Super blog for the Super Bowl!

I realize that it has been quite awhile since my last blog, I have been extremely busy!

Two weekends ago, I went to Arcos de la Frontera which was beautiful. The weather was perfect for walking through the hilly city. Our hosts took us up the top of the city which is the Old Town. We got to look off of many picturesque cliffs. The views were breathtaking. We also went inside an art shop. Besides our tour, we did a lot of eating because food and drinks were very cheap in Arcos.

Last week at school was a short week. I took Thursday off because I was going to meet my dad in Madrid to go to Germany. Last Monday was Dia de La Paz (Day of Peace) here in Spain. To celebrate, I taught all of my students the song Imagine by John Lennon. Milagros even taught the 3rd-5th graders the song, so the entire school could sing the song if we wanted them to. With my first grade students, I also did an art activity. They cut out doves and made a peace ring that said "paz" on one side and "peace" on the other. With the 2nd and 6th grade students, we talked about how to make the world a more peaceful place. The students came up with some amazing ideas and even more amazingly said some of them in English. My only issue at school this week was in 6th grade. The students were more interested in talking about an issue that happened on the playground that learning English. Apparently someone threw ham (off of his sandwich) at another student. I was having a hard time keeping a straight face because I really wanted to laugh at this being such a huge issue, but I couldn't laugh. We did not finish the activity that I had planned because they were more worried about yelling at each other in Spanish. Milagros told them that I am not going to come anymore until they can get their act together. So, this week, I am not supposed to go to the 6th grade classes. I think that will bore me a bit...but if it will make the students eager to have me back in class, then I will sit around for a couple of hours on Wednesday.

My trip to Germany with my dad was AWESOME! Although the weather was extremely cold, the trip was a total success. We got to visit Wiesloch, Germany where a lot of our Schweinfurth cousins live. We had the opportunity to meet them and get lunch with them. We also got to learn about Georg Schweinfurth, an ancestor who was a famous explorer in Africa. He was a very interesting man that did a lot of different things such as draw a map of the Nile river, explore tombs, find new varieties of plants, learn about pygmies, invented the Toy of the Year, has his own Swiss chocolate and was on the cover of a woman's magazine. The next day we had the opportunity to head out to Schweinfurt, Germany. This is where my ancestors were originally from. The "h" was added onto our last name when they moved to Wiesloch and Nurenburg.  They were originally Episcopalian, but then they turned Catholic where they added the h. It was great learning about so much history and seeing where my family comes from. Also, getting to see my dad was great! I can't wait to see him again when he comes over in May with my mom.

Last night was the Super Bowl. I have been jealous all week looking at people's photos of the Super Bowl village in Indianapolis! It looks like it was a lot of fun! I am pretty jealous that I did not get to try out the zip line or meet Jimmy Fallon. Anyway, Joanna is a Giant's fan and she really wanted to watch the game. So, we got tickets to an event that was put on by We Love Spain (an event planning organization mainly for study abroad students). We had to pay 10 euro to get into the event and we got free popcorn, beer and hot dogs during the game. It was a very American night, which was a lot of fun. Since the Super Bowl did not start until 12:35 am, I did not end up getting home until very early this morning. It was worth the fun night, but I do wish it had ended earlier!! 

Technology- Best friend and worst enemy all in one

This week was better than last week in terms of student behavior, but I still had a tough week. I taught the worst lesson I have ever taught in my entire time teaching so far. I also had a lot of other mishaps throughout the week.

In 2nd grade science/social studies, my students got their Animals exams back. I am proud to say that only 1 student failed and over half got a 8 or above (their grading system is out of 10). I feel that this was the first unit where they really understood not only the topic, but the English vocabulary as well. We continued working on our plants unit, which is going by very quickly since they already learned all of the vocabulary last year in 1st grade. Tuesday was a bit of a rough day because my co-teacher left me (and her cell phone) alone with the class. Normally, it isn't a problem for me to be by myself with the children, but the issue was, her cell phone kept going off. Her ringtone is "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 and don't get me wrong, I like that song, but having 28 children dancing and off topic every time the phone rang was a bit distracting. Today, the students listened to the story The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle, then made tissue paper flower collages. Reading the book to the class was a bit difficult since the book was in Spanish and I had to translate and read at the same time.

 

 

In 1st grade, I was proposed to this week. At the end of class on Monday, one of my students Francisco came up and gave me a huge hug. I call him my extra limb every class because he always comes up and attaches himself onto my middle. As he was hugging me, he told me that I am "guapa" (pretty) and that he loves me with about 10 different words. Then he went on to say that he couldn't imagine living one day without me in his life. It was pretty precious, but his girlfriend (yes, he is 7 and has a girlfriend), got very upset and started crying. Needless to say, I turned him down and told him to go back with Paula.

6th grade was really tough this week. I walked in and had a lesson prepared, but nothing seemed to go right. I had taken Adele's "Someone Like You" and removed some words from the lyrics. I took out words that we have been working on as vocabulary, mainly contractions and past tense verbs. In my first class, the lesson worked, everything was great. We used the Promethean Board to write in the missing lyrics as a class and then I had the whole class sing the song. Then, I went into my other 6th grade class. I plugged my flash drive into the smart board, pressed play and the sound was absolutely awful. So, I decided, no big deal, I will just plug it into the CD player. The speakers on the CD player were broken. Then I plugged it into the computer and those speakers were broken TOO! I decided to go ask for a CD down in the secretary's office, but then when I tried to burn the CD, it wouldn't work. I decided to try and find the video on YouTube, which also had awful sound. I finally gave up because almost 45 of our 55 minutes together had passed. I decided that I would just sing the song. Ok, I can sing since I was in choir for so long, but Adele? You've got to be kidding me, I made a huge fool of myself in front of the class The students weren't even filling in the words, they were laughing at me. Milagros was talking to the students about respecting each other and themselves because they have been having a lot of issues with that is the 6th grade recently, so it wasn't a complete loss of a day, but I still felt embarrassed and bad.

This weekend, I am going to visit a small village called Arcos de la Fronterra. I think it will be nice to get away for a night and just relax. I am really looking forward to next week when my dad gets here and we go to Schweinfurt, Germany.

"Teacher, it's your happy birthday"

This week at school was a bit of a rough week. The students were being very difficult and acting like they were still on winter break even though break ended 2 weeks ago. I think that the most difficult part is that discipline here is very different than classroom discipline in the US. I have a hard time watching the teachers discipline students because they scream in the students faces. Or they have the students stand up in the middle of the classroom. This is just so different from how I plan on disciplining in my classroom that I get very uncomfortable when I have to watch it.

All of my classes were difficult this week, but I think that the class that was most difficult was the 1st grade kids who I teach bilingual science to. The main reason they were difficult is that their teacher was not around this week because she was sick. So, they had substitutes every day and by Thursday, the activities she had planned ran out. So, I had to come up with some quick plans on my feet. I decided to play a flashcard game where the first team to say what was on the flashcard got a point. It was going really well minus two children. One who decided it would be a good idea to hide from me underneath his desk (not the best hiding spot seeing as all of the sides are open) and another who just kept shouting out the answers even though he was warned multiple times not to shout. It was very frustrating to work with them because I am not supposed to speak in Spanish. They don't understand a lot of disciplining in English because they just don't have the vocabulary yet. I ended up having to use Spanish for the first time because I just got so overwhelmed by them. Once I said something in Spanish, they were quiet and respectful (for the most part).

The best part of the week was on Thursday. I took cookies to school with me to share them with the professors for my birthday (took them in Thursday because I don't work Friday and my birthday was Saturday). On your birthday in Spain, you bring the cake and share it with everybody, nobody brings a cake to you. So, I took in the cookies and in every class that day, my students sang me "Happy Birthday" in English and in Spanish. I even had one student sing it to me in German, which was pretty cool. As I walked through the hallways, everybody was stopping me to say "Teacher, it's your happy birthday." I didn't have the heart to tell them that we just say "happy birthday" or "it's your birthday" because it was too cute that they were trying so hard in English.

On Friday, I celebrated my birthday with all of my friends in Spain. We went to Samuri for lunch which is a sushi restaurant and it was delicious! Then, Friday night we had a party in our apartment which was a blast. Everyone that I know in Sevilla made an effort to at least stop by. I even got some interesting gifts. Thanks to Joanna for the knives- we have no working knives in our kitchen, so I jokingly said she should get me some for my birthday. Also thanks to Samantha and Clarissa for the birthday cake, it was delicious! And thank you to Kathleen and Jackie for the gifts as well. On my actual birthday, the two soccer team in Sevilla, Sevilla and Betis, played each other. This game is a huge deal in Sevilla, almost everybody goes to a bar to watch it and people get very excited. They all wear shirts and scarves from whatever team they like best. We went to a bar down the street to watch the game. The bar was absolutely packed, which made it fun. The game ended in a tie, which was probably a good thing because I've head fights break out sometimes during this game. All in all, the week was a pretty good one, I just hope this week is a little easier at school.

The week Justin Bieber broke my heart

This first week back at school has been a lot of fun. I have really missed my students and the staff at my school and I am so glad to be back. We have been working on a new unit in almost all of my classes.

On Monday, school was a whirlwind of students running up and crushing me with their hugs. They all said that they were worried about me and thought that I was never coming back. I reassured them that I will be here until the end of May and that they do not have to worry! After school, I was sitting at the bus stop waiting for my bus when an old man approached me. He asked why I was in Bormujos and I explained that I teach English at the primary school. He was shocked and said he has two grandsons at the school and then pulled out two pictures. I knew one of the students from my sixth cycle class. Paco (the grandpa) pulled out his cell phone and called his grandon. So, I got to talk to one of y students over the phone which was a very strange experience, I did not know if I should speak in English or Spanish. Then, Paco insisted on paying for my bus fare becasue I am doing so much for his grandon. I was very thankful and happy to meet a new friend.

On Tuesday, we started a unit about the rooms in a house in my first grade class. The students caught on quickly and while we were doing an activity, some students began to act out because they were bored. One student in particular would not leave a little girl in the class alone. We said that she must be his novia (girlfriend) and he was very embarassed. Since we brought up the word girlfriend, the students began chanting that Fernando (our PE teacher) is my boyfriend. I had to set the record straight, so I told them that Justin Bieber is my boyfriend. They were all disbelievers until I sang them lyrics from a song. After that, they believed he was my boyfriend, it was hillarious!

Today, while I was in the same class, the students asked if I could bring in a picture of my boyfriend and me. I told them that I broke up with him because he wrote a song about another girl. They were all so mad at him for doing that and asked if I was sad about it. I told them I was very, very sad and that I needed them to cheer me up. They all sang songs to me from last semester and were very good listeners the whole day as we reviewed our house vocabulary. So, although Justin Bieber broke my heart, it turned out to be a great day at school. :)

Rebajas=A month of Black Friday

I am back in Sevilla after 3 weeks at home. While I was home I went on a lovely trip to the Dominican Republic with my family where we had a good time spending Christmas on the beach. I got to spend time with almost everybody that I wanted to see and had a blast on New Year's Eve in Wrigleyville with some of my favorite Butler people. I also enjoyed the luxuries of central heat, a clothes dryer, a dishwasher and being able to use the data plan on my iPhone.

January is a very exciting month in Spain. Every single store is in its period of "rebajas" (sales). Today was the first day that the stores were open with the sales and every store had many items 50-70% off. When I got in yesterday, Bridget had talked to Pilar (our wonderful neighbor) and asked her about going rebajas shopping. Pilar said that we needed to be at the stores when they opened to get anything good. This meant leaving our apartment at 8:30 (very early for Spaniards and very early for a very jet lagged me) to walk over to the center of the city. On the way in, we stopped at the new Dunkin Coffee to get a cup of coffee to perk us up for the day.
                                                         
The first place we went was Zara where I bought a new dress after trying it on in the middle of the store over my jeans and tank top. I'm pretty sure the Spaniards were thinking I was a crazy American, but I'm not too worried about it. We had to wait in line for 15 minutes to check out, which wasn't too bad, then we moved on. After that store, every single store was completely packed with people and hard to maneuver. The lines to check out wrapped around the entire store at least once indicating that it would be about an hour to check out. So, although we walked around and saw some other things that we might have liked to buy, we did not end up buying anything else in the city center. We stopped for a quick snack before heading back to Calle Asuncion (the street that we live at the end of). Fortunately, there are many stores on Calle Asuncion that are the same as the ones in the center, just smaller and way less packed. We ended up finding a few other items and then headed home.

After a 2.5 hour nap, I am feeling well rested and I think by tomorrow my jet lag will be gone. Tonight we are headed back into the centro to go to our favorite tapas bar, Los Coloniales. We are meeting up with our friend Clarissa. The thing that makes me happiest about being back is that I get to see everybody again and I cannot wait to meet and catch up. I am also really looking forward to school starting on Monday :)

Mistletoe

This week at school has been as the Spaniards say "un rollo" a struggle. It happens at every school, there is always so much to cram into the last 2 weeks of classes before a term ends. Not only are final tests being given, grades were also due this week. And we have our Christmas show on Friday. And the parents brought churros and chocolate yesterday which cost 1.50 euro per child. And the school is taking a trip to the movies next week which cost 7.00 euro per child. And they have a show next week in Spanish on Friday.

Needless to say, we have been trying to get everything done in time and it has been quite an adventure. The students feel the same crazy pressure that the teachers feel, so they act out more and are making the teachers even more stressed out. I feel their pressure even though I don´t have to do anything with grades or tests (besides explain the questions). With having such a horrible cold from Bilbao, this week has been rough. I have been trying to teach Christmas carols to all of my 1st and 2nd grade classes with a super sore throat. They are finally starting to actually know the words (hopefully they know by the show tomorrow!!).

My favorite story from the week happened in my 2B class. This class is singing I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. I was explaining what the words meant. One of the students asked what mistletoe is. I drew a picture on the blackboard and said that it was a plant with small red fruits on it. Then I went over to the door, pointed out that we put it on the door frame and said when two people walk by, they have to kiss. About half of the students really understood what it was. There was one student who had NO idea and kept shouting out "IT´S SNOW!" and I was like, no it´s not, but I guess I am glad you are speaking English. Once they finally understood what the song was about they began booing and making sad faces. I had to explain that it is a tradition to kiss, it wasn´t a bad thing that Santa is kissing Mommy. It was quite an adventure.

I am really excited for the show tomorrow. The children will be singing Jingle Bells, He wears a red coat, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I am nervous about how the singing part will go, but they will look cute in their santa hats/reindeer horns and their dancing is great! The parents will be coming to watch, which also makes me nervous, but it´ll be fine. Tomorrow is my last day of school before heading home for break for 3 weeks. I can´t wait to celebrate Christmas with my family and see all of my friends. :)

Al Norte- A Trip to Bilbao and San Sebastian

Last week with Constitution Day and the Immaculate Conception, we only had school on Monday and Wednesday. So, I took the oppotunity to travel into the northern part of Spain that I have not had the oppotunity to visit yet. I highly recommend visiting the area, it is an amazing place that is very different from the rest of Spain. I traveled with my rooommate Kathleen and a friend Kelsey. We didn´t plan our trip together, but by happenstance, we all ended up in Bilbao the same weekend. I was planning on travelling by myself, which I did a couple of times during study abroad, but as always it was nice to have company :)

We started our trip on Thursday around 2 pm and arrived at our hostel around 9 pm. The first night we were there, we asked the man at the front desk for some suggestions of where to eat. We went out for pinxtos (tapas, but on top of bread). The way it works is that you just go into any bar or cafe, approach the bar and point out what pinxtos you want. One of my favorite ones that we got while we were there was the first night. It was jamon serrano, 1/2 a hard boiled egg, mayo, and a shrimp. Eating it was kind of difficult, but it was a lot of fun and it was delicious! We went to a bar where our hostel man said a lot of young people hang out and got delicious mushrooms that were cooked in garlic.

The next morning, we got up and headed out to see Bilbao. We went to the San Nicolas church where they were having a nativity exhibit. The exhibit was very intricate. Since Spain is such a Catholic country, the nativity scenes are a HUGE deal here. They were really cool, they even had parts that moved, like a stableman nailing a horseshoe onto a horse. I really enjoyed it. After that, we had some churros and chocolate, a very typical Spanish snack during the winter. Then, we walked over to the funicular that took us up to the top of a mountain. The town was called Atraxanda and had an amazing view of the entirety of Bilbao from above. We tried the cider, which is made up at the top of the mountain and it wasn´t my favorite drink, but I´m glad I tried it. We walked around all of the pedestrian shopping streets to look at the beautiful Christmas lights. Then, we met up with Andrea who is my friend from when I was very little. It was great to see her and meet her friends. I really enjoyed being able to catch up, even in a country so far away and hope we can met up in Chicago soon!

Saturday, we took a day trip to San Sebastian, a beach town about an hour away from Bilbao. I would love to go back to San Sebastian during beach season because it was an absolutely gorgeous town. We spent the day exploring the beach, the old part of town, the Cathedral and of course eating. The pintxos in San Sebastian were so delicious because they were topped with fresh fish from right next to where we were sitting. After having a filling dinner, we went back to Bilbao to catch the end of the Classico. This is one of the biggest games in soccer, it´s between Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona. Barça won, obviously, so I was very excited!

Sunday we went to the biggest tourist attraction in Bilbao. We went to the Guggenheim museum. Let  me tell you, the building from the outside is beautiful and so cool to look at, it is a work of art in itself. I loved walking through the museum. My favorite part was a piece called Humans. It was in a room lit with dim lights that were hanging from the ceiling almost down to the floor. On the walls, there were hundreds of pictures of random people´s faces that I guess were taken from newspapers and magazines. I thought it was so interesting. Then we headed home.

The only thing I can complain about is that I caught a terrible cold on my trip. Other than that it was an amazing experience to leave Andalucia and experience a different culture. Euskari (the language spoken in the Basque region) is one of the oldest languages. I am glad I went there and learned more about a new culture.