cuando sea grande/sin falta otra vez

last week was "career week" for the second graders. Mrs B's class made little people out of construction paper, with a square in the middle on which the students were to write something about their future careers that began something like cuando yo sea grande/adulto/adulta (because of my influence... i had to correct a few girls who mentioned being adult men)... I came in just at the right time so that Mrs B gave half of the stack of rough copies to me to correct and hand back to the children. Soon, the class lined up for gym but i still had a few papers to look over. i laughed out loud when i got to Juan's. cuando yo sea grande, yo quiero ser policia para comer donas en D*nkin Donuts. Voy a tomar cafe con donas... which can be inferred to mean, when i'm grown up i want to be a police officer so i can eat donuts at D*nkin Donuts, i'll go have coffee and donuts there. I laughed out loud - where are these children getting this? i mean i know the "stereotype" if you will of the fat cop in the donut shop is played over and over everywhere, but could it be so bad to the extent that these children think that being a police officer is all about eating donuts? Juan wasn't the only one to say he wanted to be a cop because he could eat donuts - there were at least two others. most of the kids wanted to be singers or artistas. Mrs B had given them "cantador" for singer but is it not cantante? anyway. there were two that said they wanted to be licenciados. from what they wrote, i think they took licenciado to mean "lawyer" because Mauricio wrote about wanting to be a licenciado so that he could help get people out of jail and have a big house.

i had a slight altercation with The Principal today. i must mention that my immune system has finally capitulated and my glands are like marbles; my nose is runny and i'm congested and i feel generally shitty. so, because there were FOUR aides gone today (anyone else and we'd have gone to hell) i stayed for recess. I was only planning on going for the morning because i had to do state testing, but then in all honesty there would not have been anyone else to cover my recess so i felt bad and stayed - but i was going to tell The Boss after recess that i was leaving. however. when i came in from recess there was a little note on my desk. IT WAS A SUB PLAN FOR 3PM! at the top, hey miss e! thank you so much for helping me out this afternoon! i did a mental check - had anyone asked me if i would stay to sub for the half hour Mrs K needed me? NO! not that i mind doing it - i was just pissed that nobody had bothered to ASK me, that they had assumed i would just do it. so i went and got my lunch and on the way in i asked the ladies at the front office what time does Mrs K need me in her room? in my deliberately cold-but-could-be-argued-as-caused-by-my-poor-physical-state stare. Nancy had no idea what i was talking about (the ladies at the front office generally don't because of lack of communication within the building - they day i started there they had no idea). i explained the mysterious sub plan that had appeared out of nowhere. fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) The Principal was sitting there and she told me that it was My Boss (the assistant principal) who had put that on my desk, that i should talk to her. Then she asked me if that was alright, if i wanted to do it. yes, of course, i'll do it, i was just kind of confused because it just showed up on my desk. i guess i have to do it. The Principal looks at me, well i could find somebody else, i just thought with you knowing the language it would be easier. I look at her, no, that's ok, i'll do it. it's like she was just waiting for me to say something like that so she could get her cold little "i'll find someone else to do it."

so i was with bilingual first grade for the last half hour of the day. it was kind of nice - they're so little and they listen! Mrs K had left in her plan that we were to decide wether different animals were mammals or not. behind the sheet outlining which mammals we were to talk about was a stack of the worksheets the kids had to use - i would write on the board and they would copy onto their sheets. the worksheet was two columns - one for "mamales" and the other for "otro tipo de animal." look at this, we have people making up words. when i told the kids that we were going to decide which animals were mamíferos, they insisted it was mamales but i told them you could use either one (yeah i would feel bad correcting their teacher who is SUPPOSED to use proper spanish.) the half hour went well, but we finished almost ten minutes earlier than we were supposed to. so i had them think about other animals that could be mammals. highlight of the day though: when they walked out the door i got like twenty seven hugs and they all said goodbye to me. they were really sweet!

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have i not mentioned in my blog before that for some reason i always happen to find argentine men? friday i went to the posh suburban club (as "posh" as one of those could be) with some friends. since they are cool people who are too nice (as in insist you drink and will buy your drinks if you have no cash on you. seriously, they are not WASPy lets-figure-out-who-owes-what types, but fun, laid back and generally relaxed about money) i ended up more than slightly inebriated, as i always do with that crowd. i was sitting and flirting with one of them when this group of about four guys comes over and starts talking to us. it is found out they are argentines so one of the girls tells them that i've been to argentina, so of course i go over and start talking to them. they of course are impressed by my spanish (or they act like it anyway). one of them tells me he lives in Suburb Town X. i don't really remember the rest of our conversation but i gave one of them my number (it must be a compulsion of mine). more flirting contnues with a variety of nationalities (there was a colombian and a spanish guy in the mix as well) up until they turn the lights on and start herding people out the door. we (as in the group i came with) decide to go to Denny's. as we're leaving, Jamie goes to the bathroom but on her way who does she pass but The Argentines! so, still inebriated, i go over and start talking with them again. we talk about football teams si yo fuera hincha, sería hincha de San Lorenzo porque me gustan los colores. they all booed and i said that River was still the best (they were San Isidro/Belgrano bastards - one was very impressed that i had gone to DiTella while i was there). then i asked The Ringleader (the one who lives in Suburb Town X) how he could go from living in Buenos Aires (and belgrano is one of my favorite barrios there) to living in FREAKING TOWN X!???! i think though somewhere in the conversation i forgot to ask him what he was doing here.

so there you have it, a short recap of the last week or so. as i mentioned earlier i've been sick, but not sick enough to feel really really shitty. kind of like what's been going on with me mentally/emotionally - depressed but not enough that it's a serious problem. what else - Therapist suggested i try an anti-depressent but told me to see my "gynie" (there is something nauseating about having a male doctor saying it that way) for a second opinion. she suggested i give it a try, along with "talk" therapy. so we'll see what happens. i once said i would never medicate myself, but maybe it could make a difference. if i don't like how it makes me feel, or if it makes me feel apathetic or not myself, i'll stop (or "titrate down"), simple as that. i also don't like the thought of blaming my problems (or apparent problems) on something that is chemically not right with me. like what if my sometimes depressive and obsessive-compulsive nature is intrinsic? i guess though snapping at people and being generally unpleasant around my family could be a difficult consequence of this aspect of my ser so i'll see what the anti-ds can do for me.

but really, i'm fine.