I am all for raging parties for big celebrations such as Halloween. But when that celebrating infringes on my personal space, I am honestly less receptive to the festivities. Our landlord, Marco, hosts a Halloween party every year in our house, which I have learned is known in Malaga as “La Casa Loca”, “The Crazy House.” Marco boasted of past fiestas nearing 250 attendees. I found this incomprehensible until the passing of this last weekend. Our guess is that we had about 200 people in our house for our Halloween party on Friday night!
At about 5:30 in the morning a few of my compañeras (housemates) and I began wandering through the house, picking up some of the chaos, which our guests thankfully took as a cue to leave so we could sleep. About 10 of us, (Marco not included), spent the afternoon of the next day cleaning up the remaining chaos, the exact details of which I will not describe here. On the brightside, we have at least of year’s worth of fame stocked up in Malaga, our house is now cleaner than ever (our patio is white!), and we altogether we had a great time.
Today we did some adventuring in the hills above our house. Our house is located a couple of blocks from the beach along a main road in Malaga. Because everything is so near to us on this street to the east or west, it is easy to forget that there is an entire side to the city that exists inland. I welcomed the opportunity, after two days of torrential downpours and frigid air, to walk along the quaint and quiet streets that meander through lines of Spanish style villas up to a park tucked away from the busy city. The photos of this posting are from our trek. I think this point may be the best view in Málaga, because you can clearly see west to the city center and east to the more quiet part of town. A small row of what I refer to as the ‘mechanical giraffes’ interfere with what I would otherwise say is a beautiful horizon. Their purpose however, which is to load and unload cargo off of barges, is undisputable as an important part of Málaga economy.
Speaking of economy, it’s pretty funny, among Americans here, the question, ‘How’s the economy back home?’ is beginning to sound a lot like the question, ‘How’s your family?’ It’s a little depressing to us all that the answer is, ‘not good.’ The repercussions of that will obviously be felt here too. We are all eager and anxious to await the results of the election, and personally, I feel homesick whenever I think about it. Not sure why. Perhaps I feel like I’m not being the kind of Obama supporter I want to be away from home. I can only hope that our country makes the right decision and that I can come home to a better America.
School is wonderful. I finally feel like I am doing what I was meant to do with my life. Teach. I’m pretty lucky to have the age range that I have. I feel like I get the best of both worlds, the kids I can teach silly songs to and be childish with, and I enjoy the teenagers' wit and humor every day. I feel like the kids respond really well to me, and leave understanding more than when they walked in. Miming, scribbling furiously on the board, and gesticulating wildly are the keys to this, and the students and I all have a good laugh at my expense. I’ve discovered one of the things I like about teaching is that I feel like I’m on stage, but it’s better because I get a direct response from young intelligent minds. I’m excited to develop even better relationships with the students over the next year, and even more excited to see how this experience benefits myself as a teacher and the students I will be teaching in the future.
Every Wednesday I meet with my supervisor’s sister, Lola. We walk and talk in our respective second languages with the intent of improving our oral skills and I get to know the city a little better. I also have begun tutoring a teacher at the school who is taking her English exams at the end of this year. The challenge of describing meanings and nuances of a language that is second nature to me has been very satisfying and brings in some extra cash. I also have begun passing out forms to the students to sign up for private English lessons with me.
The house is wonderful. Aside from some minor inconveniences, there is nothing I love more than to live with a family of friends. Everyone here gets along really well and I always feel supported, loved, and comfortable being myself. There is a bit too much French and English spoken here, which makes accelerated learning of Spanish a bit more difficult than I wanted. This is the main reason that I am starting to look for another place to live; hopefully with people who don’t speak any English.
Thank you to all of you who are reading my blog! It’s hard not having the people I love here, and it makes me feel as though your closer to my experience. Hasta luego mis amores!
