Schoolin' It

Parque Maria Luisa

On Wednesday morning, I woke up two hours before the Sevillano sun and got ready for a full day at my school in Arahal. It is very cold in the pitch black mornings, but I managed to find a local bus to take me to the street corner from which the carpool leaves. When the car pulled up, I frantically got in while dodging traffic and had a nice ride to school with Julie and another professor. The professor only spoke Spanish, so I was able to practice speaking, despite the fact that my Spanish skills increase significantly as I become more awake. When I was staying in the hostel and received a phone call from a landlord that woke me up, I literally could not spit out one word of coherent Spanish. But I managed well in the car, and we made it to the school. I had several classes with different teachers throughout the day. Each one was unique - the students were of different ages, different english levels, and different behavior levels. I really enjoyed two classes I had at the end of the day with a group of 11-12 year olds who spoke decent english. One adorable little boy came up and shook my hand at the beginning of class. Another one started singing "Empire State of Mind" every time I said I was from New York. There will certainly be classes that are better than others, but, in general, the students seem nice and fairly curious. One thing that is for sure is that Spanish students are loud. They told us this at the orientation and it has been everyone's observation so far. I wish I knew what they were yelling about.

After getting home, I took an amazing siesta for about 3 hours. Spain certainly does naps right. I also realized that now I get two sets of dreams every day! When I finally awoke, I bought some groceries, chatted with my parents, and Skyped with Brenna and Rosa (shout out!). I felt rejuvenated by the nap and went to meet up with Rebecca and her friend from home at a tapas place near her apartment. I got to compare school experiences with Rebecca and had a lovely time meeting her friend who is traveling around. He informed us of many things we need to do in Sevilla now that we have time to be a tourist. I cannot wait to start seeing the sites, but the forecast is for rain here every day this weekend. Boo. At dinner, I ate papas bravas (again) and calamares en su tinto con arroz (squid in their ink with rice). Josh had that dish when we were in Madrid 4 years ago, and it was absolutely incredible. The one I had last night seemed a bit too salty, but it was still very interesting. I think I would have enjoyed it more had I had an unlimited water supply, but I felt bad asking the waiter for more than four vasos de agua. I headed home around 11:30 and went to sleep.

I had some temperature control issues in the night - woke up freezing and shaking, turned off my fan, and then woke up sweating. But I got more sleep than the night before and woke up around 9:00 to get ready for school again. I took the bus there today and had a great time listening to music and enjoying the view of the countryside and the small towns we stopped in along the way. I wish I had brought my camera. The towns did not seem to have much going on and were probably poor, but it was cool to see something other than the city. I only had one class at school today, but it was quite fun. It was a very small class of about 6 kids, and I taught them how to pronounce numbers. We sang "Waka Waka" together, and one girl was obsessed with Justin Bieber so we made her sing his song, "Baby." They all thought I have met famous people because I live in "New York," so I had to explain that I live in a small town without any famous people "en mi calle" (on my street). This group of kids was not very good at english (they are in the non-bilingual track) but they were nice and made a strong effort. I went and read at a cafe near the school to kill time before the carpool home. It took about 1 hour to get all the way home, and now I have time to relax and prepare my documents to apply for my residency card tomorrow morning. A big group of us are planning to go wait in line together, so it might actually be fun...if that is possible. Hopefully we have some fun in store for tonight, as well, but I am looking forward to the extra long weekend!