I just got back to the apartment from a night run under the moon and next to the sea. It's amazing how easily entertained I am running in the wet sand next to the shoreline, running forward while dodging the incoming waves. I also realized today that if I have the opportunity, I always brush my teeth before I go running. There is nothing worse than a bad tasting mouth while you run. Seriously. Fresh breath is way better.
OK onto more serious subjects I guess, although I know that my teeth-brushing habits hold you captive.
So much has happened since the last post. So many little stories, moving moments. I want to share them all, but it's impossible. I've been a bad blogger...please forgive me!
However, I feel settled in now. I feel at home when I walk in the door, put my briefcase bag next to my bed, and cuddle up on the couch with a blanket. My room is cozy from the candles and new down comforter I bought (among many other things) at IKEA during a horrible hungover trip we made 2 weeks ago involving multiple forms of dizzying public transportation. Let's just say hungover Kenz took a 45 minute nap in the IKEA cafeteria at 8 p.m. Yup. I knew I would feel better after a siesta and glass of apple juice though. Woops. Zero points for America's image, sorry guys. It was just one day though.
I love my schedule here though because I have as much of a routine as I need to feel like I'm a real person accomplishing things and helping the world, along with room and space everyday to explore and be spontaneous. I need both, whether the spontaneous thing is finding a seafood market to buy mussels and learning how to cook them (which I did this week) or venturing into Malaga to meet up with my teacher friends for sushi followed by watching one of them play in a live band at a club until 2 in the morning (2 Thursdays ago).
Upon coming here, I knew that I would be making enough money to live here, but I knew I wanted to make more. The only way of course to do that is through under the table jobs, paid cash, as my visa to live here does not allow me to work outside of the school I "assist" at. One of these ways is by giving private English lessons (clases particulars). I was lucky enough to have several of my teachers approach me the first week at my school voicing an interest in either private lessons for themselves, their children, or their friends. I didn't think it would be that easy, as we had been given information at our orientation about how to advertise for these and such. I made an effort to put myself out there with the fellow teachers the first weeks here from talking during our half-hour break every morning, to going to lunch with groups of them or meeting up with them for whatever they invited me to do. I guess that the last English "assistant" they had didn't speak very well in Spanish and wasn't very outgoing. I hope and think that my effort paid off to try to make genuine Spanish friends through the teachers at my school as well as meet prospective private students. Either way, I now have 3 scheduled lessons every week, with 2 more on the way.
I love my private lessons. They're a lot more work than I had expected though. Right now I'm trying to gauge the level each of the students is at in order to develop materials, games and homework for each. I am tutoring one of the teachers at my school, a daughter of another who is 26, and a 12 year old daughter of another. In the upcoming weeks I'll be adding a group of about three six-year-olds. Should be fun! I'm completely engaged during each lesson though. It's a constant intense translation and understanding of how they are thinking in a Spanish mentality and how I can better explain it and how it is used in English. I get to see ideas and concepts click in my students' minds right as they are sitting next to me. I get to see the smile of satisfaction when something finally makes sense to them that I know all too well from my own Spanish struggles in the past and daily in the present.
My Kids : )
All in all, I have come to love teaching. I'm excited to go to school in the morning, and the students are all generally interested in me. I get hand drawn notes, presents, hugs and smiles from kids. Yes, there are times I want to pull my hair out or walk out for 2 minutes for silence, but I really do care about them. Thinking about leaving them after three weeks already pulls at my heartstrings, June is going to be hard.
I was teaching a sixth grade class today and those rubber bands that are in shapes of animals and such are popular here as well as in the U.S. for kids of that age. It is funny to watch the little sixth graders flirt with each other, exchange bracelets, take them. Teaching has been such a memory provoking experience for me so far, racking my brain to when I was those ages, what interested me and kept my attention. It's amazing to me to look at the 4th graders and think that I met Liz at that age and that through all of the possible life changes, we're still close friends. It's pretty cool if you ask me. When I look at the fourth graders I see their innocence and all of the possible life changes that will come from boyfriends to college. There are so many things that happen and people that come into your life that can change your outlook on life that either push friends apart of closer together. I'm glad the Lizard and I are still friends from our fourth grade class with Mrs. Larson...if she could only see us now!
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