Back to Work

So even though I didn´t sleep well Tuesday night, I woke up Wednesday morning feeling pretty good and got going. After getting ready for about an hour I was ready to go back to bed. But I had to get on the bus, and I did. Its hard coming back after 4 days off and 2 in the hospital. I made it to school and through my first 2 hours of class with teachers. They went well but here I would like to report an "Important Cultural Difference." During the 2nd hour of teaching, I was a little distracted because one of the teachers had a t-shirt on that had a cartoon girl on the front wearing a thong and butt-less chaps. I mentioned that he was wearing and intersting t-shirt and he proceeded to tell me about the artist and such. I tried to explain, why that shirt would be inappropiate for a student, especially a teacher to wear to school, and that´s why I thought it was intersting, but he didnt really understand. That led our discussion into areas that made me wish I hadn´t said anything at all, but all in all we learned 2 things. There are important cultural differences between Spain and the United States, and I shouldn´t have spent any money on cute, professional teacher clothes before leaving the States, because here the only thing that differentiates students for teachers visually, is age.

My next period I spent teaching the really terrible kids. Today was the day I was actually going to bring a lesson. They were actually ok, and fairly quiet. They just have no clue about anythying i say, no matter how slowly I say it or how many times I repeat. I was actually pretty proud of my self and thought it went pretty well. But, by now I was really tired, feverish and needed to go home. I took the bus, finally made it back. Made some soup out of vegetable broth, carrots, onions, garlic, noodles and an egg, ate, and took a nap. Then in the afternoon, I came out, blogged, went back and passed by Emilio and Pepa´s to tell them that I was alive, ( they had called earlier, worried because I hadn´t already stopped by) and quickly went back upstairs. I made a little sandwich for dinner, and was going to eat the leftover soup but didn´t really want it because it wasn´t that good. I almost forced myself to eat it, but in a great advance for me, I threw it away. I usually force myslef to eat stuff, even if I don´t like it because I paid for it, or in an effort not to waste, but not then. yay for Rachel. More tv with my roommies , cleaning the appartment discussion as all 4 of us were home for probably the first time, tv, and bed. I had a hard time falling asleep again, but oh well...

This morning, more class. I think the kids were actually worse, even though last week it was the reverse. Bad on Wednesday, Better on Thursday, this week the opposite. Its going well but the kids have no idea what I´m saying. And they also blatenly ignore authority. After school Michelle and I walked back to a cafe for a snack since it was alreay 3 o´clock and we just talk about how ridiculous these kids are and bad, and disrespectful, and what the heck we are doing here. It´s amazing. I´m not going to go into detail now, I should go, but I´m sure there will be much more to tell as this year passes. So I finally made it home about 4, made a gross pizza, watched a really intersting documentary about hippos and finally forced myself to get out of the house again. I need to hang out with more people. Especially ones that are my age. This week was an exception with being sick and all, but next week for sure I am going to force myself to do some more hanging out with young people.

Before going out this evening I stopped by Pepa´s house as she had called me but my cell phone decided not to work. She told me they now had internet, and I could come by to use it whenever I wanted. She asked what I was going out to do and instead of telling her I was going to use the internet, I told her I was going to buy groceries and she told me that I shouldn´t because she had tons of food there to give me. Sometimes its really frustrating to talk with her because everything I tell her she wants to buy for me. I escaped, I´m not sure how, and on the street ran into Emilio and another friend who had me there, talking for a while. They are so nice, but this week I have definitly had my fill of Emilio and Pepa and it seems they are around every corner! Now its after 9PM on a Thursday night in Granada and I´m at school updating my blog. oh well, things don´t have to be jam-packed socially right now. I have time and I know that without a doubt this is going to be an intersting year.