Hello again!

As usual, I have been TERRIBLE with keeping up with a blog. Woops. So as I have a little less than three months left in Sanlucar (maybe) I will really try to keep up with this thing!

So much has happened here. School is good, I have found that the job is not as challenging as I would hope.

Ready for a good rant? I really love being a teacher, but it is difficult here. In my science classes, the material I teach the children is sometimes so difficult for them to understand, we cannot really get anything done. Like the other day when I was explaining the respiratory system to a group of 11-year-olds, and I tried to teach them the pronunciation as well as use of the "pharynx and larynx". It frustrates me that I teach difficult science lessons and gym classes, when I should be teaching English class and music class; as I have found music to be the best and most effective way of teacher -not to mention my favorite. It is the system here though. My advisor has repeatedly told me that I am in face being effective, yet I am not actually in English classes. What? Because my school is a bilingual school, they put me in science, art, and gym classes to help better teach the children. Still, I think I would be more useful in an actual English class, because ya know, I am a native-English speaker and all.

Another thing is the scheduling here. If a teacher doesn't show up to school, or is sick, no one approaches me or tells me. I left school the other day because I arrived at 9am and didn't have a class till 12.30 because my teacher for the morning was sick. Couldn't someone have called me? I could have been productive at home preparing lessons and getting errands done....so instead my friend Mara and I went and had a fun morning and drank some Bloody Marys.

But that is how it was when my teacher was out for a month because of a car accident. No one came and told me anything, nothing about how my classes with him would be canceled, or not canceled. It was very unprofessional.

But enough with my ranting. Life is different here. Life in Andalucia is beautiful, slow, completely backwards, dirty, LOUD, fun, and very different....and sometimes different is good.

Little Ninos

A big difference between teaching in Spain and teaching in the States is the amount of interaction you can have with the children, physically.

My little ninos here love hugs, hugs, and more hugs. Every time I walk into a classroom, or approach a class on the playground, groups of them rush to me giving big hugs -well, the younger kids! The younger children go as far as asking for kisses, and giving them. One little girl kissed my boob the other day, and a friend of mine has even gotten kissed by a student on the neck.

But to my students, hugging and kissing is the norm. In a culture where the casual greeting is two kisses, one on each cheek, it is not strange to these children to constantly hug and display their emotions.

At the same time, I absolutely adore hugging the kids. Especially in gym class when a child falls or gets hurt. How can you not hug a crying child, or try to comfort them while they are in pain? Children need hugs. They need love and comfort and interaction, to smile and laugh as much as possible.

...so hug away children, I promise to always be there to hug you back!