3 Weeks down, 38 to Go!

This is probably going to be a short post. I think the previous posts covered the main events of the week, like Eduardo throwing pens and the unintentional torture by instrumental U2.

Thursday I had planning time with both of the teachers. Neither session was the road map I want, I felt that it was productive. In Elena's class we are working on making visuals to go up around to the room, especially since the kids are having major trouble with spelling. Eduardo wants me to work with small groups of kids to cement their knowledge of comparative and superlative words (for example, older and oldest). Slowly but surely I think I will fit into this situation and the school.

I've said it before, but it is totally worth repeating, the teachers at Rosa Luxemburgo are really nice people. Last week I asked the first grade teacher about which laundry soap to buy and she not only answered my question, but was super excited to give me tips on anything and everything. The staff in the bilingual program will speak to us in either English or Spanish, which is fine; the rest of the staff on the other hand speaks only Spanish. I think since they work in a bilingual school they know how hard it is to learn a new language, so they speak really slow and more than happy to repeat things for us. When we have our morning coffee break the room fills up with excited chatter, but the monolingual staff does a great job of trying to engage us in conversations. I really feel lucky to be at such a welcoming school.

Things in general are going well. Sadly, the hours I spend at the school really knock me out. Thursday night I came home and watched some TV on my computer and put on my pajamas. When Tony called at 12:45 am to see if I wanted to go out I laughed out loud at the idea. By that point in the night I was getting ready to brush my teeth and go to bed, not put on my party shoes.

Friday Meagan and I tried to go to a free flamenco show in the Chamartin metro station. I said "tried" because even though we had arrived an hour early the line to get the free tickets was at least 150 deep, not counting the people who had already received tickets and were inside the tent. Slightly defeated we went to Bilbao area to see if we could find something else to do. This idea turned into a 2 hour walking tour of Madrid Center. It was nice to see Gran Via all lit up, and to pass the Royal Palace at night, it really made me wish I had brought the camera. No joke, I pulled it out of the little case and debated bringing it, but then decided against the idea. I guess that teaches me to just bring it and not kick myself later.

Hopefully this weekend I can get out and sacar unas fotos (to take pictures in Spanish). This morning/afternoon it was rainy, so we'll see if the weather lets up enough to take a good walk. Tomorrow is El Dia de la Hispanidad (The Day of Spanish-ness, basically), the day Spain celebrates itself and how Columbus found the new world (some people call it El Dia de la Raza [The Day of the Race] because it celebrates when the Spanish brought civilization to the natives of the Americas, but that is neither here nor there, just a fun fact to know and share). There is a large military parade and several other celebrations, which might give me a few good photo ops.