¿Tienes hora?

Well, after four months in Granada, it appears that I am looking more Spanish.

This past week, a grand total of three people have stopped me on the street to ask me something and just this morning, a man pulled over in his car while I was waiting at the bus stop to ask me where a certain street was. (While I've been able to answer the "Excuse me, what time is it?" question with ease, this morning's question regarding directions left me saying "I'm sorry, I don't know where that street is. I'm not from here!" Oh well, one of these days I'll actually manage to learn the names of more than just the main roads in Granada...) Why does this mean that I must be looking more Spanish? Well, because up until this past week, the total of people who had stopped me on the street to ask me something was a big, whopping cero. Go me! I'm becoming more andaluza! (Well, either that or I'm just smiling more and thus looking more approachable, but still!)

My favorite story about a Spaniard talking to me on the street this past week involves a Spanish abuela and a crosswalk. Last Friday, I was running some errands in the center of the city, trying to find some materials for my classes. Now normally, when I'm out doing things in the city, I walk like an American (a.k.a. I walk very quickly- how non-andaluza of me). However, last Friday I stolled along the streets at a slower pace, enjoying being outside and stopping to look in store windows on my way. Well, at one point I approached a crosswalk where the red "DO NOT CROSS" light was on. Not in any rush, I stopped on the side of the street to wait for the light to change colors while two Spanish teens, probably around 14 or 15, chatted and crossed the road, completely oblivious to the signal, the color and oncoming traffic. As they crossed, a car approaching the crosswalk screeched to a halt so as not to hit the oblivious teens. Its driver, visibly angry, rolled down the window to yell at them to "watch where you're going!" I watched as the teens ignored all of this and continued to laugh and joke as they reached the other side of the road. Well, after all this commotion, I noticed that an old woman standing to my right was looking at me and speaking. She began to go on and on about how today's young people don't pay attention to anything, about how they're careless and ought to have more common sense and about how if the crosswalk light is red, it means no puedes cruzar! As I was listening to her, nodding my head in agreement with occasional comments of "sí, sí," "claro" and "de acuerdo," I couldn't help but think about how normally I, too, cross the road when the crosswalk light is red, provided of course that I don't see any cars approaching. However, instead of saying this to the woman, I found it much easier to just smile, nod and agree with everything she was saying. As the light changed green a mere 20 seconds later (most Spanish people, above all, Andalusians, speak very quickly and thus we were able to discuss so much in so little an amount of time), I crossed the road and parted ways from the woman, who was still upset and muttering to herself about "young people today." I couldn't help but smile while completing the rest of my errands and you can bet that I payed much more attention than normal to the crosswalk signals for the remainder of the afternoon!

On a completely different note, I've been extremely busy since starting work again after my long Christmas break. I know that it may seem as though I have abandoned this blog but don't worry, that's not at all the case! I've just simply had no time to sit and write an entry as I've been making lesson plans, creating worksheets, "googling" classroom activities and preparing PowerPoint presentations on a myriad of topics ranging from "gymnastic positions and flexibility" to "multiplying and dividing fractions" to "talking about television." Furthermore, my "clases particulares" (or "tutoring sessions") have been keeping me pretty busy, too. Now, instead of tutoring six Spanish students a week I tutor seven- my latest English tutee is an 8th grader with whom I started working just two weeks ago. While I love tutoring- I teach a wonderful group of students ranging in age from 11 to 20- I'll admit that so many private English lessons have given me quite a lot of added material to prepare each week! Luckily for me, all my students are very hardworking and extremely pleasant to work with- our lessons fly by!

Alright, I'm off to prepare a science lesson for my 2 ESO students on "Cells: the Basis of Life" as well as another lesson on "Using the Zodiac Signs to Discuss Personality and Make Comparisons." It's going to be athother long Tuesday... wish me luck!