Oh this class! Unfortunately, they were able to bring down another teacher this week. As mentioned before I usually have physical education with Elena as the head teacher, however, for 1B I am supposed to have Ricardo. My first week of classes he hurt his ankle or something so the classes with him were canceled and the second week of classes there was a substitute who just let them do whatever they wanted. This was the third week and first time for Ricardo to have this class. His English is not that great so I translated for him most of the time. The only thing that makes it hard is that the games have different names, so he talks about them under another name and its not until they start to play that I realize I already know the game. Good example is that instead of playing 'Duck, Duck, Goose' they play the Lambs and the Wolf. Anyways, Ricardo had a nice couple of games set up for this class and I was hard at work explaining them to 1B in English. Except for one small problem, minor detail really; the class doesn't listen. Plain and simple. They were running all around the gym instead of sitting around the circle like every other class, they were climbing up the walls, and they were piling on each other. I found it quite normal because I see them about three times a week, so I'm used to their shenanigans. Ricardo was not. He was getting really flustered and finally decided to just yell at them in Castellano. He ended class early and we all went back into the classroom. As we were going up the stairs the other physical education teacher, Alicia, and Maria, the teacher I have them with for Science and Arts and Crafts were at the top. One look from Ricardo and they broke down into hysterics. I guess this probably doesn't sound that funny but it was a "you had to be there" moment. We all spent the next 10 minutes discussing the class and just how bad they act. Ricardo wants me to help him plan out a better system for dealing with them, I say shoot 'em up with horse tranquilizers.
Damage control for a 45 minute physical education class:
1 stolen face wash soap
2 falls from the climbing bars on the wall
5 hysterical pleas that he/she was lying about something
13 kids in tears at one point or another (1 of which was my anatomy conscious 6 year old boy, kar-ma)
and 1 child drenched in mud somehow, even though we had been inside the clean gym the entire class.
Very unproductive Friday much to my dismay. This week has had me on a tight schedule of waking every hour on the half hour so I'm a little off. I was finally able to get a decent night's sleep, it just took longer than I would have liked. I left early for my night class because I had nothing at all prepared. At class time I discovered a new woman was joining my class thus making it me, Carlos, and Eva...wonderful. Odd fact: we all wore the same color shirt. The first part of the class was for grammar, so I taught them the difference between the past simple and the present perfect. For those of you who don't know what that is don't feel ashamed, I feel like I was never taught that there were names for stuff like that either. Past simple is a closed action in the past. [I went to the post office this morning.] The present perfect is a continuous event in the past leading up to now. [I have missed all of the Sox games in Madrid since arriving.] They had a hard time with this so it looks like it will be on the lesson plan for next week too. The second part of the class is conversation, we're supposed to use stuff that was learned earlier in class. Big shocker coming up: I run out of things to talk about. It is harder than I thought to talk for an hour and a half straight with strangers. I don't think we are supposed to get too personal so certain questions can get a little uncomfortable. Take for example when I mentioned something about Pais Vasco and what was happening there (google it). Apparently Eva is from Bilbao and has a very different opinion than most people. I respect her for answering mine and Carlos's questions, because I could tell she was uncomfortable. I am not sure how we're going to keep this up until December. Oh and as always, Eva, three is a crowd!
This morning was a great little Saturday in the chilly Autumn air. Rushed off to the post office to finally mail my ballot. I have now officially voted. Be jealous. After that I decided to try out a new grocery store and found that so did every other person in Madrid. The store was crammed, people were waiting at the check out lines just to steal carts. I took awhile wandering each isle because I wasn't familiar with this particular one. Pretty successful trip so I'll probably use them from time to time for everything but vegetables and fruit. For that I head to my favorite little market on C/ Lagasca. One of these days I'll take pictures of just how great a place it is, but since I feel like they will think I'm a tourist I'm going to hold off. I have to assume that I'm the only one who shows up every Saturday morning at the same time wearing a Red Sox hat.
Speaking of the glorious little team that is the Red Sox, I am currently watching the game via Skype via Keith and Monique via TBS. Also, it is currently 345am here in Madrid and we're only in the fourth; we all know how well I do pulling all-nighters. I had no chance of catching this at a bar because Real Madrid was playing Atletico Madrid, obviously the two main teams of this city. My parents' laptop is sitting on the table in the tv room facing the screen and I can hear my parents in the background talking about the game. Thank goodness for webcams built in to new computers. Not a bad picture.
I will continue to watch with the same hope I have every year...Let's Go SOX!!
Negative: Finding a cigarette on our kitchen window ledge even though none of us smoke.
Positive: My new reusable grocery bag from Carrefour that I discovered can hold a small child, oh and it has a leaf on it, so that makes me excited about this time of year.
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