I'm currently sitting in the computer lab during my two hour break at school, listening to Christmas music, and thinking about how I only have TEN DAYS left until I fly home to see all of my friends and family! I don't know if I've ever been more excited in my entire life!
Even though we've only had one very small frost here in Madrid, being in the city center definitely makes it feel like Christmas. Last weekend, I went to Puerta del Sol with my friend, Grace to take pictures of all the Christmas lights and decorations and also to see my host mom from Caceres! Lola was visiting for the weekend and we met up on Saturday night and walked around the city, ate some churros con chocolate, the famous calamari sandwiches, and looked around at the Christmas markets. It's always so good to see Lola!
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| Lola always on her phone... |
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| In Puerta del Sol |
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| SO crowded in the city center! |
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| Lights in the sky at Plaza Mayor where the Christmas market is |
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| My host mom (and her moose hat) <3 |
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| Calamari sandwich |
Also last weekend, I went out with a group of people and we hung out at a hostel in the city center for a while. (It was strange being in a hostel again!) Then we went out dancing at a very American-ized bar where they play American pop music and NFL was on every TV. I should get a little better at immersing myself into the Spanish culture, huh?
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| Grace and me at "Dubliners" |
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| notice the NFL in the background... |
On Sunday night, Grace and Alex came over and we made a big batch (and an even bigger mess) of Christmas sugar cookies. We listened to Christmas music and drank some red wine as we decorated cookies. It probably took a total of 4 hours since we could only fit a small tray of cookies at a time in my tiny oven. The next day, Alex and I brought some of the cookies to share with the teachers at school and they loved them! However, Alex and I did not partake in eating the cookies the next day because we may or may not had eaten too much cookie dough the night before... to the point of possible salmanila poisoning. Whoops.
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| Before the mess... |
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| Alex and "Patrick" |
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| Antonio and his girlfriend frosting their own cookies! |
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| Finished product (no comments, please) |
Both school and tutoring have been the same for the most part. A few frustrations here and there, as well as a few more funny stories...
1. The 4th grade teacher is out for a month because his wife had a baby (yes, they have paternity leave in this country!) And apparently it's hard to find a sub this time of year, so I randomly have to teach his 4th grade class this week and next week... and they are not the calmest of kids. When the bell ran on Monday, one of the students tried to sneak out the other door in the back of the classroom. The other students told on him and I had him come back in the classroom and go to the back of the line. On his way out, he shut off the lights and then turned to me and said "A kiss." Now, this wouldn't have been so creepy if it had been a cute little first grader or maybe he had wanted to say goodbye with the European 'dos besos' type of thing. (Because a lot of times the teachers will kiss the students on the cheek.) But no, it was not a 'dos besos' on the cheek type of thing. It was definitely just a creepy thing.
2. This one is about one of the students in my private tutoring classes. Surprisingly enough, it's the same student as before with the 'chino' story. Last week, he kept clicking his pen trying to annoy me. He laughed and said, "Am I molesting you?" I couldn't help but laugh because I knew he did not mean the word "molest". The word, "molestar" in English means "to bother" or "to annoy". He just used a little Spanglish and he had no idea (and still doesn't) what the word "molest" means in English.
3. Here's another quick one about another student that I tutor, which just happened today actually. I was explaining what the word, "quarrel" meant and when I was giving an example of two people arguing, possibly yelling at each other, he said very nonchalantly, "Oh, so for example, if this person called the other person a motherf***er?" My mouth dropped and he just started laughing and said, "Or, b*tch?" I think the five minutes that followed these comments was just him laughing at the fact that I wasn't quite sure how to respond.
4. And finally: my first time experiencing a fire drill in a school in Spain (I think you already know how this one is going to go). I was in the first grade classroom (of ALL grade levels to be in, why first?) when the fire alarm starting going off. The other teacher just said, "Go, go, go!!!" and all the students rushed out to the hall, down the stairs (where many of them fell down), and out the door. The teacher just kept saying, "Vamos, vamos!" When we got outside, I looked around at the swarm of students as they were fighting and wrestling each other, running around, dancing, cheering, yelling, etc. It was the definition of chaos. I've never seen anything so chaotic in my entire life. I spotted Alex through everything that was going on and we just stared at each other, knowing that the other one was thinking the exact same thing. Just wait, it gets better. Then, the principal comes out jumping and cheering saying, "Yay! We did it!" and then all the teachers and students started cheering and clapping and jumping up and down, with the exception of Alex and me. All we were thinking was, "What just happened?"
Small living situation update: My living situation has been a little different lately and it will continue to change quite a bit within the next few days. My Spanish roommate, Diego, moved out last week because his work is sending him to London to learn English for three months. In the meantime, Antonio (my Italian roommate), his girlfriend moved in and she has been staying here for a little over two weeks. However, this weekend, both they and my other Italian roommate, Graziana, are moving back to Italy since their semester abroad is over. This means I could have three new roommates when I come back in January! Crossing my fingers!
I think that's all for now... I'll see many of you in just diez dias!!!!!! <3
