It’s still really nice for this time of year! I don’t really remember what it was like last October, but it’s been in the 80s, almost every day! I even saw it’s supposed to be 88 on Wednesday!

It’s been another good and relaxing weekend. I downloaded the first season of Mike and Molly, so now I trade off between than that and How I Met Your Mother (I’m in season 3 right now!) I cleaned for a while yesterday and a little bit today too. I cleaned the bathroom yesterday…don’t think it had been done for a while; it was kinda gross! Thank goodness for rubber gloves!

After cleaning I went to the store. I walked to Mercadona because they’re the biggest and have the most selection, but they are either remodeling or changing the store around or something (the store was empty with boxes everywhere) so they weren’t actually open. So I went to Ahorra Más, the trusty second! I was just out of a few things, so I didn’t have buy too much: just juice, apples, tuna and some more yogurt.

I went to mass last night also. I still don’t really understand it (I mean I do, it’s the same as in English, but I can’t really respond…I have to work on that this year!) all the responses are so fast, I find myself saying things in English a lot.

Today I swept and mopped the floors…I didn’t feel like doing it yesterday. I didn’t go out this weekend either. I’m sort of over the Socu night life, it just doesn’t do anything for me anymore; that’s one drawback to a small town I guess (can’t wait to move back to Lincoln next summer!!!). I’m more of the chillax-at-home type anyway. Drinking/loud bars aren’t really my thing.

Tomorrow marks my first full week at school. I’ll finally get to go to every class this week…there’s still some kiddos I haven’t seen!

Xoxo,

Court

HAPPY WEEKEND!!! My first full week here is down…I’m not exactly sure how many more to go. I spent the majority of the day with Ana in infantil (four of the five classes with her, three in infantil; that’ll be my Thursday schedule). We started with five years A. They started learning body parts, so we sang Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes several times; we also sang about the weather and days of the week.

Second and fourth hours were four years B and A. I read them a story about Max, Poppy and Ellie and their mom’s beautiful hair. It was so funny because at the end of the story Max and Poppy’s hair turned blue, red, yellow and green and they thought it was so funny, they laughed and laughed! I love how they are genuinely amused by things like that at that age. It’s kinda cool too because I remembered the story from last year!

Third hour, still with Ana, was 2A or B, I don’t remember which. They’re a rowdy class, but they were last year, also. We learned new classroom vocab, like teacher, door, window, bookcase, etc. I read the words and had the kids point to the object from the picture in their books. I don’t think they understand the words “point to” very well (even though Ana reviewed it with them in Spanish a few minutes earlier), some repeated the word, others raised their hands, but a few actually did point to it.

Last hour I got away from the littles and moved on to 6B. They have a Science exam or Monday, so they spent a while reviewing for that, including watching this gross video about digestion, which showed a real stomach and well, the whole digestion process. We corrected a few English activities and tried to do this activity about the differences between Socu and Nebraska, but it didn’t really work. The goal was to use the structure there is/are, but it kinda bombed…neither I nor María Luisa could think of many differences using those words.

I stayed after a little bit and talked with Marilu (because I think I’m gonna be too lazy to write María Luisa from now on), so I got home closer to 2:30. I downloaded last night’s Modern Family and watched that. The internet is great for some things…now if I could only figure out where I can stream live Husker games and not have to worry about it freezing up every five seconds! 

Xoxo,

Court

I got to school and my schedule still wasn’t down; Alberto said I’d be done by next week. In the meantime, he took me to meet Noelia, the new third level teacher. She’s pretty nice, and I actually stayed with her all morning, because again, I didn’t know what else to do. I walked in and the kids were all excited and shouted “Corni!” (Actually they’ve been doing that all week long.) I read them a story about Wally and the Wicked Wizard.

Second hour we headed over to the other third. They had Science and so I read to them some blurbs about bones, muscles and joints and reviewed the parts of the body.

Third hour we were back to the other class and although they had a Spanish exam, I still stayed in there. Which I probably shouldn’t have done, because sitting there not doing anything made me really tired.

During recreo Alejandro gave me a copy of my completed schedule! I started that afternoon with Ana Belén in 4B. And yes, the dreaded third level of last year has now become the dreaded fourth year. Same kids, same shenanigans. They may perhaps be a tiny bit better this year, or at least today, but not by much. I read them a little excerpt from their books (and then they clapped for me afterwards…) Oh and there was a lot of yelling on Ana Belén’s part, which I guess is to be expected with them.

Last hour, as per my new schedule, I went back to 3B with Noelia; it was their turn for Science. We did the same as in the other class.

I was so tired after school; I came home and took a nap right away until about five. Not sure why I was so tired, but I didn’t even have lunch. It’s almost eight and I’m still tired, which is good, I guess, that I shouldn’t have trouble sleeping. I’m kinda psyched for tomorrow. A—it’s Thursday, which really is like Friday for me and B—I get to go to some classes I haven’t been to yet!

Xoxo,

Court

My schedule still isn’t complete. I got to school and it wasn’t done, so I asked Alejandro (the new jefe de studios/vice principal [last year he was the PE teacher]) what the English schedules were. Rocío had class first hour, so I went in with her (mainly because I didn’t know anyone else).

I wasn’t sure what to do second hour, so I went back to the office to have a look at the master schedule again. I saw Albert and he took me to go see María Luisa, the sixth level teacher. I met her yesterday at the big lunch, so that was alright. I stayed with her during third hour too. We had two classes of science. I don’t know much about science, so I didn’t really do much, except pronounce the words and ask them a few review questions.

I was going to stay with her the rest of the day, because I didn’t know what else to do (plus she’s super nice…we’re going to have intercambios [conversations in half English/Spanish] throughout the year), but then Alberto introduced me to I think her name is Ana and so I went with her for the afternoon hours. She has a lot of classes, for sure three- and four- year-olds and second level, she might even have five years too, I don’t remember what she told me. We went to second grade first and they were really noisy and rambunctious. Last hour we went to one of the three-year-olds and I read them a story about Ellie the Elephant…yes, she’s back!

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing tomorrow. When I left Alberto still hadn’t finished the schedule. I really don’t even think if he’s started it honestly, because during recreo he asked me if I preferred English classes (like grammar stuff) or Science (in English). So we’ll see. Maybe I can go with María Luisa again…she’s pretty cool!

Xoxo,

Court

We went to CR for orientation today. When Alberto picked me up at 7:45, I saw Arturo and his boss already in the car, so that was a nice surprise to ride with them! I think we got there around nine, but I didn’t check my phone. We parked and grabbed a café nearby. We started walking towards the school and it was the wrong one. Alberto had them mixed up (and I just assumed we were going to walk from there), so we got back in the car and drove for another ten minutes. We were a few minutes late by the time we got there, but heck, we’re in Spain, so we weren’t really late.

We started off altogether (the principals and us) and then at ten we went our separate ways just like last year. Arturo, Will and I took that opportunity to go the police station to see about getting our NIEs. We couldn’t get them today, surprise, surprise…everything always has to be so complicated here! Anyway, we got this letter in the mail a few days ago saying we had to pay a 16.32€ fee for the actual NIE. I’d forgotten this from last year and didn’t know what the letter was. Luckily, I brought it with me because I wanted to ask Alberto what it was all about.

So we go to the police station two minutes away from where orientation was held. They told us we needed to pay that fee before we could do anything else. Arturo had already done that; poor Will, he didn’t bring the letter with him. So we found a bank so I could pay mine. Then we walked to the education office to submit the paperwork saying we’d paid. They took our papers and said we’d receive a letter in the mail in about three weeks (which really will be like five). We then have to take that letter back to CR and go to the police station AGAIN to get fingerprinted (we did all this last year). After that, we’ll have to make another trip back in four weeks (which again, will be like six really) to pick them up.

It’s just really frustrating because before the end of last year, on May 20, we went to CR to get a jump start on the whole process for this year and we thought we had. We filled out a renewal app (which was submitted that day) and were told we just had to bring that to get our renewed NIE. So that trip was a complete waste of time. We started the process in October last year and they weren’t even ready until after the New Year. SO FRUSTRATING!!!! Not to mention it costs about 20€ in bus/train fare each time we go.

We got back to orientation maybe about 11:15 and literally 30 seconds after we walked in we were dismissed on a break. We thought it was like ten minutes, but it ended up being close to 30…not that I’m complaining. We went back in and sat there until 1:15, listening to teachers talk about the program, what’s expected of us, etc. Then two second year girls gave little speeches about their experiences. The principals got done well before us and they started coming in to pull out their auxiliares to go home. One lady even came in, interrupted and asked how much longer we’d be…I thought that was totally rude!

We got back to Socu at 2:30, dropped off Arturo and his boss and went to school for a special lunch (to “celebrate” the start of the October-May regular schedule 9-2; in September and June it’s 9-1). There was a ton of food, as there always is at school get-togethers. I didn’t eat too much too, because I wasn’t actually that hungry and several people had to make note of that.

I got home at 4:15. Haven’t done a whole lot since then; I’m kinda tired since I got up so early (5:45!). I’m hungry now though, it’s 7:30, so I think I’ll go make dinner and call it an early night! Tomorrow is my first official day, though I’m not sure how much I’ll do—Alberto said he hasn’t finished my schedule yet—so I may be able to get a jumpstart on planning activities for Halloween.

Xoxo,

Court

Well, it’s been a very relaxed, sleep-filled weekend! I slept in until three on Saturday, went to mass at 7:30, stopped by the store, came home and watched Little Fockers and a tiny bit of the Husker game, and went to sleep. I wanted to watch more of the game, but the only free site I found to watch it on kept freezing up. So I watched some of the first quarter (including the Wisconsin score…boo, I missed Nebraska’s score though…thank-you, Mr. Freezing Screen). By then it was almost three in the morning anyway, so I turned out the light. Maybe it was for the best, so I didn’t have to watch the Huskers lose.

Today I got up a little before two. I haven’t done anything too noteworthy; Sundays are usually my pajama days. I did download last night’s SNL, with Melissa McCarthy, that was pretty funny! Tomorrow we have orientation in Ciudad Real. It’s a bit shorter than last year; it ends by one, according to the schedule. I hope I’ll have time to go pick up my NIE, since the police station is like two minutes away. Alberto, the principal (Antonio retired at the end of last year), is coming this year instead of Rocío. I don’t totally understand that, I mean, he makes my schedule, but outside of that he has like, nothing to do with the program. Oh well…at least it won’t be as long as last year.

Xoxo,

Court

I'm back and a new year has (almost) started! I got back to Socuéllamos two days ago, on Wednesday. The journey wasn’t too bad, just long. I took the same flight as last time: left Kansas City at 2:17 (well, actually it was delayed until 2:39, then we sat on the tarmac for 20ish minutes…something about waiting for coordinates to match up…), got into Newark at 6:00 (or rather 6:25) and took off for Madrid at 8:40. I talked with a couple of girls in Newark, who are doing the same program. They said it was their first year, so I was able to help them with a few questions, being my second year.

The flight to Madrid was long, as expected. Again, we were delayed on the tarmac for a bit, but we were able to make up some time and landed in Spain by 10:15. By the time we taxied, walked to baggage claim (it was an abnormally long walk, I thought) and picked up our luggage, it was about 11:00. I took a taxi to the bus station and caught the 1:00 to Socu. Of course we had to switch buses with about twenty minutes left in the journey¸ so I had to haul my 85 pound luggage off again (and at this point, I was already really sick of hauling it around…my arms still hurt today).

We pulled into Socu at 3:05 and I walked the five minutes to our apartment. Aurora said she could come and get me, but not until 3:30, but at that point, I was so tired and smelly, I just wanted to get home. It actually took me about ten minutes instead of five, with my ridiculously colossal bags, but I finally made it! I thought I would just crash right away, since I was fighting off sleep on the bus (I didn’t want to have trouble sleeping that night). But no…of course I HAD to unpack and get everything all organized. And before that, Gunita had washed my sheets (which was really nice and unexpected!), but hadn’t had a chance to make the bed yet, so I did that too.

About seven o’clock I went to the store (yeah, it took me that long to unpack; I’m kinda anal about everything). I just got a few things, because after a day of lugging two ginormous bags around, I didn’t feel like hauling a big load. But I got the essentials: milk, fruit, juice, and I can’t remember what else now. I got home around 7:45 and took a shower (it felt oh SO good to be clean!). I couldn’t get to sleep right away after that, but I ended up crashing at ten.

I had told Aurora I’d be in either yesterday or today, but when I woke up at 8:30 yesterday still exhausted, I decided it’d be today. I got a drink of water and went back to bed. I woke up when Gunita left for work at 3:45, so I had a nice long sleep! I was going to go back to the store, but then I didn’t have any energy, so I didn’t go anywhere.

Today I got up at eight and was at school a little before ten. I guess I thought I was coming to meet all the new English teachers (they’re like all new except for Rocío and Fran! That was part of the reason for me wanting to come back here again, but whatever…). But no…Aurora said she was really busy, and apparently everyone else was too, so I sat in the office until eleven and read a brochure about upcoming classes offered at city hall. I met a few of the new teachers during recreo and caught up with some of the old ones.

There was nothing really left to do after that, so I left at 11:30. I went to the chino store to buy a few more hangers and then to the store again, for some more fruit, carrots and eggs. I’m just kinda chillaxing at the moment but it’s almost 2:30, so I think I’m gonna go make some lunch… I’m super hungry!

It’s good to be back…for an awesome second year!

Xoxo,

Court