Brrrrrr.....

It's cold today. I can't believe it. When I checked the weather report for the week I saw that today was going to be cooler, but I didn't believe it. Last night I heard it raining a little bit (my shutters in my bedroom are closed, so I couldn't see how much), and this morning I stuck my head out the window to check the temperature and it did feel cool. I was going to wear shorts to school, but to be safe, I put on a pair of light cotton pants and a t-shirt. I knew I would be taking a cab to school and thought it would be warm by the time I walked home.

I was wrong.

It was downright cold when I got out of class at 1, and windy. People were wearing jackets and winter coats, though some, like me, I guess didn't check the weather before they got dressed and were wearing shorts and t-shirts. On top of the weather, I must have caught a cold, so I was feeling like coming home and having a cup of hot soup.

Yesterday I had my spa day. This time I went for the "Delux Spa Day for Him", as a treat for my birthday. It included steam with aromatherapy, facial, massage, hydrotherapy (jacuzzi)and a manicure and pedicure. It was nice, but after I was done, I decided I don't need all of those extras. The jacuzzi for me is weird, because I don't know how to sit in a jacuzzi. I like Japanese bathtubs that are deep and long that you can stretch out in. In the jacuzzi I felt very uncomfortable, feeling like my butt was too big or my legs were too long or something. It just wasn't right. Also, the manicure/pedicure was nice, but by that time I really wanted to go home as I was sniffling a lot and wanted to lie down.

My esthetician was the same person who gave me the massage, Monica. I've had her before for facials, but yesterday she did most of my treatments. She's a funny woman. She doesn't seem like a typical Argentine woman (if there is such a thing). I like her massage, but at some points she bordered on being inappropriate and I felt a little uncomfortable. I wonder what it would be like for a woman to have a man massaging her and asking if she's tense because she is going out every night chasing boys. Well, for me, it was uncomfortable for her to imply that my tension was because I was out chasing girls, especially while she was touching my chest or my butt. So far, I like the massage that Christian gives the best and I think next time I am going to request him. The pressure was just right and he didn't make inappropriate conversation.

Today in Arabic class we did our evaluation. Ybti has started writing something that resembles an agenda on the board. Today's was the same as last week. She wrote, "dialogue, reading, writing". She went over some of the questions that will be on our final exam - What's your name, how old are you, where are you from, etc..., and then she passed around a paper with a dialogue and we each took turns reading a line. Crazy. I guess they don't have overhear projectors in Argentina, but for me, if you are not going to make copies, you either have to write it on the board or project it so that everyone can see. It makes no sense to me to have a student on one side of the room reading something that no one else can see.

It was interesting though that right before the evaluation, Nicolas, the guy who asks a lot of questions, and Paris, the woman who is always lost, started telling Ybti what they thought about the class. Nicolas was very diplomatic, saying that Ybti was a wonderful teacher, blah, blah, blah, but.... I enjoyed sitting back and listening to the Spanish. Ybti blamed the fact that the course is badly taught on her coordinator, who she said told her to use the book that we had to buy but don't use. Since we are not using the book, it is kind of a moot point. I wonder if her coordinator taught her the method of pass the book (or today, the page). Nicolas was saying we needed a class more like how Arabic would be taught to children, who don't know how to read. I honestly don't know how the course could have been improved, but I am totally disillusioned with the state of foreign language teaching, not just in Argentina, but worldwide. I think ESL teachers and the training they receive, are far superior and all language teachers would benefit from being exposed to the theories of language acquisition and the methods we use in ESL. Why they are not, is beyond me.

I don't have anything planned for this weekend. I invited Hernan to have lunch tomorrow but we have to wait and see if he is available. Looks like it's going to be a boring birthday for me. I'll celebrate in Buzios!