Besos all around

Last week of school! This is the midway point of my last week of school (Wednesday). Well Monday was rather a let down because I didn’t have either 2^nd grade class like I had hoped because the teacher I work with was absent. Therefore I didn’t have any classes on Monday and didn’t get to say goodbye to the second graders. Now I HAVE to say goodbye to them on my very last day of school, next Monday. Since I didn’t have any classes I spent all of Monday finishing every worksheet for all the classes, printing out enough copies for the classes, and making originals for Pocho to store in her folder. Since the scanner has been broken for awhile anytime Pocho wants a picture, activity, or text directly from the book I have to make a photocopy of it, potentially shrink it, cut it out, and then tape it into a blank document and then photocopy it to make an “original”. It’s such a process and it feels quite strange to be doing all of that for one worksheet in an era where technology is so advanced. I find it ironical. Yeah so Monday wasn’t that much fun, school wise.

Also I found out my class with Margarita got canceled so I didn’t get to say goodbye to her either. Not the way I wanted to start my final week. Ugh. Well I did have class with Sergio and that was nice. We played Battleship and Password and had a good time with that. I gave him a chocolate chip cookie as a farewell present. Next I had my very last class with Paco and Ana. I taught the all of the nicknames of the United States. That was kind of a challenge since a lot of states have names that aren’t translatable in Spanish like “cornhusker”, “razorback”, and “tar heel”. You tell me how you would explain a Tar Heel to a Spaniard? It was not easy. I let Christen explain what a Buckeye was because one, I didn’t know what it was and two she went to OSU and is from Ohio so I thought she deserved that honor hehe. Anyways they really enjoyed it and it was a good last activity to do. After we went through all of the states I showed them pictures of DC off of my computer and that was it. Before dinner officially started both Ana and Paco gave me gifts. I was not expecting to receive any kind of gifts; if anything I thought I owed them something. Paco gave me a very nice ballpoint pen and Ana gave me a handmade leather purse that she and Antonio made special for me. How awesome if that? It was so sweet and I thanked them both profusely. I’m really going to miss class with them. I learned so much from both of them and they were so eager to learn about America that I found it enjoyable sharing as much as I could with them.

Antonio came home and Christen arrived so Ana started bringing out the food. I had learned from past experience to pace myself with the food and wine so I only had small portions here and there for a change and I milked my glass of wine for the entire meal. The wine was Manzanilla from Cadiz, which is 15% alcohol, so it was very strong for me. The best surprise was that Margarita who is Ana’s younger sister showed up for dinner as well. That made me really happy because I was able to say goodbye to her. She also brought me a gift. She got me a mini leather coin purse and a leather bracelet from Antonio and Ana’s store. It was too much. Dinner was a lot of fun. It was mostly in Spanish for a change but I loved it because everyone was talking about really interesting things and I UNDERSTOOD IT ALL. Also I got to see the dynamics of Ana and Antonio’s relationship and it was a hoot. Ana is really funny but she doesn’t let it out at school or in class. At dinner it came out and I was just so happy that I got to witness it. I’m really do feel like her and Pocho are my second mothers. I could not have survived in Valverde without either of them and they both are special to me in different ways. Dinner ended a little earlier than usual (1am) but it was wonderful. Monday DONE.

Tuesday didn’t have a good start either because it looked like it was going to rain and I didn’t bring an umbrella to school. Thankfully it didn’t rain and the sun eventually came out in the late afternoon. First I had primero with Gregorio and that was great. I missed him a lot because he takes control of the class with one shout of his voice. Not once did I have to raise my voice or compete for attention. I thanked him profusely for coming back before school was over hehe. The kids were all well behaved and I was able to be the nice teacher again. This was important for me because I wanted to leave a good impression with all of the younger students so that next year they would call the new auxiliary ERICA for the entire year :D Next was primero with Rocio and unfortunately 7 kids were absent. That’s a significant number. Apparently it was a severe illness because most of them were in the hospital so that wasn’t good. I really hope at least 3 of them will be in school on Thursday so I can say goodbye to them and give them my gift but I don’t think it’s going to happen. In Rocio’s class I didn’t have to do anything so I took a seat and did the worksheets with the students. They like that because they always mimic exactly what I do on their own sheet. I find it adorable. I had a small break and then it was time for my last art class with both quarto classes. I haven’t had art with the fourth graders in over a month I think for various reasons. It was nice because the project was rather simple so I could kid around with the kids a little. Also today for some reason I felt like really reinforcing English so whenever a kid had a question I made them ask it in English or repeat the phrase after me. Also some of the kids finished early so they were just asking me lots of questions in English like when Kerry and Casey were there. I loved it. We were talking about futbol and one student asked if I would play with them like I did a while ago. Since I didn’t have any private classes tomorrow I told the kid to pick a time and I would come and play with him. This turned into a full on event. I wrote on the blackboard before I left the class: “TOMORROW: Futbol with Erica at 7p.m at Plaza Eusteria Palmatio. Be There.” All the students got really excited (and so did I). Also all the girls noticed my “monster” green painted fingernails (as I had hoped) and commented on them. This was just another way of me trying to leave an impression in their minds of me.

Next it was time for art in the other quarto class and this would be my last time working with this class. Again I wrote on the blackboard about playing soccer with me and all the kids got really excited. A few of the girls apparently had some kind of conflict (like religion school) so I told them that I would also play on Friday since I had nothing scheduled on Friday until the night. When there was about 10 minutes left in class I got everyone’s attention and read the little card I made for him or her and then passed it out to each kid. They really liked it and asked for my “firma”, signature. I had already handwritten my name on all of them but they wanted my name in SCRIPT. I felt like a celebrity and I think for that 10 minutes I was more important to them than Miley Cyrus haha. After that I then received a flood of “fan mail”. It was a wonderful last class with them. What made it special was that Inma sincerely told me that she was going to miss me a lot and told me that she understands me better than Christen. She is the FIRST person to tell me that in Valverde. It touched me because I’ve always felt inferior to Christen in basically every way so the fact that she said she understands my English better than hers was a great boost to my ego :D She was my favorite teacher to work with and I really hope that we stay in touch. She is, as Pocho puts it, “a free spirit” and I love her for it.

After school I had my final class with Marta. We played Halloween BINGO and then sang songs from The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. I also let her watch a Pixar short film called For the Birds because she really liked it. I then got distracted and started showing her random pictures of my friends, my family, and me. I showed her my baby cousins and my nephew. She really liked it so I didn’t mind going over the allotted hour for the class. I gave her the card I made for her and said goodbye. Her mom is a little crazy but Marta is a sweetheart and an extremely intelligent third grader so I know she will be successful when she is older.

After Marta’s class I had my last class with Rocio and Ana (Margarita’s daughter and friend). They were really sweet girls and very considerate. They made me a birthday cake and card for my birthday and they also bought me gifts. I didn’t open the gifts until I got home but I kind of wished I had done it in front of them so I could have thanked them. They got me a blue headband, a mood changing necklace, a little flower picture holder, a mini Spain sock, and lastly a large framed photo of the two of them. It brought tears to my eyes because it was just so nice of them and again too much. For their last class we played Halloween BINGO and Password. It was a wonderful last class.

On the way home I passed the plaza and all the kids came up to me. Some of the boys came up to me and asked if I was really going to play futbol here tomorrow. I assured them that I was and they got really excited. I guess the news spread quickly because now the second and the third graders had gotten wind of the game. I’m hoping that the majority of the school shows up at 7pm tomorrow hehe. I think it’s going to be legendary!! A few of the girls that I don’t work with but have grown to know because they live in my neighborhood were really sad that this was my last week so they were giving me hugs and kisses. It was so sweet. They too noticed my monster nails and thought they were cool. At that moment I decided to go home and bring back some of my “bright” nail polishes and let them go wild with it. Sure enough it started a commotion and not only with the girls. All the boys came over too and wanted me to paint mustaches on them haha. I told them I couldn’t do it with nail polish so they lost interest after a while. For a good half an hour I had an outdoor nail salon going on. Naturally every girl wanted me to paint their nails so to be fair I declined to everyone and told them that they should paint each other’s nails. That didn’t last to long and slowly I gave in and said I would only paint ONE hand per person. I think I painted over 10 hands ages 3 to 10 haha. I had little girls come up to me with the tiniest nails wanting neon green, neon blue, and fuscia pink nails. It was so adorable. I tried to take pictures of everyone’s nails but the girls scattered around the plaza so it made it difficult. I was a little concerned that maybe their mother’s weren’t going to like it but a few of them came over and thought it was a fun activity so that made me feel better.

After most of the girls had their nails done they went home for dinner but my main group of girls stayed and we talked, danced, and laughed for another half hour or so. They were a lot of fun to hangout with because they did impressions of all the teachers and they loved performing for me. I got one good video of a dance they had learned but they had at least 4 different dances to show me. It was getting late so I told them I had to go but they wouldn’t let me leave haha. I stayed for 15 more minutes but then Lucia had to go so then they let me go too. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll hangout with them again. Tuesday DONE.

Okay that’s all the time I have to write. The rest of the week should be posted this weekend (hopefully).