“Don’t worry, I gotcha back!”

The lovely weather I had last weekend has disappeared and dropped about 10 degrees. Oh the wind. It chills my skin. So I experiment once again with my sleep to determine to what degree I absolutely need certain things in order to sleep. After much trial and error I FINALLY figured it out. In order to get a normal night of sleep I need to sleep in a sweatshirt, sweatpants, socks, slipper socks that my sweatpants MUST tuck into, use my Spanish pillow (not my mini travel pillow that I’ve been using all along), use all of the covers, have my heater on for at least 20 minutes before I go to sleep, and lastly my extra fleece blanket must be wrapped and tucked around my face and hands to ensure no coldness touches me directly. This is what I have to do every night in order to sleep properly. It’s a lot of work, not gonna lie. I remember the days when all I slept under was my tiny fleece blanket in the winter. Those days are GONE!

So this week I worked extra shifts in order to make up the time I will miss for my London vacation. Normally I only work for one hour on Wednesday’s but today I worked a full day, and it’s a good thing because today they needed me. One of the primero teachers was absent and the teacher filling in for her had to teach English with the class but didn’t know ANY English, so they asked if I could step in last minute (30 minutes before the class started) and come up with something for the kids to do and teach them myself. GULP, myself? This would actually be my first time teaching, not just assisting. Well I accepted the challenge / I didn’t have a choice. I was really nervous because the outcome of the lesson would in the end depend on which primero class I had to sub in for. When I started out I liked one class better than the other but now after getting to know the students and teachers I’ve changed my mind. It’s not to say the kids are awful by any means, I just enjoy assisting the kids in the one class better because they listen better and follow directions (generally).

Lucky for me Rocio had given me this Teacher’s Magazine with some material I could use for the class. I was able to photocopy all the pages and lay out how and what I wanted to teach the kids just in time for the class. While the other teacher was present in the room the whole time I was in charge and was responsible for getting the kids to listen, repeat, follow directions, and stay on task. My vocal chords definitely got a work out. I didn’t scream but I had to raise my voice significantly to get them to settle down every once in awhile. I was actually surprised that my voice was able to project without the pitch getting higher. Yeah me. I reviewed the rooms of a house with the children. First I used the flashcards I made, then by drawing a house on the chalkboard and having volunteers find me certain room, and lastly finishing with a coloring exercise. Life is hard for a first grader. I had a printout of a bathroom and a bedroom and I would teach them an object in each room, make them repeat it, and then tell them what color to color it. I was surprised at how well it actually worked and how well the kids followed my instructions without me having to use any Spanish. I say a simple sentence, like; “put your paper in your folder” to a fourth grader and they look at me as if I’m crazy. It blows my mind how much easier it is to teach a first grader over a fourth grader.

I was proud of myself for successfully teaching the kids a lesson on my own. I managed all 25 kids on my own using only English (I’m patting myself on the back right now). Another big thing that’s going on in school is the Day of Peace. Pocho has been organizing all kinds of special projects in preparation of this day. Christen and I are currently making two huge posters with doves and olive branches to put up in the main corridor and we are helping Pocho teach all the kids this special song about helping people in need. It’s just like Christmas all over again where I hear the same song over and over AND over until I dream about it and can’t get it out of my head. It’s a real shame that I’m going to miss the Friday when the school will be celebrating the Day of Peace because that’s the day I leave for London. Hopefully I’ll get Christen to take pictures for me.

Some other announcements, the school now has all of these students from the university shadowing most of the teachers in the school until March. It’s cool to have graduated from the observing stage of my job to the interaction part and now I get to see what its like for someone else to just observe. It gets a little crowded in the classroom but other than that I enjoy having the new helpers. Now in the bilingual classes the students have THREE teachers! Pocho told me that some of the students from the university were her old students. Also, last week I got to go to the equivalent of an assembly with the primero kids. This famous children’s illustrator from Barcelona came to the school to speak with the kids. All the kids got copies of one her books and at the end of her presentation they got her autograph and a personalized picture. Of course it was all in Spanish but I understood most of it. It was just cool to observe for a change and just sit back and relax.

Today when I came back home from school I noticed that all the oranges from the trees that line the street were gone. I had no idea, but its someone’s job to pick all of the oranges and save them for local supermarkets to make orange juice out of them. How cool is that? I also recently discovered how to put subtitles in Spanish on my TV. It only took me four months, but I figured it out haha. It makes a world of a difference. The one show I watch is now on reruns so I’m now watching the episodes with background on what’s been going on as well as subtitles. Everything is finally making sense for me now. I now have favorite characters because I can finally tell when they are making jokes, being really serious, or talking about something stupid. I am also realizing how much they swear on the show. I would say every character says at least one swearword every time they speak. The first day I had the subtitles on I wrote down some words I kept seeing but didn’t know the meaning. I looked them up after the show was over and discovered that they were ALL very bad words lol. It’s comical how vulgar some of the characters are AND how socially acceptable it is to say some of the words.

(On the record this is the first and only time I will write, use, or think about this word) For example, I hear the word “coño” or coña” all the time on the show as a way to greet someone like the way we say “dude” or “hey”. I also hear it used as a swear word, like when something goes wrong or you get mad at something or someone. Corrie and Kate’s roommate Miguel from Jaen says it ALL THE TIME. Every time he says it I cringe because the translation of that word is cunt. This word is awful, offensive, and isn’t something I would say no matter how mad I was. So to hear it all the time and see it used as a greeting just seems so wrong to me. Another thing people in Spain do, is greet people using “rubia” (blondie), “morena” (brunette), or “guapo/a” (gorgeous). The hair colors are almost exclusively used for girls but guapo/a goes both ways. I understand guapo; it’s like “babe” or “hun”, but the hair colors I don’t like. If I called all my girl friends blondie or brunette I don’t think they’d like it. This is all my opinion of course.

While the subtitles definitely come in handy for my television shows and movies (I saw Double Jeopardy last weekend and I understood the dialogue but I had also seen that movie before multiple times but then I watched The Incredible Simon Birch, which I have never seen before, and I understood that one as well) then don’t do much help with the news. Most news stations, which is over half of the television channels I receive, don’t let me use the subtitles, and the ones that do have the subtitles delayed. So by the time the introductory subtitles are finished the first entire story is over. It just makes it more confusing. Also I’ve noticed that every news channel covers the exact same stories over and over and for multiple days. It wouldn’t be so bad if the news weren’t on ALL THE TIME so that it’s the only thing I can watch. I could go for Net Flicks right about now.

Oh lastly I will be spending Carnival in Cadiz with Christen and Kate. What could be better than spending 72 hours drinking and partying with mostly foreigners like myself in silly costumes? It’s like an extended version of Halloween, but in warm weather. Christen decided we should be the 3 Musketeers, original I know. I don’t really care what we do just as long as it doesn’t cost a fortune. I’m excited to see the traditional costumes and parades that Cadiz is so famous for but I could do without the drinking. Shocking I know. Next blog will probably be about Lovely London Part du :P