Shout out to Jazzercise

When I was small, about Emily's age, my mom began teaching jazzercise as part of an employee health program at the Forest Service District Office where my dad worked.  Some of you may not know this bit of my mother's employment history, but any of you who have seen her on the dance floor will not be surprised in the least!  Granted she has her own style, but also an undeniable sense of rhythm.  She is a born teacher and has always enjoyed physical exercise.  Creating choreographies to Madona, Paula Abdul and Diana Ross came natrually, I guess (or at least it seemed that way to six-year-old me).

Emily and I would often tag along to classes in the afternoons.  I'm not sure if we wanted to or if there was no one to leave us with...either way, we did enjoy ourselves.  We would curl up under stacked conference chairs against one wall with our crayons and paper, drawing and coloring as my mom lead the steps and shouted out instructions to her class over the loud, steady music. 

 At the end of the hour came my favorite part: relaxation cool down.  Mom would put on some relaxing music, everyone would lie down on the floor (Emily and I included), and she would walk us through some deep breathing and relaxation visualization.  To this day, I use this technique to help myself sleep when I'm tossing and turning, and talking Emily through some visualization at bedtime has now become a nighttime habbit.

I hadn't thought about my mom and her jazzy moves in quite a long time, and probably wouldn't have if I hadn't signed up for zumba classes in September.  Zumba is basically the 21st century name for Jazzercise!  The music is a lot more Reggeton and latin beat, but the idea is exactly the same: mixing dance and fittness.  

I am not a dancer, though I consider I have a pretty good sense of rhythm.  When things get too merengue-esque I just have to laugh because I'm the only one tripping over my feet instead of working up a sweat.  Still, though, it's great to get out and do something for ME for an hour.  It's great to work up a sweat and have sore muscles the next day.  It's great to laugh and feel a part of something.  

The woman who gives the classes is amazing.  I don't know how she can do it virtually non-stop for two consecutive classes and four days a week...but I guess it's her job.  She's up in front whistling and gesturing, occasionally shouting out encouragement or just whooping for fun.  It was watching her in class the other day, as we were grapevining and clapping to the beat, jumping and squatting and sweating, that I was reminded of my own ebullient mother leading her own classes at about my age.  

I burst out with a big smile and nearly lost the beat thinking back to those days in the conference room at the Klamath National Forest District Office. :)

I love you, Mom.

Jackpot!

 Yesterday I got a frantic phone call from my sister-in-law (she's fine and has the green light to be out and about now): something about the lottery...  I couldn't understand her through her excited shrieking and passed the phone to Angelines.  It turns out that the Association for Cancer here in La Roda sold a winning lotter ticket number for yesterday's drawing!  My sister-in-law is part of the association and sold many of the tickets herself--25,000 euros to each winning number!  It turns out, my mother-in-law bought a ticket with the intention of sharing with her children if she won--6,000 each!  It turns out that the number was sold exclusively here in La Roda.  2.5 MILLION euros have been spread among the residents.  Pretty amazing for a town of under 5,000, right?  Most people split the cost of the tickets with friends or family.  Few people won the complete 25,000 exclusively for themselves; but many many people got something. :)  We're all pretty excited.  You can imagine.  

Other news: Emily has lost her first tooth!  On the second day of school, she apparantly swallowed it while she was eating her mid-morning snack.  I am sorry we don't have it, but we assured her that "Ratoncito Pérez" would still come even without the physical tooth.  She left a very sweet little note and a bowl of cheese for the mouse (no Tooth Fairy here).  Sure enough, in the morning she had a little bag of chocolate coins in "exchange" for her tooth.  She was thrilled!

The start of school has been good.  Emily has been a little tearful in the mornings, but very bravely has gone in with little urging.  I am very proud--this is a huge change for her.  There is another little girl who is new to school and we have been getting together with her after school.  They are in separate classes but play together at recess.  Even though in first grade, they mix the kids up (they aren't with the same classes they've had in preschool), everyone else has the advantage of knowing each other.  I am happy that Emily can be a familiar face for this little girl, and of course that Em has someone guaranteed to play with.  She is pleased with her teacher and has come home saying they watch movies (oh dear!)...  I'm just glad that for now she's happy.  She's brought home stickers both days for good behaviour (not sure how I feel about the reward system) and one for reading quietly to herself (!). 

As far as I go, it's been a little strange to be home in the morning without Emily.  It has been really nice to just be a mom and not a teacher at my daughter's school.  Getting ready in the morning, I am just focused on her, and not worrying about getting myself together and set for the day.  Instead of going to school with her and heading into work, I came home at 9:10am Friday and took Norte for a long bike ride. :)  It was fantastic.  I am expecting word from the academy in Estepa this week.  I think it's most likely that I have afternoon classes, which will be a bummer on one hand because I won't be with Emily much, but then again we have weekends.  We'll just have to wait and see.  

For now, things are just great, especially with the little boost from the lottery. ;)

Last Days of "Freedom"

Thursday is the first day of school for in-class school for Emily.  We are making our way through the list of materials she needs, including her own little hygiene kit with hand sanitizer, and extra mask, wipeys and kleenex.  There is no sharing of materials allowed and I think it will be quite a taks to get every last pencil and crayon labled with her name.  Today was a meeting with parents to fill us in on the COVID protocol: separate entry points, separated (color-coded) toilets by grade-level, separated designated areas on the playground and specific times to use the toilets.  We are encouraged to take our child's temperature at home before school and the slightest sign of fever means staying home.  The same is true of other symptoms: cough, sneezing, diarrhea, etc.  And of course all elementary students are to wear masks 100% of the time.

I don't know how long school will last.  The posibility of going online is very real.  It seems that in most places where schools have already opened, many have been forced to shut down again after only a few weeks.  I am hopeful that we'll have at least two solid weeks of class before that may have to happen here though.  I really hope that Emily has a chance to bond with her teachers and classmates before they get sent online again, if that is what ends up happening.

The first grade teachers have split the subjects between them so that each has both groups at different times.  One teacher will give Natural and Social Scieneces and English, while the other gives Math and Language.  This way there are fewer teachers going in and out of classes.  Still, P.E., Music and Religion are taught by other teachers.  Emily's teacher is one that I worked with when I was an Auxiliar in La Roda, and used to be our neighbor when Angelines and I lived in the piso.  I like her very much and I am happy that Emily is in her class.  Besides, there are several friends in that class, so Em won't be enitrely alone in before she meets and makes friends with more of the children in class.

Because my brother-in-law is the school handy-man, we arranged to have a sneek peek of the school a week ago (once we'd got news of Emily's negative test results!).  She was very curious, and I think understandably nervous about her new school.  She wanted to know what her classroom looked like and what the playground was like, etc.  It was really wonderful that we had that possibility and I think it did a lot to make Emily feel a little more comfortable about starting school.  So far she has expressed only excitement and interest...we shall see what happens Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Some of my fears of her potential unpreparedness were assuaged at today's meeting, and so I am also feeling better about the start of school.  The teachers assured us that they would not be using their books for the first week and a half at least and that class would mostly be focused on social and emotional stability and group bonding.  As they put it, they'll be spending these frist weeks getting them out of "pre-school mode and into elementary".  I think that this is probably the case always, but I am sure that especially this year, all of the first graders are behind what is normally expected of them given the way last school year ended.

As a family we are also enjoying these last few days together.  It will be strange to have Emily in school again after so much time.  Last week we took one last camping trip to a nearby reservoir.  They had peddle-boats and paddle boards for rent.  We did both on separate days and had a nice time.  Thankfully the weather cooperated, too and it wasn't terribly hot.