May I have a rubber please? Week One

Although I haven't officially been here a week, it is Sunday night and I wish to reflect. It has been one outrageous week.

It turns out that the english taught in the elementary school is of the British variety. I actually think that this setup is good, as the British stress the letter t, which increases my ability to understand their Spanish-accent-drenched English. But some of the British phrases they use kill me. In a second grade classroom, we all practiced classroom phrases. They all followed the same pattern: May I have a ___ please? We went through pencil, paper, etc. But I couldn't help but crack up at the question "May I have a rubber please?" said in unison. Many of the children have trouble with my English, so I have to british it up a little.

On the same note, everyone here calls me Jazs. My american accent makes the name Jess they are used to sound way different. So here I am Jazs, which sounds like ja (of basta ya: enough already) and a myriad of other regular agreement or disagreement sounds that Spaniards make. Thus, I am always turning around at the wrong time or ignoring people talking to me completely. The older teachers think I am slightly disabled because I am slow in answering and make grammatical errors, so they yell when they talk with me (which does little to make their difficult accent more clear to understand).

The kids at the school have a soft spot for me, probably because they know there is something weird about me and I am not interested in their discipline. Note on their discipline: nonexistent. Think constant touching/rubbing/pushing/fighting. While its weird as an American to see this with little teacher repercussion, I imagine Korean teachers would have a similar experience in an American classroom. When I walk through the halls, students yell "Hello! HELLO JAZS!" It's sweet, but what is sweeter is the cute smocks they wear to cover to cover their clothes, and the drawings some of them have made for me.

Over the weekend, I went to a horrible '80s off-Broadway type of show (think gay caberet with strip teases, poor, cheesy show choreography, and Spanish singers trying to sing all the American hits of the '80s over a recording of the original karaoke song. Only, they don't speak English, so "Last Chance for Romance" turns into "Laaast chann forrroman." I also went to a high school play, a comedy, that I actually found awesome and hilarious. Saturday night I went out to a discoteca in a nearby town, Almendralejo, with some some awesome Spanish friends I made in the neighborhood and a new American friend, Elle. She has worked as an English teacher here for more than a year, and even has the Extremadura accent down! While she can actually dance, I danced like I always do (like a crazy) and all night I drew the wrath of Spaniards. However, I drank enough vodka con Fanta que me daba igual.

This week, I will move into an apartment, go to the police station in another town to apply for a residency card, and more. Keep you updated. However, question. Anybody want to go to the running of the bulls with me in the beginning of July?