WALK: Un Recreo (recess, break)

Hola a Todos! 

Hello Everyone! 

This week is my final week of classes for the year! This semester has been one of the best semesters of my life, and you know how much I love school, so that says a lot about how great it has been. I have really enjoyed getting to know my students and the staff that I work with, and I am extremely excited for next semester. However, I am exuasted! I am constantly learning new things that help me improve my Spanish and I am grateful for this opportunity, but some days I come home and my brain hurts. The constant back and forth between English and Spanish, plus the 120+ students in my 17 different classes has left me just plain tired.

So, I am going to take a break- from my students, from school, from EVERYTHING! Therefore this will be my last post for 2011. I hope you will come back (January 10, 2012)  because I have some new topics that I would like to share, but they are going to have to wait until 2012. So I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL holiday season and a prosperous New Year and I will see you in 2012!!

WALK: Birthday Wishes

This week is my birthday so I’ve been thinking a lot about my life; where I’ve come from, where I am, and where I want/will go. Each year I make a wish, and sometimes they come true and sometimes they don’t. I have a few things in particular that I wish I could have on my birthday this year: a steak (I haven’t had red meat in almost three months), an actual cake (I've found brownie mix but I can’t actually find a cake mix), seven layer dip (Texans will know what this one is -I’ve only actually had it 3 or 4 times in my life but I would kill for some right now), Spicy Cheetos (I love them... they have probably shaved off about 5yrs of my life but they are sooo good), anything spicy for that matter (Spaniards don’t seem to like spicy foods so anything will do), and lastly Happiness. This wish isn’t for me necessarily because I already feel so much happiness in my life, but I wish that everyone would feel the love and support I feel on a daily basis that allows me to feel this happy. I don’t know about other people, but I truly feel as though each year of my life is better than the previous. 
Now this year wasn’t without its trials; my incredible grandfather passed away and I had to attend my first funeral (ever), Cole and I were in a very serious car accident and I totaled my car, and I left my stable job (with great insurance benefits), friends, and family to move to a foreign country, and yet it was still the best year of my life so far!! I can’t believe it was this time last year that I was contemplating my quarter-life crisis. I had recently realized that I was very unhappy with my job and that I needed to make a change... I just wasn’t sure what that change was going to be. So I invited over some older and much wiser friends to give me some advise. They didn’t say anything that I hadn’t already heard before, but I left our encounter feeling more inspired than ever. They encouraged me take a leap of faith and to do what made me happy. Not to follow society’s standards of what should make me happy, but to really find what makes me happy. And that’s exactly what I am doing. I’m making myself happy... happier than I’ve been for a long time.  
Which makes me even more excited for the next year! I love the excitement of not knowing, and I am so grateful that things don’t always turn out like I want them to because I wouldn’t be here today if they had.
So this year I’ll still wish for a giant steak with a side of spicy cheetos, but I will also make a wish for you. I wish that you find, or have already found the type of happiness that makes you think “this is ABSOLUTELY the BEST year of my life!!” 
I am truly thankful for the life that I have lived, the places I have been, and the people that I have met along the way. It’s the people in my life that have kept my perspective during my trials,  and have loved and supported me while I seek out my happiness.
And a very special Thank You to all of you that follow my blog. I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy lives to stay updated with mine by reading my ramblings. 
So here’s to 26!
May it be the best year yet!

STUMBLE: Are You Smarter than a Spanish Teenager

Today’s post is going to be quick but I’m not sure how easy it will be. As you know from reading my previous post (Second Guessing) every day that I walk into school I am subjected to an incessant string of random questions relating to all things "American". I am constantly amazed by how much my students know about America, and horrified by how little I know about Europe... and the U.S. for that matter sometimes. So, I wanted to let you in on the fun! I’ve provided a few questions that I have been asked below, along with the answers. I would love to hear how you  answered them.


1. List all 5 Great Lakes
2. What year was the FIRST Thanksgiving feast celebrated?
3. Where is Yellowstone National Park located?
4. Where is Justin Bieber from? 
5. Why don’t we call people from Mexico and Canada American too? 




1.  Huron, Erie, Michigan, Ontario, and Superior
2. Most sources agree that the first Thanksgiving feast was held in 1621
3. Yellowstone spans three states:  Wyoming, Montana and Idaho
4. *This one is kinda of a trick question: Justin Bieber was actually born in Ontario, Canada but to three 15yr old Spanish girls... he’s as American as they get. 
5. I have yet to answer this question although I have gotten it more than once.


 I’m not quite sure why people from the United States have a monopoly on the term “American”. Why aren’t we called United Staters or Mid Americans?  I don’t know... but I often find myself thinking about this question. What actually makes me an American; the fact that I was born in the United States or is it more? One student even commented "You are ALL from North America, right?" 
I hadn’t really thought much more about this until I was compared to another Auxiliar in our group. Her parents are Haitian and they came to the United States just long enough for her to be born and receive citizenship, before they returned to Haiti. She was raised in Haiti and came to the U.S. for high school and college. English isn’t her native language and she’s only lived in the U.S. for just over a decade, but she was born in New York so technically she is an American. But the question remained; is she less of an American than I am? What actually makes someone an American? What makes YOU an American?