Two Hours of Teaching!
In which the second graders had an English test and the last activity was a listening exercise in which students had to listen to a boy talk about where he lived, what he liked to do and who is favorite soccer team was. The two choices on the test? Manchester United and Chelsea!! All of the kids circled "Chelsea" as the correct answer before the teacher even played the recording.
"No, guys. You have to listen to the BOY on the recording and circle which team HE likes. Not which team YOU like," the teacher told them.
"But everybody likes Chelsea!" half the class hollered.
I was beaming and made a "Hell Yes!" gesture at them out of complete solidarity with their logic.
The teacher played the recording. We all held our breath. As soon as the boy said, "Chelsea is my favorite football team!" the whole class began to cheer!!!!
It was SO adorable!!!
^_^
I walked around the room. Not one kid got the answer to that test question wrong. ;) BA.
My only other class of the day was with the 10th graders, where the idea of a Culture Book was presented to them. Basically, they have to make a book all about Spanish culture and send it to a class in the US, who will make a book about US culture and send it back to them, so that the two classes can compare. Cute idea, but I'm in charge of finding what school we'll send it to in the US and so far I have no idea!! >_<Haha.
Anyway, we were discussing the topics they should cover in pairs and they kept vetoing all of the ideas. "Clothing is totally the same in the US. We don't need to write about that!" the all said. I stared at them.
"ExCUSE me?" I said, incrediously. "We dress like crap in the US, and we're proud of it. The worse you look, the hotter you are. This is like the rule of thumb for teenagers / early 20-somethings - at least from where I come from. You have a baggy hoodie, baggy sweatpants and Ugg boots or flip flops? You're golden. Automatically adorable and trendy. No problem."
They stared at me, confused.
"Oh no, I'm serious. While you guys are in your preppy little uniforms here, people at my high school in your grade are wearing PJ pants and cozy hoodies and slipper-boots. Their hair is up in a greasy bun and they feel attractive and awesome."
They all started to giggle.
"I live with three other American girls here in Spain. Two of them always are European chic, while the other two of us have no problem running to the corner store to pick up milk or cookies in our sweat pants and flip flops and hoodie/PJ shirt with our messy bun or braid. 'Why not!?' we say. 'Who's going to see us? And more importantly, who gives a crap!?' Our other two roommates look on in horror as we walk out the door looking American as heck."
Now they were full-out laughing.
"Here? You guys always look so freak'n adorable. You have your classy leather boots and you're little ballerina flats that never have a scuff on them. You have your perfect little skinny jeans and your cute little leather jackets. You're always wearing a chic scarf and your hair always looks good and tights with dresses or shorts or legwarmers are totally a thing here. It would be flat out annoying if it weren't so endearing."
They started asking if we really didn't dress like that in the US!?
"Well no - not really. Boots are Uggs. Ballerina flats are tennis shoes. Leather jackets make you look like you're from 'Happy Days' and scarfts are big, bulky things you wear in winter. Tights are for ballerinas. But don't get me wrong. We Americans LOVE your European style. We read blogs about it. We study up on it. We want to look EXACTLY LIKE YOU GUYS DO!!!"
Their minds were blown.
Without a doubt.
The next topic was food. They didn't believe it could be that different, but come on, guys. First off - American food is diverse and has FLAVOR... unlike food here!!! Tapas don't exist outside of Spain and a group of boys actually were totally taken aback by this fact *facepalm*. And tortilla? That's a Mexican flour thing used for burritos and fajitas - it's not bits of potato and pepper chopped up and doused in oil and then made into a circle with the help of lots of scrambly eggs mixed in. And how about the infamous "jamon serano," or, Serano Ham. This is a giant, raw (albeit cured) pig leg that lives in your house on a special wooden plank and you slice off a bit at a time each day and eat it. It is a bit like raw, salty, chewy bacon, if you can imagine that...? Haha.
These types of conversations ensued for the remainder of class. The most epic moment in these converstations was, without a bout, the moment a girl asked me if younger people in the US had swag.
O_o
What?!
I asked her if she could repeat the question. This is a girl in class who a) has never spoken and b) looks a ton like Woody's wife Jessi did in 10th grade, so she always makes me giggle. She repeated it and wrote it down. When I saw that I had heard her right I just started laughing and said, "Ohmygod. You are SO awesome!!"She smiled at me like I was nuts. I probably would have, too. Haha!! :oD
The class was actually pretty fun and I was surprised at how much I've grown accustom to Spanish culture in the past 75 days. I actually took some thinking to tell them about American culture and I was surprised myself about how many things were different here than they are where I'm from and lived for 22 years of my life! I've really began to completely adapt to life here and hardly anything seems out of the ordinary any more. o_O
I can see why the reentry was so awful last year. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like for me to go back home now, and last summer I was even more blissfully content than I am now. Suddenly I can see why I was so upset, so bitter, so out of place. It makes perfect sense and I don't fault myself for it anymore like I did. Nobody who's never lived abroad can understand what reentry is like. It's awful. It's beyond awful. Culture shock is expected, but when you go home, suddenly everything you've ever held as The Way Things Are seems all wrong and even the people closest to you can't see it. It feels so lonely and scary and devastating.
Every day that I'm here I miss J and I think about a different memory from living in Portland. Every single day. But then I stopped and thought about it tonight and I thought, "If you had the chance to go back at 88 days, just like you did last summer, would you?"
My answer was an unequivocal, "No." It both surprised me and it didn't.
I was talking to Abby on Saturday night while we were having a few pre-gaming drinks about how now that I thought about it, Portland was really actually awesome, but while I was there, I just was so depressed all the time. I've been thinking about that all week and realized I do that often. I am unsatisfied with where I am, who I'm with, who I am, etc. and then as soon as it's gone, I suddenly see all the good in it. The only time I don't do this is when I'm abroad and on my own. Then I suddenly have a much clearer perspective. I've resolved to go back to my ideology of "One day you'll be nostalgic for now" and live by it. I need to do that. I will always miss something and feel like there is a big hole inside of me - if I didn't, it would only mean that I hadn't lived life to the fullest right before. But that's no reason to taint the present. I missed J when I got to Spain. I missed Spain when I got to J. I miss J now that I'm back in Spain. >_<
And so this week I've tried something different. I've tried to take each memory and moment that pops into my head and would normally make me feel a little sad and nostalgic and I've turned those into little bubbles of happiness that put a smile on my face. Instead of thinking, "What if I never feel that way again? What if I never have that again? What if I never see her again?" I start thinking, "What an amazing life I've had so far! How lucky and blessed I am! Things can only get better - imagine what will happen from here! Who do I want to be and what do I want to have experienced by the next time I see her?!" Now, I look forward to each memory and moment and thought that pops into my head. They all make me smile. They all make me feel loved. They all make me feel lucky.
It's like that Winnie the Pooh quote, "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard!" ^_^ <3
Anyway, after teaching it was time for the second weekend marathon of university classes. Five hours of class later with the Impressively Awful Teacher and I'd (unsurprisingly) learned nothing. I vowed to bring crayons to class the next day so I'd have something to do. Sheesh.
The really exciting part of my Friday though, really got underway after 9 pm. :)
Earlier in the week my Spanish mom had txted me to invite me to her birthday dinner at home. I was so excited to go and to see everyone that I could hardly contain myself! I got on Pinterest and found the perfect project and worked on it instead of eating lunch. Even though I got out of class later than I'd expected, I still made it to the bus stop on time and was at their front door right around 9:30 (I'm never on time and they plan for that, I think, by now)!! I did a little squeal when I rang the doorbell, feeling like I was home (adorable). <3 I hadn't seen everyone since the weekend of their anniversary party in Segovia and I hadn't been home in over a month!
I walked in the door and was bombarded with kisses and hugs! <3 Yay!! Everyone was dressed up all cute and the table was set in a festive way. As it turned out, we were having fondue for dinner!!! The kind where you put raw meet in the fondue pot and it cooks and you dip it in a bunch of yummy sauces. :) Jen and I felt like we were at the Melting Pot - which is where I went for MY birthday! :) We had a yummy dinner and two different cakes, all the while having really funny conversations!! The best conversation topic was definitely when somebody brought up cocaine tea from Peru! My madre started talking about how she'd tried it and it really wasn't that big of a deal and I could not stop laughing!!! ^_^ Jesus made some comment under his breath and I started giggling at him. He looked up and asked, "You understood that!?" I said, "Yeah... weird, right? I don't know what's happening with my Spanish. It's like I can suddenly understand things for no reason!" Seriously!
After dinner my Spanish mom asked what I was up to for Christmas break. She told me all the kids would be gone so if I wanted "come home for the holidays" they'd love to have me there!! <3 How completely and utterly adorable!!! ^_^ I told her about my plans for my European adventure. I told her how my friend had promised she'd come but how that hadn't worked out and she would be going somewhere with her new boyfriend instead. Cruz stopped me. "Wait, you mean Julia?" I nodded. "But I thought she was gay?" I laughed and said, "Right!?" My madre gave me one of those infamous, exasperated, wtf roll of her eyes and said, "Well then by all means, GO on that trip. Have so much fun you can't stand it. Take as many pictures as you can!" And then, all of a sudden, she did the "FUCK HER!" Spanish arm gesture!!!!!!
I practically peed my pants I was laughing so hard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Being at home with my Spanish family, giggling, eating, drinking and conversing all in Spanish was the best. I love how they make me feel like I really am their daughter. Knowing that I always have somewhere to go here with people who adore me and support me, makes me feel so happy. <3
XOXO
Four Hours of Family Time!
In which
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