Workin' It Out

Work started this past Wednesday. The first day was uneventful and short but the second day was a full day of classes and adorable little kids. For the most part, I will be helping to teach two age groups - Second Years (6 or 7 years old) and Third Years (7 or 8 years old). The teacher of the second years is named Inma and the teacher for the third years is named Carlos. Basically, my job is to help run activities and answer questions and play with the adorable little kids. Later on I will probably make lesson plans and stuff but for now I just do whatever the F I want. One awesome thing about my schedule is that I get Fridays off. We have to spend 14 hours per week in the classroom and another 2 hours per week teaching english to the teachers.

The bilingual program in Spain is extremely impressive. Many of the primary schools have become bilingual which means that nearly half of the classes are taught strictly in english. They have science, physical education, art, and english language all taught in english starting at the age of 4 or 5. By age 7 or 8, the kids know a LOT of english. They can read english, write english, understand a lot, and speak quite a bit too. To top it all off, these kids are taught to write in cursive before grade 2. That is just mind boggling to me. Thus far I have been extremely impressed with the school system in Madrid.

But enough about work for now. Jessica and I went out on the town last night to check out some local night clubs in our area. We pregamed pretty hard by ourselves in our living room which led to some good times...After quite a few shots we headed out on the 5 minute walk to the club (so close!). On our way we got solicited by some dude to go to his bar and have a free drink. So we drank a little (read, a lot) more there and then went to Pachá. After paying a small fortune to get in, we discovered that the club was totally empty because, apparently, 1:30 AM is too early for Spaniards. The thing to do is to go to bars for cheaper drinks until they close at 3 pm and then go to the club until like 6 am. Pretty intense. Long story short, we were the first on the dance floor and stayed there for quite a while. Good times in one of Madrid's swankiest clubs. You should take note of the unbuttoned shirt I wore attempting to fit in with the Spaniards. It worked.

More updates about work to come soon. Maybe I can take some pictures of the little kiddies without seeming like a total creep.