Some successes

So first I have to start with the new shoes! :) I had to buy some because there was no other way to continue walking in BCN....Not exactly what I had in mind and cost a little more than what I had planned to spend but they do the job. Actually, I cut my walking time (home-school and vice versa) by 5-10 minutes! So far, so good.

Another progress -- I have bought (twice already) perejil (parsley) and actually asked in Spanish if they have it! :) The concept check (some of the terms and techniques we are studying) was that the lady understood my question and gave me some! Wasn't the best but was great in my shopska salad.

Teaching this week and the course projects are even more demanding. First I taught possessive adjectives (my, your, his, etc) and after 40 min of explaining and going over exercises I hear: I have a sister. Your name is Maria. Just when I thought they got it.....Then I had to prepare a material and teach drinks and containers (a cup of milk; a glass of wine; a shot of tequila -- I had to do the shot one :). The material was important because it is an assignment we turn in at the end of the course for evaluation.

So I decided to do flash cards. Easy to teach, use, students get the concept. Except that I had to go look for colored paper and laminate after school (around 5:30pm). I walked to the big Cort de Ingles (huge mall), found both (don't ask me how I explained laminate), on the way back discovered a small book/office supplies store very close to the school (go there next time) only because I decided to change the route and around 6pm sat at the school to do the flash cards.

I want to include something here. Guess which skills from my last "famous job" I got to use?! Thank you HBC for teaching me how to laminate!!!!! We have a machine in the school but of course the store only had self-laminate so I got to use some of my skills!!!!

Here is how the course should have started on day 1: "Dear prospective teachers, if you plan to create flash cards from scratch, please do them on the weekend, spend some money and do not expect them to turn out really well." Well, the course didn't start with this so at 9pm I left the school with some flash cards which did not look great, no laminate and a big ?. Thankfully, the Chinese store across the street (which also, as it turns out, sells some office supplies) was open and had clear packing tape. If you didn't know this -- clear packing tape = laminate. A few more hours at home and here was the result:

You are supposed to match words with pictures of containers and pictures of drinks. Do not ask for details. Even I got confused at some point...They looked very much handmade -- do I get A+ for trying?! The worst part came today in class when I didn't get to use all of them the way I had planned due to time management (getting another term?). However, bottom line is the students enjoyed them :).

A note which counts as a success somewhat is my new pedicure -- self-made. It turns out the service in the salon was more than not eating for 1 day (at least now) so I got some nail polish from a US girl (hint: people from the US crossing the ocean are allowed much more baggage, so some brought this luxury item) and am very happy with my new color! Thank you, Alicia!

I should prob give you some other pics in this post -- more BCN. Here they come: