Helloooooo

From the other side………………

Haha.  Every time I say “hello” to my students, inevitably, one will say “from the other side”.  It’s a good song.  Another good song?  This Wake Me Up cover by Avicii. It was the cool down song in today’s Glutes and Legs class and I just about started crying while we were stretching.  

Hm what else?  This week flew by in a flash.  It was my first week of Spanish classes, which I like so far.  I only paid for one month of classes because I heard some negative comments about the school.  So far, I like it, but I’ll keep ya posted.  The only downside is that you don’t have a set “class” so new people come in and go out every week.  And the teacher changes too.  We had one teacher on Tuesday and another on Thursday, but the Thursday one is there to stay for a bit, so it’s like we started together, which is good.  I have some homework I need to do, but…tomorrow.  That’s what Sunday’s are for.

Classes (English, that is) are going well.  I spent this entire week doing the same activity with every class- just at different levels.  It’s called “getting to know you” and basically they tell me different things about themselves.  

• My family is….”not very big.  I have one brother named Lee.  He is studying psychology in university.  My mom is Raquel and she stays home because she is retired.  My dad is Allen and he is a lawyer.  We have a dog named Teddy and a cat named Misu.  As a family, we go for walks, eat dinner together, and watch tv or movies sometimes.”
• I can’t live without:…”my family, Teddy, and peanut butter”
• In the future, I would like to…”always think that life can’t possibly get any better, but then it keeps getting better”
• I’m proud of…”myself.  For teaching all you monsters and not quitting.”

Etc. etc.  Next week, I have lots of Halloween activities planned which I’m excited about!  Lots of Halloween Bingo and word searches and learning about Frankenstein and zombies.  Teaching about holidays is so easy because the theme is already set for you.  And it makes me excited to plan fun activities.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again….Fall and fall culture are just not things here in Spain.  It makes me a little bit sad.  I think the fall in the northeastern part of the United States is one thing I miss.  It’s something you don’t realize is a thing until it’s just not a thing.  They celebrate Halloween here, but they don’t celebrate it like we do with tons of big candy displays and costumes and pumpkins and squashes on the front steps.  Not that Halloween is so important, but having these things makes the cool weather enjoyable.  Hot apple cider, apple fritters, pumpkin breads and soups and stews and colorful leaves.  Those things don’t really happen in Spain.  It just goes from extremely hot to regular cold and people just change their clothes to match the season.  I’m aware that what I am saying might not make sense, but it makes sense to me.  Long story short, I am excited for my Halloween lessons.  Gonna put some fall spirit into these children (I originally wrote monsters, but that’s inappropriate…but I still told you) whether they like it or not 😉

I’m typing this on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon.  Despite absolutely everything I just said, I don’t mind the rain today.  Rain on a cozy Saturday is nice sometimes.  I went to the gym, did a little cardio and then got in line for what I thought was BodyPump class, but was actually Glutes and Legs.  At first I thought it was Zumba and I started planning my emergency evacuation out of there cause homie can’t exercise-dance.  But it was fine and a pretty decent workout.  And best of all!  I made a new friend!  A girl in line asked me if there is wifi and then I asked if she registered for the class and she was struggling to respond in Spanish and I was like…do you speak English?  And our relationship was born.  So…new gym buddy.  Then I came home and did a billion things because I was high…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

…..on gym endorphins, silly!!!  I planned the entire week of school lessons and private lessons and found a bunch of different fun Halloween things.  I planned my teachers conversation lesson (I have class 1x per week with the teachers to help with their English) and I wrote two blog posts (this is #3) and I sent important e-mails and texts and did some laundry.  Now I’m sleepy but Luis is coming over so we can plan a little December getaway and then go have tapas because this weekend is Tapapies!  

Tapapies is basically a festival in my neighborhood where all of the bars offer a tapa and a beer for 2.50 Euros.  There is another food festival happening in a glass palace, but it’s raining.  All I really wanna do is lie in bed and watch a movie, but then I always feel like I don’t do enough “get out there and experience things” things.  So there’s that.  Tonight we are going to good ole 100 Montaditos for cervezas for his friend’s birthday.  I am one very, very lucky girl to have the chance to go out with him and his friends.  Yesterday I read a blog that said that dating someone from another culture gives you the chance to have all of these experiences and get immersed in the culture in a completely different way than you would if you just had friends from your own culture.  I may never “be Spanish”, but this helps me get so much closer.

What else….?  Oh!  Mom and Dad are coming on Monday!!!!  My co-worker and I coordinated to switch days off, so I get to meet and greet them at the airport bright and early!  They land around 8:30 am so they’ll be exhausted after flying all night.  I am planning to bring a big thermos of coffee and some homemade spiced squash bread.  Then we are gonna hit the ground running with fun activities!  Or they are going to sleep.  They’ll probably sleep haha.  They are only in Madrid on Monday and Tuesday and then they’re off for a northern Spain adventure, but I am meeting them Saturday afternoon.  I know they think they just saw me, but I miss them and I’m happy they’re coming.

Ok.  I usually ramble a lot, but this was over the top.  Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend and week!