Backtracking...

Ok, so I did a really bad job of updating my blog in December, so now I'm going to backtrack to fill y'all in on what all went on over here. Since I've got like a bajillion pictures that I haven't posted yet, this will be more of a photo update.

The last week of school was a fun one. We did little, to no work, so that was awesome.

On Wednesday, December 22nd, we went to the Parque de navidad, or Christmas Park, here in Almería. It was a school-wide excursion, so all the kids from the 3-year-olds up to the 8th graders, as well as the teachers, went on the trip. There was ice-skating, rock-climbing, go-karts, a bunch of inflatable moon-walk type deals, trampolines with bungees and harnesses, and even video games.

Since the excursion was here in Almería, I got to sleep-in somewhat and meet them at the park at 10. When I got there, I got dragged onto the ice skating rink with some of the girls from the 4th grade class. They latched onto me and insisted that I hold their hands while they skated around. Considering the temperature here and the fact that this was like a public carnival and we were inside nothing more than a tent, the ice was in TERRIBLE shape. Not that I know anything about ice-skating, but I know that the times I have been before, it hasn't been nearly as difficult. However, unlike several of the other teachers, I managed to not fall the entire time! Carmen (one of the ESO, i.e. 7th and 8th grade, teachers) fell down AT LEAST 5 times in a half a lap around the the rink before she decided to take off her skates and walk the remaining half a lap to exit the rink. It was HILARIOUS.

After ice-skating, I managed to avoid doing any of the other activities by going around and taking pictures of everyone else. Overall it was a fun day and I know all the kids had fun. Lots of them probably don't get out of Rioja very often with their parents, so they were obviously thrilled to get to do something this cool as an excursion with the school! Here are a FEW of the pictures I took that day...I did my best with names, but since I've got more than 150 students, there are still quite a few I don't know

Lucia (4º), Claudia (4º), Paula (4º), and María del Carmen (6º)

Dani (2º) and I still haven't learned this girl's name yet hahah oops

Alex (2º) on the rock-climbing wall

He did it! The little guy was so happy!

Nerea (3yrs), Naiara (I think?)(3yrs) and Ismael (4yrs)

Ismael and Brian AKA Spiderman (4yrs)

Itor (5º), Jose María (6º) and I don't know the names of the other 2

Zaira (1º)--sooo precious! not to mention a good ice-skater

Teresa (one of the triplets in my 5-year-old class) and Elena (5yrs)

Manu (5yrs) hahah

Lucia & her BFF whose name I can't remember right now (4yrs)

Rubén (3yrs), the pirate...representin' SU haha

Laura (2º) and Naiara (3yrs)

Rando who doesn't go to our school, Marina (María de mar's daughter), Juanma (2º), and Carlos (6º)

Gero (another one of the triplets) and Jesús (5yrs)

María (1º)(my favorite!) and Jesús (3yrs)

Time to goooo...they didn't wanna leave!

Group shot at the end of the day!

Thursday, December 23rd was the last day of work for the year. As is traditional in Spain, many of the kids came to school dressed up as pastores or sheppards, and others as Papa Noel (Santa) or Mama Noel (Mrs. Claus), angels, and various other Biblical characters--there was definitely one Mary and one, what looked to be Joseph.

Oh and I forgot to explain something important in my last post. Here in Spain, as I breifly mentioned, the traditions are a little bit different. Instead of receiving gifts on Christmas Day, the majority of gifts are given on the morning of the 6th of January which is Día de los Reyes Magos or the Day of the 3 Kings. To them, the 3 kings, Melchor, Gaspar, and Baltasar, are like Santa Claus. So, all the children go to a parade called la cabalgata de reyes on the night of January 5th to see the 3 kings parade through the streets on floats. Melchor, the first king, is the one who brought gold to baby Jesus. Gaspar, the second, brought frankincense. Baltasar, the third (Side note: he is black...this will be important later) brought myrrh. After the parade the children all go to bed early because the kings come in the middle of the night and bring gifts to the children who have behaved well. To those who haven't behaved well, they, exactly like Santa, bring lumps of coal or carbón. Not sure if this tradition stemmed from Santa Claus or not, but I was surprised to find out that it was the same.

So, as a treat for the kids, three women dressed as the kings showed up at school on the morning of the 23rd. They were going around to each classroom and giving out candy. Some of my first graders had been out in the hall that morning and had seen them before they were supposed to. Valeria and I noticed that they were acting a little bit strange. Valeria asked them what was wrong and a couple of them were complaining about having stomach aches. They looked genuinely upset and in pain. Then, about 10 minutes later, Valeria announced that the 3 kings were about to come into the classroom. Ainhoa, one of the little girls who had a "stomach ache" FREAKED out. She literally started bawling and ran and hid behind me. She was crying and shaking and she made a few of the others do the same. She told Valeria that she was scared of the black king, Baltasar. I figured that being raised in a small town, she had been raised by parents who were racist or something (black people here are typically from Morocco and many Spaniards do, in fact, not have very high opinions of them). However, the funniest part is, when they came into the classroom, Baltasar was not a real black person but a white woman who had painted her face black...not dark brown, but literally black. It looked completely ridiculous! After seeing this woman, I could understand why Ainhoa was scared of her hahahah. Here's a picture of the class with the three kings. It took quite a while to convince her to get in the picture with Baltasar

Ainhoa is on the far right...that was as close as we could get her to Baltasar haha

During recess, everyone had hot chocolate (the consistency of hot chocolate here is wayyy different than back home--here it's literally like a melted Hershey's bar) and the teachers had churros (yes, like the ones you get at amusement parks except here they're not coated in sugar or cinnamon)(also, yes Ashley, the same thing that made your mouth bleed that time you were eating one at DisneyLand hahahhaha!). All the kids ended up with chocolate all over their faces and I have tons of chocolate moustache pictures haha. 

Amina (1º) with a chocolate moustache

After the break, all the classes lined up in the hallway and we went parading through Rioja singing villancicos or Christmas carols. Although I say carols, it seems that there is only one--they kept singing the same thing over and over and over again haha.

After the parade, we went to the local theater and got to see a lovely (NOT!) two-man production involving Sponge Bob Square-Pants, or as he is called here, Bob Esponja. The guy who was putting on the show looked like he made it up on the spot hahaha. And what's worse is that nearly the whole show was centered around the fact that Sponge Bob was going to be there, and this fool kept calling him "BOD" Esponja. What a joke. To quote Valeria, the first grade teacher, he was "an asshole" hahahahha. Butttt, the kids all seemed to enjoy it because they got to go up on the stage and dance and take pictures with Sponge Bob, so I guess it wasn't a complete failure. 

Here are some pictures from the last day of school!

My first graders, Aroa and María as shepherdesses and Francisco Cruz as Santa

Francisco Garcia, Zaira, & Julián. What a baller sweater. I love when parents let kids dress themselves

Te-te...one of the triplets! I really need to get a picture of all 3 of them together

Brian (4yrs) the sheppard

BFFs as a shepherdess and Mama Noel...SO CUTE!

Alex (2º) posing with his hot chocolate

Guadalupe (2º), Yasmina (2º), María & Paula (twins--5yrs), and I can't remember the last girl's name

Cute 2nd graders! This was when they were trying to get me to say stuff in Spanish

Say cheeeeeeese :)

Some of the 7th & 8th graders...no idea what their names are because they never talk

4th graders in front of City Hall

Mónica (6º) I don't know what she was carrying in that bag,

but it looked heavy and she carried it around all day long

It was a fun last week at school and to be completely honest, I am SO not ready to start working again. Going from doing nothing all day to having to wake up early and work all morning and then doing private classes in the afternoons is gonna be quite the change. The first week will definitely be rough, but then I imagine I'll get back into the swing of things.

Next update coming soon because I know if I don't get to it before Monday, when I start work, I probably won't post at all! Hope you enjoyed all the pictures!