Classes

Monday:
Most of the day we just hung out at home. Jose had to work, but Noelia, Avril, Alex and I just sat around most of the day. Noelia does cross stitching, and was teaching Avril how to do it. Then I taught both of them how to knit. Noelia picked it up super quick and says she likes it. I've converted another one ;)

 

Later we walked to a little shop a few blocks away and bought some fresh baked bread for later. We ate nearly a whole baguette while we walked, it was so warm and tasty. We walked over the Segre river and through a park before heading back home. Noelia was explaining how the economy isn't very good right now in Spain, and how it affects her work. She is an architect, but with such a poor economy nobody can afford to build anything right now. So she has been working with the company Jose works for until the economy gets better and she can work as an architect again. She said it was great from around 2000-2010, but then it was horrible. It has improved a little since then, but they expect it to take another 3 years or so before it will be good again.

Later in the evening we went to a fair. The end of the harvest led to the establishment in Lleida of a festival celebrating the city's de facto second patron saint, St Michael. So, there were rides and games and food (though not nearly as much fried food as at US fairs). We played a camel racing game, where you play against other people by rolling balls into holes worth different numbers of steps for your racing camel. It was like skeeball. I was close to winning but didn't quite make it in time. Noelia won though, and let me pick a prize. So I got Uno cards with the Frozen characters on them. Alex went on a cool bull ride where they had long padded bulls so many people can fit on them. The bulls move back and forth and turn from side to side to knock off the kids. At first he looked like it was super easy, but by the end he was falling off and clinging to the bull nearly upsidedown. Avril preferred a frog ride, that had seats in sets of three on the ends of long poles. The seats moved up and down while the ride spun in circles. It reminded me of the tarantula ride at the Benton county fair, only the seats didn't spin.

 
The rest was a normal night. We watched some tv, had dinner and went to bed.

Tuesday:
Today was my first day in the school. I went to the school at 8:15 to meet Nuria, my tutor/facilitator. She is one of the English teachers at the school, and had hosted a conversation assistant last year.
She gave me my schedule, which is rather crazy. I teach each class 1 hour per week, except the infants, which is only half an hour per week. I also teach one hour each of science and technology, since they teach these classes in English.

My first couple classes I missed, because I was getting a tour of the school and being told about how scheduling works. The first class I made it to was 6 EP 2, some students Avril's age. They were very enthusiastic and liked to ask questions. I was only in that class for around 20 minutes until the class was over. Then I had a meeting with  some of the primary teachers I'll be working with, then I had a break until lunch. It was quite a break, since the meeting ended at 11:30 and lunch didn't start until 1. The English teachers gave me workbooks for each level they teach so I can see what the kids are learning about and plan my games/activities around the subjects they're learning about, so I read through those until lunch. After lunch I had another chunk of time, as my next class wasn't until 3:30. I chatted with some other teachers in the teachers' lounge for a portion of that time. Then I went to the class, which was one of the science classes. Avril was in this class, and it was nice to see a familiar face. This class and the one that followed it were both about the bones in the body. They have some of the classes broken up into three levels, 1= the smartest, 2= average, 3= slower/need extra help. Avril is in the smart class, and the group after was the 2 class. Lastly, I went to the 3 ESO class, which is the second oldest class. They were a little more unruly, but Nuria kept them in line. Each class asked me my age, and they all were surprised that I'm 27. They all thought I was around 22.
After class was done I went outside and found Avril, Alex and Noelia and we walked home together. On the way we stopped at a shop with baby supplies to pick up a gift for a friend who just had a baby.
Now, we are chilling at home. It's kinda nice to get this blog done early today... I won't have to stay up until 2 in the morning again to finish it ;).

 

Classes are (by average age at the start of the year) in this order:
LLAR - infant
P3 - 3
P4 - 4
P5 - 5
EP 1 - 6
EP 2 - 7
EP 3 - 8
EP 4 - 9
EP 5 - 10
EP 6 - 11
ESO 1 - 12
ESO 2 - 13
ESO 3 - 14
ESO 4 - 15

So the oldest students are 15 or 16 (maybe 17) when they finish. If you look at the pic of my schedule, just ignore the letter after the numbers, it's just like the nd in 2nd or rd in 3rd... but in Catalan. Like I said before, there are some classes broken up into three, so it has some like "2 ESO 1" which means level 2 ESO, group 1. Kind of complicated; very different from the system I know in the US.

Birthday party in the country

Today was the 28th birthday of Noelia's little sister, Janet. To celebrate, we went to the summer house of their parents in Tamarite. They have a farm/orchard there where they grow lots of different foods, and I was lucky enough to get to try many of them. Right when we got there Jose brought over some Jujubes for me to try, which he had just picked from a tree. They were very good. The texture and taste was like an apple, but they are much smaller and have one seed inside them, kind of like the size of a cherry and cheery pit.

I had also had some toast with jam on it for breakfast, and the jam was from Cabell d'angel (angels hair squash) which Noelia's mother had made from squash in their garden at this house. It had a texture in it similar to shredded coconut, and was very sweet. I'll definitely be having this again tomorrow.

Janet, Jose and Noelia showed me around and introduced me to some other new fruits. Quince, a fruit that looks like a pear but is very bitter until cooked, was growing in trees all along the road to the house. I didn't get to taste this one.

Figs (higos) were growing on a tree near the driveway, so I got to pick some and eat them. I had never had a fresh fig before, only Fig Newtons (which do them no justice at all). If you've never had one... go find some and eat one. Or more. They are delicious. Very sweet, but not overly juicy. I had one after dinner for a dessert.

There were several sorts of olive trees on the farm too, and we brought some that had been pitted and canned (jarred?) home to try.

There were several nut trees there as well. Multiple almond trees, a walnut tree and a hazelnut tree. So of course I ate some of those too.

Add to this long list several pomegranate trees (which are called Granada in Spanish, and is where the name of the Spanish city came from). Lots of grape vines all over, too. Plus a veggie garden with eggplants, green beans, lettuces, leeks, asparagus, red bell peppers and tomatoes. Also, an herb garden. Seriously, this place was like a supermarket. I fell in love with it immediately, and with the whole family nearly as quickly as well.

Janet is the youngest of the girls in Noelia's family. Her boyfriend is Federico, and he is from Argentina. Sandra is the middle daughter and is married to Javi and they have two kids, Sara (2) and Raul (5). Noelia is the eldest daughter. Their parents are Laura (65) and Pablo (70), who are just about the most adorable couple I have ever met. Pablo's sister Pilar (75) was there as well. Laura was cooking up a storm, roasting peppers and eggplants over a fire outside, and then cooking snails, mushrooms, potatoes, and asparagus inside. Federico was also cooking, roasting a quarter of a lamb over a fire outside for all the meat eaters (so... everyone but me).

Once all the food was done we went in to the house and had dinner. I sat by Avril; we are already nearly attached at the hip. She is such a sweetie. I ate my delicious dinner, then watched everyone else enjoy the lamb. After dinner we all sang happy birthday to Janet as they brought out an apple with candles in it, then a pastry with candles in it, then another pastry with a firework in it. It was amusing to see the look on Janet's face as each one came out, getting more and more impressive. It was puff pastry with dried fruits and nuts on it. Yum!

After dinner we chatted for awhile, and I introduced everyone to my craftiness by knitting. They were all interested in it, because not many people here knit. Then when it was time to leave, Pablo and Laura packed up loads of food for us to take with us. It was like going to Sam's Club, but free. I was excited to see we were bringing back figs and jujubes with us. We had a crate, and two Ikea bags full of food.

Before we headed back to Lleida, we stopped a couple miles away at Jose's parents apartment. They are named Jose (70) and Josefa (65), but their family and friends call them Pepito and Pepita. We didn't stay there very long, but while we were there Noelia showed me pictures of a trip she and Jose had just taken, which the company one of them works for had paid for. I also taught Avril the actions for the "Cups" song, which she was super excited to learn. She showed me the song in Spanish too, which I didn't even know existed.

We went home after this and played around a bit. Avril was showing me the music video for chandelier and the girl does the splits, so I said "I can do that." She looked doubtful, so I did it. She and Alex were shocked, and immediately tried to do it too (not very successfully). Then Noelia and Jose came in and tried to touch their toes too, as well as a couple other bendy things. Noelia was the closest, and could touch the ground a little, which she said was because she does yoga. Avril was nowhere near the ground, so I told her she should try yoga with her mom. Later we played a game where one person puts on a button down shirt backwards and only closes the top button, then someone else goes behind them and puts their arms through the shirt so it looks like they are the first person's arms. The most hilarious one was when Avril was the first person and Jose did her arms. Avril moved slippers with her hands too, to look like feet, and they did a Michael Jackson imitation, doing his moves. I almost cried I was laughing so hard.

We had dinner a bit later (I had squash and onion soup, which was awesome!), then watched some TV. While watching TV we played with some clay that the kids had, and I taught them how to make clay roses. I learned this years ago when I had been reading up on cake decorating, and things you can do with fondant.

Then... bedtime. I had a Skype video chat with Ryan for a little bit, which helped me feel a little more connected to my Minnesota life. Unfortunately, it is super late already, so I had to cut our chat short to finish up this blog post and head to bed. So... goodnight!