Levantarse con el pie derecho

I met the mother of one of my 4-year-old students today. Her reaction? "Oh, you're Hilary! Lucía won't stop talking about you. Eating, sleeping, it's always Hilary this, Hilary that. When we play school, I always have to be Hilary." To say it made my day is kind of an understatement.

Not that my day needed to be made. It's been one of those where you're just in an effortless good mood (although that might just be the endorphins from finally dragging my lazy butt to the gym yesterday). Today my 6th-graders did a reading comprehension exercise on sleep, and in the process I learned how to say "I woke up on the wrong side of the bed" in Spanish (levantarse con el pie izquierdo, or getting up with your left foot) and realized that regardless of what foot I got up on, today was a great day.

My third graders were speaking in complete (and grammatically correct!) sentences, ALL OF THEM! Even the ones who NEVER participate and failed the last exam.

I got to teach my kindergartners about Halloween and show them pictures from home (your jack-o-lanterns were a hit Dad!). They're starting to form sentences, and every time I get an unprompted complete sentence (That's a skeleton! or I like your pumpkin!) I just about die of pride. They also learned the Skeleton Dance. I've included it for your listening pleasure (if it gets stuck in your head all day, welcome to my life).

One of the girls asked me to go to the bathroom (in English!), instead of my co-teacher who was sitting right next to me. My co-teacher got really excited and says this is a great sign because it means the kids see me as the teacher now, and not her. So yay me :)

I also found out I get to go on a field trip in a couple weeks, to the Planetarium in Pamplona with my 4th-graders!!! There was a little glitch in the communication process and my roommate found out about it before I did, so I was really bummed that I had to stay at school and teach while she got to go on an awesome field trip. Everyone was talking about it during recess today and I was all woe is me until someone finally let me know that I'm going too. Yippee! I don't think I've ever been more excited for a field trip in my entire life. (I mean it's a science field trip in Spain.)

Plus, it's a 4-day week this week (we get Friday off because it's All Saint's Day). Two more days of school, and then I'm off to Madrid for the long weekend to finally visit my cousin!

All in all, not a bad Tuesday :)