Happy Halloween!

I wrote this a few days ago and just am getting around to posting it (I won't mention anything here about lack of internet......)

Ok, so even though it is relatively new in Spain, kids LOVE Halloween. I have spent the better part of this week having students color a Halloween page and also teaching them the things related to Halloween and then doing a word search. They know mostly all of the typical Halloween things – pumpkins, witches, bats, Frankenstein, Dracula, etc… To them, the concept of putting candy into a pillowcase is quite unheard of and that word was a tough one to explain. However, you must keep in mind that the Spanish pillowcases are very long (think body pillow size) and have openings at both ends. I can imagine the confusion for a Spanish child as they are imagining all of their candy going into their pillowcase only to go right out the other end! Ha Trick-or-Treating is not common practice here but I have been told that there are some apartment buildings where they organize it and it does happen. Trick-or-treating here is called truc-o-trato.
I showed this video to my 4th grade class today while they were working on their haunted house project and the laughter was non-stop. I didn’t even plan to show it but my teacher asked me if there were any songs for Halloween?!?! I could only think of one and that was the monster mash. The kids had no idea what it was saying but it was funny to them all the same. I laughed just seeing all of them look so happy.



I also had to do my typical “dress for the holiday” like I always did in HS and even in college. I seem to have a pair of socks for every holiday (though they did not make the cut of things that I brought with me to Spain). I was asked by a lot of 4th graders why I was dressed like a witch. I guess they just can’t appreciate my effort I put forth to be festive!
Can you see why I was voted “most likely to be a soccer mom” in high school?! Thanks, mom, for teaching me everything I know!




Also, like I mentioned earlier, I had my 5th graders color a “Happy Halloween” page and made it a contest. Today, on the way to school I stopped by a candy store and bought candy for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. Shhhhhh, don’t tell anyone but a small amount of candy may have snuck into the bag for me :-) I didn’t have this particular class today and so I just visited them to announce the winners. However, I was very relieved to not be staying in that class because I think I caused a bit of a disturbance by giving only three children candy. Most of the others started rambling in Spanish about how their drawing was good and they should have won, blah, blah, blah….I quickly snuck out. Getting to the point, Michael Lynn and I also colored one at home the other day and Tad hung them on the fridge!

PS - I have to mention that Tad drew his own picture. Michael Lynn did not know this and asked me if one of my students had given it to me! haha Don't worry, Tad. I give it an "excellent!"



One other point that I’d like to make about Spanish children is about their complete and utter lack of self confidence. I have to say that this is probably a mix of things they get from parents, teachers, friends, and themselves. I have another 5th grade class (different from the one mentioned above) and I had them in class yesterday. They were making drawings of an invertebrate and a vertebrate. The teacher had this cool website that showed them how to draw the butterfly and shark step-by-step. Well, this seems like a cool thing until each child either gets up out of their seat to come see EVERY step and give them reassurance that they are doing it correctly or they raise their hands and shout “teacher” or “Emily” for me to walk to their seat and see what they’ve done. Imagine this for 9 steps X 25 students (all of which end up speaking to me in Spanish and stare blankly at me when I answer them in English) and it gets a little tiring. I think my teacher and I both were ready to just run out of the classroom yesterday once the day was over. But in all reality, teachers act in either one of two ways with their children. I have observed many of my teachers putting other students down and to their faces. They will tell them that their drawing is really not that good, or will call them out in front of everyone for not having their materials for the day. In this regard, I think there is a lot of tough love. On the other hand, I have seen some of the teachers giving the students hugs, or touching their backs reassuringly. These children receive such mixed signals all of the time. I have yet to form an ultimate opinion about that, so I will have to get back to you.

On a completely different note, the internet guy came!!!!! Ok, that certainly didn’t warrant 5 exclamation points and this is why: we still don’t have INTERNET! I was the lucky gal that got to be here when the technician came and did the work. I won’t bore you with the details of the story but after coming and going 3 times in a matter of an hour, we think that we have a successful internet line installed. What the company failed to tell us and what the guy told me the other day is that now we have to wait for our router package to arrive and we get to set the rest of it up ourselves. The bad part is, we were planning to go away tomorrow and now we have to be here in case the router is delivered because it is coming through a private company and we have to sign for it. Do any of you have a headache reading this because I certainly am getting one writing it! Who knew that such a simple task could turn into something so difficult? I will reserve further judgment, however, because I have had my fair share of difficulties with Comcast in my college days (wow, I sound old when I say “in my college days!”)
I am wishing everyone a safe and Happy Halloween!!
Love to all from Motril!

So many new friends

So, despite my dismal thoughts about the town of Motril, my roommate Tad and I have finally discovered that there are indeed YOUNG PEOPLE in Motril and we found them last night! It just takes getting to know some locals and they show you all the cool places. Here are a few pictures of new friends.

*Disclaimer* From the pictures, it appears that all my friends and I do in Spain is drink. This is entirely untrue. We are simply assimilating to the culture - which in Spain revolves around sharing beverages with friends in moderation. We are also doing many cultural things such as visiting small towns, going to museums, etc.


Roommates :-)

New friends at the bar

A champagne toast for my birthday!

NEW FRIENDS


Motril is becoming a more and more attractive place to live. We went a visited a neighboring beach this past weekend (and managed to go on the only cloudy day all week). It's like a ghost town now....everyone flocks there in the summer and then is not there now! It's crazy. it's still warm enough to lay out and work on a tan!

That's all for now - we have someone coming on Wed to install the phone line - one step closer to internet!!

Culinary Adventures

I have a very short multiple choice quiz for all of you blog followers out there……
Which would you rather NOT eat?
a. Pastries
b. Chocolate
c. Candy
d. Churros and chocolate
e. Anything healthy (including but not limited to vegetables, fruits, chicken, etc…)
Well, as most of you may expect, I chose “e” for my answer and unless there is something seriously wrong with you, I might suspect you have all picked the same answer. Here’s where my favorite Southern Spain phrase “no pasa nada” enters into play. This can be translated to “don’t worry.” Well, one could say that I took this phrase a little bit too literal when I came to Spain two years ago (especially with my eating habits). Now, I have to preface this by saying that this is not going to be a post about self-image or body confidence but more just about pure facts. When I left Spain before, I was FAT.

Just look at the chub that has accumulated around my nice round face here when my parents came to visit me.


I don’t think my parents would have recognized me if I hadn’t snuck through the security exit into the baggage area at the airport and ran toward them like a flailing idiot. Also, you know it’s bad when you come back to visit your host family two years later and they spend the better part of 10 minutes looking at this picture which is displayed in their living room and commenting about how fat I was when I left (I guess I will take that as a compliment though as they are implying that I look better now).

This is a direct result of my “no pasa nada” attitude when it came to eating. My friends Liz and Emilee did not help the situation but only made it worse. There would be nights that we would make trips to multiple candy stores, devour two pastries, and then sit by the river eating a carton of neopolitan ice cream. Would I feel a little guilty? Yes, but then would think “well, I am in Spain and I might as well enjoy myself.” This eating situation was only made worse by my host mother who insisted on giving me the largest portions of food at lunch. Then, there was the problem of my picky eating…..if there was something at lunch that didn’t taste so good to me, I would simply shovel it down with plenty of bread (yes, I am pretty sure there were days I may have eaten an entire baguette by myself.)
Moving on, those days are behind me and I am looking to still enjoy myself in Spain but might I say “in moderation” this time (at least with regard to food). I stopped in a magazine shop the other day and picked up a “cooking healthy” magazine and another one that has recipes. Might I say they are all a little strange? There are a few that I think we could stomach but for the most part that idea was a fail. One of the shows that I really like to watch on TV is this guy who has a cooking show. He always breaks out into song and is just really entertaining. Well, one of his side dishes the other day was couscous. It looked good. I couldn’t stop thinking about couscous the entire next day. Here is where domestic Emily enters the picture (I know I say it a lot but these domestic things don’t come easily to me….cleaning, cooking, laundry). I decided to cook up some chicken, broccoli and couscous. Everything came out really great (and I even used chicken broth instead of water to make the couscous like my cooking show guy did so it had more flavor). Tad and Michael Lynn were a little skeptical of the couscous but after trying it decided that it wasn’t so bad.
Here are some pictures from our dinner the other night




So, in my package that is so happily displayed in my last post, there was the October issue of Fitness magazine. One of the highlights on the front cover was recipes for easy, healthy soups/stews. Well, this is perfect for Spain because that is what they eat all of the time. I went for a run this afternoon and came back with an exceptional amount of energy and decided I’d try my hand at chicken tortilla soup.
I looked at the list of ingredients and thought I’d be able to find them all in a Spanish grocery store. The only ingredient I couldn’t find was cumin and so I substituted curry which seemed to work fine. The recipe claims that it only takes like ½ hour to cook but I managed to prove them wrong! It took me a good chunk of time but the finished product was a success! Tad and Michael Lynn really liked it and so did I! We had a nice healthy meal and have some left over for tomorrow.


I have a couple of other pictures but I can't get them to load (I'm not always the best with this blog website!)
So I can’t say there was much of a point to this post except to show that I am actually trying to make meals and have acquired the label of "resident cook/mom" of the piso.

The arrival of the coveted package

Well, Tad says that I keep spitting out blog posts like it’s my job (and they are all quite random but would you expect anything less of Emily?) and quite frankly, it could be my job since I only work 9 hours per week and am bored out of my mind the other 159 hours. Though, I am working on that problem – I have printed my flyer for private classes and posted a couple today around the school and will post more tomorrow when I find myself some tape. I got my package from my mom today for my birthday and it was like Christmas morning! Here is the unopened package in all it's glory It is so nice to get little things from home (even though I have only been gone for a month, it is possible to miss things like goldfish and sugar babies!!!) Everyone should be jealous of my” American drawer” which now has a home in my room (ok maybe everyone reading this in America is not jealous but I showed my roommate Tad and he was definitely jealous). My mother is amazing and sent me macaroni and cheese! My roommate Michael Lynn has searched feverishly for mac and cheese here in Spain with no success and now I have a coveted box. She told me to make sure she was nowhere near when I eat it because she just couldn’t handle it. Here are my birthday cards I also took a picture of the gift my landlady gave me….the picture just doesn’t do it justice…… I brought along some extra pictures and they didn’t really have a home so I made this little collage on my wall today. I used sticky tack and I hope my landlady doesn’t mind
Also, here is a video I took of Granada from the main lookout point at the Alhambra.

Well, I have officially turned 24 years old! Birthday weekend in Granada was a success! I already knew how much I loved Granada and will probably go there quite frequently but I think Tad fell in love with Granada in his maiden voyage there. It is just an absolutely awesome city with so many things to do and people to hang out with. And can you beat this view? (You could only beat it if it were a clear day!)



On Saturday, I was able to hang out for a bit with Paco and Pilar. Pilar gave me a big hug and kisses and told me happy birthday! We went for a walk to what I would like to refer to as the Wal Mart of Spain (here it’s called Corte Ingles). We had to exchange some shoes for Paco and that was an adventure in itself. There were people everywhere and of course we had to go to the customer service counter which was packed. They have a thing for you to take a number and wait your turn. Well, this still doesn’t stop Spaniards from being pushy and trying to get waited on before their number. It’s incredible. Pilar said they didn’t used to have a number system and there would be fights. Now just picture that….two old Spanish women heaving their purses at one another and pushing/shoving just to be waited on a minute sooner. Craziness. Pilar made lunch for us – boy does she know me. She cut up potatoes and made me homemade French fries, scrambled eggs and then I had a giant slice of juicy pineapple after. It was a perfectly acceptable birthday meal. Michael Lynn joined us in Granada that afternoon. She brought me a bag of candy (she already knows the way to my heart) and also a gift from my landlady! How sweet. I might just have to post a picture of the gift though – it will speak for itself. We ended up going out for tapas at one of my favorite places around plaza de toros and they brought a surprise with them for me! They had bought a sampler of these pastries complete with candles. They even sang to me!! I felt like such a lucky girl. After that, we went out for a night on the town.
After a weekend in Granada, I think I might be ready for the slower pace of Motril. I get to go on a field trip tomorrow with a group of the kids to the sugar cane museum! I am excited with the only exception being that the museum is right by my house which seems convenient but tomorrow I get to walk to school (20 min), walk back to the museum (probably like 30 min with a bunch of little rug rats), then I get to walk back to school with them (30 min) and then I get to walk back home after that (20 min). With that being said, I am a capable, healthy person and I think I can handle it!
Here are some random pictures from the weekend – Enjoy!
Tad and Michael Lynn out for my birthday



Juan Carlos and me



Someone had a crown on in the bar on Friday (technically it was Saturday and so it was my birthday) and she let me wear it for a minute! BIRTHDAY CROWN!



Birthday pastries before we dug into them…..there were 7 different flavors – dulce de leche, carmel, truffle, chocolate, cheesecake, tiramisu, and mocha.


And the damage…….



Roomies!



Here are the new friends we made and toured the Alhambra with on Friday – Oscar and Natalia




My third trip to the Alhambra!



One of the many pictures I took of flowers…..and caught the bee in action, too!

Just a few random thoughts......

So I am in Granada for my birthday weekend and though this will not be a very cohesive post, I thought I would share some random things with you just to hold you over until my next juicy post!

So on Thursday the students from my sixth grade English class sang Happy Birthday to me! It was so cute and yet barely understandable. I am tempted to take my camera in on Monday and have them reinact it and then I will post it on here so you can hear how adorable they are. I was so touched. A few other students from my 4th grade art class also told me happy birthday!!

Tad and I went to the Alhambra today at the bright and early hour of 8am. My host mom thought I was crazy getting up that early but it almost wasnt early enough. There was a huge line when we got there and we kept hearing announcements of the dwindling amount of tickets as we waited in line. We started talking to a couple in front of us who was from California and finally, Natalia got out of line and checked out these self-serve kiosks which we thought were only for people who had pre-reserved tickets online and needed to print them. Lo and behold, you could purchase tickets there. So we got tickets for an afternoon visit starting at 2pm. Meanwhile, what do we do with 5 extra hours before we can enter? Well, this is where tourguide extraordinaire Emily steps in.....we had a mini tour of Granada. We had coffee at cafe futbol, had chocolate filled muffins from the infamous bread lady (see old posts for pictures - and not to worry, we did a sufficient amount of exercise today to burn off those calories). Then, we did a tour around the Cathedral and the surrouding touristy areas. We did a walk-through of Plaza Bib Rambla (styled after Las Ramblas of Barcelona). We then climbed up to a very cool pottery shop that I visited with my parents when they were here and we all picked up some things (We all got new mugs for the house and Natalia and Oscar bought some gifts for family and friends). Then we went to a place for some drinks and tapas and by the time we knew it, it was time to go to the Alhambra.

The Alhambra visit was fun - granted it was my third time there and I am officially exhausted but it is worth it. I got some really cool pictures of some of the flowers in the gardens there and am thinking about investing in some pastels here to do some drawings. If they come out well enough, I may take them to a shop to see about selling them since I am already a famous artist in my school, I might as well try my hand at it in the real world (this is a joke!) We got Natalia and Oscars email addresses and hope to stay in contact with them. Can anyone say trip to California to visit them when I get back? yes, please!!

I think we are going to meet up with my friend Juan Carlos again tonight and have a little birthday celebration. At this point, all I want to do is sit and rest my feet for a while. Oh, I almost forgot some of the best news............WE WILL HAVE INTERNET NEXT WEEK!! YOu can all stop hearing me complain about the lack of internet and we can all stop going and hanging out at the McDonalds!!! Hallelujah!!!

Bye for now!

Well, you might as well call our piso the infirmary

It has been so long since I have written that I had to look back at my own blog to see what I last talked about – how pathetic. I can’t say that I’ve been too busy to post (that’s certainly not the case) but it’s more for our lack of internet and always having to go in search of it is getting quite frustrating (and it’s usually either at this bar that has wifi or McDonald’s – yes, of all the places in Spain we sometimes go to McDonald’s to use internet – and we end up spending money which we are all very tightly holding onto since it seems to be a precious commodity and we don’t get paid for another 3 weeks).
I made it through week one of teaching (or should I say of glorified art babysitting). Michael Lynn comes home every day and is telling us about how she taught the kids about bones or the circulatory system at her school in science class while Tad barely has any time with his children and spends more time planning with teachers and I spend my days wandering through art classrooms fielding hundreds of questions about myself and telling kids “good job” when they color inside the lines. It’s funny the range of work a person can have here yet we are all making the same amount of money. I drew an “autumn” scene for one of the classes. I gave it to the teacher and thought it was only going to be inspiration of some sort for the kids to draw something on their own. Lo and behold, I walk into the classroom to see my very elementary picture of a scarecrow by a fence with some corn and three pumpkins in the corner largely displayed on the smart board and the teacher is having them draw my picture. Didn’t know I was such a talented artist as to have people be reproducing my work already. Some of the kids did the picture justice while most just butchered it.

I drew mine free-hand but this is pretty darn close to what my picture looked like!


The teacher then informed me that he sent it to the other 4th grade teachers so who knows how many times I will see my drawing reappear.
Today is a national holiday in Spain and so we didn’t have school. I love how I have worked for a week and already have a day off. Normally, the students and teachers have that Monday off (yesterday) so that it creates a Puente (bridge) and there’s just a really long weekend but this was the first year in many years that they didn’t do that. We had to work on Monday but then supposedly we have more days off around Christmas.
I went to Granada on Friday to see my friend Juan Carlos and to celebrate his birthday. I know some of his friends from when I studied abroad in Granada. It was a good time and I was so happy to be in Granada. It is so much more of a “college town” with students and young people everywhere. Motril is not a bad place to live but it’s just a little boring and lacks a certain amount of young people to make it lively.

The welcome sign makes it seem likes paradise....but it's not!


However, Tad got to know a couple of other Americans that are working in Motril (Javier, Cynthia – who is also a UofM grad, and Sara). We went out with them last night and had a blast.

Here are our new friends in Motril.....Yes, I am carrying a rather large drink and no, it wasn't just mine.....we all shared it.


Javier’s parents are from Cuba and so he speaks Spanish fluently and Sara also speaks really well. We spent most of the night speaking Spanish with them and I think it will really help all of us to improve if we always speak together in Spanish. I also met some cool people when I was in Granada with Juan Carlos.

Here is a picture of Juan Carlos and myself...two years later and some other friends I met - some Spanish people and Germans







I am hoping to start making more connections and have things to do.
The roomies and I are going to Granada this weekend. I am so excited. We might go to the Alhambra on Friday. We aren’t sure of our other plans yet – Saturday is my birthday so I’m sure we’ll celebrate. It will be weird to be away from home on my birthday. This will be the first time this has ever happened. But mom told me there’s a package headed my way and I am so excited!!! She sends the best packages! Every time I opened one up when I studied abroad in 2008, it was like Christmas morning. Oh the creature comforts of things from home.
And now, getting back to the title of this blog post…..Michael Lynn and I have both developed pretty nasty colds and I think whatever sickness Tad had in Sevilla is still lingering with him as he is still coughing a lot. Put us all together and even combined, we wouldn’t make a complete healthy person. Mine started off as a sore throat and now has turned into a nice little cold in my head and chest. Michael Lynn’s started the same way only her sore throat was worse and she is having trouble breathing. I just hope we all feel better before this weekend and that the little rug rats at school would start covering their mouths when they cough and sneeze (oh the joys of being an educator!!)
Here’s where I stop making any promises about us getting the internet in our apartment…….we just don’t know when or if it will even happen and that’s all I have to say about that!
I send my love and hugs to the US!!
P.S. Tad and I watched the Michigan vs. Michigan State game this past weekend at a bar on his computer……what a disappointment. I brought my Michigan flag to Spain and have it hung up with sticky tack – only it keeps falling and so right now it’s crumpled up on my bedroom floor and I think I’ll just leave it that way for a while.

My address

Hello from sunny Spain!

I thought I would tell everyone my address - just in case something needs to be sent my way :-)

Emily Allshouse
Escribano Valderas
Bloque A 1C
Motril (Granada) 18600
Espana

Just as a little side note......I don't know how to make a degree symbol but there needs to be one between the 1 and C in my address!! haha

Lots of things to catch up on

October 4 2010 – 8:45 pm

Well, these last few days have been nothing short of interesting, exciting, nerve-wracking, frustrating and I’m sure the list could go on and on. The last time I wrote was Friday but I didn’t tell you about my first day of school. The kids are very noisy – you can always tell when they are in the hallways. I didn’t really have contact with kids on Friday, however. I met with the bilingual coordinator and also the headmaster of the school and we talked about our job expectations and our schedules and what not. There is also another girl at my school from New Jersey named Catherine (she went through a different program and so I had no idea she was also going to be in my school). She is really nice and her boyfriend is also in Motril teaching in the same school as Michael Lynn. The bilingual coordinator (Antonio) also showed us how to use the smart boards that they have in each classroom. They are totally digital and there are an endless amount of possibilities of things to do with them! He let us play around and draw and of course I drew a flower (it’s my go-to drawing!) Tad, Michael Lynn and I all met up after school back at the piso and talk about our days. Tad had also been in touch with his uncle who lives in Algeciras and told us that we could come and pick up the car he was going to let us borrow for our time here.
On Saturday, our great adventure to pick up the car began. We caught a bus at 10:30 and headed west and south toward Algeciras. It’s a really long bus ride (much longer than by car) because it makes stops in all the coastal towns (Nerja, Marbella, etc…) It’s a beautiful ride, though. You can’t beat the views of the water and the mountains. We finally go to Algeciras around 2:30 and Tad’s uncle picked us up in our new ride  It’s a maroon 1992 BMW! Yes, we are ridin’ in style (kind of, but I’ll tell you about that later). Tad’s aunt had prepared us a feast of tortilla, tortilla de sacromonte, salad, chips and guacamole (no, that’s not traditional Spanish food) and we also had flan for dessert. It was DELICIOUS!! We walked the beach and relaxed after eating and hung out with their 5 yr old son, Daniel. Tad’s uncle is an English teacher and so they speak to Daniel in both Spanish and English! He can speak English well – better than some Americans I know. We had pizza for dinner while we watched the MICHIGAN football game which we streamed from the computer and then hooked up the computer to the tv! It was so awesome to be able to watch the game (and nearly have a heart attack right at the last minute watching Michigan trying so hard to lose that game).
On Sunday, we slept in and then had breakfast and Tad’s uncle showed us the ins and outs of the car. We made sure all the light bulbs were functioning (we’re short a back-up light but I think we can manage to buy one of those). We had lunch (I think Ali, Tad’s aunt, was trying her best not to freak us out with any weird food). For lunch we had grilled BBQ chicken, backed potatoes (regular and sweet), sour cream with chives, salad and bread (of course). It was sooo good and we are so grateful that we had some awesome meals. After that, it was time to hit the road.
Now, one must remember that while there are some universal road signs (Stop, for example), many of them are very different in Spain and have no words on them as to indicate what they mean. In addition, there are many hills, roundabouts, one-way streets and crazy drivers in Spain. Meanwhile, Tad knows how to drive a manual car but let’s just say he’s not an expert by any means. We got out of town safely and were on the highway when we quickly realized that we needed gas (and remember, gas is by the liter here and it’s about 1.15 euros/liter – this can equate to about $7-8/gallon). We found a gas station not too far from Algeciras and decided to stop. We did not know how to use the pump and so I swallowed my pride and went inside to tell the worker that it was our first time pumping gas in Spain and we weren’t quite sure what to do. He asked us how much we wanted to put in (we chose 30 Euros which only ended up getting us ½ tank!!) and then we were all set to go. (There is a part here that I had to omit by request of one of the roommates.....maybe a story for another time). We made it home safely and without too many problems (we had a hard time keeping a radio station in the mountains and so part of the time we listened to The Beatles greatest hits on cassette tape – yes, 24 yr olds are old enough to remember those!) It was a beautiful drive and much quicker than by bus. We made it home in less than 3 hours.
Monday was our first day of school with the children. I have three hours of work every day and one free period which the bilingual coordinator said would either be free time or a time when I would hang out with the teachers that also had break then and help them with their English. So, my first class was with Antionio (the coordinator) and I had 6th graders. They all had prepared questions to ask me to get to know me and so I spent some time answering them and asking them questions back. It was really cute and they were well-behaved. My next class was 5th graders and it was a science class but they also try to incorporate the arts as well. I had to teach them the primary and secondary colors and then they made colors mixing them and of varying intensities. Their English skills were a little lower but as I would walk around the room, some of them were curious and would ask me questions. They are always so curious about where we come from and how long it took us to get here. That class was fine.
Now, let’s move on to my last class of the day. It was 4th grade and they knew even less English. I can only use one word to describe this class and it is CHAOS. Not organized chaos, just pure madness. This is an art class but they try to incorporate science into that so they were drawing pictures of flowers and they would bring them up to the teacher and he looks at it and gives them a grade. The teacher had no control over the class and for this reason, I’m either going to need to invest in a set of heavy-duty earplugs or else a lifetime supply of some strong ibuprofen. All they did was run around the room and shout. They don’t have any concept of inside voices or respect for that matter. One student told me that I was very pretty and that I was much better looking than their teacher and that their teacher is soooo ugly (all while he was standing right there). That class will be a struggle!
I came home and had lunch and a little nap (just to de-stress from those kids) and then went for my first run in Spain! It was a struggle as I am really out of shape but I think I found a good place to run and part of it is uphill which will really challenge me. Michael Lynn, Tad and I just got back from Al Campo (Spain’s WalMart) and got a lot of food. We will see what tomorrow brings! Oh, and I’ve done two loads of laundry already – yes, be proud of me, please!!
Hopefully we will have internet soon – we are all dying without it!

Friday October 1, 2010 – 9 am Spain
Well, it’s the first day of school – my 20th consecutive first day of school. However, this one stands out because this time I’m the TEACHER and not a student. So I guess my count starts over again and this is really my FIRST day of school.

Can't be without a "first day of school picture"



Here's Tad and Michael Lynn trying to figure out how to get to school (I embarrassingly had to pull my map out on my walk because I got a little lost).




The program told us that we should be ready to go to school today at 9am when the school day starts but I had been in contact with my coordinator at school and he said that we were having a meeting at 11:30 with the English teachers to talk about expectations and what not. I had emailed him about whether to come at 9 or 11:30 and didn’t hear from him before this morning. So I got all ready to go with Tad and Michael Lynn and Antonio (bilingual coordinator at my school) texts me and says that 11:30 is ok to come and this was at like 8:20. So, I have some spare time to catch up on all the exciting things that have been happening lately.
I finally have a home in Spain!!! Yay. We ended up renting the same piso (apartment) that is in the pictures from the previous post.

Here we are in the rental office signing our lives away for our piso



It’s so nice – our land lady (Maria) is still working on some things but we don’t really mind. She is so nice and has driven us around and helped us bring over our luggage from the hotel. She is pregnant and might be the cutest thing ever. She has lived in London for 10 years as a teacher and so she speaks English and Spanish. I always want her to speak Spanish but it has been nice when there are certain technical things that we had to discuss and we could easily communicate with her.
After deciding to rent the apartment, we had to do the only thing that was fair as far as picking which rooms we will all have – we drew from a hat. The three choices were BIG – ORANGE – BLUE (as there is a big master room, a room that is entirely blue and one that has orange curtains in it). Well, guess which room is mine????
I lucked out and drew the BIG room.

This is an initial picture.....it will look different soon, hopefully!



Tad picked the blue room and then Michael Lynn has the orange room. We spent a lot of time unpacking yesterday and Michael Lynn and I took a trip to Al Campo (the closest thing I can think of to Wal Mart in the US). We had to get some essentials (hand soap, dish soap, hangers, shampoo/conditioner, etc.) Some of our rooms are lacking storage space and so we are thinking a road trip to IKEA in Málaga might be in order once we get the car from Tad’s Uncle (Tad’s uncle lives in Spain and lucky for us has a car that we can use while we are here because he just got a new one). It’s a manual and Tad is the only one who knows how to drive a manual. Michael Lynn and I said he could teach us how to drive it but seeing our parking garage and how hilly this town is…..um, I might just let him drive me around  (thanks, Tad!)
We cooked a rather American dinner last night after Tad and I went to the store for a few essential food items (this of course included alcohol). We even ate a very American hour (around 7:00) because we hadn’t eaten the main meal of the day (at 2ish) and we were all starving. We made penne pasta with a tomato sauce with oregano and then we had a salad and of course the Spanish staple, bread. It was delicious!! After dinner, we had a champagne toast out on our balcony to our new home.




We sat out there for a while and just chatted about life and relaxed from the day.
I’ve only been here for a week and a half but it feels so much longer (Tad has almost been here 7 weeks and Michael Lynn nearly 4!) I am not missing too much from the US yet (though I did finally open the bag of goldfish I brought yesterday afternoon because I was so hungry and needed something to hold me over). I did finish the box of Mike & Ikes that I had brought with me – but there’s plenty more candy to be found around here so I’m not too worried!
I send my love and hugs to all 