12 Weeks Down, 29 to Go!

We meet again faithful readers. I have thoroughly enjoyed this past week. At school it was a ridiculously short week; I only worked Tuesday through Thursday. While at school I had to teach one class on my own, which was really fun. The rest of the time I helped the kids get ready for the Christmas production taking place next Tuesday. Sadly, I will probably miss the Christmas production since I have an appointment about my immigration status that morning, the same time as the show for the parents. With a little luck I can be back at school in time for the afternoon show, which is the one the kids to for each other.

Aside from school this week has been particularly fun. I finished my Christmas shopping to mail to my parents and sister and was surprisingly successful. My goal was to find small, light-weight, things to send back and I ended up with some choice items. Since they are still in the mail I don't want to tell you what they are just yet, but I think I picked good stuff.

This weekend I also made up for my lazy weekends past. On Friday we celebrated Anna's birthday with a British themed party in her apartment. She invited a bunch of people over and served some British treats. A few hours into the party a group of Spaniards arrived with one of the guests. This was a good test of my Spanish skills. I spent about an hour talking to a guy about a range of topics, from US politics to Spain to God knows what else. In hindsight, this would have been a good chance to make a Spanish friend, but I kind of fumbled that one (along with a ridiculous set of events...)

Last night Eimear, Anna and I went to dinner with three of the younger teachers at school. From what we could figure out there wasn't a plan for a Christmas party, outside of a lunch at school this Friday, and Elena wanted to go out and celebrate. It was lots of fun! I'm always happy to see the teachers in a more natural state. Not that they are vastly different at school, but it is a little awkward to talk about boys or going out when there is a room full of children around. After dinner we went and danced a little and that was also fun. All in all a great night.

I did have to laugh when at the end of the evening the Elena and Lucia turned back into teachers and had to make sure everyone was getting home safely and knew how to. Eimear and Anna walked back to Anna's place, Elena, Lucia and their roommate Ivana took the bus and I walked to the night bus pick-up plaza. It was about a 10 minute walk, but Elena seemed very concerned about me. I told her it was fine and that I knew exactly where I was going, but I'm sure I will have to check in with her tomorrow at school and tell her just how uneventful my walk was.

Now I am procrastinating on cleaning my room. I should start the week on a clean note, so that when I want to clean it before my Berlin trip it won't be insurmountable. To procrastinate I did most of the usual things, emailed friends, checked facebook and went shopping. I originally was just going to go for a walk, but then I realized that in December shops are open on Sundays.

During the rest of the year Spain pretty much closes on Sundays; shops are closed and the only things open are some restaurants and the movie theaters. This is what I expected to find when I went out; what I actually found was a bustling neighborhood full of shoppers. I became one of them, buying mittens and a book for my trip and a few other things just because they were cute. I also mentally picked out my birthday presents to myself...