email to mama

hi mama,


The interview at KeyIdomas went well, but she called last night to tell me that I did not get the class that they immediately wanted to fill for Tuesday and Thursday nights, but this place just opened so they are expanding right now, so she said as soon as she had more clients she would call, maybe within the next month. in addition to offering classes at the school, they also contract out in-home private lessons, so i could maybe get some of those through them in addition to ones i get from connections or posters that i put up around town, school etc. so we will see.

overall the NIE wasn't too too bad. we got there an hour before it opened and there was already huge line, but we only ended up having to wait for about 2.5 hours which was way less than we expected. we got the numbers and everything, which we then had to take a bank to notarize, tomorrow we have to wait in the SAME line AGAIN to show them the notarized paper and get our actual ID cards. oh yeah thats what NIE is national identification something something, they thing that we need to have just in case we ever get stopped by the cops, get arrested, but it mostly for when i come BACK into the country after christmas, because i need to present this card with my visa... whatever..... YAY

bureaucracy!

Hey guess what, in class today, my niños actually LISTENED! I taught them the days on the week, months of the year and the seasons! I have drawn up another lesson plan to complete "What day is it" and then "What time is it", then the weather. My goal is to open each English class with, for example: "Today is Tuesday, October sixteenth, 2007. The weather is hot and sunny." and have that be like the routine of the beginning of each class and take turns with who has to say it at the beginning of each class. Then after that we are going to do prepositions and classroom vocab. Noelia has told Sara I am a good worker :) I do not feel like I am though, this is the only day I am coming this week! Because I did the NIE yesterday and we have to go back tomorrow to finish it! AND Monday the 22nd is apparently a holiday here in Dos Hermanas. Haha rough huh? I want to use the time to go over those teaching materials I bought from home and also study up on relevant vocab.


Well, I need to get going so I can catch the train back to Sevilla.
Te quiero!!!!!!
Besito,
MC

my address and digits

should any of you want to send me presents, email me at:

mclauerman@gmail.com

and i will sen you my address and also i can give you my spanish cell number if you want to call me! oh, download skype!!

KEEP IN TOUCH!

beso,
mc

thank god its wednesday!

i know that i can't complain too much with only a 3 day work week, but trust me, my job is still pretty intense!

this morning went well in class! i created a number/ color game of BINGO and the kids loooooved it. they got really really into it and want to play again. "Maestra, tengo B2! Tengo GREEN!!!" They are 9 so anything with competition is very exciting. this afternoon was a little rough though. there was a big drama because supposedly a boy in our class did something wrong yesterday and the parents of teh other child came into complain today. he ( Lucas, the accused) would not stop crying because they wrote a note to his parents about what he had done, and he said when they saw the note about his bad behavior, they would beat him. i told you i am working with kids from a rough neighborhood. noelia (my partner teacher) is going to try to talk to the mom when she comes to get him and convince her not too be too hard on Lucas. rough stuff...

My roommate Maggie and I have started watching the Spanish sitcoms at night, they are perfect because they are really stupid and they talk slowly so we can understand what they are saying. we are so tired after teaching that all we can do after is take siestas and watch tv. i am still a little sick so tonight i think i will do the same.

i do not have internet at my house, probably not until next month, so any emailing/posting will have to wait til next week when i am back at school and can use the internet for free.

hope everyone is well!
email me about what you are up to, i like to hear what is going on at home!
beso para todos,
MC

fotos de piso

a few pics on my apartment!

that last one is my roomie Maggie in her room

Segundo semana en Sevilla

(written on Sunday, could not post until today)

A week later things are much brighter.
WE FOUND A PISO!
We spent all Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday searching, we called about 50 numbers from ‘se aquila’ (renting) and went into about 8 real estate agencies and everyone said that they either had absolutely nothing, or just a one bedroom for a thousand euro a month. On Wednesday I met with my bilingual coordinator/boss/teaching partner Noelia. She is really nice and was very concerned that we had not found a place to live yet. So, rather than sitting and chatting over coffee, we set out about the neighborhood taking down more numbers, and going into more agencies. The numbers said they had already rented, the agencies had nothing. Finally, the last agency place asked what our price range was and we said no more than 900/mo and we wanted 3 bedrooms. They just so happened to have a place right behind the agency for 900, would we like to take a look? I was expecting all of the apartments in Spain to be old, and rundown and tiny, because that is what we were told to expect. NOT this place! After looking at it with Noelia I excitedly told the agency that the girls had to see this place and that they would be very interested. I RAN back to our hotel to get them, of course they loved it! We gave ourselves one night to think about it but basically as soon as we left we had decided. The piso is more expensive than we originally wanted but Noelia told us it was actually a really good deal for what we were getting. Not to mention the fact that we were getting desperate. We figure that spending half of our paycheck on rent was worth it because then at least we would be poor in a nice place! I have pictures of the apartment which we call ‘el palacio’. (the palace).
So yeah, Thursday we went down to the agency to sign the papers and pay them large sums on money and they gave us the keys! That night we had a little dinner party at our new house with some Spanish take out and Cruzcampo beer (the Spanish equivalent of Budweiser, its everywhere.) We slept at the hotel Thursday night because we hadn’t bought sheets or blankets yet, then Friday we check out of the hotel (not a second too soon, because Thursday was our last paid-for night in the hotel) and finished moving into our palacio! We had a little fiesta for ourselves Friday night and the remainder of this weekend we have just been resting. I am STILL sick with my cough/chest cold, so I am trying to finally take it easy to finally get better. We slept literally all day yesterday, and so far had been laying around today too. We had been going non-stop for 2 weeks straight, so once we hit the ground there was no getting up. Aw one bummer, we were so excited last night to make a cheap dinner (pasta, 1 onion, 1 can tomato, 1 eggplant) and to watch one of my dvds I brought from home, buuuut the stupid regional codes would not let us watch a movie on our sweet tv which came with the apartment! But its alright, Spanish tv will do just fine. I am going to keep loading up with the vitamin C and rest!

Monday my first week of school begins. I went one day last week, it was interesting. The population of students at my school is mostly gypsies (‘jitanos’). What this basically means that they mostly come from lower-income, less-stable homes. In the classroom this translates to basically chaos. They were sweet kids, but just all over the place. No one stayed in their seats, everyone shouting, about a 2.3 second attention span. Our first lesson plan than Noelia and devised went reasonably well, we used pictures of animals to learn some basic vocab. They liked it, although no one is quiet while anyone else is talking, but I guess it is what comes with the territory. I am mostly going to be team-teaching with Noelia, in her class which is 8 and 9 year olds. She said I could go help in other classrooms if I wanted but I have a feeling she does not only appreciate the extra pair of hands in her classroom, but I do not think the other teachers are as receptive to extra help from an extranjera (foreigner).

Well I think I am going to spend another glorious day resting and relaxing in my apartment! Oh yeah, we have a futon, so you can stay with me if anyone wants to visit!
Besos,
Mary Claire

First week in Sevilla

I have been in Sevilla, Spain for one week. At the same time I can’t believe a week has passed and it feels like I left home a lifetime ago.

I had an amazing time visiting mis amigos in Boston! It was just like old times with just as many laughs and shenanigans!! It was like a day had not passed. Rob, Kelly, Alycia, I love you all to death!!!

As for Spain so far…let’s start at the beginning. The trip here was the WORST. Well I suppose not THE worst, because then I would be dead. Not quite there yet (although I am sick…. : ( ) Long story short I had to switch flights and airports last minute, had to cab from LaGuardia airport to JFK in New York, I thought I would never see my bags again AND miss my flight, but I did manage to make my flight from JFK to Madrid and although we were two hours late taking off and I missed my connection to Sevilla, I was able to catch the next connection to Sevilla and I survived. It took over 24 hours and I could have filled about 8 gallons with sweat from running across JFK (large airport) and from the tears when I broke down where everyone else’s luggage came off the transferred flight except mine and when I was sure I was going to miss my flight out of JFK and have to spend the night n New York alone. But I made it, and I actually got bumped to business because I almost missed my flight and they gave away my seat in coach. The lady at the desk told me “it was my lucky day”.

So I arrived, and they only lost one of my bags instead of both like I thought would happen, and they actually delivered it by the next day. Our orientation was….. ok. Very nice hotel, and of course, walking around Sevilla is amazing. It is SO beautiful.

Bad part of orientation is that this is the first year of this particular program so although it was well organized, it was not always relevant or helpful. Not nearly as much help with the practical things like FINDING A PLACE TO LIVE, help with banking and legal issues than I expected. We were basically told “go out and look for rental signs and call numbers” …..uhhhh….

One really nice thing is that I have met some really cool American girls from my program and I am looking for a place with 2 of them that will be working near the area where I need to be. One girl (who is hilarious) studied here before so she knows about the city which is really helpful. But we are only in this next hotel until the end of this week so time is definitely running short and we NEED to find a place. Tomorrow we are basically going to a real estate agency and we are willing to pay a large sum of money to not be homeless. We are not panicking yet though, we still have some time.

So needless to say, it has not been all parties and sightseeing yet. I know as soon as we find a place, get things taken care of, I start my job (I go in Wednesday for the first time), and get a routine down I will start to have fun and enjoy it here. Right now it is basically just really stressful… and I’m sick.

We went out for my birthday last night to dinner and walked around a bit, but I must say I was a little homesick. The girls have promised a “re-do” of my birthday night, which they wanted to do tonight but I think I better just try to get better physically and focus and the more pressing tasks at hand like not being homeless.

I am hopeful though, I know everything will work out and then it will be awesome once I am living and working in Spain. Dude, my schedule rocks, I teach Mon-Weds. 4 day weekends, hell yes. Once I get things for together I will start doing tutoring for extra money, but for the first few weeks I might just take the time I don’t feel like I have right now to just take in the city and relax. I will let you all know when that time comes.

If you are reading this, I know that I miss you and I love you. Email me, hit me up on facebook, get skype, it helps to hear from people at home.

Besos,

MC

fiesta de adios

we didn't even have THAT much left over food.... or drinks....



i love you all.