I've survived my first week here now and I think everything's gone pretty well so far. You might have seen a bit of what I've been up to on my other posts but I've been doing so much that I haven't had time to write about!
I completed my first "working week" on Friday which seemed to go ok, could have been better, could have been worse. It's been a bit hard to know exactly what's expected of me with regards to house rules, speaking English/speaking Spanish etc. The girls are still at school until the end of June but finish at 1 rather than 4. In previous years the girls have had to stay in school until 3pm when their mum could pick them up after work so this year it's all a bit of a new routine for them as well as for me.
I set my alarm for 7/7.30am (depending on whether I'm planning a shower or not) and get up, get dressed, make coffee and get the breakfast ready. At 8am I go into the girls' room to wake them up, open the blinds and say "Good morning! Wakey, wakey!". This has worked to various degrees throughout the week as the girls have got more tired. We then have breakfast together. After breakfast, Carlota has to have some medicine for fatigue which comes in little glass vials. I learnt the hard way that to open these you need to snap both ends off before pouring it into a glass - I cut my thumb on the first day! I've learnt that it's best to use a tea towel to avoid this... The girls get dressed, brush their teeth, get their bags ready and off we go to school.
The walk to school takes about 10 mins and once we get there, we say our goodbyes and the girls go in with their friends. I then have the morning free to do whatever I fancy. As it was the first week, I haven't been particularly adventurous. My aim has been to go out somewhere every day so if I know that Mónica's got something planned for the afternoon, I've stayed in in the mornings. I've had to send various emails to do with China and have been learning more Spanish vocab so I've kept myself busy. On Tuesday I did go into the centre though, something I should do more often. The problem is that by the time I've got there, I've only got about 2 hours before I have to go back!
I pick the girls up from school at 1pm and we walk back to the flat. I try to make light conversation with them in English but there are times that they are more willing to talk than others. It tends to be Carlota who's more keen to talk in English, being the eldest. We play "I spy" or "Yesterday, I went to the supermarket and I bought... ". Hopefully Mónica will join in with us soon! Mónica madre tends to prepare our meals for lunch the night before and all I have to do is heat it up. So far we've had lentils twice, pasta with tomatoes, tuna and olives twice and puré (a thick soup) with hake (this last one has to be my least favourite!). The problem is that the girls constantly want to watch the tele while they're eating. On the first day we ate in the kitchen but on the second, they rang their mum and asked if they could eat in front of the TV. She said that they could so then I was a bit confused as to where exactly they were supposed to eat. I'd never been allowed to eat in from of the TV as a child! Yesterday I spoke to José and found out that this is not allowed. Seems I may have to argue with the girls a little bit next week...
The girls then have homework to do before we play together.
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| There's a little Mónica somewhere beneath all those teddies! |
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| The girls love arts and crafts. Carlota had a friend round the other day, as Mónica was at a friend's house, so we went out and bought some coloured foamy/plasticy stuff to make things out of from one of the "Chinese shops". The top two are Carlota's bird and Chinese girl, the bottom left one is Carlota's "here's one I made earlier" and the bottom right one is my fish! |
Mónica madre gets back from work at about 3/3.30pm so then I'm free again unless we go out somewhere together like we did on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. On Thursday evening I went into the centre to the Reina Sofia art gallery as it's free between 7 and 9pm. I went in a little bit early so that I could have a look around the area. The queue was massive so I only really had time to see the temporary Dalí exhibition which was well worth the wait. Mónica and José told me afterwards that they'd been wanting to go so I may go back to see it again with them! As well as the famous paintings of melted clocks were many other paintings throughout his career, two films, poems and some 3D art. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed.
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| Reina Sofia art gallery |
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| One of Madrid's older streets near the gallery |
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| Old vs. New |
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| The Ministry of Agriculture |
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| Atocha Train Station |
Yesterday I sat down and had a chat with José about how we thought things were going. He asked me if I was happy with how everything had gone or if I needed anything to which I told him that everything was fine. He said that his main concern was that he wanted me to talk to the girls in English a bit more, that I could practise my Spanish the rest of the time with him and Mónica madre. He's also trying to improve his English by going to evening classes so wants to sit down with me for an hour a week to talk English/Spanish so that we can help each other improve, at the moment though, he seems a bit shy to talk to me in my native language!
After the chat he gave me my pocket money for the week and we went out to the Retiro park before going to the grandparents' (Mónica's parents) appartment for lunch where I met not only the grandparents, but also two uncles and the wife of one of them. Unfortunately, it was raining that day so I didn't take many photos! I will definitely go back to Retiro park though as it's massive and I'm sure there's plenty to see.
Hasta luego!
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