I am slowly getting back in the swing of things.

It will take time, and mostly because the past two weeks, which feels more like a month, have been SO hectic I am just now finally getting to rest.

Yet I am filled with a restlessness that I cant just sit down and relax in some ways.

I feel like if I go to bed too early I will miss out, and when I wake up very early I feel like I should be doing something.

This afternoon I will obey my body and go to sleep when I am tired.

I just hope its not 5pm because I dont want to wake up at 3am fully rested...

At times Spanish still rolls off my tongue a lot easier than English does.

There are so many set phrases in Spanish that I have been used to saying constantly that when that situation comes up, I dont know what to say in English.

I actually dreamed partially in Spanish last night, which is a sign that I was finally thinking almost entirely in Spanish.

Yesterday Eric called me and woke me up from a quick nap and first my mind was just not functioning but then he said, if you want to speak in Spanish, we can. It was actually a lot easier to speak in Spanish than it was in English.

Its crazy.

I went to get a haircut today - my hair was really quite long... not shoulder length or anything but the longest I have possibly ever had it. I had gone since the beginning of April without a haircut. I thought I would like it longer but then the barber trimmed it and I didnt like it. I think I liked the shaggy hair but when it was trimmed I didnt like it. It was literally going over my ears by about an inch... So Im back to normal and relatively short hair.

I have found that cafe latte is the closest thing Im going to get to a Spanish cafe con leche. Cafe con leche is a shot or two of espresso then with equal or more parts steamed milk. But it still isnt quite the same. There is something about the Spanish cafes and bars where you sit at the counter on a stool and see all the tapas under the glass display cases, most of the time watching TV in Spanish that makes part of the experience just so.

Ordering a cafe latte with a bunch of middle to upper class white people at Starbucks or Bread co just seems different...

And when I have to ask them to not put on the foamed milk on top, then I feel like I sound really picky. In Spain, when you ask for a cafe con leche, everyone knows what you mean. You might have an option between a short glass or a small coffee cup, but usually not. Then they will normally ask if you want the milk warm or hot, but sometimes they dont.

There are things I will miss about living in Spain - the slower pace of life, the enjoyment of life and taking advantage of small things, like the weather and the parks. I loved to see all the older people on park benches chatting or seated at the tables on the sidewalk outside of the restaurants. If you stayed long enough sometimes you would see people passing by that recognized friends and those seated would invite those walking to sit down and have something to drink and to stop and chat for a bit. Once I saw a group of four grow to ten. It was even better when a set of grandparents had their grandchildren with them and you saw the older people fawn over the children and the grandparents bragging. I absolutely loved the sense of community - since everyone lived in flats and apartment buildings, and you had to walk everywhere, you would run into people all the time.

You would always see people stopping to chat for a minute on the street or if they were in a hurry, they would say "See you later" while they were walking by. Then people would meet at on of the many local restaurant that are located in the ground level of the apartment buildings, and you could see people out with infants, toddlers, children, dogs, adults, seniors, and everyone at the cafes and bars until 2am.

Mostly I will miss the people I met - other Americans, British and Spanish people.

I will miss exchanging stories about what happened at the school that day, or even the funny stuff the kids said in each class. I will miss the random "Hello Teacher William!" in the hallways and the kids telling me about how, when, and where they fell down and got a bump. In English.

Because whenever there was something that directly affected the kids, they were so enthusiastic to tell you, they would want to make sure you understood perfectly. We could have easily spent the whole hour with the kids speaking English and telling us what happened to them earlier that day at recess or lunch.

There were hard times, I will not deny that. There were times I wasnt sure if I could make it and why I "had" to stay. I am glad I listened to the stupid little optimist and the small fraction of my brain that told me not to quit.

I stuck it out and ended on an unbelievable high note. I am not sure if all the kids understand we wont be back next year. But I can say we did tell them. And if they are happy and carefree, well, why should I be mad?

Well, since the title of this blog is no longer valid, although part of me was left there, Im not sure what is the future of this blog.

Also, there is no reason for you all not to call (although I dont have a cell phone yet but I will let you all know when I do have one) or email. Because now I have lots of time to check email considering I am not working the entire month of July. =o)

Although I will have stuff here and there - going to Myrtle Beach, SC for a week with my sis around the 12th of July then Chattanooga, TN on July 24th for my friends wedding.

So for now this will continue although the updates wont be as nearly as interesting.

Shofner is back in the USA!

I hope each and everyone of you is well.

Take care,

Bill

I am home.

I am beyond tired.

Up for 24 hours straight, well, with the exception of two narcoleptic fits of about 20 or 30 minutes I think... one in which I literally woke up with my hand resting around my plastic cup that was fortunately placed on the tray table in the airplane.

Probably because I only slept for two and a half hours before I was up for twenty four...

The flatmates would NOT let me go to bed after we went out for dinner (Spanish dinners starting around 930pm earliest)

Anyway, I am good except rather confused - I keep thinking in Spanish.

When speaking to people in the airport asking questions I am almost literally translating from Spanish to English in my head.

Im speaking English like I would speak Spanish if that makes any sense.

For example, "Good afternoon, would you please give me a bottle of water?"

They looked at me like Im crazy.

I dont know who was more suprised - my parents or I that both my bags arrived in St Louis!!!

There was quite an ordeal not completing my original route and trying to get my bags sent elsewhere.

Ill explain another time.

Right now Im going to crash.

More later.

Oh, and I dont have a cell phone but Ill get that straightened out sometime. You have no idea how many times Ive reached for my Spanish cell phone then remember it DOESNT WORK HERE.

I hope all is well!

OK - its definately warm.

Some would say "hot"

Im not going to complain too much because in my flat we have it pretty good.

We are on the bottom floor and the sun only shines in for a couple hours in the morning.

There is at least a 20 degree difference between the street temp and the temp in our flat.

I think they said it reached 91 today.

No air conditioning.

Its a dry heat but its still warm.

Still not complaining because Im waiting for "hot" to describe the good St Louis weather with the at least seventy per cent humidity.

Today I said goodbye to the English speaking crowd...

It hasnt hit me yet.

But I am hanging on to the hope that we will see each other.

Im pretty certain we will - one day or another.

Tomorrow Im going to Salamanca to say goodbye to my host mom.

Monday going into school to help clear up stuff. The director put it well on Friday - the soul of the school has left - the students.

Its true. Its just a building now...

Gotta go - minute left internet time.

I hope all is well!

I WILL BE HOME TUESDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was the last day of school.

I did a lot better than I thought I would! (As in I didnt cry)

Too many things going on right now - leaving friends Ive made here, leaving the life Ive enjoyed a lot for the past nine months and desperately wanting to be home all at the same time.

Yesterday one of the second year classes gave me a photo of them during a field trip - and their teacher wrote "Teacher William we love you very much and we will miss you. We hope you are very happy in your country. Thank you for teaching us" in Spanish

Then in English they wrote WE LOVE YOU!!! GOODBYE!!!

Whoa. I almost didnt make it

Funny how the little rugrats grow on you. "Like fungus" quoting one of my friends here...

I entered the cafeteria today and all the kids starting shouting my name and waving at me. I will miss them.

Its been loads of fun but it really is getting hot. Its finally summer but its really REALLY dry... and no airconditioning...

But right now there is a nice breeze

Anyway, I have to fun. Not sure if there will be another update before I head off... we will see

I hope all is well!

FLAMENCO!!!

I saw FLAMENCO last night.

It was FANTASTIC.

Because I havent seen anything like it before, there are literally not words to describe it.

First, if there is the possibility, see it LIVE because on TV it doesnt do it justice.

There are so many things going on... one of the teachers at the school, her God-cousin? God-brother? works there.

Her father is his Godfather. So as she said, they are practically family.

So six of us went last night.

VERY POSH restaurant - it has been open for 52 years and evidently all the important people go there when they are in Madrid and go see Flamenco...

The food was EXCELLENT but the show was what was going on.

From roughly 10pm until 130am there were shows on and off.

There were four women dancing, two or three men singing, and two guitars.

When they are all together on stage it is just too much.

They are all clapping different rythyms to add to the sounds, sometimes clapping one rythym and stomping their feet to a different one. The man singing is clapping and/or clapping and then of course you have the women flamenco dancer.

And all the people who are clapping are watching the feet of the dancer to keep in time. Im not sure who directs who - whether the dancer goes faster and everyone follows or vica-versa. It was amazing.

The dresses are of course very colourful and their feet move so fast in those shoes with the tall and thick heel you dont know what to do.

Its hard to know where to look in addition to your ears being overloaded with sounds...

But possibly the best parts were seeing the faces of all the dancers and everyone involved- you can tell they really actually enjoy it and the later on in the night the more fun they had playing off each other.

Three of the four dancers were probably in their twenties, maybe early thirties.

But there was one woman who was at least mid forties. She was by far the best dancer, obviously because she had probably been dancing for years and years.

She danced the longest dances and the most difficult ones.

She looked fierce all through the dances because she was concentrating SO HARD but again, she did the most difficult dances.

But at the end of one, she finished a really hard set or whatever you call it and looked out at the crowd, shrugged, and gave a look that said, Not bad, eh? And she smirked. It was fantastic!

From 10pm until 1230 or so the place was packed, then the crowd dwindled and less and less people were there. We shut the place down finally leaving at 145am.

We caught a taxi because the metro shuts down at 130am and I got home at 230am.

I am a little more than tired today but since I only work till 1pm, well, that leaves a good chunk of the afternoon for a nap.

Actually, thinking back, the best part of the night was watching the two teachers from the school, one being late 50s (the one who invited us) and the other being early 30s.

Both love the Flamenco music and both being from the south of Spain, where Flamenco is a tradition. They would sing along with the songs, they could clap the rythyms and they had a really great time in general.

The dancers responded to them great due to the fact that the restaurant was filled with few Spanish people, and fewer who knew songs and could clap with the dances.

I tried to be the most respectful foreign observer possible because, although it is a business, that really is sharing part of your culture...

I have been keeping very VERY busy due to the fact that this afternoon will be the last time all of "the group" here will be together - the English-speaking crowd.

People start to leave tomorrow and although we will try to be optimists and say we will see each other, well, sharing the same experience with others for nine months and only having in each (in a sense), well, one can imagine that it brings people together.

Anyway, I really have to go, the "return to class" music has reached the part of the song where it starts skipping so that means the kids are piling in.

I hope everyone is well!