Hodgepodge 2.

I received a package from my mother a few days ago and inside I had the following:

4 boxes of Kraft Mac n’ Cheese
2 boxes of Wheat Thins (best for cheese and crackers)
1 giant bag of Sour Patch Kids
1 giant bag of an assortment of Jelly Bellys
2 tubs of peanut butter
1 movie that I had left at home

Therefore, for lunch, I had the following:


Que bueno. Thanks Mom!!!

*Notice the cut up hot dogs in the Mac n’ Cheese. College all over again…
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So, the first week of December we have two days off from school, Monday the 6th and Wednesday the 8th (unfortunately we have school on Tuesday the 7th…). With me not working Fridays I thought this would be a great opportunity to do some traveling so I splurged and bought round trip tickets to:


LONDON!

The tickets were 94 Euros, which at the time with the exchange rate cost me about $135. Lauren Maat (Johnson), a long time friend of mine, and her husband are currently living in London and upon my request are going to graciously allow me to crash while I am there, so I am saving some mega bucks doing that as well. I will be in London for three full days and am currently planning my itinerary. The following are some of the sights I will see.


Westminster Abbey


Changing of the Guard and Buckingham Palace


St. Paul’s Cathedral


Stonehenge

Yes, Stonehenge. It is only about an hour and a half outside of London and I feel like it is a must see.

I can’t wait to tell all of you about that trip. Those dates are December 2 – 6.

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Last week I promised all of you some pictures of my students. I reneged on that this week but I did snap a few pictures of the 6 year olds I teach at the academy on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Check them out:






This class has proved to be the most challenging experience I have ever had teaching. Their English is not at a level that allows them to understand what I am saying, and they only speak Spanish back to me (and it’s little kid Spanish which makes it difficult to understand). With that said, it’s been a challenge getting through the curriculum and I spend a lot of my time talking over their Spanish trying to get them to listen and understand my English. I have a new amount of respect for elementary teachers as well as my fellow Americans who taught younger kids in Honduras with me earlier this year. Talk about a whole new level of patience. It is good for me though, a valuable experience.

I will hopefully snap some pictures of my other kids at La Zafra, as well as the academy, this coming week.

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I have officially made my first wardrobe purchase here in Spain. However, it really isn’t clothing.



The infamous “man purse.” I have a new appreciation for them after living in Europe for a couple of months and I think it will be extremely valuable with the traveling I’ll be doing. I wanted to get one for London because they are just big enough to fit my wallet (in a safer place then my back pocket), my camera, passport, and for a long day of sight seeing a couple of sandwiches.

I went with Emily and our friend Bernardo looking for one and once I found one Bernado got me a 50 percent discount by using a special card (like a Kroger card you keep on your key chain) for that particular store I bought it in. This brought it down from 18 Euros to 9 Euros. Clutch.

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It is another weekend here in Spain and I have decided to do something out of the ordinary. Check out the following pictures of what that will be.





Rock climbing. Those pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago by Andrew Crosson, another American who is in his second year teaching in Spain and who also lived in the exact same flat as me last year here in Motril. He went with our Spanish friends and I will be joining them tomorrow to do the same. Wish me luck (one, because I have a small to major fear of heights and two, I have never actually climbed rocks, only the plastic wall things you see in large sports stores or your local gym).

Well that is all for now.

Hasta luego.