A hot day in Sitges

On Saturday, a journey to Sitges by the Mediterrean sea...a beautiful city with unbelievable charm and cuteness, slightly besmirched by the billions upon billions of mostly naked vacationers. Wait- correction- quite besmirched indeed. I don't think I've ever seen so many shiny tanned chests of both gender varieties. Also, lots and lots of tiny, tiny, TINY bathing suits. Mostly tiny bathing suits on men, which, honestly, are really not that attractive. Even if said man has a nice body, I really don't need to see the whole kit-and-kaboodle whilst I'm trying to eat my lunch. If you get my drift. Anyhoo..very nice location, far too much European skin...but all in all, a lovely day. We were there for a lunch with our new school director and all the new staff. The food was amazingly delicious-- and absurdly plentiful. We started the meal with serving after serving of tapas, which was followed by a paella and dessert. So as the naked, shiny, men milled around us, we waddled home stuffed with food.
Also it was hot. Very hot. Baking-in-bright-blazing-sun hot. I know, I know, I was planning to move to Chennai, India, who am I to complain about heat? And we spent the summer roasting in 95 degree East Coast humidity. But somehow the hot here is...hotter. I can't explain it. In the shade, it's quite comfortable, but the sun has a burning hot force that makes your skin feel like it's going to crisp and fry right on your body. Perhaps it is because there is little humidity so there is no thick coating between us and the sun-- it's just bright, blazing, glaring sun.
And the buildings in Sitges being all white probably doesn't help.
It's also been pretty hot in Barcelona. Today is better, but Sunday and Monday we roasted to the point of melting in our tiny little un-airconditioned little pod of an apartment. In the old streets, our building is only a few feet away from the other side of the street, so there isn't much space for breeze to blow in. So, at the moment, I am sitting here on the coach with the fan pointed directly at my face. It's actually pretty comfortable, as long as I don't move away from the fan's direct blow.
Also started orientation for new staff this week! More on that later. The school seems great and all is well. The only hitch at the moment is my typical inability to hang paper on the bulletin boards in my classroom. Seriously- I have some sort of cutting/paper hanging/stapling learning disability. It's a serious issue. No matter how hard I try, I can't even hang the darn things straight. I can try and try and try- but the posterboards or paper are ALWAYS CROOKED. Or I manage to make it straight and then promptly tear a big giant hole right in the middle. Or I run out of matching border EXACTLY in the middle, leaving a big yucky looking empty space. I don't know how other teachers do it. I gaze with sad envy and the gloriously elegant and clean-looking walls and posters of my fellow elementary school teachers. It's like they all took a How To Decorate Your Classroom Without it Looking Like a Small Tornado Ate All of The Wallpaper And/Or Chewed up the Desk class that somehow I missed.
All of my former students can attest that this is, in fact, the case. I remember my former student Fadwa once standing at my desk, one hand on her hip, holding up a metal spatula she had just found in an assorted pile of stuff on my teacher desk. "A spatula? Rebekah? Why on earth is there a spatula on your desk?" And, honestly, I had no answer. She shook her head at me and sighed. I'm hopeless. Truly hopeless.
And Michael Zimmerman, my former co-teacher, often despaired at my inability to hang things in not-crooked ways. I would try so hard to hang the paper right- trying to align the edges and everything- and he would look at what I had done and sigh and say (in his always gentle and nice Michael-Zimmerman-way), "It's all right. Why don't I just do it?"
I really am a good teacher. Really. I just can't hang things right. It's a special disease that I suffer from. I don't know what it is- but it seems incurable. Perhaps someone could give me a special tutorial someday? Teach me? Help me?
Anyway. Here are some pictures of Sitges. No pictures of crooked paper-hanging, sorry.