The one where I felt the love

Today was an awesome day.  I really wasn't looking forward to it because it was one of the longest days that I have had during my time in Spain.  I had to get up at 6:50 AM (I know, boohoo.) to get to school for the first lesson.  It was an extra lesson with one of the first year Arts classes.  They are working on an English brochure about our field trip to Merida, so I went in to help out.  The teacher, Lluvia (which means rain in Spanish), forgot to tell me that he didn't really need me, but I had fun walking around chatting with  my students and giving them advice on color combinations that look good.  

After an hour, I had my final English class with another group of first years.  We played Bingo and had a good time.  It is funny how not with it the first years are.  It makes sense because it is a lot like 6th grade in the United States; the kids are a bit older, but the adjustment is rough for sure.  There was one really funny moment when Chus was yelling at them to be quiet so we could play the game, and I heard, "Callate o nos separamos el huevo." This more or less means 'be quiet or we'll separate the egg.'  Seeing that this made no sense to me, I asked Chus whether it was an expression, and she and the kids laughed because she said, "nos separamos el juego," which is like 'we will stop the game.' Oops, so I guess my Spanish still needs some work.  

During recreo, the teachers in the bilingual section met to say good-bye to me and eat sweets.  It was sort of fun talking about my perceptions of the program, schools, and Spain in general.  After recreo, I said good-bye to my second group of 2nd years.  If I had to pick a favorite class, this might be it.  The girls from my private lesson are in it, and for the most part, the students are engaged and well-behaved.  After looking at American money and answering their questions, it was time to go.  Most of the girls gave me the Spanish kiss (on each cheek) before they left; it was really cute :)

Elena, one of my REALLY enthusiastic first years

I had another extra arts class that was fun.  I actually felt like I knew what I was talking about at that point.  The real highlight for the afternoon though came in my final first year English class, 1B.  Those students, well I love them, but they are the most rambunctious, talkative kids that I have ever had to deal with during the last class of the day.  But they also have really good hearts.  They got super into my entrance to class, with one of the girls covering my eyes and everything.  They had written 'Good-bye Sandy' on the board; it was pretty funny how excited about it they were.  I decided to show them my American money, so we did that for a while, and then the teacher randomly started telling me to wrap it up.  So I did. Then the students were suddenly all getting out of their seats and moving towards me.  They had made a card (with some of the worst grammar I have ever seen, thanks to the use of an online translator) and got me a frame with a picture of me and some of the girls from a class trip.  Then we took a new picture of the whole class for me to put into it.  After that I gave out stickers and took pictures with the students before it was time to call it a day.  

1B

That wasn't the end for me because Wednesdays I have three private lessons in the afternoon.  First I had Pablo and Maria, my young ones.  I had them draw me pictures to take back to the United States with me.  Mine was the best, and I am not biased at all and the fact that I am 15+ years older than them had no effect on the outcome.  They have a lot of energy, and I often spent much of the lessons telling them to stop hitting, kicking, yelling, etc. but I will miss them nonetheless.  At least I am going home to a bunch more of my kids : D Can't stop smiling about that.

I also said good-bye to my Antonios, Chus's husband/son combo.  I will really miss talking to them.  It is really funny to me that I went the whole year without watching a whole football match, but I still know so much about it from talking about it with them.  I truly believe that the best way to get people talking is to have them talk about something that they are passionate for, and I learned a lot and loved having them teach me all about it.  I also gave Chus a book, Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein.  She gave me one as well, a novel written by an author from Zafra who is quite famous.  The book is about a family after the Spanish Civil War.  It will be a challenge, but I hope to read it.  My final good-bye was with Alvaro, my third year.  He has improved so much this year, and I can't believe it is over.

Only one more day and then I am headed out.  I gave my students my email, and I joined the social networking site that is popular here, so hopefully they will keep in touch!  It has been quite the year, and somewhere along the way, I made a home here.  I am so excited to go back to my US home, but it is still hard to leave my home here.