First Holy Communion

May is a very busy month here for both children and adults because this is when all the little niños have their First Holy Communion! The teachers have been telling me how busy their weekends are this month because sometimes they have 3 communions to go to in one weekend. They are all also very concerned with the weather because most of the celebrations take place outside and we´ve been having some morning rain recently. The children are all excited to dress up and have parties.

I remember I made my First Holy Communion at Marymount (before I went to Chapin) in the 2nd grade when I was 7 years old. In Spain, it seems to be more common to make the First Holy Communion in 4th grade. Today in 4th grade English, the head teacher showed me pictures that the children had given to all of the teachers after their First Holy Communion celebrations. Above is a picture of a few of them. It´s funny a lot of the pictures are printed and lamented to be used as bookmarks.

EU Rescue

I´ve spoken to many Spaniards recently about how they think Spain´s economic problem can be solved so that they won´t face the same bailout situation as Greece. My friends say that there are groups of families here and more specifically, politicians, that have too much money and power. Therefore, there is too great of a descrepancy between the common people and families of Spain and this upper class. Spaniards hope that the politicans will start to, or be forced to make economic decisions that will benefit the entire country instead of their elite crew. My friends believe that time will solve everything, that better days are coming, but that unfortunately their generation will not be able to enjoy it. On a sidenote, I´m selfishly pretty bummed the $ has gotten stronger since I get paid in € and will be coming home with a fresh paycheck...
Here are some recent articles on the EU bailout:

NY Times
Ny Times
CNN
BBC

Spelling Bee

I have started doing a weekly spelling bee in 3rd grade English. It all began when I realized that even though they have English and Science class twice a week and they have learned things like the water cycle and plant reproduction in English, they STILL can´t pronunce the alphabet prefectly . "E," "i," "a," "j," "h," and "y" are the big problems so once a week we have the spelling bee to practice vocabulary they have learned from the unit and to practice the alphabet. The head teacher Maria Carmen calls two names of the students and they come to the front where I am standing and I give them a word to spell. If the first student makes a mistake he/she steps back and the other student has a chance to spell it correctly. If the student spells it correctly I write their name on the blackboard. The winners play each other until we have a 1st place winner. He/she gets a big sticker and the runners up get smaller stickers. They get so excited and nervous for the spelling bee. When it gets down to the finals and a students spells the word correctly they all clap and cheer, it really is precious. Maria Carmen told me that when I´m not in class they all ask where I am and if we can have the "concurso."

Fifty Nifty United States

Today I was teaching transportation in 3rd grade Science: train, bus, metro, airplane, helicoptor, truck, car etc and how to talk about getting to different places, for example, "How do you go to Madrid?" " I go by bus" and also, "Can you go to Madrid by boat?" "No, I can´t." I used many cities in Spain and started to use different cities in the US until I realized that they did not know that California was a state and that Los Angeles was a city. So I ran downstairs and printed out the song I learned in middle school to memorize all the states. They loved it so much we assigned them each a state in the US and they have to research it- its capital, major cities, climate, main attractions etc. During each class students will present on their states and we will practice the song. This will be an ongoing project until I leave in 3 weeks. So proud they are learning US geography!

SONG:

Fifty Nifty United States from thirteen original
colonies;
Fifty Nifty stars on the flag that billows so
beautifully in the breeze.
Each individual state contributes a quality that is
great.
Each individual state deserves a bow, We salute
them now.

Fifty Nifty United States from thirteen original
colonies,
Shout 'em, scout 'em, Tell all about 'em,
One by one,til we've given a name to every state in
the USA ....
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California,
Colorado, Connecticut
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois,
Indiana
Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan.
Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana,
Nebraska, Nevada,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New
York,
North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,
South Carolina,
South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas,
Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia,
Wisconsin, Wyoming

North, South, East, West in our common, objective
opinion (Name of home State)
Is the Best of the Fifty Nifty United States from
thirteen original colonies
Shout 'em,scout'em, tell all about 'em
One by One, till we've given a name to every state
in the good old U....S...A

Inspirational Quote #17

" Surround yourself with people who believe in you" - Brian Koslow

A year ago today...

I graduated from Vanderbilt. I can't believe a full year has gone by! Even though it's scary to think about how fast time goes by, I feel very happy with the decisions I've made this past year and what I've done with my time, and that is such a satisfying feeling. Go me!

The picture above is my group friends at our graduation party. For those that I haven't seen in a while I'm missing you guys and thinking about you today!

Feliz Día del Madre!!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful madres I know, and especially to mine!!