Today we had “El día del centro” in my school…basically the Spanish equivalent of Field Day. All classes were cancelled, so I could have either slept in all day, or gone to school to party. Guess which one I did…
Field Day started around 8.30am (when school starts) and I really don’t know what I missed (except churros con chocolate), but I showed up around 10.30am. When I got there, the hallways were eerily abandoned. I had no idea where activities were or what people were doing. I went to the English department’s office and found one teacher, doing some work, and asked her what was going on. She didn’t know anything.
I wandered down to the patio and found some of my “café men” (whenever I get a coffee in the school bar, I never associate with the gossipy women, but rather the men’s group…and they love me) making migas. Migas are a really typical dish around here that I had been told time and time again that I just had to try. It’s pretty much breadcrumbs cooked with olive oil, meat, peppers, and other mystery ingredients. So the café men were making migas and when I went over to talk to them, I was immediately greeted with, “Rachel! Want some migas??” I said, “Sure!” Then they asked, “And want some wine?” And not even waiting for my answer, they poured me a cup. That’s right. Wine. At school’s Field Day. Before 11.00am. I love Spain.
The migas were very heavy (a lot of olive oil), but pretty delicious. My cup (okay, cups) of wine went well with it. After my café men and I ate and drank, some of the (women) teachers I teach with came to the bar and we all got a coffee for a bit. While we were partying, all of the kids were running around, playing soccer, basketball, doing scavenger hunts, and other non-wine related activities. After coffee, I poked around a table that was selling art that some of the kids had made, until I was called back over to the migas stand by the café men. They poured me about a half-inch of a drink into a cup and said, “Drink this.” I said, “Um…what is it?” They told me it was a sweet wine called “La Gloria” (because after you drink it, you end up in “la Gloria), homemade in Extremadura. It was wonderful. Very sweet. Then, I stuck around for, yes, another cup of red wine. Don’t worry, these cups weren’t big. I mean, not very.
Leaving the café men to clean up and put away the migas materials, I went exploring. I sat in on a rehearsal of a play that the theatre club is going to put on (not quite up to Broadway standards…but it was cute seeing some of my students up there). When I got bored with the rehearsal, I went to see what was happening outside, but a noise in one of the hallways caught my attention. I went into a classroom and found a bunch of kids, a couple of teachers, and a Wii! They were playing a dancing game that was definitely more technologically advanced than the days of DDR. It was so funny watching them dance around and it looked like they were having so much fun doing it that there was no way I couldn’t NOT try it. After my performance (another teacher was on my team), one of my students gave me a high-five. It may or may not have been the student who wrote his “What I’m thankful for” Thanksgiving letter dedicated to me…
After playing the Wii, I watched the director give out some prizes for the day and then one of my students performed a pretty sick beat boxing show for the whole school. Ending the day, the teachers all gathered in the bar for a lunch en plan picar.
All in all, “El día del centro” was a success. My stomach feels a little wonky right now…I blame the migas…but I’m definitely glad I decided to get out of bed and go play at school today. The teacher of the one class I have on Thursdays told me today that she doesn’t need me tomorrow, so it looks like someone’s weekend has started early! Now I can look forward to going to Madrid to see “The Hunger Games” in versión original…even though I’ve seen it twice (completely legally) on my computer already…
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