March Madness

Some days can be more tiring than others, and today was one of those days. I've been working on a bunch of different projects in school. There's teaching a group of kids a play for theatre we're going to perform in May, then there's constant delegations that come from all over the world to see our school that I have to prepare for, and then of course I've got my regular teaching in the morning in the afternoon. By the time I get home, it's unequivocally time for a siesta.

Apparently -- and I haven't gotten an answer to exactly why quite -- my school is especially important. We had the higher ups of the European Teacher's Union (or something along those lines) come a few weeks ago, and I got to meet a bunch of people from France who said they were very impressed with what we do as conversation auxiliaries and with the school in general.

Then there was last month when the Ministra de la Educación (a.k.a. the Secretary of Education) came to hang out and I got to teach in front of her. I was also put on TV here in Spain on a few different news channels!

But yet another group, from South Africa and South America is coming on Thursday, which means tomorrow I get to spend all day preparing my lesson for the kids for a subject I don't normally do, but hey, maybe I'll be on the news again.

And Spring has finally come around! ...Make that Summer. It's definitely Summer. I know the weather might tell you that it's in the 70s or 80s here, but that's a lie. It's actually, most definitely, in the 90s and for some reason the Spanish still find it appropriate to walk around in pants and sweaters over their collard shirts. I, on the other hand, will be going to work tomorrow in shorts and sandals, most likely making a spectacle of myself (the Spanish don't know what sandals are, and they think its funny whenever someone wears them).

In other news, my speaking skills have indeed gotten better. It's easy to imitate the Andalúz accent, you just drop off the final letter of every word, a lot like French. Just take a look at this example:

Sopató. This is the word that taught me that Spaniards actually speak in code. What they're actually saying is "Sopa para todos," and some how they manage to cut the amount of syllables in half. When my coworker Oscar taught me this, I told him he was a cheater and not actually speaking a real language.

I'm serious. Sometimes it reaches a point where all their saying is exhaled vowel noises.

Fine. I can imitate that. So I played a little experiment on my principal. Every day when I finished I'd walk up to here and ask "Necesitas algo más?" (Do you need anything else?) and a day at a time I'd start removing letters from my speech.

Necesita algo má?
Necesita alo má?
Ecesita alo má?
Ecesita ao má?

I said the last one in front of a Spanish-French translator who then immediately commented "Oh listen to how great his Andalúz accent is!"

Rumor has it the Madrileños (people from Madrid) pronounce every single letter. I can't wait to go visit.