Spanish views from a small town

I am now on vacation. It's an unpaid one, but I get to have my days all to myself. This, however, doesn't mean I can forget all about my classes. This is the time of year I start pulling my hair out by the roots. Mothers (almost always mothers, as if the fathers had nothing to do with their kids' education) start calling me to set up their kids' English classes. I have little room, so I can't take more than three, or, stretching it, four kids an hour, preferably all of the same or similar ages. Here's the problem. There are five hours of classes in each day, but it seems some children have more than ten hours of busy time each afternoon. "Tuesday's a bad day because Johnny has football practice and then he goes to kayaking. After that, he has a swimming class. Thursdays he has trombone practice, and theater, followed by some more football. Have you got anything for him on Fridays?" "Not for his age group. I do have an hour on Wednesdays he can...

Presencial teaching has certain pitfalls, especially when there are two students of different age. Yet, it has its advantages. You can always pick up what the student is writing on, take up a red pen, and point out their mistakes, explaining the issues. You can also take chalk and graphically try to explain a point on what passes for a blackboard. You can look at them as they write, and stop them when you can tell they're doing something wrong because they don't understand. When they speak, you can correct them while looking over their shoulder at the text. One isn't always sitting nor standing, either, and if something comes up in the kitchen, you can always pop out of the study to check out if the cats are breaking all the kitchen glassware. Even though on the worst day, in which I stand up almost all afternoon and my back later hurts, I'm not standing absolutely still. Online learning doesn't have those advantages. It becomes artificial, difficult, and uncontroll...

Yesterday, I had my first video classes of this year. They went smoothly, though they each involved only one other person. Mondays are quiet, simply because scheduling worked out that way. Today will be another story. I have four group calls that I will attempt for the first time. Movistar still hasn't called to schedule a hook-up, and yesterday I spent about six hundred megas of my phone data. Today, I'll connect to one of the wifi's, and let's see how many calls I have ahead of me before the data goes bye-bye. I doubt I have a week's worth. Damned Movistar! The only problem was a slight delay in sound and image, so one would start talking and the so would the other, at the same time, probably because of the signal. So, it's not the ideal working situation, but it will have to do for the next couple of weeks. Or, at least the next day or two. Aside from the cancellations of various spring celebrations all over Spain, Pamplona has declared that this year's S...

I completely forgot to write yesterday. It was a regular Monday in October. In the morning, I worked on my story. I'm starting to reach the end, and my ideas are shifting. (Already, when I go back to edit, I have to rewrite the beginning.) In the afternoon I had the full complement of classes.  Classes are pretty much normal, except for the hand sanitizer in the hall, the masks, the alcohol I spray everywhere in the study, and the air purifier. No one has complained except one mother, who didn't like that her kids shared the study with others, given the times we're living in. But it's either that, or I don't give classes, or I give classes until close to midnight, to keep each kid alone in his own hour. I do what I can to limit contagion. Beyond that, there's little I can do except close the door.  In our township the number of infected seems to be going down. From 27, we've gone to 20. But in the next door township of Boiro, they've gone from 26 to 33. ...

Today was my first day of classes. I'm glad tomorrow is Friday. It's not that it was a rowdy lot, but just that it was intense. Yes, the afternoon did go by quickly, for which I am grateful. But at the end, I just sank into my chair and sighed in relief. To top it off, one mother changed her children around in their time slots. The only problem with that was that I had already put in two other kids in those hours of approximate ages. Now, I have upper high school kids with fourth graders. It's not an impossibility, but there is little chance that way of unifying lessons.  Then, a mother forgot that she had to bring her kids. I spent that hour doing little things around the house, and eating something, glad that I had that time to myself. The next hour, the kid I had scheduled came. A few minutes into the hour, and someone knocked on the door. It was the mother who should have come the hour before. She got mixed up and thought her class was an hour later than it was. At the ...

School begins tomorrow for me. I hope it can continue without unexpected interruptions till June. But I don't know. Two children at one of the primary schools in town got infected. Those are almost over the virus. But another one has just been infected at the same school. Secondary school began last week. At the moment, in our township, there are no infections in it. But in the next township, there are two, one in each secondary school there. I suspect it's only a matter of time. Yesterday, our township had 27 infected. The next town, 26. These two towns are the ones with the most sick and quarantined in the area. I fear that one of my students might bring the virus with him, eventually.  I have discovered my air purifier doesn't like cooking smells nor woodsmoke. It's going to be a noisy winter. At least the kids will wear masks, I'll spray everything with alcohol, and I'll find a mask more comfortable to wear in winter, and that will let me talk. I hope. M...

Summer is supposed to appear from today onward. I won't mind temperatures in the upper 20's/low 80's, though I hope they don't rise too far above 30º/86º. Just warm enough to know it's summer and not sit shivering in the early morning or late evening. Classes have gotten off to a slow start. The first day, only the students of one hour appeared. The others didn't come because they didn't have a car available, or because they forgot. The second day, almost everyone scheduled, came. One afternoon student is yet to confirm which days he'll come as of next week. Just as long as some show up, I don't mind that much. I pass a cloth soaked with alcohol over the table, the chairs, the pencils, the erasers, any book used, and the dictionary before the first class, between classes, and after the last class. The study is starting to smell like a hospital; of disinfectant. The window is slightly open. I wear a plastic screen in front of my face, which is qui...

Yesterday I went to Santiago to bring down my daughter and the last of her things from her rented apartment. This has not been a good year for her, ending with the lockdown of a couple of months. At least the roommate she was with was a nice person; they were comfortable in their companionship, and they weren't at each other's throats. After bringing everything downstairs and filling the car well, we drove into the center of town, where I parked in a parking garage, and she went on to do business with the real estate office and the internet provider. I went walking down to one of my favorite book stores. Follas Novas in Santiago is a pretty big bookstore, though not on a Barnes and Noble level. They do tend to have hard to find books, and if not on the shelves, you can order them. The reason for this is that they tend to cater to the university crowd. They also have a nifty little English language section that I like to peruse every now and then, both for books to use in my...

It's June, the best month of the year. The days are the longest, the weather should be the finest, and everything is just right. Almost. As I turned the calendar page this morning, I saw that I had marked from the 22nd to the 30th as my summer vacation.  I buy my calendar every year from a publishing company in Massachusetts. Ever since I visited Boston in 2005, and bought the following year's calendar with pictures of Boston, I have been buying by mail either a Massachusetts, Boston, or New England calendar. When it arrives, I go marking the holidays we have with a red marker. It's not confusing, because the calendar only uses black ink, even for Sundays. I also write in dates that I know of in advance, such as the local festival, and my vacations, which follow the school holidays.  This year, it doesn't matter that I marked it. I truly counted my chickens before they've been hatched, this time. I've been on holiday since mid-March, except for an hour or ...

October has come, and with it, classes have begun again. Not that it's been easy, scheduling everyone who wanted at least an hour. Every year it seems that a child's after school schedule resembles that of a CEO of an international corporation. 4 o'clock: swimming classes 5 o'clock: art classes 6 o'clock: tae kwondo 7 o'clock: football practice 8 o'clock: theater classes 9 o'clock: roller skating I could continue, but I'll stop. Apart from these, there's rowing, ballet, tennis, other support classes (math, etc.), dancing, computer classes, etc. Children nowadays have no time to get bored. I don't even know how they have time to do homework and eat supper, let alone play.  Was I remiss with my daughter? She only went to one after school activity at a time. She went to an art class once a week in the first years. In later primary school years, she went to roller skating classes. Then, in high school, she went to math support classes....

This semester my daughter has an interesting class called Philosophy of the History of Religion. It sounds quite fancy and deep, but the two words that caught my attention were "history" and "religion." I love history in just about any form, and I've always been interested in the different belief systems man has held since he began to wonder about the world.  My daughter said there would be no problem with my attending the class as an observer, especially since the professor is relaxed and approachable. So yesterday at twelve thirty saw me sitting outside the classroom, waiting for my daughter and ready for my return to a formal classroom in almost thirty years.  There were very few students. Empty seats gaped here and there and from the middle of the classroom to the back was a sea of emptiness. Not many people rush to study Philosophy; it doesn't generate money in the real world. The professor had his notes in book form, and referred to them copiously....