A Day in my [Spanish] Life

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware…"

I am getting more and more settled into my Spanish way of life. I actually referred to La Palma and my apartment as home the other day. After a long weekend of traveling I couldn’t wait to “get home.” It took me months to think that way after I moved to San Francisco.

When I walk around town I see my students on the streets and they run to me and say Hello. They introduce me to their parents. I feel like a celebrity. It sure beats the stares I usually get from strangers. The fact that everyone has been so welcoming has made my job as well as being here so much easier. (Picture is of me teaching -- pretty crazy to think about after all those years of 'playing school' and making Shannon be my student.)

I previously explained my school day schedule to you but I have an addition to make. On Mondays and Tuesdays I have been given another English class with the 6th graders in the school. It is an interesting transition after working with very young kids for most of the day. When the 6th graders come in they are loud and rambunctious. They never want to stay on topic and basically have their own agenda. I find myself raising my voice, clapping my hands to get their attention and getting very angry! But on the other hand we have a lot of fun together and are able to joke with one another. The girls want to know all about me and the boys love to tease me when I am constantly acting out words or situations. (This is my "Thats ENOUGH messing around and give me back the camera" face...)

Currently we are talking about likes and dislikes in this class. What do you like, what does s/he like to do, and asking questions about what you like to do. I have caught their interest in this topic by showing them pictures of myself doing the different activities. I told them I like to wakeboard and go boating (showed them pictures from this summer on Dave’s boat), I told them I like to play pool, I like to go camping, I like to go swimming, take photos etc. I had them each bring in a photo of them doing something they like or dislike doing and talk about it the best they could. (photo of my classroom)

During the school day students will constantly come up to me and try to practice the latest sentence we worked on in class. I get the most random questions. “Do you like to rollerblade?” or “Do you like fish and chips?” It cracks me up. (Photo of a couple 6th grade girls)

Some days I feel completely overwhelmed and frustrated when I will say the most basic thing in English and they all stare at me with blank faces. Mondays are the worst because they seem to forget everything over the weekend and we have to start all over again.

I’ve also begun giving private English lessons in the afternoons Monday through Thursday. I currently have about 11 private classes, so every afternoon I am working an extra 2 or 3 hours. Its pays well. My weeks are busy and then I usually take off for a long weekend somewhere. No complaints here! The hardest thing for me to get used to is there is a different pace of life here – a pace that I find both frustrating and relaxing. Things are not done quickly in Spain – things are done little by little, slowly. You wash your clothes, but then you hang them on the clothesine. You wait a day for them to dry – slowly. You go to the store to buy a cell phone, and you wait in line for 30 minutes. You finally reach a customer service representative, and they help you – slowly. You go to a store to buy stamps during the afternoon, but the store is closed for siesta. The store opens at 10:30am and closes at 2pm. It reopens at 6pm and closes again at 9pm – you adapt to the schedule, slowly. Being here in Spain, you would think, would forces me to live slowly. But some how I still manage to be extremely busy. I think its that fact that I can’t bring myself to turn down someone asking for english lessons. As soon as one ends I am rushing to the next. They probably think “look there’s goes the American running down the street again...”

And although this different pace of life can be frustrating at times, it has made me think about how I should be living. My home culture is not slow-paced – we are a culture of efficiency and speed. We have fast food, fast internet, fast forward. High speed, high efficiency. We have a stove that boils water in 30 seconds. We have a device that allows us to record the shows we want to watch and also allows us to skip commercials. We have self check-out lines. We have express check-out lines. We want speed, efficiency, productivity. Shifting from a culture of speed and immediate gratification to a culture focused on people and living slowly has been a challenging and rewarding experience. (Picture of 6th grade boys)

This past week I put together a lesson plan for Halloween. Many of the children know about Halloween and the usual traditions in the United States but there was a lot that they did not know. I put together a presentation of pictures my mom sent me from my family’s past halloweens and also pictures from more recent celebrations with friends. I taught them about how we go to the pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin, how we carve them into jack-o-lanterns, and how we run through the streets dressed in costume asking people for candy. It all seems pretty ridiculous when you explain to someone who has no idea. I missed celebrating the holiday with all my friends this year but I enjoyed looking at pictures and it looks like everyone had a great time! I taught my students traditional vocabulary such as: witch, bat, vampire, costume, trick-or-treat, etc. The students all worked on crafts that were hung in rge hallway for everyone to see. It was a very fun week for the students as well as for me. (First photo is of me during one of my Halloween lessons. Second photo is with my 6th grade class and Bilingual Coordinator, Guadalupe)