a test, but really, I don’t mind. Antonio wanted me to prepare the test but I told him I wasn’t comfortable with that. I don’t want to make a test that’s way too easy or impossible so I told him if he would prepare this test I would look it over and know what to prepare for future tests. It will be interesting to see what it’s like. The 4th graders have an extremely hard time paying attention, and I don’t think a lot of them do the work that they have to study…so we’ll see how the test goes.

Also tomorrow I’m doing a Thanksgiving lesson with Inés and her second graders. On Monday Inés and I are going to be doing the same lesson with the first graders. Lots of people here think that Thanksgiving and Christmas are the same, or very close together. Most people are surprised to hear that Thanksgiving is this week. I believe Inés wants to do more turkey handprints with the kids and then have them write what they are thankful for. We are going to put them all on a mural and put it up in the school hallway.

Ok. This is definitely the longest blog post I’ve ever written. I’ll try to be better about keeping up with the blog and not letting another week go by without a post.

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.