Since coming back from break, I’ve really been bonding with Navalmoral. Since traveling so much for Christmas, I haven’t wanted to even look at a bus or a train, so I’ve been spending most all of my weekends here.
Before school went back into session, we had Los Reyes Magos, or the Three Kings Day. Basically, kids here don’t believe in Santa Claus (for the most part), but rather that the three kings bring gifts to them during the night of December 5th. They get into it. In one lesson, a little boy asked me who my favorite was, after showing me letters that the wise men had written to him. I replied, “Balthazar?”, only because that was the only one who’s name I could recall. Apparently he’s the African one. After some investigation, he’s still my favorite. So the afternoon of the 6th, I went and saw the parade here in town with a friend, and spent the rest of the weekend going out to eat, dance, and enjoy the company before going back to work.
My birthday was the next weekend. My first birthday abroad. I made the funfetti cake I had bought at the American store in Madrid with Josemi’s oven.
We also went out to dinner at my favorite restaurant, Los Claveles. Luckily, my friends either know I’m a broke teacher, or that I’m American through and through…because they didn’t make me pay for everyone’s dinner as is the tradition here on someone’s birthday. That’s right, the birthday girl/boy treats. Hate it.
School has been going well too. I yelled at a class for the first time last week. They were 4th ESO (10th graders). Usually I get along really well with this class. We joke, talk about things that aren’t just school-related, and they participate a lot. However, I think because of this, they’ve started to see me more as a friend, as opposed to a teacher. In class the other day, I was trying to explain the activity we were going to do and they would not stop talking. Then one boy starting drawing all over a desk in highlighter and when I told him to clean it up, he used another girl’s pencil case to erase it. The girl blew up and started yelling at him. That’s when I stepped in. Putting on my best angry/serious voice, I told them how they needed to respect me as their teacher and listen to my instructions. I felt very powerful. Later, I pulled highlighter boy into the hallway. I had confiscated his cell phone the class before, so I told him he now had 2 strikes. After 3, he would be out and sent to the real teacher to be dealt with. He understood me.
This past weekend, I went into Madrid on Friday with Mamen (who just happened to be driving there that afternoon) to teach a class at a “Gifted” program on Saturday that two of my tutorees attend. I just talked in English and asked the kids questions. It was a decent time. Later, the family took me out to a really nice lunch…which I appreciated. The rest of the weekend was spent seeing parts of Madrid I had yet to see (who knew there was a long park that comes close to rivaling Valencia’s Río?), seeing old men playing the strangest game ever, then I came back home on Sunday.
Like I said, since coming back from break, I feel like I’ve cemented my friendships here and Navalmoral finally feels like home. As of right now, I’m renewing here for the next year, but don’t know if I will accept or decline the position when it comes in. Deciding what to do with my future right now is a source of great stress…thoughts?
No comments:
Post a Comment