After my tutoring session with the crazy duo tonight (and after their mom asked me if I hadn't lost weight over the past few weeks - compliment or insult?), I decided it was time to go to the Medieval Market! And let me just say, it was worth the wait. It is purported to be one of the biggest Medieval Markets in Europe and it truly did not disapoint! It was like being at a Renaisance Fair, only the buildings that lined the street were actually built just after the Renaissance, making the whole market seem a lot less gimmicky and a whole lot more like I had ended up there thanks to time travel. Amazing.
I walked the streets, looking at all the stalls and taking it all in. Festive flags were hung above all the streets and people were dressed up. There were yummy smells all around and people playing music and putting on little plays. I got myself two scarves, 'cause the thing is, you never need to try hard to dress up in Spain, all you need is a pair of jeans, some boots, a cardigan and a really cute scarf and you're looking as dapper as can be! I also got a teeny tiny version of my favorite book with my name embossed on the cover, a doll-house sized Jamon Iberico (a pig's foot on a special wooden stand - SO Spain) and the most amazing bottle for wine you've ever seen. Every time I travel I try to get a little something for my collection of crazy awesome foreign objects from my travels, and this amazing bottle for wine is the perfect addition. It's a hand-made glass slipper, but you can pour a bottle of wine in it and it comes with a cork. It's amazing and adorable. :)
My roomie Katie saw me on the street and we went back to the market together to browse and talk and stare hypnotically at the many owls they had on display (owls, what?). I also finally found the black boots of my dreams, but they're 99 euro... so that might be awhile... haha.
Tonight our roomie Ali told us that she's decided she's done with the program. She's leaving tomorrow for Mallorca to go rock climbing (her passion) and then will come back for a month just to hang out before returning home. She's the second of five original roomies to decide she's over it. I may not be in love with my experience thus far, but what I will say is that I love my school. Everybody else has horror stories about the kids they teach and about the teachers they're teaching with the the directors they have to answer to. It sounds awful. My school, on the other hand, seems to love me - students and teachers alike - and everyone is always super friendly and sweet to me. I'm like the little super star of the school and it's kinda fun. :) I heard the teacher calls home the other day to tell parents news about the school year and I was bragged about to the parents. Some asked why I couldn't just teach all of the English classes. I don't really feel like I know what I'm doing, but I feel like I'm interesting and fun and smiley and clever enough to get the job done.
For example, today one of the 6th grade classes had to choose their work-jobs in their companies. They could choose between management, marketing, finance and production. We split them up fine until four wanted to be management and there was only room for three. The class said we should vote, so we did, with the votes totaling two, three, four and six. The girl who got only two votes (one of them being her own!) was clearly upset. All the kids started high fiving each other and told her she had to go to one of the other groups 'cause nobody wanted her to be a manager. They were being super rude about it and way overly-cocky. I could see she was totally crushed and was taking the whole thing way too seriously for her own good. I would have left it at that had the two boys - who'd gotten three and four votes - not started making fun of her and saying she shouldn't even be on the project at all because nobody liked her. At that point I smiled and turned to the class and informed them the girl that got two votes who they were all making fun of and being so rude to would be their CEO. Every single last one of them would have to answer to her for the remainder of the project.
BURN.
The teacher looked up from his grading and started to giggle. He said that was a wonderful idea. The kids became enraged and asked why didn't I just give the girl with the six votes the job of the CEO and let the other girl be a normal manager. I told them I wouldn't do it because the point was they'd been so unnecessarily mean to her for no reason and so they all had to learn to work as a group - which meant including everyone... and if they were incapable of doing so, they would have the tables turned on them.
I have never been one for the "everybody wins!" ideal, but hearing the awful things those kids were saying to that girl - as if she weren't already crushed after seeing the vote results - well, it was time to crush their egos, too. Plus, you don't always work for the brightest crayon in the crayon box, and often times you don't even like who's in charge of you, so why not give them a taste of the real business world!? ;) I also figured that girl probably never has had the opportunity to experience leadership with peers like the ones she has, so why not give her a shot at it. Who knows, maybe she'll actually be good at it!?
While the class was working on their projects, their teacher told me how much it costs to send the kids to that school and I just about shit my pants. 650 euros per month per kid. Oh. My. God. I know my first high school was more than that... but DUHS was way better than this school as far as I'm concerned, and also, it would have only been for four years, whereas this school goes preschool through 12th grade! The only perspective I could put on it was the fact that Europeans only have to pay 1,500 euros per year for college, where we Americans have to pay at least 10,000 per year for a decent school. Maybe if you added it up, education costs would about equal out? Man!
Anyway, after I settled in to my chair for the night with my laptop and a glass of wine, I saw a comment on my Facebook status that my first boyfriend's older sister had left me. She wrote, "Hi. I am just living vicariously through your life. Lucky girl!"
Her comment made me stop dead in my tracks.
I scrolled down my page and read the last ten or fifteen statuses I'd written.
Tango classes in Madrid? Cupcakes? Churros for breakfast? New Spanish friend? Talk of jet-setting to Switzerland in December to go to the Christmas markets? Roomie bonding? Day trips with my Spanish family to quaint Spanish cities? Adorable moments with my students? New hair-do? First European paycheck cashed?
What am I being so whiney about????
Had I been reading those statuses three months ago I would have been so envious of the author of them I could have just killed them. But now that it's me I'm allowing so much petty stupidity to blind me from the amazing adventure I'm on. Katy's comment really made my perspective start to shift a bit, and I'm so grateful for that. I think I'll print it out and put it by my bed along with my Pinterest Quotes of Positivity. I want to enjoy my time here as much as my facebook statuses make it seem like I am! ;)
XOXO
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