¿Dónde está la bombilla, boludo?

I was invited to my friend Eliseo's house a few Sundays ago to eat pupusas, a Salvadorean thick-stuffed tortilla-like thing filled with either refried beans, or meat (in this case chorizo, since we are in Spain). Eliseo's girlfriend's family arrived a few weeks ago from El Salvador to look for jobs, so they decided to all have a feast and teach me how to make pupusas. I couldn't refuse because I am a huge fan of all Latin American food. Basically you take masa (which is corn-flour mixed with water to make a dough) and form it into a ball, then make a pocket and put the filling in it, then make it back into a ball and flatten it into a fry pan...sooo good. My friend Erin and I ended up hanging out there all Sunday afternoon playing with Daniela, the cutest 1-year old ever, and talking about how funny British and Spanish accents are (it always ends up being the Americas vs. Europe...), and learning about how immigration works in Spain (a lot easier and safer to be undocumented or "clandestino" here than it is back in the States).

I am proud to say that I am the new owner of a Madrid Public Library card! I discovered a branch close to my house and immediately went in to find out how to sign up. All you need is a passport and a Madrid address and you are set. So I have been frequenting the library every few days or so, stocking up on dvds (I plan on studying Spanish culture through film) and books about linguistics and Spanish grammar.

The school system here (or maybe just our school?) doesn't cease to surprise me...the other day the water system just stopped working. Completely. Fortunately the toilets here work differently, so they never overflow (they are amazing, I don't know why we don't have them in the States), but I still couldn't believe that they kept the school open. Then I look out the window and see the principal carrying buckets of water from the preschool to the primary school. Seems interesting to me that he was doing that job...don't principals have more important things to do? Not here I guess. 

I am now included in the teacher's gossip circle and I have come to realize that the administration is not exactly super liked or competent (nothing I am a stranger to in the States, hello Fairmount Park Elementary) and whenever I tell someone I have to go talk to the principal they say to me, oh god, you will be in there for an hour. He likes to talk. About nothing in particular. Or about the same topic over and over again. On the first day of work he gave me a tour of every single classroom in the primary and preschool, telling me about each decorated wall in the hallway and every name of every teacher (I think it took about an hour). 

One day last week they forgot to send in a sub to the other 1st grade class and the kids were running around and rowdy, so I asked Ramón if I should go over and keep them quiet (we share a doorway). So I ended up spending 45 minutes teaching them Math in Spanish. It was pretty amusing, I had them make a "cocodrilo"with their arms to "eat" the bigger number. I had fun, but that is not in my job description (or my contract) and the assistant principal caught me in the hallway to apologize, saying she had forgotten to give the note to a sub.

P.D. They subtract double-digit numbers differently here than in the States. I wish I could somehow draw a picture into my blog, but I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon.