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Published: December 5th 2010
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Madrid
Me and Katie in Plaza Mayor This week started off amazing, with our first snow fall in Madrid! It pretty much snowed all day, with beautifully large flakes. I had to go outside and stand in it for 5 minutes just to soak it up and make my first snow fall wish. After school I stayed and ate lunch with the teachers. It was National Teacher’s Recognition Day so we had food catered for us. We had tons of little finger foods, ham, bread, cheese, Spanish tortilla, some amazing desserts along with wine. It was so unbelievable. After our lunch I spent the afternoon tutoring the three year old boy and a 2nd grader. We pretty much colored and played games the whole time so Monday was a pretty easy day.
Tuesday school went fairly quick. I spent the morning with the 2nd graders teaching them about animals. We had a meeting period and then I spent the last two hours with the 5th graders conducting science experiments with fruits and their seeds. After school I headed to tutoring and it went to great. I spent the first hour with the two sisters who usually fight all the time. Instead of letting them do this I
Madrid: Plaza mayor
There are christmas booths all over the city now. distracted them by making Advent Calendars with them. They loved it. The hour went by so quick and I didn’t have to deal with any fighting. The next tutoring was with Miguel we had a normal lesson with English and Spanish and had a little bit of extra time so we did some Mad libs. My finally lesson was a little difficult. I had to teach the reproductive system to a 4th grade. He couldn’t stop giggling whenever we had to read the word sperm or say penis. It was an interesting experience.
Wednesday brought a new arrival to my school. We finally got another Auxiliares to replace the one that never showed up in October. His name is Rodrigo and he is from Puerto Rico. He seems really nice and loves working with the kids. It’s going to be great to have another auxilare to help around the school. Wednesday was my short day at school so after lessons I headed back to Madrid, took a quick Siesta, and then met my normal group for dinner in the city. We have definitely become regulars at this restaurant. We walked in the door and the waiter told us he
would get us a table, he calls us by name, knows what states we are from and wants to know where a member of our group is if they haven’t arrived yet. 😊
Thursday was an altogether different day. The second graders and first graders went on a field trip so I didn’t have to arrive at school until 11 am. I assisted in the 5th grade science class, had a 30 minute patio break and then a 45 minute English lesson with the 3rd graders. That was it. Talk about an easy work day. Since I got off early from work I headed to San Augustin del Guadalix early and stopped at an amazing Chinese restaurant for lunch. After lunch I had tutoring with a 2nd grader, then Miguel, and the two sisters. All my tutoring sessions were very productive and no arguing again 😉 It has been a great week of work. After tutoring I headed back to Madrid and pretty much got ready for bed so that morning would come faster and thus Katie with it.
Friday was a great day. Katie arrived in the morning. We came back to my apartment and dropped off
her luggage and then headed out into the city. I took her to a few places to see the city including Plaza de Toros, El palacio Real and Parque del Oeste. We pretty much just walked around so she could see more of the city, stopped for a bite to eat and visited a few shops. By the afternoon her jet lag was definitely starting to catch up with her so we headed back to the apartment for her to rest for a bit. Once she had recouped a little we headed out to La Latina to meet the girls I work with. We spent the evening wondering around the La latina district, eating Tapas and overall having a great time. It was a very low key but fun first night for Katie.
On Saturday Katie and I got up bright and early to head out into the city. I pre-warned Katie we would be walking a ton but I don't think she realized how much until that night after walking all day and having tons of blisters. We started out by heading to the Goya region. I showed her a bunch of the christmas decorations they have put
up around Madrid and the shopping center near there. After Goya we headed down to Paseo de Prado to head to the Naval Museum. Katie loved this. It was the perfect place for her since she wants to join the Navy. We spent a few hours there and then headed to the Reina Sophia to go and see some of Picasso's art. It was unbelievable. Everything was so stunning and it was great because we could actually take pictures. 😉. After finishing up at the Museums we met my work buddies for an amazing dinner, watched Real Madrid win a futbol match and spent the evening together. It was tons of fun.
On sunday we woke up and headed to Rastro. The market was as busy as ever but we stayed for a few hours buying gifts and just walking around. We decided to head to a restaurant for lunch and had some amazing Paella. It was Katie's first truly authentic spanish meal. After our late lunch we headed to the Prado Museum. We stood in line for about 45 minutes and finally made it inside. It was super busy, there is a holiday in Spain righht now so
tons of people are traveling, but it was still great. We kept track of all the rooms we made it to, and come closing, we still had about half to go. We are probably going to finish it next sunday. Now we are packing up our suitcases and getting ready to head to Barcelona. I am so excited!
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Bobbi-n-Steve
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Happy Christmas + An Idea for Twins
Merry Christmas Jayleen and Katie! Nice art pics! If trouble persists with twins Mia says, talk to parents and give each girl a half hour "quality" lesson. You still get one hour of pay, but get to work with each child separately. Power is flickering here for some reason. Time to shut down the computers before something bad happens. The UPS is clicking an lights dimming. Night!