Back in Spain...physically, anyway

I've been back in Spain for about 3 days by now. I've had to readjust to life here. It feels great to be back and get back into a routine, which includes incorporating certain New Year's Resolutions (however lame the idea may be).

Speaking Spanish again has been a bit of a struggle, but I think I'm getting back into the swing of things. When I was at the Málaga train station at a cafe, the guy at the counter had to point to his mouth to ask me if I wanted something to eat -- that's how disoriented I was. I guess I can blame some of that on jet lag, though, right? Right??

The trip, fortunately, was smooth sailing (flying?). British Airways officially has my thumbs up compared to their American counterparts. I decided to up the cheesy factor to ridiculous levels and watch Love Story on the plane, from a list of available movies ("Love means never having to say you're sorry" *cue piano riff for 200th time*) Afterwards, I was all excited to see that The Office was aired on the plane, too, but it turned out it was the British version, which is fine, except for the fact that I've seen most of those ep's before. But I watched it again, anyway.

Turns out Cassie, a girl in my program, was on the same flight that I was on the way from London to Málaga. We didn't realize that fact, however, until we saw each other waiting in the passport control line. We ended up taking a short train ride to the bus/train station and hung out there for a few hours. It was awesome to catch up again and have a sort of transition from American to Spanish life, instead of being tossed in the deep end immediately.

Going back to teaching is going well, so far -- yesterday I worked 3 on 1 with students and we worked on transportation vocabulary and present simple conjugation. I'm working on getting the kids to actually TALK more, in English, rather than giving me a puzzled look and immediately reverting to Spanish. A few of them have succeeded in driving me crazy with the constant inquiries in Spanish, so I'll put my hands palm-up, raise my shoulders/eyebrows and walk away. Sometimes I'll just say "I don't speak Spanish" or "no sale" or something along those lines.

Already I've had 2 requests for private English classes, and it's a bit ironic, seeing how I took my posters down (or others did) MONTHS ago. The thing is, now that the first semester is over and kids got crap grades, they decide to take lessons. After work today I'm meeting up with a 20 year old girl who is one of my student's older sisters. It would be awesome if she lives in Cabra and I could potentially add a Spanish friend to our little social circle here in Cabra...I may have mentioned it once or twice (or a thousand times): Cabra is filled with old people. The bracket of 18 to 30 year olds is nill, here. Frown Town.

Anyway, I have to get cracking on a poster which sums up all the activities that took place during the first semester, then I have to work on a project for next week's protest against violence. Hooray.