Where the others live...

Hey Folks, sorry for the delay in entries. I have been sorting through what to do with the students, and I began tutoring yesterday. Where to begin... well this week is going better than last week, so far. Except that the first grade teacher is STILL out sick, I hope she is ok, but that makes my life a bit harder. Because she is absent, there is always a different person in the class with the students when I enter the class. Having so many different people in the class, must be confusing and frustrating for the kids, because none of us know all their names already, so we just say hey you, or walk up to them. The upper grades are going pretty well.
We began the week discussing the bones of the body. You have to be a doctor to know all the bones they wanted to students to name. I only know one in the legs and don't even start with the face! I hoped to high heaven that Maria would not ask me to name all the bones in English. Thankfully she did not, but it definitely gave me a scare. Sarah B. I totally thought of you immediately with all you Bio stuff. The kids laughed their butts off when I went to show them the hips, cause I started to dance. Now most of you know the kind of dancer I am.... it did not look good! But I guess with little ones you gotta be an actriz some of the time, and not be afraid to make a fool of yourself!
I began tutoring on Tuesday. I met with Phil, from Belfast, to discuss the family and what he could tell me about private lessons. Now similar to what you do Pat, a lot of it consists of homework help, but also advancing them to the next chapter or subject so that they can be prepared and have a head start for when the topic comes up at school. This place was gorgeous!! The floor was huge, for a Madrid flat. Not that I had seen a floor, before in Madrid, but I can only imagine what other places look like. I am working with a girl, Beatriz, who is 6 and her brother, Joaquin, age 8. The ages are perfect because they are the same age as my students at school. But that these children attend a private school, and have had more exposure to English than my students at Fuentelarreyna.
Poor Beatriz actually started to fall asleep on me, in my session! Granted she was just copying the alphabet, but still.... SO to animate her a bit I played Simons Says, the popular children's game. I'm sure you've heard of it, no? Well she immediately perked up, which was fantastic! Then I conned her into finishing the work before we would continue with the game. It worked like a charm. I gave her the rest of the alphabet to cover before I see her again tomorrow.
Now her brother on the other hand....
He was much more advanced, obviously because of age. But he was telling me that he spends most of his day doing English grammar drills and Science activities. For example, I was asked to help him with his homework, which Phil had inclined me NOT to do, but the mother insisted. But we worked on the different ways to describe size (small, itty-bitty, big, giant, enormous, and average). He had a bit of difficulty with the differentiation between sizes, but overall understood the difference. We then moved onto the way animals move... I was trying to ellicit an animal that jumps/hops (i.e. bunny, which took him forever to get, but I think because it was too easy for him. Well he tried his hardest to tell me this animal that jumps around at night, which I was lost about. Then I said, does it make a sound?? finally we figured out it was a cricket, I thought he was talking about a grasshopper, but hey I guess that's kids for you. Never know what they are going to say.
Overall it was a good evening. From there I trekked over to the a park near the Royal Palace for a nice picnic with some of the people from the group. Connie, the girl at my school with me, insisted that she make some brownies, which she had to purchase from the American Store. They were actually really tasty except for the burnt edges. I missed the sunset, being it was 8:45 by the time I arrived, but had a nice time discussing school.
Much to my horror though I came to find out that two people are leaving the program, one who left today. Its too bad that something could not have been worked out, but the guy who left today, Jon, was told that he would be working with high school students, which NO he couldn't by design of the objectives for the program. Two he doesn't speak Spanish and the worst part is he doesn't like young children. It was just sad that he couldn't hold out a bit until Lynde arrives next week. Other people that were told could work with high school kids, figured something out with their schools to give them the opportunity to work with that age, but he didn't ask, or maybe was just too much in culture shock to even care at this point. Then I heard that Margaret, who has complained since the beginning is leaving too, but that I'm not too sad about because she was totally bringing the rest of the group down. As I've said time and time again about this program is you need to be flexible because we are the guinea pigs, but i guess some people would rather have liked it to be more structured and prepared. Well tough noogies!!

I have extended the invitation to the whole group to join me for a night on the town on Saturday for my big day. Unfortunately some people have already made plans to go visit Granada, but I will arrange other plans for those who are not going to be here. But the only problem is no one knows where to go! But he when in Rome, make it up! I am hoping to invite a small group to my apt for dinner on Friday, but I'm not sure yet who. I cant invite the whole group, because as you can see from the photos I don't have enough space. But it will work itself out.

I hope the Boston crowd enjoys the Tapas night, and that we shall ALL be talking on Saturday evening, at any hour, cause chances are I'll be up. And even if you don't think I'll be up, call anyway, I love voicemail, but of course would rather talk in person.

Well gotta run off and find a short poem on Fall to teach to the 3rd graders tomorrow. Talk to you soon.