Settling In

I have now been in Huercal-Overa for two whole weeks. Sundays in Spain are terribly boring. Today I have cleaned the house and ran already and its only 2pm. I now plan on watching several episodes of I love Lucy on youtube.

Friday was the first day of school for me! I started at 9am so I got there at 8:30. I was in the teachers lounge and everyone was asking me why I was there so early for work. The teachers here

show up 2 minutes before class and leave the school 5 minutes after. I guess kids don't go in for help after class! So I get there for my introduction day and the teacher says, "Ok. Go for it." (in spanish) I was like......"ok?" So I spoke about myself and all my family and friends and what it is like to live near Washington DC. The first question I was asked was whether or not I knew Barack Obama. I said no and they were all so disappointed, so I told him I had seen him land in his helicopter. They thought that was the

coolest thing ever. Then one of the girls asked if I knew Robert Pattinson. I told her that, sadly, I did not but I would keep and eye out for him. (I'm not sure he frequents DC as he is actually Englsih but oh well!)

Being at the school was the first time I felt that my Spanish was better than someones English. A lot of the people with whom we hang out are pretty good at English but the students were very rusty. I had to speak with a second long break in between my words for them to understand. I also had to write out a lot of words and names. My job is more to speak so that the kids can hear a native speakers accent as well as to teach them American culture. If you guys could put some ideas for activities down in the comments that would be great. Next week I am going to bring in pictures of me an

d the family doing typically american stuff. The kids will have to describe what is going on and describe the traits of the people in the pictures. "He is playing baseball." "He is tall with dark brown hair." Stuff like that.

I am now also fully settled into my apartment. It has an extra bedroom for people to come visit!!! The rent is 400 Euros a month, split between the two of us. The kitchen is really big but it does not have a stove? This is apparently normal, and as Jen and I almost killed ourselves multiple times trying to light our gas stove in Alicante maybe it is fortunate. If anyone has seen elf, you now know how I feel when I shower. My showerhead is about 6 inches below my head, so I lean over while I shower but I don't care cause I HAVE HOT WATER. This may seem strange for me to be so excited but we didn't have hot water in Alicante. I still find a hot shower to be one of the most enjoyable experiences ever after suffering through ice showers for 4 months.

I have been e-mailing back and forth with a lady named Laura about watching her two daughters. It would cut my weekends down to three days instead of 4 but it would give me some extra income. I wouldn't start until November 1st so Ill keep everyone updated.