Sometimes we have help from another woman, who splits her time between this two-year-old room, and the other two-year-old room). It is a little bit crazy! But the teacher keeps order well. She has to. And while this means that the kids are punished a bit more strictly (sharply yanked out of the conflict situation and plonked down in a chair, or yanked into a proper sitting position on the rug when she is telling a story) than I am used to seeing in a U.S. (through my summer jobs with a local migrant day care program) the children aren't getting abused, and it means that the classroom is fairly controlled.

Still, it was an interesting three hours! When I first walked into the room and was introduced to the teacher, Sylvia, I was a bit unsure about how I would be able to help, or what I should do. But with kids there isn't really a script. I just focused on them, and what needed doing, and followed the example of the teacher.

Within five minutes, I had pulled paper out of a kid's mouth, and seated others in their chairs, and told another to not hit the kid next to him ... and I didn't stop for the next few hours.

By the end of my visit, I must have tied about 30 shoes (the kids kept pulling them off or their laces became untied), lifted children a hundred times into a proper sitting position on the slide (No, you cannot go down head first!), out of conflict (No, no le empujes. Don't push him!), onto their seat at the table and said, "No," countless times.

No was one of the most frequent words out of my mouth. No le empujes, no le pegues (Don't hit her!), no le tires el pelo (Don't pull his hair!). They pull each other's hair often. It is their way of communicating their frustration, like when they are impatient in the line up the slide. The line waiting for the slide would become a line of kids pulling the hair of the child in front! Oh, it was an adventure. And yet, I loved it!

The most interesting part of the day was when we went outside to play. The teacher and her assistant asked me to watch everyone while they changed everyone's diaper. Within five seconds, two kids were screaming. As I stood there wondering what had happened, the teacher, who hadn't gone in yet, took both kids by the hand, and marched them inside for timeout. When she came out, she told me to keep an eye out, "The kids will scratch each other." They fought over who got to play with the toys. There were only three dolls, and two games that everyone wanted, and they were willing to fight hard for them so it was "fun" keeping everyone apart, and hard to keep an eye on 20 kids at once!

I tried to redirect the ones who wanted a doll to the climbing frame, but that was a bit of an adventure too, because they liked to hang upside down, and it made me nervous because the ground was concrete (another thing not allowed in the U.S.) and I was so scared someone was going to fall and crack their head! But they were fine.

I hovered the best I could, keeping a hand out to catch anyone if necesary. But I think that they knew their abilities and by showing too much concern I might have broken their confidence and actually caused an accident.

It is a lot of hard work, but I'm really happy to be working there and being with the kids is fun. I can't wait till next week, and for the weeks that follow, as I get to know the kids better, and each of their unique personalities. Already there are a few that stick out. Carmen, who had a pink fuzzy bow in her blond hair, and who seemed to lose a shoe every five minutes, and wanted to go head first down the slide. Juan Carlos who had a little curl in his hair, and a mischievous grin (he was one of the ones who had to constantly be told to sit properly in his seat). Bryan who has down syndrome, a tongue that is always sticking out, and the most beautiful smile. I love kids so much. It's going to be hard work, but great fun.

Completely changing the subject ... last weekend we were in Sevilla, which was fantastic. We couldn't have asked for better weather and we all fell in love with Maria's hometown. It is a beautiful city. We saw the cathedral, the biggest in Spain and the third biggest in the world. It was incredible. The view from the Torre Giraldo was stunning. The tower is part of the mosque which was originally where the cathedral is now. They destroyed the mosque to raise the cathedral. All that remains is the tower and the patio. The top of the tower was added later, and is in a renaissance style. I took tons of pictures of it, which I may add in a separate entry, since I don't have them uploaded yet.

We also visited the royal palaces, which are still used for when the King Juan Carlos stays over in Sevilla. They are the longest-used palaces in Spain. They were very interesting because they are almost an exact replica of the arabic palaces which were there, and which the Christian kings destroyed for their palace. It seems a waste of time and resources to destroy something just to build a copy! The walls even have the Islamic saying, "Only Allah is the conqueror."

Still, there are also a few small, and almost hidden clues that this is a christian palace, like coats of arms in the wall carvings, or little lions, or portraits.

One thing that I loved about Sevilla was the amount of green space. There was a big park and the riverside was gorgeous and lush. (Not like the concrete sides and dry nature of the Granada river.) The sunshine and blue skies showed Sevilla at its best! We also visited the Plaza Espanola, the bullfighting ring, and saw an unbelievable flamenco performance. It was a great trip. (Pictures and more details to come later.)

This weekend was a long weekend as Thursday was a holiday in Spain. On Wednesday, I took a bus to the bus station, a bus to Malaga, a bus from the Malaga bus station to the Malaga airport, and then after two hours in the airport, a plane to go visit my grandparents in Holland. I hadn't seen them since last Christmas! It was so good to be together again, and to be here in Holland.

It is colder up here in the North, and more autumny, and while it should be the reverse, I love the cold. I love being here where it actually seems like fall, with grey skies, damp air, brilliant colored leaves. (I guess I should enjoy it while I can, when I am older I doubt I will like the cold so much!) We have mostly just hung out relaxing. We also went biking into town, went shoe shopping, and today we took the train to Amsterdam, walked around and visited the art museum there. It was a lot of fun. I spent many summers here in Holland when I was growing up, and so it feels very familiar to be here, and a bit like home. It's nice.

I will be going back to Granada tomorrow. I don't want to leave my grandparents, and I don't want to have to think about my classes and schoolwork again. Still it will be good to see Ima again, and I'm anxious to hear how she is doing. I had quite a scare when I came back from Sevilla to learn that she and her son Eduardo had been in a serious car accident. He had been driving and lost control of the car. It was totaled. He is okay, but she was quite badly hurt. Her chest was giving her a lot of pain, she was severly bruised from the seat belt, and was experiencing a lot of vertigo. Her niece came and stayed during the beginning of the week, and Eduardo and Noria came over each evening to check in. Gregorio and Charo offered to take me if it was too much, but Ima strongly rejected that idea and said it wasn't a problem. I think it was good for me to be there, for company. I was really upset when I first found out about the accident and thought that she might not have survived. It made me realize how much she really means to me. It's going to be hard leaving in December.

As always, hope all is well in the 'burg. Till next time...