We have the plug-in from Orange and it works so great! The internet is so fast now, it’s amazing! Gone are the days of waiting two minutes for a page to load. And, the lady said we would get our wifi in about ten days…YAY!!

I went for a walk early this afternoon and saw that the carnival is really coming together—all the stands and rides! I’m so excited for this weekend! While out on my walk, I stopped by a pastelería and picked up some buñuelos (churro flavored, custard filled donut holes) that Aurora was telling me about yesterday. They are very typical for this weekend, as are huesos de Santos, but I haven’t found any of those yet. I also picked up a few cream filled pastries, just because they looked good, and shared them with Gunita and Will.

Jesús drove us to Mercadona today so we were able to buy some heavy things like water, cases of milk and some pop! It’s just too heavy to carry that stuff if you have a ten minute walk home! It’s pretty quiet here at the moment, as it’s only about 6:15, but things will surely liven up as night falls!

Xoxo,

Court

Hooray for the four day/Halloween weekend! I love Thursdays! Plus, I got my first paycheck today! Four free days AND money—that’s I what I’m talking about! Today was very easy…I had second and sixth grades and was done by eleven. We talked a little bit about the Halloween PowerPoint in second, but some of the info was a bit over their heads, so we skipped a lot too. We sped through it in sixth because we were short on time. I taught both classes the song, but didn’t have time in either for the story, so second started coloring page about Halloween in their activity books and Pilar had printed a word search for sixth to do/finish at home.

My original plan was to leave at eleven, but Aurora told me this morning that she would pay me after recreo, so I stuck around. I looked at some holiday videos that were on the video room computer and then I played a little solitaire. Recreo ended at 12:20, so I went back into the office to find Aurora. While she was writing me a check, she told me that Antonio (the principal) had to sign it but he was there. I didn’t really want to wait around so I just said I’d get it next week. She was like “No, I really want you to have money for Feria!” Luckily, Antonio walked in about two minutes later and signed the check! We chatted for a bit after that and so it was right about one o’clock when I got outta there.

I brought my backpack with me to school today; since I planned on going to Mercadona…it makes for a long walk when you’re carrying groceries! I didn’t buy anything spectacular, but rather wondered the aisles to see what they had. On my way home I noted the progress they’re making in setting up for Feria! Part of the street is closed off, there are several tents for food like churros and caramel apples (or so I’ve heard…so I guess it’s kinda like a fair) and some kiddie rides too! It’s a two minute walk from our house—barely out of view of my window! I’m not sure when all the festivities start, but it’s sure to be a fun weekend! I just hope it’s not too cold…Gunita said she heard it would be :(

I’m going to the bank at 5:30 to deposit my check (yay!) and to Orange to pick up the internet plug in! They came and installed a phone line yesterday, so we’re another step closer to having wifi! And now we’ll have two plug ins for the three of us, instead of one! This has been a VERY STELLAR day!

Here is my very first pay check!

Xoxo,

Court

Hooray for the four day/Halloween weekend! I love Thursdays! Plus, I got my first paycheck today! Four free days AND money—that’s I what I’m talking about! Today was very easy…I had second and sixth grades and was done by eleven. We talked a little bit about the Halloween PowerPoint in second, but some of the info was a bit over their heads, so we skipped a lot too. We sped through it in sixth because we were short on time. I taught both classes the song, but didn’t have time in either for the story, so second started coloring page about Halloween in their activity books and Pilar had printed a word search for sixth to do/finish at home.

My original plan was to leave at eleven, but Aurora told me this morning that she would pay me after recreo, so I stuck around. I looked at some holiday videos that were on the video room computer and then I played a little solitaire. Recreo ended at 12:20, so I went back into the office to find Aurora. While she was writing me a check, she told me that Antonio (the principal) had to sign it but he was there. I didn’t really want to wait around so I just said I’d get it next week. She was like “No, I really want you to have money for Feria!” Luckily, Antonio walked in about two minutes later and signed the check! We chatted for a bit after that and so it was right about one o’clock when I got outta there.

I brought my backpack with me to school today; since I planned on going to Mercadona…it makes for a long walk when you’re carrying groceries! I didn’t buy anything spectacular, but rather wondered the aisles to see what they had. On my way home I noted the progress they’re making in setting up for Feria! Part of the street is closed off, there are several tents for food like churros and caramel apples (or so I’ve heard…so I guess it’s kinda like a fair) and some kiddie rides too! It’s a two minute walk from our house—barely out of view of my window! I’m not sure when all the festivities start, but it’s sure to be a fun weekend! I just hope it’s not too cold…Gunita said she heard it would be :(

I’m going to the bank at 5:30 to deposit my check (yay!) and to Orange to pick up the internet plug in! They came and installed a phone line yesterday, so we’re another step closer to having wifi! And now we’ll have two plug ins for the three of us, instead of one! This has been a VERY STELLAR day!

Xoxo,

Court

To start of the day today, I was in the fifth grade room; or rather they came and visited me in the video room. First, María José explained the pictures of things hanging on the wall associated with Halloween (haunted house, pumpkin, vampire, etc…), then we watched the intro to The Nightmare Before Christmas—if you haven’t seen the movie, it has a “spooky” sequence about Halloween! That was followed by learning of the rude “Trick or treat” song and lastly, I read the story. It’s such a simple story, meant for like first graders…but I still made it as silly as possible! I had most of them laughing at my voices and actions!

The ten o’clock hour started my two hour break. I didn’t really know what to do, so I went and asked Teresa where the library was. She’s super nice, but doesn’t speak a word of English, so she was trying to explain where it was and all I really caught was “orange curtains” (which, there is no building with orange curtains, so apparently I didn’t even get that right :( ) I and stood outside and looked from side to side, trying to figure out where it was and Aurora and Alberto walked up. I asked them and Alberto was like “Why don’t you use the computer?” I took the laptop from the video room into the teacher’s lounge, intending to get online, but every time I tried to open the internet, it said there was a problem and needed to close (even though the signal was “muy bueno”…I didn’t understand) So…I ended up playing solitaire for an hour and a half. At some point, one of the teacher’s came in (I feel so bad—I’m so bad with names here!) and we started talking about Socu and then his paintings (he’s awesome! He has one of them set as his background on his computer and I thought it was a photo…it was so realistic!). He said that he’s going to visit the Louvre in Paris in December with two well known Spanish artists and he’s more excited to see these artists than to see the Louvre. He’s very nice!

After lunch, I had sixth and then fourth grades. I don’t know what sixth grade’s deal was, but they were so rowdy! Pilar got mad (sweet Pilar…I didn’t know she could yell, but wow, she did!) and so I didn’t get to teach them the song. Fourth grade came and I always feel bad for those classes (three sections—A, B and C) because Rocío’s always mean and short with them. I was reading them the story and another teacher came in quick to grab something and this girl turned around to see who it was (which people do all the time—we are curious by nature, you know?). It wasn’t like the girl said anything, she just quickly looked and Rocío interrupted my storytelling to yell (and I’m not exaggerating!) at her for not paying attention. Pretty sure she caused more of a ruckus than the girl did.

On my way home I stopped at the store to pick up some more fruit and bread. The fruit selection was not good—the tomatoes were either too small and puny or moldy (that’s disgusting, I don’t care who you are!) and I didn’t have much of a peach selection because while I was putting on a sanitary glove (which they have signs everywhere asking people to use them) these two old ladies descended (gloveless, mind you) onto the peach stand and took like 15 peaches each! So…not only were they picked over, but the ones that were left had old lady germs all over them! (Haha, just kidding! J) Oh well, I’ll go to the bigger grocery store, Mercadona, tomorrow since it’s near the school and I’m supposed to be done at eleven tomorrow!

Well, it’s a little before five o’clock y voy a echar una siesta!

Xoxo,

Court

Yesterday (Monday) I went to school and discovered that I have a special schedule this week for Halloween! I went to my first class and knocked on the door, but no one answered. So, I went back into the office to ask Aurora and she was like “Oh yeah, on Friday, Rocío made you a different schedule for this week for Halloween. As per my “special schedule”, I shall be in the “video room” (which, the only really different thing about this room is that is has a smart board…but it’s not the only room we can watch videos in…every teacher has a laptop and every classroom has a projector, so I’m not really sure why it’s called as such) giving presentations about Halloween and reading a Halloween themed book I brought from home. It’s pretty much the same thing every class…it kinda makes me feel like a real teacher again! It sounds sort of boring, but with the wide range of ages, it’s actually pretty fun. The only classes I won’t see this week are the three and four-year-olds; it’s just too hard to teach them about Halloween, especially in English.

I had sixth grade at nine, second at ten and third at eleven. I had a free hour after recreo from 12:20-1:10 (not part of my special schedule, as I usually do) and then went back for another third grade class. I came home at two and ate a bocadillo and then went back to school at five to help the English teachers finish putting up Halloween decorations. Rocío asked me if I knew any Halloween songs and the only one I could think of was the “Trick or treat, smell my feet” song (a little rude and not the best for kids to learn, I know…but hey, I was drawing a blank and she really wanted a song!), so I wrote down the lyrics on a sheet of paper and decorated it and started teaching it to the kids today!

Tuesday

Today was the same as yesterday, but it was still fun! It was also my only full day this week! I had fifth and two first grades in the morning and two fourth grades in the afternoon. I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with myself tomorrow though: I have class at nine, then a two hour break (which is “special”), then I have both of the afternoon classes. I’ll have to think of something to keep myself occupied through the morning…Thursday’s schedule is much better! I only have class at nine and ten, so I’ll be free after eleven! Unless they’re like “Oh, could you stay and ________.” I don’t think they will though, so I’ll be able to start my long weekend early! There’s no school Monday because of Feria (small carnival)/All Saints Day! Four day weekend…heck yeah, man! Oh, the possibilities…

Xoxo,

Court

Wednesday, October 20, 2010—Sunday, October 24, 2010

I’ve been slacking off on posting the last several days. Probably because with the visiting teacher from Ireland, Carol, I’ve been pretty busy. Wednesday after school there was a lunch in El Toboso (about 15 minutes away) for the Irish teachers (Carol and Jill, whom I believe spent a few days at the high school). Pilar, Aurora, Carol and I met up with Jill and a few people from the high school at the restaurant at 2:45. Lunch lasted about 2.5 hours and very delicious! There were so many courses—I don’t even remember all of them now. When we sat down there was a huge chuck of bread waiting for each of us. First, we were served salad, then came some sort of scrambled egg-like dish (it wasn’t tortilla de patata exactly, it was loose and had chucks of chorizo and peppers in it). Next, some sort of mushy meaty stuff came (it sounds gross, but it was actually quite yummy!). After that, we were served a chicken and later a lamb dish. For dessert, we had a kind of fudgy brownie with vanilla bean-like ice cream. Drizzled over top was one of the most delicious chocolate sauces I’ve ever tasted! Then came the coffee (yes, we must not forget the coffee…always!) WOW! By the time we had eaten everything (and I do mean everything, I can’t you how many times more food was dumped onto my plate [whilst I objected, so less] because we were “not allowed” to leave any food behind. “Venga, Corni, you haven’t eaten that much…don’t you like it? You must eat more!” was closely followed by another spoonful on my already not-so-happy plate.

I was so full by the end of the meal that I gladly welcomed the walk we took afterwards. As it turned out, we walked part of Don Quijote’s route! We stopped in the (tiny…as in shack on the road tiny!) visitors center and we each picked up a couple of brochures. We made our way along to his lover’s/woman he was in love with house (I can’t remember her name!) and toured that. Although the novel is fictional, her house is real. I love (now, that is…I used to cringe at the thought of museums and places like this) looking at old, historical things like that. I tried to imagine cooking in the kitchen, relaxing in the living room or sleeping in one of the beds and I just couldn’t! I’m so used to the luxuries we have (indoor plumbing and electricity, for starters!), that thinking about how the world lived 400-ish years ago is incomprehensible to me.

After walking more of Quijote’s route, we got in the car…I thought we were going home. No. We went to Campo de Criptana to see the famous windmills! They are so magnificent! I’m glad we went; it was very cool! We walked around the town a little bit and we able to tour the, I guess you would call it like the windmill caretaker’s house/cave. It was so small: there was a tiny bedroom and a kitchen. It was cool to see too…I took some pictures.

We then returned home. On the way back Pilar and Aurora were chatting away, but Carol and I were so tired! She fell asleep…it really was a long day! They dropped me off at 8:15 and I checked my email and went to bed soon after.

Thursday

There was another lunch after school (it was Carol and Jill’s last day here), this time here in Socu. The restaurant is called Stone and is ten minutes from school, so we walked. Again, it was a delectable meal! We had bread, salad, tortilla de patata (LOVE IT!), paella (LOVE IT!), assorted desserts (I had flan…very good!) and coffee. This time we were also served chupitos—shots. I guess it differs from restaurant to restaurant…we didn’t have them Wednesday, but I’ve had them at several other places. They brought us three bottles—1. Bailey’s type liqueur 2. This green stuff 3. Apple flavored. The “Bailey’s” was opened first, so I had a shot of that. I asked Alberto (he’s sort of like the dean of students at our school…the second in command) about the apple stuff because no one was opening it and he said “Oh, you don’t want that one, it has almost no alcohol in it.” (Really? I’ll take it!) “You should try this _____ (green stuff), it’s much stronger than the “Bailey’s.”” Me: “okkkkkk.” Indeed, it was stronger than the first shot, a lot stronger! I’m glad he only filled it half full. There was more “Bailey’s” left and so I was given another shot after that.

When we left Stone we went to Carol and Jill’s hostel. They were going to go with Aurora to pick up her car in Alcázar de San Juan (apparently her car broke down on the way back from picking the two up in Toledo when they came on Monday…what bad luck!) and wanted to freshen up a bit before they left. Aurora was waiting to hear about a ride so we sat in the hostel and had another coffee (not that I needed it, though!). She got the call around six o’clock,  but I decided not to go with them because I had to get up so early on Friday for Ciudad Real, so I didn’t go. I stopped at the store and got home about 6:30 and went to bed very early—about 9:30!

Friday

I got up a little before five to catch the bus at 6:45. Will had stayed in nearby Tomelloso for the night because he went out to dinner with some teachers from his school Thursday, so I met up with him a few stops down the road. We were supposed to be at Juan Ignacio’s office at nine to fill out the applications to our NIEs but the bus didn’t get in until then, so we were a little late. The bus station isn’t too far from his office though, so it wasn’t too bad.

The whole process was very quick…much to my delight! (I had imagined it would take FOREVER!) Filling out the application took no more than 15 minutes and when we were done with that, he took us right over to this other office and cut the long line and got right in! We each waited our turn (I was 3^rd of, I believe, 8) for them to enter our info into the system and issue us a number. We went to the bank, paid the 10.20€ fee and we were done by 10:20! Just call me Y-1317456-F!

Getting done so early, Will and I were able to make the 12:00 train back home (instead of having to wait for the 5:00 bus). We were very happy about that! We pulled into the station a little before 2:30. It took us about half an hour to walk home, so we got back right out three. I was so hungry! I made a huge salad and had some bread and a banana with it! We didn’t end up doing anything last night (which was perfectly fine with me!) because I was so tired. I figured I still had tomorrow.

Saturday

Not much has happened today. The one important thing that we took care of was signing up for internet. It’s not going to work like I thought it would…as in your appointment is on _____day, so make sure someone is home. Gunita had to come with us to put her name on the account (something about our bank accounts [through which they debit] aren’t totally official until we have our NIE cards...I don’t know…) She gave them her info, so it’s in the system, but the lady couldn’t tell us exactly when they would be over to install the phone line. A week…maybe a month at the longest. Is it just me, or is that a huge difference in time? It may take 7 days, it may take 30. What!? I’m constantly having to remind myself that I’m in Spain and just go with the flow. At least we didn’t have to pay anything today. So, I have actually no idea when we’ll be getting wireless, but we are one step closer than we were yesterday!

Today

Last night was epic! Conchi, Laura and Teresa came over for takeout (Chinese!) about ten…though we didn’t get the food ordered until about eleven, which means we didn’t eat until about 11:30! We had a ton of food: rice, spring rolls (yes, the ginormous ones!) and four meat dishes. We were all pretty stuffed by the end…and it only cost 6€ a person! We ate extremely leisurely and didn’t leave the house until after 1:30. Gunita wanted to go to Bianco (she likes that place a lot, although I much prefer La Comba) so we went there first. It was a pretty happenin place, being Saturday night, so it was (kind of) fun!

It’s always interesting because someone (Gunita, Conchi, Teresa, etc.) usually sees someone they know so I always get introduced to more people. One of those people was a man named Raúl. Raúl seemed to be a very nice person, except he was drunk like no other and therefore kind of nasty (to be explained momentarily). He rambled on for a good hour and I had no idea what he was saying. The only things that I really know for sure are that he is friends with Conchi’s brother and he is 28. He had been talking for maybe half an hour when Conchi “officially” introduced us. She must have looked away for a split second because in that amount of time we did the two kisses thing. Now, this wasn’t your average kiss-kiss. Raúl, being quite intoxicated, decided he wanted to grab my face and French kiss (rather slowly) the corners of my mouth. Uh, yeah…there was definite tongue-to-lip touchage…STELLAR! Apparently Conchi somehow missed all of this and like 30 seconds later was like “Qué, you didn’t do besos?” REALLY, Conchi, how did you miss that? So, we had to do besos again…Raúl style. TWICE!? REALLY? Thus, you have the explanation of the nasty comment. I told Will what happened on our way to La Comba and he goes “Well if you think about it, the more germs you’re exposed to the better, because your body will build up more of a resistance.” Me (in my head): “What?! Really, that wasn’t even the point…never mind!”

At La Comba we met up with Jesús, Teresa (another one), Javi, Noria, Leo and Marisa. That was so much more fun! Jesús was so drunk by the time we got there! He was funny because every couple of minutes he would look at me and yell “CORNI!” I talked with Teresa for a while. She somehow hurt her back on Friday and could only sit there and barely move. I felt bad for her…she’s so nice! I talked with Javi for a while too. He said he loves to cook and would teach me how…yay! We’ll see how/if that works out. Don’t hold your breath! We left about 5:15. Jesús and Will decided to go to another bar, so Jesús took Teresa, Marisa and I home first. Gunita had left earlier to go to Moma with José Ramón (whom I actually met earlier at Bianco) and someone else, I can’t remember. All in all, I crawled into bed about six this morning!

Before everyone left to go home last night/this morning, Jesús talked about meeting up for tapas in the morning (which in reality was about one o’clock. It’s kinda funny (to me, at least!) because many Spaniards I’ve talked with consider one o’clock to be part of the morning! So, he called about five til one and picked me up (Gunita was still sleeping and Will was going for a run). We met Moises and Javi at Cuatro Estaciones. We were there for maybe a couple of hours and then we left to go home and eat lunch. Other than that, I really haven’t done a whole lot today, some except laundry (fun, I know!). We are all really tired, so it is most definitely going to be an early night. I really want to siesta, but I don’t know if that would affect my sleeping tonight, so I’ll just have to tough it out and stay up!

Xoxo,

Court

Well, it looks like we’ll be heading back to Ciudad Real on Friday…we got the email yesterday saying that an appointment had been made for all of us (to apply for our NIEs) at 9AM. That means we’ll have to take the 6:45 bus again…sweet, another day of getting up at the crack of dawn! I shouldn’t complain though, I’ll be happy when I finally have proof that I’m a legal long term resident!

Today wasn’t too bad, but for some reason, I’m really tired. Maybe because it’s getting colder and when you’re in bed, all snuggled under the covers, the thought of getting out of bed is enough to make you cringe (or maybe that’s just me…) Just like yesterday, it was very chilly this morning! My face was so cold when I finally walked into school.

I’m definitely going to have to talk to someone about changing my schedule though; my first class (which I thought was English) was actually science in Spanish…not sure how the error was made, but there are a couple of mistakes in my schedule, I have found. I stayed in fifth grade for an extra hour, so I could be there for English. María José told the kids a story about a vain adolescent named Ferdinand with long curly brown hair. I get to tell the story tomorrow! Afterwards, I went to one of Esperanza’s first grade classes. I’ve come to find these rather pointless because there’s never anything I can do, as the kids are never quiet or paying attention; she constantly has to rein them in.

Our school is hosting a teacher from Ireland for a week. Today was her first day, so at lunch, I was able to meet and talk with her a bit. There was also a meeting after school so everyone could meet her. After lunch I was with Rocío for two fourth grade classes. I talked more about Nebraska and we colored those sheets again. I thought I was going to give my spiel today, but apparently, she wants me to do it next week. I feel like she expects the most out of me, not that I’m complaining, though, I would like to do more with the classes…for many of them I just sit there and act as their dictionary sometimes. The meeting lasted about 45 minutes (several more things were discussed besides the visiting teacher), so I got home right about three. I need to look up a few more things for Rocío’s class: a picture of Abraham Lincoln, the state bird, songs about Nebraska and Halloween (do those exist?) So we’ll see what I can find…

Xoxo,

Court

Yesterday (Sunday) nothing worthy of noting occurred. It was a usual Sunday. Saturday night, in an attempt to save what was left of my voice, I left the bar about 1:30 and came home to take some cough medicine. At least I wasn’t as squeaky as Friday! My voice is so much better today! It’s not 100 percent yet…but I think it’s on its way!

Today was the first Monday I’ve worked. I didn’t have the not-so-uncommon Monday “blues”, but rather the I’m-dreading-the-winter-because-I’m-not-a-fan-of-the-cold “blues”. Goodnight-stick, it was chilly this morning! It made for a brisk walk to school, at least…I got there at 8:55, before several of the teachers. I had sixth grade first and they’re learning a little bit about the circulatory system in English, so I was able to read several excerpts from their books with them. I had second grade next and apparently I had never been to that class before, which I didn’t realize, so it was more with introductions and asking me questions. Next was third grade, which I had never been to either…at least I knew that much. I met Lourdes, the teacher, and again, it was more introductions and questions. We did those for half the time and the other time was spent doing some workbook: unscrambling words like tree/grass/flowers and then coloring in the pictures, then naming the animal that lives in the grass/tree/flowers.

Right after recreo I had a free hour (one of two I have during the week, the other is on Thursday, the last hour of the day) so I went and looked up some pictures of Nebraska and typical American food dishes, i.e. hamburgers, ribs, steak, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, potato salad, hotdogs, etc…, that that’ll be handy for the little spiel I’m giving to one of RocÍo’s classes tomorrow.

The last hour of the day I to a different third grade class with Lourdes. Again, I had never been there before so yet even more introductions followed. When I walked home, it was still quite chilly in the shade, so I made sure to walk in the sun. I went to the store and grabbed some more fruit, bread and milk before returning home. I had a bocadillo and a peach for lunch. I’m still a little cold, so I just made a cup of tea. As for afterwards, though, I see a short rest in my future!

Xoxo,

Court

I didn’t think it was possible, but I have actually done less today than yesterday. Hard to believe, I know. It’s true, though, I’ve literally done nothing today and it’s almost seven (everyone needs a day like this every once in a while, right? Or maybe two or three…). No, I take that back…I have done something—I swept my room earlier! Some may find this fact disgusting, so brace yourself…but the truth is it’s the first time I’ve swept since I arrived here three weeks ago! I believe that I did not inherit the clean gene…I’m not like my mom or grandma—hardcore Queens of Clean! You can stop cringing now though, it actually wasn’t that dirty, just a few dust bunnies here and there.

The whole reason I’ve been lazy today is probably because we didn’t get back (from the bars…that’s about all there is to do here) until after four this morning and I didn’t actually make it to bed until right about five! My voice has kind of been hit-and-miss the last few days, but by the time we got back last night/this morning, my voice was reduced to a series of squeaks (it’s better today, but I’m still squeakin’ quite a bit). I was laughed at by Gunita and Will. It was funny, though. I tried asking Gunita something like four times at one point and she was like “I can’t understand you!” It wasn’t anything important, at least. Sacrificing my voice was worth it though…the night was really fun…

Javi came over at 8:30 and thus began our conversational hours. We walked around Socu for maybe 30ish minutes and then went to Cuatro Estaciones (Four Seasons) bar. We were there for a couple of hours and then were joined by his friend Moises (super nice, btw, he spoke slowly for me!). We spent a couple more hours there and then Jesús popped in and we went to La Comba and met up with some others (including the roomies, who showed up around one). People slowly trickled out and Gunita wanted to go somewhere with a better dancing atmosphere, but Javi and I were still talking (about everything—music [The Cranberries…dad that’s for you!], family, TV, Franco, Obama, ETA, you name it, we probably talked about it!) so Jesús, Gunita and Will left and went to Bianco about 2:30. We were probably there for another hour and met up with them at Moma. At that point, I was getting tired and therefore I stood around and watched them play darts. We weren’t there too terribly long and then left.

I believe the others were talking about going to dinner tonight, so I imagine it’ll be another late one—seeing as how we probably won’t go until 11 or 12, eat for an hour and a half-ish and (I’m guessing!) visit the bars once more after that. I’m not complaining, though. Last night was the first time I’ve been out in a week, because of my constant caca-like feeling…it’s nice to be social again!

Xoxo,

Court

Today has been another one of those I-don’t-feel-like-doing-a-whole-lot days. We went to the market at noon. I bought some more nectarines and a scarf, Gunita bought some peppers, a melon and I think she bought a few more things, but I didn’t see because I went off wondering in the other direction. Will bought some almonds and some apples (he used some of them to make apple sauce and it is VERY yummy). I also went to the Chinese store and bought a few more hangers and some pens and that’s pretty much been my day…rough, I know! I just got up from a couple hour siesta a little while ago and had some coffee, so I’ll be wide awake if we go out tonight…which I’m sure we will since it’s Friday…WOOT!

Xoxo,

Court

It’s the weekend! Have I mentioned I LOVE not working on Fridays? I’m still feeling a little like caca today, but for the most part, I have more energy and was on time to school today, so that’s good, right? In second grade today, they started a new unit of vocab with a girl named Emma, a boy named Nick, a dog named Davy Dog and a cat named Cheeky Cat (all of their English books are British, just as our American Spanish textbooks are Mexican…sometimes a student’ll say something to me in English and I’ll be like “what?” because I don’t know the word). They’re also talking about shapes and colors right now, so I counted with them the number of yellow squares Emma has on her dress/green circles Cheeky Cat has on his “trousers”, etc. Next, I went to another sixth grade class and we played hangman like we did yesterday in the other class. I then went around the class, choosing students to pick a question out of the box for me to ask them. Questions like “Where do you live? Name six means of transportation, etc.

After that, I went in with the three-year-olds and watched them eat breakfast/lunch and helped them open their drink boxes/snacks as needed. Then, a little boy named Ivan spit in my face—Will was like “Did you beat him?” For the record, I did not…I really wanted to smack him though, but I restrained myself. I’m not really sure why he did it (he also spit at a little girl about five seconds after he did me). I was sitting on one of the benches (which are made for three-year-olds, so they’re pretty low to the ground), so I was at his eye level, he tapped me on the arm and spit right in my face. I was so shocked that I really didn’t know what to do. I really couldn’t say much that he would understand because my accent is so different, they always stare at me blankly whenever a speak to them. All I really managed to do was shake my head and say “NO!” several times. The teacher didn’t see it happen, as she was helping other students at the time, although I told her about it later and she asked him about it, if he did do it, that is, while I was still there, and he said “NO!” That little jerk!

I finished the day with the five-year-olds. We sang another song about the weather (sunny/cloudy/rainy/hot/cold), which included actions and that was fun to watch the kids…some of them got really into it! After the song, they did an activity with shapes and colors (although more basic than in second grade) and stickers. Overall, that class was pretty well behaved (today!) and I had fun helping them figure out the right patterns and checking their work.

On Thursdays, my last class ends at 1:10, so I (hopefully!) always get to leave a little bit early (unless they give me another class, which is a real possibility…but for now, I’m free!). On my way home I went to DÍA and picked up another baguette of bread (I eat so much bread and cheese here…it’s ok though, because we also walk everywhere). I’m going to run to the bank in a couple of hours to pick up my debit card…FINALLY! Aurora called them before I left school to ask if it was in/if they actually had it there at the bank (remember the first one?) and they said yes! I’ll be so happy to get it, since I’ve been waiting two and a half weeks! I’m not sure what the weekend holds for us…I’m just happy I don’t have to get up early tomorrow, especially since I haven’t been sleeping well—being all congested and everything.

Xoxo,

Court

Monday, October 11, 2010

Well, we went to Ciudad Real today and it was pretty much a bust. Will and I arrived right about nine. We actually were let off at a bus stop (not the bus station) a lot closer to the police station than we thought. I wasn’t thinking we would get off there, but many people started disembarking, so we did too. It worked out well…instead of a 20 minute walk, it was about 5. We arrived at the police station and discovered there was a nice long line outside, so we got in the line and Ansel joined us a few minutes later. We were a little confused about what the line was for, so we asked one of the officers and he basically said we needed an appointment to do anything. Ansel wasn’t exactly sure if that was the place where we needed to be anyway, so he whipped out his laptop (smart guy for bringing it!) and the website actually showed a different address for where we needed to go. So…after standing outside the police station for about half an hour, we left.

We walked for probably another half an hour (which included getting lost once or twice!) before we found the office where we needed to be and even then, we weren’t really sure it was the right place (our instructions in our manual aren’t the clearest, unfortunately). There are seven floors to the building we were in and the title “ministerio de educacion” appeared on two different floors. We first inquired about it (on the first floor) and we were told we needed to take a number to talk with anyone. We really didn’t think this was where we needed to be though, as all the signage dealt with foreigner work permits…not what we needed. We then ascended to the seventh floor. (I know, it had to be the seventh, right? The top floor…) We thought we would be able to get answers here (which we did…just not the one we were hoping for) because we found out that the man who heads the Ciudad Real region has an office there. So we go up there, ask around for him (his name is Juán Ignacio, by the way) and one of his coworkers said he wasn’t there that day; he just didn’t come in…which apparently you can do if you’re the jefe. His coworker took pity on us though and said he would call him for us. He did and it turns out that we need an appointment to apply for our NIEs. And in case you’re wondering…that little fact was NOT shared at our orientation, I asked both Ansel and Will. What’s more is that Juán Ignacio said he would be making appointments for everyone and then he’ll contact us and be like “Be there on ________day.” I guess it’s helpful that he’s setting everything up for us, the only thing is we’ll have to take off on whatever day he tells us, not that it should be a problem though, as I’m sure our schools are expecting that.

It was only about 11:30 by the time we figured this out, so we walked around and took in the sites…not that many. I was surprised it wasn’t as cool as I thought it was going to be. I’ll probably post some pictures this weekend though, when I have more time. We stopped for a bocadillo lunch (I had lamb con tomate) around 1:30. Will and I walked with Ansel to the train station (his train left at three) and then we walked to the bus station and waited for about an hour (not that either of minded though, we had walked so much that both of us were ready for a nice long sit-down…so yes, I did enjoy the bus ride back to Socu). We got back home at 7:15. Gunita and Will went out, but I was so tired, I crashed.

Tuesday, October 13, 2010

I woke up to discover that sickness wasn’t done plaguing me yet. I was a little congested yesterday and a hint of (what is affectionately known as) sexy-man-voice was traceable. (SMV hit me full force today, [Wednesday], as I am SUPER congested!) Even though I felt a little like caca, I still went with Will to the bar at two (for tapas…Gunita was still sleeping) to meet Jesús and his possy. I’m really glad that I went though, because Javi was there (I hadn’t seen him since my first night here in Socu) and we started talking and we are going to have a conversational hour (half in English, half in Spanish) this Friday! I’ve been wanting to find a conversational partner, and I even mentioned that to Will on the way to bar, so I’m psyched!

We got back around four, Jesús came over at six because we had planned to go see the windmills in nearby Campo de Criptana, but it started to rain and we didn’t want to do anything outdoorsy. We decided to go see a movie instead. Why we had to go to the theater in Alcázar de San Juan, which is 30 minutes away, I don’t know. We decided on Letras a Julieta aka Letters to Juliet. There were parts of it I didn’t understand, but I love romantic movies, so I liked it. I didn’t like the fact that “we” chose the 10:15 showing and that we didn’t get home until 12:45. So, between getting home late and being congested it wasn’t one of my greatest nights’ sleep.

Today

I usually set my alarm for seven, but since my quality of sleep last night was so sub-par (that’s a phrase, right…is that how you write it?) I didn’t get up until 7:30. I’m supposed to be there at nine, but since I so lacked energy and was moving at a snail’s pace this morning, I didn’t get to school until about ten. I sat in the kitchen for a while and slowly drank some OJ. Before Will left, he came and asked how I was feeling and I said “I feel about as good as I sound” and he was like “Oh, I don’t think you sound that bad” (By the way…Really?) I next called Aurora and said that I was going to be late, but I wasn’t sure how late exactly and she said “What’s wrong? You sound terrible!” (Dang it, Will lied, I thought. I talked with him this afternoon and he was like “I didn’t really lie; I didn’t think you sounded that bad this morning.” Which, reading between the lines, means that now he thinks I do sound bad. Sweet life!) She didn’t mind I was going to be late, she even asked if I wanted to stay home.

As previously stated, I made it to school by ten and went to go hang my coat up in the office and one of the teacher’s was like “Are you okay? You look so pale!” Do you ever wonder why when it’s painfully obvious that you are sick some people will still ask you “Are you sick?” And you’re just like “Really? Did you really just have to ask me that?” I should be nicer though, because I love this teacher, she’s a sweetheart!

I was supposed to go to 5^th grade at nine, but since I didn’t show up until ten, I decided to still go there anyway. I got to learn about the parts of a flower in Spanish and I missed out on one of two hours in the four-year-old classroom…darn! Sandra doesn’t know my schedule anyway, so I knew she would never know the difference. At eleven, I did go visit the four-year-olds and they were coloring the exact same page as when I was there last week. The concept was very basic: alternate between coloring circles blue and red. I don’t mean to be all complainy today, but you wouldn’t believe how difficult that concept is for some four-year-olds. I literally spent ten minutes trying to explain it to this one kid and he just looked at me and was like “¿Qué?” At 12:20, I went to sixth grade and we played hangman with opposite words like old/young ugly/pretty. At 1:10, I went to 4^th grade and they were coloring a sheet about Nebraska! It had on there the state flag, bird and flower, etc. Rocío asked if I could explain them to the class (I know nothing about those things!) and so I made a bunch of stuff up and made it sound good!

At two, I came home, grabbed my backpack and went to the store…it’s really nice for putting the heavier things in! I made a bocadillo (jamón y queso) and now I’m taking it easy; I don’t have a lot of energy, surprise, surprise! I’m debating whether or not to go to bed early. If I have a repeat of last night, going to bed early is basically pointless. Thank goodness I just have tomorrow and then it’s the weekend again! I’m so tired already just after one day…that’s pitiful, isn’t it?

Xoxo,

Court

Today

I awoke today to discover my sore throat is basically non-existent! I was able to sleep about eight hours last night, so I feel much better today and apparently I look better too…Will said that I looked really pale and tired yesterday. There’s really not that much to report from the other side of the ocean today, as I haven’t done much. I started reading 1500 page The Count of Monte Cristo, (in English…I’m not that daring to take on the Spanish version…yet). Will, Ansel (another auxiliar who teaches in nearby Alcázar de San Juan) and I are going to Ciudad Real tomorrow to apply for our NIEs. The only bus leaves at 6:45 in the morning and it’s a 15 minute walk to the bus station, so it’s going to be one early morning! The returning bus doesn’t leave until 5:00, so we’ll have all day to explore the (big!) city! I’m glad we have Tuesday off as well, because I’m sure we’ll be super tired tomorrow night!

Xoxo,

Court

My throat continues to bother me and is no better today…and now I think I may have a slight fever, too. Last night was rough; I maybe got three hours of sleep. My throat was completely bothersome, so even though I was exhausted (and still am), I laid there and laid there some more. I turned on my light about 4:30 with the intent of reading, but I was too tired, I couldn’t focus, but at the same time, I couldn’t sleep. It was a long night! I finally fell asleep some time after 5:30 and awoke up at eight something. I’m slamming the orange juice and tea and “lozenges” (which are seriously just like peppermints…not very helpful at all) I bought at the pharmacy yesterday. Gunita gave me some IB Profen powder packets she has (at the suggestion of Jesús, who works at a pharmacy). She’s at the dentist right now, but she’s going to stop by the pharmacy on her way back and pick me up some throat syrup. I feel like that’ll work better than these stupid peppermint things. I guess it was a blessing in disguise that we decided not to go anywhere this weekend…it would have really sucked (more) to be sick and traveling.

Xoxo,

Court

Today has been a very relaxed day. We went out last night about ten and returned just after three this morning, so we all slept in. When I got back from the bank last night, Will was gone, I assumed to watch the basketball game (The Lakers played Barcelona here in Spain and lost 92-88...sorry Spain, but darn! L) so Gunita and I went out to Teodora’s house and met up with her and another friend, Laura. We went to our usually bar, La Comba and stayed there most of the night. Will appeared about two hours later with three guys from his school. He said that he had been drinking since six o’clock! Apparently, on his way to a hostel to use the (faster) internet, he encountered these gentlemen, who invited him out drinking. So he went. And drank. And drank some more. By the time they got to La Comba, those three teachers were SO drunk, they kept telling Will that they LOVED him and the drunkest of the three kept kissing his head. It was weird, yet funny at the same time. Will kept saying “I feel so gay right now!” He never made it to the hostel last night.

We got up and about around 12:30 and went to the open air market, which they have here every Friday. Considering how small Socu is, I thought the market was huge: there were so many clothes and shoes and fruits and vegetables and churros and jewelry and so much more that I can’t remember! We just kind of quickly browsed through, and all I came away with today was a few nectarines, but next Friday, I’m going to go back and take a closer look at everything…I’m sure they have some cool stuff there!

Gunita and I went to the grocery store after the market and picked up a few things. We went back to Movistar to ask about her breaking her contract, so we could get wifi. Her contract isn’t up until November 27 and they said it would cost her a lot to break it. So, she’s going to finish out her contract and in the meantime, I think the plan is for Will and me to get wifi through Orange. It’s 30€ for the first two months (which we’ll split) and then it’ll go up to 47€ after that. By that time, Gunita will be out of her contract with Movistar and we’ll split it three ways. The only bad thing is that we have to sign a year contract, which’ll cost about 100€ to break come May/June. Again, that’ll be split three ways, so I think it’ll be worth it! Now we have to set up an appointment for them to come install a phone line…hopefully soon!

We decided not to go anywhere this weekend after all. We are, however, planning on going to Ciudad Real on Monday, to apply for our NIEs. I’m sure Gunita and Will are planning on going out this evening, but I noticed this morning that my throat is started to get agitated, so I don’t think I’ll go. It’s gotten a little worse since this afternoon, so I hope it’s nothing major. Will said it could be all the smoke from the bars I’ve been breathing in lately and Gunita said it could be because the weather is changing. I think I believe more in the bar theory than the weather one, but who knows!  Being in smoky bars tonight wouldn’t exactly help and the last thing I want to do is make it worse!

Xoxo,

Court

Today was a fantastic day! Why, you ask? Because my long weekend has started…no school for five days! I really didn’t do that much at school today. I had second grade first and they had an exam today (over colors, numbers 1-20 and animals. It was cute because for the colors it gave them the word and they had to color in the circle with the specific crayon). I take what I said back because there is this girl, named Maryam, who doesn’t know how to read quite yet, so Francisco had me sit with her and give her the exam orally. I read the list of colors and she would find each one and color the circle. For the numbers part, they had a mixed up list and had to put them in order. I ended up giving her a lot of the answers on this one (shh, don’t tell anyone!) because I would say a number and she would point to one and look at me, like “Is that right?” and I would shake my head if it wasn’t. She had a little bit of an idea on most of them, but there were some in which she pointed at every word and looked at me until she found the right one. Reading the exam to her a really long time and she still wasn’t done when the hour was up.

After second grade, I went to sixth and they had an exam too. I met that class on my very first day, when Aurora taught them art, but we did introductions again for about fifteen minutes and then they took the exam (countries, more numbers and questions like “how old are you”) so after that, there was very little for me to do. At 11, I went to the three-year-old class, which is completely pointless, I found out, because that hour they have me scheduled for every Thursday is when they eat breakfast in class. So…I watched them eat for about twenty minutes and then went back to the office.

Recreo/Lunch was interesting today. One of the teachers went to Pamplona last week (on a fieldtrip, I think) and brought back a bunch of cheese to share with everyone. I thought it was Manchego, but it turned out to be sheep cheese from the Navarra region. There were hard cheeses and soft cheeses. It was all very tasty. I saw these little tiny Dixie sized cups setting on the table and I thought they were for water, but I looked over and saw they were cracking open some good old Pamplona alcohol…at school, which was still in session, no less! I was like “Wow, are you serious!” I wasn’t going to have any, but then this old (like 65-70ish) teacher (whose name is Carmela, I found out later. She’s really nice and talks to me all the time. Half of the time, I have no idea what she’s saying, so I just kind of smile. She always tells other teachers “Habla español muy bien!/She speaks Spanish really well!” And I always think “Please stop telling people that…it’s not true”) was like “here, try this, I don’t drink alcohol, but you should.” Me: “ooookkkkk” It was REALLY strong, but I didn’t want to offend her or anyone, so I drank it.

After that, we all went off to class a little tipsy! (Haha, just kidding…it was such a little amount!) I went with Esperanza to the five-year-olds. That was fun; she played this song “Dance, dance, show me how to dance!” We all danced in place. “Hide your nose/mouth/ears…show me your nose/mouth/ears!” You get the idea…All the kids were really into it, except for these two girls, Samara and Estefania. Later, Esperanza told me they’re cousins and the worst! They didn’t participate with the group at all and were off on their own the whole time: at the computer, under the table, anywhere but on the rug with the rest of the class. If Esperanza tried to get them to join everyone, they screamed bloody murder. Later, after we left the class, she called them “malísimas”.

I didn’t have a class after 1:00, so I was able to leave early! I talked with Aurora and she is coming with me to the bank at 6:30 (apparently they’re open from 5-7 on Thursdays) to figure out this debit card fiasco. I want to ask them if they just give me another one, rather than having Mom and Dad sent it from the U.S….I still don’t understand how or why it was sent there (I mean, how much sense does that make?), but whatever. We still don’t have any concrete plans for the weekend yet, but I’m sure we’ll think of something. We need to go back to Ciudad Real sometime to apply for our NIEs, so we may do that this weekend…other than that, it’s still up in the air!

Xoxo,

Court

Oh, and I just got back from the bank and they are sending me another card here…actually I’m picking it up from the bank next Thursday. He said that and I was like “Are you sure?” and he said “Yes, yes, I’m sure.” I don’t know if it was because Aurora was with me or because that guy just seems so much nice than the (not so nice) lady, but I feel much better now!

I’ve decided today that I would be the happiest if I could only work in 3^rd grade and above classes. Today I had 5^th grade from 9-10, four-year-olds from 10-11:50, 6^th grade from 12:20-1:10 and 4^th grade from 1:10-2. Keeping in mind what I just said, which class do you think I enjoyed the least? You get a gold star if you guessed the four-year-olds! So naturally, I had that age group the longest (two classes). I’ve said this before, but they’re so young and just don’t listen well (some at all!). The first hour actually wasn’t bad at all; I was surprised because they were better behaved than the six-year-olds from yesterday. They were really quiet, listened to Sandra, the teacher, and got along really well with each other (for the most part, nothing like the second hour).

The second class of four-year-olds was a completely different story. Think about the most opposite you can imagine…now times that by 87! Yeah, it was that night and day. On our way to the class—right next door—Sandra told me this class wasn’t as good as the first and this boy named Héctor, or something like that, was the worst, and yes, I was able to spot this Héctor as soon as we walked in. How? He was the one screaming the loudest. It was pretty much mass chaos the entire hour. We walked in and the kids were running around like nomads. It was kinda cute (at first) because this little girl (I still don’t know her name) came right up to me and gave me a hug! And then she was all over me the rest of the hour. I stood by the door and observed the class for a few minutes and she stood with me and put my arm around her. She was also talking to me and I had no idea what she was saying (kids at that age are hard to understand in any language, you know?) so I smiled, nodded and said “sí” a lot. I set my bag down on the table (huge mistake) and I looked over a minute later and she was going through it: she had my map of Socu out, she was looking at my sunglasses and opened my folder. I tried to say “GIVE IT BACK!” in the nicest way possible and I think I succeeded although, I may have been a little too nice, because half an hour later, she was flipping through my stuff again…really?

As for Héctor, I don’t know if he has, like, cognitive issues or what but every time Sandra asked the class or him to do something, he would start screaming (not your average “NO!” I don’t want to do it scream, it was a prolonged, blood curdling scream…once every two minutes…yeah, it got old fast). He wouldn’t do what Sandra wanted him to do, so she would try to pick him up and put him on the carpet or wherever and he would lay down an fight her tooth and nail every step of the way. He was also up and around all the time; he would scuttle under a table and sit there or sit somewhere as far away from Sandra as possible. He would be laying down, then he would stand up and throw himself back on the ground. He kept doing that and it was very strange. They’re working on colors right now, so I tried to lead an activity in which I would say “Go touch something yellow/blue/red etc. That lasted all of 90 seconds because they would go run around the room to find the color and scream…all the way there and keep screaming. Imagine, if you will, 20 four-year-olds screaming all at once. Yeah, it was pretty stellar…

Those two hours aside, the day was fun: we played Simon Says in 5^th grade, I met the other 6^th grade class and I love them! They’re so talkative (in a good way!), they were asking me questions and vice versa; it was lighthearted and they really love English! I wish I could be in there every day. My last class was with 4^th grade and they’re awesome too! Yesterday, Rocío asked me to bring any materials I had on Nebraska, so I brought my map, post cards and stickers and talked with them about the good life! It was fun.

Oh, and I also went to the bank before school to pick up my debit card and it wasn’t there. The (not-so-nice) lady was like “It got sent to your apartment” and I was like “I don’t understand, when I came last week and talked with the (nicer) guy he said I had to come back here to pick it up” and she was like “no, it was sent to your house and it should be arriving today.” I told Aurora this once at school and she said that didn’t make any since either. She said she would come with me to the bank this afternoon, but she was nowhere to be found afterschool. So I got home today and asked Will about any mail (he has our one and only key) and he said there wasn’t any. Now, I am annoyed with the (not-so-nice) lady.
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Update: I just talked with mom and dad and they said I received something from Spain in the mail. What could it be? My bank card. Someone PLEASE tell me why, why they would send my debit card—for my Spanish bank account, here!—home to the U.S.?

Xoxo,

Court

So…I really could have done without the orientation in Ciudad Real yesterday (Monday). It was every bit as boring, perhaps even more so, as I was anticipating. We arrived in CR about 9:30 and had an hour to kill so what did we do? We   went for a coffee in the cafeteria, of course! We headed for the auditorium about 10:00 and people were starting to trickle in. We met several people from nearby towns (when I say nearby, I mean about 20-45 minutes away): Tomelloso, Alcazar de San Juan, Campo de Criptana. Hopefully, we can all get together sometime, since we’re all kind of out in the middle of nowhere.

At 10:30, the presenters were still messing with the computer, so we didn’t start exactly on time, but shortly after that we did. I have no words to describe how boring it was; it was all in Spanish, they talked super fast and about education laws and edicts and the Spanish education system in general. I would expect to learn about those things if I were getting a degree in education here, but as a non native speaking assistant, it was WAY too much. Even Rocío and José, our school directors, said it was excruciatingly boring. I was also annoyed that we didn’t have any time to go apply for our NIEs (Número de Identidad de Extranjero aka Alien Resident Card). CR is our nearest office, so I figured they would allow us time to go apply, but no, we were booked the entire day. So now, we get to take the bus/train on our own sometime soon to go back and do that. Come on now, is the killing-two-birds-with-one-stone philosophy altogether dead?

There were, however, two bright spots in the otherwise dull day: 1) I found out there is another American guy coming to Socu! No one is sure when he’s coming because he has encountered problems with the visa process (and before you ask, Dad, exactly what the problem is, I don’t know!) 2) In honor of Columbus/Spain Day, we don’t have school this Friday-Tuesday. We’re hoping to take a trip somewhere, we just aren’t sure yet. At the end of the day, they gave us all a goodie bag (yay!) of info on CR—a map, tapas bars, etc… We got back home a little before seven and I went to bed rather early (about 11, which is considered early here).

I did not start off the day well today—I awoke eight minutes late. A lot of people, I know, are like “Wow!, it’s eight minutes, get over it!” But, to me, eight minutes is a long time and I found myself rushing around this morning, in an effort to make up those precious lost moments; I wasn’t a happy camper.

I arrived at school (with all the children and their parents) at nine o’clock on the dot. I dropped my bag off in the office, near Aurora’s desk and headed for María José’s 5^th grade class. They were just starting science hour (which was supposed to be half in Spanish and half in English, but turned into a whole hour of reviewing in Spanish), so I sat there and listened to the class review the parts of a cell in Spanish. It wasn’t too bad…I guess, it would have been more interesting, though, if I knew anything about science.

At 10:00, I went to Esperanza’s first grade room and observed two very long hours of chaos. It was actually two classes, one each hour. I introduced myself (in Spanish, because she thought it would be easier for them) and the second class laughed at me because I don’t speak with a lisp. I stood there and thought to myself “Wait a minute—shouldn’t it be the other way around? But, then again, I’m not at home, I guess”. When kids are that young, it’s hard to teach them about anything, much less another language. They’re not good listeners: they were up and jumping around the class, hitting each other with their water bottles and having pencil sword fights. In the very short time some of the students were paying attention, Esperanza reviewed some school vocab with them: book, pencil, pencil case, sharpener, crayon and rubber (which I learned is UK English for eraser). She tried to play a song that incorporated the vocab, but it didn’t take too well.

We had recess/lunch from 11:50-12:20 and today many of the teachers were in the lounge drinking coffee, so I joined them. I was going to buy a bocadillo/sandwich for 50 cents (I guess on Tuesdays some of the moms host it as a fundraiser), but by the time I got there, they were out of meat and were making like these peanut butter-like chocolate sandwiches, which I did not want, so I didn’t eat anything at school today.

From 12:20-2:00, I was in Rocío’s two 4^th grade classes. She’s very hardcore—which I appreciate to a certain extent. She doesn’t take any crap and if a student steps out of line, she’s on them like no other! I had met some of the kids last week but not all of them, so we did more introductions. She had each of them stand up and say “Hello, my name is _____. Nice to meet you.” Hers is the only class I’ve helped with teaching in. They’re reviewing letters and numbers, so I was able to lead the exercises. I would say a number and they would repeat it and write in out in English and then spell it back out loud. I felt a little bad for the kids because if they forgot how to say a letter or number or hesitated when she called on them, Rocío would get rather impatient and short with them like “This is really easy stuff, maybe you should have studied more!” If they got it wrong, I tried to be empathetic (learning a language is really hard, especially as a child!) and be like “That’s close, but not quite!” and she would flat out be like “No, that’s wrong (grrr!)” and dismiss them. Even when they introduced themselves, she was all over them. My thinking is at least they’re trying—they know more than our nine-year-olds, at least.

At 2:00, the day was over and I stopped at the store (MERCADONA, not DÍA!) before going home. I got back a little before three and was going to go to the bank to pick up my debit/young person card, but Gunita said they’re only open in the mornings, until two. Which, if that’s true, I’ll like never be able to go…SWEET! (That’s not true actually, I could go on a Friday since I don’t work…I just felt like being dramatic!)

Xoxo,

Court

It’s another lazy Sunday here in small town Socu…I’m getting the feeling that all Sundays here follow this same lethargic pattern (not that I mind in the least, though; I have come to treasure these days [all two of them!] of waking up late, sipping my café ever so slowly, listening to Socus {the people of Socuéllamos, that is, I have no idea what they’re called, so I have deemed them as such} pass by on the street below and reading a book…some people would call me a nerd, I know!).

Last night was interesting. We (Gunita, Will and I, that is) started out the evening by going out for Chinese with Jesús. Gunita had told us of the plan earlier in the day, so I was sure not to completely spoil my appetite when I ate “pre dinner” (a hunk of bread and cheese, last night), if you will, at eight o’clock (not that I’m like a porker or anything, I’ve just never been able to completely adjust to the eating schedule here). We made our way out about 10:30 (in Jesús’ car; I don’t remember what kind it is, but it’s very shiny and pretty! I was all excited that he was driving; I love riding in cars here…for some reason it just seems so much cooler here than back home!), which proved to be quite a popular dinner hour because the first place we tried was totally packed! So, we settled for choice número dos: LA CASA DE LAM. They were very busy too, but one table was being cleared right as we walked in, so we got lucky.

I thought we would all order our own separate dishes and possibly share a few bites, but instead we ordered I think three dishes and collectively shared. Will and I really didn’t know what was good, so Gunita and Jesús took the reins on this one. They ordered a bottle of wine (and a pitcher of sangria after that!), what I thought was fried rice, but it turned out to be regular rice with ham and peas in it (it was alright, but not my fav, gotta tell ya), a shrimp dish and a chicken with mushrooms dish (which I ate, but didn’t think about!). The others ordered soup for an appetizer, but I didn’t want soup, so I decided to spring for a spring roll, haha! I thought that would be a nice, small amount for an appetizer because all the spring/egg rolls I’ve ever eaten are relatively tiny. Yeah, not this spring roll…holy paella, this thing was HUGE! I mean this was one mother of a spring roll; it was like five times the size of an average spring roll! That could have been my whole dinner right there! But no, more kept coming. I tried not to eat very much of anything else and Jesús was like “What’s wrong? Do you not like Chinese food? Why don’t you eat more?” And I was like “Dude! Did you not see the size of that spring roll I just demolished?” To end the meal the waitress poured us all a shot of this yummy sweet tasting alcohol (I guess it’s complimentary??)

We left the restaurant at midnight, and honestly, I could have gone home, went to bed and been happy (I’m just not really that much of a drinker/party animal) but, we went to the bars instead. It was kind of funny, actually, on our way to the first bar (either BIANCO or BLANCO, I’m not exactly sure…the way they write the I/L is a little bit of a mystery to me) Jesús goes “I smell like Chinese!” I don’t know if he didn’t like the lingering smell or what, but he kept saying it. I was like “First of all, is it really that different from smelling like smoke in those stuffy ol’ bars? Second of all, all it takes is 0.2 seconds in a bar and a new smell will engulf your clothes.” The constant smell of smoke is one thing I will never get used to here. There are very few things I don’t like about Spain and the smoke definitely tops the list.

At BI/LANCO, Jesús hooked me up with this “Señorita Card”, in which each visit you can present the card and get a free drink. It’s awesome considering I don’t drink that much and I’m usually set after a couple of drinks…I’ll never have to spend that much! It wasn’t too crowded here, so we were able to move around a bit and dance…it was fun. Usually we meet up with a bunch of people while we’re out; unfortunately, the only name I can recall right now is Teresa, she’s very nice, as all Gunita’s friends seem to be.

I could have sworn earlier at dinner that Jesús said Tomás was coming out, so I asked him where he was and he was like “You like Tomás?” (Only has a friend, by the way, he’s very nice, but he’s a bit of a unique fellow, that one). He asked me that like other times too and I really just wanted to say “Dude, lay off!” But I didn’t. He also told me last night that one of my eyebrows is higher than the other. I sort of looked at him and smiled, but again, I really wanted to be like “Wow, every girl wants to be told her imperfections. Sweet…Thank you!”

We went to one other bar, about five minutes away from our house, after that. This bar was extremely crowded and I was rather tired, so I didn’t stay long, I came back about three and promptly got into bed and fell fast asleep shortly thereafter.

I’m going to try to go to bed early tonight because we have regional orientation in Ciudad Real tomorrow. It starts at 10:00 and takes about an hour and a half to get there, so the directors of our programs are meeting Will and I here at the apartment at 8:00, which means I have to get up by about six-ish…boo. I’m really not too excited about the orientation. My school director, Rocío, said it’s quite boring, as they talk about the Spanish Educational System a lot. I thought it could a little interesting, but not if they talk about that for eight hours. Will and were talking and we’re a bit confused about what they’re going to actually tell us, because our schools have already told us all the really important things. I would think that many procedures would differ from school to school, so I don’t know, we’ll see…all I really know is that tomorrow is going to be a LONG day!

Xoxo,

Court