Le Week-end

So Friday October 19th, I didn´t have to go to my first scheduled period of work so I was able to wake up on my own, shower, make a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese, and go to work. I ran into Emilio on the way out the door, chatted and ran to catch the bus.

School is going pretty well. Actually I don´t even know what to say, the kids are terrible. But I think I am doing a good job of pretending to know what I am doing. I had 3 periods on Friday, one with the typical noisy kids, trying to yell over them. Also it seems that the only English they know is drug related or contains the F-word, while highly offensive to me, the teacher says they are just being kids. For 2nd period the teacher told me they were quiter and more serious. I was thankful untill I had to start asking them questions. This by far was the best behaved class, silent, respectful, but they didn´t speak anything, no English, no Spanish, nothing. I guess there is no happy medium. Then I had my last period with a new teacher for the first time. She was being kinda wierd with me, not really giving me a lot of help or telling me what she wanted me to do, but I just decided to go for it, I´m pretty good and winging things. At the end of the day she said I did a very good job and will make a very good teacher. It was great to have some positive feedback.

We got done at 2:30 and I rode down with her and another teacher, and then took a bus home. I made it back in record time, 3:30, ate and chilled with Adri, watching TV. Rosa and Zore decided to go home for the weekend, again, so when Adri went to work, I think I went grocery shopping, I don´t even remember what I did untill 9 or so when Victor arrived from Málaga. Oh wait, I used the internet for a bit at the Centro, and on my way back, ran into some girls from my program that I had met. They were meeting people to get churros and chocolate and even though I was going home to get ready, I decided to hang out with people and chat. It was fun and good to hang out with people! So then at 9, Victor arrived and we went to a party/ thing that one of his friends was having. It was a discussion of a new master´s program they were participating in/starting with drinks and appetizers afterward. We, in typical Rachel and Victor style, arrived just in time for the food, missing the talk. We visited there for a while and his 2 friends were sooo happy to seem me back in Spain. I also talked with this English guy Steve, who once worked as a clown in a ghetto area of Granada. Some of the little kids told him, "Hey clown, give me your wig or I´ll kill you." At least my kid´s haven´t threatened my life yet....

Afterwards we drove around and visited the Alhambra, came back home, ate some more and went to bed.

Saturday morning, I woke up, got ready and went out with Victor for a walk. It was a beautiful day in Granada. Even though the last time I was here in October it was freezing, this time you never know what the weather is going to be like. Its cold in the morning and evenings, and freezing at night, who knows... Well this weekend it was pretty much warm all around, so it was so beautiful to just be out, walking around, enjoying Granada and the sunshine. We went shopping to buy Victor some nicer work clothes and then went home for a really delicious lunch with Victor´s parents and then took the mandatory siesta. Then in the afternoon we went out again and spent way too long in El Corte Inglés, shopping for jeans for Victor. It took forever because all the people in Spain are shorter than Victor, and there wern´t any pants long enough, or if they did fit, they looked like girls´ jeans. Or if they were a good American brand like Levi´s they cost at least 80€, or 100 dollars. I don´t know how long it took us, but we finally found some and went home. We rested, dropped off the stuff, and Emilio played the song "Granada" for me, which apparently I should know. Then Pepa showed me how well she can dance "Sevillanas." I took a video, and plan to post it as soon as possible. Then we went out again at 9 to watch the rugby world cup final England vs. South Africa. All the Irish pubs were packed but we finally found a space in one. Near the end, some of my friends from the program came and met up with us. South Africa won, who I was rooting for, and then we went to meet Michelle and her friend at a differnt tapas place. It was also packed, because by now it was 11 or so, but we managed to get 1 round for 8 or so people, chatted and then hit the road. The girls were going to a botellón at Hipercor, which means, buy alcohol at a store and drink it in a designated place, Hipercor. Unfortunately, that happens to be really far away, and since Victor and I knew what we would be missing, unlike them, we passed and went and met up with the friends who we were supposed to watch the game with but could never find. We stayed at Estrella, the bar till about 2 or so and then went home, made sandwiches and went to bed.

Sunday I woke up at 9 for some reason, and got ready and went to church. It had been about a month since I´ve been to church and over 2 years since I went to this church. I was nervous because, I was,,, new people, small talk, being alone, etc,,, but I went anyway. When I walked in some of the first people I saw were 2 old friends Miguel and Courtney. I haven´t kept in touch with them since I left so it was a shock for us all to see eachother. We chatted a bit before the service, and then it started. Chruch was ok. It was good to sing. They sing the older contemporary songs, that I hadn´t sang in a long time and the message was ok. I tried to small talk for as long as I could before leaving afterwards as Courtney and Miguel are pretty popular and then left. I called Victor, went home, changed clothes, and met him and some friends at a bar for tapas. More and more friends showed up, and in the end we had a pretty good group there. I was getting hungry for lunch, the tapas were not doing it for me, and even though all his friends are really nice, I sometimes get left out of the conversation, so I was getting in a bad mood. We were there for a while, then Victor and I left to go get some real lunch. We ate at Il Gondoliere and I had Spaghetti Negro, a seafood pasta dish, with black pasta because it is dyed with octopus ink. It was delicious. Then we walked home, took naps and then Victor had to get ready to go back to Malaga. On his way out, we stopped by Nacho and Alicia´s house to visit and drop off some of the clothes Alicia had bought for the kids from Victor´s company. We visited for a while and Nachete gave me an art creation he had made. Then Victor dropped me back off at home and left. No one was in my house so I went out for a walk. I just walked around for about an hour and stopped in some of the touristy shops, called my sister, got pooped on by a bird and walked home. I made a little salad and watched Camera Café, a funny tv show that is Emilio´s favorite and he told me I should watch. It was pretty funny, and I went to bed around 11.

Monday I slept in till 10:30, a miracle! Then I laid in bed, reading this English magazine, that Alicia had picked up at the beach, looking for articles I could use for English classes. I leisurely got up, went for a run and left my keys with Emilio. When I got back Pepa´s mom, Victor´s grandmother was there, and since I hadn´t seen her since I´ve been back, I stopped by to visit. When I went home Adri, had the day off and was watching tv. We watched it together, the 2 girls came home, I showered and then made lunch. Rosa was really upset because she came home to find her milk and juice carton empty in the trash and some dirty dishes. She was telling all this to me, when I hadn´t even eaten at home the whole weekend. So apparently it was Adri. Later we talked and I said it wasn´t me, so at least she knows, but it seems as though a conflict-free year of cohabitation is just a pipe dream. Later that afternoon I talked with my dad, used the internet, came home and cleaned the house. Mondays are my day to clean, and although I choose Monday at first because it is my day off, and I will actually have time to clean, I also realized that the last day anyone else cleans is Thursday. So I´m a sucker, as usual, but it only took me like an hour so we´ll see as the year progresses. I picked out the article for my English class with Nacho and Alicia that night, made photocopies and visited Emilio and Pepa and took the pictures from my camera onto my hard drive. So those of you who want pictures, I am one step closer to having them up. I showed them some pictures of my house and family and then left for my first private English lesson with Nacho and Alicia. I was nervous and kinda got lost walking over because Granada has changed somewhat since I left, but got there and it all seemed to go well. We spoke in English and I found out that they have been holding out on me since I met them, they speak really well, and I never knew it, had dinner, and talked for an hour and a half. Then Nacho took me home, I watched tv with Rosa and Zore and went to bed.

This morning, I woke up kinda early, went running, ate breakfast and got a package from my family! I love new pants and mail. Then I got ready and came to the CLM to update you all, now I am going to go home, eat, give Zore an English lesson, then a teacher from my school, then I dunno. This week I´m just going to be working, and on Thrusday, my friend Ana is coming and hopefully Deanna too! Love and miss you all! Love, Rachel