First days on the job!

Today is the second day for me on the job.  I help get the kids ready for school, and then I walk with them to their respective schools, which are less than a ten minute walk away, which is measured by a 3 year old's pace.  Yesterday, well, let's just say we started with a bang.  Eddie, the 3 yr. old, wanted his dad to walk him to school.  But David (his dad) had already left for work.  We started on toward his school, and he didn't really want to go, and he was walking really slow.  So I tried to ell him that we had to go, or we would be late.  He was having none of it.  So I tried to pick him up and carry him, and that was the wrong choice.  He then started crying, and yelling "papa."  I didn't know what to do.  He didn't want to even look at me.  So Lucia went to him and started talking to him, thank goodness she was there.  I don't know what I would have done otherwise.  He was inconsolable.  Even with her telling him that papa was at work, and he would see him later, we would not stop crying.  We finally arrived at Eddie's school, and I felt so bad walking into his school with him crying on my first day.  Not a good first impression.  But i believe that they understood that it wasn't me who had done anything to him, since he was still calling for "papa."  After dropping both kids off at school, I walked back to the apartment, and I tried to find Spanish practicing online.  I hate being the one out of the loop.  I don't know much Spanish, and no one knows how to speak English here, other than Carmen and David it seems.  They can't always be with me, so I am often sitting by myself, and just listening to the flow of a conversation that I cannot understand.  Which is ok, I guess.  I don't mind too much.  Today David is leaving to give a presentation in the UK, and will not be back until late Thursday night.  These next few days should be interesting.  Today I will also be going with a friend of Carmen's to the center of Madrid.   In case you haven't been watching the news, or the news hasn't found it important enough to mention, there have been protestors in the main square of Madrid peacefully protesting the entire government itself.  But David and Carmen have assured me that it is completely safe, and that the protests are not violent.  And I will be with a mother and her daughter, so I am even less concerned.  I am quite excited to be going, because it will give me something to do today, instead of aimlessly wandering the streets of a city I do not know, like I did yesterday.  Yesterday was pretty fun though.  I walked up adn down the street that Carmen and David's apartment complex is on:  Colmenar Viejo.  It is a beautiful street, at one end it has a fountain, and at the other end it has a mall looking thing.  I first wandered to the fountain, and when I realized that there were no benches in the shade, and no one my age anywhere near, I turned round and headed in the opposite direction to see what else I could see.  The mall thing is a kind of half circle building, and it has advertisements of McDonald's on the top, and a supermarket.  I figured that i could at least window shop for a little bit to pass some time.  So I went into the mall.  Inside, it was cool, which was very agreeable.  I walked around on the first floor, and didn't see very much.  So I tried the next floor.  There wasn't much there either.  THe third floor housed even less than the second floor, and the fourth floor of this mall thing had only a restaurant, and it was not a meal time, so I headed back down to the ground floor, and decided to check out the supermarket, called "Dia".  It was an interesting place, I could not find the way in.  When I walked in, there was a gate inside, and it had a red and white sign that meant "do not enter."  In all countries it is the same sign, so I kind of walked around, and finally saw a blue sign with an arrow.  I walked through it, and by that point, I had drawn a few curious stares.  Oh well.  I proceeded to wander the aisles in search of nothing in particular, and ended up buying a liter of lemonade.  It was quite refreshing to drink.  After that excursion, I walked home and cleaned my room a bit, helped Stella with the laundry, and played on my computer some.  It is quite the existence.  I am hoping for one of the girls that Carmen told me about to email me back so that I can do something instead of sit around.