The holiday season begins...

Alright, things have been looking up lately! Wow, aside from the fact that I had 3 mind blowing sneezes (literally, and not in a good way) in a row just now. The bilingual department meeting are at least in Spanglish now instead of entirely in Spanish. Students have started to respect us as actual teachers a bit more than before (not all of them, however). We've been cooking delicious food at home that involves no pork products whatsoever. The science teacher thinks all of my ideas are made of gold and wants me to teach her everything I know. I taught an entire science lesson and it didn't totally bomb. In fact, it might have been more like "the bomb" than a bomb. Nice!

Here are some cultural differences about Spain/U.S. that I have noted recently. First, there is an utter lack of what I like to call "floor pencils", here in Spain. When I student taught in the U.S. last year (with the same age group that I'm working with here), I was able to collect about 10-15 pencils and other writing utensils off the floor at the end of each day. When students asked to borrow a pencil, the only ones I ever supplied were recycled floor pencils. Why bother providing new school supplies when the items on the floor work just as well? Whenever I ran out of floor pencils and a student would ask for a pencil, I would suggest that they check the floor. They always looked at me as if I was crazy. Little did they know, this is where every single pencil I ever lent out had come from! I guess they are much better about using pencil pouches here.

Secondly, the greetings here are much different than at home. For instance, a shop owner might say something along the lines of "hello beautiful, what would you like?" and that is totally normal. To us, the greeting "hello beautiful" by a complete stranger warrants a slap in the face or at least walking away from the offender. Here, totally fine! They also do a peck on each cheek as both hello and goodbye greetings (not the shop owners, only someone you've actually been introduced to). Sometimes, however, it is two kisses on each cheek. Man, I've made awkward blunders a number of times with this one! It's a bit strange if you are pulling away while someone else is leaning in to kiss your cheek! On the other hand, it's a bit strange to have a stranger's face pressed against your own upon first meeting! Sometimes I find myself extending a hand to do the standard American handshake, but then I look like a fool because this is not normal and seems very standoffish to the folks here.

Last weekend, we had a group of 10 of us at our apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. It was wonderful! The food was fantastic and we managed to have a lot of gluten-free dishes that my roommate, Bert, could eat (she has celiacs). I couldn't have asked for a better substitute for a family Thanksgiving.

On Thursday I got to chat with my family via Skype while they were all gathered at my aunt and uncle's house. I'm pretty sure the advanced video chat technology blew my grandma's mind! She actually said, and I quote, "It's like you're a real person!" At this, I wanted to throw in some brilliant Pinocchio quote like, "I am a real boy!" but I decided not to confuse her since Skype is already far beyond her mental and technological capabilities!

Tonight (Saturday), I went to another Thanksgiving dinner hosted by folks from Jen's church. It was fun but the food wasn't nearly as good as the meal at our place. However, it was lovely having Imilce (the daughter of our landlords) and a couple of her friends join us. I love when you never know what language will be spoken at any giving moment! We speak Espanglish very well! There was also a bit of Sign Language and French thrown in, because Spanish and English would be far too simple, right?

Apparently my Spanish has been improving since I arrived in Madrid (sans class, might I add). Imilce told me so, so it must be true! Also, I've had a number of students tell me that I speak Spanish very well. Granted, I'm never supposed to speak anything but English with them, so they probably shouldn't know this detail but oh well! I do think that I'm speaking faster than when I arrived (which implies that I have to think far less mid-sentence) but I'm not sure that my vocabulary is growing as much as it could. I just started reading "La telarana de Carlota" (aka Charlotte's Web) in Spanish. The students at Bert's school just finished reading the English version so I was able to borrow an English copy. This way I can read it in Spanish and when I get stuck on a word, I can simply look at the English version for guidance. Yes, I do realize that this a children's book but I don't care! I'm still proud of myself for reading it. Peter Pan and Harry Potter are both still a little above my head when it comes to Spanish vocab and verb tenses so I'm hoping to work up to those levels! Adult books are probably out of the picture for now...or forever?

Imilce's parents (aka our landlords) are out of town for a few days so she's having a bunch of friends over for lunch tomorrow. The three of us, Jen, Bert and I, are invited! I'm excited! More Espanglish!!! We also need to put up our Christmas decorations soon. We bought a *cough cough* fake tree. Whatever, our apartment may not smell like forest but we'll still have loads of holiday cheer and a kickass holiday party come December!

Well, that's all the scattered thoughts I have for now! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and for those of you in areas with snow, I hope you enjoyed the white holiday blanket! I'm off to Paris for a few days next weekend where it has just snowed also! Thank goodness for Spanish holidays...I don't exactly know which one but no matter because I get to go to France! So EXCITED!!! I get to see Aurore et Ines! They are such sweet gals!

The good.

It's time to ignore the bad and the ugly. Tis time to pull me head outta me arse and focus on the good for a change! I've been a bit of a Debbie Downer lately which means that, statistically speaking, I'm right on track! When people move away from home and the life that they know, there is a lull a couple of months in. This is the point where you call home in tears, question what the heck you were thinking and consider hopping on the next plane back to the land of the familiar. Done, done and done (thinking about, not actually doing). Now here I am cresting over the hill and awaiting the joyous carefree ride ahead.

I spent all but half of a day last week in bed because I was sick. After that nice rejuvinating experience, I came back to school on Monday with a new attitude. I needed a break from the school for a little while so it turns out the nasty sickness inducing metro germs were actually a bit of a blessing. On a side note, people totally sneeze into their hands and then put them right back on the handrails. Gross! Not only do they leave germs, they leave physical smears of saliva! Back to the topic at hand...

Here are some positives from this week:

• Our bilingual program staff meeting, although only a couple minutes long, was in English! It's like they're starting to consider the fact that we're actually people AND a part of the department. Cool!
• Without wearing makeup or even brushing my hair, I had 3 students compliment my appearance in one day. One of them is known as a "bad girl," which I tend not to believe about any students, so it was especially nice to hear something good from her. "You look...Que es guapa?...beautiful!" It's little things like this that give me constant reminders that even those who are considered bad have a lot of good in them. 
• Instead of working on her art assignment, one of my students was told by the other teacher to practice speaking English with me instead. I love the days when this happens! I especially love when it becomes my job to chat with this girl in particular. Our students, as I mentioned previously, are divided into different classrooms based on their ability levels, 'A' being the bilingual, well behaved, "good" kids down to 'E', the Spanish speaking misfits who are nothing but "bad." They were given one single test last year that determined their placement this year. Do bad on that test and you're stuck in a level where you don't belong for 2 years before you can retake it. This girl is in 'D', second from the bottom. It kind of breaks my heart because she is hands down one of the most conversationally fluent in English of any of the classes. She also likes English even more than she likes Spanish, she reads books in English at home, she listens to songs in English and her favorite subject in school? You guessed it! English! Luckily, she was able to move to a different group for English class, but she is not able to take science and other subjects in English, like the 'A' group can. In this broken system, it's not just the 'bad kids' that are suffering by being left behind, there are also students like this one who have been misplaced and are falling behind just the same. This goes the other way too though, there are students in 'A' who are totally lost because they do not have the language comprehension ability to have every subject taught in English. They are going to slip farther and farther behind their peers throughout the year because of these placements. GRRR!!!
• The science teacher I am working with told me that she loves that every time we meet she gets all these great ideas and wants to try all sorts of new things! She's really excited about assigning roles for group work and doing more team oriented stuff which will be really good for these kiddos. 
• Our teacher lessons have progressed to the point where talking about drug use, homosexual relationships and drinking is totally normal in our classroom activities. It's nice to have a laid back atmosphere where we can practice English but almost feel like friends having a good time instead of teachers and students. 
• Bert (one of my roommates) and I have made some pretty delicious meals that involved absolutely no pork. I have to get excited about the little things!
• It rained and looked a lot like Seattle. 
• I have been given permission to do a conservation project with my students (which is excellent because it's my homework and a have to do it). I was actually worried that I would not be able to complete the assignment if I was not allowed to do it during school.
• There is talk of a few classes getting involved with schools in other countries to talk about renewable resource projects and ideas.
• Got to sing Shakira's "Waka Waka" in class today. Yeah, don't be jealous. My music class is pretty awesome.
• The ultimate "bad boy" who does not even own the English text book yet (mind you, it's mid-November) actually participated in class today for most of the period! Holy crap!!! You have no idea how happy this makes me! Granted, he had to borrow the other teacher's textbook and I'm pretty sure he threw his notes in the garbage on the way out of class, but he was involved in the discussion, raised his hand and didn't totally distract the rest of the students. Major improvement! I think letting him doodle and openly appreciating his artistic abilities a couple weeks ago really helped us bond a bit. He did draw a wicked Van Gogh...during class...instead of participating in that lesson. Hey, you've gotta start somewhere. If letting him draw for one class period instead of paying attention makes him respect me for the rest of the year, it was totally worth it!

Going to the Vampire Weekend concert tomorrow night! Possibly shopping and room cleaning tomorrow earlier in the day? Ha! Sure...

For now, I think I'm going to watch a movie with the Spanish subtitles on. Hey, it's better than not studying at all!