1. The old man who lives in the crappy house next to our building. I wish I had a photo, but a description will have to do. This particular old man, whom I see AT LEAST once a day in various places throughout Rincon, has a perfect muppet frown (think Beaker)...now, I'm not sure if this frown is caused by the fact that he has lost 100% of his teeth, or if it's caused by the undeserved hatred he feels for me. Probably a combination. He also has that dark leathery look that tells me that he's lived in Rincon for approximately 457 years. The fact that we are neighbors predisposes us to seeing each other often, so every time I see him I smile and say hola, hoping to turn that frown upside down. He has yet to respond with anything more than a glare. Womp womp.
2. Kids. Those of you who know me well know that I love kids more than anything in the world (false)! However, I'm slowly figuring out that some kids are awesome. We had a presentation from "Ciencia Divertida" (Fun Science) last week, you know, those assemblies where they blow things up and make silly putty to teach kids some basic chemistry and physics. Well, one of the presenters jokingly asked the 3/4/5 year old group to help him with a "chemical reaction" by picking their boogers and passing them to their neighbor to form a huge booger ball. It was unreal how fast all those little fingers entered those little noses and started digging. They didn't understand at all that he was joking, and watching the teachers scramble to stop the booger plague was super divertida for me. I've never seen so much snot in my life, and it was hilarious. Thanks for being gross, kids.
Also, I've decided that stickers (pronounced eh-steekers) should be illegal in elementary schools. This week I did a Halloween activity in class where the kids could earn stickers. Terrible idea. What I witnessed was worse than any episode of Gangland, it was the Mickey stickers vs the Hello Kitty stickers, and shit got ugly. There may have been minor injuries sustained but overall I think I won them over with the eh-steekers. Yay bribes!
3. Spanish schools...or should I say, how laid back they are. On any given day, I hear more than a few students announce that they need to hacer piss or caca. REALLY? If I had announced to my class in 3rd grade that I needed to go take a dump, they would all laugh at me. This is one of those times when I say Good for you, Spain! We are just too uptight sometimes at home. Another huge difference is the display of affection. This is the land of the double cheek kiss greeting, where you're actually allowed to hug a student without getting sued, imagine that! Also, they do Halloween how it should be done: decorations include demons and witches and bloody things like this:
Yay for holidays in school! No "fall harvest" parties here.
4. Fake England, aka Gibraltar. A couple of weekends ago, we did a quick weekend trip to the Rock to see what it's all about. Basically we hiked the rock, ate fish and chips, drank tea, and marveled at the fact that we were only 2 hours away from Rincon and completely surrounded by Union Jack and people with British accents. Solely based on geography, Gibraltar really should belong to Spain, it's such a confused place. No one knows if they should speak English or Spanish to each other, they use the pound instead of the euro (but still accept euros), and there are monkeys (apes?) running wild. What?! Anyway, it was a good time:
Also, I've decided that stickers (pronounced eh-steekers) should be illegal in elementary schools. This week I did a Halloween activity in class where the kids could earn stickers. Terrible idea. What I witnessed was worse than any episode of Gangland, it was the Mickey stickers vs the Hello Kitty stickers, and shit got ugly. There may have been minor injuries sustained but overall I think I won them over with the eh-steekers. Yay bribes!
3. Spanish schools...or should I say, how laid back they are. On any given day, I hear more than a few students announce that they need to hacer piss or caca. REALLY? If I had announced to my class in 3rd grade that I needed to go take a dump, they would all laugh at me. This is one of those times when I say Good for you, Spain! We are just too uptight sometimes at home. Another huge difference is the display of affection. This is the land of the double cheek kiss greeting, where you're actually allowed to hug a student without getting sued, imagine that! Also, they do Halloween how it should be done: decorations include demons and witches and bloody things like this:
4. Fake England, aka Gibraltar. A couple of weekends ago, we did a quick weekend trip to the Rock to see what it's all about. Basically we hiked the rock, ate fish and chips, drank tea, and marveled at the fact that we were only 2 hours away from Rincon and completely surrounded by Union Jack and people with British accents. Solely based on geography, Gibraltar really should belong to Spain, it's such a confused place. No one knows if they should speak English or Spanish to each other, they use the pound instead of the euro (but still accept euros), and there are monkeys (apes?) running wild. What?! Anyway, it was a good time:
Also, this really isn't funny at all but we managed to make a legit Spanish tortilla last week:
...just wanted to brag! Off to Ronda in the morning, more adventures to come...
