Teaching and Such

So we still don't have internet in our flat yet, but if you hang your laptop almost out the window we can get some wifi. So I am typing this now with the hopes that when I hang my computer out the window, it will post!

I had my first day teaching yesterday at San Francesc de Asis. It is a primary school (ages 3-11) with about 200-250 students (only one class of each grade). I lucked out on location. It takes me exactly 5 minutes to get from my flat (on the 5th floor) to the school. I work at this school Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays two hours a day. And the earliest I have to be there is 11:30, which is nice. Most of the students, even the older ones, do not have a very good grasp of English. The younger ones can say "Hello, my name is.." and thats about it. The middles ones can say "Hello, my name is... I live in Palma." And the oldest ones can say, "Hello, my name is... I live in Palma. I like play football." So the English teacher speaks in Catalan (a French influenced dialect of Spanish and the co-official language of the islands) most of the time. The kids are on the poorer side, but nothing compared to some of the schools I have worked in. Tomeu (the English teacher) said that before he came last year, they could speak no English.

 The director of our program told us not to let the students know we speak any Spanish, or they will only try to talk to us in Spanish. But it is very difficult with the little ones who know no English. Besides the English teacher, most of the other teachers don't speak English either. They try to, and we usually end up talking in a Span-glish mix as we both try to understand one another.

I have still yet to hear from my other school, where I assume I am working Thursdays and Fridays. The director of the school I have been going to was nice enough to call them for me to ask about my schedule. They pretty much said, "I have no idea, I will call you back" and they haven't yet. Maybe I should just show up at the school tomorrow? I don't know. But the good news is that the other school is only 15 minutes away, so that is very convenient as well.

Everything else is going pretty good. We had some tiles on the living room floor pop up, so the owner is going to stop by today and look at it. 

Having a super market right down stairs is awesome! It's like having your own giant refrigerator, just 5 flights of stairs away. We've been making group dinners most nights. So we decide what we want for dinner. Go downstairs and buy it, split the cost 5 ways, cook and enjoy!

Everyone says the same thing about the water in Palma, it is safe to drink, but not very good. Luckily the market also sells huge 8 liter jugs of water for only a euro!

Speaking of money, the program still hasn't figured out how they are going to pay us yet. Apparently they can't do it the way they've done in the past because we are not EU citizens. But their attitude is, they have until the end of the month to figure it out, so why worry about it now. I am a little worried, but I'm sure they will figure it out... at least I hope so!!

We also got 3 plants for out terrace! Someone had thrown them out by the dumpster, so we went and helped ourselves! I think one of them is mint even! Yay!

Ok, I guess that is good for now. Luego!