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I feel like I just wrote my first blog post and
I already have so much more to say! Wednesday evening, I went to the store to
buy some things that I forgot to pack... like socks... not sure how I forgot
those. I also bought some slippers because it gets pretty cold in the piso
sometimes. Then I went to find my school! The location is perfect; it's about
a fifteen minute walk from where I live, so it will be good for me to walk to
and from the school everyday given how much food I've been eating here lately.
Ahhh so many tapas and Kinder Bueno bars... and SO MUCH BREAD. Speaking of
food, on Wednesday night, I learned how to cook another Spanish dish with my
host mom. This time, I'm going to write down all the recipes so I can make them
in the U.S. Then after dinner, my other roommate, Paige (who is in the study
abroad program here from Iowa State), and I came up with the greatest idea of
dipping our Spanish galletas in Natillas. ("Natillas" is a very rich
chocolate pudding.) I could probably talk about the food here forever... I'll
move on.
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| Mi colegio :) |
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So yesterday was my first day student teaching
here in Caceres. My host mom walked with me to the school in case I needed help
with my Spanish, finding my way around the school, finding my cooperating
teacher, etc. We got there a little before 9 am, when both the students and teachers
get there every day(how nice is that?!) and she left me with one of the teachers.
Well, apparently, that teacher isn't my cooperating teacher like I originally
thought she was and there is no teacher in the building that goes by the name
"Josephina". So I was sent to the office where I waited for the
"head teacher" to arrive. She came with her daughter, who is the
English teacher at the school, so she did a little translating. I don't know if
I was having a hard time understanding the head teacher due only getting two
hours of sleep the night before or the fact that her accent was thick, but I
was really struggling. She was asking me questions like "Why are you
here?" and "What do you want to do while you're here?" as if she
had no idea was coming... so she decided to have me follow the English teacher
around from class to class all day until she figured something out.
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When I walked into the first classroom, I think
that is where I had the biggest culture shock. The kids were running around all
over the room, yelling and screaming, throwing pencils, hitting each other with
books, and when the teacher tried to get their attention (by either yelling at
the top of her lungs, banging her hand or a book on the desks, or blowing her
very annoying whistle), it didn't help much. After 15 minutes of getting them
to calm down, she wanted me to introduce myself. I introduced myself in English
very slowly and she let them ask me questions. This is not only what we did for
that entire hour, but for every class we went to for the rest of the day. There
were so many questions... but here are some of my favorites:
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1. "Do you have Whats App?" (Not sure
if you all know what this is because I had never heard of it until this week...
but it's a free texting app. The reason I like hearing Spaniards say it so much
is because they pronounce it "Waaassssaaaaap")
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2. "Are there dogs in America?"
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3. "Do you like Obama?" (The kids here
LOVE Obama...)
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4. "Do you watch the Simpsons over
there?"
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5. "Why do you want to learn Spanish
when you already know English?"
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Once the day was over, I had one of the biggest
headaches of my life and I don't know if it was because of the annoying
whistle, the screaming kids, or the fact that I was running on two hours of
sleep and hadn't eaten in 6 hours (it's so hard not eating lunch until 3pm...)
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| The Plaza in Caceres |
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Once I got back to the piso, Lola made lunch and
I took a nice long two hour nap with the brasero. For those of you who don't
know what a brasero is, it is something that we need in the U.S. It's a heater
under the table and you put the blanket from the table on your lap to keep warm.
It'll put you to sleep in an instant. When I woke up from my nap, Lola, Susana,
and I went for a walk around Caceres. We did a little shopping and walked to
the plaza and "Parte Antigua" (The old town of Caceres). On our way
back home, we stopped to have a small glass of wine. Well, that turned into two
glasses of wine and lots and lots of tapas. As we were walking back to the
piso, we started laughing so hard that we couldn't even walk and we all had
tears in our eyes from laughing so much. And honestly, I don't know even know
what was so funny, but it had something to do with the moon. (Lola kept talking
about how there was supposed to be a full moon that night and there most
definitely was not.)
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| Having some wine and tapas with my host mom |
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| Susana and me at the first tapa bar |
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| Our first tapa that we shared |
We came home and the three of us Skyped with
Claire (Claire was my roommate in Spain two years ago). It was so fun to talk
with her in Spanish and for Lola and Claire to see each other for the first
time in two years! Now we just have to convince Claire to come back to Spain
within the next seven weeks... ;)
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Today was a much better day at school. The
classes seemed a little less chaotic and the English teacher wanted me to teach
them about The United States' Easter traditions. She also brought in a large
map of the U.S. and I talked more about the different regions. I was telling
one class about the U.S. and I was talking about major cities on the map such
as L.A., New York, and Miami. The only thing that the students wanted to know
about New York was if I watch the TV show, "CSI: New York". Also,
when I was talking about Washington D.C., they all started cheering because
that's where Obama lives.... I still don't get it. Another reason why I felt a
little better after today was because we now have a plan set up for after the
week of Semana Santa so I at least have some idea of what I will be doing with
my time there. The plan is to teach both Science and Reading in Spanish as well
as teach English. So I guess I'm going to be all over the place and I'll have
three cooperating teachers during this student teaching experience!
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This weekend, I'm going to Lola's village to
spend time with her family. I'll write another post when I return!
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Hasta luego!
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Shea
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