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Published: December 15th 2009
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Teaching the ninos
Me at the chalkboard and three of the girls. :) Normally I write these things in chronological order, but we’ll try something different today. Yesterday was my last day teaching English to the little 8-year-olds at the Colegio Claret, and it was bittersweet. I was given a Christmas CD that they made last year, which included two original tunes and two songs in charmingly accented English. I shall cherish it forever. I had a presentation prepared about Nebraska, but halfway through I realized I didn’t have the completely saved version and therefore had to resort to plan B: Christmas card making! This of course meant that before I was even finishing the instructions there were a thousand little hands in the air and a thousand little voices shouting “Cómo se dice…” How do you say… And of course, anything I write on the board goes on their paper, so by the end of class thirty Christmas cards read, with minor variations, “Dear mom and dad, I hope you have a happy Christmas! I love you very much. I had a good year with you. Happy New Year! Kisses! Love, María/José/Reyes/etc.” And there was inevitably a tree on the front, because that’s what I put on my example. Of course. One particularly
Colegio Claret
Me and my kiddies! The real teacher was taking the photo. brave girl approached me towards the end of class asking, “Didn’t you say you were bringing treats on your last day!?” Haha… no, I did not. But good try.
Let’s flash back in time to Saturday. If you’ve been following along, you may remember my initial disappointment at not being contacted by extremely attractive Spaniard guy after we met on Thanksgiving in a discoteca. Wellllll he finally texted me, and after about a week of text messages and facebook chats, we finally went out last Saturday in what turned out to be the most fantastic night I’ve had this trip. (Honestly, Kate, nothing against the fun times we’ve had!) I sort of feel weird about blogging about this, so if you’re reading this (or can read this?) Alvaro... Hello. I’ll make this short; it’s just that I can’t leave it out!
We ended up going to two small bars in the city center, both the antithesis of touristy, which of course I loved, and had some wine and tapas. It was so stereotypically a “foreign date” I felt like I was in a Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen movie, without the twin, and instead of a motorcycle he had a car. We talked, he laughed at my Spanish, we had a jolly good time, and then halfway through the tapas I brought up a standing debate we have about the Santa Clause vs. the Reyes Magos (Literally “Magic Kings” but essentially the three wise men, who are more traditional in Spain than Santa Clause. They come bearing gifts in January.) Pretty soon the waiters and other patrons of the bar got involved. “Well the Reyes Magos can fly! They’re multi-racial!” Alvaro was prodding me to defend the honor of St. Nick, but all I could do was laugh and wonder how in the world I got into such a situation, and wishing it wouldn’t end. I understood quite a bit, considering they were all talking on top of each other at lightning speeds, but I did need a Spanish to slower Spanish translation every once in awhile. Then one of the waitresses launched into “Jingle Bells” and then asked me to sing it in English. I happily obliged and we were given free shots. Ha! Though the whole time really I was just grinning and Alvaro kept having to turn to me and say things like, “Do you know what’s going on? They’re giving us shots because you sang.” I suppose in theory he could have been making that up. 😊 Haha. So basically, it was fantastic. I know you guys, I know. I leave on Friday. But seriously, how could I pass up fantastic, even if it can only last for a week?
Alvaro and I only speak in Spanish, which lends itself to some interesting and sometimes hilarious misspeaks on my part, which need to be written down somewhere. The first time we talked on facebook I saw a photo of him with climbing gear on, so I tried to say “Did you go rock climbing?” which could be something like “has ido de escaladas?” but instead of escaladas I said escaleras, which means stairs, thereby making the question about a slightly less impressive feat. Another day online, the first of the Santa Clause/ Reyes Magos debates, he informed me that my vision of Santa was a product of Coca-Cola. “Don’t say that,” I was trying to say, “next you’re gonna tell me that Valentine’s Day is just a consumer holiday.” But, I spelled “consumidor” wrong, typing instead “consumador,” which, as Alvaro informed me once he’d finished laughing, gave it a slightly more X-rated tone: “You know, like when you consummate a relationship…” HA! Well, it could be that sort of holiday, too, I suppose. What else… I referred to Lola as my “señora,” which apparently makes it sound like I’m her maid, and I also used the word “enojada” for angry, which is only used in Latin America. I try to think of equivalents for these situations in English, just to see how it could compare, and what I came up with is that “mi señora” would be something like “my missus” while “enojada” would be like telling someone you were “cross” instead of mad. I now have the problem that I continue to use these words, simply because I like the idea that they sound so ridiculous. “So the other day my missus was quite cross…” Hahaha.
T-4 days! Qué pena que me vaya.
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Dad
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Too funny
So who won the debate?