First day of teaching!

Today, besides being my first day of teaching, was also the day my roommate said this: "You drink your water cold?"
And I looked at her like she was had sprouted a third ear. Of course I drink my water cold! I had noticed that no one else puts their water bottles in the fridge, but it had never crossed my mind that they NEVER did that, that it was UNHEARD of.
I replied, "Umm, yeah... you don't??"
"No! Do you even drink it cold in the winter?"
"...Yes... What the hell, you don't drink cold water?"
"No, never!"
And that right there was when I had to stop the conversation out of incredulity.

It was also interesting to talk to my roommates about homosexuality last night. Maria and I seem both rather liberal about it, which for me is because I have several homosexual friends that I love dearly and the fact that I don't really care in general. Homosexuality is personal, and if you're a good person living happily in the world, it makes no difference to me if you're gay or if you'e green. But Magda, being from Poland, has a much more conservative view about it. She did say she has one friend that is gay, but she kept repeating, "I just dont understand it!" and putting her head in her hands. And Maria and I would laugh and try to explain our viewpoints, and she would listen politely, and then repeat her mantra. I found out that apparently homosexual people can get married in Spain, but they can't adopt children... the exact opposite of the United States.

Anyways, back to my first day of teaching. My director had sent me my schedule this morning before school, which was rather late but I was not surprised as this is rather typical of Spain. So I ended up being with Maria for my first class. She teaches natural sciences, and today I began by introducing myself and then asking all the kids (she was teaching 12-13 year olds) their names and then some questions about them, like how old they were or if they had any brothers or sisters or what they liked to do after school. And then Maria passed out a worksheet in English with bar graphs and a chart on it, and I wrote all the necessary words down on the board and asked them to explain it to me in English.

My next class was my favorite. It was the 4th year students, around 15-16 years old, and supposedly the highest level of English, though they didn't have the level I thought they would. I had prepared a powerpoint presentation about myself, with pictures of my home, my family, dancing, Beaver games, Mexico... When I got to the picture of me and my friends in Las Vegas, Fran (the teacher), asked me what there was to do in Vegas, so that I could elaborate more on my photo. I looked at him to see if he REALLY wanted me to answer this question, and he nodded, so I said, "Well, in Vegas, we went to the clubs a lot to go dancing... some people gamble a lot. Do you know what gambling is?" The class looked blank. "It's when you bet money on a game..." They still stared at me. I looked at Fran. He said something in Spanish and they all nodded in understanding. Then Fran looked at me and said, "What else can you do in Vegas?" He might have winked.
"Umm... well you can drink. A lot. All day if you want to."
The class stared at me yet again.
"You know, drinking? You go out with your friends and drink?"
Still nothing.
I cheated and used Spanish. "Beber alcohol?"
"Ahhhhh!" They all said, and started laughing. Whatever, Fran asked for it!

After explaining all my photos and asking them clarifying questions about it at the end, (How old is my little brother? What is my favorite football team?), we worked on some grammar that Fran had prepared. I basically got to run the class, and I loved it! It made me excited to look up lesson plans online and make some of my own... hopefully this enthusiasm sticks around.

My last class was in a technology class of third year students who knew less English than the second year students in Marias class did. All I did though was write vocabulary on the board and read the vocab off in English so they would pronounce it right. The teacher would then tell it to them in Spanish. And that was my whole hour. It was boring.

But of course Fran doesn't have my schedule figured out for tomorrow or this week, so I guess I will have to think on my toes tomorrow if a teacher wants help with a lesson! In general though, I think I'm really going to love this teaching English thing... so much that I'm already looking into TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) courses that I can take all around Europe when I'm done in Spain in June. I'm thinking France, so that perhaps I can exchange my knowledge of English for some French lessons... a language that I would have learned in a heartbeat over Spanish if our high school had had a French program... but I'm of course quite happy that it didn't, because I adore Spanish :)

After classes I just basically sat around and talked to people on skype... it's getting boring without those private English classes yet. After I said Good Night to Eric and Good Morning to my mother, I walked out of my room and said to my roommates who were sitting in the living room, "I'm bored!" This is when Maria started talking about her classes for tomorrow and what I could do in them. I mentioned making a Powerpoint of the organs of the body, and she told me she had no idea how to use a Powerpoint. I shook my head in disbelief and then thanked God for my extensive knowledge of Microsoft thanks to the many profesors and teachers throughout the years that forced our knowledge of those multiple Office programs... I never knew I would meet anyone who didn't know how to use them! I was pretty stoked that I could teach someone something that I know so well... I guess that is the story of today!

When we were done, she gave a little yelp of joy, hugged me, and said, "Thank you! Now I will teach you to cook." Excellent.