Random condensed thoughts

Lately I keep thinking "ooh I should write about this later" and then forget or I'm too lazy. So since I find myself with some freetime I'll try to put down what I can remember from the last 6 weeks or so.

- My street and neighborhood are a bit... seedy I suppose you could say. Not exactly dangerous or really poor, just kind of dirty and a lot of people are on their hustle. With that in mind there are people along the street selling things (mostly produce) on the sidewalks, there's the bootleg dirt parking lot next to my building where the 'attendants' sit on a beat up old lazy boy and take cash only, not to mention every other business is either a 'chino' store (think dollar-store) or a bar. So the other day I saw two guys pushing a nasty old shopping cart in a hurry down the middle of the street, and it was FILLED to the top with 4x2 foot slabs of meat. They were basically the exact size of the inside of the cart, and about 15 on top of each other. No lining protecting the meat from the rusty metal of the cart, no butcher paper separating each cut; just about 100 pounds of beef in a shopping cart pushing on down Paseo de los Tilos.

- Along those same lines, I walked by a typical little Spanish hatchback car the other day and I look in the back seat, and it is completely filled with oranges and lemons. It's as if the owner just rolled down the back windows and literally dumped their entire supply into the backseat. They were spilling into the middle console and onto the floor of the front seats. A mess.

- If you heard about our first attempt to play basketball, you'll know IES Las Salinas isn't exactly the Miami Heat. However, we had another game in the normal school league about a month ago and again I went to help. Since our school doesn't have bachillerato (the two years after high school, before college) we play against teams with older kids, so this time we brought in a couple ringers who apparently graduated recently from the school, though I don't recognize them. These players were pretty good, the other team was pretty bad, and they asked me to referee, and I'm proud to say we came out winners. And I was an awful ref.

- I also have been playing basketball at school against the kids every Tuesday at lunch. Mollywhoppin'.

- The bilingual coordinator at my school "Mr. John" is an avid golfer, and after two years of giving him crap about taking me, I finally made it out to play golf. It was a beautiful day and the course was a hilly one like Lake Chabot with lot's of pretty views of the Mediterranean. With a big meal and a beer at the clubhouse afterwards, it was absolutely the perfect day out.

- We had the Feria de los Pueblos (international fair) in Fuengirola, which I personally think is better than the 'official' Feria de Fuengirola in October. What is funny to me is that Spaniards from 18-108 love drinking and partying and dancing, and the feria is where you really see everyone let loose, including myself and my fellow teachers. The thing is, in a pretty small town, my students are all over the place, but it's actually not a big deal for them to see you drinking, nor do the teachers feel any shame. I of course try to pretend that I'm not tipsy or that it's just coca-cola, but it's really more in jest. Anyway, the Tuesday following I happened to show up late to the class of the older, "less academically oriented" students, and when I walk in tardy they join in on the obligatory oooooooooohhhhh. Once they settle down, Roberto in the back says "Why are you late? Too much apple juice at the feria?"

There are moments of pure comedy every day at school so I have to try to write a few down before I forget them all!