El Jardín de los Niños

A while ago, before I moved pisos, my other landlady Emilia told Gayatri and me that she works at a daycare center and that we could visit her whenever we wanted. Even after I moved the offer still stood, so Gayatri and I decided to visit her and her “chiquitillos” (little ones) this afternoon.

Her Escuela Infantil (daycare) is just a short bus ride away from the city center, but it was worlds away from the experiences I’ve been having thus far in Granada. Most of my time interacting in Spanish is spent with peers or professors, or, apparently as of recently, elderly women in grocery stores. It was the strangest feeling to be interacting with three-year-old boys and girls in a different language—finally I was conversing with native speakers with a comparable level of Spanish to me!! Those who talked said such phrases as “Dáme la pelota” (give me the ball) or “Esta es una naranja” (This is an orange—we were playing with toy fruits). They grasped these words when they’re toddlers, I finally mastered them in my teens, but I guess we are now equals. 

I am so mad at myself that I forgot my camera, because this was one of the cutest experiences in Spain thus far. All the little boys and girls wore striped smocks with their names embroidered on. Some were taking naps in little fold-out beds in the corner while others threw and chased plastic balls around the room. (How some managed to sleep through that chaos is beyond me). Emilia was so endearing with all the children—I really liked her as a landlord, but in this setting even more.

Later Emilia turned on a Spanish song that was apparently the little boy Pedro’s favorite. His eyes lit up when he heard it start, and then he threw up his hands and started to dance. We all jumped around the room to the music, and I tossed some of the kids up and down in the air. Later I showed them all a book full of animals, and would point to a drawing and ask them all to say the name. They started out timidly saying things like “caballo” and “vaca,” and towards the end I had a crowd of little boys around me pointing to parrots and fish and elephants and shouting out the Spanish words. I must say they helped reinforce my knowledge of basic nouns today!! Next time I need to say “hamster” I will not falter.

Emilia told us we could return any time, and we most certainly will. I love little kids and I think stopping by the daycare every so often could be a great from the always great but repetitive schoolwork, tapas, and fiestas.