Empezamos

So last weekend we headed down to orientation for all of the language assistants who are in Spain. I thought I'd meet a fair amount of genuine/friendly people, but I was mistaken. It really is surprising how pompus people become after traveling or living in other countries and feeling "worldly" and "superior". So I did my best to avoid direct eye contact which might be mistaken as interest in someone's life, experience, accomplishments. I faired well!

I did get to see the Royal Palace, Cathedral, Crystal Palace and Retiro Park and got to eat some gelato, which I had to attempt to pronounce and order in Italian although we were in Madrid. All in all a decent trip.

This week we "started teaching", and by that I mean we went in Monday, they gave us our schedules and said "you know, tomorrow is a holiday so let's scrap today too and see you Wednesday". Spain's got it all right, we must be overworking our American teachers. But today my teacher did open the book to the next lesson and said "How do you want to do this tomorrow, and make these 15 new landform vocab words exciting and easy to learn?" Hm, as luck would have it all I've done for four years is make up lessons as I go and my creativity seems to be at its peak. Off to the SmartBoard room tomorrow for some interactive Geography tomorrow.

Last night we went for a little tapas crawl around the city for a friend's birthday. We were a group of nearly 20, though only 2 were actually from Spain. The rest were quite a mixed crowd: americans, mexicans, a canadian, a british girl, one from n. ireland, and lithuanians. Using whatever language we could to have some kind of meaningful conversation... mixing a little Spanglish here and there much to the dismay of one of our fellow tapa-goers. A smile and a laugh go a long way. Tis how I get myself both into and out of of most situations. What do you mean 'pajarita' means 'bow tie' and not 'straw'? Ah, can't be right all the time, cue laughing at yourself.

This coming weekend I'm heading to Oviedo to see my Spanish host family who I haven't seen in a year and a half and wasn't sure I'd ever see again. Stoked. It might very well be my favorite city in the world, so I'm thrilled to be going back. Hoping it doesn't rain the entire time (though Asturias rains rarely diappoint). Also hoping that my Spanish hasn't gotten so much worse that my Spanish family thinks I'm totally ridiculous. Maybe at least this time I won't cry for not knowing the word for extension cord. Surely they'll ask me something I don't know. I suppose that's why I'm here, eh? Cheers. Ask away, I've mastered the phrase "No tengo ni idea".