This is a typical Wednesday- definitely my longest and most grueling day of the week, but also my last “difficult day”, as I finish work at 1:20 pm on Thursday, with no lessons in the afternoon, and no work on Fridays. Life is too good…
On Mondays and Thursdays, I start work at 9:20, so I need to leave home at 8:00. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I start work at 10:20, so I leave home by 9:00.
8:00 am. Alarm goes off. I hit snooze.
8:09 am. It goes off again and I continue to hit snooze 1-4 more times.
8:30 ish am. Get up, drink water, get dressed, go to the bathroom to wash face. Do make- up, etc.
8:50 am. Eat breakfast.
8:53 am. Wash my dishes and brush my teeth and pack some snacks for my 4 hours of work.
9:00 am. Grab stuff, walk to the metro.
9:08 am. Catch my first metro.
9:16 am. Catch my second metro.
9:30 am. Get on the bus and ride for a half hour to school. Sometimes I listen to music, but I usually I only eavesdrop (spelling?).
10:00 am. Get off the bus 3 stops early to walk 15 minutes to school. I´m addicted to my FITBIT (If you have one, let´s be friends so I can beat you every week 😉 )
10:15 am. Arrive at school, fill water bottle.
10:20-11:10 am. First class. Don´t do anything except walk around and ask students if they need any help and they all say no. Talk to the teacher.
11:10-11:40 am. Break time (well deserved after all of that hard work!!). Eat 2 snacks and drink coffee I brought from home because I´m poor.
Actually, I bought this coffee.
Sometimes I talk to other teachers, but I usually read blogs on my phone, plan lessons and print things, or print other things from the school computers.
11:40-12:30 pm. I have class with half of the class while the teacher works with the other half. We switch groups after 25 minutes. Today we do an activity with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd conditional. This is an amazing example of something I didn´t know before teaching English (and still don´t know 😉 )
12:30-1:25 pm. Same lesson as the last group, except this class is at a much lower level and I they are super confused and stare at me for most of the time.
1:25-2:20 pm. Conversation class with a more advanced group, but they don´t like to talk and this hour is usually especially painful for me. On Mondays, this hour is with a group I really like! And this week, we had a food festival where students brought in food from around the world. I brought in American food!!
I made them all try it and they were less than impressed. These kids OBVIOUSLY do not know quality! And that was my dad´s secret scabana-nut sandwich recipe! Tested and approved for over 24 years!!!
There was another group that made American food, and this is what they made:
I was confused. And I think they were, too…
2:20 pm. RUN to the bus, since it comes like 30 seconds after the bell rings and um, I can´t spend any more time at school than absolutely necessary. FREEDOM!
3:00 pm. Get off the bus and switch to the metro.
3:15 pm. Walk home for 30 minutes from the metro because…#fitbit
And I take pictures of people…
Is this a dress?
3:45 pm. Arrive home on the verge of death by hunger. Make myself a salad and a side. Eat lunch while reading more blogs/ maybe talking to roommates.
With bread and cheese on the side.
After lunch, I either use the computer for a bit to keep all of you up-to-date on my life. Wouldn´t want you to have to wait for a post!
But this obviously depends on the presence of a computer. This week I have one because I´m a lucky girl.
Other days, I lie in bed and read or take a nap (siesta), you know….as part of understanding the culture 🙂 . When in Spain….
5:10 pm. Leave home to catch the metro for my first private lesson of the day.
5:40 pm. Arrive at lesson. Say a quick prayer the child has something to study. They don´t. Pull something out of my a** to do for an hour. We play a game with cards and English practice. The time goes by because I really like this student.
6:45 pm. Head to the metro to get to my next lesson.
7:05 pm. Arrive at this lesson 5 minutes late, sweating. This child always has things we need to accomplish, but she is a demon and the hour goes slowly.
Walking into my torture chamber. I am happy when it´s over and I am ready for a few shots of tequila. Unfortunately, I have another lesson.
8:10 pm. Have a 1/2 hour lesson with a child across the hall from the previous lesson. He is 8 years old and he melts my heart, but he also tests my patience. I like that lesson, though.
8:45 pm. Speed walking home while chatting with mi padre on the phone! He loves our phone calls, and so do I!
9:20 pm. Arrive home completely starving, so I make some “dinner”. (I have a picture, but it looks gross so I can´t share).
9:35 pm. Eat my dinner, chat with roommates, have dessert.
10:00 pm. Take a shower, put on pajamas
10:30 pm. Get in bed with my phone (bad habit, I know)
11:00 or 11:15 pm. finally put the phone down and go to sleeeeeep!