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Sunday, October 13, 2013

About Time!

Sara's visit was a whirlwind of vino, tapas, long walks with the dog, talking into the wee hours... you know, the usual. ;)  And of course, I had purposely put off beginning my private classes until the week after her visit so the weekend immediately following her departure was spent madly prepping classes--all my dreams of planning and prepping throughout the summer were for naught!

Monday, is a day I've intentionally left open and we made an emergency run to Ikea to buy a table and chairs for my classes here at home.  It turns out the little round table that was such a pain to get into that upstairs room in the first place, is just too small so we bought an extendible table for 100 bucks at Ikea and four folding chairs for 10 each.  A good investment in my mind.

Tuesday is my most stressful day: classes from 4-8 all with children eight years and under.  From 5-7 I have (almost) exclusively pre-schoolers ages 3-6.  I have eleven new students this year, nine of whom are four-year-olds.  The first day was a bit like herding cats.  Spanish children have the world's shortest attention span!  And one little boy spend at least half the class screaming and crying for his mommy.  The only reason he stopped was because he'd completely worn himself out and fell alseep at the table!  I let him sleep through class.  He slept so soundly I had to shake him awake at the end of the hour and for a split second thought maybe I'd been terribly negligent and the little guy had died on me--scary!  The other classes were relatively speaking uneventful.

I am very happy with the rest of the week's schedule: all classes in my home (with my newly aquired Ikea furniture).  The classes have no more than three students in each one and all of them are kids who are excited about English and learning in general--a teacher's dream.  I'm looking forward to spending the year with them.

My own classes have also started this past week and at this very moment I should be doing some reading.  This semester I've got "didactics of plastic and visual arts", "didactics of mathematics" and "legislations and organization of educational centers" (yuck!).  I also will be doing my first 200hrs of student teaching if all goes according to plan.  I have to solicit a placement in a private school so I am looking in Antequera (about 25 min away).  Working out all the paperwork, etc, will take some time, so the soonest I can be in the classroom will be Nov. 11.  I'll keep you all posted.

I know this has been a boring post...  I'll leave you with some pictures to make up for it! :)

The Saturday after Sara's arrival we had an 80's party at the bar...

Sara and I were the only ones dressed for the occasion! :(  ...It was a blast, all the same, although Sara was a complete creeper magnent--the guys wouldn't leave her alone!

Deccorations and our brandnew spotlights over the stage. :)

The laser light is also a new addition--very modern.

Sara brought Wet-n-Wild hot pink lipstick... Guess who put some on? 

Estepa with Sarita.  Unfortunately, she didn't get very good weather on her short visit.

I introduced her to mantecados, a traditional Spanish Christmas treat famous in Estepa.  She bought a 1 kilo bag. ;)


On one of our many walks with Belita.

We did get good weather the day before Sara had to leave!  We siezed the moment and headed to the beach--grilled sardienes.  Yum!


It was hot enough to swim even.  This was October 2nd. 

We ordered this HUGE 3 litter thing of tinto de verano...and promptly emptied it. ;)

...Finally, my Ikea table and chairs.  Look good?