The first few days

Hi all,

                We arrived in Moncada on Sunday afternoon, and as Will mentioned below, we were taken to Schola for a presentation, and most importantly, lunch!! Laura, who owns Schola, had a lovely spread prepared which we were so grateful to arrive to! She then drove me and Vicky to our accommodation, which turns out to be Ed and Marcelo’s old place. After posting a picture on FB of the leaflets left behind with the label ‘For the next teacher’ I discovered that I’m living in Marcelo’s old room. So far I have discovered a lone sock and I am afraid of what I may find next!

We met Nacho who has been very hospitable and shown us around. He has some interesting stories about his ex-roommates which Vick and I can’t wait to hear… We also met Lara, who is so well behaved and playful. I love her! Sunday evening was spent eating and drinking in a little place in Moncada with Carolyn.

                Day one arrived and I was excited to get on with everything. The six of us (Katherine, Donna, Vicky, Roísin and Anna) met up at Schola, to be briefed on a project called CEFIRE. Most of our time has been allocated to this, which sadly means less teaching hours. We were given the details of the projected by Oanda who is leading it. It’s a course targeting 30 primary school teachers, aiming to develop their classroom skills. It centres on the communicative approach and how teachers can improve themselves by using these principles. We are starting with a pub quiz today and from tomorrow we will be helping the teachers with their fluency by having 1-1’s slots with them. I think we can learn a lot from sitting in the seminars and talking to these teachers who have a wealth of experience. We had a break in this session, which in Spain, really means a break. Nothing like England, where a break means you get to fill a kettle, boil it, and then there is no time to sit and drink your tea. We were treated by Oanda and Laura to some great coffee, fresh orange juice and some croissants which Senior Julio brought us from the local bakery (how amazing is he!). I’m loving the laid back attitude here.

                After the session Donna and I decided to head into Valencia on the train with Roísin, who left us at the Angél Guimera, whilst we made our way to the Colón station in the city centre. We went for a little explore and ended up doing some shopping! The stuff is so much cheaper here, I would have paid twice the price back in England. Self-control was very hard L

                Day two has been interesting so far. Donna and I are sharing two classes on Tuesday mornings. The students are all adults, preparing for their PET/CET exams. This should be interesting as the exam tests speaking and listening, and the lessons are focused on preparing the students. Every session one of us has to teach whilst the other goes out with Belén (who teaches the class normally) to do mock exams with the students. We should hopefully start teaching next week after observing the classes this week.

                There’s a strange occurrence in my head. Since I arrived, I have attempted to talk to the Spanish people in Portuguese, my mind has even started thinking in Portuguese. Which is really strange because I’ve lived in England since I was 10yrs, and everything I do is in English, even thinking! I called my mum this morning and explained how I was getting on in Portuguese. She was in shock as she’s not heard me speak the language in years! I hope by the end of the four weeks my brain will have sorted itself out! I keep telling myself the aim is to learn Spanish, not revert back to Portuguese!

                Well I’m off for a coffee at some local place, will write more soon!

Hasta luego!!