WALK: Victory

Hola! First of all I want to apologize the sporadic postings over the last month; it's been a little crazy to say the least. Last time I posted it was a few short days before Cole’s visit, and now it seems like our time together was forever ago. We spent five days here in Zaragoza and three days in Paris, and every minute was amazing. It was so nice to be able to show Cole Zaragoza and how I live my life here. I don’t think he really understood what my life here consists of. I secretly think he thought that I wake up, get on my moto, hop over to school, play a few games with the students, only to come home and enjoy a platter of tapas and sangria before retiring to bed. Nevertheless, he got the full picture–including a visit to my school. The kids were entranced by him and (not so) secretly followed 2ft. behind him ALL day. At one point one of my 8th grade girls shouted out “Your boyfriend is very Beautiful”!! Cole looked at me (half questioning the girl’s eyesight, as well as my abilities as an English teacher) and asked me whether or not she knew what beautiful was. I just nodded and smiled because in my head the statement was true, but really I was just happy that she was actually speaking in English. Little victories... those are the ones I celebrate. As an English teacher in the country with the lowest English proficiency in the European Union, I have to take what I can get.
Additionally, I think I have another reason to celebrate. I’m not sure if he’s completely sold... (yet) but I think I may have shown Cole a glimpse as to why I love to travel. And really that was the main reason for me asking him to make this trip. We had a tough moment at one point during our time in Paris when we were trying to order a meal. I had forgotten the dictionary and after we had given up on Spanish and English words along with hand gestures, he commented to me that this is “why I only want to travel to English speaking countries.” I responded to him, “this is exactly why I don’t only want to travel to English speaking countries.” That interaction (like many others) gave us something we didn’t have before; now only did we learn new vocabulary, but that interaction gave us a nice little reminder. It reminded us that not everyone speaks English and that’s OK, as well as a renewed sense of patience, humility, and grace. That's what I love about traveling- you get to learn so many new things, and a lot of the time...those things are about yourself.