Una locura

Today was a good day. I started it pretty early though. The banks open at 8:30 a.m. and I wanted to make sure I got my debit card, just in case I got paid today (which I didn't..boo), but now that's one less thing to do on Monday. Anyway, I stood at the entrance of the bank along with four other people waiting for it to open. Once they opened, it only took about five minutes to get my card and set up the pin number and everything. Then, I walked to the nearest train station and took the train. It didn't seem that the train was really affected by the strike, but also I was really running early so I didn't mind taking my time. Once in school, I had another day of Halloween bingo, mask making, and singing "Go Away, Big Green Monster." It was really fun and I think the students enjoyed themselves, but they still didn't get near the experience that we do in the United States, but hey, it was fun! Here is a picture of one of my classes and me with our masks!

Yay, Halloween!

For lunch, I went out with other teachers at my school to a local restaurant. It was really good food and fun company. I ate a stuffed red pepper and salad and for dessert, torrija. Once back at school, I went to the kindergarten class room and played in their stations with them. Then, for the last class of the day, the class I help with was watching a Halloween movie, so I helped one of the teachers hang up signs in her room. Previously, she had asked me to give her English classes and we had agreed on that, but once we got to talking more, we decided that we're going to do more of an exchange. One hour of English class for her in exchange for one hour of Spanish class for me! That is so much more valuable to me than money and I'm really excited to work with her.

PAUSE.

Okay, I just took a VERY long break from writing this blog in order to take care of more of this weekend's madness. I will talk about it at the end of this blog though, but just a forewarning, it's not good.

Anyway, back to the good part of my day...I am so happy to get Spanish classes and help the teacher with English in exchange. After school, I had two English lessons. Both went well. We discussed traveling, Halloween, read part of Winn-Dixie. I saw one girl I tutor walking down the street dressed like Frankenstein, and the other girl I tutored tonight was dressed up as a firefighter and was getting ready to leave for trick-or-treating as soon as I left. The train strike was a little more apparent tonight, but I still got home in a decent about of time. Once home, I made dinner and started finalizing things for things in this weekend: printing reservations, looking at maps, writing this blog, etc.

And then...

We got news that our room was not available at the hostel. I wish I could say that we got everything figured out, but since it's a holiday weekend and everyone and their dog is going to Granada. We decided not to go. I am okay with this decision, because I was apprehensive to go in the first place; however, I am not okay with the decision because I am out some money for buying the tourist pass, which is unfortunate. Everything happens for a reason though and since I had a bad feeling about it from the beginning, I honestly know it's for the best. I will still have the amazing weekend I was planning to have before even deciding to go to Granada. For example, it is 1:57 a.m. right now and instead of wasting my time sleeping or packing. I am watching YouTube videos with Lucia. I don't know when I'll be going to bed, but right now, I feel better than I did earlier. And I think I have decided to go take a dance class on Saturday to really de-stress completely. Hopefully, I will be able to go. Anyway, it's time to go and take advantage of my time before I decide it's time for bed. Have a good night!

Siempre pasta

Okay, I am going to write this blog rapidly and still make sure to get everything in that needs to be said. Okay, so start time is 11:45 p.m. let's see how long this takes me to write. Usually awhile, because I get distracted. Anyway, once again, I got up early because of the potential train strike and once again, I was good on time. Although, while on the train, they made an announcement that the trains will be less frequent tomorrow, but I already checked the modified schedule and it doesn't seem like it will be a problem still. Anyway, at school today, we worked on Halloween stuff again. I was with different classes than yesterday so we pretty much did the same things. They listened to the Big Green Monster song, colored masks, etc. By the way, I can not thank my cooperating teachers enough for teaching me how to use technology. We went to the computer room this morning to watch the video/song on the Promethean Board and some time was wasted trying to figure out how to use it, because the teacher had never utilized it before. Luckily, since I spent a whole quarter using Promethean, I was able to get it up and running in a matter of seconds. Thank you student teaching. :) Which brings me to another point that I think I might have made before...I work in three classes. One has a active whiteboard and the other two do not and the difference in student engagement is unbelievable. Anyway, the Promethean Board that we went to this morning was in a computer room that doesn't seem to be utilized a lot by students and, it's my opinion, that the board would be better in a classroom. I realize that it's probably in the computer room so that all classes can use it if need be, but it just seems way under utilized and you can really do some great stuff with that board. I told my co-teacher this and she said that I could teach her how to use it! I'm excited!

Anyway, I can't really think of anything else that was worth telling from school, although I'm sure that there is something I am forgetting. I had my long night of private classes after school. All of them went well and I learned about the four types of volcanoes. All I realized again just how hard it is to learn English, gah. Also, I remembered how much I hate winter when it gets dark at 6:12 p.m.! Ridiculous! Also, it's actually starting to get pretty chilly here. It's in the lower 50s and I might consider taking out my winter coat soon, but I really don't wanna, especially since it's really really hot on the public transportation. Although walking from school, to lesson, to other lesson, to train station was chilly tonight. Once I got home, at about 10 p.m., I made dinner because I was SO hungry. While making my dinner, Lucia commented that I always eat the same thing..noodles and sauce. And, it's true. Haha. I told her it's because it's cheap, quick, and I like noodles. I can cook other things, but I don't like taking the time to do it. I don't have to sit in the kitchen and watch the water boil. I can multitask, which I do A LOT. She said she would go shopping with me sometime to help me pick out other cheap and quick meals. I told her that she is welcome to help me anytime. :) I haven't gotten sick and tired of pasta yet though, even though I eat it at least 6 times a week. I love pasta and carbs, and that's pretty much what my diet has consisted of since I've been here, but I do have an occasional apple, yogurt, and my daily turkey sandwich. AND my very American egg for breakfast! :)

I turned on El Hormiguero to watch, but I'm not going to lie, I didn't watch a single second of it. I was trying to figure out the rest of this weekend and figuring out bank stuff. I have decided to go to Granada this weekend. The transportation, hostel, and tourist pass are now all booked. whew. And now I can stop thinking about it for now. As for bank stuff, the bank has my debit card so I have to go pick it up before I leave this weekend. This means I have to pick it up before school tomorrow, so I had to figure out when the bank is open because it's at different times than in the U.S. Here, my bank at least, is open from 8:30 to 2:30. These are very inconvenient times if you ask me, but whatever. I'm just glad that I can go right at 8:30 before I catch the train to school. To be honest though, having the card won't do me much good until I get paid, which will hopefully be tomorrow. Boy, that will be a glorious day. Although soon after I will have to say goodbye to some of it for the real life expenses of rent and gastos (electricity, water, etc.). Real life is good and sucks at the same time, just saying. :P No, really though..it may be stressful here at times, but it is going really well so far! I am now excited for this weekend, rather than stressed and I found out that I might get to see Tonisha this weekend in Granada! For those of you who didn't follow my blog while I was in Peru, I met Tonisha there and we traveled together the whole time. She's my favorite. :)

Okay, I think that's all I have to say today, even though I am probably missing some things, it is time for bed. I have to get up early and go to the bank tomorrow. It is 12:15 p.m. (half hour, not bad). Good night! Have sweet dreams! Hasta mañana.

Aprender inglés

Today, I got to school early because supposedly there is a three day train strike going on, so I wanted to be sure that I left enough time, just in case the trains didn't come as often. However, I think they actually came more frequently. Haha. I got there really early, but I will probably still leave early again tomorrow just to be safe. School went pretty well today, too. The students are now learning Halloween-y vocabulary to celebrate this week like ghost, pumpkin, witch, zombie, skeleton, etc. It's really cute. And they read a story and learned a song about a big, green monster. Click here to listen to the song that they learned. They also got to pick out a mask and color them and they will wear them on Thursday. They also are just starting to learn parts of the body, so the students got to draw their own monsters and then described how many ears, eyes, arms, teeth, etc. that they had. Also, on another note, my students have taken to trying to teach me Spanish, since they think I don't know it. The classes have changed from me as a teacher to me as a student. It's a little distracting in class, but it's also really cute because they try and get me to say all of these Spanish words and I act like I don't know what they mean. It's also good for them because they are learning more English in a sense. For example, a student wanted me to say "camiseta" (t-shirt) and he pointed at it to indicate what it meant. Then, I said "t-shirt" and he said "camiseta." Then, I said "camiseta" and he said, "t-shirt." You kinda had to be there to see the connection happen, but he definitely learned that a camiseta is called a t-shirt. Also, they get really excited to teach me things. Anyway, that was in the 1st grade class. I also had one kindergarten class today where we sang "I'm a nut" again. It was so much cuter the second time, especially because after singing the song they went to their respective play stations (house, construction, art, etc.) and I heard some students singing it to themselves. Adorable.

After school, I went home and relaxed. And by relaxed, I mean I had a stressful time trying to figure out this weekend. We're planning to go to Granada, but other than our plan to go there, we have no other arrangements made... no transportation, no lodging, no guarantee of the places to go. And it is quite frustrating. There is a tour card, that I think looks like a good deal, but not everyone wants to do it and I don't necessarily want to do it alone, but I could. And plus, I'm second guessing if it is a good deal, but it guarantees getting into the Alhambra, which is already technically booked and something I thought was out of the question. Plus, I'm wondering if I should just stay in Madrid this weekend and hang out with Lucia for Halloween. So many options, so little time to think about it, and I'm just a little annoyed. Needless to say, my night was blah. However, I did go to another language exchange, that I was at first skeptical about because we spoke a lot of English to begin with, but then we switched to Spanish, so I felt good about that. Now, I am tired and I am going to go consult my pillow on what to do with my life this weekend. Have a great night. Talk to you tomorrow.

Requiem por un sueño

Today, I did nothing. Well, not nothing, but pretty much nothing. I ate breakfast and got clean, then I had a Skype interview, but it wasn't really an interview. I have been looking into taking Spanish classes while here, so the Skype conversation was so that the academy could see what my level of Spanish was so that they can place me in the correct class level. I haven't heard back from them yet, but I hope that the class that they suggest I take is during a time that I am free. A lot of classes are Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday and I have my private lessons Wednesday/Thursday, so they are both inconvenient, but I'll figure it out.

Anyway, after the conversation, I started doing my Monday cleaning chores. I cleaned and swept my room, bathroom, hallway, and kitchen. I did the dishes and laundry. Then I started watching the movie Requiem for a Dream, which is a strange movie, so while watching it I cooked lunch and ate. Once I finished that, I skyped my boyfriend for quite awhile and then got started on all of these blogs. Mondays are starting to become my "blog catch-up day." After blogging some, I ran to the store real quick just to put some money on my pre-paid phone, then it was back to the apartment for the night. I was hungry so I ate another early dinner around 7:15 p.m. and watched a bit of T.V., which by the way, nothing really good is ever on. And the things that I do like to watch are dubbed over, which isn't a big deal at all, but they leave the English voices on, too. So hearing the two languages over the top of each other is very distracting! Anyway, I started watching a game show, which was entertaining and then Stephanie and Karin joined me at my house to start planning this weekend. We at first were planning to go to Valencia, but we are now going to Granada. After deciding to go to Granada and planning out our ride there, we found out that El Alhambra is sold out this whole weekend, which is like the one must-see thing in Granada. I mean obviously we will still have fun and see a lot of other cool things, but El Alhambra is a World Heritage Site and I really really wanted to go! So, I will either just never get to see it or I will need to go back again. :/ Anyway, I have nothing to do for the night so I am watching T.V. and waiting for El Hormiguero to come on and googling other things to do in Granada. Hope you have a good night. Hasta mañana.

Navacerrada

Yesterday, Sunday, Karin, Stephanie, and I took another day trip outside of Madrid. We got up early and took the metro to Moncloa where we hopped on a bus to Puerto de Navacerrada. Puerto de Navacerrada is about 35 miles north of Madrid and the bus ride took a little over an hour. Once there, I was well aware of the fact that I had underestimated the temperature up in the mountains. It was about 50 degrees, which is about a 15 degree difference from Madrid, and the wind up in the mountains was cold. Luckily, I knew/hoped that once we started hiking it would warm up and I was right. We started our hike and right before we got on the actual trail, we were asked by two people if we were with the "Couch surfing" group. "Couch surfing" is an organization online where travelers can look for people in different cities that will allow people to crash on their couch for a period of time. So it's pretty much staying at a hotel or hostel, but you're at someone's house. It's also a place to find people to travel with. So these people were supposed to meet up with a group that were hiking at Puerto de Navacerrada yesterday, but we weren't those people, but we told them they could join us if they wanted, so they did. There names were Karim and Amandine. Karim is from Canada and knows nine languages (fluent in five of the nine)..omg..and he is working on his master's here in Madrid. And Amandine is French and she is just traveling for a year..you go girl.

We took off on our hike up Camino Schmid, which led to this clearing, where we sat for a few minutes and ate a snack.

Clearing where we snacked

Then, we took a steep hike up to the top of the peak and caught up with the Siete Picos trail. There were some awesome views and rock formations. There wasn't always a clear path, but it was still easy to navigate.. although I wouldn't have wanted to get lost on those mountains. The hike was supposedly 6 miles, but I'm really not sure. We took a few breaks to drink water and eat lunch, but otherwise, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

A cairn.
I know in Peru these were used as religious shrines to the gods,
but they are also used to mark paths.

Puerto de Navacerrada is a ski resort in the winter

After we finished on the trail, we had 45 minutes before the bus came so we went into a restaurant to stay warm and eat churros con chocolate. It was really good and a nice way to pass the time while we waited for the bus. I fell asleep on the bus ride home and was really hungry by the time that I got home that I made dinner right away (at around 6ish). Once again, Lucia was shocked that I was eating so early. Haha, I told her I was hungry. And I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she had made a cake during the day, so after my early dinner, I ate dessert! It was delicious! We also had a short conversation about the U.S. constitution because she is studying for it for one of her classes. I told her we have to learn about it in high school and how we have to study our state's constitution in 8th grade. She was interested to find out that each state had it's own constitution, too. And she said she didn't have to learn about Spain's constitution at all in school.

After a little bit, I went over to Karin's house and had a bus mishap on the way there. I didn't feel like walking again and decided to take a bus. While standing and waiting at the bus stop, I decided that maybe I should've just walked, but then I saw the bus coming. It didn't stop right in front of the stop because there was another bus in front of it and it was a red light. In Peru, the micros are supposed to stop at the stops, so I figured that the bus wouldn't let me on where it was at and it didn't have its door open or anything so I waited. Well, the light turned green and instead of pulling up to the bus stop and opening the door, it went right on by... I couldn't believe it. Lesson learned. I walked to Karin's. Once there we popped in the movie The Adventures of Tintin in Spanish, but I'm not going to lie, I didn't watch any of it. I spent my time editing photos from yesterday and uploading them. That was my day and night. It went well and my weekend still wasn't over because I have Monday's off. Woo.

Fútbol español

On Saturday, I went for a 3.5 mile run with Stephanie and Karin. It was hard, but good. I'm glad to be running with people because I would've stopped running long before they did without them. We also did a little more of a workout after we ran, which was fun. Then we went our separate ways, got cleaned up, and met again for some more tapas at Tapapiés, the tapas tour that has been going on all week. We met up with a friend, Jesse, from Australia, who Stephanie and I originally met at the hostel over a month ago. We all chose one tapa to try, so I tried four different tapas. They were all really good and, to be honest, I think my favorite one was the one I picked with Karin's pick in a close second. :) Once again, I have put the pictures, names, origin, ingredients, and my rating of each tapa below.

La Entrañable
Argentina-Portugal
Skirt steak and Oporto sauce
Really good!

Barquitapa
Greece
Feta cheese, roasted pepper, sweet pickle, chives,
balsamic sauce, sesame seeds, and wheat bread
It was okay, but feta cheese creeps me out

Kartoffelknodel de queso vegano
Murcia-Almería-Germany
Potato, flour, margarine, soy milk, yeast,  and spices
Good

Pizza vegana
Italy
Barbecue sauce, ciabatta bread, tomato, red and green peppers,
mozzarella, onion, salt, pepper, and paprika
Good

After the tapas, we walked to the nearby ice cream place that we have now been to three times and got some dessert, which was delicious! Then, we had an hour or so before we had to meet some more friends at a bar to watch the big football (soccer) game, so we decided to walk there and after a couple of detours and a short ride on the metro, we ended up walking an additional 3.5 miles to the bar. Once at the bar we sat down and relaxed and waited for the game between Real Madrid and Barcelona to start. We ordered hamburgers, fries, and a drink because that was the special for the night. The food wasn't bad, but they totally have a different concept of how many fries to give in comparison to the U.S. Haha, needless to say, I wanted more fries. Also, the burger wasn't bad, but it was definitely still "mooing," which isn't my favorite, but that's okay. We were really there to watch the game, not enjoy the food, haha. Okay, so just to give you a small rundown on soccer (aka football) in Spain..(disclosure: I don't know a lot) Madrid has two soccer teams, Real Madrid and Atlético. I would say Real Madrid is the more popular of the two and Atlético is the underdog. (Although, Atlético did beat Real Madrid last week) Anyway, Karin, Stephanie, and I have already decided to be Atlético fans because they are the underdog, Karin's roommate likes them, and we run past their stadium sometimes, so naturally I wouldn't want to root for Real Madrid, but really I didn't want to root for Barcelona either, but it became instantly clear that I should join the crowd in that bar in Madrid and root for Real Madrid. I don't even think there was a Barcelona fan in the bar, but if there was, they were smart to keep their cheering down. :) The game was a good one, however Real Madrid lost 2-1, which wasn't good for the fans in that bar, but it was a fun atmosphere to be in during the game.

After the game, we took a quick trip to the English bookstore for a language exchange, but once we got there, we decided we didn't really want to be there so we went back to Karin's house and popped in a movie. The movie choice on Saturday was American Beauty. It was a weird movie! But, I can see why it is a classic, why it won Oscars, and why people like it..but it was weird. I was able to catch the bus home, even though it's not that far of a walk, I didn't feel like walking anymore. Once home, I skyped my boyfriend and then it was off to bed. Saturday night/Sunday morning Spain had daylight savings time, so there is now only a six hour difference between me and home. However, next week the time changes in the U.S. so it will be back to seven. Anyway, my Saturday was awesome and that's one more blog in the books. Hasta luego.

Mmm..patatas

Once again I apologize for taking so long to blog. I will try and make up all of them today. Let{s start with Friday. Friday was a pretty good day, but it was rainy. It rained quite a few times last week and, for some reason, I thought Madrid was Lima and I didn't pack an umbrella when I came here. I have thought about buying an umbrella, but then I just figure by the time I buy one it will stop raining so much. Or I might buy one and then forget to bring it places with me. Haha. So long story short, I got rained on a little bit on Friday, but it wasn't too bad.

Once I got to school, I had two classes: a 1st grade English class and a kindergarten class. Fridays are pretty simple since I go in late and go home early. After the two regular classes, I had to give a teachers' class. The teachers had a meeting at the school before the class so the class started a half hour late. Also, there were supposed to be seven teachers there and only two showed up. The class went okay, but the group of teachers I taught on Friday are at a beginning level of English. It should be a good challenge for me, because I will have to find a balance between creating challenging, but not too simple childish lessons. Should be fun, but there is definitely a range of English levels amongst the staff.

After the shortened teachers' class, I went home on the train and took a detour to pick up maps from the Tapapiés tour in Lavapiés. I wanted a couple souvenir maps to add to my collection and one to hang up on my wall. Once I got home, Karin and I met up to go on a run in Madrid Río. It was a shorter run than we usually do, but that was alright with me. After the run, we stopped at my place briefly, then went on to Karin's place to hang out for a bit and make dinner. After that, Karin and I ventured on over to Stephanie's place with intentions of playing cards. We didn't play any card games together, but we did demolish two bags of chips and hung out with one of her roommates, Juanja, for a little bit. That was pretty much my Friday, nothing too exciting happened. The most exciting thing was probably buying the two bags of chips and demolishing them like three cheetahs fighting over gazelles. Also, in the process of buying the chips, we took an astronomical amount of time trying to figure out what kinds to get and we were definitely making the lady at the counter suspicious of us. She definitely thought we were plotting to steal them or something, I'm sure. It was kind of funny and I'm sure us walking out of the store laughing didn't make us seem any less suspicious. Don't worry we paid for everything. And it was a good night. How was your Friday? What did you do?

Cuenta bancaria

Well, today was an unexpected day off, but I still made it a productive one. I did sleep in a little and had planned a morning run, but it was raining and it still is pretty dreary out, so I opted out of running. Oh well. I ate my US American breakfast consisting of eggs and toast then went for the third time to try and open a bank account. Third time's the charm because I got one! Woo. I felt like I was signing my life away though even though I asked a bunch of questions and had the guy clarify a bunch of things. I'm pretty sure I understood the majority, if not all, of the information, but signing the papers just made me nervous. Haha. I feel like I would've been nervous signing papers like that in the United States though, too. After getting my bank account, I went and bought my abono, transportation pass, for November. It's pretty expensive, but it's definitely worth it and since I pay for it, I try to take advantage of the public transportation as much as possible. Unfortunately though, that means that I'm not walking even close to the amount of miles I was in my first two weeks here.

Once I got back home, I tried figuring out my online banking account, but the feature for changing my passwords wasn't working, so I'm going to have to try it again later. I also looked up some ESL activities to do with the teachers' class tomorrow, I ate lunch, started looking into my Professional Development Plan (which has to do with my teaching license in the states), and watched Toy Story of Terror. I then laid down and rested for an hour and left for my private classes that I still had, even though I didn't have school. The two boys that I have class with didn't go to school today either, so we talked about that for a little bit, we talked about Halloween, and we talked about my year as the only girl on a boys' soccer team. That was a great time in my life and I think the boy got a kick out of it. Especially because I told him I wasn't good. I don't think he can picture me playing soccer and, since I don't know a lot about soccer, he might think I'm lying about the whole thing. Haha Anyway, my second lesson went really well, too. The girl talks a lot, which is fantastic, but she talked a half hour over when I was supposed to leave. I didn't have the heart to cut her off, but if it happens again I might need to because I didn't get extra pay for that and I had stuff to do for school tomorrow. But, I still think it's great that she likes to talk because that's the only way that she is going to improve her English. Also, we started the book Because of Winn-Dixie. She had already seen the movie Shiloh, so I gave her Winn-Dixie to read first. Also, she's very artsy, which is way up my alley so she always starts out the lessons showing me what she has drawn or made. Look what she made..so cute...

Anyway, once I got home, I ate dinner and now I am writing this blog while watching El Hormiguero. The are doing a segment where they listen to songs in English that have lyrics that sound like they are saying something in Spanish. It's quite entertaining. Next, I need to finalize what I am doing with the teachers' class tomorrow and then it will be bedtime.

On a completely different note and the most random thought in the world. (I think my sister will appreciate this) Every time that I am waiting for the metro to come, the movie Volcano crosses my mind. It's like I'm expecting hot lava to eventually come flowing down through the tunnel rather than seeing the train coming. It's quite terrifying actually.

This would be a scary thing to see coming down the tunnel...
Although, I also sometimes fear that I will fall onto the tracks...
which be pretty much impossible, unless someone pushed
me or unless I slipped and slid a few feet and off of the platform.
These are the things that cross my mind...

Profe de inglés horrible

Today, I had a really good day minus the fact that I am beginning to get my semiannual earache. Don't worry though, I was prepared and bought some proper medication and ear drops, so hopefully it doesn't decide to stay long. Anyway, like I said, my day was good. I began my day with reviewing the classroom objects. This class is still getting a hang of the reading of words, but it's they are getting better. Just slightly behind other classes because of classroom behavior. The next class is flying through material. They are finished with Unit 1 in the book, so we reviewed all of that and the classroom teacher decided to start teaching them stuff that is not in the book. For example, other parts of the school, like library, hallway (except they say corridor because it's British-English), and principal's office. :) Also, can I just point out that rather than saying restroom or bathroom, they say "toilet." So the students ask "Can I go to the toilet, please?" and it just sounds strange. Not used to hearing it. Next, was delicious breakfast time. Then, on to a kindergarten class. They are going to see Alice in Wonderland at a children's theater soon so they have been learning the story starting this week. They are learning about the white rabbit and how he plays the trumpet when the queen arrives, so I taught them how to say some instrument names in English. The teacher held up a maraca and I could not for the life of me put a name to the instrument. I asked her what it was in Spanish and she said "maraca" and I was "Yea, THAT'S IT!" :) Luckily, the name is the same or I don't think I would have thought of the word maraca.

I suck at being an English teacher.

Haha, I also had trouble coming up with the word "shades" as in blinds for windows. Of course, I didn't come up with blinds until way later, so I don't even know which one was better to teach...whoops. Like I said, I suck. Who thought native English speakers would make the best English language assistants?! It's not easy. For example, I had a teacher ask when to use "other" versus "another." I had to google it... At least I know now. And the another auxiliar at my school got a question about the words "already" and "yet." And don't even get me started on the word "though." I've been trying to figure that word out ever since I got questioned about it in Peru...and that was two years ago.

Anyway, after lunch I had two more classes. In the first class, the classroom teacher had no voice so I did all of the explaining. I think the students actually sort of paid attention and the majority finished their book activities, which is awesome! They are catching up to the other classes now and starting to comprehend. Yay. In the last class of the day, the students were learning how to ask to borrow something. For example, "Can I borrow a pencil?" Not all of the students got to this activity, but it seemed to be going well. Can I just also add a little bit of humor to this post? In British-English, an "eraser" is called a "rubber." Now imagine someone asking to borrow an eraser in British-English... You're welcome for the smile. :)

Also, although tomorrow is a Thursday and it's usually another full day for me, I don't have to go to school. There is a teacher/student strike going on so we aren't required to go because there are going to be very few teachers there and possibly very few students as well. We kind of got lucky, because I know other auxiliares that still have to go to school tomorrow. I wouldn't have minded going to school, but I'm not going to argue with them when they say not to go. :) So tomorrow's a free day for me. What shall I do with my day?! Oh, I guess I should tell you what the strike is about, even though I am not positive on everything, but it's not only about the teacher's pay/benefits, but it's about the changes in the education system as a whole, which is why the student's are striking, too. I wish I had more detail than that, but I don't yet. I'll let you know.

After school, I had two/four private lessons. The first one went well, we chatted for a little bit than I let her choose from the three books that I bought for her to read. I told her what each one was about and I said, "This one (Bridge to Terabithia) does not have a happy ending" and without hesitation she chose that one. She read the first couple pages and did a very good job with it. It will be fun to watch all my student's vocabulary grow as they read semi-difficult books. I then had a short lesson with her mom where she read a little from her English textbook (she's taking an actually English language course) and we chatted about comprehension. Then, I moved onto my next two lessons, a pair of sisters. The younger one did very well and is an extremely fast learner. Also, her pronunciation is great. It's good to get that pronunciation down early. Her sister is also very good at pronunciation and her comprehension while reading is amazing. Seriously though. Spanish is fairly easy to read once you know the sounds, but English pronunciation rules are non-existent in my eyes. So, when she is reading, I expect her to stumble over some words and she blows right through them. It's incredible.

I arrived home rather late and missed part of El Hormiguero, but it wasn't a huge deal, I was only half paying attention anyway. Now, it's time for bed and I have a busy day of doing whatever tomorrow on my day off. Have a great day! :)

El mayordomo

Today was a really good day. I started out the day by helping children learn English, I got my first piece of mail, and I went to the movies, which I love!

Today in my classes we practiced more classroom objects, they are really getting a hang of it and now they are starting to be able to connect the word with the object, which is great! They are reading! One class was just being introduced to the concept of "my" and "your." For example, "It's my pencil" or "It's your pencil." You could tell that they weren't quite understanding it yet, but they'll get it with time. I love watching the progress they make. We also are still working on colors, but they have those in the bag, but they are still practicing reading them. They are also working on places in the school (dining room, gym, playground) and subjects (science, language, maths--yep, the British say maths..). It's so great! Soon we will be working on shapes, body parts, and whatever else is in the next units for English and Science. I also had a kindergarten class today, where I taught them the song, "I'm a nut." They are learning fall words like pumpkin, leaves, acorn, etc. So I taught them what I think of as a fall-y song. I'm sure not all of you know the song, but it's fun and cute. The kindergartners had a good handle on the tongue clicking and the lyrics "I'm a nut," however the rest of the words were kind of jumble, but that's okay. I'll work on it more with them next week.

After school, I took the train home. By the way, I started my book in Spanish and so far so good. I understand quite a bit of it, which is good. It's means that I didn't pick out an advanced book that I would give up on easily. Anyway, once I arrived home, I had the pleasant surprise of having my first piece of mail from my grandma and grandpa! It was a Halloween card, which is fitting because it's coming up very soon! My grandma asked in the card if they celebrate Halloween here and since I know she reads this habitually, I will go ahead and halfway answer the question now. Yes, they do kind of celebrate Halloween here. They only celebrate it because it is celebrated in the U.S. We will have a party type deal at school, but they don't dress up at school or anything, but they might go trick-or-treating, but I'll get back to you on that one.

Pretty soon after I got home, I left with Karin to go and get in line at the movie theater for the Fiesta del Cine that is going on. I talked to a teacher today and his mom waited in line for two hours yesterday to get into the theater. It was funny because he was saying people in Spain go crazy when there are deals and things are cheap and I responded with "Have you heard of Black Friday?" Haha, I'm pretty sure all people go crazy for deals. Here's a news clip about the lines. Sorry, it's in Spanish...

Anyway, Karin and I arrived about an hour and a half before the movie started and the line only took about a half hour, so we chilled at the theater for about 45 minutes waiting to go in. We chose to go see El Mayordomo, also known as The Butler and it was really good! I really liked it and understood everything! I really enjoy knowing that I can understand a whole movie in Spanish. I wish I could go back to high school (just for a second..no more) and remember what it feels like to not understand a word when the teacher pops in a movie in Spanish. I remember my classes whining when we couldn't have subtitles or when it was in Spanish instead of English. Haha, we were babies. That's what I get to look forward to as a teacher. :P Anyway, back to the movie, it was really good and I kind of want to read more up on the true story of the whole thing. If you haven't even heard of the movie, watch the trailer here. Also, although I really liked it in Spanish; after watching the trailer, I feel like I would really really enjoy it in English.

Well, I'm glad that Karin and I got to go to a cheap and fantastic movie and I arrive home just in time for my stomach to be growling and for El Hormiguero to be on. It was a great ending to a great day and now I am going to have a great night's sleep. Hope all of you readers are well and have a great day/night! :)

Un puente hacia Terabithia

Woo, Monday is my day off. I got up early and got ready to try and get a bank account again. It still didn't work. I went to two banks and both said that I needed to have my identification card, but really that's not true. Foreigners, like me, have been opening bank accounts left and right here with the same banks. What it comes down to is which branch you go to. So, next Monday, I will be going to a specific branch that has let some of us open accounts without our identification card. I'm not in a huge rush to get an account, so I'm not worried, but it's just one of those things that I want to get out of the way. After this attempt, I went grocery shopping. I bought quite a bit of stuff and here in Spain you have to buy the grocery bags, bring your own bags, or a lot of people have these carriers on wheels. I'm not going to buy one of those wheely things, so I bring my own bags, but I think while I'm shopping, I forget that I have to carry everything back to my apartment. Luckily the store is only two doors down, because I know I look ridiculous walking down the street with heavy overflowing bags. All bagging skills go out the window, too, because you have to bag your own things and your rushing because the next two people behind you in line need to get their things rung up. It's kind of stressful to be honest. You have to bag your stuff plus pay and worry about hurrying as to not hold up the people behind you. I'm glad I don't go shopping that often.

After weight lifting with groceries, I got to my Monday chore of cleaning the kitchen, living room, and hallway. I also took the time to clean my room and bathroom as well, which didn't take too long. I got all of this done before noon and to be honest, I didn't know what to do with the rest of my day. Lately, my days off don't start until noon, so I didn't know what to do with all of the extra time, but don't worry, I found stuff to do. For example, I watched the movie Las ventajas de ser invisible (The Perks of Being a Wallflower). I have never read the book, but I enjoyed the movie. And it was the first movie that I have seen where Emma Watson was not Hermoine Granger, so that was cool. After the movie, I thought about watching another one, but instead I finished Bridge to Terabithia and it was not what I was expecting. It is definitely a darker story than both Shiloh and Because of Winn-Dixie and I am reluctant to give it to the girls that I give private lessons to. But, I'm going to go ahead and warn them and make sure that they what to read it before handing it over. It is one of those reality stories that teaches you not everything has a happy ending. Definitely an eye opener and I think it's interesting that it is a children's book, but I also understand why it is. So that was the last of the books, so I plan to pass them out at lessons this week and I plan to start the Spanish book that I got at the library. Should be interesting to see how much I understand.

My roommate came home and told me about a Fiesta del Cine (Movie festival thing) that is going on in Spain for the next three days. It's super cheap to go to a movie so I signed up for that, but the site was all clogged up with the amount of people trying to sign up so it took quite awhile, but I got it done and I plan on going to a movie tomorrow night. My roommate is going with her friend and I was all excited to go until she said they were going to see Insidious 2, which I have no interest in seeing. So, I don't want to ditch her, but I might choose to see a different movie. Stay tuned tomorrow to see what movie I go to.

Tonight, I went on the 4k run with the Free Fitness Madrid group. It was fun and it's always challenging, but I hate running in the dark. It's not that I feel unsafe or anything, there are so many people there doing the same thing. It's just I like to see where I am going. There are dogs and trash cans on the path and I would rather not trip over either of those things. It's like eating in a dimly lit restaurant. It's just not preferred, but I will continue to go because it is fun and it keeps me active. As for the plans for the rest of the night, I already watched El Hormiguero and, right now, La Voz is playing in the background. I will probably continue to watch this until bedtime. Tomorrow is a school day, so it should be fun. Hasta luego.

Intercambio

Okay, so today was by far the laziest day I have ever had in Madrid, thus far. And really, I had the lazy day for no reason whatsoever. Haha. I have no school tomorrow and I'm kind of looking forward to another lazy-ish day. Anyway, today's blog is going to be rather short.

I got up this morning, made breakfast, and watched Criminal Minds episodes and the movie The Internship (which is good by the way). Made lunch, did some homework for school, which involved finding a song about autumn to teach the kindergartners and making Halloween bingo boards for our Halloween party that will be coming up in two weeks.

I finally started to look presentable at around 4 p.m. and went to an intercambio at 7 p.m. An intercambio is a language exchange where a bunch of people meet at a bar/café and practice the language that they want to learn. For example, I went there looking to practice Spanish with native speakers and those same people went to practice English, with a native speaker, like myself. It was really fun and I will definitely be doing one again. There are intercambios throughout the whole week at different locations. I just have to find the time in my schedule to go to them. This one on Sunday seems like it would be a good fit in my schedule. Anyway, at the intercambio, I met five Spaniards and it was cool to talk to all of them. We talked about movies, TV shows, music, our travels, jobs, bullfighting, etc. FYI, bullfighting is a big thing here, but most Spaniards don't like it. Not the ones I've talked to anyway. For example, I asked three people tonight about it and said I wanted to go to it at least once and they all thought I was nuts.

Anyway, I took the metro home, ate dinner, talked to my mom and sister on the phone and now I'm about to go to bed. Just by reading this blog, it's hard to think that I did this little in the 16ish hours that I've been awake, but I guess that just proves how lazy today really was. Hope you all had great Sundays. Go Cowboys. :)

Holi Walk

This morning, I got up early and met Karin and Stephanie to go to the Holi Run, which is equivalent to the Color Run in the United States. We met up with the group that goes on the runs and does the circuit training. There were about 30 or so total just from that group, which is great! Once we got to the metro stop closest to where the race was located, we actually had to walk a 2k to where it was. This was the first Holi Run in Madrid, so I feel like they could have organized it a little better, for example, a shuttle to the race location, but it was still really fun. So what this race is is a 5k and it is inspired by the Holi Festival, which is a Hindu religious festival which celebrates the beginning of Spring. Spring is nowhere in sight, but I feel like the Holi Run today still exhibited the same excitement, joy, and fun that the actual Holi Festival would! Karin, Stephanie, and I "ran" with two other girls that we met through the Free Fitness Madrid group. Luckily, the other two girls had cameras or we would have no pictures.

Anyway, why I say "run" is because it was more of a walk. Practically nobody ran, except for us! And even by the end of it, we resorted to walking. Another reason I say "run," is because you would expect it to be somewhat of a healthy zone, but it was in no way, a healthy zone. At the end or in the middle of a road race, normally you get bananas, water, protein bars, power gels, etc. What did we get at the end of the Holi Run? The option of a Coke or Fanta (they had water, too, but still!). Also, there were people walking and smoking on the course, which wasn't pleasant at all, but whatever. The fun came in the throwing of colored dust.

After the Holi Run, we took the trek back to the metro and then we all decided that we wanted to continue on the unhealthy path and we got pizza for lunch. I know that we looked nuts walking into Domino's to get pizza with all of the color splashed on our clothes and faces. We ordered the pizza and hung out outside of the place waiting to pick it up. Once it was ready, we took it to a nearby bench to eat it. Even without the colors, we would've gotten stares because there were five girls chowing down on pizza on a bench, but with the colors, it added more stares and more smiles/laughs. I'm glad we could liven up the streets of Madrid a little bit today. Side note: Every time I go to write "Madrid," I usually think to write "Lima" first because that's where I studied abroad previously. Also, on a daily basis, I call "euros," "soles," which is the currency in Peru. Whoops..still got Peru on the brain.

After the pizza, I went home, washed all of the color off and did a load of laundry. Surprisingly, all of the color washed out of my clothes and shoes. I chilled at home for awhile, wrote part of this blog, and waited for the word to see when Karin, Stephanie, and I were leaving for Tapapiés. We also met Lenny there, who is a friend of Karin's from Germany. Tapapiés is a tapas tour that is going on all week in the district of Lavapiés. If you don't know what a tapa is, it is a very small portion of food, similiar to an appetizer. Tapas are very popular in Spain and normally come with a drink. For this tour, each restaurant that is participating in the tour (62 total) chooses one tapa to serve at their restaurant/bar. One tapa costs one euro and if you choose to get the cerveza (beer), it's two euros. So, it's a pretty good deal and it's nice to try a variety of different foods. Most all are special to a certain area or they are fusions of food from different cultures. Below are the five tapas that I tried and I have included, the name, origin, the ingredients, and my rating (good, okay, bad) in the caption. :)

Wok de arroz, pollo y verduras a la salsa teriyaki
Spain-Phillipines
Rice, carrot, red and green pepper, teriyaki
Good!

Atascaburras
La Mancha (a province in Spain)
Cod, walnuts, almonds, blueberries, milk, garlic, olive oil
Okay

Lumpia shanghái de verduras
Asia
Vegetable broth, carrot, potato, cabbage,
green beans, sweet potato, and peas
Good

Burrito secreto
Mexico-Spain
Flour tortilla, Iberian secret, asparagus, onion,
red and green pepper, garlic, and pork
Good

Fatay (Empanada árabe)
Arab countries-Argentina
Flour tortilla, veal, lamb, tomato, onion, lemon, and mint
Good (would've been better with ketchup..haha)

After all of these tapas, we decided we wanted the delicious ice cream that we got last Sunday. It was past ten and we thought there was no way that the place would be open, but surprisingly, it was! And the ice cream was delicious and the experience there, well, was interesting. The guy behind the counter was very friendly and asked us immediately if we spoke English, we said yes and he said he wanted to practice speaking it. So we spoke with him for a little bit and found out that he teaches math and some University of Illinois students from the engineering school are coming to Spain soon and he will be teaching them a math class while they are here. He also sang us a song from a German opera and Lenny, who is German, said he didn't understand everything he was saying. As the time went by the experience got even more surreal. We found out he was from Italy, but he's been in Spain for ten years, he showed us how to make the best cappuccino in Spain, and he offered Karin and I free ice cream for English lessons! And then... we found out that he didn't even work there! I was baffled and was laughing pretty hard! The actual owner of the shop walked in soon after and we found out that she had to leave briefly because she had to give medicine to her sick bird. Was she serious? Haha. So here we were, being given ice cream by an Italian, living in Spain, who likes singing German opera, who will be teaching math to Illinois students soon, who doesn't even work in the ice cream shop, who was doing his friend (the owner of the shop) a favor, because she had to leave to give medicine to her sick bird. What a story! Long story short though, the ice cream was delicious. :)

After we left there, I was already getting tired, but I went on to the next place, where we met up with Issac (a friend of Karin's who we met last week) and some of his friends. After that place though, I called it a night. I took the metro home and I was so glad to lay down in my bed. I had a great night's sleep and now, I am having a lazy Sunday. Probably won't be too much of a blog tonight, but stay tuned, just in case.

Problemas con metro

Okay, so today (actually yesterday) started out pretty well. I get to sleep in a little on Fridays and arrive later to school, but this morning I arrived extra late because of the metro. I got on it (and remember I only go two stops away) and I got to the second stop and it stopped for a long time, with the annoying dinging of the door going and going. A woman got off the train and went to the front of the platform and asked what was going on, then came back to tell us that none of the signals were working on the line and that they didn't know when they were going to get them running again. So I got off the train, knowing at this point I would be late and asked which bus to take to the station. I was told that there were no bus stops near so I would have to walk back to where I had just came from. So, that's what I did. I walked to where I had just got on the metro to go to the train station. You may be thinking, couldn't you have just walked straight to the station you needed? Yes, I could've, but it's through a park with a lot of pathways and it was definitely going to take longer, so I opted for taking the bus. I arrived twenty minutes late to school, which stinks, but it wasn't a huge deal, because I called to let them know. Plus, the teacher I was with forgot that I was even supposed to be there. :) I had the one class, then delicious breakfast, then a kindergarten class.

And then, I had a class with some of the teachers. This was my first teacher's class. The teachers are split up into three different language levels and so the classes will rotate throughout the weeks. So I will have the same group every three weeks, which stinks when you think about trying to learn a language and only having class every three weeks, but I'm going to try my hardest to help them improve! The first class went pretty well, I think. I did a small presentation on myself, just so they would know who I am and where I come from and to see if they understood everything. Then we did two truths and a lie, which is when you say two things that are true about yourself and one thing that is a lie and then everyone guesses which one you're lying about. Then, we just had a discussion of why they are taking the class and what they wanted to learn in the class, because I want to make sure that I am teaching them things that are beneficial to them.

Anyway, I went home (the metro worked) and hung out for awhile. The repairman was at the place fixing the fridge, which is fantastic because it is now cold! And after he left, I did absolutely nothing. I watched Grey's Anatomy and five different TED Talks. Then, later in the evening, I went to Stephanie's to hang out with her and Karin. Then, I called it a night. Hope you all had great Fridays.

Nada importante

Okay, so I really had time to blog yesterday, but I really just didn't feel like doing it. Sorry. Yesterday was another full day of school and private lessons. I had three English classes, a Science class, and a kindergarten class. Also, as I said the day before, yesterday the girl walked in missing her tooth that was wiggly and bleeding the day before. We hand out this laminated tooth fairy and certificates for those who lose teeth and her face was glowing when she got it. In one class, we did stations to practice the classroom objects and I was so happy with the progress of the students. They definitely know their stuff, which is great! However, it's hard as a teacher to see the difference in progress between classes.

After school, I walked to a private lesson with 12 and 9 year old boys. Again it went really well. It's literally just talking about random things. The younger one, doesn't know as much vocabulary so it takes a little bit of effort to get him talking, but they are great kids and I love working with them. The next lesson was great, too. This 12-year-old girl is friends with the other two that I tutor. So once again we reviewed plate tectonics again and she had some English homework that I helped her with. She was learning irregular verbs in past tense. For example, choose, chose, chosen or give, gave, given. Also, I have noticed this a few times now at private lessons, the -ed in past tense verbs give trouble to some non-natives. For example, it is pronounced three different ways: wanted, liked, played. So what I have heard most often is that the students choose to pronounced it the way it is in wanted (id) for almost all other -ed words. So, liked becomes lik-id. It's really interesting and I had to come home and look up the rule, because I didn't even know. It's just one of those things you memorize when your little. While we are on the subject of "little," I am going to bring up the difference again between British English and American English. We pronounce it with a "d:" liddle, but in British English it is pronounced with the "t." It's really interesting when people don't understand me, sometimes if I change my accent, they can understand what I'm trying to say.

Once I got home, I sat down and did nothing. I relaxed and watched Hormiguero. Tom Hanks was on tonight. I really like him so it was cool to see him on the program. They had him play the giant piano like he did in the movie Big. It was entertaining...

Anyway, other than that I have nothing more to report except for the fact that our fridge is definitely broken! Well, I hope your Thursday was good. Mine wasn't too bad. :)

Las placas tectónicas

Okay, so my day was a long one, but here I am to blog about it because tomorrow will be a long-ish day too and I don't want to get behind. I started my day off well, minus a minor freak out because I thought I missed my stop. I'm only on the metro for three total stops (the one I get on at, one in between, and the one I get off at), but that is just enough time to space out and miss the stop, but don't worry, I didn't. However, as we were pulling away from the middle stop, I thought for sure that was where I was supposed to get off. I was delighted to hear that our next stop was in fact my stop though. I got another ride from the train station to the school by some schoolteachers and the classes went fairly well today. In two of my classes, the students were practicing reading the numbers from 1 to 20. They know them verbally and to be honest they surprisingly recognize a lot of them in writing to, so that's fantastic! However, in some of the classes, the students are still wild children. One student gets up and five follow him/her..I'm not kidding. And there is this one particular student (I obviously can not disclose a lot of details lol) and you can see it in his/her eyes that his/her wheels are spinning just trying to push our buttons. He/she really pushes his/her luck. It's extremely frustrating. If you're a teacher, I'm sure you understand. Anyway, we actual did get that class to lay their heads on their desks quietly for a few minutes, which was incredible! It brought me back to my childhood and I immediately thought of Heads Up, Seven Up. I will definitely need to teach the students that at some point this year. That should be fun.

In another class, we had a small little competition where two students cried because their team was losing or because they got the answer wrong. That never feels good to see students cry like that, but it usually takes less than a minute to calm them done, which is good. And overall the class knows their classroom objects, which is good, we will be moving onto the next unit soon, I think. Also, since we talked about loose teeth yesterday, let's revisit that subject... A girl today was bleeding from wiggling her tooth..sooo gross. Gah! I told her to stop messing with it. She kind of did which is good. I am almost positive that she will lose that tooth tonight. I sure hope she doesn't anyway, because I do not want to see her pull it tomorrow. Ew, I get shivers down my back just thinking about it. I never knew I even had a problem with it until now. Haha.

After school, my day wasn't over, I had two private lessons and by two, I mean four, because I meet with four different people. The first one is an hour with a twelve year old girl and then a half hour with her mother. Today, I helped the girl do her Social Science homework and oh boy did I have to relearn stuff about plate tectonics, the earth's layers, the continental shelf, etc. She has a test next week, but she already knew her stuff really well, so she has nothing to worry about. I can tell that she is a fantastic student. Also, I asked her if she would be interested in reading an English book and she said yes. So I will be bringing those books next week to the lessons. After her, I met with her mother for a half hour. She is only in her second year of learning English because she took French when she was in school. She has a lot of room for improvement and I'm excited to work with her also. Today, we just talked about her personal life and did a small role play as if she were shopping in a store. Next up, was meeting with the first girl's classmate/friend and her younger sister. I met with the younger sister first. She is very shy so it's hard to come up with things to do for an hour, but I had her draw some things, we practiced colors, shapes, time, and played a little game to get her up and moving. But, I'll tell you it's tough. Then, it was the older one's turn. We started out with her English homework, which consisted of five questions that she had answered in under two minutes. Haha. That was easy. Then, I told her about the books that I had in English and she said her mom had gotten her a book to read with me, which I thought was great! So she read the first several pages to me. The book is The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips. I have heard of the book, but never read it, so I'm excited to read it along with her. Her pronunciation is fantastic and she actually comprehended a lot of the story. There were words here and there that she asked about like clutched, shivered, aisle, echoed, tightly, but those were easily explained. I asked her some follow-up questions about what she had just read and she did great! Then it was back to plate tectonics and such to help her study for the exam as well. Luckily, I had already had my review a couple hours before, so I was prepared to help her study as well.

After all of my lessons, I road the train home and made a small dinner. I missed the majority of El Hormiguero, which is too bad, but it's okay, because I had things to do anyway, like write this blog. Also, when I came home, one of my roommates asked me if I thought the fridge was warm...I definitely think it is, which can only mean the worse..that it is broken. dun dun dunnnn My roommate is going to call our landlord tomorrow and hopefully we will figure out what the problem is. The freezer is functioning, but the fridge is not, it is strange. Luckily, as I said in a recent blog, I'm holding out on going shopping until this weekend, so I don't have too too much stuff in the fridge that can go bad. The only things in the fridge that could go bad of my stuff is some lunch meat and a pack of lemon yogurt that I didn't like in the first place. The rest does not really need to be refrigerated, which is good.

Anyway, I can tell that I am getting tired when I am rambling about the contents of my possibly broken fridge, so it's time for bed. Have a good night. Hasta mañana.

Gypsy Child Thieves

So, today was my first day back to school in four days and luckily, Tuesday is one of my favorite days.
I get to see the class that I really enjoy twice. The class starts with telling the date, weather, and season. It's a good routine the the students more or less have everything down. The weather gives them some problems here and there, but they have a whole year to get it down. The activity for today was watching a short clip that involved the colors and then there was an activity in their book that went along with it. It was cute and they got everything done. Also, on a sidenote, I have decided that loose teeth are gross. Haha. I saw a student throw up on the ground and for some reason, I found that less disgusting than having three students come up to me and wiggle their teeth in my face. ekk. Anyway, the next class went well also. The students in this class were also working on colors and they got to match colored stickers with the name of the color. It's getting to be difficult for them though because their is a lot of writing in their book and they can't even read in Spanish yet. Also, have I mentioned that all the writing is in cursive. Well, not all..just the lowercase letters and the capital letters are print. And the students only know how to write in capital letters. I wish I could remember when I learned to read and write. Mom? Dad? What age was it?

After those two classes, I had the highly anticipated breakfast. I love it every single day, even if it's only something small. Today, I was definitely looking forward to it, because I am trying not to go grocery shopping until this weekend, so I had little for breakfast and little packed for lunch. So the small extra snacks are life savers. :) After breakfast it was on to another class where the students were cutting, pasting, and coloring this numbers activity. There is a girl in the class that is really slow at all of thee above and I don't think it's because she has trouble with it, I think it's because she wants everything so perfect. I watch her intently cut on the line, paste the piece of paper so that it neatly fits inside of the square, and color inside the lines. It's hard to rush her and I imagine that I was somewhat like that with arts and crafts when I was little. :)

Anyway, next was a short meeting with our principal about our health insurance and about the teacher's class that I will be starting this Friday. I'm actually really excited to teach the adult class. It should be an interesting learning experience. We ate lunch and then I was in a kindergarten class for my last class of the day. I practiced some fall words in English with them, then red Little Red Riding Hood to them. I read it in English and then their teacher read it in Spanish. After listening to the classroom teacher read it, I realized that I need to practice my storytelling, but I think I did an okay job still. After I read it in English first, she asked what they understood and this adorable little boy said he didn't understand a word, which isn't entirely true, but it made me laugh. This is the same boy from last week that said something along the lines of, "Oh no, she doesn't understand anything," talking about me. Haha. And it's the same boy from today who I spent a few minutes trying to tell him that his octopus needed an 8th leg. :) He cracks me up and puts a smile on my face.

This was my last class of the day and I headed home after. Once home, I started watching a documentary that I heard about earlier today called Gypsy Child Thieves. It's about the gypsies in Italy and Spain that go around robbing people. I have actually been warned about them several times already, but it was interesting to watch the documentary. If you have any interest in sitting down for an hour to watch it, click here. I was going to say something else here, but I don't want to jinx myself. Anyway, I also got the chance to skype my boyfriend for awhile and avoided going on a run today. Haha.

After all that, I had an early dinner (and by early, I mean 8 p.m.) and I sat down to read Shiloh. I didn't stop until I was finished. Well, that's a lie, I took a small break to watch El Hormiguero, but then it was back to reading. I have two lessons tomorrow, so I can hand out Shiloh and Because of Winn-Dixie, but I haven't decided if I want to yet. I want them to get somewhat of a choice and since I haven't read Bridge to Terabithia yet, I'm not ready to hand it out, but we'll see what happens. Also, I might have already said this in a post, but Shiloh is going to be a challenging book just because of all of the...let's call it "country talk." I don't know what to refer to it as, but proper English is not used throughout the book. Anyway, it is time for bed, I might read a chapter or two of the next book, but maybe not. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I'm anticipating being hungry all day and probably not getting a blog in, but I hope the opposite of those things happen. :) Have a good night! Dulces sueños.

Una sensación lograda

Today was a very successful day! I feel like I got a lot accomplished and yet still had time to lie down and relax! I got up at a decent time, ate breakfast, and headed out to the nearest public library to see if I could check out a book in Spanish to read. Unfortunately, I only had a copy of my passport and they wouldn't accept that, which kind of stinks, but it wasn't a pointless trip, because I got to see the Puerta de Toledo, which is pretty. See...

Instead of walking back to my place, I decided I would try and find a bus that would take me and I found one! So that was exciting. Once I got home, I cleaned the apartment, because it's my day to clean. We all agreed on a schedule and my day is Monday to clean the kitchen, hallway, and living room. It's every woman for herself when it comes to bedrooms and bathrooms, but I went ahead and took care of both of those for me today, too! I then met up with Stephanie to head to the office of our program because we had to pick up a paper for our appointment to get our TIEs! Woo, one step closer and our appointment paper has our NIE on it, so we can get paid with that, which is good! And I can attempt to get a bank account with that again, even though there is a chance that it won't work still, but yay! Also, Stephanie and I got there just in time, because as we were leaving there was a montón de auxiliares at the front door waiting for the same thing. After getting this very important piece of paper, we went to the library again with my passport and I was able to check out a book. They really didn't have a lot of the books that I wanted, but I was able to get one. Hopefully the level of Spanish will be good and hopefully it will be interesting. It's called Crónica de una muerte anunciado (Chronicle of a death foretold) by Gabriel García Marquez, who's most famous books are One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. Anyway, we I got my library card and I checked out that book. I won't start it quite yet because I want to read Shiloh and Bridge to Terabithia first, but I will be starting it soon enough!

My library card!

Stephanie and I took the bus that I found in the morning home and I hung out all afternoon. I blogged, skyped, read part of Shiloh, and cleaned a little more here and there. Then, I went to Retiro park for a run. I went with a group of people and the option is to do a 4k, 6k, or 8k. I was pretty tired after the 4k, my knees were sore from running on the pavement, and I developed a blister in an odd spot on my foot, but I went ahead and did the 6k. But I called it quits after that. I didn't want to push it and I really didn't want to run the 6k, so I knew mentally I wouldn't make it through the 8k, plus the blister was really hurting. Haha, not to make excuses or anything. I will eventually do the 8k...hey, maybe even next week, but today was not that day.

Once I got home, I made dinner and got back to blogging. This is my last blog for today. Finally caught up! Woo. Lucia and I also watched El Hormiguero and I am actually really starting to like it! My favorite clips are the learning English ones. Tonight, the guy was learning words like vegetable, impossible, unbelievable, comfortable, etc. Lucia and I actually signed up to go see the live taping this week. We signed up for tomorrow or Friday so hopefully one of us will get that call saying, "You're the next contestant on the Price Is...oh, I mean..you're invited to come." Tom Hanks is going to be there on Friday, so I would love to go then, but really either day is fine. And we already decided that we are going to keep signing up until we get invited. :) Also, I have been sitting here watching the Voice. They're still doing auditions so Lucia's friend isn't on the show tonight, but it's still fun to watch. Anyway, now it is time for bed. I have school tomorrow after a four day weekend, so that should be fun...

Hope you all had a great Monday! Hasta mañana.

Gracias a Winn-Dixie

Yesterday (Sunday), I slept in..a lot. I think I woke up at 11:30, but didn't roll out of bed until noonish. I ate "breakfast" and was told by my roommate's boyfriend that I was eating an "American" breakfast because I had eggs and toast. Breakfast here usually consists of coffee and some sort of bread and that's it. Whereas in the U.S., we are known for eating breakfasts with eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, french toast, etc. Anyway, I finally left the house at a little after 1 p.m. and went on a 4-mile run with Karin and Stephanie. :) It was a really good run and I was happy that I could still run that much. I did my first road race this past June and it was 4-miles, so I was really happy to know that I was still capable of running that.

After my run, I went home and hung out for a little bit, did some laundry, etc. Then Stephanie, Karin, and I met up again to go to a bookstore called J & J Books and Coffee. It is a bookstore/coffee shop/bar near the center of Madrid. I thought that they were known for having a lot of English books, but come to find out all the books are in English. Which isn't really what I was looking for, I wanted to find a Spanish book to read for myself. However, I did come out with three books for some of the students that I am tutoring. I figured it might challenge them and it would give us something to talk about. I chose the books Because of Winn Dixie, Shiloh, and Bridge to Terabithia. I chose all of these books because I remember reading them when I was little (with the exception of Bridge to Terabithia) and I know they all have movies. So my students can watch them after reading the books. Karin and I had a coupon for free coffee from the event we went to on Friday, but neither of us like coffee so luckily they gave us tea instead. :) So we sat down and drank our tea and looked at our new purchases. We all bought at least one book. We then headed home, made ourselves dinner separately, then met back at Karin's house to edit a picture from the museum in Toledo and to finish watching The Pianist. It was a good movie, but it didn't blow me away. Possibly because we didn't completely pay attention and maybe because we split up watching it. However, it was still good, don't get me wrong.

Also, I spent the night at Karin's reading Because of Winn-Dixie and I finished it! All 182 pages! Of course, it is a short book, but I was pretty proud of myself. I want to read all three before I hand them out to the students, so I can help them out more because the plot and level of the books will be fresh in my mind. So, one book down, two to go. Think I can finish all three of them by Thursday?! I don't think so, I might have to wait until next week to hand them out. Anyway, I went home and went to bed! And that's that. Hope all of you had fantastic weekends. I know I did. And I don't work Mondays so..four day weekend! :)

Día de la Fiesta Nacional

Waiting for the parade to start

On Saturday, the 12th of October, I got up early with my roommate, Lucia, and Stephanie and Karin. We met at the train station and headed towards the center to watch a parade for the Día de la Fiesta Nacional. The 12th of October is a holiday here in Spain and I wanted to know how it was celebrated, so I googled it and found out there was a parade. That's how we ended up there, but the 12th of October has had several names. For example, in Latin America, it is known as Día de la Raza. In the United States, it is known as Columbus Day. And in Spain, not only is it there day to celebrate the nation, but it is also the Día de las Fuerzas Armadas (Armed Forces Day). So the parade is full of all of the different military groups in Spain. We got there super early, because people kept telling me to get there early. The negative to getting there early was that I was given the wrong information as to where the Royal family would be sitting. So we got great spots for the parade, but later we found out that the Prince and Princess were about two large blocks away. It was okay though, because it was just the prince. The King and Queen weren't present this year. Also, I assume that there were a ton of people and newscasters in that area, so there was a possibility that we wouldn't have seen much.

Anyway, after the long wait, there was finally a signal that the parade was beginning. A flyover of planes with the colors of the Spanish flag.

The parade was pretty cool and I have some pictures and a few videos to share, but I'm sorry that I can't tell you what every group is. I wish I knew. It was cool to see all of the different uniforms and marches. The video I have is of the Legión Española (Spanish Legion), which is a unit of the Spanish army and I'm pretty sure they are the most known force in the parade because of their fast march and their mascot..a goat.

Royal Guards

By far my favorite uniforms!

They have skis!

Although, these people have capes...which is pretty cool, too.

After the parade ended, we started walking towards where the stage was. There were still quite a few people standing around so Lucia asked what was up and the security said that they still had to lower the flag, so we took a seat and waited. A group marched back in and lowered the flag.

Folding the flag

Here are some more pictures from just walking around. You have seen a few of these buildings already, but here are some more. :)

Plaza de Cibeles

Banco de España

Ayuntamiento de Madrid

Crowd of people leaving the parade

Fuente de Neptuno

Atocha Train Station

After all of these festivities, Stephanie, Karin, and I met up with Karin's friend of a friend, Issac, at a food market. We hung out for quite awhile and got different types of food and shared it all. We got pita and salsa, tortilla española, and this pita/feta thing. Everything was pretty good. After hanging out for a long time, we wanted ice cream, too, so Issac took us to an ice cream place and it was delicious! I had a raspberry/chocolate cone and it was sooo good! Then we all went our separate ways for the day. When I got home, I blogged a little bit, but you wouldn't know because they didn't get posted until today. I also spent time editing pictures and uploading them to Facebook. So sorry if your friends with me on Saturday. Hopefully, I can finish blogging about the weekend tonight. Then that means you would have a total of four blogs to read! :)