No time for blog posts

Well, it appears I went on a blogging frenzy the last time I posted (I think it ended up being three posts in one day) and now it seems that I have hit a dry spell. Well, there's a reason for that. I am no longer BORED TO DEATH in the afternoons anymore as I have some new work. Here's how the story goes.
So I am sure you all know of my awesome friend Bern who lives in Motril....yep, that's him!

Well, he applied for a job with an American study abroad company that has an office base in Granada (International Study Abroad) and he got it which required him to move to there. What does that have to do with me you might be asking? Well, when he was living here in Motril, he taught English at a language academy (Center for Languages and Studies) and also gave private lessons to some kids. Who is the lucky girl that got to inherit his entire line-up of work?
This girl

I was so fortunate that Bern talked to his boss in Granada and told her that he had a possible replacement. I emailed off my resume and expressed my interest in the job and my phone was ringing within the hour of me sending it. I had to go to Granada for an "interview" and the job was mine. I now work every afternoon at a different school than the one I teach at in the mornings. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I have one class of nine kids (all in first grade - so around 6 years old). On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have two classes. The first is another class of four first graders and then a class of nine second graders (7-8 yrs old).
Let me just tell you a little bit about these classes. Although they are learning English, I do most of the talking to them in Spanish. I have to constantly be on my toes as they are witty and can spit Spanish out much faster than I can. They are used to having Bern as a teacher who not only speaks perfectly fluent English but also Spanish (duh, he's from Spain!) Anyways, I came in at almost the end of the trimester so tomorrow and Thursday I am giving them a test. Luckily I didn't have to make the test but it's still not the most opportune time to change a child's routine. Some of them are absolutely adorable and I will have to get a picture soon to share with you guys. I've only been with them for three weeks now and I am already dreading the day I have to say goodbye to them (well, all of them but one....and I think I'll just leave it at that for now).
In addition to putting me in contact with the academy, Bern also gave all of his private lesson kids my phone number. I now give private English lessons to two sisters - Isabel is 13 and Laura is 17 and also to Paola who is 17.

IT'S NOT AS EASY TO TEACH ENGLISH AS YOU THINK! Passive voice? Reported speech? Modal verbs? Adjective clauses? Relative clauses? First, second and third conditionals? What?!!?
It's a good thing I have the internet - it has quickly become my best friend when trying to teach English. Ok, it seems silly - we all speak English right? And I am sure that most of you have even been corrected by me at some point in your lives because I am such a grammar freak. But that doesn't mean we all have the ability to teach these things. There are so many things that you learn in a native language just from conversing or that you inherently know. Who remembers all the way back to their middle school or high school English classes and learning about prepositions or why you use "in, on or under" in certain cases? Or why sometimes you can use the infinitive of a verb and other times it has to be conjugated? My point is: it's a challenge and I am learning right along with the kids. However, I am enjoying it.
Long story short - I used to work 12 hours per week. Last Tuesday I worked 12 hours in ONE day. Instead of getting home every day at 2 and sitting there bored out of my mind (and wasting my life away drawing pictures like this one..........)I now have things to do and get home around 7ish and am exhausted!

In other news.......I am also in the process of gathering all the necessary materials to apply for this job again for next year. I am sure that isn't a shock to most of you as you are well aware of how much I love Spain!

Also, my roommate Tad and I have just planned a trip for part of Holy Week.
In April

will be going to............

Edinburgh, Scotland!
Tad found some cheap tickets and he also has a friend living there so we will be able to stay with her. It should be fun! I never thought I'd be going to Scotland but I am excited. Now that I have this extra work, I have to spend my money somewhere!
Love you all from Spain!

P.S. I may have read this over at least twice checking to make sure the grammar was decent....oh boy. :-D

I went to Great Britain!

Well, apparently it's just a day full of blogging - this will be my third post today! However, I wanted to keep the post about the monkeys separate from the rest of the pictures from Gibraltar. So here's the real story - not just seeing monkeys.

We had a long weekend this week because of a national holiday in Andalucia - it's ironically called the Day of Andalucia :-) Michael Lynn went to Cork, Ireland for the weekend so Tad and I did a little trip to Algeciras to see his family again. Of course, the first thing on our agenda was to play with Tad's 6-year-old cousin Daniel. He is absolutely adorable and loves to practice his English with us.
Here we are being goofy together (well, this is the good picture but there are other goofy ones that will not be posted!!)

He wanted me to take a picture of him with his venus fly trap so that all of my friends could see it!

We hit the hay early so that we could be up to beat the lines to go to GIBRALTAR! I had tried going there a few years ago when our good family friends visited but I didn't have my passport and they will NOT let you in without a passport (even with 4 other forms of identification). We beat the rush and were in by 9:15am.
Here's the rock from the drive (recognize this from anywhere? Prudential maybe?)

Our plan was to take the cable car up and walk our way back down. Good idea - walking up would have been torture.
Here is a view from the cable car.

It was an absolutely beautiful day and the blue of the water and the sky were perfect! I will post some pics from our walk on the rock.
Here is the sun rising - I love it!

From the top lookout point when you get off the cable car

That's Africa - no biggie

Pretty pics


Tad and me at the top of the rock

Pretty view

British flag (with my possible next adventure in the background.....CRUISE!!!!!)

We had lunch downtown at a place called "The Angry Friar" - also had some English beer.

Then Tad ordered more food than a person needed for an entire day - and he ate it ALL!

We drove around to the backside of the rock and there was a cute light house

And a mosque

And here is a picture of the rock looking up from the only beach on gibraltar

Add the entertaining monkeys and it was an overall great day! So weird to be just across the border from Spain but to hear lots of English!! It was a treat!
Love from Spain!

MONKEYS

There were two things that I repeatedly asked my parents for when I was a child:


Yep, that's a cash register (I was completely obsessed with playing "store" and was not satisfied with a simple toy cash register. I wanted a real one and every time I went to Staples with my parents, I would go to the aisle with cash registers and play with them. I sadly never received my cash register :-(
And yes, the second thing is a cute, cuddly pet monkey. No, I didn't ever get a pet monkey (aren't my parents just mean?!? haha that's a joke - I have the greatest parents a girl could ask for). However, I think I was able to satisfy my desire to have a pet monkey this weekend with a simple trip to Gibraltar. Gibraltar is famous for the monkeys that live on the rock and I have to say they were quite entertaining. I will write more about the day in Gibraltar in a different post - this one will be dedicated entirely to the monkeys :-)

Here is a bit of info in case you'd like to familiarize yourself with the history of the monkeys
The Barbary Apes of Gibraltar, Macaca Sylvanus, are actually tail-less monkeys and are an unusual and delightful attraction for anyone visiting Gibraltar or the Costa del Sol. No one is really sure how the only wild apes in Europe arrived in Gibraltar. The two most popular explanations as to the appearance of the apes of Gibraltar is either that they crossed via a subterranean tunnel from their native Morocco or British sailors introduced them having picked them up on their travels. Whatever the explanation they readily adapted to their new habitat and have lived, bred and been an integral part of Gibraltar for some centuries now.
Gibraltar Monkey History
The Gibraltar monkey population was under the care of the British Army and later the Gibraltar Regiment from 1915 to 1991, who carefully controlled a population that initially consisted of a single troop. An officer was appointed to supervise their welfare, and a food allowance of fruit, vegetables and nuts was included in the budget. Births were gazetted in true military fashion, and each new arrival was named. Following the withdrawal of the British garrison, the Government of Gibraltar took over responsibility for the monkeys.
Currently the monkeys are managed by the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society (GONHS) and veterinarian expertise is provided by the Gibraltar Veterinary Clinic (GVC). The macaques receive a daily supply of fresh water and vegetables, fruit and seeds as supplement to natural food resources (leaves, olives, roots, seeds and flowers).

The animals are caught on a regular basis in order to check their health status. Additionally, body size, weight and several other measures are taken. Finally, the animals are given a tattoo number and a micro chip as a means of identification. But tattoos are not the only way to recognise animals. Barbary macaques quite often show particular marks, scars or spots which can be used as distinguishing features. All monkeys are photographed and the pictures together with individual characteristics catalogued.

Anywho, needless to say, they were VERY entertaining. They were spending their Saturday doing many things:
Grooming each other

Having a mid-morning snack

Spending quality family time together

Sleeping

Doing Yoga

Hitching a ride on the bus (yes, it was moving as I took this picture)

Trying to rob harmless Americans

Getting piggy-back errr "monkey-back" rides

Contemplating life from behind bars

Leaning on a pal after a hard day


Then of course, it's always entertaining to do imitations!





Here is an awesome video that Tad put together with some of my pictures and the videos we took from the day. Enjoy!!

Master's News

So, as I told you all before, I was accepted into a program at the University of Granada to do a Masters in the Teaching and Learning of the Spanish Language and Culture. I found out at the beginning of the month and had to make my decision as to whether I would participate in the program or not. Initially, I was very excited for this opportunity and had even told people that I was almost 90% sure it was something that I was going to do. However, after spending some quality time making a list of pros and cons and truly being honest with myself, I have decided not to do the Masters. It was not an easy decision but in the end, it just doesn't feel like the right thing to do. My list of cons slightly outweighed the pros. One of the biggest things that swayed me from doing the program is that I am not entirely sure that teaching is what I want to do with my life and do not want to spend time and money on something that will not be of worth to me in the long run. It's true though - when I was young, one of my favorite birthday gifts was a box full of school supplies (my dad worked for a printing company that also sold office supplies and it was like a dream come true when he came home with that gift for me). I had my own lunch tickets, stapler, tape dispenser (which to this day still has a label that says "tap") and many other goodies. I had the best class of pretend students who were always eager to learn. I've been teaching since a very young age. When I studied abroad in 2008, I even contacted someone in the School of Education department about switching my major. People have told me that they think I would make a great teacher. One of my biggest role models and the reason why I have a passion for the Spanish language is because of my high school Spanish teacher, Pat Peters (she has since passed away from cancer and to this day I would give anything to be able to sit down and tell her how much of an inspiration she is to me). She was one of the best teachers had such a passion for what she did and made learning a foreign language an enjoyable adventure for me. If I were to become a teacher, I would want to be just like her.
However, I also had another dream that crept into my life as I grew older and that was to be a doctor/work in the medical field. When I was applying for college, I didn't really know what I wanted to study (like most 17/18 yr old kids). My cousin's husband suggested that I look into Kinesiology programs. It seemed like the perfect answer as it was a mix of two things I love - sports and science. I fell in love with the class I took related to exercise and nutrition - especially after my grandpa passed away when I was in high school from a sudden heart attack when he was 75. I just couldn't fathom how such an active, seemingly healthy person could just be gone one day. From that point on, I have developed such a passion for nutrition and also with passing my knowledge onto other people (I know that sometimes my friends and family roll their eyes at me as I read every label and feel compelled to tell people all about the dangers of trans fats just at the point when they go to put that donut in their mouth - but it's really for their own good :-) I also was blessed with the opportunity to work at U of M hospital for 4 1/2 years while I was in college. My uncle passed away from multiple meyeloma when I was a senior in high school. My family spent a lot of time with the doctors of the Hematology/Oncology division at U of M and they did everything they could to make my uncle's life the best it could possibly be during his treatment. I was fortunate enough to get a job in this same department my freshman year of college and was able to meet and interact with all of his doctors. I am so grateful for them and am impressed by the passion that they have for the work that they do. It's not easy and they do it with such grace and poise. So, the point I am trying to get at here is that I have this degree in Movement Science and there are many options of things that I could do with it - many requiring Grad school. However, I am willing to look into these options and pursue my dream of working in the medical field (maybe not so much an MD at this point but possibly nursing, orthotics and prosthesis, dietitian etc...) I earned this degree at U of M and don't just want it to go to waste.
With that said, I am still in Spain and am not sure that I have completely rid myself of the desire to live here after this year. I am considering reapplying for the job that I currently have, coming home for the summer and then returning to Spain in the fall for another year. After that, we will see what life brings. Any thoughts, comments, suggestions - please feel free to share! haha