11:30 - 12:00

Desayuno. What a great word. I never realize how hungry I am until I hear “ ya has desayunado?” then I respond with a no, even though in reality yes. I have already eaten breakfast, but about 4 hours. So sure, I’d love a second.

11:30 is when all the teachers are able to escape the school for a short bit. Only to first walk through the jungle that is recreo. What a jungle it is. There is no cafeteria. There is just the playground, i.e. a cement patio that of course has soccer goals. It’s infested with loud jersey and sporty sweat suit wearing children.  So many sweat suits.

Finally the faculty, as a whole, bombards a café/bar that is on the esquina a street down from the school. This said bar has a large number of old men that are lined up either across the street, on the porch, or in the café, with out fail every single day. These past couple of weeks I’ve tried to figure out the deal. Tuesday I realized the bar is located inside a retirement hangout. It’s like recreo for old men. There’s an entire room on the right dedicated to card players. And it is intense. However, I turn left. Before entering to get my café con leche there is one of those hippie type door coverings that I might or might not fight with to get through every day. Finally we are there as a collective unit that owns the bar from 11:30 to 12:00. It’s pretty official.

There’s such a ridiculousness about the whole thing. But it’s fantastic. You have all the teachers coming in yelling out colacao con leche, café con leche, te con leche seperado, una media, una entera, and the espresso master manolo gets it all.  I’ve learned that after you yell out your order your entirely entitled to sit down and whoever comes just a little bit later basically has to be the ones to figure out who gets what and has to make it to the tables without spilling everything on the ground. It makes it a bit easier since the café only has three tables that get shoved together without a second thought. Then comes las tostadas. The best pieces of fluffy freshly baked bread you have ever had. Legitimately.  Quickly followed by a knife full of butter to smother on it that immediately melts and quite perfectly I might add. However, there are other choices. One is my personal favorite that I will never personally try would be pork fat in a jar. It’s been explained as butter (but really it looks like lard) with ground up meat in it. Also been told it’s delicious. But I just think it stops the flow of blood to the heart and is a skinny vegan’s worst nightmare. So as you can see, butter is a great choice.

Conversation is the best. It’s like tennis. My head is constantly flip flopping from one side to the other trying to keep up, which doesn’t usually happen. But it’s more interesting then the sport because I equally don’t follow tennis. I really enjoy this time with the teachers. It’s just relaxed and provides a bit to get to know them that otherwise doesn’t seem to exist in the day. I work with some pretty cool people that seem to care about how we are doing, which is a great thing.

After everyone is done, it’s time to pay and then they’re off to get to the school, get their stuff and try to wrangle the kids back into the classrooms from recreo. However, if you happen to not have to rush off with the 12 o’clock classes you get to witness what I do almost everyday. There is this little little man. He wears a hat that looks like he stole from one of the newsboys. When the professors are there, he stays at the bar drinking a petite glass of something that resembles chardonnay, at 11:30 am. Then the moment they make their way through the hippie type door thing, he slowly makes his way to the conjoined tables. Very very very slowly he starts clearing the saucers and cups and taking them to the counter. Mind you, he does not “officially” work there. But I have suspicions that his assistance pays for his early afternoon ciders but I don’t know. It’s precious.

Then we return to the jungle that is our instituto and attempt to teach children subjects in English when they definitely do not know the word english in English. It’s a joy and I am very happy I choose this for my life for the next year.