Oh so hot!

Hi everybody!

First of all, my apologies for not having been in touch... Things are still pretty hectic and days are just flying by!!

So far we are doing great! I am enjoying my new job, even though by the time I finish I feel like a truck has run over me... Kez (that's the way she calls herself now) seems to be enjoying her new daycare too, although she still cries when I drop her off in the mornings and that makes me sad, but the teachers tell me that she stops crying as soon as I leave and she has a lot of fun playing with the other kids and bossing them around. She has already started saying a few words in English and her favourite one is "see you!" (waving her hand like the Queen of England).

Temperatures here are still around 32-35 degrees and that's also one of the reasons why I hardly ever log in - it is so extremely hot inside the house that I cannot bear to sit for longer than a couple of minutes! Instead of sending you all infrequent and short individual emails I thought it would make more sense to start this blog and try to update it as regularly as I can. I will also try to upload pictures, hoping to tempt you all to come and visit us one day!

My first impressions at school have been very good so far - the kids are polite and in general they are motivated, although I have a couple of groups of 10-12 year-olds who talk a lot and they DRAIN MY BLOOD! The kids are from all over the world, most of them from mixed couples. For the first lesson I prepared some flashcards with the names of the most common countries (I thought I got them all...) and asked the students to select their own, but many kids come from families with two, three, and even four nationalities so by the time the first three students had chosen their flashcards the table was nearly empty! :-S And I thought I was well prepared! One of the girls told me that she is one quarter Turkish, one quarter Serbian, one quarter American and one quarter British! And I thought we were an international family...

So far the groups I like best are the little ones. On my second day, while I was playing Twister with a group of 5-year-olds in order to teach them the colours, I overheard a girl telling her friend: "she's like the very best Spanish teacher I've ever had!". Later I found out from her class teacher that that particular girl had never taken Spanish before... ehm... Easy competition!! In the next class, also with young kids, I was trying really hard to help them learn the colours and I asked them: who can find something red? A girl put up her hand and I thought to myself - great! At least one kid understood what I am saying! And the girl goes: "Today I am getting a tortoise".

Today I took Kez to a Flamenco show in a shopping mall. At first she was a bit overwhelmed with the music, but after a few minutes she took off and ended up among the dancers, turning and turning, shaking her dress and moving her hands like a real Flamenco dancer. A couple of ladies approached us after the show and told us that Kez was the queen of the dance floor! She had a blast, and she ended up being photographed by a few tourists who found her very entertaining...

Time to go - this room is starting to feel like a real sauna. If you have read this post, please leave a comment saying you were here - I'd love to hear from you all! I miss you!!!!

I leave you with a picture of Kez's new way to cool down!!!



Kez enjoying herself in a fountain in Valletta