First Day of School

Today was the first day I worked at Rosa Luxemburgo. It took Eimear and me a long time to get there. When we looked up directions, the Internet said we could take either bus 160 or 161 from Moncloa station. I should have known the Internet tends to lie. We figured it would take us about 45 minutes total, 10 of them on the bus. Based on this estimate we decided to meet at 10:45 at Moncloa, that gave us about 45 minutes until the teacher break was over and we would make it in time to talk to Eduardo before our noon meeting. We took bus 161 because it was the first to arrive, unfortunately that one does not go anywhere near CEIP Rosa Luxemburgo. When we finally decided to get off the wrong bus and go into the regional train station to ask for directions, we found there was neither information booth nor a ticket booth to ask for help. We went back on the street and asked a woman at a near-by bus stop if she knew our school; she didn't but suggested we ask the bus driver of the next bus to come along. This bus driver was very friendly and helpful. He instructed us to cross the street and take the 160 back towards Moncloa, but to ask the driver to tell us exactly which stop was best. A few minutes later the doors to our savior bus opened and we were on our way.

We disembarked the bus when instructed, walked a few small blocks where we faced out next challenge, the door. To let you all know, CEIP Rosa Luxemburgo is actually an academic fortress. The whole thing is surrounded by a high, green, metal fence. We found some doors in the fence, but they were locked and it didn't seem that anyone was around. I surveyed the building and found there was a larger building with some flags hanging above it, maybe that was the entrance? We walked around the whole building trying to find a way in. When we returned to the first set of doors, Eimear noticed a call botton box. This box was probably our best bet. The numbers (or where they names?) had been written in felt-tip pen and blended together into large purple blobs. We pressed one, nothing happened. We pressed the other, the gate began to buzz, it was open! An hour and 20 minutes after we were supposed to meet up with Eduardo, we were inside.

Once inside we told the front office people that we were the Auxilares de Conversacion and one of them walked us to the real office. There we met a woman who had been in the US for several years and spoke fabulous English. She told us that Eduardo would be out of class at 12:30, so we'd have to wait 10 minutes, but in the mean time we should take a tour. She showed us the cafeterias, one for the 3 &4 year-olds, one for everyone else. Then she showed us to a few of the class rooms. We were on our way to the next building when we ran into the 2nd grade teacher for the bilingual program and she took us back for our meeting with the bilingual staff.

In the meeting Eduardo basically covered the same things as orientation about what we were expected to do, then he passed out the schedules. I asked for the 3rd and 4th graders, mostly because of my previous experience with 5th and 6th graders, but this could prove a poor life choice (read on for an explanation). Then it was time for lunch. What is FABULOUS about my school is that they have arranged for us to get lunch for free each day we are there, and the lunches in Spanish schools kick American School lunch ass. It was real food. Fresh made vegetable soup, steak, French fries, salad, fruit and coffee at the end. Aside from being tasty, this is going to save me a ton of euro. If I can have a big lunch for free that diminishes how much dinner I'll want to eat in the apartment and on my dime. (Please don't think that I am starving here, I just think it is better to spend my small stipend on more than groceries!)

After lunch I was with the 3rd graders for the rest of the day. They were little terrors. I am not exaggerating here. Terror came over me while I stood there and watched them. It took about 40 minutes for them to get through saying their names and their favorite colors. Granted, they did have to say the name and color of the previous people, but 40 minutes is a bit much. Once we had gone through the names, one of the boys presented a picture of his friends to the class, which took a good deal of time, between him speaking slowly and the kids continual interruption of their classmate. Then we started work on the solar system. They had a paragraph of text to listen to on the CD player, then they read it line by line with one kid taking each line. I stood in the back, where most of the rowdy kids were concentrated. A few of them noticed my presence and calmed down, others did not. After the reading, I had to draw Saturn on the board and write the sentence "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos" inside (The sentence obviously is a device for them to remember the order of the planets). If any of you know anything about my drawing and penmanship skills you know just how funny this image is. I feel like there should have been a workshop on how to write for English Language Learners, or at least a refresher course on cursive (i only print, and even that is bad...).

While they were supposed to be quietly coloring a diagram of the solar system there was lots of talking, and lots of kids out of their seats. Not to pass judgment, but I felt like the teacher hardly had control of the room. Even when she pulled one of the worst offenders out into the hallway, threatening to send him to the 3 & 4 year-old's class, because that is how he was acting, the fear only stopped them for a few minutes. Soon they were back to their old tricks. After class she told me this was the worst they had ever been. Nice that they set the bar so high... Hopefully once they get used to me being their, and the novelty has worn off, they will be better.

At 4 o'clock I took the bus and a few metros back to my house. I had to stop at the store for a few things, and this time the bags weighed a ton. They dragged my arms down. I was exhausted. Still am, but now I have spaghetti in my tummy, so I'm much better. Even though today was rough, I have hope for tomorrow and the coming weeks.