Aventuras

We've had our first long weekend of traveling! Friday night we went to Ponferrada, a nearby city of about 80,000 people. It was nice to get out of our small town for a little bit. Ponferrada is about 40 minutes away by train. The other American Stephen lives there, so we went out with him and met up with some of the teachers in his school (he works at a high school in O Barco). The teachers were all really nice, and a lot of them are studying English because of a lot of classes like gym and art are being taught in English now.

Saturday, we went to Valladolid, which was about 3 hours by bus. It's where Amanda studied last summer, and it was really nice. It's a very traditional Spanish town, which was cool to see. We hung out with some of Amanda's friends from last summer and went shopping! I bought a jean jacket and red pants. I'm trying to look as Spanish as possible! haha Everyone wears boots and a lot of scarves too.

On Sunday in Valladolid, we had lunch with Amanda's host family! Her name is Conchita and her husband's name is Angel. It was Angel's 88th birthday, so a ton of their relatives came over for lunch. We had a delicious meal of caldo (Galician soup), chorizo, bread, chicken, potatoes, cake, and ice cream! All of the family was really nice, and some of the grandkids are studying English, so they were practicing their English with us.

On Tuesday, the director from Amanda's school brought us to Ourense to finish our paperwork (about an hour and a half away). It's the final part of our visa process to verify our legal status. We can now officially open up bank accounts, which we did this morning! I'll receive my debit card in the mail within the week, so that'll be great because I won't have to pay to withdraw money from my American account anymore. We should get paid at the beginning of November!

School has been going well. I made a poster for the kids in English about Halloween, and I am making a Powerpoint about Halloween in the United States, and my mom sent me a bunch of pictures from when Dylan and I were kids and dressed up. Next Friday, the whole school is having a Halloween party, and the kids are singing a song about Halloween in English. Amanda and I are currently on the hunt for Halloween costumes, and if I find one, I'm going to wear one next Friday. I also have a big bag of candy corn that I'm going to have the kids try. I'm hoping Amanda and I can get a pumpkin (calabaza) for our apartment, but I'm not sure where to get one.

Some of the kids are genuinely interested in learning English, which is cool to see. I'm definitely getting better at Spanish because the kids always talk to me in Spanish and I respond in English. So far we've worked on numbers, colors, time, and animals. The school is really tiny, so I know most of the kids and I'm sure I'll get to them quite well. I really like that I work with kids of all the levels, because I get to work with 3 years to 11 year olds.

No big plans for this upcoming weekend. Enjoy the pictures :)