My first two weeks at the school, I introduced myself to all the English classes with the help of a PowerPoint. [Thanks to Google, I found a U.S. map with Texas highlighted, pictures of my high school and university, etc. I found it both reassuring and frustrating that I couldn't get a picture of my house online.] The kids had time to ask me any questions they could think of, some of which spoke to stereotypes of Texas, and some of which were too amusing not to share:
Q: Do you have a boyfriend?
A: No.
Q: Do you like Spanish mens?
A: I wasn't quite sure how I was supposed to answer that, especially with a roomful of 13 year olds. Luckily, the teacher picked up on the grammar mistake so we talked about singluar/plural of man instead.
Q: You live in Texas where a lot of people use guns. Do you have any guns at your house?
A: Um, no.
Q: How long does it take to drive from your city to Las Vegas?
A: Probably 3 days. [They were shocked.]
Q: Do you have a favorite singer? And then another student interjected - Do you like Justin Bieber?
A: This class, all boys, was very happy when I said no.
Q: What do you think about the economy?
A: I don't really remember what I said, but the gist was - I don't know much of anything the economic situation, in Spain or the U.S.
Q: What is the season for the NBA?
A: I told him November to March. And then later I realized that it's college basketball that does March Madness, so that was probably completely wrong, wasn't it? Oops.
Q: Do you agree with the death penalty?
A: No. The teacher seemed really flustered by this question and told me I didn't have to answer if I wasn't comfortable with it. I'm not exactly sure why.
Q: What is your favorite Spanish food?
A: Bread. They seemed disappointed with my answer, but that's really the only Spanish/not at all American thing I had eaten at that point.
Q: What is your favorite food in America?
A: Pasta. We had talked about BBQ being typical Texas food, so one girl called out, "Why pasta when you have all this meat?" Does this make me a bad Texan?
And finally, in the classes where they asked what my favorite movie was, they had never heard of any of the movies I thought of. Salt? No. [Angelina Jolie? No.] The Avengers? No. Phantom of the Opera? No. I was relieved some of the students knew what I was talking about when I said I liked reading The Lord of the Rings.
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