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