English and Pirate Vocabulary.

This morning Bonnie called me at 6:30am and woke me up. She didnt really think about doing the time conversion until she realized that I was not quite coherent. I appreciate the call anyways. Its rare that calls come from over there, I suppose them coming at 630 am is compromise.

Anyways, I went back to sleep, well half sleep, and proceeded to dream about one of my classes: I was for some reason scheduled to have a special class with them on a Friday to show them a video about Pirates. However, when I arrived on Friday (the location my gradeschool) they were very unruly and I had forgotten that I was supposed to show them a pirate video. We were all very confused. To make matters worse, another teacher had come to the class to help me put on the special pirate video, but she had also forgotten what we were supposed to do. In the end, the students, who for some reason were playing with pirate swords, decided to leave class. I decided to leave class as well, thinking that my boss had made a scheduling mistake. When I got home, my father, my boss, reminded me that the reason for the class was to show the video and I felt really bad. Then my mother started talking about how the last time she taught that class the girls were a bit unruly. Then the dream goes onto the theme of my mother wearing an apron over her clothing as part of her new style............ but it gets a bit groggy.

So my weekend was great and relaxing, well except a minor climbing injury to Arturo, but he's one tough cookie and everything is okay.

Last night, I also ordered Chinese food and saw the movie "Welcome to the Jungle." It is a very silly movie. :)

Rain Boots.

It's been a rainy week, but I am happy to say that winter is finally easing up. There is more light during the day, which means that it does not feel so late when I get home. My constantly changing class schedule is shifting and I am now an evening worker. What shift would this be called? maybe 2nd shift? I have so much to learn about the English language and my country....... I wish I would have paid more attention while I was there.

Anyways, my job continues without much change, except that I am getting to be a kick ass teacher. I am learning about many rules of the english language and pronounciation, but mostly just trying to keep my students happy. I have some rather picky students.

I learned two new British words yesterday. Shrimp=prawn. aubergine=eggplant. And lastly check=bill (check is american).

My favorite lesson of the week was "teach me how to play poker."

Speaking of favorites....... Here is one of my favorite signs in all of Madrid:

This sign is found on the buses. The first time I saw it I stared for a long time before I understood what it was cautioning.

Now for the big news: I am finally going to start studying to get my driver's license here. I am very excited and feel like I am growing up all over again. Very few people get to relive thier childhood. Well, sometimes that is what it feels like I am doing.

Check back soon to hear about my climbingful weekend.

Happy Valentines Day

Javi thought the best way to spend Valentines day would be a friendly, deadly, bruising afternoon of paintball :) Being possibly more competitive than him, I agreed.

So we rounded up the troops and headed out to battle. After days of trash talk between Javi and I, we finally called truce and teamed up. Needless to say our team triumphed decisively.

Alright, back to working etc. Today it is snowing in Madrid, AGAIN. Waiting for summer ;)

New this week!

Hello again world. Still here, healthy, happy and on the road to that rich sort of life that money cant buy. Anyways, the first thing i would like to share is a headline that i read over the shoulder of someone on the Metro today:

"Spain has donated more money to Haiti than both Germany and France." I thought that was an interesting way to present the article. The first sentence placed Spain as being one of the top countries to donate 'behing the United States, and Russia or China" or something like that. Then I lost interest in the article. I am not going to state the obvious, only say that It's the dumbest headline i have seen in a while.

Monday was a monumental day. Why? Well, remember Santi? Look back a few entries and you will see the one and only strapped to a big ol orange crash pad, captioned as being one of my favorite English students. Anyways the story is that he introduced me to his friend Kike on Monday. Aside from his a little crazy curly hair, Kike has one of the greatest talents that I have seen action.

Santi: "Katie, go ahead say a sentence and kike will tell you exactly how many letters are in the sentence"

Me: "really?"

Santi: "Yeah he was on tv for this talent when he was 20 years old."

Me: "i dont know what to say"

Kike:"anything"

Me: "mmm in English or Spanish?"

Kike: (with -.6 seconds hesitation, mind you) "well for example you just said 18 letters."

It wasnt till the next day that I appreaciated the awesomeness of his talent. Anyways he says its something like he just sees the patterns in the letter or something like that. He's also an author; It all fits together.

My favorite english class topic that came up today was 'mullets' Business up front and party in the back :) I want to plan one for tomorrow based on the tv program Lost.

Tomorrow I work until 9pm. blaaaaaaaaaah

Training Training Training

In the climbing gym here the big competition is an ongoing event composed of about 4 or 5 small bouldering competition dates throughout winter. Your score is based on adding all the scores from each individual bouldering date. The competition is called "La Liga." Javi has been making a video for the gym's website after each round. Here is the latest one:
After 2 rounds of competition, I think that I am in 4th or 5th place? Something like that......

Anyways, at the end of all the little bouldering comps, the top five climbers compete with a final rope climb.

A story a little bird told me.

A little bird told me that her sister had cancer. Under the public health care system she was obligated to go to the appointed doctor in her city according to her residence. The doctors of her city admitted that they weren't really sure about the operation that needed to be performed on the cancer as they had seen few cases of the type of cancer and did not have much experience in the area. Although she preferred to go to a more specialized and more experienced doctor in Madrid, she was not allowed.

Monday.

Monday. Monday. Monday. Monday. Monday. Monday. It's 6 oclock and I'm in my pajamas. Here's my inspiration for the day:

Cousin Henry got jealous and needed to appear in my blog. (Later this week it will be princess Amaya's turn :)

If you can't tell, I am getting really technologically savvy.