I'm kind of a big deal.

Just about two months ago my 5 1/2 year long career with Trader Joe's came to a bittersweet end.
On Monday of last week my new job, a horse of a much different color, began. Oh, the joys of...children.

I work at a colegio in the North of Madrid called CP Rabindranath Tagore and the school ranges from age 5 to 6th grade. My schedule is really nice, I work Monday-Thursday with Thursday only being a half day. The weekend is totally mine to explore Madrid, travel, and, my favorite, to sleep.

At the school I work with 5th graders, 3rd graders, and 5 year olds. Overall, it has been really fun and much different than anything I have done before. Each class is unique and each teacher wants to utilize my English in different ways. So far I haven't been nervous and I feel that I'm doing a pretty good job of integrating myself into the classes.

I began last week by introducing myself to the kids with a power point featuring info about the states, pictures of my family, and photos of the things I like to do. The kids were most intrigued with 3 things: Disneyland, Monster Trucks, and Donny. When I was explaining that I liked Disneyland to the kids I showed a picture that Donny and I had taken there on his birthday. I tried to pull the photo off by simply stating, "And this is me and my friend at Disneyland on his birthday", my plot was quickly overturned with the question, "Is that your boyfriend?"..."Yes", I responded, "this is my boyfriend". I braced myself for the giggles and whispers as another hand shot up. The girl asked, emphasizing with frantic hand gestures, "How tall is he?!". The kids were not interested in the fact that I had a boyfriend, they were, however, totally amazed by how tall Donny is. In the picture it is clear that he is much taller than me, and since not all Spanish people are as blessed in the height category as Pau Gasol, the kids were blown away. I found it super entertaining and I tried my best to show them...in meters...how tall Donny is in comparison to me. It will be fun to take him to the school when he visits, I'm sure they will love it. Here is the incriminating photo of us at Disneyland:

After my first day in classes I couldn't walk through the hallways with out a kid yelling out, there's Ashley! Oh hi Ashley! It's Ashley! I'd like to think that this must be what a celebrity feels like, just replace my nose-picking-mini-fans with flashing lights and cameras. One of the classes was given an assignment to write about me. After they finished, they had to accompany their writing with a picture of yours truly...there's nothing like 5th grade interpretations of yourself.

At a Monster Truck Rally, hell yes.

Me with my bags, I like to travel.

Diggin' the side bun and colorful hair.

My nose ring? Yes. That double chin? Not so much.

So far the biggest downside to working with kids has been the germs. And I'm sure my hour long commute  twice a day on the metro doesn't help. I wonder how often they actually clean those trains? I've spent the last few days in bed, but at least I've got two things to add to my list of Spanish accomplishments: I managed to find/see a Spanish doctor and I even acquired some Spanish prescription drugs. So what if I used Google to translate my symptoms ahead of time, and maybe I did just hand the doctor my list of symptoms as he shook his head at my pathetic effort, but hey, he got the idea.