Every morning I have the same little routine. I wake up late, race to get ready and then tell everyone to hustle as we head out at 9:55. (Jillian usually takes this time to remind me they were, in fact, waiting on me but that’s besides the point.) I’m the first to split from the pack when we arrive, knocking twice on the door to classroom A before letting myself in. As I shut the door behind me, I greet all of the students with a quiet “Hola!” (mostly because I am still afraid I’m going to say “Aloha” on accident, but also because everything is quiet compared to these boys in the morning). With “Los Dias de La Semana” blarring in the background, I race to put my purse on the highest shelf and grab my lab jacket off its hanger while everyone is still distracted. Usually I make it to the bookshelf before Zaccaria (on the far left in the picture below) comes trotting behind me. Zaccaria, while one of my favorite students, is also one of the more… needy students. And by needy, I mean he is an AGGRESSIVE cuddler. When he wants to hold your hand or give you a hug, its going to happen. On Monday morning I was greeted in the usual way, except this time it was with the most loving hug of my life. I’m talking arms wrapped around my neck in a chokehold, feet lifted off the ground and face inches from my own when it happens. He sneezes. Supporting his entire body weight in my arms I have two options: drop the child or let it happen. So, I catch his sneeze… with my face. Yup that’s right, nine-year-old spit all over me. Not even a lethal dose of vitamin C could save me.
I feel as though it’s necessary to pause here and apologize to my parents for everything I must have done as a child because WOW kids are gross sometimes! I love you guys and I am SO SORRY.
The good thing about classrooms where they’re allowed to hug and kiss one another is that colds spread to everyone fairly quickly, so there’s not an endless cycle of illness. But this also means that there are weeks in the school year where the entire class is coughing and sneezing. Who would’ve guessed I would be lucky enough to take part?
The rest of my Monday was spent wiping runny noses and trying to convince the kids to throw them in the trash, rather than at one another. Overall I was feeling really good still! I was loading up on water and washed my hands until they were raw! I even brought it up to everyone else what a miracle it was that none of us had gotten sick. Boy did I jinx myself!
Saying I woke up under the weather on Tuesday is an understatement. I walked around with a roll of toilet paper all week, because I could hardly survive a few minutes without blowing my nose. It wasn’t cute nose blowing either, it was trumpets-sounding, eyes-watering nose blowing. It was a horrible week for it to happen too, because there were so many fun events happening at school and after our internships. Because school was coming to an end, we were able to break free of our normal work/play schedule and have some parties. My classroom hosted a party for an old student who had progressed enough to enter a traditional school. Her story was incredible. Conchi told me that she began at San Rafael, she was unable to speak, walk or eat by herself, yet, 5 years later here she was doing all three!
She still needed a vent to breathe, but other than that, you never would have been able to tell how she had started. On Thursday, Austin, Jillian, Sarah and I got to witness our first graduating class. Though none of my kids were graduating, I found myself getting very emotional at each of the teacher’s speeches. You could see how much love they had poured into these kids over the years and how excited they were to see their successes. This was the first time I was kind of glad I couldn’t speak Spanish, because I would have bawled! Other than Spanish, this week hosted a trip to Nerja and Cordoba. Still sick and a little drowsy from my Nightquil, I was not in a good mood when I had to hop in the back row of the nine-seater van. I have a lot of weird things, but my number one trigger is when there’s not fresh air in a car. I know! I know! It’s super weird! I tried really hard to keep quiet, but when asked if we were getting any air I didn’t even pretend to think, I basically screamed “NO”. Once we got there, though, it was all worth it.
In Nerja we spent most of our day at the beach, and it was perfect. I’m not usually a huge beach person (because it usually ends in me burnt to a crisp) but for some reason, this trip was just what I needed. There’s just something about laying out in the sun while the waves crash on the shore that you can’t beat. I was still blowing my nose every couple of minutes but luckily I still had that handy-dandy roll of TP! (Yes I know how dumb I looked walking around with one at the beach but it was necessary!)
After a pretty amazing plate of paella and a little bit more beach time, we headed back to the hotel for a quick dip and the pool and a cool shower. Both of which were the cherry on top of an incredible day. We finished off the night with another amazing meal on the coast and a view I’ll never forget in Frigiliana. We spent the night by the beach and got to sleep in a little bit before the ride to Cordoba. Another long ride that was 100% worth it! We visited the Mosque-Cathedral. When it was first explained to us I couldn’t quite picture what everyone meant by “ a cathedral being built in the middle of a mosque”, but now I totally get it. They literally just built a cathedral in the middle of an old mosque. Its hard to show in pictures but I found a decent one to show how the they merge. The red and white arches are all structures from the mosque, and the white and gold parts are all parts of the cathedral. Its wild! Now I understand why there’s such controversy about it!
So, now for a little bit of an explanation for my weirdness over the past few days. At first I was going to glaze over this whole thing, but our blogs are supposed to be an honest summary of our week, and this was a big part of mine. On Saturday morning I woke up to the type of text no one wants to receive. One of those “hey something happened, you should get back to me when you can” texts from one of my best friends. Knowing it would be hours until he would be awake, I started to investigate on my own, and it didn’t take long to find out that one of the boys from my high school class had died in a tragic accident. Alec was one of those kids who was friends with everyone. So, even as we grew apart after a solid friendship in grade school, he was somehow always around and making me laugh. When I first heard, I struggled to believe what I was reading, so I was able to tell jokes and stories about him, but now I find myself choking up when I say his name. This was shocking to me. Sure, I knew it was going to be hard but I never expected to grieve like this (but I guess that’s the “fun” of grief for you). Going through something like this a thousand miles away from your community has been difficult but with an awesome support team and a busy schedule, it has gotten a little easier with every passing day.
So, I guess that’s that for this week. I am sorry to end it off on such a sad note but I appreciate you dealing with a little bit of suck-ing. And I can promise you it’s only up from here! Next week hosts the Corpus Christi events so it's bound to bring some fun times and even better stories.
