If you speak Spanish, I'll give you a car

Such a beautiful day outside today, the weather is a decent 13 degrees and the sun is shining. I went for a nice long walk this morning to discover a new section of Madrid. The plan was to head towards Conde Casal where I catch the bus to Rivas but I was side tracked. Since the day Line 6 was closed on me I have been using the bus from Manuel Bercera to get to Conde. I decided to trace the bus' path on foot but ended up finding a new neighborhood all together. It was a very subdued area with lots of little shops and apartment buildings. From there I walked to the Atocha train station and found the hilly section of Madrid, who knew! I took some good photographs of my walk though, and since I've been slacking in that department I would say the off course streets were positive. I walked up Alonso XII towards Retiro and decided to spend another afternoon sitting by the water and people watching. The Fall foliage is really out and vibrant so I was in heaven. The park was crowded because the weather was nice so there were many things happening at once. I am wicked happy about the weather because it is one of the only weekends since I have been here that hasn't rained.

This past week was a little crazy for me on numerous levels. My adult classes have turned into a free for all. They've added new people to the classes so I have to go over a lot of the basics. One woman is in all of my classes Monday through Thursday, so now I can't use the same material. Usually what I could do in one day with the Tues/Thurs class would take me two classes to do with Mon/Wed. but now she's there so I can't repeat. This means a lot of extra work for me but it also means that one of the classes is going to miss out on some material. The other lady they added is quite special. I have already told the director that her and I are going to come to blows at some point. We're going to have problems because she is a disruption. She constantly interrupts the class in a negative way, whether it's that she answers her phone or she over talks other students, she is getting in the way. Also, she is not at the same level as the rest of class and it forces me to have to repeat my questions numerous times. Finally, the most problematic is that she expects me to translate everything for her; this is not my job. The director already explained this to me after one of my Friday students on the first day of class flipped out because I wasn't giving her the translations. Instead I am supposed to act things out, or work around them with other vocabulary to describe the word. I know this woman is going to get tired of this very quickly because she already spends a lot of class time speaking Spanish. I can just see this blowing up and it is not going to be pretty.

My little kids have been great for the most part. My Thursday tally was pretty funny: 2 kids hated me by the end of the day, and I made one girl cry. In my first class I made one girl leave her group in phys. ed. to join another so she got pissed at me, I laughed. In my second phys. ed class I made a six year old cry. She is always a pain no matter when I see her and on Thursday I had just had enough. This time she was taking the balls and hoops away from the other kids and not sharing. So, after 10 minutes of this and several warnings later I yelled at her to sit down. Oh boy, did the the water-works start! Finally I had Ricardo go over and explain to her that she has to listen to me and the rules of class otherwise she will no longer be allowed to participate. She came over and apologized so I let her play with her friends. Lastly in the final phys ed class of the day I had the eight year olds in 3C. Usually this class is pretty good but on Thursday everyone seemed to be acting a little strange. When it came time for the kids to get partners there was one boy and one girl left over. I forgot that at this age that is probably the worst thing to them in life and they both refused. I told the boy that he could either be partners with me or her, but I promised him that I'm pretty scary. He was still a little brat about it but he realized he had no choice. Then I continued on to explain what the kids were going to do for the class. As always I have to explain that if Elena or I am speaking and they are bouncing the basketballs they become ours. Well low and behold he starts dribbling as I'm saying all of this; I took the ball right out of his hand. By the time I walked back to Elena and turned around he was giving me the most hated death stare imaginable. Her and I just started laughing hysterically because I had just ruined his life: I made him work with a girl and I took his ball away. Man, I'm evil!
My 1B class has really taking a liking to me it seems. Whenever I'm not in class Maria, their teacher, says that they won't start class until they ask a million questions about me. Then when I do walk in they stop class to run up and hug me, so weird. Since when did kids start liking me? The other day on the way to the gym they had heard me say something to Ricardo in Spanish. Little David harassed me the entire way to the gym saying that he just wanted me to say apple in Spanish. I repeated the word only in English over and over again. So then he decided that he could bribe me. He offered me a car if I said apple in Spanish. He tried this tactic for a little while until his friend decided he had a better idea. Alvaro offered me his sister if I said "manzana"! I considered it but politely declined.
Finally, little Javi has a crush on me. He's the adorable "little monkey" in 1B that is too cute for words. On Wednesday I had arts and crafts with his class and they were working on still life drawings. I decided to make my own drawing because they were being really quiet and I had nothing to do. The teacher's desk is right near Javi's so we were talking. His English is pretty decent for a six year old, and he understands me very well. When he finished his picture he came over and stood next to me. Then I noticed him looking for a place to put his arm around me, and then as we talked I noticed that he had gotten to a point where he was practically on top of me. We continued talking about my picture and using English vocabulary, all the while with him leaning on me. Finally he got on his tip-toes and gave me a kiss on the cheek. It was adorable, my heart melted right there on the spot. So he ran back to his seat and I said thank you, to which he winked! This boy is absolutely hysterical.

I have yet to regret this whole teaching gig, which honestly scares me a little bit from day to day. Especially now that I know the kids pretty well and can read them I think we're all more comfortable with each other. Learning their names was key, but at the same time very difficult. Also, it's pretty funny when I say their names over and over again trying to get their attention and all the Spanish teacher has to do is say it once and they listen. They haven't figured out my accent yet, and especially with names they don't recognize how an American would say it in English. I try to pronounce them correctly but so far I haven't been that successful.

Negatives: Skipping over Thanksgiving and going straight to Christmas decorations.
Getting a racist lecture from an old woman in the line at the grocery store.

Positives: Booking my ticket to Porto for the few days before Christmas.
Finding an easier and faster route to work.