Would you think it strange if I told you that one of my advanced students calls me "darling" and sometimes blows kisses to me as he's leaving work?

And that today in my Elementary class we almost fell off our chairs laughing because one of the students pretended that his hands were two mouths kissing and another pretended to brush his armpit hair?

Or if I told you I'd been invited by one of my fellow teachers to watch him and a bunch of other men participate in half-naked, sweaty grappling?

Or that another of my students and I have bonded over our love of science fiction and specifically of Battlestar Galactica? Every Monday we geek our during the break about what happened in the latest BSG episode.

How about the fact that I took my private student, a 17 year old high school student, clothes shopping at the mall on Saturday and that I've taken to calling her mother my tía (aunt), my student and her sister my primas (cousins), and their grandmothers my abuelas. Does that seem strange to you?

Perhaps these things are a bit unusual, but they are the proofs of connection that I value most.