My life. Your entertainment.

I’ve been trying to think of some material to include in my blog and I thought I’d write a little bit about the funnier side of things and maybe a few interesting anecdotes. J I don’t think I’ve included the stories and, at the moment, I just don’t have the patience to look through all of my past entries to verify, so I apologize if there’s any repetition. J  
Interesting #1: You know how I like to take pictures? Well, the photo catchphrase in the states is, what? “CHEESE!” Right? I have learned that is not the case here in Spain. The catchphrase here is, “PATATAS!” (translation: potatoes)

Interesting #2: Up is down and down is up. Light switches, that is. J They are backwards here. (Well, backwards by my terms, haha)

Interesting #3: There are no handles on toilets. They are ‘buttons’ on the top of the back of the toilet that you push to flush. Or, in some cases, there’s a knob that you pull. And in other cases, there are chains that you pull that are on the wall above the toilet. Interesting? I thought so, haha.

Interesting #4: The student’s translation of what we are trained to say as, “May I go to the restroom” is “Can I go to the toilet, please?” It may only be me that finds this difference interesting, but I find it funny that they term it so bluntly, I guess. “Can I go to the toilet?” Just me? HaHa! Sorry! When they ask us, in Spanish, to go to the bathroom, they say, “Puedo hacer peepee” which translates into, “Can I make (or do) pee pee?” Instead of just generally asking to go to the bathroom, they ask if they can do… whatever it is they have to do, haha. Pee or, in many of the younger kids cases, they ask, “Puedo hacer caca?” I think the translation is pretty easy there. J

Funny #1: Kids will be kids, right? Well, my 4 year old class provides me with plenty of entertainment. We regularly use a second room with a computer, projector, and interactive screen to help teach materials in a fun way. Anyway, the other teacher took the class down to that room and I stayed back with the stragglers to make sure everyone got there. I was out in the hall and went into the classroom to double check that it was empty and there was one student left in there. This one little boy had his pants (skivvies) around his ankle and was using a wetwipe to wipe his bottom. I think I stood there frozen for a moment. When he was done wiping himself, he put the used wetwipe on the table and went to pulling up his pants. I refused to touch the wipe (obviously, haha) and just kind of suggested he throw it away and for us to get on our way to join the rest of the class. HaHa… awkward. Only for me, I’m sure. I doubt he thought anything of it. J

Funny #2: Same class of 4 year olds. We split the class up and I took a group down to the second room with the interactive screen. It’s stressful enough to try to maintain 15 four year old kids by myself. It’s impossible to keep eyes on all of them at the same time. I have two or three of them running around the entire room, rolling on the floor wrestling, or trying to crawl under the chairs, tables, and benches. Then, I caught a mini love triangle. One little boy (future player in the making) was sitting between two little girls and holding both of their hands. No big deal, kids are cute. I had to then tend to a couple other kids who were playing with the markers they use to write on the board and you know, just generally playing with everything they could get their hands on. I turned around to the love triangle and see one of the little girls cupping this boys face and she’s kissing him. I mean, it looks like a full on movie makeout scene. They pull away from each other and this little boy takes the back of his arm and wipes his mouth/face off, clearly cleaning up the sloppy kiss, haha. Then, the girl on the OTHER side of him grabbed his face and kissed him. A quick one, though. I tried to stop them and get them split up, but by that point, a few other kids required my attention who were messing with some of the computers in the room. Seriously, an hour of running around trying to maintain these children really wears you down. I’m typically ready for a beer directly after. But, I can’t cause I’ve got another class to go to. A much less dramatic class, though! J

Funny #3: Translation is a funny thing. When trying to translate, a problem I have is making a literal translation. It doesn’t always work. It works both ways, though. When people try to speak English or when I try to speak Spanish. I’ll just highlight a few of my top stories. J First, when I recently got my hair chopped off, I went to school the following day. The teacher I am with, Encarna, made the comment, “You don’t look strange.” HaHa! I started laughing and was like, “Thanks? I think?” To which she started laughing and said that short hair looks good on me and that I looked pretty, haha. J Second, we were at Pub Guli one evening a couple months ago to which I was telling a few friends that I thought the bartender was hot. I said it in Spanish, but I said it literally using ‘caliente’ as ‘hot.’ They all started laughing and I didn’t know why. They quickly explained that ‘caliente’ in that way meant something beyond ‘good looking’ and bordered onto a bit, well, racy. Get the picture? HaHa! I quickly corrected myself and said that that was not the case, but that I thought he was good looking. Thirdly, and most funny, happened while I was in Madrid. Annie & I were walking with Albert & Luna through Plaza Mayor and Luna, unfortunately, stepped in some doggy do-do. We made it to the yogurt shop where we were going to get a snack and she braced herself against the building to see if she’d gotten it all cleaned off and said to us, “Look at my poop!” Annie and I burst into laughter immediately. Once we were able to stop long enough, we explained to her that it was not HER poop, haha. It was a good laugh, that’s for sure. It might be one of those, “You had to be there moments,” but I’m trying to make you feel as if you are here, haha… so that’s the best I can do. J