Day Twenty-One - Tuesday

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

Today was one of those days where you look back on it and go, “okay, I know I did a lot today, but what exactly did I do?” because when you're in the middle of it, there's absolutely no time to think – you just go and do and stop for no one.

TRAINWRECK! AND SUCCESS!!

Once my morning had flown by, I had to hurl myself across the inner city to the colegio for conversation tables. Problem was, I had no clue what we would be doing today, as I had not yet planned that activity.

Way to go, Madame Loser from Stupidtown.

I got there a little early and met up with Caitrin, Camila, and Jen, who were just as confused for activities as I was. After a minute of deliberating, Caitrin said, “what about Trainwreck? It forces them to talk and they can have some fun with it.”

Music to my ears!!!

A quick explanation of Trainwreck, for those of you that do not know what it is: it's an icebreaker game that helps you learn names and interests of everyone in the group. People sit in a circle (preferably in chairs, or at least marked seats) with one person left in the center of the circle, so that there is one too few seats in the circle. That person says, for example “Hi, my name is Sandra, I am 16 years ols, and I like listening to my iPod.” Whoever in the circle likes the same thing as the person in the middle has to get up and very quickly switch seats, and the person in the middle has to take one of those seats. Whoever is left over has to do the same thing as the first person, and so forth. If you cannot think of anything to say, you can say “TRAINWRECK!” and everyone has to get up and switch seats. It's a really fun game, especially with teenagers that need to talk.

Oh look, the perfect use for this game! How lovely that works out!

The best part of the game was Jen's group (who are some of the teachers of the school!) getting involved: out in the schoolyard with us, they joined right in and ran around with their students, having just as much fun. I was so proud of my kids – though they weren't terribly good at figuring out the translation for what they liked on their own (lack of vocabulary for the win! I completely relate to this), they still enjoyed themselves and did try very hard. Once we had done our game for a while, we all split off into our smaller groups and started more direct conversations.

Remember that girl, Ana, who refused to talk? Well, no more, my friends! No more is she the meek little sheep! I got us talking about movies, and when I mentioned Harry Potter, she lit up! She couldn't get enough of Professor MacGonagall, and how Transfiguration would probably be her favorite subject, et cetera. I was thrilled!! I found a chink in the armor!!!

BAD HABITS DIE HARD, OR JUST FIGHT BACK WITH WMDs AND SURVIVE

After my victory with Ana, I headed across town to the oficina to check my e-mail and such before Art History. You're probably asking yourself, “but wait, did she get lunch before Art History?”

Why no. No, I didn't. You know why, don't you? Because I forgot to go home and eat. That's right, my wicked university ways caught up with me and I forgot to eat until Chelsea was sitting in the office (having already eaten lunch while I was at the colegio) and asking me, “wow, did you eat that quickly? You never finish Pepita's meals that fast!”

Facepalm. I felt like a massive idiot, because now there was absolutely no way I could run home and eat before I had to be in class at 5. Absolutely no way. Darn it.

Chelsea and I headed to class, where we were greeted by a very jolly Jesus, whose first words of class were, “you have an examen!”

I felt my chest and head go cold with dread and panic. I have a terrible memory and as a result have a horrible time keeping track of things, especially when I've been super busy like I was today. I did not know at all that I had an Art History exam. When had I heard about this? What was I supposed to have studied? Of course I hadn't studied, I hadn't known that there would be an exam-

And then the rest of the speech after the quiet classroom-wide panic. “You have an examen on Thursday, so study hard!”

Ooooooh, Jesus, you have no idea how close you just came to mutiny, sir. So very, very close.

CLEARLY I HAVE NO TASTE

On Tuesdays, I have Special Studies, in which we are reading a book about the Guerra Civil in Spain, which argued a lot of points that are still a very present part of Spanish society today. I've been trying to process the book as best I can, with various degrees of success depending on the part of the book.

Our professor (Javier <3 ) brought in the movie version of the book for us to watch and to help us better understand the general plot, though of course there were a few changes (one being the gender of the protagonist). It was about two hours long and switched from narrative to documentary and back again, with switches between the past of the Guerra Civil and the present of bleak 1990s Spain. I'll admit it, I was fascinated – I thought that the way the filmmakers had set up the shots and framed the story was amazing, and I enjoyed it so much more as a film than as a book. I could also get behind the gender switch – it made a little more sense as a woman conducting this research. The problems were indeed relevant to what the Spanish people were suffering from, in terms of the swings between the extremes of political judgment.

We walked out at the end of it, and Caitrin and Camila could not stand the film or the book and did not see how it was relevant at all to the present times. I stayed quiet while they ripped it apart, complaining that it was too long, that they had fallen asleep, that it was an awful experience. I completely disagreed, but all I said was that the issues it showed from the Guerra Civil were incredibly relevant and should not be thrown out so lightly.

On a completely unrelated note, happy Last Day of May! I don't know why I felt like mentioning it, I just did. I hope that you had a good one!