Today was pretty chill. First hour I had 6C and we played BINGO with their vocab words about professions—i.e. lawyer, doctor, builder, housewife…I then chose a word for them to guess. They were supposed to ask descriptive questions in order to guess it, but they went right to asking “are you a ________?” I didn’t think I had picked a hard one (actor), but it took them like ten minutes to guess!

In 2B, we worked a little more with their farm animal vocab and whilst doing that Fran told me that they didn’t know the English alphabet, so we went over it. Then I chose a letter and they had to come up with words that start with that letter. They also wanted to know what their names would be in English, so we went around the room and if they were translatable, (is that a word??) I told them what it would be—example Carlos = Charles/Charlie. Some also don’t translate, like Ainhoa and Rocío.

The last two hours (with a free hour in between) were with 3A and B. They had an exam, so it was pretty boring. This cute little girl Ángela, though, drew me a picture of a princess and wrote on there that I’m the best teacher EVER! Yeah!

I had my lesson with Carlos today and we practiced his vocab words and then we reviewed the alphabet, like we did in class today. His pronunciation of the letters isn’t the greatest, but we’re working on it! He kinda knows the ABC song…he sings ABCDEF but then skips to like LMNOP. Yeah…it’s a work in progress! But he really tries, so that’s good!

I got a letter in the mail on Saturday that said that my package from home was stuck in Madrid. I thought that I had to go there to pick it up, but I asked Rocío and Pilar today and they said the notice I got was only to tell me I had to sign this sheet so it could be delivered from Madrid to Socuéllamos. I’m relieved that I don’t have to make a trip, but I don’t understand why this package it different…the first one was delivered without any problems…WHAT???

Xoxo,

Court

The weather isn’t half bad today! (For January, at least!) It’s not raining, it’s partly cloudy and it’s not too cold! Yay! I did have my lesson with Carlos yesterday, so that was good! We studied his English words—all about food—fruits, veggies, drinks, and everything else. I had another “lesson” with Carmen at noon today. I call it a “lesson” because it’s not a real one; we just have conversations to English to give her practice. I went to her house again and we talked for about an hour and a half…about our weeks, Carnival, Lent, Easter, etc. Afterwards, I made a quick trip to the store for a few things and now I’m back home. Kinda thinking about making some pasta salad…not because I’m hungry, but so that I have something to eat when I am—if I’m like really hungry, I hate waiting for stuff to cook!

Xoxo,

Court

It’s raining today…I guess that’s a good thing, because that means it’s warmer, right? I didn’t go to school today, because I didn’t feel good this morning. :( I don’t know if it was something I ate yesterday or what, but my stomach and head pretty much made it impossible for me to stand up for more than a few minutes at a time. So, I texted Aurora and said I wouldn’t be in and then went back to sleep. I woke up about ten o’clock and felt normal...so I don’t know what the deal was—just glad it ‘s passed.  After that, I still didn’t going into school though. I figured that by the time I got ready to go, it would be recreo, meaning I would have just the afternoon classes. I probably would’ve gone any other day, but Thursday afternoons I have the four-year-olds, and I’m fairly certain I didn’t miss anything to strenuous.

I’m supposed to have my lesson with Carlos this afternoon, but I don’t know if it’ll happen…if they heard that I was sick, they’d probably tell their mom and she would probably assume we’re not having class. It’s in a couple of hours; I’m ready to walk out the door now, so if she happens to come, I’ll go. Other than that, I have no plans for this “Friday” night. I know I haven’t been to the bar in a while, but lately I just haven’t felt like going.

Xoxo,

Court

It’s even warmer today! When I say warmer, I mean like only few degrees, but still, the sun’s out and the wind isn’t as bad! Today was kind of a tiring day! I didn’t go in until about 9:40, because I didn’t have a first hour. Second, fourth and fifth hours I had fourth level. We combined talk of MLK and Peace Day, which is January 30. Rocío each gave them each a word to draw a picture of. Words like dove, friendship, quiet and United Nations. She had printed out the lyrics to “Heal the World” and so we sang the song like four times in each class…hence the tiring part. The kids did a pretty good job of following along, but some of them stared at me, so I felt like I was on stage the whole time.

Third hour, with Espe and 1B, we started a new unit—about the park. We learned words like swing, slide, ball, kite and tree house. We listened to a song about the vocab and made up gestures to do as we sang. We then gave the flashcards out to random students and when I said that particular word, the students had to hold it up and show the rest of the class.

I didn’t get my nap in, nor cut up my peppers yesterday, so that’d on the agenda for today. Instead I revised my letter of motivation to continue with the program next year. I’m glad that’s done; I had been meaning to do it, but had been putting off for like two weeks! I have to do that, fill out another application and then the school has to fill out a sheet, basically recommending me (or not!) for another year. The letter was the hardest part, now I just have to tweak my app a little bit—it’s still in the system from last year. Everything is due to the head office in Toledo by February 28. I’ll get my two things to Aurora next week…seeing as how tomorrow is my last day for the week and I want to ask either Arturo or Will about a couple of things.

Xoxo,

Court

I’m happy to report that it’s not as cold today! The wind isn’t blowing as hard and I think it’s a few degrees warmer too! I had class with the three-year-olds first. With Ángela’s class, “B” I reviewed the usual—numbers, shapes and colors. Julia had a new activity for us to do: she had cut out paper dolls (a boy and a girl) and clothes and the kids had to dress the dolls to go out and play in the winter cold. Julia said the word in Spanish and then I said the word in English and then she had one kid come up and “stick” the clothing on the doll. The words included pants, boots, cap and scarf, among others.

In 5A we talked about unique buildings: an ice hotel in Sweden, a sail boat shaped hotel in Dubai, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and this hotel in Oxford that used to be a prison. I read each of the blurbs to the class and then asked them questions to check for comprehension.

1B had an exam, so I wasn’t able to do anything really—just sat there the whole time. It was kinda funny to watch because they don’t understand how to take exams yet…it was a listening exam (super easy, obviously, at that age) and they shouted out all the answers and translated into Spanish if others didn’t understand what was said. Esperanza was just like “they don’t understand the concept of taking a test…it’s incredible.”

In 5 años A we reviewed some animal vocab. The kids couldn’t remember a lot of the words, so Espe started asking me the words…and I’m happy to report that I’ve passed kindergarten English! SWEET! In 6A we finished some MLK stuff—they colored bookmarks with his quotes on them and we listened to MJ’s “Heal the World”.

It’s about 3:30 now and I’m thinking about taking a nap. I don’t have any real plans for the night; I do need to cut up and freeze some peppers that I bought at the store the other day. Last time I forgot about them and they were nasty by the time I remembered I had them. Out of sight out, out of mind, you know?

Xoxo,

Court

Saturday, January 22, 2011—Today

The weekend was pretty low-key. I made arroz con leche on Saturday. The first batch was an epic failure! I decided to combine several recipes and all of them called for about 100-150 grams of sugar, which is more or less half a cup (I think!). But half a cup was WAY too much; it was so sweet…too sweet! I added some more milk to try to thin it out (because it was really thick too) and I thought it might help the sweetness a bit, but no, it didn’t. So then, I did the completely wrong thing of starting to add salt to even out the flavor. Unfortunately, it was too much, of course! I had Gunita and Will try it and they both said it wasn’t good. Gunita suggested just starting over…so I did. The second batch was a success…very tasty—I added only several pinches of sugar!

Yesterday (Sunday) I was rather lazy…I did some laundry and we went and watched the soccer game at the tetería. After the game sang some karaoke on the PlayStation they had there! It was fun! We traded off songs in Spanish and English. I was terrible at the Spanish ones though…but I tried!

Oh my gosh, today was SUPER cold! It might have been like one or two degrees; and that makes for freezing walking from place to place! We finished talking about MLK Jr. in 6C. In 2B, we learned the phrase “do you like…” “yes, I do” “no I don’t”. I asked each one a question and then they all asked me questions. In 3B and 3A, I sat there, like usual, because they were rowdy.

I had an English lesson at four o’clock with Juan Antonio. We reviewed his English and then some of his Science, in which he has an exam tomorrow. Afterwards we had café con leche and homemade bizcocho…it was yummy! Their mom, Emi, was like “here, take another piece for breakfast tomorrow!” me: “vaaale”. I have absolutely no plans to go anywhere in this freezing cold, so it’ll be another quiet night!

Xoxo,

Court

I feel like I’ve done a lot today! Probably because I’ve been up since 8:45 (which is extremely early for me, being a non-school day and all!). I had an English lesson with Carmen at her house at eleven o’clock. I hadn’t seen her since before Christmas break, so we had plenty to talk about! I left her house about 12:15 and went to the market; not that I was looking for anything specific really, I just wanted to browse. I did walk away with two kilos of mandarinas, though, for only 1.75€!

I brought the fruit home (two kilos of mandarinas can be heavy to carry around for a long time!) and went to Arturo’s to barrow their measuring cup, since I’ve decided to make arroz con leche either today or tomorrow (probably tomorrow).

On my way back I stopped at the store for some juice and hamburger meat (odd combo, I know!). Whilst there, I was browsing in the dairy section and this older lady was like “can you help me?” So I walked over and she asked when the yogurt she had picked up expired. I told her February 8. She then asked if the yogurt had sugar in it. It said so on the package and so I told her yes. At that point she confessed that she couldn’t read any of the smaller print. She grabbed my hand (in kind of a grandmothery way) and said something else. I could have sworn she said something else about sugar and so I said yes again. At that, she dropped my hand, gave me a really disgusted look and turned away. I’m still not sure what I actually said yes to…but clearly it wasn’t something good! I had to laugh as I went up to check out. It’s these types of things I’ll always remember!

I’m just chillaxing right now. At six, Will and I are going to watch a movie in English with the English club. No plans after that though. We’ll have to see what tonight brings…

Xoxo,

Court

Hello, Mr. Weekend! Today in 2A we talked about animals—domestic, farm and wild. The class compiled a list, Fran wrote them on the board and I went over the list with the kids. 6B was rather boring today—they had an exam. Pilar didn’t think it would take the whole hour, but it did.

In five years “A” we talked about vocab like slide, swing, ball, doll and car. We played a game in which we passed the cards to music and when the music stopped, Esperanza, I, or one of the kids would call out a word and the one who had that card had to bring it up to the front. It really doesn’t sound that fun, but the kids thought it really was; they had a blast!

The last two hours I as with the four-year-olds and I read them a story about a boy named Rocket who painted a picture of a smiley face and got a ton on paint on himself in the process. We then reviewed numbers 1-6, as well as colors.

At four o’clock I had an English lesson with Carlos, who’s in second level, at their house. They live a little farther away so the mom picked me up. We started talking about his homework, and then he felt sick, so I spent the rest of the hour helping his brother, Juan Antonio, who’s in sixth, with his homework.

I got home about 5:30 and made some hamburger/potato/onion/pepper hash. Although the hamburger is actually pork, which I didn’t realize until I opened it. It’s not too bad though. I think It’s going to be a pretty quiet evening—I’m kinda tired and don’t really feel like doing a whole lot.

Xoxo,

Court

Saturday, January 15, 2011—Today

Saturday morning we went to Albacete, Jesús, Teodora, Richart and I. We left at 9:00ish, but didn’t get there until after 10:30 because it was terribly foggy and hard to see. We pretty much stayed in one mall the entire time…but it was huge and there were several floors, so there was a ton of stores to choose from! I didn’t walk away with too much (if you can believe that!), a couple of shirts, a sweater and a red wool coat that was on sale for 30€! (originally it was 70!). We lunched at this Barbeque/Spanish buffet afterwards in a nearby town and it was very good!

Sunday evening Jesús and I went to watch Real Madrid play (soccer!) at the tetería. They tied 1-1 and Jesús was mad. I was like “Dude, tying’s better than losing!”, but he was still mad…whatever. We came back here afterwards and ordered some yummy Chinese!

I gave an English class to one of my students in sixth level Monday afternoon. We’re going to meet at his house at four every Monday and then I giving his little brother, who’s in second, a lesson Every Thursday at four. He had an English exam yesterday, so I helped him study for that. Not sure what I’ll be doing with his brother tomorrow though…

Yesterday night I met with Sheldon (real name = Alfredo, but he looks like the guy from the Big Bang Theory, so we, Gunita, Will, Arturo and I, call him Sheldon…and Jesús has started calling him Sheldon now too! Haha!) for about an hour and a half and we just talked about the week, partly in English and Spanish. He wanted to meet again either today or tomorrow, so we’re meeting at six again today…I have no idea what we’re gonna talk about though…it’ll be interesting.

Today, with Rocío’s classes, we talked about Martin Luther King Jr. We watched an excerpt from “I Have a Dream” and they did a coloring sheet (yes, MLK coloring sheets exist…it was taken from a British website, no less!) and we watched Michael Jackson’s Heal The World.

I stopped at the store on my way home to get some more apples. I had had a bunch at home, but I threw them away this morning because when we went to Mercadona on Friday I dropped like the entire bag and they were all bruised. I didn’t think really anything of it at the time and was like “they’ll be fine”, but I grabbed one this morning and decided to toss them. I took that one to school and ate a little bit of it, but the bruise kinda grossed me out, so I threw a good portion of that one away too.

Tomorrow’s the last day of the work week (for me, at least!) YAY!

Xoxo,

Court

I got up pretty early for a Friday—it wasn’t exactly my choice though…there is (or was, rather, they just fixed it) a leak in Gunita’s bathroom and the maintainance crew was back again to finish the job (they started on Tuesday, were supposed to come back yesterday but didn’t, so nine o’clock this morning became the magic hour!) Sleeping was no use once they started the drilling again (I tried that Tuesday afternoon when they were here and needless to say, it didn’t work out too well!) so I got up.

I guess it was a good thing to start my Friday off a little earlier than usual. I actually made it to the market today to check things out, but I walked away empty handed…shocking, I know, especially with all the scarves that they sell!

Jesús, Gunita, Teodora and I went to Mercadona (in his car) so we could buy some bigger, bulkier stuff, like heavy containers water and milk. We just got back a little while ago and now I’m pondering a nap! I talked Jesús into going (driving, that is) to Albacete tomorrow to go shopping, since I didn’t get up in time to go with Gunita and Arturo last Saturday. Not that I had to twist his arm or anything—he wants to go too! We’ll probably leave mid-morning; he said something about 10:30ish.

Also this weekend, either tomorrow or Sunday, is the Feast of San Antón, the patron of animals! Tomorrow night there’s going to be a big bonfire in the street and chorizo, cerdo and other meats will be roasted—right there in the street! Then on Sunday afternoon there’ll be a parade through the streets with all types of animals (according to Jesús)—dogs, cats, birds, fish, turtles, whatever other pets people have, horses, pigs, etc. That’ll be interesting to see!

Xoxo,

Court

WOW! So I guess it’s been a while! First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! It’s weird to think that we’re in 2011 now…I keep seeing the date written as 2011 on the boards at school, and I’m like “wait, that’s not right!” I guess it happens every year though…to me, at least!

I realize that I’ve been lax on the blog lately (as my beautiful mother put it, I hadn’t posted “4 weeks now”. That is because nothing too exciting has happened. Really the only thing worthy of note that I did over Christmas break was go to Madrid for a few days, with Arturo. We left on December 29 and couch surfed (me for the first time!). For those not familiar with the term, couch surfing is when someone local to the town you are visiting opens up their home to you, for free, to sleep on their “couch” or in an extra bed or whatever they may have. They’re all over the world.

We visited El Prado and Palacio Real whilst there, as well as El Parque Retiro, Puerta del Sol and all of the main plazas. Oh, and we went shopping too! (or rather I went shopping and Arturo waited for me…he’s so nice!) We came back on New Year’s Eve day, because we both wanted to be with our friends. It was a blast! We went for botellón at Javi’s and then later on out to the ever-so-crowded bars!

School this week has been a lot of review…kids forget a lot over an 18-day break, you know? All the kids have been excited to tell me about what Los Reyes Magos (The Three Kings or Wise Men, celebrated on January 6. It’s more popular to give gifts on this day than Christmas. It’s a big deal…there was a parade on the evening of the 5^th and everything!) brought them. I had no idea how popular Play Station and especially Wii were here; so many of them were like “I got a game for my Wii”.

With Martin Luther King Jr. Day being next Monday, I’m trying to decide what or how much I want to say about him. I have a picture and a clip of his speech that I’m going to show the older kids, but I don’t know what else to do…I guess just talk about an influential historical figure he was and mention a few key points. I can’t make it too complex or complicated though, or even the older ones won’t understand!

Xoxo,

Court