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Published: December 24th 2010
Baking cookies
Brownie cookies :)THis is going to be a long one...my interent wasn't working this week.
This last week has flown by so fast! Tuesday Katie and I took the metro towards the airport and then I continued on to work. The morning was a normal day of work for me. I spent the first two hours taking the second graders out and preparing them for their English exam. The third hour I had a free period. During the free period something unexpected happened. The Australian auxiliary, Sandy, received a phone call that her grandfather was in the hospital and undergoing surgery. I felt terrible for her. She left for the day to try and get on Skype to talk to her family. It was really sad. For the afternoon I headed to 5th grade where I finished grading exams and figuring out the grades for all the students. Tuesday was the last day of the first trimester so the teachers needed to have all the grading done. I finished up most of the science grades and then headed to San Agustin for tutoring. I started off with the two sisters playing hangman, which they seemed to enjoy. After that I headed to
Baking Cookies
I made a cookie of Laura :) Miguel’s house and had a short lesson with him. It was our last lesson before Christmas so it was pretty sad. He is so easy to tutor and we always have such a great time. I was pretty bummed it was the last one. After his lesson I headed to Nacho’s house to work on English (past simple v. present continuous). He seems to understand it much better now. After tutoring I hopped back on the bus to Madrid and headed home for the day.
Wednesday was a very different day…Rather then get up and go to school I got to sleep in and then head to the police department for my residency appointment (finally!!!!). I got to the stations, received a number and then waited to be called. Once my number was finally called the process literally took 2 minutes. I gave them 2 passport pictures of myself, they took a finger print, and I signed a paper. That was it…I have waited 2 months for a 2 minute appointment. Now I have my residency number but I have to wait at least another month until I receive my actually ID card. It is such a relief to
Baking Cookies
We each had our initials :) have it though. I can now leave and return to Spain without any problems. The rest of the day I walked around the city, relaxed in the apartment and spent the evening with my roommates.
Thursday was another day of work. Rather than the normal routine with the second graders I got to decorate the classroom door for the holiday. Yolanda, the teacher, and I made a Christmas tree and the then had the students color presents or make Christmas ball ornaments to put on our tree. The kids loved it! After that I headed to 5th grade. Unfortunately it wasn’t a great class. Monica had assigned a student to lead the classroom but also wanted me to teach. This was not a good idea. The student really wanted to be the teacher, but I was under the impression that I was supposed to be teaching, so we kept stepping on each other’s toes in the process. It would have been fine if one of us was teaching but with both of us leading it wasn’t working. The problem with Monica is that she doesn’t tell me what she actually wants. She only explains a part and then will
Flamenco
Me and Sandy leave the classroom. So I feel very unprepared and impromptu when I am leading. Which personally, is not how I work. Another problem I have a hard time dealing with how much she yells at the students in the classroom. I feel like that is pretty much all she does and to me that isn’t how a classroom should be functioning. After 5th grade I headed to 3rd grade where I gave an English lesson. I love working with this teacher. She lets me get up, teach the class and gives me specific goals that she wants the class to accomplish that day. Then she sits in the back of the class or helps the students complete the assignment. She is there when I need assistance but more than willing to let me use my own style. I finished off the work week in first grade making more decorations for the door. The students spent the hour coloring Christmas trees and holly. It was a very easy way to finish the week. After school I headed to San Agustin for more tutoring. The first hour I spent with 2 second graders helping them prepare for their vocabulary test the next
Flamenco
Me and Sandy day. The little girl did really well but the little boy struggled. I felt so bad because he was getting so frustrated and crying because he wanted to do well. It was so sad, but by the end of the lesson he was doing much better. After their lesson I had almost 2 hours before my next lesson because Miguel’s lesson was canceled. So I spent the time in a local café drinking amazing hot chocolate 😊. My last lesson I was with the sisters again. It was an amazing lesson because the younger sister showed up a half an hour late. So for the first hour the older sister and I played two truths one lie, and just chatted. When the younger sister did arrive I helped her prepare for her science test. It was a great lesson for them and a wonderful way to end the week.
Friday (Happy birthday Bubba 😊) I spent the day walking around the city trying to buy the last few Christmas presents on my list. The city was completely crazy! So many people were out shopping because it was the last weekend before Christmas. It was a new and amazing experience
for me. I got pretty much everything I needed though. Afterwards I headed to Laura’s house to make Christmas cookies with her and Marisa. This was definitely a fun experience. First…Laura only has a toaster oven, not a real oven in her oven, so that was new. Secondly I love to bake and I guess you could say I am a perfectionist when it comes to baking (for example I do not mix my wet and dry ingredients until the very end). Well they kind of just put everything into one bowl…it didn’t work out great. But we were able to save the cookies and had a blast making shapes and designs. It was super fun, I definitely laughed a lot.
Saturday I woke up early and met Laura on gran via to do some Christmas shopping with her. During our shopping we kept our eye out for some water proof boots for me (I need them for Switzerland). We were able to find me some really cute rubber boots and get all the items on Laura’s Christmas list. It was a very productive shopping day. After shopping we headed to Sandy’s to pick up a Christmas tree for
Laura’s apartment. We visited for a bit and then got on the metro, Christmas tree and all 😊. I spent the evening working out, watching movies and then getting ready for the night. Sandy had a few friends visiting form Australia so the four of us headed to a flamenco performance. It was absolutely AMAZING! It was a fantastic performance, with amazing dancer and musicians. The only problem was that we were not allowed to use flash when we took pictures so they didn’t turn out great. But the experience was wonderful. I am definitely glad I went. Now I want to learn how to dance the flamenco 😉.
Sunday I woke up bright and early to meet Sandy and one of her friends at Rastro (the market). We spent a good three hours walking around and visiting. I made a lot of little purchases, wool socks, thermal long sleeve shirts, hats etc. I was trying to stock up for my trip to Switzerland…otherwise I was going to freeze. The rest of the day I spent at my apartment packing some stuff for Switzerland, cleaning and preparing for the week to come at school.
Monday I spent the
morning with 2nd grade. The first hour I was able to stay in the class and help lead the lesson, and the second I pulled them out individually as usual. In 5th grade I helped the students make paper snowflakes to decorate the classroom for their Christmas fiesta they are having on Thursday. The next hour I spent with 1st grade trying to update all of the student’s activity books. We had to glue all the worksheets into their notebooks, it was a very tedious process but luckily I was able to head out and finish my day with the second graders again. I pulled them out individually again. The second graders really love working with me and all of them want to go out, but each session takes about 15 minutes so I can never get through the whole class. After class I ate lunch with the teachers and then headed to my tutoring sessions. I started off with Marco. My lessons with Marco always start off good and end bad. He is an only child and so spoiled. He loves playing with me at first but by the end of the lesson all he will say is “no
tocas nada!”, which pretty much means he doesn’t want me to touch anything. Normally I wouldn’t let a child behave like this but during tutoring my role cannot be discipline. So it’s a little hard to deal with sometimes. After Marco’s lesson I headed to Ignacio’s house and we spent the hour building a Lego house 😊. He is so easy.
Tuesday started off pretty hectic but ended much better. Unfourtanetly I didn’t wake up to my alarms, but luckily I was able to catch the 800 bus so I was only 15 minutes late to school. Not too bad. I spent the first two hour with the second graders, sitting in class. We were supposed to have a theater performance at 930, and then they pushed it back to 10, then 1030 and then finally 11. So the students colored and Yolanda and I visited with them. Finally it was time for the performance. We went to the theater and watched The Gruffalo. The actors did a fabulous job. They made it so fun and included the audience in the performance in the dances, songs and as some of the actors. It was such a great show for
the students. After that I headed to 5th grade, but ended up spending the afternoon in the computer lab. All the 4th, 5th and 6th graders where having a dodge ball competition and rather than sit there and watch, Monica let me leave. When school was over Sandy and I headed to San Agustin for tutoring. We went and had a slice of pizza before our lessons and visited for a while. Then I headed to my lesson with the sisters. The lesson started off great we played hangman and word games, but at the end of the lesson the younger sister decided to throw a fit because she wasn’t winning. It was terrible. She is very immature for a 6th grader. So I ended up just working with the older sister for the rest of the hour. After my lesson I headed back to Madrid and finished up my packing for Switzerland!
Wednesday I got up bright and early and headed to my last day of work for the 2010 year 😊. Personally I think I could have stayed home, the last day was very unproductive. I spent the first two hours in 2nd grade while they took
a science test and then colored and Yolanda listened to the Christmas lottery on the radio. The third hour I headed to 5th grade. They were going to the theater today to watch a different performance. Wednesday is my normal short day, so rather than watch the performance I left early. I headed back to Madrid. Put the last few things in my suitcase, grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to the airport to go to Switzerland. I sat at the airport for a few hours, my plane was a little late, but finally it arrived and took off. The flight was very bumpy. There was a ton of fog and quite a bit of turbulence but we made to Zurich safe and sound but quite a bit behind schedule. At the airport Dani and Denise picked me up and we drove back to Bern. I am so excited to be here again 😊.
Thursday Dani and I slept in and slowly got our day started. We headed to Bern, ran a few errands around the city and then took the train to Luzern. It was beautiful there. Luzern is famous for a bridge that runs through
their city. It has an amazing view of a lake with snow covered mountains in the background. It was absolutely stunning. When we were in Luzern we went and viewed a Panorama painting of the French war from 1870. It was an amazing painting that included wax figures, real physical pieces of wood, poles and railroad cars that have made the painting extend father out. The additions matched so well to the painting that it made you feel as if you were actually present inside of the painting. It was really cool. After that we headed to a monument of a fallen lion carved into a stone wall to represent all those who were killed in the war. From there we headed up to the top of the city to get a view and to the famous bridge. We had a very quick trip in Luzern but it was amazing none the less. Afterwards we took the train back to the house. We had dinner, visited with the family and finished the day by watching love actually.
To start off my first Christmas away from home I woke up this morning to snow!!!! My very first white Christmas 😊
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Janet Simpson
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Happy Holidays
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, how neat you have snow...wish we would at least get a light dusting... Thank you for your wonderful updates, I enjoy reading how much you get into each week.. Happy New Year... Janet