Como se dice cuddle en espanol?

Sample answers from my Saturday Level 1 class:
In response to the question "What does your teacher look like?"

She's nice, intelligent but boring.

My teacher is muy good, intelligent, generous, etc.

My teacher is intelligent, she is tall, she is shir llelo.
In response to the question "What is your mother/father like?"

My father and mother are very happy of have, they are person very very good, generous, intelligent, nice.....

My father's like, He's young, tall and atractiv

and my personal favorite:
My mother is the house and the pool.
My father is the pizza and much.

Soooooo as you can all see, I’m having immense success in teaching the basics of the English language to those who previously knew (still know?) nothing. Saturday classes pretty much just blow any way you try and slice the pie, because there is just way too much to teach in one day. Last Saturday, I taught no less than 6 unrelated things (I think my book invented some of them by the way, has anyone ever heard of verbs of movement or static verbs before? The most obscure things were included in that lesson….) in one class period. Saturday classes are 38 hours just like weekly ones, but the difference is the fact that students are expected to absorb two entire units worth of material in one day, rather than just a bit each day. This leaves us with virtually no time for review, which obviously doesn’t bode well for their retention levels.

Weekly classes have been going well. I still adore my conversationers. We had a debate last week on Hugo Chavez and I was so proud of them!!! They all actually spoke (I have a few shy ones) and had clearly prepared their material. Not everything they said made perfect sense but I didn’t care. They had clearly invested themselves in the activity and were trying. I also secretly have two favorites (one kid who almost joined the army and wasn’t going to come back and I was sad) that I want to date because they are adorable…..but that is another story (Molly feel free to call out creeper on that one.)

I don’t have the energy just now to rant about my Level 9. Let’s just say one girl showed up today for the first time in two weeks to tell me that she was in the class, when could she take the quizzes and actually she had to go and couldn’t stay for class today.

Weekends are relished because usually it’s hard to get together with all my friends during the week when they have work and school. Friday nights are usually pretty lame cuz I work til 8pm and then have to be back at school at 8am, but this weekend I went out to dinner with a friend who speaks in Spanish with me so that was fun. I feel pretty accomplished after holding up the conversation for several hours. Saturday night involved dinner with the AIESECers followed by chilling in the street just chatting for several hours (no open intoxicant laws here, btw.)

Sunday began lazily at home, a huuuuuuge lunch eaten at the dining room table (a first we usually eat at the smaller table) because it was one of my roommate’s birthday. It was pretty cute actually, even though I didn’t understand much of what was said as usual. Then I went to Cabecera, B/manga’s equivelant to Uptown or State Street and spent the afternoon with friends. Ended the evening by watching a pirated DVD The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with four gay boys. I taught them a new word in English: cuddle. There's no equivelant in Spanish, unfortunately. Major oversight of the language.

It was a solid weekend.