5 Weeks Down, 36 to Go!

Time flies when you're teaching English! I've now completed my 5th week in Spain; 3 and a half of them working at Rosa Luxemburgo. Time is sure passing by quickly. We are already preparing for Halloween and the arrival of staff from out Twin School, Redlands Primary, in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England. Because of the visit by the Twin School staff we are downplaying Halloween and planning big stuff for Guy Fawkes Day, which is in the first week of November, possibly the 7th. The really super short version of Guy Fawkes day that I was told is he planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament in the 1600's and was caught and burned at the stake. Now towns and villages all over Britain re-enact the burning at the stake with an effigy which the community creates. This coincides well with the fact that November is fire safety month.

For Halloween, the older kids are going to participate in a pumpkin carving contest and we will award prizes for the best ones. Other than that, the celebration of Halloween is really up to the teachers. I know in Elena's class we are going to do some worksheets and activities that help them with grammar but use Halloween words and themes. Since we are working on feelings I looked around for coloring sheets and found one that has a ridiculous looking monster on it and a caption that says "The monster is mad," I don't know if that is mad like angry or mad like the British word for crazy, maybe both? We talked about making a potion in class so they could work on order words such as first, next, after, last. We threw around things we could use, like ketchup for blood and beans with eyes drawn on them. Then Elena said something about spider legs, but she didn't know what to use. I immediately thought of these little tiny soup noodles that are about an inch long and much skinnier than spaghetti. I told her we could use the noodles and she just gave me a blank stare. I tried to explain soup noodles, I even drew them on the board. She told me in Spanish they call them fideos and asked what the word do we use. So, I think I taught Elena "noodles" along with giving a suggestion for spider legs.

Speaking of Elena... I should share with you the funniest sentence I've heard yet, and it came from her. On Wednesday there was a girl bawling in class because her pencil and eraser were taken away. She was playing with them while I was reading them a book about day and night, and Elena had enough. After 15 or 20 minutes of crying Elena suggested that the girl go splash some water on her face and calm down. When she left the room the other kids asked where she was going and why she was crying. Elena told them that she was "going to wash her face in the toilet." I should point out that Elena didn't misspeak, rather the kids are taught British English, which calls the restroom "the toilet." To me "she is going to wash her face in the toilet" just sounds wrong; and when the kids ask me if they can go to the toilet it sounds vulgar, I don't need to know their exact destination. We've been encouraged not to correct the children when there are differences between the English they have been taught and the English we know, but I think if these kids went to The States and asked for the toilet they would get strange looks. They also call erasers "rubbers" which makes the adolescent boy in me giggle every time.

On a completely unrelated note, I received a wonderful complement on my Spanish skills yesterday. While I was in Eduardo's room working on a poster for the Redlands teachers Ines, the new 4th grade teacher came in just to say hi. She came in a few weeks into the school year because the regular 4th grade teacher took a leave of absence after her son was hit by a car and fell into a coma, he is doing much better but not out of the woods yet. Since Ines teaches the kids in Spanish I have no contact with her outside of the break times. We chatted for a little, I asked how her classes were getting along and she explained that it is much better now that she has been here a few weeks and knows the kids, a point that I totally agreed with. At the end of our conversation she asked how long I had been in Spain, and I told her about a month, she said that my Spanish was very good. I should point out that she is the one who teaches the kids Spanish grammar, so she is well qualified to make this assessment!

I also had the chance to walk home with the portero of our building. A portero is kind of like a doorman, but better. He is in charge of building upkeep, trash, mail deliveries and just being a generally friendly face in the vestibule. On my way home from school yesterday I saw him get on the same metro car as me, though he was talking with some people. When the other people got off one stop before ours he looked over with much surprise and asked if I lived in the building, I said yes. Then he told me about his metro friends, the people he sees each time he rides because he rides at the same time everyday. We chatted about what I was doing and about the weekend. He gave me a restaurant recommendation for our neighborhood. Yet another opportunity to practice Spanish.

All in all things are going well. I like my school, I have a few leads on private lessons and I'm getting the hang of speaking Spanish with native speakers. What else could I ask for?