just so spanish

Last week began my “real life” in Malaga and thus I began teaching. I use the phrase “real life” very loosely because my work schedule is this: 11:45-2 on Wednesdays and 9-2 on Thursdays and Fridays. And that’s it. This is just another addition to the “My life is a joke” list that I’m compiling. However, I was very excited to start teaching and woke up Wednesday morning in time to make breakfast and go to the market (because everything closes from 2 to 5 for siesta) before heading off to school on the very hot and overwhelming Spanish city bus.

I’m teaching at a primary school about 3 miles from my apartment in a quiet, more residential section of Malaga called El Huelin. CEIP Eduardo Ocón, my school, resembles a fortress. The school itself has locked steel doors on the buildings, a dirt cement play area in front and in back, 12-foot high walls surrounding the property and 15-foot high green steel gates enclosing everything. You have to be James Bond to cut class in this country, I could barely figure out how to get inside on my first day. School starts at 9, and the gates open at 8:59 precisely, so in the morning there are about 200 children and their parents standing on the street waiting for the gates to open. Once they do it's a mad dash inside resembling women racing into a sample sale. I've developed the habit of getting a coffee across the street until the herding has ceased.

My school. I'm not sure why the name is in quotation marks...very Spanish.

Everything about the school is just so Spanish. You may not understand what I mean by that unless you’ve spent some time in Spain, so here is an example: I arrived on Wednesday morning ready to teach cute little Spanish children, got to my first class and the classroom was empty. I saw the teacher when I first arrived so I knew she had been at school that day, but the entire classroom was vacant. I figured that Maria Jose, their teacher, had given them an extra long recess (from 11:45-12:15 everyday) and that they would return soon. Five minutes later, still no class. Ten minutes, nothing. I found the coordinator of my bilingual program who informed me that the teacher had to go to the doctor and thus we began to search for the 25 missing first graders. We never found them. The secretary told us she thought they were out front with another teacher, and that was satisfactory enough for my coordinator who sent me to another class without ever verifying the whereabouts of the missing children…

The entire episode still makes my head spin a bit but I’m working on rolling with the Spanish punches so I moved on with my day. Thankfully I did see all the lost children collecting their bags at the end of the day so no Amber Alerts need to be sent out.

The bilingual program dictates that 1/3 of all classes be taught in English in every subject. I’ll be teaching English, Science, Math and Art. I am well versed in one of those four so this should be pretty interesting. Thankfully I know enough about elementary science to tell the difference between a leaf and a tree, even if I don’t understand all my students’ questions. I take groups of 5 or 6 children from each class to the bilingual classroom where we review vocabulary, basic phrases, and they ask me questions like, “Why did you come here on a plane?”. I’ve discovered the key to their heart is boys v. girls vocab games. Their intensity is adorable; you’d think they were playing in a World Cup match. One boy makes the sign of the cross before each turn and a team of girls is already preparing for their rematch against the boys next week. Other than vocabulary races my first couple days of school consisted of my jumping around the classroom and acting out various words, they loved my interpretation of “windy”, I think my long limbs really encapsulate branches uncontrollably whipping around. One class sings Beatles songs as a way to learn new vocabulary but is convinced that there are only two Beatles songs, Hello, Goodbye and I Want to Hold Your Hand, the only two that they’ve learned so far. I tried to sing Hey Jude to them when they asked my mom’s name but they responded by singing Hello, Goodbye at me in response to whatever I said. Baby steps. I’m already getting more comfortable at school and brainstorming different topics that I can act out for the kids this week.

School from the street. Inviting, isn't it?

Kids check in. They don't check out.

The fortress.

My classroom

Two of my friends had a housewarming party this weekend, which was a lot of fun. We recuperated on Sunday by lying on the beach with some snacks, I even went in the frigid water (Myth #1 about Malaga is that the ocean water is warm, I lost feeling in my legs after 30 seconds), and then went on an excursion in search of pizza. About 95% of Malaga is closed on Sunday so finding something to eat is a bit of a challenge. In the end, however, we discovered a new pizza place that has pepperoni (!!) so it was a successful outing.

Now that everyone is settling into their work schedules we’re beginning to plan some trips, I have a list of about 30 places where I’d like to go but am working on prioritizing, though it’s proving to be very difficult.

More updates soon!

Cloudy day in Malaga

Jardines