"It´s Grape Pickin´ Season. . . and guess what else" by Amy

Yes, we are coming to the ends of the vendimia or grape harvest here in Valdepeñas and all throughout the day there are tractors pulling trailers full of grapes to the many different wine cellars throughout the town. Andrea, the girl I nanny/teach english to, loves seeing the tractors when we go to the park. She says in english, "A tractor! grapes! mmmhhm" and then acts like she´s eating grapes. :) She´s starting to say a lot more phrases in english although she still isn´t close to talking fully yet.


In other news the deer are breeding. Yes, that´s right. In Spanish it´s called La Berrea. ´Berrear´ means to bellow and that it what the bucks do to call their mates. It is quite an impressive noise they make, especially when you can hear 5 or 6 calling one after the other. Gabriel and I had the opportunity to hear this when we were rockclimbing last Sat. in La Cimbarra. The next day we decided to drive on the back roads through an area in the country to see if we could see any animals. I guess it is somewhat ´popular´to do this during this time since you have a high chance of seeing deer. We saw lots of deer but unfortunately didn´t see any other animals such as the ´muflón´(a type of big-horned sheep). Muflón. It´s my new favorite word to say in Spanish:)

We saw much larger groups than these two but the others were too far away to be picture worthyLike the rock-climbers we are, whenever rock walls are seen from the car, it is a must to get out and hike over to check them out.

The azafran of Castilla la Mancha.

Alcornoque: cork oak. This one has already been de-barked to make corks for wine bottles.

So, it´s official: I have successively survived my first week of giving english classes. I have 78, or there about, students every week. Now some of those come once a week, some twice a week, and some five times a week. I have 6 adults: 1 a complete beginner, 3 very low intermediate (or high beginner), and 2 advanced level. One of these students is actually my medical doctor. Another is Nuria, my co-worker who tutors in all the other subjects except english. My average size class is about 6 students I´d say. My largest class is 12 and all of them are 3 years old! Thankfully that´s only a once a weeker. I do have a lot of students from the ages of 3-6. This year I have a lot more high school students who I enjoy helping. Now that I have one year under my belt I have lots of resources and it makes it easier to teach. The hardest parts this year will be more focused with coming up with material for 3 year olds, how to change some of my teaching methods/games for large classes, and how to deal with classes that are diverse in age (like the one I have with two 3 yr olds and three high schoolers). So far I feel pretty excited and energetic about all this (although when I get done at 9 or 10 I´m usually exhausted) so hopefully I can continue with that throughout the year.

This weekend is a puente: a long weekend. Monday is a holiday. I´ll most likely take the opportunity to go climbing and spend some more time than usual with Gabriel. Hope you all are doing well! Lots of love and kisses, Amy