Teaching English. Spanish Mentality.

I don't think my biological clock has ever been so confused.  My roommates just had their midday meals, at 7:00pm.  I teased my hunger with a small bowl of soup so I can partake in their normal dinner hour, which is going to take place here hopefully sometime soon (between 10 and midnight?).  I'm almost always the first to go to bed, I mean I would stay up and watch late night "reality" TV in Spanish with the boys, but quite frankly, I think it's just awful.  You thought Jersey Shore was bad?  Anyways, enough said.

Since I've moved in, I've rearranged my room in a way that, according to my roommate, Ramón, is very American.  So I said, you mean better and more efficient?  He said yes.  I'm not sure if he completely understood.  Don't get me wrong, I speak a bit of Spanish, but there is still a language barrier at times, and in this instance it served me well.  

I was talking to Ramón about his studies, and he began describing to me how he always has trouble concentrating on school work until the due date comes very close.  I was surprised the Spanish don't have a definitive word for procrastination, considering the "no pasa nada" lifestyle.  

What I've got here is essentially a "Hakuna Matata" mindset, it means no worries, for the rest of your days.  But seriously, we had a discussion about retirement, and the government takes care of you after 65, even if you've managed to survive that long without working a day in your life.  But hey, if you can do that, you're probably resourceful enough to not need retirement.

Today I was the first to awake.  The time was noon.  I had gone to bed somewhat early (2am) as I had had a busy weekend in Granada.  Even on a school day there is never any need to rush.  I tried to call the immigration office about a hundred times to schedule an appointment to get a temporary residency, but the line was busy every time, and they close at 2pm every day for siesta.  Ahh siesta, you better have nothing you need to do between the hours of 2 and 5-6, because that time is reserved for, well, nothing.

So as it's been a good ten days since I've posted anything, I guess I'll give a quick and dirty recap.

I've had my first few days teaching.  Of course the first day was chaos.  If you want to feel like a celebrity, go to an elementary school anywhere else in the world (well, to my knowledge, Spain or Chile, and according to a friend here, China).  The kids are great, although the English level is pretty low.  I'm not too impressed with the (quite spendy) curriculum they use (which I guess would include me as an assistant, so I can't really complain), but something somewhere isn't working, and the Andalusian government spends far too much money on it for it to be failing so badly.  They bought elementary schools a computer for each student, more or less - I've noticed about 1 per every two students, but still, that's pretty progressive as far as I know.

All the kids packing down to see the water caves on our field trip!

Well I have to teach in the morning so I guess I'll call it a night and just have to recap later.  Ah who am I kidding, I'm going out for a drink with my roommates, I mean, I have to fit in right?