enthpenthka

Tomorrow I'm off to Germany to spend Christmas with Sabine and her mother--and I am extremely excited about it. She and I are going to have epic adventures (when she's not doing homework and I'm not writing a paper on my methodological stance).

Of course, we do have the weather to contend with (it took her 36 hours, several train rides, a car ride and a ferry ride to get home) and my toe. A glass jar fell on it tonight and it's swollen and sore and I'm not entirely sure I can get my shoes on now. But as my mother quipped, the jar didn't land on my wings so I can still fly.

Did you know my mother also dances?

Don't be jealous, not everyone can have a mom as awesome as mine. True story.

Also, Emma and I had the following facebook conversation about the Christmas episode of Bones:

Emma: So I finally got around to watching the lastet episode of Bones and I thought it was super funny that her sister played her cousin. It made me giggle the whole time. Amyway, I love yuo bunches and bunches!

Sarah: I giggled too--especially at all of the comments that they looked like they could be sisters. It really doesn't take much to amuse me, sad but true. Miss you bunches and bunches too! (ps: we're more awesome as sisters than they could ever dream to be! :P )

Emma: True that! Double true!

So this summer Emma, Anna and I wanted to make our own "episode" of Bones. Emma wanted to be both Angela and the dead person. And she would come up to Brennan and hold up a picture of herself and say: "For some reason, this face rings a bell and I can't quite put my finger on why..."

The three of us thought it was hysterical.

Then again, "snuffalupagus" makes us giggle, so...you know.

And reports are trickling in that my Christmas cards and packages are actually making it to their destinations before Christmas which is great news--I didn't have high expectations of the Spanish postal service, probably due to the fact that everyone working in customer service in Spain acts really offended that they have costumers customers to serve.

Today the first and second graders had their Christmas show at school and they were adorable. I took video of every performance and lots of pictures too--which I won't be uploading online so you'll have to find me when I come home this summer and I'll show you then. Although...I suppose I could upload the staff band playing their songs...oooooh...that would be fun.

I'll work on doing that sometime over Christmas break :D

Merry Christmas everyone! I'll try to record a Christmas-y video-blog with Sabine as my special co-host!

Abby did a vlog, so I did one too.

Warning: Potentially very, very boring.



Link.

And it all makes me giggle far more than it should.

Also, still rather annoyed that the story I wrote Tuesday night has (according to Melanie) the same plot as not just one, but two different movies. To be fair, I've never seen either of the movies, but still. Very annoying.

And when I rewrote Optimal Social Distance Sabine said it sounds like Sadie is committing suicide--not taking an empowering jump off of a high dive. Woe. I just can't win.

Sometimes it just hits me how incredibly blessed I am to be here in Spain teaching. I absolutely love what I'm doing.

Sure, my lessons don't always work the way I planned them to, or there are massive moments of utter Spanish communication fail and sometimes I get so homesick I want to cry*--but I love it all anyway.

This summer when I nannied I thought I couldn't love a job more. I never dreaded getting up and going to work in the morning. I was worried that I'd never love a job as much as I loved nannying, but I needn't have worried. I love teaching just as much.

You'd think that by the sixth time I get around to teaching the lesson on how birds have feathers, fish have scales and mammals have hair I'd be bored out of my mind--but all I can think is: I have mastered the art of drawing scales on the blackboard. Sweet. and I'm still just as thrilled and excited when my students shout "Eh-SCAH-LAYS**!!!" back to me when I ask them: "What are fish covered with?"

*On Monday I had some rough culture shock. Totally hit that low point in those charts the study abroad office showed us before I went to Sweden. You know, the low point when they talk about how you'll hate everything about the culture you're in. Yeah, totally had that happen to me.

I hated Spain. I hated the metro. I hated how dark it was. I hated Madrid. I hated the Spanish language. I hated the landscape. I hated the weather. I hated giving private classes. I hated the lack of public bathrooms. I hated the lack of drinking fountains. I hated scooters. I hated pretty much anything related to Spain, Spanish and Spaniards.

I briefly contemplated buying a ticket and going home. It was awful.

But I'm better now. Not going to go home. Don't hate everything--although the metro is still On Notice.

Believe it or not, there were times when I hated everything Sweden-related and was downright miserable. In fact, I recall one specific incident in which I loathed Sweden, Swedish and Swedes. True story--I just decided not to blog about it.

**We're working on 'scales'--'spaghetti' too. If I got them all to say 'ankle' in a solid Wisconsin accent then I can get them to say 'spaghetti' and not 'eh-spaghetti.' AND all of my students now understand 'Do you have?' in addition to 'Have you got?' because I can never, ever remember to use the British 'Have you got?' because it sounds so ungrammatical to my ears.

None of them say 'hi' though. Only 'hello'--and often: 'Hello, Sela.'

We're working on it.