Crying In Public For An Extended Period Of Time & Lots Of Pictures And Parties

Hello, again! I know it's been a while since I've written but in my defense I wrote a very lengthy blog using the Blogger app on my phone [that might have been a passive aggressive rant about paperwork regarding my resident card] but my phone deleted it and I didn't have the energy to rehash it all. The gist of that story is that the asshats that work at the foreigner's office actually had the audacity to tell me that I'm too white, so much so that they wouldn't use my picture on my new ID card. They even pulled up Photoshop right there and tried to make me darker.

Anyways I haven't written since then because I've been busy sleeping or living life to the fullest. Unfortunately one limits the other and vice versa. If I sleep as much as I'd like, I don't have time to have fun. And the more fun I have the less I sleep. This whole cycle came to a head a couple of weeks ago...it was my second week teaching preschool (and it was going pretty well in my opinion...I was tolerating and it hadn't driven me to drink yet) when my English coordinator came to me and told me that one of the preschool teachers had complained to the principal that I was using too many worksheets. To clarify, I had drawn a color-by-number ACTIVITY (not worksheet) for Halloween that the kids could color and take home to their parents...that lasted a grand total of ten minutes. It was actually a wonderful activity because after 50 minutes of singing songs and playing games the rugrats actually calmed down so they could focus on my instructions. I thought it was a.) awfully shitty that this teacher went behind my back so high as the principal to criticize me and b.) the English coordinator was the one who suggested the activity to me [which I wasn't even mad about, I just thought it was extremely ironic]. This week I was PMSing, for one, and I had also been getting less sleep. Her comment rubbed me the wrong way and pissed me off so much that I spent my recess crying and swearing in the bathroom. I felt childish but I got it out of my system and figured I only had to deal with this crap for another 8 months. I walked to the teacher's room, feeling annoyed but better, and all of a sudden everyone kept asking me, "Chelsea, what's wrong? Have you been crying? What happened?" I broke down. I was so pissed and also moved that everyone cared that it was like a break in the Hoover Dam and I started ugly crying. Like really ugly crying. And (except for airports) I NEVER cry in front of people. I believe firmly that crying, like drugs, sex, and religion, should be practiced in the privacy of your own bedroom...not forced on others. Every person that came up to me and tried to hug me or give me a kiss of support made me sob even harder (I was sobbing. It was embarrassing.) I ended up missing an hour of class to calm down and couldn't even express myself to explain that I was just exhausted and pissed off. I skipped my private classes that afternoon and slept off my bad mood. The good news is that, luckily, my little incident has only helped me. For three years I've only ever been jolly or positively sarcastic at school so the fact that I was so upset was a red flag to them. The English coordinator even wanted to march me down to preschool, while crying, to show them the "kind of psychological damage their laziness is wearing on me." Which cracks me up. But word got around to the preschool teachers and most of them (except the crazy one who complained in the first place) have asked me how I am and told me not to worry about anything...that I'm doing a great job and she can go suck a lemon. The other teachers have supported me 110% (pointing out that there's no way the preschool teachers could teach an entire class for an hour without using any worksheets or books) or have tried their best to help me find material to use to make my lesson planning less stressful. I think this is the best thing that could have happened so far because things have gone so much smoother since then and it's reaffirmed my faith in my coworkers, to know that they're there for me and really care about me. *warm fuzzy feeling*

Anyways since then I've also tried to have as much fun as possible and that's been going awesome as well. First of all Paco and Beto had a joint (belated) birthday party using all the Toy Story party decorations I brought back from America....balloons, candles, napkins, etc. I made Paco a Toy Story cake and he found a bear bar in the gayborhood that let him have his party there. (A bear is a larger, hairy gay man...but usually very flamboyant teddy bears. Hilarious people) Here are some pictures of the cake & the party:

Toy Story cake! "Hasta el infinito y mas alla"...To Infinity & Beyond, in Spanish

The birthday boy and his Toy Story cupcake/candle

Paco & I

The funniest picture I've taken in a long time...Ana Maria & I posing in front of the bear painting

The next weekend my girl friends and I went to Alcala for the medieval market. I've gone every year since I've been back in Spain and it's wonderful every time. This last visit, my last trip for a while, was amazing. I made an Italian friend at the train station (although we lost her not thirty minutes into the market), vented about my situation at school on the train, the weather was so beautiful, we got a drink and shared some candied nuts, got scared by a terrifying man dressed up as a gremlin carrying a trunk, I got interviewed for a Spanish news program (randomly), we ate amazing food and crepes, and I bought a beautiful new turquoise ring. The day was splendid. I miss Alcala and have so many wonderful memories from studying abroad there...but it was also poetic to return with new lifelong friends that have become my family in Madrid. Here are some pictures:

Anna, Kristen, and I stopping for a drink

Alcala, decorated for the medieval market (and a dragon passing the crowd)

Me, getting interviewed for the news...this was my face for most of the interview (because most of their questions involved Spanish history...hah!)

That catches us up to this weekend. Paco has been gone this last week on vacation and he & Beto brought me back a Nightmare Before Christmas mug as a souvenir. It's so gorgeous and thoughtful because they knew how much I'd love it, being so into the Halloween spirit. Not only is it gorgeous but it's HUGE. I can fit three cups of tea in it. We finished decorating our entire apartment for Halloween and I really wanted to carve pumpkins and have people over to enjoy it with me, so today I invited my nine closest friends over for Halloween brunch. I found an incredible recipe for cinnamon roll pancakes on Pinterest so I made those and bacon and the girls brought apple cake, churros & hot chocolate, fruit salad, pumpkin cookies, and cheese dip shaped like a pumpkin. It was such a lovely day. I also had a blast playing Susie Homemaker and acting like an adult. I spent all night last night cleaning our apartment from top to bottom (including washing all of the silverware to make sure it was clean enough for company) and even cleaned my room so my guests could leave their jackets and purses on my bed. We drank mimosas, ate lots of food, carved pumpkins (and taught two Spanish friends how to do so), drank pumpkin spice lattes and had a wonderful time. It was the perfect Sunday. Luckily November 1st is All Soul's Day, so we always have a three-day weekend for Halloween. Thursday we're going out dressed up and then get three days to recover. I'm going to be a witch! Here are some pictures from our Halloween fun:

My brand new gorgeous Jack mug!

So much delicious food! (well, the leftovers :)

Five beautiful pumpkins & cute pumpkin cookies!

Nightmare Before Christmas inspired nails & pumpkin!

The aftermath...great parties require even greater cleaning!

Well, I think we're finally caught up! I will update as soon as something interesting happens or November comes....whichever comes first :) Happy Halloween!