Vaya Pensamientos

I know I haven’t updated in a bit, but it’s not because I didn’t have anything to say. Au contraire, I actually had so much to say, that it was circling in my mind without any organization. Therefore, I was not able to put it down clearly on this blog. Despite popular belief, I do actually value quality when writing on this website.

First with the light news.

I went to London. Again. It was my third time, and it was Fab U Lous. This time, I went with my Fulbright girls and I don’t think I’ve laughed so much during an entire trip. The city was bitchin’ as always, and good company and good food made the weekend that much better.
That's me, doing an interpretation of the London Phonebooth Picture.

My new favorite Spanish words are expressions that mean both good and bad. For example, “Que fuerte” literally means “How strong” or “How powerful”. But it can be said when describing something great or something horrible. There are so many expressions like this and it makes me laugh. My favorite is “Es la leche” as in “It’s the milk”. It’s like “It’s the shit” in English, but again, the word “milk” can be used for both very very good, and very very bad situations.

My new favorite person is the French teacher at my school, who askes me questions like how to say like blow job in English. She’s a huge fan of “Sex and the City” and asks me those types of questions because she wants to speak “that type of English.”

And now for the heavy news.

One of my kids punched another one of my kids in the face and it all ended with a broken nose and a handful of frighten children. The kid is suspended right now, with a possible expulsion. The injured kid is still recuperating at home because he had to get an operation, and developed a fever as well. It’s heavy news because they are both kids that I work with everyday. It’s also heavy because the problem child is a questionable problem child. He’s very calm and smart normally, but has explosions of anger sometimes that can be violent. Or that is violent, more like. I like them both, but I do agree with the expulsion idea, because the kid has previous records of violence, and the other students don’t want to have anything to do with him. But, I also don’t want the school to just throw him some where else without really offering an actual solution. Just because he’s violent, doesn’t mean that isolation will be beneficial. If people refuse to console him, he’s just going to feel more alienated, which will lead to more delinquent behavior. The scariest thing about him is that his so-called explosions are so unexpected. He’s not some dumb punk, who always acts out. There’s no way of telling when and where and who he will hurt. I’m glad to just be a teaching assistant without real responsibilities about matter, but also quite frustrated because I don’t have the power to do anything for either of them. He’s a good kid. Just with some problems, you know?

The boy is waiting for the school to make a decision, which can take up to a month. During that time, he has to be in class with the rest of the kids. The other students have said that they don’t want to say anything to him, out of fear of how he might react. Vaya marron, as they say here. Or “What a brown.” You can only imagine what that means. And no, it has nothing to do with shit, simply that it sucks.

And life goes on.