Ignacio, Pablo, and Cristina

As the last days of school approached I actually started to dread the end. I feared I would cry in front of all the kids and then be awkward and sniffly and not able to talk… I had really lucked out with the kids in both my classes and in private lessons and it was hard to believe my time with them was coming to an end already.  

The first things to end were my private lessons. My oldest group of three, Pablo, Cristina, and Ignacio actually forgot that it was my last day until I reminded them at the end. It was kinda nice since they weren’t thinking about it, I didn’t have to dwell on it too much. They were really sweet and fun kids so I was sad to be finished with their lessons, the only positive being that I didn’t have to take the bus to their house every Thursday afternoon.  

The next week I finished the rest of my private lessons. After my Monday classes (Lourdes and Javi, Alvaro, then another Javi) I stayed for dinner at Javi’s house. His parents, Teresa and Paco, are very very very nice. Alvaro and his mom, Angustias (the French teacher from the high school who had originally hooked me up with all the private lessons) also joined us for dinner because the two families are good friends.  

Alvaro, Javier, and me

They cooked up delicious croquetas and salmorejo–two of my favorite Spanish dishes. They also served a lot of nice Rioja wine. We had a good time, the conversation flowing (in Spanish, meaning I did a lot of nodding and smiling) along with the wine until 11pm… I had to be in school at 8:30am the next morning and I was running a little late. When I got there my teacher Rosa asked me if I had a good time the night before. I didn’t realize she had spoken to Angustias already that morning so I answered, “good time? with what?” haha. Then she told me she already knew I had been out late drinking wine with the parents.  

Ale J, Ale M, and Kike

My last class with my little ones (they’re now 11 years old, so not that little, I suppose) was a lot of fun, we pretty much just played a lot of games that we had done earlier in the year to review what we had learned. I think of all my private students they will miss me the least, but I can’t really take that personally seeing as how most 11-year-olds would rather not have 1.5 additional hours of English class per week. The first week I was without my private lessons (my last week at the school) it was very strange. I had spent so many afternoons/evenings with those kids it had become a habit. I almost didn’t know what to do with myself … then I remembered I lived 15 minutes from the beach. 

my 4th ESO non-bilingual class

My last days at the school were also a little strange because on my last Thursday, the teacher I work with on those days, Nuria, was absent so I had the last classes with those kids by myself. But she had told them ahead of time that it was my last classes with them so it was no surprise. With the 4th ESO non-bilingual we just played a game and surprisingly most of them participated and didn’t give me any trouble (of all my classes this one definitely had the most “punks” in it, but I actually enjoyed them most days). 

4th ESO bilingual and my giant card

The next period I had the 4th ESO bilingual English class, one of my favorites. They were really sweet and threw me a “surprise party” complete with chips, soda, tortilla de patatas, and music from CDs that one of the girls had burned specifically for my going away party. They were the class that I definitely devoted the most time to as far as lesson planning and teaching in the actual classroom goes so it was really nice of them to throw a party for me. They also gave me a gigantic card that they all signed, so that was cute, though maybe not the most convenient thing to bring back to the US. 

half of the table at the teachers going away lunch

 After school that day we had going away lunch with all the language assistants (there were 5 of us total, 3 French and 2 English) and language teachers. It was seriously one of the most delicious meals I’d had in Spain. I ate wayyy more jamon than is healthy for one person (jamon is the special ham from acorn-fed pigs that I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, Huelva produces some of the best jamon in he world). I didn’t eat dinner that night and was still full when I woke up in the morning. 

That weekend I enjoyed my last night out with my American friends, and in typical Spanish fashion we stayed out until after sunrise. Ashley was the first to leave for the U.S. on that Sunday morning, which was very sad, so we don’t need to go into that here… 

1st ESO bilingual English

Monday May 31 was my last day at the school. I had classes only with the youngest kids, 1st ESO. They wanted to have a party for me, but the principal said there had been too many disruptive going away parties for the language assistants the week before so they couldn’t have one.But they were still really cute and gave me little signs they had drawn, some photos, and lots of hugs. Two students in the bilingual French section sang “I’ve Got A Feeling” as a going-away gift to me. The one was even beat-boxing. It was actually really good until they got a case of the giggles one minutes into it then it never really rematerialized.

Luckily at the end of the day everyone (teachers, students) head straight for the exit so there was no prolonged, tearful goodbyes. Though I will admit to crying briefly during the day when I had to go say goodbye to some of the 3rd ESO classes because they were all so sweet, saying “thank you” and “we’ll miss you” etc. So I didn’t make it out of there tear-free…

1st ESO French bilingual

On the plus side though I have joined Spain’s version of facebook, Tuenti, so I can keep in touch with the kids. (Also, I am friends with Spanish striker Fernando Torres on Tuenti, double bonus!) Some of them have been posting on my wall asking if I want to come back, which, of course, I do, but it’s hard to explain to them why it’s not so easy to make it happen. But hopefully I will make it back sometime in the next year and visit the school before they forget me