First Day at Work

Thursday was my first day working at CEIP Federico García Lorca. Cody and I met the other assistants, Tamara and Emma, who are both from England. Our coordinator, Pilar, showed us some of the teacher's resources and showed us around the school for the first hour. After that, we went to our respective classes. My first class was a fourth-grade science class. The teacher, Maite, had me introduce myself to the class. They were very excitable children, yet well-behaved. I then read some science vocabulary words to them and had them repeat each term, checking their pronunciation. At the end of class they asked me questions about life in Missouri.

My next class was fourth-grade English, which Pilar teaches. The children were drawing advertisements for vacations which they then had to present to the class. Some of the children were very inventive, such as one who created a one-billion euro vacation package to Las Vegas. The package included "travel by giant chicken." One of the girls in this class asked me, "Where does Hannah Monatana live?" "Hollywood, I think."

These were my only two classes for the day as my schedule on Thursdays is only three hours. We all took a break in the teacher's lounge after this second class. Coffee and pastries were served. I waited in the lounge for an additional hour as the other assistants had another class. After that Cody, Emma, and I went to eat lunch at an outdoor cafe in downtown Alcalá.

This looks like onion rings, but they are the fried calamari I had for lunch. All meals are served with a tapa, in this case the olives in the background, and bread. The food was great, especially the olives, which were grown in the region and not pitted. While we were eating here, we ran into Kevin and Liz, two other American assistants who are living in Alcalá, but teaching in a neighboring town. Later that night we me them and their Londoner roommate, James, who is studying at the University of Alcalá, and walked around the town, going from tapas bar to tapas bar.

The next day Cody and I visited more of Alcalá de Henares, finding the medieval city wall, which was surrounded by an outdoor sculpture park. We also found some more plazas and a Don Quixote reenactor.

I also found a statue of Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII of England. She was born in Alcalá de Henares.

Also, these make me laugh: