"Hmm..." I thought. "It IS election day, and I AM these kids' only connection to America and American current events. Why not!?"
I looked through the pages and found one where the kids could color their own "Vote for Me!" buttons and create slogans and draw pictures, etc. I rushed down to the copy machine and rushed to the classroom. I didn't really know what I'd say about it all, but I figured it would come to me.
And it did.
I went over what a president was, who the two candidates were, what an election was, how often elections take place in America, how long a person can be a president for, etc. The kids were actually really into it all and a lot of them knew all about Obama. A few separate students even informed me, "Obama is BLACK, but he lives in a WHITE house!" Hahahaha. Awesome.
A few also informed me that: "NOBODY likes Romney. Obama is going to win." o_O Just smiling at them and says, "Oh?" was pretty much the trickiest thing I had to do all day. Anyway, before designing their campaign buttons, I had them write the top three things they'd do if they were president.
The most epic (strange/dumb) ones:
- I would close all women's accessory and boutique stores. ( o_O wtf?! )
- I would only let people eat veggies! Yum! ( eww )
- I would cancel school on Mondays and Tuesdays, but people would have to go to school on Saturdays and Sundays. ( uh...?? )
- I would give everyone free phones. ( haha - at this one I informed the boy that actually in America, the government did give you a free phone if you were poor. He thought this was the coolest thing he'd ever heard of and declared he would move to America. I tried to explain it was actually not a good thing, because that meant other people who worked had to pay for them... but he cared about as much as any grown up Liberal would upon hearing my explanation!)
For first grade, I knew they wouldn't really understand what I was talking about, so I gave them a two-sided coloring sheet. On the back was a picture of Romney and Obama to color in. It was way amusing to see the kids coloring Obama a peachy/pink color. :)
None of the kids said they'd ever heard of Obama, and yet somehow four of the 21 students actually colored him brown and black. I was impressed, and amused. :) There was an American flag on that sheet, too, and a surprising number of kids colored it correctly with the colors red and blue, and that made me a little proud, admittedly. ;)
After school, it was off to Nacho's and then Madrid. While changing trains in Sol, I heard someone yelling my name. o_O Turned out it was one of my fellow teachers at school! We rode the train together and he took me on a circuitous route through the Letters District in order to show me a new pizza restaurant. :) I was grateful for a native guide for a change and thanked him. The pizza was definitely artisan and gourmet, but the cheese was too strong for me and the lettuce on it was too bitter. Meh.
Tango Tuesday was thus upon us. The first four dances I had to do with the one guy in the class who ROYALLY SUCKS. I had SO been hoping that he wouldn't sign up again for this month's block of classes, but unfortunately he was there with bells on and I got the short stick. This guy is just awful. Ridiculously awful. We've had FIVE tango classes. At least know your basic, dude. We only go over ONE step per class. That equals FIVE steps. And you can't even do one of them correctly? Why are you returning??? >_<
The teacher yelled "SWITCH!" again and everyone ran to another guy and I got stuck with that same idiot for the fifth time. And so I did the rational thing. I refused to dance with him again. I told the teacher I had danced with him for four songs and I wouldn't continue with the same partner. She had another girl switch with me and I never danced with him again the rest of the night. I had tried being friendly to him, but I'm paying for these classes and to actually learn the dance, not to have my toes stepped on and some guy trip over me constantly. UGH.
I did get to dance with a new guy - a crazy Irish man. I don't know WHO taught this guy "tango," but he was nutty. Nutty, but fun. Haha. It was a serious challenge to try to follow this dude, but it certainly kept me on my toes. It was a nice change of pace to be able to speak English during tango class for a few minutes, too. :) Anyway, not only did this guy dance like a crazy person, but he spoke Spanish like a crazy person, too!! I literally could not understand him - not because his Spanish grammar was off, but because his accent was just so horrible it was incomprehensible!!! Gave me a boost of linguistic confidence!!!
XOXO
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