I went home for Christmas. It was awesome. Today marks a week since I have been back in the classroom. Things are going surprisingly smoothly. There is no shell shock like my first few months in the classroom. Today I got on every language teacher's soapbox which is "Do not translate when you are writing in L2 (the language you are learning)." It makes for some really awkward sentences and does not help your mind develop as much as thinking in L2.
"But, Ellen, that's difficult!" said my students. Yes students, it is. "But imagine if every time I spoke Spanish to you I had to pause and translate and conjugate everything I was saying. It would take forever and no one would listen to me."
Anyway, it was nice to feel so "teacher-y". Friday, I had class with the first graders and it went so smoothly! I just love the way they think! Conversation:
"We're going to talk about Christmas, but I need you to be very quiet and just listen first or we can't talk about it. I went to the USA for Christmas. Can you go to the USA by car?"
"No!!"
"Why not?"
"It's too far away!"
"You'd run out of gas!"
"There's a river!"
Oh! They are so cute. They finally are not just a bunch of faces; I'm learning their names. Woo hoo!
On Saturday, I went biking on the Costa Ballena ("Ballena" means "whale" but there were no whales.) with my friend Mariló. It was absolutely beautiful. I had missed nature my first week back in Spain so it was the perfect weekend activity. It inspired me to look into surf lessons. I also want to really continue to enjoy my time here. I think I may have mentioned that before. I would like to be more intentional about doing this by going on excursions more often, hopefully going somewhere once a week.
Yesterday, I discovered Jerez has a flea market! It's not around every weekend, but it was near the cathedral yesterday morning. I went to Mass. As always, I enjoyed the priest's odd, odd intonations. After Mass, I had a shaking experience with poverty which I will tell you about if you want to know more. Today begins a new week, full of teaching, learning, and new experiences.
3 comments:
Hi Elena, Once again a delightfully written and thoughtful posting. thanks for the wonderful insight into your experience and
"There's a river!!"
Best.
Will you buy fleas!?!
Also, I must confess I was quite impressed with the "sleeping in the flamenco cradle" comment on the previous (or is that following?) post.
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