Dear Spring, where did you go? It seems like I've missed out on spring this year. Last week, the temperatures were in the 40's and 50's and now I find myself sweating in the sun while walking in 80 degree weather. Everyone always told me that Madrid has two seasons - summer and winter. I'm beginning to think they were right....As a courtesy to others, please remember the rules of wearing open-toed shoes. You should either have painted toenails or have them in the buff. And please remember to lotion your feet - crusty toes (literally) is one thing causes me to gag. I think we've covered all of the basics :)
Last Thursday, I traveled with the 5th graders to Sevilla, in southern Spain. We had a 2.5 hour train ride and then spent a few hours walking around in the city. The weather was in the 80's, but the sun was blazing. The kids were miserably hot, as was I. I broke down and bought a fan (not the mechanical kind, but the old-fashioned hand fan that you flip open) to cool myself off. Two things are essential for women to carry during the summer - a fan and a bottle of water. It's true. Otherwise, it's a hazard to your health! We spent the morning and early afternoon walking through the city. The highlight of my day was returning to Plaza de Espana, where I searched for my name on the wall. Three years ago, friends and I wrote our names on the wall inside the building and I was determined to find it again. I did, but barely. The writing was wearing off, so I re-wrote our names until I can return with a marker!
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| So excited to find my graffiti!!!! |
Other than that, nothing else happened. Oh, we did (temporarily) lose four kids. Or was it five? I can't remember. They were inside a vendor booth in front of the plaza (not where they should have been). We told all of the kids to leave, but some of them didn't listen (surprise, surprise) and were left behind. At least they knew to stick together and not move. We found them 10-15 minutes later, so no worries!
Thursday night was quite interesting. We arrived at the residency, which was tucked away about 35 minutes away from the center of Sevilla. We stayed in a town called Pilas. We got the kids settled into their rooms, they played for awhile, and then they took showers to clean up for dinner. At one point, some of the girls yelled for me to come into their room. They pulled me into the bathroom and showed me a spider that was in the shower. I screamed (I have a phobia) and ran out. I then realized that I was the adult, so I took the shower and hosed the spider down until it went down the drain. I was disgusted and quickly ran into my room to see if I had any. Each night, I did a thorough walk through of my room. After dinner, some kids from another school started the rumor that there was an orphanage nearby and our kids started crying and were scared to death. Most of them have seen the movie,
The Orphan, about a girl who is adopted by a family, but is possessed and torments the family. I've never had to do so much damage control in my life. We took the kids on walks throughout the residency to show them there was nothing. It was quite funny to me, yet reminded me how young they are. The girls (and boys) were still scared. The girls slept with their lights on and repeatedly asked me what room I was in and to see if it was okay if they came to my room if they were scared. I tucked them all in, kissed them, and said I loved them. (Which is the utter truth!) They laughed at the time, but I know they appreciated it. In fact, one of the mothers of a student whom I had never met before, came up to me after school one day this week and thanked me for doing it. Funny, I didn't expect her daughter to tell her mom, because she always came off as tough to me. In fact, she always used to misbehave with me. But ever since returning from our trip, the 5th graders are angels to me! Plus, I got to learn all of their names, which didn't hurt! Being one of the teachers on the trip was hard - first ones up in the mornings, last ones to sleep!
On Friday, we had a program for all of the Teresiano colegios. For those of you who don't know, Santa Teresa was born in Spain and there is a group of women called Teresianas, who dedicate their lives to living like her. One of their principles is the education of youth and this is why we have Teresian schools. I just finished writing a paper on her (in Spanish) today, so I'll have to do a blog on her. She really is an amazing woman and was such a profound Christian. Her story is amazing. Anyways, we spent the morning doing activities and we had a gynkana (not sure of the english word - we had lots of games for them to play!) where I stood out in the sun for over an hour. I got a nice moreno camionero (farmer's tan) that is absolutely atrocious! I need to fix it! I'm looking at it right now and all I can do is cringe! In the afternoon, each school presented their dance they had worked on and then we had a despedida (goodbye session). Our school was in charge of it, and my co-workers completely forgot about it until the last minute. I ended up helping them come up with something, but that also meant I had to speak in front of the kids. IN SPANISH. I think I did awful, but everyone, students and my co-workers told me I did really good. In fact, all of the kids came up to me and said, "You're a really good translator!"
Late afternoon, we took the kids into the town of Pilas. We weren't a hard group to spot - 80 kids plus adults, walking around in white t-shirts and jeans. The town was really pretty - a typical Andalucian town. The people were really nice and it was a nice change of environment from Madrid! We finally ended up at the park and the kids bought ice cream and played.
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| One of the streets in Pilas. Quaint and quiet! |
Saturday morning, we woke up early. Or in my case, I woke up to a spider in my room. I had just finished waking the girls up when I opened my door. Scurrying across the floor was a horrendous, black spider. I yelled for my co-worker and she came to my rescue! Not even five minutes later, I opened the closet to put back a blanket and there was another spider (bigger than the first) on my wall. I screamed again. And then, a few minutes later, a bug was on the floor, but my students stomped on it. I'm so thankful it happened on the last morning and not the first. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to do it!
We drove back into Sevilla and spent the rest of the afternoon at Isla Magica, an amusement park. I rode the roller coaster, the pirate ship, and a water ride with some of my students, before spending the rest of the day with my co-workers. I was really glad I went, because it gave me a chance to interact with two co-workers whom I never get to talk to. The four of us decided that we should plan an education trip next year (when the kids are in 6th grade) and that I have to come along as well, because we made a deal! We finally arrived to Madrid around 8:30 pm and there were so many people waiting for us! For a lot of the kids, this was their first time away from home without parents (other than spending the night with a friend), so this was a big deal! I spent the majority of Sunday, catching up on sleep.
It was a great weekend! I have to rest up though, because we have another three-day trip with the Amigos de Jesus group in May. I'm praying there won't be spiders or orphanages....
