Un día típica en Algeciras

Today instead of taking a siesta, I’m writing this entry because I promised my grandparents I would last night. Truthfully I don’t normally take siestas; I normally can’t fall asleep in so little time. My roommate Maria can; it impresses me that she can just completely clear her mind and fall asleep in minutes. I think this reflects Spanish culture in general: not to worry too much. My grandparents requested that I talk about a typical day here. I’ll start with talking about yesterday, although I’m sure I’ll get distracted in the telling.

Mondays are my long days. Yesterday I woke up at 8:35, because I accidentally set my alarm clock to pm so it didn’t go off. I had some yogurt and an apple for breakfast and then I hurried to school. I have class at 9:15 and I needed to make some copies of a worksheet to do with my students. Yesterday the teacher wanted to use the first 20 minutes of class to go over a few more exercises with the students since they have a test on Friday. He was taught them about how to use the verbs “to make” and “to do,” because we use them very differently than how they use them in Spanish. These are the primero de bachillerato students (11th grade), but sadly he still explains and speaks almost all in Spanish. But I learned a few things about how English words translate into Spanish so it was helpful for me. When he finished I had control of the class. We did a worksheet about Murphey’s Law (the worst thing possible that can happen will happen), that I had done previously with the other teacher in quarto de ESO (10th grade). The students had to listen to me read a passage and then they had to complete some sentences using Murphey’s Law (using the future tense). Most of these students have been taking English for 5 years at least I think and most of them can still barely make sentences in English, either written or spoken. Some of them attempt to ask me questions in English, but many can’t really make sentences or they’re lazy and so just revert to Spanish. It’s bad for them, but I get to hear lots of Spanish and learn various words. I always speak to them in English though, even though they ask me and would much prefer it if I spoke in Spanish, although recently I’ve translated a word or two into Spanish.

Class ends at 10:15 or so and I have an hour until break time when I have 30 minutes in which I’m supposed to speak in English to any professors who show up to practice. Recently no one has been coming at all, which is a bit annoying because we’re supposed to be there anyways. Normally during that free hour I check my email, or talk to the professors sometimes over a cup of coffee. Yesterday though we (Michelle, Erin, and I) brought traditional sweets from the UK and the US. I made sugar cookies. My mom sent me the cookie cutters and I was able to bake them in Michelle’s oven. They actually turned out really well, even though I couldn’t find powdered sugar to make icing. One professor told me that my cookies were his favorite out of all of them. He’s really funny and loves talking about food. Michelle had brought mince pies from Scotland, which I had heard of before, but never knew what they were. They are like miniature pies with raisins and other spices inside. They were really good. Normally in Spain and even in the UK people don’t make cookies, so they were impressed with mine.

After the break, Michelle and I brought my cookies and the other treats down to the cafeteria to share with the workers there, and I stayed to explain to them what the various treats were. And then we ended up talking about Cadiz, where I went over the weekend with Orquidea and other things. Normally I have class again at 1:30 until 2:30 with quarto de ESO, but yesterday the teacher wanted to prepare her students more for their test instead of having the conversation class with me. I had forgotten that I would get home early enough to have time to cook lunch so I already had leftover curry ready to eat that I made on Sunday. I bought the curry sauce in a jar in a supermarket here, in hopes that it would be good, but sadly it was not in the least bit spicy and too sweet besides. (My grandparents requested all of these details by the way). The first week or so, Maria cooked for me and offered me her food, so I became accustomed to always eating a piece of fruit after eating lunch. Also since I normally don’t eat lunch until around 2:30, I’m really hungry and I eat a big lunch. Here in Spain they call this meal “la comida” (which literally means the food), which I think really reflects the importance of this meal, because it is the major and most important meal of the day.

After lunch is siesta time. I should give a thorough description of siesta time, because it is definitely distinct. All of the stores close during siesta, from around 2 to around 5 or 6. Only really big supermarkets or Asian stores remain open (the only Asian people you see in Spain work in these stores that sell really cheap goods, like dollar stores in the US, but with wider variety). If you walk the streets during siesta time, you don’t see anyone at all, they are completely dead. In general you can’t get anything done; siesta time is a time to relax. Like I mentioned before, I normally can’t take a siesta, but yesterday I attempted to sleep for an hour and a half or less, and I actually did sleep for a little bit. If I don’t sleep I watch the news which always comes on at 3 here (after people have finished lunch), though it feels like the news is always on because before this they have like filler news, stories about nothing important or news about famous people. Or I’ll prepare material for my classes in the afternoon.

At 4, Maria and I leave to go and work at the religious school with the younger kids. Our classes begin at 4:30 and go until 6. Yesterday I had the 5 year olds, but since the other teacher had a meeting to go to, I was also stuck with half of the 4 year olds. I managed, but just barely; more than 20 kids that young are too many for me. In general though, when I only have my 15 or so kids, I don’t do too badly. I’ve managed to teach most of them pencils, crayons, book and school bag, which is really exciting. It is still really frustrating with them many times, but now I realize that it is impossible to expect them to behave for an hour and a half, especially when many have been at school all day long. But sometimes they are so cute. Last week, for example, they finally seemed to realize that I don’t really know Spanish, that I speak English. I’ve begun to speak a bit of Spanglish with them so that they still understand what I want, but I use the English vocabulary words. I’m not sure if this is a good way to do it or not, but it’s my classroom, so I can experiment. It really makes them so much more uncomfortable when they have no idea what is going on, if I speak only in English. Anyways, for example, I tell the kids, dame (give me) a blue crayon. But this day I forgot so when I told a boy to color the stars yellow, I actually said amarillo, and one of the other boys pointed out, “has dicho amarillo”
I think I told him he was right or something like that and so then one of the boys asked me:
“Seño, no hables Español?” (Miss, you don’t speak Spanish?)
“Si, hablo Español. Estoy hablando en Español ahora.” (Yes, I speak Spanish, I’m speaking in Spanish now)
I think the little boys try to process this and then one of them tells me:
“Di estrella en Español” (Say star in Spanish)
I say “estrella” and they al giggle.
“Di casa en Español”
-“casa” And again they giggle.
“Di casa en ingles”
-“house” I’m pretty sure they started giggling again and that they asked me to say house, because they actually know that word in English. Next they asked me to say something in Spanish that I didn’t recognize, so I asked them what it was because I wasn’t about to repeat it in case it was something bad, you just never know with kids. In the end I think it was some Spanish cartoon show. During times like that I think they’re just so cute and I really enjoy working with them. I know I’m going to learn so much working with them this year. But I digress, back to my daily schedule.

We get back from the school around 6:10 or even earlier if we don’t go by a grocery store on our way home. Right away Maria makes herself some coffee and smokes a cigarette outside. Just last Monday I started giving private lessons to a sixteen-year-old girl from 7-8 on Mondays and Thursdays. But yesterday her mom called right before the lesson to cancel on me so thankfully I got a longer break before I had to go to Kursaal for the conversation class with the teachers who are learning English from 8:20 to 9:15 every Monday night. Last week I showed them some pictures of the Olympic National Park in Washington that I visited with my parents, because I know that one of the teachers really likes photography and nature. And it’s so much easier to find things to talk about when you have pictures in front of you. Yesterday, that professor I mentioned showed us pictures from El Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage in the north of Spain. His pictures were really beautiful, but his level of English isn’t great (though quite amazing, because I don’t think he’s ever formally taken English) so he was explaining a lot in Spanish, which was great for me. This year I think I have the opportunity go with the school for a week on this pilgrimage, which would be amazing.

After I come back from conversation I quickly cook and eat dinner. Often other days of the week I’ll start cooking or eating at 8:30, but traditionally Spanish people eat dinner around 9 or 10. Traditionally though, they eat much less for dinner, perhaps only a salad. For example last night I just had vegetable soup. At 10pm the good t.v. shows come on, before that, there is only more news while people are eating. I like to watch a silly show about a doctor that has gotten involved with a gang/mafia of gypsies. He ends up in all sorts of ridiculous situations, but it’s entertaining and easy for me to follow. Maria likes another show called “Desparecida” about a girl who goes missing and what the police do and what happens to her family (that’s really a horrible description of it).

Finally I usually go to bed between 11 and 12. That is more or less a typical day for me, if I have nothing else going on. Some weeks we go out for tapas with one of the teachers or to celebrate something. I hope you stuck with me through this extremely long blog entry. I worked on it during siesta and almost the entire time since I’ve come back from class. Now it’s 8:45 and I think it’s about time to prepare dinner. I’ll post this as soon as I can get my internet working again.