Just In Case I had any doubts…

Just in case I any doubts of what my true passions are, yesterday made it very clear for me: CHILDREN and SOCCER. I finally played a real game of pickup soccer with the children from my classes in the plaza around the corner from my house. At the high of the game we had 6 v 6 going on. This was the best afternoon I have had hands down in Valverde. Let me back track a bit to Thursday.

So last Thursday I had school like normal but decided to stay longer in order to make up the hour I missed the day before in order to send off Kerry and Casey. I noticed that Christen seemed more overwhelmed then usual so I asked if there was anyway I could help her out since nobody had anything for me to do. I ended up staying three hours extra in school in order to finish all the worksheets for 2^nd grade and help finish the poster of Spain’s Autonomous Communities. I was happy to help her out but I only wished that Pocho would give me more responsibilities so that it was more even. I understand that since my free day is the day when they plan out almost all of the worksheets and posters for the weeks to come, but it doesn’t take more than 5 minutes to explain everything to me on the next Monday. Instead they leave most of it up to Christen. Also Christen lets them talk in Spanish instead of English with her so I think they find it easier to tell her things to prepare than to tell me. I’m not going to apologize for only speaking English, it’s actually why I was brought to this school and the reason I get paid at all.

Anyways, I had my usual private class with Pocho’s children and then spent an extra hour and a half in her house like usual taking advantage of her speedy Internet connection. Pocho’s house has the best Internet so I normally wait until Thursday to upload my pictures from trips during this time. Pocho also is gracious enough to let me stay as long as I like in her house after the session. During this session I had to ask her a question while she was preparing dinner. She was making homemade croquettas. I mentioned that I loved croquettas so she made me a little to-go Tupperware of 12 rolls to fry in oil in my own house for dinner. She’s so nice to me. After class I walked home and noticed a few of my students hanging out in the little plaza. When I walked by they all said hello. Now normally I would have just gone home and waited until my last class at 8pm but today I decided to take a risk and go back to the plaza. I approached the kids who were digging in the dirt and asked them if they wanted to kick the soccer ball around. They asked if I liked soccer and when I replied that I LOVED soccer, they jumped up, got super excited, and shouted “YEAH EDICA WANTS TO PLAY SOCCER WITH US (in Spanish)!” We only passed the ball around a few times before all of their mothers yelled at them to come inside but it was enough to put a smile on my face and enough to make an impression on the four kids I played with.

Next it was time for my last session of the week. I walked across the street to Toni’s house and before I start my session Toni approaches me about teaching another private class for her 3 year old. Oh god, how do I get out of this. She told me that she wanted to have a class on Thursday’s at 6 with four 3 year olds. At first I thought that I was going to get 2 of them and Christen was going to get 2 of them but then she clarified that we would be teaching together the four 3 year olds. That made me feel better but I still really didn’t want to do it. I had several reasons for not wanting to do the class:

1. I think 3 is too young an age to hold PRIVATE ENGLISH classes

2. Christen has told me how awful her classes are with Toni’s youngest so that was not making me more inclined to say yes

3. Now that it’s becoming spring I want to be outside more often and I want my afternoons free to play soccer with kids in the street

4. That’s normally my only good time to use the internet with my own computer and I get a lot done on Thursdays

5. I don’t want any more classes. I don’t care how much she pays I like the classes I have.

6. It would be a whole other age group that I have to plan for so I have to plan these classes solely from the internet which is hard enough for me to begin with

7. I would have to coordinate the lessons with Christen and we both have busy and conflicting schedules.

So yeah I really didn’t want to do the class but out of politeness I asked if I could think about it. Toni said no. I laughed nervously. She said No again. They she began telling how she knows that I’m free during this time, that its only one more class a week, and that when it gets nice outside we can change the time of the class or cancel it once in a while. First off lady, don’t act like it’s my JOB to teach your children because actually this is totally optional and NOT part of my job at all. This is my free time and energy that I choose to use to conduct classes at all. I then mentioned how Kate doesn’t have any private classes so she should ask her and I told her how I don’t know Spanish enough to discipline them when they just won’t listen to me in English. Toni’s reply was that she doesn’t know Kate and that Laura (her 3 year old) would perform better with someone she’s already familiar with. And by familiar with you mean every time I say hello to her she ignores me and disrupts my private classes with Marta. Umm great. She also said that the kids don’t really know the difference between discipline and English and Spanish so it shouldn’t be a problem. That’s my point EXACTLY; they barely know Spanish how the heck are they going to remember English when they only get it for an hour at a time when all they want to do is play? Again I told her that I wasn’t sure and I needed to think about it and again she told me “No.” Well there was no way out so I said “okay”. I figured as long as Christen was in it with me it couldn’t be that awful.

Today I talked to Christen about how I was forced into taking the class with her. Christen informed me that after Semana Santa she is sending a letter to every parent of the children she tutors informing them that she has time slots that they can sign up for and they have to pay this certain amount depending upon how many kids she tutors at a time and if they don’t want to pay that amount she’ll find someone else who will. She’s not going to change her schedule around for anyone anymore. If they can’t find an available time for lessons than that’s too bad. Her intention with the letter is to get her “life” back. She’s tired of being walked over by these crazy moms. She’s tired of being underpaid and forced into doing more classes then she wants to do. Again, she’s volunteering to teach private classes. She doesn’t have to do this and right now the parents are acting like it’s her obligation to accommodate each of their children on whatever time frame works for them. NOT ANY MORE!

I’m impressed with Christen’s ballsiness but I just don’t know how it’s going to play out. She offered to include Corrie and I on the letter but I don’t want to be a part of it because I’m more than happy with all of my classes except the ones with Marta and even though I’m not getting paid as much as maybe I should be I’m not doing it to get rich. I’m doing it to occupy my time, interact with children and adults, and hopefully get something out of it myself. Besides my classes with Marta I generally enjoy all of my sessions. The reason I don’t enjoy my classes with Marta has nothing to do with her, it’s her mother, and so I can’t really hold that against her. We’ll see how next week goes…

Yeah so Friday I finally got the chance to catch up on my sleep. I woke up pretty late and just did some things around the house like sweeping the house, putting the dishes away, doing my laundry, etc. Once I had given myself enough time after eating to exercise I headed down the hill for the green path. I haven’t run in a long time because of the cold and rain so I wasn’t expecting to run for that long. I was also recovering from my small sickness so my immune system wasn’t performing too well. On my way back home I noticed a lot of kids in the plaza just chilling. Again I decide to take a chance and initiate playing with them again. I asked if they were playing soccer and when I told them that I loved soccer and wanted to play I got the same reaction as yesterday; instant excitement and lots of shouting. This time however we had “real” futbol players who took the game serious. We split up into teams and played four v four. Unfortunately for me my team consisted of the half hearted soccer players so it was really left to me to carry the team. I was over the moon to be playing soccer again that I didn’t really care. Throughout the next hour and half the teams changed players and more kids came to play with us. It was a mix of second, third, and fourth graders as well as a mix of skill levels. I was most impressed when this one fourth grader girl Anna jumped in and played with us. She was the only girl that participated in the game. What made the pickup so fun was the atmosphere. We were playing in this plaza so we had little kids on bikes, old men with walkers, adults hanging around, and girls walking dogs crossing through our “field”. These diversions just made the game more fun. I really wanted to document my first successful pickup so I told the kids that I would be back in five minutes. When I returned to the plaza all the kids were sitting on the bench. They literally waited for me to return before they started playing again. Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.

By now we had attracted a bigger crowd so the field expanded to the entire plaza. The teams were made up of 6 to 7 people and now included someone’s older brother who was in high school. At first I was hesitant about the new addition because I thought he would just hog the ball and not pass to the little kids but he turned out to be a team player so I happy. I took a few pictures of the kids while they were playing but for the most part I was the only one on my team really playing so I had to carry the team. At one point I hit the ball over the hedge and it hit one of the cars parked behind the plaza. Andres, this second grader just dove to the ground to hide for fear of being yelled at. I got nervous that a parent was going to scream but then this one kid, Antonio, came up to me and said, “don’t worry about it. I hit the cars harder than that all the time.” Haha thanks for consoling me. Well it was getting late so I told them I had to leave. I figured they would continue to play but no every one stopped when I stopped. I was just going to leave but then the kids asked if I was going to take a group picture. I was like, hell yeah, so they all got together and posed for me. It was the CUTEST picture I have EVER taken. Later in the evening when I uploaded it to my computer I made it my background and it brought tears to my eyes because I was so happy. Those kids made me feel incredible, if only for a few hours, but a few memorable hours. Antonio, the ringleader of pickup soccer and the only kid I really wasn’t familiar with from Menendez, asked if I would play with them every Friday. Of course I said yes :D

I now have a weekly play date on Friday’s. I’m hoping that since I played with a kid from every grade and from every class that the word will spread and we’ll get a bigger turn out. My next step is to come to school on Friday’s on my own free time and ask to participate in gym class. I’m not sure if I should do it because it might not be fair because you know they’re all about having an even team and if there is only one of me one team will always complain, but we’ll see.

Well today I got a text early this morning that Pocho wanted to walk so I couldn’t pass that up. We walked and talked for an hour like usual. I enjoy our one on one time because I learn a lot about her family and more about Valverde. It’s the equivalent of having a private adult session with her except I don’t get paid. After our walk I dropped off my box of sweets that I bought for Kate for her birthday and hung out with the girls for a little. They wanted to spend the night in Seville to celebrate Kate’s birthday but I told them I just couldn’t do it. I am so sick of traveling by bus and I had just unpacked my suitcase for the first time since February 4^th. I was not about to stay over in a hostel just for a night out on the town. To be very honest I’m not that close with Kate and I didn’t feel like I needed to participate in the festivities like I would a closer friend. Plus I have another early morning walk date with Pocho tomorrow and I didn’t want to miss it. After hanging out with the girls for a bit I decided to hit up the stadium and see if I could recognize any of the kids playing. Sure enough it was Sergio’s team on the field. Sergio’s mom, Ana found me and talked to me for the remainder of the game. I only saw the last 10 minutes of the game but I was just happy to see any soccer since that ended up being the last game of the day (at 2pm). Ana informed me that Antonio was going to close the shop early today so they could go to Los Pinos and sun bathe. Hehe even parents need some time in the sun. I said hello to Sergio and then I headed home to grab some lunch. It was a great morning/mid-afternoon.

This has been a really great start to the month and I’m hoping that the next three months are going to be just as great. I calculated it and I only have 10 more weeks of school. EEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!! I just bought my plane tickets to Istanbul and Athens so I’m on my way to finishing up my plans for my final trip before returning to Bethesda. One less thing I have to worry about is what I’m going to do when I return home. I finally had time to discuss my future post Spain plans with my parents. I talked through my thoughts for the rest of summer, fall and spring and we’re all on the same page so I’m no longer worried about what I’m going to do when I return. While my plans aren’t set in stone or concrete there good enough to keep me from worrying about things until I return home. This way I can just sit back, relax, and enjoy my last few months in Spain. Viva Espana carnino!