My first two classes went pretty smoothly. John the Norwegian sat in on my first one to monitor my performance…which resulted in me forgetting that stereo players cannot play if they are on pause, and in him reminding me about 5 times to close the cap on my dry-erase marker. (In case I scribbled all over my schoolteacher outfit accidentally? In case it dried out within the hour? I dunno.) I had about two students per class, which I guess made it less nerve-wracking for me. There are still some things I need to learn (like keeping students on task and managing to fit all the activities in) but I think overall it was a good trial run. One of the more difficult things was my beginner’s class, in which I had to give instructions to students who had no idea what the instructions meant. With lots of dramatics and charades I think I managed to get through it fine enough. This week has felt like an entire month.
After dinner with Julietta at her Señora’s house, and time spent spoiling her cat Pancho and eating fiber cookies with Nutella, I met up with about ten people from my program for a celebratory drink. We went around looking for clubs with no cover charge, and we managed to find a Latin music discoteca that served cañas of beer in huge vasos: almost like a pint times two. Pretty fun, pretty low key. It was probably free because it closed at about 3 AM (this is usually when dance parties actually begin in Madrid). Bugger that the metro closes about 2 AM. I had planned on just staying out til the metro opened again, but people were tired. So then, a grueling search for the bus that would take me home. Luckily one of the girls knew the city and took me to the night owl bus hub.
Anyway, enough with the recap. It’s La Noche en Blanco! Madrid’s huge annual fiesta and art event in which a gazillion museums and cultural places open their doors for free to the public for art shows, music, theater, etc. until 3 or 4 in the morning. The entire city will be out tonight. I’ll be trying to catch the Japanese drumming in the Parque del Buen Retiro, which is near the Prado Museum. Then go roaming since I’ve done virtually none of that since arriving. But first I must cook and eat a real and savory dinner, since this is has been a rare occasion lately. Ciao!
mabel lee 
felicitaciones! (i hope this doesn’t mean “your cat is cute” or something silly–thanks, google)good to hear your first classes went well and that you’re wearing not-little-kid clothes (although…too soon? didja pack your bob the builder shorts? if so: nooooooo!)ahem.and la noche en blanco! gaaah! why does new york not do cool things like that? the snits at MoMA are all probably in bed by 10PM and much too uncool for such thingsdid you find the drummers? if so, you can cross that off the to-do list from aeons ago. hennyway, i am here yelping, eating large meals (and then thinking of you).
awwww ::snuffle snuffle::hubby meesses yoo.hope the big apple is treating you well. tell me how things are going! alas i don’t have any bob the builder shorts, although, i DID pack my space aliens boxers. and the safari shorts.oh yeah, remember when you used the word hyoordydo in one of the comments? what did that mean? (not the word, i mean you said something about complications w/ google commenting). i shall with the best of my abilities try to make commenting more comfortable for the (one) eager commentor(s) out there.
bob the builder shorts = safari shorts. just don't wear your space aliens shirt with the boxers when people can see you…i think the weirdness limit extends only as far as mullets, even for spaniards ❤ <3ah, so about commenting, i think if you go to your blogger dashboard and choose "settings" for this blog, you can modify who gets to comment and how. i.e. under the "comments" tab, you can choose 'no' for "word verification on comments" so that the system doesn't think all commentors (sp? …non curo) are spambots. or, i can just sigh resignedly and type in "gycymulgi" or what have you every time i want to bother you with drivel (such a giving friend i am, no?)
FYIhyoordydo = national hernia month in icelandic. go figure.