Everything happens for a reason

The rest of this week was pretty average at school. I am still confused why I am a class with second graders that is arts and crafts where they are given a project to work on and I sit there while they do it, but oh well. Anyway, I found out that I do have to go to school on Monday even though most auxiliares have off. The government in Bormujos did not approve for us to have Oct 31st off, so we will be celebrating Halloween that day. The students are really excited for the Halloween games and carnival!

Today, Bridget and I were going to go to Ronda which is a beautiful city that is south of Sevilla. It is one of "los pueblos blancos" which means "white villages" where all of the buildings are white and beautiful. There is a lot of walking around and huge mountains/valleys to see. We got to the bus station about a half hour before the bus was due to leave and the ticket stand was closed. So, we walked to the bus and asked people if we had to buy tickets on board and they said they already had tickets and the bus was completely full. We waited while the bus loaded to see if there were going to be any open spots, but there were not. So when we walked back into the station, we decided to see if the ticket stand was open to buy tickets for tomorrow.

Instead of heading home, we decided to take the TUSSAM (tram) into the city. It is basically a glorified people mover that is really unnecessary, but it was a good experience. Then we got a coffee at Starbucks (even though it was SUPER expensive). We decided to go into the Archivo de Indias which is the building in Seville that houses all of the documents about explorers journeys around the world. We were reading about the Nao Victoria which was the first ship to travel around the world and bring back cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves to Spain when an older Spanish man came over and started sharing all of his knowledge about the history of the building. He walked us through the entire building and was explaining everything to us. We learned that all of the mahogany paneling was brought over from the Caribbean, that the documents are actually housed in an adjacent building to preserve them and that there are over 60,000 documents housed there about the finding of America and journeys around the world. So, although our original plans did not work out, we ended up having an amazing time learning more about our city!

Bobbing for Apples

Today was the most fun day that I have had at school so far. I had planned on having the 6th graders write a story about entering a haunted house. Instead, I walked upstairs and Milagros told me that we were going to have a Halloween party today. She had two huge plastic crates that we were going to fill with water. Each of the kids was told to bring an apple from home and we played Bobbing for Apples. The kids thought it was hilarious and loved playing the game. Most of the boys were dunking their head completely underwater because they really wanted to win. They all looked like wet dogs when they finally had the apple in their mouth. We also played pin the face on the jack-o-lantern. The students thought that game was also very entertaining. I found out that Spaniards have a huge misconception of Halloween. They think that everything on Halloween has to be extremely scary. I told them that I am going to dress up as a cowgirl for Halloween and they were saying that it is a bad costume. I said that most people in the USA don't dress up scary, so I was going to stick with my choice.  

Other than that, nothing much has been going on here. My roomies and I are all starting to feel a little bored with our lives. We want to find more things to do such as dance or cooking class. The problem we are having is that everything is extremely expensive, so we need to keep looking. We just want to make some more Spanish friends so that on Sunday we are not so bored anymore.

Music in Education

On Wednesday, I got to see the 6th graders again for the second time. I really, really enjoy working with them because they are at a much higher level of English than the other children I work with and there is so much more we can do together. I was told by the teacher that when I come in, she wants me to do fun stuff and has given me pretty much complete liberty to do what I want to reinforce what they are doing in English class. Right now, they are learning about comparative adjectives (faster, bigger, smaller, etc.). So, I thought that something fun we could do would be to listen to a song and fill in the lyrics that I removed. I was trying to think of a good song that had a lot of -er words in it and I came up with the song "Stronger" by Kanye West feat. Daft Punk. The students loved the song and really enjoyed the lesson. We also started pen pal letters because they are going to have pen pal's in the US in my good friend Jennifer's classroom. They didn't finish their letters, but they are extremely excited about having a new friend who lives (as one student put it) "millions of kilometers away!"

Thursday I got to prepare a ton of materials for the Halloween party we are having at school. The principal of the school told me that I was working too hard, like a dog. I did a lot of cutting and laminating which wasn't a whole lot of fun, but now they will have the games and flashcards for years to come. The most frustrating part was trying to print the stuff out. We found a lot of great materials on www.sparklebox.co.uk, but then our color printer wasn't working and for some reason, it would not save to my flash drive. So, I had to re-find all of the materials that I had found before and print them out in black and white.

Yesterday, we went to the beach in Cadiz. The last time I was in Cadiz, it was only for one night for Carnaval. It is a beautiful city with really nice beaches during the day. The weather was perfect for the beach and we are really glad we went since it is probably going to be our last beach day until March.

Guapa!

Yesterday was my first time babysitting here in Spain. I was worried that it was going to be too long of a time, since it was just one ten year girl for 3 hours, but it ended up being a lot of fun. I pick her up right when I get home from Bormujos. I have to catch the metro from near my bus stop to her school. I pick her up then we study her English vocabulary for the week. After, I was showing her my iPhone which she loved. She played AngryBirds and Fruit Ninja on my phone. Then we had time to play a couple quick games of Connect 4, all of which she beat me in. So, it turns out kids here aren't any different from kids in the USA.

Today in first grade, I was surprised by my students at the beginning of the class. They were coming in from recess and each one gave me a kiss on the cheek (I was sitting down) before going to their seats. It was a little bit weird because in the US, you can't even safely hug a child without worrying about the repercussions. Then, I said good morning to the students as I always do and they replied "Good morning, hello guapa!" (pretty girl). So I tried to teach them the word for pretty because they are constantly calling me guapa (which I'm not complaining about, what girl doesn't want to be told she looks pretty), but since it was English class, I figured I would teach them. The best they could get was "peely" so we are going to keep working on that word each class. I think they will catch on in a couple of weeks...

Friends

Well, we did it, we finally made some Spanish friends. Seeing as we didn't have school on Wednesday, we went out to a bar on Tuesday night. We met a group of Spaniards while we were there and exchanged numbers with them. They came over to our apartment last night and we had a lot of fun. They are all very funny and very helpful with Spanish. We baked chocolate chip cookies before they came over yesterday. They thought they were delicious, since Spaniards aren't huge on desserts. We told them that the next time they come over we will make them brownies.

School has still been a whirlwind of uncertainty. One of the teachers has been very helpful and finally gave me a yearly plan. She said that each unit will be two weeks and I should plan activities to help the students learn the vocabulary in each unit. This week and next week's unit is bones and muscles. The students really enjoyed cutting out and gluing a skeleton together the other day and labeling the bones. I don't think they get to do much arts/crafty stuff on a regular basis, so they were really excited about it. I still have no idea what I am doing in 1st grade. Everyday when I go in is a surprise. I am hoping by the end of next week I feel more comfortable in my school.

Tonight, Bridget and I are going over to her friend Fidel's house for dinner. He is the friend who cooked us dinner a few weeks ago. He is going to make us fajitas! We are so excited to have them and he is also going to install Rosetta Stone on our computers so that we can become trilingual if we want. :)

Feeling Sevillana

Today I feel very accomplished. School was a lot of fun. I read the book There Is A Bird on Your Head by Mo Willems to all of my classes today. I related it to emotions in 2nd grade and to body parts/simple emotions in 1st grade. Even the 1st graders who have been looking at me as if I am an alien were laughing and smiling throughout the entire story. All of my cooperating teachers decided that it was the most amazing book ever and think that they are going to use some of their grant money from the government to buy Elephant and Piggie books. :)

During the break time, I finally made a teacher friend! His name is Joaquin and he teaches in 4th grade. He approached me and asked how things have been going so far for me. He told me that he would teach me some Spanish recipes when I told him I was getting bored with my food. He also told me about some different opportunities to get involved in the community such as Latin dance classes, mountain climbing and rowing in the Guadlquiver. It was nice to have someone approach me and start up a conversation!

 After school, I did two things that I have been wanting to do, but I was too nervous to try until today. After my success in school, I was ready to go out into the city and become more of a citizen. The first thing that I did was go to the public library. I love to read and I think that I would go crazy if I didn't check out books, since I don't have much else to do yet. It was quite a process, but I found that they had children's literature in English (which I am very excited to incorporate into my classroom). They have a wide selection of fiction and non fiction adult books. They also have adult books in English. I checked out one novel in English and one in Spanish. I want to read Spanish books to better my Spanish vocabulary, but sometimes I will also want to read English books to understand everything easily. Getting my library card wasn't difficult like I thought it might be, I only needed my passport. But, just like everything in Spain, it took a long time because nobody was in any sort of hurry to help me.

After getting the card, I wanted to accomplish another one of my goals, buying meat at the supermarket. This doesn't seem like a big feat to anybody, but they don't sell meat prepackaged and ready to go like they do in the United States. I had to approach the butcher and ask for the cut of meat that I wanted and the amount in kilos that I wanted. Every time I have gone to the market so far, I've wandered by the meat counter and chickened out on buying anything. So finally today, I walked up and said "Quiero medio kilo de filetas de pechuga de pollo" (I want a half kilo of chicken breast fillets.) The butcher said "OK, muy bien!" (Great!) I think that he had noticed that I was nervous and he may have even noticed that I have chickened out before. He cut my meat for me and cut off all of the fat without my asking.

I know both of these things seem small, but I feel great right now! :)

3 day weekends=amazing

I am so excited that I have a three day weekend every weekend while I am here. I only work Monday-Thursday because I only work 12 hours a week.

Thursday night was a lot of fun. We went to a tapas bar called La Suerna which is on the corner. Every time we pass by, the place is packed with a bunch of people who are in their 20's. We went there not only because of the crowd, but also because on Thursday's they have 2 for 1 raciones. Raciones are big plates of food. Each one costs 6 euro, so we paid 12 euro for 4 plates of food to share between 6 people. It was a good amount of food and it was absolutely delicious. It is mainly a seafood tapas bar with items such as muscles, shrimp, and squid. The bar is owned by the same man who runs the Cien Montaditos restaurant, so we were pretty sure that it was going to be good before we went. After Suerna, we went down the street to Bar Emilio that we think is going to become our neighborhood bar. Antonio was our waiter there both times we went this week and he was really excited to see us again with more friends. 


Friday we ended up going to the beach in Matalascanas. The weather was perfect for the beach and we got to relax. It was the first time since we have been here that I felt relaxed since there has been so much to do with getting settled in. 
















Friday night we decided to go out on the town to find Spanish friends.  Our goal was to make a couple of friends, so we decided to approach a group of 3 Spanish girls. We asked them what was fun to do in the area and they said we should just join them for the night. We were walking down the sidewalk with them and met up with a group of about 15 of their friends. We talked and hung out for a long time with the group and they were all very welcoming and eager to be our friends. We are having plans with them again on Tuesday night since we don't have school on Wednesday for Spanish Independence Day. :)


The past two days have been a lot of catching up on sleep, laundry and Skyping with friends. Last night, Bridget and I just stayed in and watched a movie so that we could go to sleep early. Today, I have been planning even though I am not really sure what I am supposed to be teaching this week. I still need the teachers to give me an idea of their plans for the week so we can work together to teach. I don't really like going into the classroom and having the teachers say "You are here, OK GO!" Hopefully more things will be explained this week and I will get more used to my schedule...

No Pasa Nada

My roommates and I went to Cien Montaditos for dinner last night because Wednesday is Euro day. Everything costs a euro including jars of beer/tinto de verano. We had a great night out in our part of the city and plan on repeating it often.

Today was a stressful day. I had to be at school at 9 today, so I got up and ready to go. I got to my bus stop at 7:50 thinking that the bus was at 8. So, I sat waiting for the bus and after awhile I checked my phone. It was 8:05, so I figured I should check the schedule and it turns out that the bus was at 7:45. I started to freak out and I decided it would be best to hop in a taxi to go to Plaza de Armas because there are more buses that leave from there. I ran to the closest taxi stand, which was about a 10 minute run from my bus stop. The taxi driver drove me there, but then I realized I only had a 50 euro bill. He did not have change, so he drove up the street a bit so that I could get change at a gas station. After finally getting to the station and paying my driver, I ran into the bus station to see my bus pulling away. I was so overwhelmed and upset because I knew that there was no way for me to get to school on time. At 9:40 I finally arrived at school and ran into my classroom and immediately began apologizing profusely. The first thing out of my coordinators mouth was "No pasa nada" (don't worry about it!) She made me feel ok about skipping out on class, so it was a huge relief. Other than being late, school today was really great. My students really seem to be understanding feelings and the 5 senses. My coworkers have been talking to me more and including me in conversations.

Tonight, we are going out for tapas with some other girls from our program, which should be a lot of fun. Tomorrow, we are planning on going to the beach since we have Friday's off :)

Do you (e)speak (e)Spanish?

The second and third days of school have been better than the first. Today was my first day in a sixth grade classroom and I absolutely loved it. They are at a much higher level of English than all of the other students that I teach, so I will be able to do a lot more with them. I am already looking forward to working with them next week. I think that I am going to play a song and have them fill in the lyrics of the song to learn about comparative adjectives. Now I just have to find the song.

My favorite part of teaching today is that the students had so many questions for me. They were asking me if I lived near any celebrities, so I told them that Michael Jordan's (old) house is right down the street from mine. Then they started asking me about other celebrities such as Justin Beiber, Selena Gomez, iCarly, and Michael Jackson. About half of their questions I couldn't answer because I simply didn't know the answers. I did make one mistake in both my 6th grade classes today though, the students figured out that I speak Spanish (which they aren't supposed to know...). In the first, I was listening to their questions and one girl asked "When is your birthday?" and I wrote it on the board as 21 de enero. I realized what I had done right away, so I erased it with my hand. I was not quick enough and they saw that I wrote in Spanish. In the other class one of the girls asked "Do you have a novio?" and I responded that I didn't have a boyfriend. So, I had to explain to both classes that I do speak Spanish, but when I am in class with them, I don't speak/understand Spanish at all. They agreed to try their hardest in English because I will feign stupidity when they try to talk to me in Spanish.

During the break time today, I was working on filling out a form in the break room. A bunch of the teachers were cutting out tiny slips of paper that said "Dear Parents, We regret to inform you that a case of piojos has been discovered in the school." I could translate all of the other words except piojos, so I asked one of the teachers what it was. She said "I don't know how you say in English, but bugs in your hair." So, today I learned the word for lice. I am really hoping that I don't get it because I am pretty sure that it is in the first grade classrooms that I work in 4 times a week. :(

One more day this week!

First Day of School

Today was my first day of school at CEIP El Manantial in Bormujos. It is a school of Infantil and Primaria which means 3 year olds-12 year olds. I am in 3 second grade classrooms a week, 2 first grade classrooms a week and 2 sixth grade classrooms a week. I am assisting a lead teacher in each level to teach English and Social Science. The things that are going to be most difficult are working with the teachers, whose English isn't exactly great and working with the first graders.

First grade was the first class that I went to today. The children in first grade have only been learning English for about a month (since the beginning of the school year), so they have barely any vocabulary since their teacher says most of the English class in Spanish. They literally looked at me like I was an alien from a different planet while I was introducing myself and when I asked if anyone had questions, nobody had any questions. The teacher wasn't really helping them along either, but afterward we played Simon Says with the body parts,  which they really enjoyed. Overall, even though it will be the most difficult, I think I will see the most improvement in the first grade, which will be most rewarding.

After first grade, I went to two of my second grade classes. I really enjoyed both of them. The students had a lot more to say and were very excited to practice their English with me! They asked what my favorite color, food, drink, sport, animal and plant were. They all wanted to share their answers too. They also took a huge interest in the photos I brought in of Chicago, my family and my friends. They were very curious about everything and I think they will be a pleasure to teach.

I hope that I get to know the staff at my school better because I was kind of lonely at the break time today. My school runs from 9 am-2 pm with a break from 11:45-12:15 (recess for the kids). During the break, the teachers who do not have recess duty have a snack in the break room and chat with each other. Nobody was really making an effort to include me in conversations, even though I was right there and trying to get involved. I guess I will have to be a bit more proactive tomorrow and start talking to people.

After school, my roommates and I went to the CIEE office to have them make copies for our Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero. This is a card that will allow me to enter and leave the country after my visa expires in December. The staff at CIEE was very nice and willing to make copies for us and let us use the computers to print things. I also got a secondary job on top of my teaching while I was there. I am going to be babysitting/tutoring a 10 year old girl 2 days a week after I get back from teaching. It will be nice to have the extra income, hopefully I can use it to go on a trip or something sometime soon.

Settled In

We have finally gotten to a point where we are all settled into our new place. It has been a pretty interesting weekend with a lot of random events. On Thursday, I did my laundry for the first time (after actually learning how to use the washing machine!) Our washer is pretty old, but it does a great job of cleaning things. We do not have a dryer, so we have to hang our clothes out to dry on a line. I was really nervous putting out my first load, I was sure that everything was going to fall off and I would never see it again, but I was successful and got all my clothes off.

On Friday during the day, I went out to Bormujos to visit my school. The first thing that I realized when I got off the bus is that I am really glad that I am living in Sevilla. Bormujos is a very cute, but very small city, I literally walked from one end to the other in 10 minutes. Besides the city being small though, I really enjoyed my first visit out. All of the teachers that I am working with seem very excited to be working together. I will be teaching 1st, 2nd and 6th grade English and Science. It is a bilingual school, so I will be working with other bilingual teachers. The students are precious and I cannot wait to get to know them better.

We went out in Sevilla on Friday night which was a lot of fun. I got to experience the nightlife here and we met a bunch of new people. We went to a bar on Calle Betis where there weren't too many other people (probably because we were there kind of early). Then we decided to walk to a different place called Alfalfa. We ran into some people from our orientation there and we also made some new Spanish friends. We also finally got our first roomie picture together!
(Emily, Kathleen, Me, Bridget)

Saturday we all slept away most of the day, since we weren't used to going out like the Spaniards do. After spending most of the day bumming around, we went to a cafe to meet up with Bridget's friend Fidel. Fidel came over to our place and cooked us dinner because he said we weren't eating well and he wanted to teach us how to. Most of what we have been eating either comes from a can, is tuna, or is a sandwich. So, he taught us a recipe for chicken with onions and thyme. It was so delicious and filling and now we know how to order meat. One kilo feeds about 5 people, so we can always order that much then freeze some. We also learned that when ordering meat, the butcher tends to leave the fat on the meat so that he can charge you more for it. Then, when you get home, you have to cut off a ton what you are given because it isn't edible.

Today, I prepared what I am going to do in my classroom tomorrow. I am going to take in pictures of my family, friends, and hometown. I am also going to talk about some of my favorites (color, food, sport, etc.) and then I am going to have the students work with a partner to come up with a list of their favorites. This way they can practice conversation and I can learn more about each individual.