Bittersweet

I can't believe how quickly these past 8 weeks have gone. I'll catch you all up on what's been happening this past week, then I plan on writing one more blog post on my 4 hour trip to the airport Tuesday night! A lot of you have asked many questions throughout the past 8 weeks about my experience here and I plan on answering them all in my last blog post. So if you want to know anything else about my experience here, ask away!

As for this past week, it's been very bittersweet. The students know that my time at the school is quickly coming to an end and some of their recent comments, notes, pictures, and hugs have brought tears to my eyes. For example, at my English Immersion class on Thursday, a 6th grader waited around for me after class as I cleaned up. She gave me a hug and told me that she wants to be an English teacher just like me someday. As a teacher, I have experienced several touching moments like this and these moments are little reminders of why I love teaching.

Speaking of my English class, it has been one of my favorite things about this experience. I've definitely learned more about ESL by teaching this class. I've probably tried about 20 different activities with them; some of which I've made up on my own, some of which have completely failed, and some of which were very successful. Thursday was a fun class. For the "Icebreaker", I brought a roll of toilet paper and told the students to take as much as they wanted from the roll. For every sheet of toilet paper they took, they had to say a sentence in English (but they didn't know this part of the game before they took the toilet paper). It was funny because the sweet girls in my class took anywhere from 2-6 pieces from the roll, but the crazy boys took close to 20-25, and I knew they would happen (because they're boys and they like to funny) so when they found out what they had to do with the toilet paper, they regretted taking that much. :-) During last ten minutes of every class, we listen to a song. I decided to teach them the "Cha Cha Slide" in both classes and this was such a good idea. There are so many commands in the song such as "slide to the left", "reverse", "hop 5 times", etc. They loved it!

Last week in Math (with 3rd graders), I taught about "Volume". This was a fun lesson for the kids, but there's a little bit of a funny story that goes along with it. To introduce the lesson, I was going to have a student come to the front of the room and fill a cup with rocks so that the cup was "completely full". Then I would ask the class if it was full. Next, I was going to add some dirt/sand to the cup to fill in some more spaces and ask the class again if the cup was full. I was hoping that this time they would say no, and my plan was to ask what we could add to the cup so that it would be completely full (water). Well, that morning on the way to school, I was going to pick up some rocks and dirt/sand. I found some rocks and sand next to my apartment that I thought would work perfectly. I put the rocks in a bag and I scooped up some of the sand in my hands and added it to the bag. As I was doing this, some woman started yelling down from her window. The only thing I understood was, "What are you doing?!" And since I didn't feel like having a conversation with the woman (who seemed a little upset), I decided to quickly walk away and go to school. On my walk to school, I noticed that something smelled funny. Then it hit me. I smelled my hands and realized that it was not sand that I scooped up with my hands; it was cat litter. And the woman who was yelling at me from her window was probably "the crazy cat lady" that lives next door and feeds all of the homeless cats every day. Whoops.

This past Wednesday, we didn't have school because it was "Labor Day" here in Spain. So everything was closed and we spent the day outside in the beautiful weather and then Susana, Lola, Maria, and I had "craft time". The day before, we went to the store to buy canvases and paint. I found out that Lola is actually a pretty good artist!

Hard at work

The final product!

On Thursday night, my director here, who is also the director of the Study Abroad program (so I knew her two years ago), invited me to the goodbye dinner for the study abroad group. We actually went to the same place that my group went to for our goodbye dinner, so it was a little weird being there again, in the exact same spot, eating the exact same food, but with different people. The professors were also invited to the dinner and there were two professors there that I had two years ago! I went over to talk to one professor and I asked if he remembered me. He said he thought I looked familiar but couldn't remember my name or which class I was in. I told a couple stories about some things that happened during his class (one of them being the time when there was a bat in our class) and then he remembered me! So of course, I had to get a picture with him.

At dinner with the ISU study abroad group

My former professor, Enrique!

On Friday, I went to my first movie in Spain, "La Gran Boda" ("The Big Wedding"). The movie itself was horrible, but it a fun experience going to the movie theater here and watching a movie in Spanish!

Friday night, Elizabeth came to visit. Elizabeth lived here when Claire and I lived here two years ago. She is currently teaching English in Cordoba, Spain, and she came to visit for the weekend. It was fun seeing her again! Last night, Lola, Susana, Elizabeth, and I went out to eat for my "goodbye dinner" and the food was incredible. Wine, cheese spreads, bacalao (cod) with eggs, and croquetas. Then we ended the dinner with the most expensive dessert on the menu. After dinner, the four of us went to 4-5 other bars and danced the whole night. It was the best way to spend my last Saturday night in Caceres!

Elizabeth and me at dinner

The four of us at the San Jorge church in Caceres

Today, I'm going to try to make enough chocolate chip cookies for the teachers at school and the students in my English Immersion class using a small, conventional oven. I have a feeling it's going to take FOREVER. Then I plan on spending the rest of my day packing since I won't have any time to pack tomorrow or Tuesday. I'm teaching my last class until 6pm on Tuesday and then my train leaves for Madrid at 7pm! I can't wait to see you all in just a few days!

Hasta pronto!

Shea