So, this is my fourth day in Valencia and I already feel like I never want to go home! It's beautiful here; dazzlingly blue skies, palm trees and orange trees everywhere. stunning architecture and, of course, the mountains in the distance which are so picturesque they look almost cliche. The food is great (and cheap! And the booze is practically free!), the people are unbelievably friendly and, though I've only spent three days there, I love my school.
A massive thanks to Laura, Mampa (hope I've spelled that right) and Alicia from the Schola program for giving such a warm welcome on Sunday. Nothing cheers you up after a late arrival and a bumpy flight like a massive table of food! And thanks especially for providing me gluten free products - that was very sweet. After our introduction we all got our first look at our Moncada-based home-for-a-month. It's fantastic! I hadn't been entirely sure what to expect but this has definitely exceeded any of my hopeful imaginings.
My first few days at my school, Sagrada Familia, have been so wonderful. There has been a rather overwhelming input of faces and names (how is it I'm bad with both? Is it not normally one or the other?), but everyone has been very welcoming and friendly. I am working with two teachers, Olga and Blanca, and they are both too lovely for words. Mostly I have been observing and supporting, but I taught my first full lesson today! It was... an experience. Ha. Well, it was a great deal more chaotic than anything I experienced with CELTA, which was partly my fault (I think Iam had forgotten a lot about planning and teaching techniques...), and partly due to it being a class of twenty-something YLs with a lot of energy. That said, I think I learned a lot from it - I will be teaching the same lesson to a different class tomorrow and I have loads of ideas for improving it - and the kids really seemed to have fun. They especially loved my enthusiastic drilling! And I must admit, you get a nice little thrill when you're leaving the room and you can still hear a dozen voices behind you repeating a phrase you just taught, "Don't worry about it!"
I think the biggest challenge is going to be the older groups. They were a bit of a shock! Their level of English is amazingly good, but they sure seem like they'd rather be almost anywhere else in the world. It was a nightmare trying to get them to stay in their seats, forget about working! Like wild dogs, I sense they could smell my fear. I'm undeterred, however, and even now I am plotting ways to win them over...
Being the non-religious type, I was a little anxious to be teaching at a Christian school (they're actually very relaxed about it, for the record). So, on a humorous and related note from an earlier lesson... Olga asked me to explain a word the students were struggling with: disposable. Yeah, I can do this, I thought, feeling confident.
"Okay," I said, picking a book up from the table. "I don't need this anymore, I don't want it." I strode over to the bin and dropped the book in. "It's disposable."
I turned back to the class, eagerly anticipating that wonderful penny-has-dropped look on the faces of my class... Nope. Olga's face was a picture, a mix of horror, amusement and disbelief.
"You just threw away the bible."
Fortunately, a few moments of shocked silence (and several minutes of very British apologising) later, everyone saw the funny side. But, as advice for any aspiring teachers working for the first time in a Christian school in Spain: Their bibles look kinda like condensed dictionaries at a very brief glance.
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