One month down: getting paid, Halloween, etc.

Well, fall is in full swing and I've been working at my school for a whole month now. I've had great experiences, and most importantly, I've received my first paycheck. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to open a bank account but actually found opening one was a breeze. For documentation, I offered my receipt from my last immigration appointment, which contains my NIE on it. They asked me to bring my student card in when I get it.

Funny thing about that card. The instructions from the official we applied with were to go to General Pardiñas to pick up our cards after 30 days and specifically that we could go to the head of the line. Well, on Oct. 24 we headed down to our favorite police station for the simple task of collecting our shiny new cards. But when we got there, we were flat-out denied entrance to the building and told to get in line. No amount of persistent reasoning would help. At least we weren't rudely told "los romanos a la puta fila," like one police officer said to another fellow.

Unfortunately even my bosses at the Ministry of Education can't help out. I appealed to them for help but they apologized that they couldn't set card pick-up appointments for anyone in my program. I've decided for now I will do without bother to pick up the actual card (and wasting a full day waiting in line to do so) unless/until it becomes absolutely necessary. For now, though, even travel to other EU countries doesn't seem to require physical presentation of the card.

Regarding my teaching job: One of the highlights of the last weeks has been preparing for Halloween (or Jaloguín, as it is sometimes spelled by Spanish speakers). Several of the teachers got really into decorating and planning for this holiday, which isn't traditionally celebrated here in Spain. The were almost too excited about scaring the kids, pouring countless hours into the pasaje del terror, an empty classroom transformed into a haunted house. In the end, the dark, black-light-lit room was really quite scary and it caused several kids to cry.

I spent the morning of Halloween performing the part of the witch in a very funny rendition of Hänsel and Gretel (the other two auxiliares played the title characters). We figured we wouldn't bother trying to put on a truly "scary" story and that the Grimm story would fit the bill considering Hänsel and Gretel's parents' disturbing reasoning for abandoning their children, the existence of a witch and a of a house made of candy.

The kids and teachers were adamant that Halloween costumes must be scary: I saw vampires, ghosts, devils, witches and plenty of fake blood. I tried to argue that fun, pretty and clever costumes were more the norm in the states, but every example I brought up was classified better as a Carnaval costume. The one notable exception were the preschoolers, who we dressed up in cute pumpkin and bat costumes (plastic bags and paper masks) and this first year, probably my favorite kid in all of school:

He is enjoying the chocolate and Oreo mud dessert we made for the kids to enjoy at the end of the day. The other highlight of the celebrations was teaching the 3, 4 and 5 year olds the "Five Little Pumpkins" nursery rhyme. "Oooo went the wind, and out went the lights, and the five little pumplins they rolled right out of sight!"