Ahhh the second weekend in Valencia has arrived and it is muuuuch needed. Jusssst kidding; even weekdays are like a super-cultural vacation, but truthfully my internship was slightly more demanding than usual this week. One of the teachers at the English Academy called in with bronchitis on Wednesday and my boss turned to me and said, "How would you like to substitute for her classes in about five minutes?" I said "UHHHHHM" and accepted... somehow a licensed professional had made the decision to let me pour my knowledge of the English language (yikes) upon young, mold-able minds and I wasn't going to pass it up. The fact that I couldn't think of a synonym for "mold-able" in that last sentence indicates what a bad choice that was on her part. But things actually went really well with the little kids and besides getting walked all over at the end of the older kids' class (which ended in a completely non-English-related soccer game and the promise of candy for everyone on Monday) that went great as well. The same teacher didn't show up the next day either so I got to teach the Tuesday-Thursday kids, too. I really liked it and felt very comfortable in front of the classes (besides the few times the students asked me the meanings of certain English words in Spanish and I had no idea what they could possibly be.... such as "alien spaceship"? Weird how that one never got inserted into my lexicon).
Thursday night Sara and I decided it was about time we attempt to pull an all-nighter or at least stay out past midnight to prove to everyone that we are not, in fact, old ladies. So around 10:30 we hit up a karaoke bar where we performed a rousing rendition of "Colgando en tus manos" much to the joy of the Spanish locals who I'm sure assumed we knew no songs at all except for "Call Me Maybe" and "The Wobble". Boy were they wrong. Our drinks there seemed way more expensive for some reason... likely an added fee for people with especially horrible voices and poor accents. After we had destroyed the love of music for as many people as possible at "Karaoke La-La" we headed down to the Ciutat de Artes y Ciencias in a cab to go dance at the discoteca. It was a really fun time minus the three stolen iPhones of various girls in the Valencia program and a stolen wallet.... ladies: please watch your stuff while Spanish twenty-somethings are standing there telling you how "bonita" you look tonight. We went down to the main floor to get our dance on where I met a very nice Brazilian guy who insisted that in his country, you kiss on the mouth to greet each other (which I politely declined, Luke). We hailed a cab at around 4:30am (not exactly an all-nighter but hey, we're working on it) and collapsed into bed to absorb a whole two and a half hours of sleep before waking up for work again.
Although upon cracking open my eyelids at 8am I was cursing every discoteca in the country, I am extremely glad I got my American tail out of bed because it turned out to be an awesome morning. Thanks to my boss's husband being the director of the English department at one of the local schools, I had the opportunity to go to an actual Spanish elementary/middle/high school (system is way different here) to observe some classes. The kids were super fun and asked me questions in adorable accents and gasped in awe whenever I said I was from the United States as if I'd achieved some sort of incredible success being born in my giant comfortable mono-lingual country. I am now fully regretting not bringing several trashy American tank tops to wear everywhere. The littlest kids even hugged my legs and asked if "I was naughty as a child" (apparently it's part of their vocabulary list for the week) and if I would stay and teach them English. Miiiiight try and take them up on their offer if they'll give me a salary... Chocolate paychecks will suffice.
This afternoon was great and relaxing; we walked around in the Plaza de la Reina near the big cathedral and I chatted with a man who was browsing in the bookstore to get some recommendations for Spanish novels. After his friend told me that one of the books I was holding was great and "de puta madre" (don't look that one up, children) I think I made a solid purchase.
Tomorrow a few friends and I are off to Alicante which is located on another beach about 2.5 hours away from Valencia. We will hopefully be living through an ocean jet-skiing experience and eating paella on a catamaran. If I blog again it's because a gorgeous Spanish lifeguard dragged me out of shark-infested waters.
Thanks for reading and e-mail me your address for a postcard if I don't already have it!!!
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