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.