"Do you like spanish boys?"

So started my first week of actual classes today...sort of. We had a long weekend so I didn't have to go in until tuesday and had 3 classes. They consisted of kids being almost forced into asking very basic questions about me, and me this having to talk for about 35 minutes in a slow voice about anything I could think that would interest them. Two classes were kids about 14/15 years old and the other was a class of mostly 11/12 years old. In the latter of the two ages, I helped read some exercises out of their work book for them to fill in.

Today (wed) I went to my second school where I gave 4 classes. Pretty much the same thing except I have my own classroom and kids come to me have a class as a time and asked questions they had already written down. The students in this school seemed more eager to participate, and by that, i mean they actually asked some questions rather than just have me talk at them.

MY favorite question of the day, "Do you like Spanish boys" and of course I said yes and explained my love of Rafael Nadal and our sharing of the same birthday...he also won his tennis match today !

Besides the job part I've been checking out a few different places at night. Went to a "Jazz bar" last night which was really fun live music with bongos and steel drums. Over the weekend a group of French girls doing my same program came to visit the our city so we all had dinner together and then went out and hit up the hot spots of Mérida.

It turns out I live right next to one of the nicer bars that the Spanish young people frequent before they head out to the late night clubs. That means from 12:30 to about 3:00am the bar, Caramelo is busy, inside and out. Anytime between 2:00 and 3:00 people make there way out to the El Foro, a mall by day, mecca for clubs by night. We managed to stay out till about 5, which pales in comparison to those late night-ers who stay out until 8 or 9 in the am. My stamina will clearly be tested in the coming months.

I've also signe up for a hip hop dance class with the other girls in Mérida...I clearly am not the most coordinated person in the world but I figure a month of dance classes can't hurt. Also I've been running and going out to eat a bit too... I officially love the Spanish Tortilla, Jamon Serrano and green olives.

Grocery shopping isn't bad, cheaper but nothing compared to Wegmans. However, they do have quite the selection of canned "seafood" (shout out to Joe Mullin, you'd love the selection of anchovies, calamari and everything kinda of canned sea food imaginable!)

Alright time to get back to living the spanish dream!