Tuesday, December 21, 2010—Today

Happy Birthday, Aunt Marva, (Tuesday, I know!) I hope it was a good one!

Christmas break has arrived! Our last day was yesterday!

Tuesday we had the staff lunch at Casa Francisco— and I can now stay that I’ve experienced a four hour lunch! We started eating at 2:30, with a beer and small finger foods at the bar. Then we sat down at the table. I wasn’t sure what all we were going to eat and I figured we were only having appetizers since they brought like five of them—we started with salad and bread, then cheese and meats, followed by shrimp, octopus and I think lobster. We also had water and wine to drink. It was so much food by itself! I thought that was all and someone said “that was just the first course…we still have the main course and dessert.” Wow!

I ordered pork for second course (very tasty!) and was told that I left “too much of it on my plate”. For dessert, we were able to sample three things—pineapple, butter cake and like an apple turnover type of thing. They were delish, of course. As we were finishing, we were also brought some coffee ice cream to share with the people around us. That was followed by coffee, chupitos and a little heart shaped chocolate covered dallop of vanilla ice cream. That’s all, thank goodness! We stayed for a little while longer and the idea of going to the bar was broached. I don’t understand how people weren’t bursting at the seams at this point, but it was decided we’d go to La Komba.

Well…if you did the math, you know that we got out of there at 6:30. At the bar I shared a rum and coke with María Jose because neither of us wanted a whole drink. I stayed and socialized for a while; Arturo and his school, El Coso, showed up also, having had their lunch earlier too. I left right about eight o’clock, came home and went to bed shortly thereafter.

Yesterday I helped with the infantil festival (kiddos 3-5 years old!). Aurora had talked with me about saying a few things in English—basically translating what she said—or that’s what I understood. I get there and she was like “since we’re a bilingual school, I was thinking that I could speak in English and you in Spanish. Not gonna lie, my heart skipped a beat when she said that. Really…me speak Spanish in front of a whole auditorium of parents?! It wasn’t bad at all though; I said “Welcome to our infantil festival, we hope you enjoy it. ¡Feliz Navidad!” I then stayed backstage and helped with the curtain. Oh, and Los Reyes Magos made a surprise appearance and the kids sat there all wide eyed and star-struck; it was pretty cute!

The sixth years made me Christmas cards, so I went with Pilar to 6A after the festival to get those. Some kids put a lot of time into theirs—they’re really cool! Lourdes (the 3A teacher) invited me to their class party after lunch, so I hung out there in the afternoon. Cookies, chips and Fanta = 21 sugared-up kids!

We all met in the Teacher’s Lounge afterschool for cookies and to say goodbye to everyone! And when I say “goodbye to everyone” I mean that we went around and kissed each person individually! So not what I’m used to! I went over to Arturo’s later in the afternoon because we’ve decided to go to Madrid next Wednesday and we needed to either buy or reserve the tickets. We ended up reserving them. We went out to dinner with Jesús, Javi, Arturo and Teodora because both Arturo and Teo left today for Christmas; Teo to Valencia to see her mom and Arturo to Milan to visit a friend. And of course we went to the bar afterward!

In honor of the first day of Christmas break, I slept in until one o’ clock (it was after 4:30 when I finally went to bed). Arturo and I had decided that I’d go pick up the tickets at the train station because he left for Italy this morning. I knew that it had been raining previously, but I didn’t realize how poopy of a day it actually was until I started walking. I talked with Gunita before I left and we made plans to go Christmas Eve dinner shopping when I was done at the train station (since Mercadona is on the way back from the station, I’d just meet them there). Anyway, I left about 2:30 and it was only lightly raining…no prob, I though, since I had my umbrella. Not so, I tell you, not so. The longer I walked (it’s a half hour walk from our house) the worse it got…and it was cold (at one point, I could see my breath!) and windy too. :/ It wasn’t that bad until the wind picked up and started blowing the rain sideways. Once I was drenched I wasn’t happy and the wind kept blowing my umbrella around and inside out too..grrr!

I got to the station, bought the tickets and called Gunita to tell her I was leaving, so I’d be at the store soon. I was a long walk to the store! (By this time I was soaking wet and freezing!) At the store we bought a pork roast, potatoes, vegetables, tortilla de patatas and the stuff for Will to make pumpkin pie! The walk home wasn’t fun, but I was already so cold and wet that I thought “what’s the difference?”

As soon as we walked in the door and I went to change my clothes…that was followed by some hot chocolate, which was followed by a nice hot shower! I’ve just been hanging out since we got home at five. I invited Ansel, my friend who teaches in Alcázar de San Juan, to stay with us for the weekend, so he’ll be here tomorrow! I think the plan is to have dinner around nine or ten, then go to Javi’s cottage/house for some pre-bar celebration and then out to the bar (yeah, they’re open on Christmas Eve, I was like “say what?”) around three or four! Jesús was like “get ready, because no one ever goes home before eight or nine on Christmas morning. This is definitely going to be a different Christmas experience for me…I’m psyched!

                Our little Christmas tree, compliments of the chino store!

Xoxo,

Court

Yesterday, I stayed in all today and did nothing worthy of note, so we’ll just skip it!

Today, I continued to talk more about Christmas with all the classes. In 6C we went over the flashcards/vocab, then sang the “Twelve Days of Christmas” and we finished class with me reading “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. I was supposed to have 2B after that, but I waited and waited in the audiovisual room and they never came. Later I talked with Fran and he said the class was working on a Nativity scene and time got away from him. Oh well, it happens to the best of us!

Next came the dreaded 3B class. I think they were actually worse today…if that’s possible! I brought a snowman coloring sheet (see my example below…I love elementary!) and the Rudolph story in an attempt to do something fun, because we never get to in that class, but all they were able to do was the coloring sheet…it took the whole class. The two worst boys kept throwing things and each other (including a marker that came fairly close to hitting me in the head!) and chasing after and kicking each other. At one point even one of the boys took the other and slammed him up against the window. He hit his head and was laying on the floor crying, which them both a trip to the principal’s office—and then they were back like five minutes later. Yeah…it’s not the warmest and fuzziest environment.

We practiced our Christmas carol during recreo (for the last time…the festival was this evening!). We went over it several times and practiced really well! I had a free hour after that in which I colored an example snowman for the next class. Last hour was 3A. I enjoy them so much more than 3B. I put my example on the chalkboard for them to look at to have an idea…and several of them copied it. I was like “ok, that’s not why I did it, but whatever.”

We went to Stone for lunch and then went back to school for the festival, which started at 4:30. They did it by grades—youngest to oldest, each level sang two songs, I believe. All of the classes waited in their classrooms until it was their turn to go on. I wanted to watch the whole thing, but there were people EVERYWHERE! There wasn’t even any extra standing room…but I guess that’s good, right? The teacher’s were the last to sing and that’s all I was in the auditorium for. I think we did really well! Although, I watched a playback of our song right after and you could barely hear us...oh well, we tried!

I got home right about 6:30. I’m still full from lunch (as per usual on Mondays!) so I don’t think I’m going to eat a whole lot for dinner…maybe a yogurt or something light?

Two more school days in the year…WOOT!

                                   This is one warm and happy Frosty!!!!! 

Xoxo,

Court

I feel like I get lazier as it gets colder; my desire to do things and get out has steadily gone downhill as winter continues to set in. I’ve also been sleeping quite a bit lately…I guess I’m like a bear. Normally, I love going to the Friday market, but yesterday I didn’t because I woke up at noon and it was cold and I didn’t want to get out. I totally should have gone to look for presents, though…my bad. Later on, I did go to the store. I came home and cut up some peppers, onions and potatoes and made some hash. I also mixed up the dough for the Chocolate Star cookies and let it chill in the fridge overnight. We went out last night too.

I went to the store again today and bought another six pack of milk because I didn’t have enough hands to carry it home yesterday. I still have about a liter and a half left, but if there’s one thing I hate running out of, it’s milk! I baked the cookies this afternoon…unfortunately they didn’t turn out too well :(. They’re either too done or not done enough, the chocolate didn’t melt at all and the flour stuck to the cookies. Oh, well…at least I tried…guess I’ve have to limit making those to US soil. I’m not sure what tonight will bring…it’s cold and rainy, so part of me just wants to stay here and snuggle up in bed!

Xoxo,

Court

Happy weekend! It’s been a good week! Talking about Christmas makes me so cheery! Today in 2A we went over the flashcards and did a color, cut out and glue snowman worksheet. The kids really liked it…one even said that I’m the best teacher ever! Oh, yeah!!! Fran wanted to look up “Jingle Bells” on the internet, so the kids could sing along with it or watch a short video on YouTube; but as per usual, it wasn’t working. He really wanted the kids to see something, so he went and talked with Alberto and I don’t know what he did, but it works perfectly now! Thank goodness! So we watched a few clips, including “Jingle Bells” and “Feliz Navidad”.

In 6B we went over the vocab first, then learned the “Twelve Days of Christmas”, which we sang a few times, and we ended class with me reading them The Little Golden Book “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. It was a lot longer than I originally thought…or maybe we were just short on time. I only had about ten minutes with five years B. They were rehearsing for the festival (on Monday!) when I got there. I waited about 15 minutes for them to finish up and by the time everyone got back in the room (they were in the auditorium) and settled down, I only had ten minutes to read a short little story to them.

We continued to rehearse our song during recreo and I shared the Baker’s Chocolates with everyone. Everyone said they there very good! The last two hours I was with the two four-year-old classes. Sandra had to fill out their grade sheets, so she pretty much left me to it. I told them the same story as the five-year-olds. It took a little longer though because I read it in English, then Spanish and every 3.75 seconds one of the kids would pipe up and say something…which much of the time I didn’t get, so I would just be like “Oh really?” or “Sí?” or something like that. I had found a really simple wreath coloring sheet, so we did that after the story and that was pretty much all we had time for.

When I left school, I went to Mercadona to get the ingredients for the awesome Chocolate Star Cookies I’ll be making this weekend! I’m happy that I found everything (minus the vanilla…but that won’t ruin the recipe if I leave that out) even powdered sugar and baking soda! I also bought what I guess is the Spanish version of the Hot Pocket because cooking something would have just taken too long and I was hungry when I got home! There’s English Club tonight at eight; we’ll be talking about Christmas! Will said he thought it was going to be tomorrow too, so I’m not sure what we’ll be talking about then. Oh, that reminds me…I need to check back with Arturo to see if he’s coming!

Xoxo,

Court

So the weather’s been fairly nice the last couple of days, but it was a lot colder today; the cold rushed me as soon as I walked outside...boo. Good thing it’s less than a ten minute walk to school! We had churros con chocolate today; that was a nice surprise! Apparently, every year before Christmas, the parents association pays for a churro truck to come in and make them for everyone. I did bring the candy, but I decided to save it for tomorrow.

I was free first hour because Alberto still hadn’t changed my schedule (because María José and Pilar switched their classes a couple of weeks ago…meaning I no longer have class with 5B first hour). Today, Alberto told me that he couldn’t find another time that worked for 5B…so basically he said I get ask them to switch their schedules back—sweet.

Second hour was 4B. We started off learning “Away in a Manger”. Again, I sang it because the internet doesn’t work too well. I then talked about a typical American Christmas. That was followed by discussing of the flash cards of Christmas vocab and then we play a “game”. And by “game” I mean I said a vocab word and Rocío had the kids get up and point to the picture on the wall. Woo-hoo!

I was waiting for 1A to come in, when Esperanza said that they were finishing up an activity in another class so it would be a few minutes. So we went and got a churro! It was good, but really filling and greasy; fair food, you know? Pilar was like “you should have gotten three or four” and I was like “no, no, one’s good” we finished our churros and the kiddos were ready. We sang “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and I told them the short story with story cards.

We all congregated in the Teacher’s Lounge during recreo and I had another churro! They are so good, even if they’re greasy! The last two hours were the other fourth years and we did the same as in 4B. I’ve been home for about 45 minutes and I’m feeling a nap coming on already. That and some tea too…it’s cold! Tomorrow is the last Thursday! Four school days until break!

Xoxo,

Court

I now have my package! I picked it up this morning. I got to the post office at 8:20 and of course the doors weren’t open yet, so I walked around the plaza for a few minutes. I stopped in front of this one store, just kind of looking through the window, trying to make the time pass and this guy came up behind me and was like “They’re not open so early in the morning; they open at ten.” Yes, thank you, I know, I’m just trying to waste a few minutes. He was nice…just trying to help. I went back a few minutes later and they were open. It took me about five minutes; I showed her my passport and then got my package! I brought it home, grabbed some recycling and off I was to school (the recycling bin is on the way).

I lost track of time and accidently spent the entire hour in Julia’s three-year-old class. She started off the day with the usual picking-of-the-new-helper and roll (is that how you spell it in this context?) call. That takes a little while when you’re working with three-year-olds, I’ve learned. I then told them a short Christmas story with six story cards and then Julia and I translated it into Spanish so they could actually understand it. Julia told me it was late, but I didn’t know how late it actually was until I got to Ángela’s class. She was like “oh, the hour’s over…I didn’t think you were coming, we have work time now”. Oops.

In 5A, I read them the little excerpt about Christmas from their textbooks and then talked about Christmas in the United States. They then corrected one of their workbook pages. For 1B, we were in the audiovisual room. We didn’t have a whole lot of time in there because we didn’t leave the classroom right away. Plus, neither Esperanza nor I knew how to connect the computer to the SmartBoard (it’s harder than it sounds!), so we were only able to sing “Merry Christmas” for the kids without the words and then I told them the same story I told to the three-year-olds…I wasn’t really prepared—I thought we were going to talk about Christmas with that class next week.

We rehearsed more for the festival during recreo. In the five years A class, I told them another Christmas story, one that went along with their book and then they did a short worksheet with stickers. In 6A, we were in the audiovisual classroom again and we learned the “Twelve Days of Christmas”. The internet NEVER works in there…so the singing was compliments of yours truly! Pilar was like “So-and-so wants to know if you knew this song before you came to Spain?” Seeing as how Christmas is pretty big in the US and the carol is an American/English one, yes, I knew it. Some kids…they’re just funny!

When I got home I opened my package…thanks again, mom and dad! I wasn’t expecting to see the chocolate stars, so I’m totally making those rockin’ cookies this weekend! Everyone who tried it said they loved the Soda Cracker Toffee, so I hope they’ll love these too! I’m going to take the candy and kool-aid to school tomorrow for everyone to try…that’ll give ‘em a little taste of Nebraska!

Xoxo,

Court

Last full week of the year…WOOT! Today went by pretty quickly. In 6C we started talking about Christmas; I read them a section out of their books and then we started learning “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. Pilar found the Alvin and the Chipmunks version on youtube and the kids thought it was hilarious! In 2B, they continued learning about weather expressions. We did a page out of their books that showed six dogs dressed up in different colored rain coats, boots, gloves and holding different umbreallas; I described each of the pictures and they had to guess which number it was. I then asked individual questions to each student like “What color is the umbrella in number 4?”.

In 3B, by the time the yelling and chaos got down to a minimum, all they had time to do was color a Christmas picture. So…I pretty much sat there the whole time. During recreo, we continued practicing the carol we’re going to sing at the Christmas festival next Monday…it shouldn’t be too hard, but there are still a few lines I’m having trouble with! In 3A, they had a little more time to color the picture, but that was still all they were able to do.

Our group went to lunch at Stone and then went back to school. I needed to plan some activities so I went to. I think I have most everything figured out now…we have Christmas vocab to talk about (i.e. Santa, presents, nativity scene), the lower levels have pictures to color and the upper levels have carols to sing! Also, my schedule’s been shortened up a bit for next week…Rocío (at least I think it was her) took out the really little kids; it’s just too hard for them to understand some things, plus we only have three days next week!

I got home right around six and I had a note from the post office saying my package had arrived…without any problems! (Thanks mom and dad!) I’ll have to go pick it up tomorrow. They open at 8:30, so if I get there right when they open, I think I’ll still be able to make it to school on time!

Xoxo,

Court

Friday, December 10, 2010—Today

On Friday I woke up right as the train was leaving for Albacete, so I didn’t go…but Will and Gunita did. I did have a pretty productive day though—I went to school for a little while, went to the store, wrote out some postcards and made some lentils. It was actually more like a stew, really, with all the chorizo and potatoes in there! It was very yummy! None of us were in the mood to go out, so we all stayed in.

Not too much happened yesterday. I went to the Chinese store in search of some glue I needed for some Christmas cards I’m making. I also found some Christmas stickers for 60 cents, so I bought those too (how could I not, they were so cheap!) to decorate with! Jesús and Teresa came over last night and we ordered some Chinese. We left for La Komba about one o’clock and stayed there for a while. We went to Rivera 13 after that and it was so crowded, I was having like zero fun. It was literally wall to wall people and every time someone moved they bumped into you. It’s not even fun when you’re standing right next to someone, shouting in their ear and they can’t hear what you’re saying. I told Jesús that I wasn’t having any fun and left about four and came home.

Today has been another chillaxed day. I got up about one and threw some laundry in and that’s about it. I’ve only been up a couple of hours and I’m already thinking about taking a nap, kinda sad, I know! But the weekends are meant for catching up on sleep, right? Tomorrow starts my last fun week before Christmas; I’m pumped! It should be fun…we’ll be learning some Christmas carols and doing other Christmas activities!

Xoxo,

Court

And we’re back to the weekend again!  Today pretty much flew by since I knew it was the one and only work day of the week! In 2A we reviewed weather expressions and then learned some new words that go along with weather (i.e. umbrella, gloves, coat, etc). We then listened to a track on the CD and the kids had to tell me the proper order of the pictures based on what was said. Yeah…I got to Vanna White the activity! In 6B we listened to the story about the prince, princess, eagle and the crown again and then I asked them comprehension questions. In five years B we played a memory game with the five senses vocab. In the four-year-old classes, we learned about Christmas present vocab (i.e. ball, dolly, car, Santa, etc) and then did a coloring sheet where they had to color the unwrapped present the same color as the wrapped one then draw a line connecting the two.

I took the toffee to school and shared it with everyone during recreo/choir practice. Everyone that tried it said that it was really good and they were like “You made this?” And I was like “Heck yeah, man!” I said that it was “my mom’s recipe” haha!

So we’re having a Christmas festival at school on December 20 and apparently every year all the teachers sing a song for the students and parents. I can’t recall the name at the moment, but people kept telling me that it was a “Gypsy Christmas Carol”. The song is pretty fast paced, but I don’t think I did too bad for my first rehearsal! At least we don’t have to memorize it…we’ll be holding hymnal books, or whatever they’re called. That I can handle…and worst case I’ll lip sync!

I went to DÍA after school and picked up a six pack of milk…that oughta last me a few days! Will’s going shopping in Albacete tomorrow and asked if Gunita and I wanted to come. I probably shouldn’t go…but I don’t know if I’ll be strong enough to resist the temptation!

Xoxo,

Court

What a wet Wednesday! It has been raining the entire day—AGAIN! I haven’t left the house today. However, Arturo and I did make some Soda Cracker Toffee (thanks for the recipe, mom!). Instead of pecans I used walnuts, because I couldn’t find any, but other than that, it’s really good…just like I remember! I’m going to take it to school tomorrow, or what’s left of it, (of course we all just had to taste it!) so the Spaniards at school can get a little taste of holiday baking—American style! I think we’re going to dinner in a nearby town—Ilu’s town—to visit her and Oscar. Other than that, that’s pretty much it for today. Tomorrow is the only day of work for the week…I think I can handle that!

                  Soda Cracker Toffee—after some damage had been done! 

Xoxo,

Court

Friday, December 3-Today
Since it’s a long weekend—aka Puente—Will, Arturo and I had discussed going to Madrid for a few days. Arturo and I even walked to the train station on Friday and bought tickets for one of the Saturday trains. We wanted tickets for the noon train (there was also 8:15AM and 6:30PM), but it was full (maybe that should have been a sign…) so we opted for the earlier, 8:15 one. We got back home and I started looking for hostels online (which in retrospect, we should have done that first, obviously). EVERY hostel I looked into as completely booked! Will started looking with me and he couldn’t find anything either! Even the hostels that cater to “primarily gay clientele” were booked, go figure! At that point, we pretty much called defeat. Will looked up the train ticket refund policy and it said that if we got there at least five minutes before our train was to leave we could get a full refund! So Arturo, bless his heart, went back at 7:45 on Saturday morning and got our money refunded.

Saturday Gunita and some others were supposed to go to Lisbon, but there was a massive airport strike in Madrid from Friday to early Sunday (I think!) and the whole country was basically shut down, flightwise, that is. Thousands of people were stranded and stuck sleeping in terminals. The government threatened prison if they didn’t return to the skies! All because of working hours and benefits…they spoiled so many people’s plans. Spanish air traffic controllers earn the most throughout all of Europe, by the way. So with the strike, we probably could have gone and found a hostel with space available, but oh well…it wasn’t meant to be this time.

Saturday night Gunita, Conchi, Jesús and I went to Stone for dinner and then to Tomelloso for fiesta. We picked up Jesٖús’ girlfriend, Rosalía, long the way, so that made us five. We didn’t even get there until about 1:30 and I was already tired. I didn’t have too much fun that night…between the noise, smoke and being tired. I was more than ready to go when we left, I think about 5:15. I’m not exactly sure; all I know is that it was nearly six when I crawled into bed Sunday morning.

I got up at three o’clock on Sunday afternoon and Gunita asked if we wanted to go to Albacete for fiesta and the night. And of course we all went…the three of us, plus Jesús and Arturo. Luckily, Jesús drove, so we didn’t have to take the train! We left I think a little after eight and by the time we parked and walked to the hotel, it was about a quarter to ten. A little while later we went and had dinner at this little tiny café. We only went to two bars the entire night, but they were pretty nice. When I say “nice” I mean is wasn’t wall to wall people (so we actually had bar space!) and the smoke wasn’t that bad either!

              Here we are at one of the bars…Arturo, Gunita, I and Jesús!

We got back to the rooms around five I think and hung out in the boys’ room for a while—actually Gunita, Arturo and I talked while Will and Jesús slept. We went back to our room at six. For some reason I woke up at 8:30 and was ready to get up, but I made myself stay in bed until 9:45—my alarm was set to go off at ten. We left the hotel at noon and went to a nearby café for a small breakfast. We walked around the city a little more; walked to the cathedral, but none of us really wanted to go inside. We got in the car and were just kind of driving around and we ended up at this Chinese store and took a look around. We bought a little tiny tree, some ornaments and garland. I also bought some coasters with different Madrid scenes depicted on them.

We then drove to Imaginalia, a big shopping center there in Albacete. We lunched at Cocina Wok, a Chinese buffet. It was so good! We walked around for a bit after that and found is arcade! Will and Gunita played the dance stomping game (or whatever it’s called), Jesús tested his strength with the hammer thing and Arturo and I played some air hockey! It was fun…I haven’t been to an arcade in like ten years! Gunita said she felt like some ice cream and there just happened to be a McDonald’s right across the street from where we parked, so we all got McFlurries. Those were also really good…it’s been forever since I had one!

We got back home at 5:45 and Gunita and I took naps. Arturo and Jesús came over again to watch a movie, Perfume, at nine. What a strange movie…we started to watch another movie, Scoop, but no one was really watching; Jesús and Arturo left a short while later. The three of us hang out of a while before going our separate ways for the night. I went to bed at 2:45.

It’s three o’clock now and has been raining the entire day. I don’t have to go anywhere (thank goodness!) but there’s something peaceful about listening to the rainfall. I’m still in my pajamas and debating whether or not to get dressed at all today…right now I leaning towards having a pajamas day…

Xoxo,

Court

And the six day weekend has arrived! SWEET! School today seemed to fly by. Getting out two hours early probably helped that a bit, but none of the three classes today dragged on. The classes weren’t shortened at all; rather the afternoon classes were just eliminated.

2B was first. They’ve started learning about weather. Francisco disordered (is that a word?) the story cards, we listened to a story on CD, and then the kids had to tell us the right order of the cards. Later, he reposted the pictures in the right order on the board and called up two students at a time. I would say “it is windy/sunny/cloudy…” and they had to race to touch the right picture. They’re so enthusiastic about “games” like this at that age…too bad that’ll change in a few years!

6B was next and we went to the video room to finish the Thanksgiving food pictures. They were pretty talkative, so that took a little longer than expected. After we finished that there was still about 15 minutes left, which Pilar had anticipated, so she had them bring their English books as well. They really didn’t need them though, because we watched a short video about a prince who was kidnapped by this eagle because he wanted his gold crown. The princess went to rescue him and in exchange for the prince and his crown, she gave the eagle her crown, pearl earrings and her diamond ring. Unfortunately, with all of her jewelry gone, the prince didn’t like her anymore because she didn’t “look” like a princess and so they didn’t live happily ever after :(.

I tried reading the same story to the other five-year-old class, but it didn’t take well; they were so rowdy and talkative! Esperanza thinks it’s because they have “breakfast” hour right before then and they were all sugared up and energetic. Most of them really weren’t listening and so instead of finishing the story, the regular classroom teacher came back and had them get ready to go a few minutes early. It was kinda funny because Esperanza turned to me and was like “She doesn’t care that they were misbehaving”.

I left school and went to the bank to deposit my check (I got paid!) and since we got out early, they were open. The weather can’t decide what it wants to do. When I walked to school it was cloudy and chilly, but not raining. Walking in between classes it was sunny and not too chilly. Leaving school it was cloudy and misting. Two minutes later it stopped, a minute later, it started again and it went back and forth like that a few times on my way home. Luckily, I had my umbrella. Gunita just looked out the window and said it’s snowing! Will came in a minute later and said it’s hailing! What the heck! I need to go to the store, so I hope I can catch it when it breaks. Oh wait, Gunita just looked out the window again and said it sunny…

Xoxo,

Court

Hello, December! Today it’s still not as cold as Monday, but it’s not as nice as yesterday…it’s been raining on and off all day and together, with the cold, it’s not fun :(. It wasn’t raining though on my walk to school, so that’s one good thing!

My first class was 5B, but when I got there, María José told me that she and Pilar, the 5A teacher, had switched hours for Spanish and English (for whatever reason). With there being nothing I could do, I went and had a café in the Teacher’s Lounge. Second hour, I had 4B with Rocío and we went to the video room to talk about Nebraska food and finish talking about Thanksgiving, which she had started last week, while I was in Ciudad Real. We had about ten minutes left after those presentations, so we started on a Christmas carol. We’re singing “Away in a Manager” in 4^th because Rocío had never heard of it before.

Next hour was 1A and we started talking about members of the family (grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, brother, sister), just like with 1B. Once the vocab was introduced, I said the words and had them point to the pictures. Later I had them repeat the words with me. Esperanza left the room for a few minutes and they tried to act up, so I yelled at them in Spanish. They were so surprised, and were like “Whoa, you speak Spanish!” Heck yeah, I do…don’t mess with me!

The last two hours were 4A and C. We did the same as in B, except we didn’t have time to start the carol because the afternoon classes are ten minutes shorter than the morning ones. Pilar offered to give me a ride home, because it was raining when school ended, so of course I took her up on that! On the way home, she told me that tomorrow is noon dismissal because all the teachers have to go to the high school to vote for representatives. It sounds kind of like a school board. Awesome! Looks like my six day weekend will start two hours earlier!

Xoxo,

Court