So, last weekend, I went to a friend’s birthday party. In talking with them prior to the day of the fiesta, it seemed as if they were going to rage. I mean, full on rage. Honestly, I was a bit concerned solely because I’m not sure I can ‘hang’ when it comes to drinking in this country! HaHa! They can go for HOURS, but at a slow and steady pace. HaHa, not like the states, where it’s shot after shot after shot and doubles in a single glass, etc. Anyway, they text to tell me they were meeting in the plaza Saturday at noon to go buy party supplies. So, I threw some clothes in the washing machine and headed to the plaza. (This is where I witnessed the funeral) Once I met with the people, I was quickly aware that they were going to buy the supplies and get started right away. I was not dressed for the occasion and I needed to get my laundry on the line and Joanne hadn’t returned from her trip to Jaen. In essence, I was not ready. I gave some money to contribute to the supplies and then went home to take care of things and wait for Joanne. I had made plans that I was going to meet up with Grego around 3:30 or so to head out to the party. The party was on a ranch about 3 miles outside of town. I was immediately impressed by Tote’s (the birthday boy) ranch. It was quite beautiful and had all the essential amenities. There was a pool (covered since it is late October, of course). On one side of the pool, there was a small basketball goal set up on the fence. Flowers were abundant! He had chickens, rabbits, turkey’s, birds. He does his own raising and killing for food. His garden contains enough varieties of fruits and vegetables to make anyone happy. He even has a walnut tree beside his house. It was pretty cool to see. I really liked the area. It was nice to be away from buildings and out in the open on the side of the mountain. We ate, drank, and played games. It was a very laid back day, not much drinking at all--whew! I enjoyed a couple drinks and attempted to play games with them. Jenga, I could handle, haha! No translation required. Then, we played a different game that was a combination of Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit, and Apples-to-Apples. There was much more translating required in this game. HaHa! I was fortunate that there was a girl there that taught English. She was able to help tremendously!! HaHa! I didn’t do too terrible in some of the cases; I was actually able to help SOME. HaHa! J Caught a ride back into town with Grego and went to sleep pretty soon after. It wasn’t a crazy birthday party like I anticipated or am used to being a part of, but it was definitely a fun time and another opportunity for me to get exposed to the language and local people. Enjoy a few photos…
Tote's house... look at the gate... I really like that feature
Grego posing on the porch in front of the pool area.
The flowers lining the fence by the pool
Loli--the translator! :)
From left: Tote (the birthday boy), Grego, and Jorge
It seems that this same group of people gather for coffee every Sunday afternoon. They invited us again, so we joined them for coffee at a fun little café around the corner from our house. I’m doing my best to keep up when they speak, it’s SO FAST and I genuinely feel like I get better every day. It’s not as fast as I’d like, of course, but patience is something I think I will learn while I am here… whether I want to or not, haha! J I do my best to talk to them and I definitely make quite a few errors, but I guess it’s great that I’m trying, right?
Today begins quite a long weekend for us. We don’t go back to school until next Wednesday. I thought about going out of town this weekend, but it seems there is a small festival in town this weekend that tends to bring some people to the village, so I figured I’d better stay here and see what it’s all about. J I’ll post more about that when I know more about it. Right now, I do not know a whole hell of a lot! J
NEXT weekend, though, is my birthday weekend, so I think I may try to take some sort of trip… Maybe Granada. I’d really like to go to Malaga. I’ll let you know how that goes, as well. J
OK… One thing that drives me nuts here is the lack of organization. I am not complaining!! It’s just that I am used to having a more structured work environment. Expectations are made well-known and schedules are to be kept, for the most part. Nothing is perfect, of course, haha! Let me give you an example of what I mean… I was supposed to come up with Halloween projects for my students in a couple of the classes. So, I did. I chose to make a graveyard, of sorts, so it required a little legwork. I couldn’t find a gravestone online that I liked and had room for what I had in mind, so I decided to put my artistic abilities (or lack thereof) to work and make my own. I needed to cut out letters and made some ghosts for decorations on my graveyard. I even stayed up one night and made my own gravestone so I could have an example to show the kids. One teacher, in particular, told me to have it ready for Tuesday (a couple day’s ago), so I did. And I talked to the other teacher of the other 5th grade class so that the whole class could participate, to which she agreed and said was fine. So, I head to school on Tuesday with all of my stuff. It was literally like I was a little kid on my first day of classes and just excited to have all my supplies. HaHa, that’s what I felt like. My first class is one of the classes that will be participating, so I get everything ready and the teacher comes up to me in their lounge area and says, “They have an exam this first hour, so you don’t need to do anything.” Ummm… Ok. No big deal, I guess. She says we can do the project in the 2nd hour (a different class all-together). So, 2nd hour rolls around and we make our gravestones, I hand out pixie sticks at the end (they loved, by the way), and all was right in the world. My 3rd class of the day was the class of the teacher that actually told me to have the project ready, so I took all my stuff as I was supposed to. When I got there, she said, “We have to do this before we can do anything. It’ll take 15-20 minutes.” Alright! No big deal, at all! Well, “this” was a 4 page English paper that they had to do. 30 minutes later, she says that I can go do something else in the office if I need to. What?! So, I leave to go do some cutting out of letters and what not actually a little upset that I wasn’t able to do the project more. But, it’s their classes and I am not going to push anything, so I just let it be. I was actually pretty excited about what I had come up with and I thought it was a good idea, but I didn’t really get to share it like I wanted to. I guess it’s good that I got to at all, though, so I’m not mad about anything. Just frustrated. I’ve definitely never been someone to always do what I’m told, haha, but when it comes to work… I do try to put my best foot forward and I definitely want to do the best job that I am capable of. I guess I just need to get used to the possibility of what I come up with not being utilized. All adjustments that I am going to need to make and I will along the way…. Just thought I’d let you in on an example. I hope it made sense, haha! J
My project... doesn't look as good as I wanted it to, but oh well...
I have a brief, funny story for you. We have our English Club on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s, right? Well, this week, we thought we’d watch a movie with the kids in celebration of Halloween. Hocus Pocus… Best (non-horror) Halloween movie out there!! And fairly simple, right? Well, I obviously do not have that DVD with me and they don’t have it here (not that I’ve seen and definitely not in English--we wanted English for the ENGLISH Club). So, I downloaded it on my iTunes and we were just going to play it through my computer. No big deal. One of the teacher’s showed me how to hook up my computer to their projector. It seemed simple enough. J (Side Note: he showed me how to hook it up during one of his classes, so my computer came on the projector screen. I have a picture of me with my brother’s as my background and it popped up and the whole class goes, “Ahhhhhhh!” in unison, haha!) Anyway, school gets out at 2:00 here. I had asked if I could set up my computer before I left at 2:00 and leave it there until our club started at 4:00, to which they said yes. So, I go into the classroom and get things set up as he told me to. Joanne came with me for a bit and then she left to get lunch. I was, seriously, not two minutes behind her and I went down the stairs to leave and the door was locked. I mean bolted and not going anywhere! I looked around the school (a small school) briefly and found no one. I got locked inside the school! It was 2:16 when I tried to leave the school. When they are done… they are DONE. HaHa! Teachers included! So, I just went back to the classroom and read my book. In the time between getting locked in and the club starting, something happened and we lost connection with the projector, so we had to attempt to watch Hocus Pocus from my computer screen. A very UNsuccesful venture!! We eventually moved onto something else… haha! They will never know the true value Hocus Pocus has. L
It is getting to be quite freakin’ cold! We are on the top floor of a house with zero insulation, so it is a wee bit chilly up here at nights and in the mornings. I had been only using the small comfortor that came with the bed. When I say small, I mean, if I tried to pull it up over my shoulders at night, my feet would come out the bottom... I'm a short person! And there are no sheets, so I was working with one blanket. So, the last couple nights, I stole the other comfortor (of the same size) off the other small bed in my room. Any little bit helps, right!? I talked to Douglas, who gave me a much heavier, larger blanket that has been amazing to cuddle up in!! Whew! Heat hasn't yet been provided. We're waiting for the guy to 'come around' with gas cans. That's how I'm heating my room... with a gas can and a small fire. I am to 'take the chill out' before I go to bed and then when I get up in the morning. This winter may be a long one, haha!
Well, I am going to get this posted and head off to bed... I hope this finds you well! Happy Halloween to all my friends and family back home! Miss you much, but having a great time! <3
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