After vacation blues

It's the first Monday after Spring break and I get the distinct impression the students aren't interested in learning Spanish today. Go figure. "Señor, Señor, man I saw some really hot chicks in Switzerland and I am tired. There was this really hot Mexican girl too who went along." I ask him to say it "en Español".

I have my first class introduce their friend and tell us what they did over the holiday using the preterit (past) tense in Spanish. "He went to a small island near Nias (the island the most recent earthquake hit-one I have never heard of or even know where the hell it is) and was then evacuated and went to Malaysia." Another student says, "He went to the Great wall in China and ate Chinese food." And another, "She went to Singapore and Thailand. She went trekking in Thailand." "He went to Hawaii and got bit by a snapping turtle on the beach after scuba diving"..."to Bali,to Australia, to Vietnam....." I have to pinch myself and remind myself this is an international school. Where haven't these kids traveled? Most of the 8th grade kids in my second class have just flown in from Switzerland last night after going skiing for a week - their faces are flaking from being burned by the sun. Most of them are falling asleep from the jet lag. I have to wake one student up. "Señor, go easy on him," a student says, "we really hazed him bad on the plane and wouldn't let him sleep." I look at the clock to see how much time has elapsed as the French (who is Swiss) teacher next door peeps in to tell me there is some delicious Swiss chocolate waiting for me on the table.

My last class has to draw a story for a three year old using five different sheets of paper without using any words. They will have to describe a random story drawn by one of their classmates in Spanish by describing the pictures in Spanish using specific verbs for their oral assessment the next class. "Can I draw a naked man?" a student asks. "How do you say burning? Or falling down stairs?" asks another....as I point to the dictionary and imagine a three year old reading a story about a naked burning man falling down stairs...