BBQ season...

Today it's raining and has been raining since about 2 this morning, so you'd never suspect that last weekend was bright and sunny with highs in the 80's--welcome spring!  

A friend from Barcelona was here in Andalusia on business and stayed at the house so we took advantage of the opportunity to have the first BBQ of the season.  It also coincidentally was another friend's birthday: two birds with one stone. :)  We had a great time and propperly stuffed ourselves with chorizo, filetes, bacon, sausages, pasta salad, olives, cheese and potato chips.  All followed, of course, with café and sweets for all, compliments of the birthday girl.

Our smallest guest, three and a half years old, had a blast playing with Bela (see videos below).  Later in the afternoon, Angelines remembered that we had an unopened Christmas present from my mom that would also be perfect to keep this little guy busy: "living sand".  We hadn't taken the time to open the box and play with it, though my mom assured us that it was the coolest thing since sliced bread. ;)  It's a kind of synthetic sand dough, and it really is pretty cool: soft the the touch, non-sticky, easy to mold and super fun to play with.  Little Nico was in hog heaven...but his mom (and maybe Bela, too) liked it even more!  He was totally absorbed all afternoon so the rest of us were free to chat, laugh and in Bela's case nap, without having to worry about entertaining the little one.

You'll see in the videos, too, that Nico was not the least daunted by Bela's playfulness.  He has a dog at home, also, who is apparently his number one playmate.  He got knocked down a fair share of the times he threw the ball for Bela mostly because he seemed to throw it straight up rather than away from him...but he never cried even once.  Believe it or not, I do think Bela was being gentle, although as you'll see in the video she's pretty glued to the ball. ;)

This past Wed. Nico paid us another visit.  His mom  was working nearby and apparently he was crying and being a pain.  "You want to go play with Bela?," she asked him...the answer was a no-brainer! :)  We broke out the living sand again and Angelines said that when it was time to go he was pretty upset about leaving. Poor kid.  So we've become babysitters by default. :)

There is always more to report, but I'll save it for another post. Besitos!

BBQ fun Part 2

This is what happens with both boy and dog want the small ball.  You've got to hand it to Nico, he's trying to share, giving Bela the big ball as an alternative; but she'll have none of it.  Pay close attention to the end...the things kids do!

BBQ fun Part 1

I love this one!  Pay attention to how he counts: una...tres...una!  He knows there should be three digits...just not so sure about the order yet; the "dos" has gotten lost somewhere along the line. ;)  And I especially love how he ducks to protect himself from the dog (you can tell he's been taken out a few times at this point!).

Success...Sort of

Just wanted to let you all know that today I was happily surprised with my classes. :)  Of course, part of the semi-success was because two kids didn't show for my most difficult class.  But except for the four-year-old throwing a bit of a fit, all was well and the kids seemed to have fun and be engaged...  The trouble is, I'm just not sure how that happened!

On another note, we finally got back to the pool today.  It's been two weeks of no swimming...just been busy with things here.  Carnaval was this past weekend and we had quite a bit to prepare for that.  On Thursday we brought a group (una comparsa) to the bar. It's a typical singing group for carnaval celebrations--semi-accapella, remnant of a barbershop quartet (only there were 15 of them!).  They sang great and we had a good turn-out at the bar, too, which was a very good thing since our most recent events have fallen pretty flat.

Saturday and Sunday the main bars in town get together and set up in the central plaza, then they split the money.  And once again, we were plesantly surprised by the results.  So at least the typically economically rough streak from January until Easter has been aleviated somewhat.

Well that's all for now.  I'm off to bed.

Classes

The new semester seems as though it's going to require very little study.  On the one hand that's a good thing, but at the same time, re-organizing my time to maintain efficiency when I suddenly have "free time" is easier said than done.  And the real crux of the promblem is class prep--how I hate it! 

Since I don't need to spend as much time on school work, I theoretically have more time to prep... but what actually ends up happening is I find some other completely low priority to occupy myself and push class preparation to the very last min.  This only increases my stress and the feeling that I am never on top of my game.  But it's also true, at least for me, that class prep. requires a certain ammount of inspriation.  I cannot just sit down and do it.  So sometimes I find myself in front of the computer without a clue as to where to begin and I just end up wasting time.  Usually I find something...or sometimes I just give up and sweep the floors or run a few shopping errands to clear my head.  But of course, this kind of "productive procrastination" can only last so long before it's actually down to the wire and I must have something ready for my afternoon classes.

I try to always be at least a day ahead of myself.  In general I'm pretty good at that.  The problem is what happens when I've finished preparing for the next day:  I lose all motivation to continue and get another day knocked out of the way.  Right now, for example, I am writing a blog instead of thinking about what on Earth I'll do with my Tuesday classes.  (And as I wrote that a churning knot began to form in my stomach)  I've had Monday ready since yesterday and so it seems I've been able to lull myself into a false sense of accomplishment--"I'll prep Tuesday tomorrow!"  Ugh.

And then there's the added problem that I am completely at my wit's end with one of my Tuesday classes.  No matter what I do, how I do it, what I say, or how well I plan; everything goes to hell after about five minutes (if I'm lucky!) of class.  Part of the problem is that the class is bigger than my others...but if I tell you how big, you'll laugh at me for thinking I can ever teach a class of 20+ kids in a public school!  There are only twelve kids in class (I'm ashamed to admit). 

My mom has very helpfully given me advice for dealing with difficult kids that she's used in the classroom or seen other teachers use.  I have looked online for idea for getting kids attention.  But as great as it all sounds when you read it online, and as great as I'm sure it works at C. Roy Carmichael Elementary in Portola, California...  None of you have ever seen children like Spanish children.  I am convinced that there are no worse behaved children on the planet than Spanish kids.  Seriously.  I can't begin to tell you why that is, I can only vouch that it is absolutely true.  Of course, not ALL of them are heathens; but even the best behaved Spanish child would probably stand out as rowdy kids in an American classroom.

This class has me completely perplexed, and honestly, if I could, I would just cancel it.  The trouble now is that I've had so many failures with so many different strategies that I've begun to look at is as just an hour I have to suffer through.  I have lost all desire to try to figure out something fun and motivational for these kids because I swear there is nothing in the world that will hold their attention.  Even the games that I think will be fun go sour pretty fast because they make fun of each other and gloat or cheer when a classmate doesn't answer correctly.  If it were my class in a real school setting, I'd do some serious team-work exercises.  But seeing as how I have them only one day a week for one hour, I don't see how I'd get very far with them; certainly not if we have to do the activities in English!

Still, I can't help feeling as though if only I were more creative, I could come up with some kind of solution.  I can't help feeling like a giant failure every Tuesday when another painful hour creeps by and it's all I can do to get half the kids to participate or keep them from hitting each other.  Thank goodness I end with a class that I love through and through (like I say, not all Spanish kids are inherantly bratty).  At least I usually end on a good note.

...And now I'm off to suffer through planning...