In Spain, Again.

Life is good. It has also been a little bit on edge these days, but it is good. So far, I have been in Spain for three weeks and at work for two. I´m at the same instituto and I love it. Everybody was so happy to see me when I walked in there on October 1st. I felt like I was being inundated with hugs and kiss-the-air-next-to-your-cheeks kisses and words of welcome. One colleague in particular said of my clothes and slightly relapsed accent, "Noooo, after all that time we spent turning you Spanish, you´ve come back American!! Por favor, Charlie!!" The students were equally enthusiastic, especially the 1º ESO Students who I didn't have last year (their around 11 years old), so the over-all dynamic is going to be interesting this year because they have the attention span of a gold fish.
I started the first week of class with a powerpoint presentation of my Summer in North Carolina. There were many ooos and ahhhs, and eager questions concerning my family and American culture. Its amazing how visual supplements can change the vibe of an entire lesson, especially if they show insight into a teacher´s life outside of class. They always want to know that.
Another interesting lesson involved videos of Americans and Brits being interviewed about what they thought of each other. It was pretty hilarious and if your interested you can find the videos here: www.real-english.com The point was to get them to learn adjectives to describe people. In the end, I asked what they thought of themselves and they said among other things, fun-loving, lazy, and crazy at which point I didn´t know how to react. Then I told them what I thought about Spaniards and I said loud, eloquent, passionate, witty, realistic, quick-tempered, and very very blunt. They seemed to agree.

This year I have moved south to a neighborhood called Oporto. It is not as classy as my last neighborhood, but it has a lot more diversity. There are Spaniards, Latin Americans, Romanians, Gypsies, and Asians. There are a lot more convenience stores in this neighborhood called Alimentaciones, but Spaniards call them "Chinos" because all the owners are Asian. The supermarket chain Mercadona is right next door which has a greater variety of products at cheaper prices then their competitors, and literally underneath our apartment is a frutería which is a fruit and vegetable shop which sells them on the cheap. I suspect there it is a family business because I have never seen so many fruterías in the same neighborhood. Time to get healthy! Moreover, across the street from my apartment is an imposing Burger King which is, incredibly or not, the main landmark in my section of the neighborhood. Anywho, my new roomates are muy majos as well. One is from Seville, one is from the Canary Islands, and the other is from Ecuador. It should make for a very lively coexistence this year. Hasta luego.