Oh yeah, baby!!

Hello and I'm sorry!, first and foremost. I haven't been great about updating this because last week was finals week, plus one of my best friends, Stephanie, came to visit. It was in the same week, so I tried to boost into super mode to get all of my shit done before she got here. That was unsuccessful (surprising? no), but I've finally burned out and become sick from being so pushed to the limit....so my body is forcing me to take a break and rest. Thanks, body.

Sigh...where to begin!? Stephanie told me my blogs are too long so I'm going to try to write less...more often. (That's aiming a bit high but it's the thought that counts)

Hm, okay. So recently pop culture has been ruling my school and students. Usually it's just a little reference to soccer, or my students ask me if I watch Teen Mom (...and get super impressed when I tell them that crazy psycho Amber is from Indiana...please keep in mind my students are 12, at best). Whatever. It's gotten significantly worse though...and I'm never ready for it.

Fore example, I was teaching my first graders how to play Go Fish...to practice numbers. I thought that would be super fun and easy but I was so wrong. First of all, they didn't get the RULES of the game. I told them all beforehand but they must not have understood or paid attention. To begin with, they didn't understand that you had to give all of the cards they had of one number if somebody asked for them. THEN they didn't put two and two together and understand that they couldn't ask for cards that they didn't have in their hand. It was a small nightmare. They actually couldn't even manage "go fish"...they always said "ess feesh." And yet they still managed "have you got...three?" They're so freaking adorable so it doesn't even matter. Anyways, one of the kids was really smart, though, and understood how to play the game. He said "I saw dis on TV, because I watch TV een Eengleesh!" Good for you, Luca. Half way through the game when he got one pair, he yelled "OH YEAH, BABY, YEAH!!!"

.....................................................................errrr, Luca, what TV do you watch in English!? Austin Powers?! I had no idea what to even say so I just ignored him and tried to tell the other kids he didn't know what he was talking about. That's the last thing I need....80 little international men of mystery running around my school.

In 5th grade, they're learning about animals. They had about 80 vocabulary words of different animals, and some of them they didn't even know in Spanish. For example, otter is nutria. They ask, "what is otter?" I tell them "nutria"..................................."Chelsea, what is nutria?" Lord. So I put pictures with the names and we had been practicing the pronunciation. P.S. my FAVORITE animal for them to say is squirrel. Hands down. They say it like "skwee-rull"...but fast! It sounds so hilarious. We practiced it about fifty times in each class...for pronunciation, but mainly because it was so funny to me. I really don't want them to say it right. Anyways, last Friday class was over, and Rocio and I were leaving saying "Bye!! Have a good weekend!!" ...dead silence. Rocio (the teacher), said "wow, how rude...I said "have a good weekend!!"....??" Still, silence. So she explained (keep in mind we've been doing this with this class since September, and they still have no idea) what "have a good weekend" means in Spanish, and the proper response is "you too!". So all the kids shouted "you too!!.......YouTube!!" Except it was more like this:

Kids: Jew too!...haha, JewToob!! JewToob! Ees like JewToob!!

...someday I'm going to dedicate an entire class to teaching my students how to pronounce "y". Until then, I'm going to keep chuckling at their unfortunate mishaps.

During the same animal presentation, the kids learned the word "chicken"...they already knew it but they were having fun putting a picture with the word. One of the kids, when we reached the slide, yelled "Chee-kun! Like Chee-kun tenders!" I was like.....um, Jorge, where did you learn the phrase "chicken tenders"?? He matter-of-factly replies "Boo-rger Keeng". Great. Then we were looking at "cat", which they all knew, but I thought it'd be funny to put a picture of my brother with my cat, Lexi...because she looks NOTHING like the cats they have here. This is the picture I put on the slide:

Wonderful, right? Anyways I thought they'd just think it was hilarious...and none of my students thought he was my brother...until I told them, and then they got SUPER excited. But the one class, the infamous class (that by the way, is usually my favorite) thought he was Fernando Torres, a famous soccer player who used to play for one of the Madrid teams. This is him:

I think it's one of those things where they just love this guy so much they really hoped it was him. Anyways I showed them the picture of Lexi and Alex and this is the conversation that was had:

Me: Cat! Do you know who this is?
Kids: OH MY GODE (that's how they say "oh my God"), ees Fernando Torres!!!
Me: No....it's not Fernando Torres, it's my brother!
Kids: YOUR BROTHER IS FERNANDO TORRES!?
Me: nooooooo....my brother is Alex, and this is my cat Lexi!
Kids: So wait...is that why Torres now plays for Chelsea??? THAT IS SO COOL.

..........fail. Big fail. Chelsea is one of the competing soccer teams, and a main reason why I LOVE living in Spain. It's a great way to explain how to pronounce my name (Chelsea...like the soccer team? Yes :) AND most guys here adore soccer so they think it's really exciting. Double bonus!! So anyways....my students STILL think that guy's my brother and think he switched from Madrid to Chelsea for that reason (because he now plays for Chelsea). Great. Hey, I'll take it.

This is my attempt at being "short"....eh. Tomorrow during lunch I'll update a little bit more...I have an entire list of crazy to report :) GO BULLDOGS!!!