It’s colder than I thought it would be

As in cold. Sweater, jacket, long pants cold. Ok, so the average highs are 62 here, but those are HIGHS! What about the rest of the time? Boy, that's not the summer-all-the-time-Spain I had pictured. And I don't have a lot in the way of warm clothes, but so far it's been ok because my lovely flatmate has lent me a jacket (which I hope she doesn't want back any time soon), and I've gone shopping!

Also, little play on words here, I've caught ANOTHER cold. I think it'll be like this all winter unless I can figure out a way to make the kids disease free... or at least contagion free. I don't know what to do. I've never been one to get sick, I used to brag that I never got sick and now I've gotten sick twice in five weeks.

Bleah.

In other news... The kids are fine, except for being germ factories. They've gotten used to me, I've gotten used to them, something has shifted. I don't hate them anymore and although I don't LOVE them they're alright. Individually I like almost all of them, but as a group it's like a big glob of running/screaming/whining/mini-people. So, no problems there.

I'm still infatuated with Barcelona. There's just something about this city.

Barcelona's where the heart is

This is a mass email I sent out last week, but I don't have many of your emails, or I didn't include you because I know you read the blogs here regularly. So, sorry if it's a repeat.

Hi Everyone,

I figure once a year or so is frequent enough for these kinds of things.

As many of you know I moved to Prague last year to> teach English, and after a year I decided it was time for a change and now I'm living in Barcelona. I've been here a little over two months and it's utterly fantastic.

It's so hard to sum everything up in an email but I'll do my best.

Actually, no, I won't even try to sum up the day-to-day... you can read my blog for that... It's too daunting to try to explain a year's worth of experiences. Needless to say my life's been really full, full of joy and hard times, full of jokes and tears, full of learning. Always always always learning. This is starting to sound like a Hallmark card and that's not something I'm interested in doing. So, read my blog for details.

Generally speaking it's been an amazing year/year and a half. One of the most interesting things has been facing my own fears, and in turn facing myself.

When I started thinking about moving to Prague (some of you will remember this) I was terrified. Terrified. And when I got to Prague I was terrified. And when I started teaching I was terrified. It seems like I spent so much time being afraid.

I think what I was most afraid of was the unknown. A pretty common fear. But not just the unknown of the big vast world, but the unknown Molly, the Molly I was turning into, the future Molly. I knew I was changing (and had been changing intensively for several years before moving to Prague) but I couldn't imagine what I would look like.

Unsurprisingly I look a lot like myself, only more so. I feel like the more I change the more I become myself. What a huge relief!

Also I've learned countless other things, most of which I'm sure I won't even realize until later in my life. Some of which are basic skills like teaching (adults and kids) and some of which are more abstract like an increased sense of self and my place in the world, my ability to make friends, courage and what it really feels like (most of the time it doesn't feel courageous at all), and many more. It's been an unbelievable ride, and I'm nowhere near finished yet! As I said to a friend recently, "If it wasn't me I'd be jealous." And it's true. I'm jealous of myself.

This feels like a very truncated email, like I've been telling a story to myself and decided to start writing it mid-stream. Sorry if it's too abstract or too vague or too touchy-feely, I can't really sum up what I want to say. I keep thinking, "This is really silly. You haven't even had any contact with half of these people for ages!"Basically this is a thinly veiled attempt to get you to read my blogs! No, seriously, I just feel like it's time for an update.

If any of you are planning a trip to Barcelona drop me a line, you always have a place to stay.


Thinking of you all,
Molly

http://blog.myspace.com/curlymolly
http://curlymolly.blogspot.com/

PS I have two blogs, the myspace blog is older, so has all the Prague posts (and pre-Prague posts), but myspace is a little frustrating sometimes so I added blogspot to my repertoire... Both are the same after a certain post, I just cut and paste from one blog to the other.

London

Well, London was fantastic. As expected. The weather was amazing--no rain!!--and I had a great time with my friends. I don't know what to say really, it was well worth the fact that I had to get up at 4 am on Monday and fly back to Barcelona and then work that night until 10 with hardly any sleep... I'm only now catching up.

We saw everything, lots and lots of walking, parks, buildings, the London eye, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, pubs, beer (too warm for my liking), etc.

Here's a great photo of Melissa, Nina, and Alex on one of the old double decker buses.

I love El Raval

I am TOTALLY in love with my neighborhood. It's got so much of life.

I got home tonight after teaching my last class of the week(!) and as I was walking up to my door I noticed two people in the plaza across from me had taken all their clothes off and were admiring each other's parts... OK, they were drunk, but still and all we are in the middle of the city... Whatever, they were totally involved in each other so it didn't bother me.

Then I had a fairly quiet evening, preparing for my trip, cooking all the food that I had left so it wouldn't spoil, etc and I heard old fashioned do-wop outside...

I opened my window and there was (is, they're still there) a group of young men in the same plaza singing old lovely songs to a group of people dressed up for Halloween. There are two nuns, one in a hot-pink blazer... I don't know what that's about... there's a guy with an afro (I think he's white) with a comb sticking out of it...

It's typical do-wop, I just love it. They're actually really good. They've got the harmonizing and the lyrics, oh god, it's so great. Now a bunch of people have started 'singing stand by me'. I love love love that song.

Why must I be a teenager in love...
In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight...
and so on...

WOW, they're really good. What a great night! I'm so happy...

Well, now I’m sick

Things are getting better at work, starting to get the hang of the kids, they're just kids after all, and it's only an hour each pop, so how bad can it be? And, hate to say it, it's just a job. I'm certainly not damaging them in any way. And once they get used to me (and me to them) I think it's going to be fine.

But, yesterday I woke up with an itchy throat, and I decided I couldn't teach my business classes AND my evening course-load, so I called in sick for my morning classes, slept another 3 1/2 hours and taught my evening classes.

I feel awful today, but at least I got sick at the end of the week bc there's no way I would be able to recover with the schedule I keep. So, I've spent the whole day in my jammies feeling sorry for myself.

I've watched 2 movies and slept a lot, I'm hoping my weekend won't be completely shot and I'll feel like doing something tomorrow or Sunday, even if it's only to go to a movie... Anything to get me out of my pajamas!

I bet I got sick from one of the kids... Little beasts!

Life is Good

Mini Backlog--This was from Oct 14th

So, after some rough ups and downs things have settled. Finally. I still have problems with the kids, but I care a lot less. At the end of the day they're just kids. Really. Come on now. And I'm getting used to saying sit down a hundred times a day. So, that's good.

I started taking a Spanish class. It's twice a week and it's fun so far. I've got homework and everything! It's in a school that's waking distance from my house, very convenient, and after class I hop on the bus to go to work. So the timing is perfect.

What else... the weather's changing, feels like fall. I hate all my clothes but don't have the time (or money yet) to go shopping. Everything, and I mean everything except some corner stores, is closed on Sundays so I never do all the stuff I need to do... And especially since this Friday was a holiday so all the shops were closed then too.

I'm going to London November 1st! That's exciting. It's a holiday (Thurs), and I don't work Fridays... And since I teach nights I'm coming back Monday morning! I'll have 3 full days in London. I'm really really excited. I've got two friends there, Melissa my Prague travel buddy (and flatmate for a month) is studying at the London School of Economics, so I'll get to see her! Woohoo. And I've got another friend who I met in Prague who's been living there for the past year and a half.

It's time for a vacation!

That's all for now. I have to go do my homework :(

Getting Better

Well I finished my third week of teaching. Whew.

Monday and Tuesday were GREAT. Roger (see the last post to see how frustrating he is) was a little late and so he had to sit next to me. He was a GEM! Quiet, hard-working, sweet, it was amazing. He even stayed after class to help me collect the scissors and pencils and stuff. Amazing. Then on Wednesday he sat with his friend and was a pain in the ass again.
One step forward two steps back.

But I am making progress with him I think. Now when I talk to him he will do what I ask... No more robot voice.

Then on Tuesday I also figured out how to deal with my rowdy rowdy 6-7 year olds. I worked them so hard! And they loved it. It was counting and spelling and simple math. It was great.

So, I was so successful on Monday and Tuesday I got lulled into a false sense of confidence and Wednesday and Thursday were a little crazy. Oh well. I survived it! And I didn't cry myself to sleep!

Now it's the weekend and the weather is glorious! I think I'm going to go to the beach this afternoon! And tomorrow a lot of the museums are free because it's the first Sunday of the month, so I think I'll go to some museums!

Life is soooo SWEET!