Carnaval madness

Today we are celebrating Carnaval, for which folks dress up. In the school each grade has dressed up differently. The sixth graders are Freds and Wilmas Picapiedras (Picapiedras is Spanish for Flintstones); the fifth graders are dressed in what is supposed to look like traditional Chinese garb; the fourth graders are Counts Dracula; the third graders are Jokers to the second graders, who are Batmen; the first graders are frogs; and the three to five-year-olds are a mix of things. The Chinese-looking outfits of the fifth graders are in this year. I know because I went to the city of Cádiz on Saturday for the biggest Carnaval celebration around and saw a ton of people dressed thusly. The fifth grade teacher made me one such costume today....which is made up of a yellow trashbag with blue plastic lining, and a black paper hat. So I´m dressed like that right now, with a little painted on moustache to go along with it all. At 1 PM we went outside for the Carnaval Dance Party in the playground to wrap things up.

I´m more like a really big student here than a teacher. When the kids dress up, so do I. They all call me by my first name. On field trips, the other teachers always encourage me to jump in and play with the kids, which I totally want to do anyway - maybe they sense that. My favorite place and time each day is recess in the preschool playground, rolling tires, chasing Fernanda who´s stolen my sunglasses again....and being in the middle of 5-10 two-foot-tall people who are all giving me hugs and calling me Jone (which is how most of the kids say Sean).