I was sitting in class with some of my 6th grade girls watching the Diary of Anne Frank... in Spanish! So, needless to say I got out a piece of notebook paper and just started writing. Here it is...
I read over some of my post the other night and wanted to take the time to write about what I am learning on a personal and professional level.
Professionally
This experience has put me directly in the place of any English language learning student I may have in the future. I have experienced the lack of ability to communicate simple ideas and small conversation. This feeling can be one of the scariest feelings... it can make you feel so small and as though you are on a different planet. You look around and see people who look somewhat like you and they are doing familiar things but, then they simply greet you. You feel lost and find yourself forgetting the very small amount of the language you´ve known since 3rd grade. What if you say it and it´s wrong? What if you say it and it´s right and they think you know more than you do? I have gained an incredible ability to now TRULY empathize with not only students in my future classroom but, with a random person struggling at the cash register in front of me in the grocery store. This experience has encouraged me to learn enough or simply keep a translating app on my phone in order to be that person that can ask if someone needs help! Nothing has ever felt like an angel sent straight from God himself like someone who approaches you on the street to ask if you´re ok and if you need help! It can even be broken English while using many gestures... and you want to hug this stranger before you walk away. I WILL be that person from now on.
When I went to my boys´ classroom, I noticed that one of them was really upset and crying. The other boys had crowded around him, attempting to figure out what was wrong. It wasn´t until a group of them came back from the bathroom (so that the upset student could clean himself up) did I find out the reason why the student was so upset. This will be his last couple of months here at this school because, his parents don´t know enough English to help him with his assignments. Therefore, he has to move to a different school where there is no English. He has been with this group of boys since they were all in preschool. He was devastated and scared. The other boys in the class have started a collection to raise money in order to buy the student a mobile phone so that he will still be able to communicate with his friends. They also brought a camera to school and have started documenting the last weeks they have together. I thought to myself, while watching all of this that I will always go the extra mile in order to properly communicate with the parents of my students and watch what kind and how much homework I send home with my students. These families who move to America in order for their children to have different lives and live like Americans, should be given the help they need. If I were to move to Spain, already having children who speak English, I would want and appreciate all of the help my children and I get.
Personally
I have been taught my whole 24 years of life that the most imporant thing to do in this life is LOVE one another and to treat people how you would like to be treated. My eyes have been OPENED. I have seen myself in a different light. I see the life I live day to day and have been able to compare it to lives that are lived here.
First, people are people no matter what language they speak or what type of community they live in. People are excluded while some are included. There are cliques and groups everywhere. I used to think that was an American way of life that people complain about but, the truth is it´s everywhere! Sometimes it´s innocent and sometimes it´s malicious. Also, the things that we as Americans hear that other people complain about us or think is rude... they do it just as much or do different things that we in our country consider rude. It´s just a difference in people and cultures... and guess what... IT´S OK! People invading your personal space or not saying excuse me as they brush past is just a way of the rushed, urban Spanish life.
All of this has taught me that a different language has very little to do with this different life. Yes, I have come to a place where the language I speak is not the first language spoken but, believe it or not that has very little to do with my homesickness. I MISS my way of life in the States and now have a BRAND NEW appreciation for it!
While observing my host family living their life I got to see and experience such huge differences. They get up all together for school at 7 am. They get dressed, eat breakfast, and all leave together at 8 o´clock. They get in their van, dad stops by the newspaper stand to get a paper, drops mom off at work, and drops the kids off next. After school... at 5:30... either the oldest boy will have fútbol or the oldest girl will have volleyball and whoever is not playing a sport that afternoon will walk home with their youngest brother... hopping on and off the metro. The kids go in and instantly do their homework. If it´s Thursday they have a German tutor come and work with each one of them one on one. By the time they finish with their tutor, Mom has gotten home and started dinner - this is around 8 pm. The kids take turns getting a shower and all sit down together at the dinner table while mom stands and talks preparing a second course or helping. When they finish they play or watch tv until about 10pm. Dad gets home at about 9:30 and him and mom sit down for dinner together. Mom and dad aren´t in bed until about midnight. They get up and do the same thing over again the next day. On the weekends they are busy with different sport matches, birthday parties, and shopping... every weekend. I am sure that there are plenty of families who live EXACTLY like this in the United States but, I am not from one of them!
I am used to slow living... Sitting out under the carport barefoot after school or work, talking, laughing and drinking iced super, syrupy sweet tea while discussing whether or not we feel like going to visit my grandparents. I am used to slow cooked roasts, home grown vegetables, dogs running, birds flying and chirping, trees swaying slowly in the breeze, listening to my neighbor kids playing. Obviously, those things take place here but, I feel as though life is too busy to notice them. I am used to kissing and hugging when you arrive, before you leave, during dinner, after dinner, before bed, and in the morning... I am now realizing on top of a lot of other things... I miss hugging!
This trip has been so much fun and has taught me A LOT about myself, what I should appreciate more, and the most about other people and cultures. I have loved this experience but, will be so glad to get back to my life in the sweet, slow south of the United States!
Friday, May 9, 2014
Monday, May 5, 2014
Second Week - First Weekend!
The School Week...
This week was so short! As I mentioned in my last post, we went to school Monday through Wednesday, were out Thursday for a worker´s holiday, and Friday school was not in session. So, Monday I taught my first English lesson. It was a small writing lesson where the kids had to write a personal narrative. I found a graphic organizer for them to use and my teacher loved it. The stories could be fiction or nonfiction and they were HILARIOUS! I heard everything from what the students were going to do on their holiday breaks to students starting their own revolution and taking over the government! Though they were so nervous reading them aloud in front of the class, they did such a great job.
It´s funny how I think the students speak great English yet, they are so shy when it comes to talking. Well, the girls can be... the boys tend not to care if you understand them or not they just talk! Tuesday´s school day was kind of slow... not a lot happened... we were all just excited about the next day being our "Friday!" Tuesday night a friend and I finally went to see Sagrada Familia! It was the most AMAZING thing I have ever seen. The detail in the architecture was unbelievable, for lack of a better word! There is no word in the English language that can describe the feeling and emotion when looking at something like that! It was simply breath taking and extremely overwhelming to the senses. We grabbed a burger on the way home and I packed for Rome as soon as I got back to the apartment. Believe it or not, I packed everything I needed into a single backpack! I had my boarding pass, my money, and I was so nervous about going to a different city, where they speak another different language I did not know, and finding my way around.
Wednesday was a quick day, not a lot of work... but lots of excitement and talk of weekend plans. After school, I went home with two friends and one of their host moms kindly took us to the airport. We walked in and again had no idea where we were suppose to go. Luckily, we ran into the other traveling groups. 4 of us went to Rome, 2 of us went to Paris, and others of us went to Dublin! I have become so close to the other ladies on this trip, that it made me nervous when we all went our separate ways... I´d definitely say we have become our own little family.
Roma!
We boarded our plane at 7:55 pm and flew for about an hour and a half. I was scared I was going to get sick on this plane too but, I sat next to the window and think that it helped me when we took off and landed. It was a much better ride... then again, it wasn´t an 8 hour flight either! We landed in Rome and found our taxi driver holding a sign with our names. He was a short, good looking Italian named Luigi! It was perfect! However, the ride was a bit scary! He flew down the interstate, driving with his knees, and texting on two different phones at the same time! ... For any parent of any girl who was in the cab who may be reading this at the moment... we all made it out of our death cab ALIVE!
We got to our apartment and a man about the age of my Poppy greeted us. He had cake and 2 bottles of champagne waiting on us. He showed us around the apartment, left us a cell phone, had printed off different maps with directions for us, and had books and maps about local attractions in Rome and Italy! It was so sweet and all of us were instantly comfortable! It was about 11 pm by then and all of us were starving! Scared that we would leave the apartment in the dark and get lost we decided the cake and champagne would be our dinner... yeeahh... it turned out to be a really fun first night. Three of us polished off both bottles and I must say I became a cork poppin pro! :)
The next day, Thursday, we left the apartment and headed out to find the bus that would take us to the metro so that we could get into the city. No one working in businesses knew English but, a lot of people in the businesses or out on the street would over hear our questions and would come to our rescue. I must say though Italian is a very powerful language. The people are very expressive... it´s a little intimidating but, beautiful at the same time.
So, we finally found our way to the metro station and randomly hopped on a train to the Colosseum, hoping that we would find some tourist information around it! We got on the metro and looked over to see two older couples who stood out as tourist! We asked if they spoke English and where they were from and they said KENTUCKY... it was so weird how good that felt to hear... they instantly became family and we wanted to follow them around all day. One of the men was even a retired teacher who had taught for 35 years. After chatting while making our way through the station, we walked out and were instantly greeted by the stunning landmark. We walked around it, took too many pictures, and stopped at an outdoor cafe across the street from it and shared a pizza. It was wonderful.
After lunch, we walked down the street where we saw double decker tour buses lined up and bought a ticket to hop on and hop off at the different stops. The sun was out, the breeze was cool, we plugged our headphones in, turned to channel 1 for English and rode around the city for about an hour and a half listening to the rich history. The stories were amazing and honestly I could have rode that bus all day listening over and over again! It was amazing looking at the ancient structures and hearing what exactly took place in them! When we finally got off at a stop the first thing we did was buy gelati! It was so delicious! We spent the rest of the day finding our way around at the different stops and shopping at the different shops. That night, we wanted to eat cheap so we stopped at a market and picked up pasta, cooking wine, asparagus, and pamersean cheese. We boiled the pasta in half water, half cooking wine, drizzled cooking wine over the asparagus, and baked it. When the pasta was finished we drained it and tossed it in the pamersean cheese, salt and peppered our asparagus and it was fabulous!
Friday, we got up and headed to the Vatican. We agreed that the one expensive thing worth paying for was getting in to the Vatican. We paid 40 euros to skip the line that was MILES long and we were lead by the Italian Indiana Jones... who made fun of the Japanese tourist the entire time... it was an experience. I must stop here and explain that I can´t even begin to go in to telling you how the Vatican was. I just can´t I try and my mouth stays open. The art work and sculptures in the building... speechless... the Sisteen Chapel... speechless... St. Peter´s Basilica ... absolutely stunned and speechless! We literally spent all day in Vatican City and though the crowds were insane, it was so worth it. Later we went to see the Treavi Fountain and we had spaghetti and lasagna for dinner! It went by so fast and it was so crazy... then there was Venezia!
Venezia!
Saturday morning we got up at 5:30 to make our way to the train station to catch a 7:50 train. The train ride was fun but, a little bit of a rough ride. We made it to Venice by 11:30 am. When we walked out of the train station our jaws dropped. We were instantly greeted by the smell of salt water, the sight of the sun beaming off of blue-green water, boats driving up and down the canal, and the most beautiful historic buildings we have ever seen. We walked across a bridge, taking us over the grand canal and headed to our hotel. Since it was still early we walked around hotel area and found more gelato! :) We wandered around, shopped, then finally sat in the breakfast area of our very aged, out of date hotel... I have to say it was clean though! We checked in at 1 and went to eat lunch at the pizzeria snack bar next door. I had ricotta cheese and spinach stuffed ravioli and tiramisu for dessert... the view, the food, and the people... I WAS IN HEAVEN. It is so laid back and Venice and with the exception of a few... (there´s always one) everyone was so nice. After lunch we went to our room, opened our shutters for some fresh air, and took the best hour nap we had all weekend. After our nap we went shopping. As the sun set and the rain clouds moved out we paid for a 40 minute gondola ride. It was worth EVERY penny... or euro! The city, the sun setting on the water, the buildings and sidewalks lit up, and the sound of the oar moving the water was so perfect. After the ride, we quickly found ourselves eating... again... this time it was a nutella crepe. After the crepe we decided it would be a good idea to relax by the water and share a bottle of wine... and we again found ourselves eating mussels and penne pasta... we did share the wine though! A bottle of sweet Lambrusco and it was the best wine I have ever had. We stayed out til about 11:30 talking, laughing, and drinking. It was the best time I´ve had the whole trip!
Sunday, we had to look for things to keep us busy. We finished up shopping, walked to the edge of the city to the see the Mediterranean and Alps, had pizza for lunch, and bought bus tickets from a cranky Venetian. Before heading to the airport we of course got lost in the very small streets in the heart of the city but, ended up seeing everything we didn´t see the day before. It ended up feeling like God telling us "Look at this before you go." We found our way back to the bus depot in plenty of time. The bus ride was hot but, quick and the plane ride was perfect. However, returning to Barcelona instead of the States felt odd. I experienced my first bit of homesickness last night and ended up crying myself to sleep last night after talking to my family and sad looking husband. :( I fell asleep thinking tomorrow will be a better day and it was.
Tonight...
I got to FaceTime with my little man Robbie D (my crazy cute 1 year old baby cousin) tonight and it made everything better... (even though he´s getting big WAY TOO fast)... I got laughed at when I fake cried for kisses but, I eventually got them. I´ve spent the night at the house with my host family tonight and it never fails to make me feel better. I´ve had noodle soup and chicken for dinner and have got to finish this book so that I can plan another English lesson.
Even though I´m missing my family and that good lookin best friend of mine... I´m so blessed and life is so good in Barcelona!
This week was so short! As I mentioned in my last post, we went to school Monday through Wednesday, were out Thursday for a worker´s holiday, and Friday school was not in session. So, Monday I taught my first English lesson. It was a small writing lesson where the kids had to write a personal narrative. I found a graphic organizer for them to use and my teacher loved it. The stories could be fiction or nonfiction and they were HILARIOUS! I heard everything from what the students were going to do on their holiday breaks to students starting their own revolution and taking over the government! Though they were so nervous reading them aloud in front of the class, they did such a great job.
It´s funny how I think the students speak great English yet, they are so shy when it comes to talking. Well, the girls can be... the boys tend not to care if you understand them or not they just talk! Tuesday´s school day was kind of slow... not a lot happened... we were all just excited about the next day being our "Friday!" Tuesday night a friend and I finally went to see Sagrada Familia! It was the most AMAZING thing I have ever seen. The detail in the architecture was unbelievable, for lack of a better word! There is no word in the English language that can describe the feeling and emotion when looking at something like that! It was simply breath taking and extremely overwhelming to the senses. We grabbed a burger on the way home and I packed for Rome as soon as I got back to the apartment. Believe it or not, I packed everything I needed into a single backpack! I had my boarding pass, my money, and I was so nervous about going to a different city, where they speak another different language I did not know, and finding my way around.
Wednesday was a quick day, not a lot of work... but lots of excitement and talk of weekend plans. After school, I went home with two friends and one of their host moms kindly took us to the airport. We walked in and again had no idea where we were suppose to go. Luckily, we ran into the other traveling groups. 4 of us went to Rome, 2 of us went to Paris, and others of us went to Dublin! I have become so close to the other ladies on this trip, that it made me nervous when we all went our separate ways... I´d definitely say we have become our own little family.
Roma!
We boarded our plane at 7:55 pm and flew for about an hour and a half. I was scared I was going to get sick on this plane too but, I sat next to the window and think that it helped me when we took off and landed. It was a much better ride... then again, it wasn´t an 8 hour flight either! We landed in Rome and found our taxi driver holding a sign with our names. He was a short, good looking Italian named Luigi! It was perfect! However, the ride was a bit scary! He flew down the interstate, driving with his knees, and texting on two different phones at the same time! ... For any parent of any girl who was in the cab who may be reading this at the moment... we all made it out of our death cab ALIVE!
We got to our apartment and a man about the age of my Poppy greeted us. He had cake and 2 bottles of champagne waiting on us. He showed us around the apartment, left us a cell phone, had printed off different maps with directions for us, and had books and maps about local attractions in Rome and Italy! It was so sweet and all of us were instantly comfortable! It was about 11 pm by then and all of us were starving! Scared that we would leave the apartment in the dark and get lost we decided the cake and champagne would be our dinner... yeeahh... it turned out to be a really fun first night. Three of us polished off both bottles and I must say I became a cork poppin pro! :)
The next day, Thursday, we left the apartment and headed out to find the bus that would take us to the metro so that we could get into the city. No one working in businesses knew English but, a lot of people in the businesses or out on the street would over hear our questions and would come to our rescue. I must say though Italian is a very powerful language. The people are very expressive... it´s a little intimidating but, beautiful at the same time.
So, we finally found our way to the metro station and randomly hopped on a train to the Colosseum, hoping that we would find some tourist information around it! We got on the metro and looked over to see two older couples who stood out as tourist! We asked if they spoke English and where they were from and they said KENTUCKY... it was so weird how good that felt to hear... they instantly became family and we wanted to follow them around all day. One of the men was even a retired teacher who had taught for 35 years. After chatting while making our way through the station, we walked out and were instantly greeted by the stunning landmark. We walked around it, took too many pictures, and stopped at an outdoor cafe across the street from it and shared a pizza. It was wonderful.
After lunch, we walked down the street where we saw double decker tour buses lined up and bought a ticket to hop on and hop off at the different stops. The sun was out, the breeze was cool, we plugged our headphones in, turned to channel 1 for English and rode around the city for about an hour and a half listening to the rich history. The stories were amazing and honestly I could have rode that bus all day listening over and over again! It was amazing looking at the ancient structures and hearing what exactly took place in them! When we finally got off at a stop the first thing we did was buy gelati! It was so delicious! We spent the rest of the day finding our way around at the different stops and shopping at the different shops. That night, we wanted to eat cheap so we stopped at a market and picked up pasta, cooking wine, asparagus, and pamersean cheese. We boiled the pasta in half water, half cooking wine, drizzled cooking wine over the asparagus, and baked it. When the pasta was finished we drained it and tossed it in the pamersean cheese, salt and peppered our asparagus and it was fabulous!
Friday, we got up and headed to the Vatican. We agreed that the one expensive thing worth paying for was getting in to the Vatican. We paid 40 euros to skip the line that was MILES long and we were lead by the Italian Indiana Jones... who made fun of the Japanese tourist the entire time... it was an experience. I must stop here and explain that I can´t even begin to go in to telling you how the Vatican was. I just can´t I try and my mouth stays open. The art work and sculptures in the building... speechless... the Sisteen Chapel... speechless... St. Peter´s Basilica ... absolutely stunned and speechless! We literally spent all day in Vatican City and though the crowds were insane, it was so worth it. Later we went to see the Treavi Fountain and we had spaghetti and lasagna for dinner! It went by so fast and it was so crazy... then there was Venezia!
Venezia!
Saturday morning we got up at 5:30 to make our way to the train station to catch a 7:50 train. The train ride was fun but, a little bit of a rough ride. We made it to Venice by 11:30 am. When we walked out of the train station our jaws dropped. We were instantly greeted by the smell of salt water, the sight of the sun beaming off of blue-green water, boats driving up and down the canal, and the most beautiful historic buildings we have ever seen. We walked across a bridge, taking us over the grand canal and headed to our hotel. Since it was still early we walked around hotel area and found more gelato! :) We wandered around, shopped, then finally sat in the breakfast area of our very aged, out of date hotel... I have to say it was clean though! We checked in at 1 and went to eat lunch at the pizzeria snack bar next door. I had ricotta cheese and spinach stuffed ravioli and tiramisu for dessert... the view, the food, and the people... I WAS IN HEAVEN. It is so laid back and Venice and with the exception of a few... (there´s always one) everyone was so nice. After lunch we went to our room, opened our shutters for some fresh air, and took the best hour nap we had all weekend. After our nap we went shopping. As the sun set and the rain clouds moved out we paid for a 40 minute gondola ride. It was worth EVERY penny... or euro! The city, the sun setting on the water, the buildings and sidewalks lit up, and the sound of the oar moving the water was so perfect. After the ride, we quickly found ourselves eating... again... this time it was a nutella crepe. After the crepe we decided it would be a good idea to relax by the water and share a bottle of wine... and we again found ourselves eating mussels and penne pasta... we did share the wine though! A bottle of sweet Lambrusco and it was the best wine I have ever had. We stayed out til about 11:30 talking, laughing, and drinking. It was the best time I´ve had the whole trip!
Sunday, we had to look for things to keep us busy. We finished up shopping, walked to the edge of the city to the see the Mediterranean and Alps, had pizza for lunch, and bought bus tickets from a cranky Venetian. Before heading to the airport we of course got lost in the very small streets in the heart of the city but, ended up seeing everything we didn´t see the day before. It ended up feeling like God telling us "Look at this before you go." We found our way back to the bus depot in plenty of time. The bus ride was hot but, quick and the plane ride was perfect. However, returning to Barcelona instead of the States felt odd. I experienced my first bit of homesickness last night and ended up crying myself to sleep last night after talking to my family and sad looking husband. :( I fell asleep thinking tomorrow will be a better day and it was.
Tonight...
I got to FaceTime with my little man Robbie D (my crazy cute 1 year old baby cousin) tonight and it made everything better... (even though he´s getting big WAY TOO fast)... I got laughed at when I fake cried for kisses but, I eventually got them. I´ve spent the night at the house with my host family tonight and it never fails to make me feel better. I´ve had noodle soup and chicken for dinner and have got to finish this book so that I can plan another English lesson.
Even though I´m missing my family and that good lookin best friend of mine... I´m so blessed and life is so good in Barcelona!
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