starting class and teaching...

first day of teaching. right outside my school's gates

Christina and I tried to get up early Tuesday to get some things accomplished before real life living in Spain started.  By 10:45 we were out the door and on our way to the bank to see what was up with our accounts.  We sorted everything out, got my ATM card activated, and everything is good to go, yo!  Seriously, if you saw my bank card, you would be jealous.  This is my first bank account that is ONLY mine.  no cosigning with a parent, no joint account with the rents.  all mine! weird, i feel like this has concreted the fact that I am on my own out here.  Feels nice...for now :)  After that we went to visit my boyfriend, the most beautiful man named Javier (Javi), to put some credit on our phones.  Javi is breath taking; don't worry, i'll be sure to take a picture of him at some point and share.  After I picked my chin up off the floor and wiped the drool from my chin we left the phone company and went to Sol so I could sign up for some Spanish classes.  I enrolled in a 12 week course so starting Sept 27th I'll be teaching everyday, going to master's classes Tuesday and Thursday nights, and going to spanish classes Monday and Wednesday nights.  Don't panic ladies and gents, I still have Friday and Saturday to get crunk!  After Sol we grabbed some quick grub and were off to classes.  Classes, other than being a bit looooooooooooong, were pretty good and I think this semester is going to go pretty well.  I'm excited to start things up and get the ball rollin, know what i'm sayin?! After a long day and realizing we need to be up early to teach in the morning, we decided to meet Nova Scotia out for drinks.  Not bad.  Got home around 2 AM, set my alarm for 6 AM and called it a night.  

I woke up this morning feeling fantastic (siiiiiiikkkeeee) and showered, grabbed some breakfast, and was off to the metro to get to my school. I arrived on time with the other American girl teaching at my school and started the morning in a closed door meeting with all the higher-ups for our school go over all of the important things we needed to know for our teaching positions (in spanish, of course).  Surprisingly I think I got all of it and went thru the day without being told that I was doind something wrong.  Either I understood my duties or they just let it all slide the first day, updates to come!  I actually taught a few lessons today which was a bit odd since I wasn't informed I would be doing this and had nothing prepared.  Luckily for me (and my class)  I always have SOMETHING to say and I got thru 4 lessons with out any down time or awkward pauses.  I'm like a local celeb at the school along with the other American because we are very different and all the kids want to know EVERYTHING about the U.S., aka California and New York City.  The fact that I have blonde hair is really just icing on the cake :)  I was really hoping that I would be teaching the younger kids but was informed today that I will be working with the older kids: 12-18 year olds.  Fantastic.  They are all taller than me and in most cases, much more developed.  However, I will say that I really enjoyed teaching them today and am excited to see how much English they know.  It was a really great day and it ended with me literally running into every single person I know in Madrid.  I felt like such a rockstar while I was walking home and making small talk with somebody on every corner of every block on the walk home.  Not gonna lie, today went out with a bbbbbaaaaaaaannnnnnngggggg.