Teaching English, the caganer, and CHRISTMAS

So I have now been teaching English to Carlota (age 4) and Tomas (age 5) for two weeks. It is really fun, and I wish we had set it up earlier because I would have loved to do it for much longer. It's really fun, except that I often find that I speak much less Spanish than I think I do, because they start rambling in this odd castellano/castalan mash-up and I just smile and nod. Also, their books are all in British English, so when I read "dummy" for pacifier, I thought to myself, "What a weird word. Please! We all know it's a binky." And then I felt like an idiot. Or when I teach them words like "wastepaper bin" and think I should be teaching them "garbage can." There are other funny ones I can't remember - but dummy v. binky was my favorite. Some were just such weird words I can't even remember them. I'll write them down next time.
Also, playing with toddlers is like playing with a puppy - tone of voice and facial expressions say it all. They don't care what I'm saying or what language I'm saying it in. In fact, they rarely notice at all. The first time I went, all we did was blow up balloons and then let them fly around the room for a full hour. They learned about three words: "Please," "balloon" and "thank you," and those only because I refused to blow up the balloons unless they said please and then thank you, and everytime they let go of the balloon they would yell, "BALLOON!"
This week, Tomas cried for about fifteen minutes when I had to leave. He made such a huge scene and kept demanding "two more minutes! Two more minutes!" I was flattered but also embarrassed because then I left and they had to deal with a screaming monster child.

WARNING: The following may be inappropriate for those who don't like to talk about bowel movements.

Now. I don't know how much y'all (I wish English had a collective "you") know about Christmas in Catalunya, so let me tell you about my favorite tradition. It's part of the nativity scene, and it's a character that doesn't really appear in the Bible version of Jesus' birth. It's called the caganer - Catalan for "crapper" - and it is a figurine in the nativity of a person pulling down his pants and pooping. It comes complete with a little bit of poop too, in case his stance alone doesn't make it clear. Huge, life-size nativity scenes are apparently traditional (it hasn't made it's appearance yet), and the caganer is apparently a staple in Catalunya (and the Basque Country as well?). Now, the book I read about Barcelona before coming didn't explain this very well, except with the fact that the catalonians are "obsessed" with scatological humor. Wikipedia cites many reasons:

• Tradition.
• Perceived humor. [Perceived? This shit is hilarious. GET IT? Excuse my language.]
  
• Finding the Caganer is a fun game, especially for children.
• The Caganer, by creating feces, is fertilizing the Earth. However, this is probably an a posteriori explanation, and few cite this reason for including the Caganer in the Nativity scene.
• The Caganer represents the equality of all people: regardless of status, race, or gender, everyone defecates.
• Increased naturalism of an otherwise archetypal (thus idealised) story, so that it is more believable, taken literally and seriously.
• The idea that God will manifest her/himself when s/he is ready, without regard for whether we human beings are ready or not.
• The caganer reinforces that the infant Jesus is God in human form, with all that being human implies. [Oh HO! Those italics say it ALL]
  

I particularly like the idea that God could just pop back to Earth at any moment, and that moment could be the moment in which we are pooping by a manger. Anyway, the newest caganers have already hit the streets - in recent years, famous people have become immortalized as caganers - the list includes Ronaldinho, Salvador Dali, George Bush (who is holding a globe under his arm) - and now BARACK OBAMA. Yes, you too can own a small, pooping Barack Obama for the low, low price of 14 euros. Please, please, click on both of those links - they're too good to pass up.

Anyway all this talk of nativity scenes just makes me hungry for CHRISTMAS, which Barcelona is already prepared for (minus the city-wide nativity scene I am told is on its way) - nearly all the streets have lights that say "Bon nadal" and "bones festes" and other things I assume mean "Seasons Greetings." PS How lame is that phrase? Seasons greetings? It's also getting colder - my comforter got upgraded to a big comforter, but it's not really cold enough for this massive mountain of down. So I have to sleep with one leg freezing and the other sweating. I'm sure everyone can relate to this drama. Tonight I'm going to an FC Barca game, which I'm extremely excited about, except for the fact that I have to get up and go to poetry at 9 am tomorrow. AND a bunch of people are already starting their oral exams for my history class, and I am not at ALL prepared for mine yet. It's not for a few weeks, but still.
In better news, my Catalan Thanksgiving dinner, courtesy of the Huerga househould, is only two weeks away - which also means the semester is only three weeks from being over. Not that I want to leave, but I also want home to be here. So... if everyone could just relocate? Thanks.