Bored

Sometimes inspirational or good titles don´t come to me, and frankly I´m writing a blog post because I´m bored and have nothing to do during my 2 hour break here at the elementary school. It sucks that I am here from 9am-2pm but only work 3 hours. Since it is a town away from Cartagena, I can´t go back during my 2 hour break. So I surf the web, make lesson plans, plan trips, and day dream basically. All the kids here have exams this week, so that´s what we´ve been doing in class. It´s interesting to see the wide variety of levels in the English language here, a lot of the Moroccan students are still learning Spanish. I think there is some obvious discrimination against those kids, because of their origin. Both from the students, and I have seen some subtle actions from the teachers. I´ve talked with the other auxiliar about it and a couple of the teachers. Why do us brown people always get the short end of the stick? Really, where did darker skin become the "bad" and white or lighter skin become the "good" or "superior"?  In the majority of countries and cultures world wide, society always seems to follow this. Does it have to do with the general idea of lightness associated with heaven and darkness associated with hell? Daylight is nice but nighttime is scary?? I don´t have answers, i´m just writing thoughts. Even if two people are "pure" whatever, Spanish, Thai, Moroccan, etc. the child who comes out lighter skinned with lighter hair, is preferred or praised more often than the child who is not. It seems to be in only some parts of the United States and other countries where tanning or tanned bodies is desired. But even still, a tanned body is different than a naturally brown body. In the Spanish language, i´m a morena, which I know is just whatever, and is common, but it literally means brown girl. Or when they say el negro/la negra, it´s weird! It´s one of those cultural differences, or more linguistic differences that has taken me more time to get use to. Maybe it´s the fact that I am directly referred to as la morena? Because it doesn´t bother me when people say eres morena, but more when they use it as my name. I have a name, bruh. Should I take it as a compliment? I don´t know! Or if people would say la chica negra instead of just la negra. I should re-take linguistics.

That was a long paragraph. All in all, I understand the differences. But these are things that have crossed my mind more than a couple times.

Finding a flight from Madrid to Morocco has been more difficult than we thought, they´re pricey, probably because it´s only one way. Not sure what we´ll end up doing. Berlin is coming up, 2 weeks-ish, and it´s going to be COLD. As in, below freezing cold...pertty sure I´m going to die. I can´t find it in me to buy a new jacket just for that, plus how would I fit it in my suitcase on my way back to the states. Might go snowboarding en La Sierra near Granada, if it´s affordable.

The english language...why do we have two ¨f¨s in affordable if we only pronounce one? Or two ¨r¨´s in preferred if we only pronounce one?!

I´m looking on Pinterest for recipes, I looked up ¨Thai peanut sauce¨ then realized my mom is Thai....so I just emailed her. I need to learn more recipes. I don´t know how she does it, goes to work all day then comes to cook the best meals ever at home, incredible.

I guess bringing towels to the gym here in Spain, or in Europe in general is a norm, and a requirment. So when the guy came up to my sweaty self asking where my towel was, pretty embarassing. I didn´t know! Definitely went home shortly after that. It´s a nice gym though, with good classes.

I found a good website for printable coloring pages for a variety of subjects from the alphabet to holidays to music, better for younger kids. The website is twistynoodle.com 

Smiles

I'm sitting here at the elementary school where I work, and in the office I sit directly facing the open door where students constantly walk by. Whenever a student of mine sees me, they put on this huge smile and wave either saying "hello teacher" or "hola maestra". One of my first graders just passed by and did this while entering his classroom. Those smiles you can tell are so natural, and it's impossible for them to not smile, because they're so innocent and happy and un-corrupted by the world. And in response I can't stop smiling when their cute little chubby faces are grinning back at me. You can see the happiness in their eyes!!!! As cheesy as it is, that smile finally inspired me to write a post.

I still prefer teaching older students.

After traveling for 2 1/2 weeks I was exhausted. So now I'm very excited to just hang out in Cartagena, work, eat, and relax, and workout since I joined that new Vivagym that everyone is raving about. Talk about first world problems huh? Too much traveling, oh no! Poor me...but it IS exhausting.

Traveling with my family was amazing, a privileged experience, and of course, frustrating. I think we can all relate to family time as great and sometimes unbearable at times. I was so happy to be with them. Christmas day, just staying inside and watching movies with my brothers was exactly what I needed. Makes me think about when're we're ALL grown up and have our REAL own lives, how many times will we be able to hang out for an entire day together watching movies and eating chocolate...we spent Christmas in Paris and New Years in Madrid. Partying with Watson was at first extremely weird and uncomfortable, for the both of us, but after the first time we got used to it. Wyatt enjoyed the parks and outdoorsy stuff, my parents enjoyed the museums, historical sites, food and drink.

When I finally came back to Cartagena, it was sunny and warm, made me really appreciate where I live. I am not built for the cold.

One of my roommates will be leaving us soon, she's only here for a semester. That'll be sad, and to think about who will replace her?! We went out to tapas last night, always fun, and filling. Cartagena is one of those small cities, or towns, where you almost always run into someone you know. My official favorite tapas place is Maricastaña.  DELICIOUS! About food and eating...usually I bring a lunch to school, and eat it around noon. Because normally, I am hungry at this hour and don't have any other time to eat because I'm either running to the bus, on my way to a tutor class, or working. You can't imagine the looks I get. Eating at any other time besides 2-5pm is ridiculous. Always always always I get weird looks from other teachers and they ask me "You're eating?" What do I say to that question? "Yes, i'm eating"...and they always continue with "You're eating at this hour?" And on and on.  Some people don't ask and just look at me. I like to think they're just jealous and hungry. Sorry, but I'm going to eat when I'm hungry.

My next planned trip is to Berlin. SO EXCITED! I looked up a bunch of things to do there, and there is a ton of stuff, luckily we'll be going for 4 nights, and have 3 full days to be there and do stuff. Semana Santa I'll be going to Morocco, also super excited. Ready to see something different! I wonder if I 'll ever be able to "settle down" in a place for a long time, eventually I will have to. Being a teacher, at least I get 2 months to travel in between.

I have started looking for jobs back in California, for the summer and academic year. A lot harder than I expected. But it puts my mind out there in California. Now I'm starting to plan my summer, my life there. Which is weird, being that I'm still living here. I thought I was going to do a second year, but when the time actually came to it, I didn't. There is still the option, but I'm not going to. I don't think I would make as much money as I am right now, since I have two jobs plus extra tutoring hours. I want to get my credential in the process too, so i'm not screwed with health insurance in two years. Definitely drift into jobs that are abroad though, when I'm searching online for jobs. Somehow I always end up on those sites. I've found some great programs! But it'll have to wait a bit. All the jobs I've been looking at require more education than I have, as in a credential or 5 years or more teaching experience. Still young though.

I always have all these thoughts to write about but when the time actually comes I can't remember them all. Just made a super long presentation/class about Thailand, can't wait to show it to my classes!!!