7 wk post

I've gotten worse at staying current.  Sorry about that.

Big picture:  It's October 13th, I've been here 7 weeks, I'm halfway done with level 2 of Catalan class (i m'agrada molt- mes o menys, peró no m'agrada gaire el meu profesor), I started working last week teaching English to a professor from my university (University of Lérida/ Universidad de Lérida/ Universitat de Lleida) and I work with him 4 hours each week.  This week I'll begin my other 2 jobs (that's right: three jobs).  I will be teaching 2 classes at a local elementary school's after-school program.  On Wednesday I have 3-6 yrs olds and on Thursday I have 6-10 year olds.  I only get to speak and sing and play games in English- I'm not supposed to say even one word in Spanish.  That, my friends, is tough.  Since I'm accustomed to doing it the other way (trying to use as much Spanish as the students can handle) all my "attention" phrases are in Spanish- I'll have to really work hard to not break into Spanish to help the confused little kiddos.  But oh! I'm so excited to play games and sing songs with the little ones.  I'm having my mom send some books from my childhood over here so I can have story time sometimes.  I realize it's only one hour per week (and so do the parents of the kids) so we're not aiming high here, just an initial exposure to the American English accent, if you will.  My other job is working at a middle school with Jordi (the brother-in-law of the professor from UdL that I'm working with) and he wants me to lead conversation groups with his students to allow them the opportunity to work on conversational English and to (again) hear the American English accent.  He also wants me to come to his house on Sunday afternoons and his wife and he want me to play games in English with the kids (same reason: native accent).  He called and woke me up today (early) to see if I could start today.  I said no.  I will begin next weekend I think.

Good news: I can charge whatever I want since demand is high and supply is low.  I may have mentioned it before, but I know of 2 other Americans in Lleida (one is 45 and the other is 47, both full-time employees who teach English).  They also both have families and can't tutor or teach in their "free time" since they have kids.

Bad news: I'm starting to worry about my schedule filling up.  Here I go again, pulling a "Melissa."  In America I know I have too much on my plate most hours of the day, days of the week, weeks of the year, etc.  I didn't intend for that to happen here, but now that it is, I'm actually feeling a sense of "need" to the normal morning get-up routine.  Another thing I'm adding is that I'm planning on joining the gym here tomorrow and I think (hope) it will be great to take aerobics and yoga in Catalan.  I'm stoked.  Now that I'm working I can actually afford to join a gym!  hip hip!

I'll post later about what we (all the students on mobility/erasmus/internship exchanges in Catalunya) did on Saturday.  Right now I don't have the time or energy - it's 2 am here, but I can't sleep so I'm drinking tea and blogging.  This is a normal Sunday night occurrence- the not being able to sleep.  (Also, I'm working on homework.  The prof said we had to read a "short story" by Monday...I didn't look at it until tonight after I read the entire play we had to read for tomorrow for another class, and the "short" story is 35 pages long with tiny print.  I wasn't worried b/c it was photocopied and only took up a few pages, but the words are so tiny, I have to work doubly hard to read...that's another thing about school here that's different.  There is no university bookstore.   There is a "copistería" where you go for photocopies of whatever you need to read.  Each professor leaves a folder of what you have to read and it's up to you to get there, copy it all, read it all when necessary, etc.)  Back to Saturday: The one thing I will mention is that I met 2 American girls!  One is from Wisconsin (Milwaukee area) and the other is from Ohio (Cleveland area).  YAY!  They are both here doing TEFOL and are both teaching English in Barcelona.  Neither one speaks Spanish.  Eep.  Ashley, the one from Ohio, is most likely going to come over to Lleida this weekend and spend some time here with me.  I'm very excited to have the chance to show someone around and make a new friend!  I've been speaking so many languages these days, it's nice to speak English every once in a while.

Sounds bad for a Spanish teacher, Spanish MA major to say, no?

Well, my rationale is this:  I speak Catalan and Spanish each and every day.  I hear French, Italian, Portuguese, German, and many other assorted languages most every (or every other) day spoken conversationally between other students here in the erasmus group.  I can understand some of what they are saying when they speak their native languages and I enjoy all the banter in all the languages, but I have no one here that I can speak normal everyday English with.  If I speak English, it is with someone from Poland/Czech Republic who doesn't know Spanish but learned English as a second language and can communicate to/through me to say what they want to say.  

Hence, finding an American or two to speak with, even for just 20 minutes or so, was a treat.

I'm off to finish my reading or fall asleep trying.