The First Day of Spanish School

We were all nervous this morning as we walked to Andrés Segovia, the kids' new school. The kids all kept saying they were scared and shy. Collin and I were trying to give them some last minute instructions on the way. Collin and I decided to dress them pretty nice. Emma wore a dress shirt and skirt, but with sneakers. Aidan and Ian wore polo shirts, nice pants or shorts and sneakers. We took them to a cafe to eat breakfast and then had to sit through 3 half hour orientations, one for each kid.

The two youngish men pictured are the principal (tall) and the director of education (short). The older man in the green shirt is Aidan's teacher, Don Pedro. The blonde woman is Emma's teacher, Doña Mari Carmen. The lady in the purple shirt is Ian´s teacher, Doña Bendición. The assembly was long and boring, probably because I only understood about 30% of what they were saying, despite hearing it three times! The school population seemed to be mostly Latin American with a few Spanish students. After each assembly, the kids would go off with their class and teacher. Aidan went first, then Emma, and finally Ian. Poor Ian had to sit through Aidan's and Emma's orientations. I was taking tons of pictures, but I didn't see any other parents taking pictures of their children. I guess Spaniards aren't as sentimental about school as Americans are. I kind of felt like a Japanese tourist. I had mixed feelings about sending Ian off to school. Part of me was excited to have some time to myself and the other part felt some loss. I am so used to him spending the day with me.

Emma was really angry that we had her wear a skirt since 98% of all the other girls were wearing shorts, capris or pants. She kept pushing me and making her sour face at me and saying, "Why did you make me dress so fancy? None of the other girls are dressed for church!" Most of the kids were dressed pretty casually. It is definitely a public city school. The school had bars on all the lower windows, a high fence all the way around it and graffiti on some of the walls. A few kids looked pretty tough, but they were all 6th graders. All of the 6th grade girls had cellphones. Aidan said to Collin, "Dad, I'm just going to walk behind you a little bit so I don't look like a little kid." I put my arm around him while we were waiting for the school to open up and he scooted away. I said that I would understand if he didn't want me to hug and kiss him at school. He said, "Good, I already said that to dad." I knew the day would eventually come when Aidan wouldn't want to hold hands or be hugged or kissed in public and he is 10 years old. All the same, it makes me a little sad. He did let me hug him and kiss him all I wanted when we were at home later.

After the kids went off to class with their teachers, Collin and I went to Corte Ingles for lunch. The food was NOT good. We spent the next two hours worrying about how the kids would do today. We did the grocery shopping at Mercadona and then went to pick them up. Ian spotted us from a window and called out, "Mom, Dad!" and waved from his classroom. (He is actually in first grade here. Kindergarten starts at age four.) I was expecting tears or frowns or at least extra clinginess from them. Instead, they were all smiling and telling us how great their first day was. All the kids said that they had nice teachers and nice children in their classes.

Aidan said that he has 9 new friends. He said that all the girls stared at him and one wrote his name on her notebook and drew a heart around it. He is afraid that all the girls in his new class will fall in love with him, which is so annoying (to him, I think it is funny)! He played soccer and hide and seek at recess and really seems to like all the boys in his class. He scored three goals. At recess, a 3rd grader accidently tripped over Aidan's foot and the kid was about to punch Aidan in the face (even though Aidan said that it was an accident and that he was sorry). Another kid from Aidan's class (wearing the white hat in the picture with all boys) stepped in between them and defended Aidan. I knew that the kids here are tough, but . . . a punch in the face for tripping over someone's foot? Aidan's English teacher talked to him in English and Aidan answered him in Spanish:)

Emma said she has three new friends in her class. Two of them are twins and also new to the school. She said that she played with the other girls at recess and pretended that she was a puppy. She seemed in really good spirits.

Ian said he has one new friend in his class. He said he played hopscotch at recess. He said "Huh! School is actually fun." Who would've thunk it, Ian?

Collin and I are so relieved! I truly thought that there would be tears and that the kids wouldn't want to go back the next day, but they all seemed excited about school. From now on, they start at 9 am and come home at 2 pm. In a couple of weeks they will be able to start after school activities. Aidan wants to do soccer and judo. Emma and Ian want to do judo. Ian is so excited about Judo that he keeps asking me how many days there are until he can start.

After I fed the kids lunch, I let them laze around and watch TV. Elena was late for their Spanish lesson. I went for a run during the lesson. I feel so much better and less lazy. I can't wait to get back into exercising every day. I think I actually need it to feel happy and less irritable. After their lesson we rushed off to the park to meet Nuria and Javier. The kids didn't get along great at the park. I think they were all tired from the excitement of their first day. Aidan kept teasing Ian and Emma and Javier was being naughty too. He climbed up on top of the Palacio de Congresos steps and then was hanging over a railing 15 above the pavement. I fear that Ian's crazy climbing and free running habits are going to increase because of Javier's example. Oh well, better a naughty friend than no friend at all, right?

The kids each had a long list of school supplies we had to buy including: toilet paper, paper towels, glue sticks, erasers, pencils, pencil sharpeners, colored pencils, scissors, 500 sheets (each) of computer paper, notebooks, rulers, compass (for Aidan), dictionary (for Emma), and more. We're definitely not in PA anymore. In PA, the school provides the school supplies. I remember having to buy paper towels and hand sanitizer and markers and other stuff for the kids' school in Orem, UT. Collin was pretty peeved about having to spend so much money on stuff the kids will only be using for 4 months. It was a hard day money wise, we have to pay a 200E water bill for the time that Ian plugged up the bidet in Collin's office and turned on the water. It ran for two weeks and flooded the entire floor and leaked through to the apartment below. It must be genetic, his cousin did something similar in our old house in Orem.

Aidan made popsicles today with peach yogurt and was trying to sell them to us for 20 centimos. He gave one to his teacher, Elena, for free. They were actually pretty good. She told him that he could grow up to be an ice cream maker some day.