Hello friends and family,
I know you have all been anxiously awaiting to see how my fabulousness translates to Europe so I will get right to it. During the week I stay pretty busy with my program so I do not do much in the city except get on the met, go to school, usually have lunch in the park by our school and then take the met home and work on lesson plans. The course is pretty accelerated and intense but I am crazy about my teacher. He has over 20 years of experience teaching English and is so insightful, smart and funny. I am beginning to see just how hard the English language actually is and how it might be difficult for someone to learn it. Although it doesn't help that I haven't learned grammar in about 10 years and so when the teacher asks what a sentence tense i will say "past?" and every foreigner classmate in the room will say " 3rd person past progressive" and I am like, "right. That is what I meant."....not. But it's ok because every other American in the class is just as lost as I am. So now in my free time when I am not lesson planning I am getting my hands on every possible grammar explanation I can find and making myself a ridiculous amount of charts. I am also trying to brush up on my Spanish which I will admit is rusty at best. Yesterday I had to go and get a new phone and the man barely spoke english and I barely spoke spanish but somehow we muggled through emphatic gestures and miming in the middle of store. Although it doesnt help that all of the old farts of this country have quite a fondness for giving Americans the stink eye which I have found can be easily combatted by a smile. I also gave my first 2 lessons this week which were on thanksgiving and celebrities. They were very fun but situations became dicey when my students did not understand the differences between a pie and a cake and what the concept of "gossip" means. Hopefully as I teach more I will begin explaining myself a little better. Have I made friends? Well this is obvious. Of course! This is something that I was actually really worried about but have found that most of my classmates are just as clueless as I am and so therefore we bond. I am friends with all of the Americans in my class but really only hang out with 2 of them and then we hang out with a guy from England, a girl from Mexico and then all of us usually bring our roommates. While we are on the subject of roommates... 1) My roommate Carly has a dog teddy so therefore I love her. Her and I get along very well. She is from Philadelphia and speaks perfect English and Spanish and so therefore is very useful. 2) French Fry. A 19 year old from France who is subletting for the month (like me) and who thinks our apartment is Miami Beach... A couple of days ago she had her boyfriend and family stay with us and the way I found out was her whole family in our kitchen when I went to make breakfast. oh fun. so now I have learned to just eat in my room. Also they party every night (carly and i both work and go to school) and so we are waken up every night by giggling. slamming doors, and of course lady gaga. And another delightful surprise was the other day when I wanted to go in the bathroom to brush my teeth (we only have 1 bathroom) but could not because my roommate and her boyfriend were taking a shower. how lovely. and now my roommate has 4 of her friends staying for 4 days and they keep asking carly and i where the best place to dance is. I didnt know what to tell them and suggested that carly lead them in the direction of the biggest church or where the prostitutes frequent but instead she gave them legitimate places. anyways so that is fun. The other night I went out with my little group and had dinner and then went bar hopping. I then sprained my ankle and it is now swollen and purple. oops. oh well. anyways gotta go. I am going to go hit retiro park today (very famous park in madrid not far from my apt). It was good catching up and I will keep you informed as to the comings and goings of my obvious celebrity lifestyle. Love. HH
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