Toe Wiggling Fun

Day 5

High: Wiggling my toes with the 6 year olds and watching them try to pat their heads and rub their tummies at the same time.
Low: less than exuberantly thinking-TGIF-…eh…lack of friends, lack of housing, not too much celebrate with the stellar crowd of me, myself, and I.
NMDM: The 14:58pm train decided to leave at 14:54pm today…interesting…very interesting. Yet another example of just how special Spanish time is. (and why this little American is always a step ahead being 10 minutes early, expect when she’s not and she oversleeps 2 hours)

I feel slightly like Tom Hank’s character in Cast Away, scratching lines in stone to mark the passing day with each blog. Day 5, Friday. I hesitate to say TGIF. Days feel like years, I can’t believe it’s been a whole hand's worth of moments of exhaustion, fear, relief, elation, anxiety, anger, frustration, frustration, frustration, and joy. And still no apartment, which is beginning to weigh rather heavily because I’ve got 2 days left in my hostel. Miracles happen, right?

But onto lighter things, because really, I’m in the Costa de Sol and I spent the day with albeit rowdy and LOUD children, they are still endearingly charming and melt my heart speaking English laced with the softest Spanish accent (brother is brudder, cousin is coooseen), saying hi to me, the senorita Inglesa (still refusing to believe that I’m American even though I tell them it’s an ‘eraser’ NOT a ‘rubber’ and it’s a tomato, not a tomahto).

the school day is only 9am-2pm, eat your heart out of that schedule NOVA kids, we got gipped eh?, which means it flashes by in moments, moments of hardwork, moments of laughter, of admonishment, of pleading, of laughing, and rolling my eyes. Helping Rosa with 1st grade today we learned about the body. Pulling out an obvious American game we played head, shoulders, knees and toes, or rather “haad, shouler, knee, touuu” and when I took my shoe off to show them how my toes wiggled they just about died with laughter. You must understand, decorum is primary here. The children are constantly reminded to “siéntate bien” “sit properly” feet on the floor; butt in the seat, back straight. So to remove your shoe and flail your leg in the arm was not in the least in good decorum. So you better believe I had about 20 6-year olds wiggle their toes at me.

It’s funny what you learn when you don’t know much of a language. Since the kids really only know a handful of questions, they all know about the same 10 things about me.
1. My name is Katie.
2. I am 22 years old.
3. I am from the United States. I live near Washington DC (here I draw the White House in the air, and say Obama , smile and nod)
4. I have 1 younger sister.
5. I have 1 younger brother.
6. My favorite color is green.
7. My favorite food, mango.
8. I used to have 1 pet, a dog.
9. My favorite animal…varies with each class…
10. I love to ride my bike.

As far as they care, that’s all there is to know about me. Oh and they all seem to add, “You have short hair” which impels me to remind them that that is a statement, not a question they’re asking me. And no, I did not add it as a fact because it is rather obvious, just look at me. Which is why I also did not alert them that I am a girl, I have blue eyes, I have 2 legs, etc etc etc.
I know that there must be some trite phrase about expectations, but my brain is fried from the stress of being a foreigner, overworking my internal translator mechanism, so you should just substitute it here --> “______________” I’ll add the pertinent commentary. I thought teaching in the class would be the hardest, but while it’s clearly a challenge, it’s also exceedingly enjoyable. Granted half the time I’m faced with blank stares, so like a foreigner I just say it again, but louder (ha-ha, no no, we make it work, I’m just kidding) once I get a groove I know I’ll love the classroom because I’m already starting to feel a bit more comfortable at the forefront. But I never expected interacting with the other teachers to be so ….well…awkward. The majority only speak Spanish, which is wonderful because it means I get to practice A LOT, but it also makes the ‘break time’ we have from 11:30-12pm when the kids run around like hooligans on mountain dew sugar highs a bit tense. When the teachers get together they relax the language, using familiar colloquialisms, speaking faster than a rattle snake bites, laughing and bantering louder than the next. Now before I start to sound too “woe me” I must defend them and say they all invite me to “tomar un café” (come have coffee!) with great emotion, asking how I am repeatedly, if I’ve found a place to live, generally investing genuine sincerity in my presence. This throws me right to cloud 9. For now the 30 minutes pass painfully slow, I edge around conversations, feeling like the white elephant in the room. Good news though, my nervous laugh (most of you know what I’m talking about…it’s the one a bit too high pitched and I look like I just slammed my finger in the door) has relaxed into my normal guffaw (I hope more of you know this one). Trying to be center of Zen, peace, calm, happiness…and all that good stuff. If nothing else I’ve almost stopped grimacing after the first sip of espresso, it still almost burns my tongue off and detains my heart beat, but my face sure doesn’t show it. I feel like its rookie initiation into Spanish culture…every teacher in the room wondering, can she handle it?? Well hell yeah, like grandpa says, “Don’t let the bastards get you down!” and with enough sugar to give me a cavity just by smelling it, I’ve beat them at their own game. We’ll see if the caffeine shakes ever go away…

Before I sign off, I want to let you know that this morning I took some video of my commute to work and the stunning area around my school. Pappa-son (yes you daddy) shall soon be recruited to help me figure out how to share this with my many followers (yes, I know who you are my special friends and I love you for not forgetting me!) hopefully you’ll be enraptured with the views and tickled with my ever so witty commentary.

I LOVE YOU ALL! And yep, still miss you as crazily as Spanish 8 years released for recess after throwing down a chocolate shake in 30 seconds flat.