Rest of the School Week...an Overview

Hello Everyone,

Because I was a bit too busy and exhausted to post for most of the school week, I will summarize the activities here.

Tuesday, classes went well and soon it was time to tutor.  I met Mom at school again and then picked up G (9) and we walked home - luckily he knew the way.  I helped him with his homework and then wrote out questions in English for him to answer...easy.  Then studied a bit before bed, typing out study guides for my 2 midterms on Thursday.

Wednesday was similar...a bit of homework and creating fichas in the morning, classes in the afternoon, and tutoring in the evening.  I met Mom at the school again and then picked up the girls...I love tutoring them already!  They are sooo cute!  On our way home (P.S. even though I could not find my map for most of the way home and the girls did not know the way, I did not get lost!  Booyah!), they were sharing the snacks L's mom packed her and teaching me a song they learned about toys.  Then we began our session by completing their homework for English and then moved on to fichas...48 of them.  All of this took only 1 1/4 hours (I stayed a bit late again...gotta learn not to make a habit of that).  It was really fun!  They have been learning about animals, so I put pictures of lions, tigers, bears, etc on flashcards for them along with common pets.  I included photos of both a dog and a puppy, a cat and a kitten, and a rabbit and a bunny.  Of course, they were confused by this and when I explained that the picture of a puppy was a little dog, they immediately wanted to call it "a baby dog."  Then I explained that its name was puppy (which they proceeded to pronounce "poopy" much to my amusement).  Then we moved on to holidays/vacations which they are also covering.  I had added pictures to represent the seasons and we talked about how a sun could be a representation of both "summer" and "sunny."   And as I was explaining a bit about the story of Thanisgiving and how it is now a day to give thanks to God for what we have, the girls asked me if I believe in God.  They were glad when I said yes and asked me how to say "Dios (God)" in English.  Soooo cute!!!!


Then I came home to paella for dinner, a failed skype date (darn sound system - we will talk soon Julie!!!), a skype conversation with my mother, and tons of studying before bed.

Woke up early on Thursday to study.  I focused mainly on Phonetics, my first exam.  And I think I kicked that exam's butt minus the pronunciation part.  Unfortunately, I kind of neglected to study for my difficult Culture and Civ exam until my 2-hr break between classes and as a result was cramming.  Not sure how I did on that exam...22 questions, pick 15, all short answer and then one longer essay.  Some were easy, some I sincerely hope I will get partial credit on.

Just a taste of what I am studying in Phonetics class...picnicked this to put on a study guide.

After my exams, I was chilling with my friend Katie.  We were chatting about tutoring out students...yeah definitely had a couple of moments:
       1. You know you're thinking in Spanish when..."yeah the little girl I tutor, L, has 7 years" (said in English)
       2. You know you're Catholic when...(talking about the 3 and 5-yr-old girls Katie will soon be tutoring), "You should teach them 'Ring Around the Rosary'"
       3. And you really know your brain is fried when both of these sentences come out of your mouth in the course of 10 minutes.  Ha!

Then I asked if we could walk to a pharmacy (I have had a sore throat a few times here and yesterday I had a worse one and drainage which was driving me crazy).  So I looked up the generic ingredient in Benadryl and asked the pharmacist for it when we got there.  She looked it up and told me they had it, but...and this is the kicker...here they use it as a sleeping pill!!!  Haha!  She offered to give it to me, but named a couple other things I could use instead.  I asked her what she recommended and she gave me another drug.  Ironically, I was almost afraid to take it.  First encounter with Spanish medicine (minus the vitamins) and even though she was a trained pharmacist, the fact that I wasn't sure we communicated correctly made me nervous.  (Although, like I told Katie, I would have trusted Paula had she given me Spanish medicine...and she has no training in pharmacology...so I don't know if that means I trust her too much or the actual pharmacist too little...probably a bit of both haha.)

Then it was on to tutor.  A bit later than usual.  My hours have decreased from 6 to 5 1/2 per week because G (9) has communion class after school for 1 hour on Thursdays and so I walk him home and am only with him for a total of 1 hour.  We did an activity in his book...cut out this thing and turn it into a game where we can take turns asking each other which classes we have that day (He is learning about subjects).

After getting home and having dinner, I had a very enjoyable skype date with my friend Chelsea :) and then went to bed not as early as I had hoped.

That's my week in a nutshell.  Oh...also found out this week that the T.V. show Sonia is working on aired this week in Spain...gonna start watching it.  Apparently it's the best show she's worked on in a while (according to Paula).

Peace and Blessings,
Melanie

Spanish Words of the Day: colegio = school, tutora = tutor, medicina = medicine :)