Dinner party

While I was in Sevilla. I bought a book called "Cocinar para los amigos," or "Cooking for friends."  Six months later, I decided to use it.  Giulia, Michelle, and Eric were happy to test it out:

Also, after a unit on food and restaurant vocabulary, I made sushi for one of my classes and had each of them bring in food and explain the recipe.  Afterwards, Magda gave my the recipe for a Spanish tortilla (very different from a Mexican tortilla), and I made one with Patrick.  I think it weighed 10 pounds:

My next lesson plan

Today I had class with the two young brothers, Guillermo and Javier.  Luckily, months ago their parents talked to a friend whose children were taking English lessons separately and asked me if I thought the boys should do the same and split up instead of having class together. I was all about the idea, since as soon as I would focus on helping one of them, the other would be squirming out of his chair onto the floor or trying to copy answers.  So now I have 45 minutes with one and 45 with the other, twice a week.

At first I was going straight from the book with them, because I didn't have any experience teaching kids and they basically were starting from knowing how to count to 10 and say some colors.  But I abandoned that idea as soon as I saw how much faster they learned from playing games.  I could have them spend half an hour doing exercises about the different between "there is" and "there are" and they'd be bored and wouldn't retain anything, but after a few times playing "hide the phone" for 10 minutes, they knew how to ask "Is it under the table?" "Is it on the bookshelf?" without even having to think.  We're currently throwing a ball around asking each other questions in the past tense, while the book is collecting dust with my useless TEFL materials on the highest shelf.  

Anyway, I'm enjoying their class more and more each time.  I'm able to be more creative and impulsive with them than I am with the adults, and I think it's pretty funny that immediately after graduating from University I took up a job that pays me to play Simon Says.  It's actually pretty gratifying when the 7 year old kicks my ass at our past/present tense memory card game, or when he makes a steering motion when I'm teaching him the word "dry," because it sounds like drive (I think him knowing that "bat" sounds like "bad" has more to do with Batman than our lesson on animals, so I can't take credit there).  

But it's still my first year teaching, and I have a lot to learn.  My first life lesson about kids came after I started a reward system with them for good behavior and doing the homework.  They can earn up to 3 stars a day, and after every 25 they get a "premio," a litle prize.  It's thinly veiled bribery, I know.  But they're doing their homework now, so give me a break!  So, I scoured El Corte Ingles until I found something that I imagined I would love if I were an 8 year old boy -  mini motorcycles with little matching helmets.  I paid 8 euros for them, and then, por si acaso, brought along two things that my mom gave me in my stocking for Christmas - these plastic containers of a gak-like substance.  (Remember Gak? )

I gave them the choice, thinking for sure that they would chose the motorcycles.  But no.  They went all crazy for the goopy stuff that I got for free, and made me think about how much fun we always had with the empty refrigerator box when we were younger.  So now I frequent the dollar (euro?) store to buy something like squirt guns or paddle balls for 50 centidos.  

But today I learned another lesson: to never bring permanent markers around these kids ever again.  We've been learning a lot of verbs, and at one point I made them a big posterboard chart with the present, past, translation, and an example sentence.  Today, I thought it would be a good idea to add some of the newer words to the chart and have them come up with sentences.  What I didn't take into account was the permanent marker smell.  You know how some people like the smell of gasoline?  Well both of these boys apparently really like eau de Sharpie.  So there I was trying to write out a nice chart, and Guille was literally sniffing the paper asking me repeatedly if I liked the smell too.  I told him it was bad for him and thought it was a freak thing, but the during the next class Javi started doing the same!  I was a little scared their mom would walk in while I was trying to convince him to stop inhaling deeply everything I wrote a word because the chemicals would go to his head.  The last thing I need is to have to explain to the mom in Spanish why her precious boys have a vacant look in their eyes after the lesson.  So, it's colored marker from now on, and for the next homework assignment, 100 written lines of "Sniffing markers can damage your brain."

Gay Paree

After our TEFL course in Sevilla, Michelle, Patrick and I headed off for Barcelona while Clare went back to England and Tom ended up in Paris. I assumed he would be there for a year and I would have plenty of time to visit, but when I found out that he was leaving at the end of his course in February, I booked a cheap flight and quickly planned a weekend trip to France. After a 4-hour delay at the airport, I was there!



First, Tom met me at the bus station, and we went to meet his lovely girlfriend, Rola, and their friend Miki.



































After having a drink, we walked by Notre Dame at night...



... and then went back again the following morning.




Man suiting up in a rabbit costume. Random.























Since my flight was delayed Friday and I left again Sunday afternoon, I only had one full day there. So, we went into full tourist mode and did as much as possible on Saturday. After Notre Dame, we went to the Arc de Triomphe and the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. (thank god for the copy and paste function).

After a little stroll, we came to a plaza where artists had set up stands for selling their paintings.  

In the plaza, a few men were drawing portraits.  This stunning woman was sitting in a leopard print coat, sipping a glass of white wine while the artist drew her.  The scene was a lot more elegant than anything I've witnessed in America, and I had to (discreetly) take a picture:


This kid is going places in life. Well done.

This guy had live goldfish swimming around in the jar that he balanced on his head while he juggled.
We stopped for drinks at a cool little place.  All of the walls were covered with a thick layer of little papers - notes and drawings from customers who had come there over the years.  Here's Tom and his sister, Charlotte, who was also visiting that weekend with her boyfriend.

The piano player in the restaurant.  Here you can see all the messages and pictures people left.


For dinner, we went to a really nice place with a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower.  I had the most delicious salmon I've ever had, and we all watched the tower's light show each hour on the hour during the meal.

Later, naturally, we walked by the tower and took an excessive number of pictures.


Tom needed toilet paper for the apartment, so he stole a "loo roll" from the fancy restaurant.

And then Sunday I left.  It was a short trip, but definitely worth it.  Now I can say I've been to Paris twice, and this time I had a different experience since I was with people who speak the language fluently and really know the city.  It was amazing to walk around the city both during the day and at night, and I'm glad I got to meet up with Tom before his program ended.  He left for Argentina soon after, and, after spending so much time with him, Charlotte, and her boyfriend Rich, I came back to Barcelona with a tendency to say "lovely" and some answers to questions my students have about British English.  For now, cheerio and au revoir!

Some pictures