Mañana es el fin de la semana.

So yesterday was a random day, after the creation of the epic video in the training session and the discovery of yet another article for my French DELC310 I wandered around most of Barcelona for a good 5 hours, stopping for a late lunch part way through. It was really good to have a catch up with everyone, and to reaquaint myself with my home for this academic year. Every time I walk around here I find something new, a street, a sculpture, something of cultural interest, that´s why I love it so much here. Plus the fact there is almost constant sunshine makes missing England very difficult. I ordered a book for my Catalan course yesterday and hopefully am going to go and pick up a certificat from my last course this afternoon. This time my course is moving much faster,I´ll hopefully be a certified B1 in the european languages rackings on the 14th of March, only 10 weeks to complete a text book, read a novel and write a report and summary, do a speaking presentation and then the oral and written exams too - phew! lots of work!
I´m also going to try and get some DELC 310 done this weekend, I really want to try and finish it before I go home mid-march so I can print it all off and get it binded. If not then definitely by the end so that I have 2 and a half months of pure fun in España. :)
Also yesterday the man who worked in the bookshop told me that I speak good Catalan :) that made me feel very good about myself. 
Anyway, should probably go and plan my lessons for next week, seeing as that is what I am meant to be doing with this time.....
I´ll leave you with a quote I found when I was in Frankfurt.

  

A very important training day.

Today I had a very important training day on the use of digital resources in the classroom.
Which means I produced this:

In other news..... I still have no internet in my house :( and I don´t know when I will have either, so I am stealing free internet from wherever possible at the moment. But I´m back at school and in Catalan class, and the government paid me. Also Dan and Camila are coming up for my birthday next weekend which is exciting and people from lancaster are coming in a couple of weeks. :) If only my internet were fixed everthing would be perfect.
Going to have to plan some more trips soon too.
Adios chicos!
x-x-x

Back in Barcelona

I write to you today from my local library, as I have no functioning internet in my house :( I am going to bring this up with my landlady later but didn't really want to bring it up yesterday as it was Reyes, the equivalent of Christmas day and seeing as how I was invited to the family meal I decided it would have been improper to have dropped this bombshell. I also haven't been paid by the ministry, god only knows why, so have had to do a transfer of funds from England in order to pay said rent and to generally live.
But apart from those little hurdles I am haing to jump life is great. My flight out here was late due to the winds :( but then I got to see the arrival of the reyes in Barcelona, they even brought me a little gift, a lovely necklace. :) I also saw Lucy yesterday on her birthday which was lovely, we had a starbucks and a nice little catch up. I then had an enormous late lunch at my flat with my landlady, her family and family friends, lots of food, lots of wine, lots of cava and I even got a piece of the traditional tart too. I didn't get the stone, so I didn't have to pay... phew but I also wasn't lucky enough to get the little king either, but oh well :)

Here you can see the reyes and their helpers getting off the ship in Barcelona.
I plan to chill, maybe go for a swim tomorrow before going back to work on Monday :( need to get some more travels planned too. Not long left until I am 21 now!

Nadal

So this will be my last blog until I return after Christmas, this week has been very hectic so I haven't gotten round to blogging.
This weekend I chilled here in Barcelona, went out on Saturday night and went shopping on Sunday. There is a primark here! I know it's not very cultural but sometimes you just need something cheap and cheerful and Primarmani is the place for that.
Last night we all went out together for tapas as a final meet up before we all go off to Madrid/France/America/England (delete as appropriate) for Christmas. The food was lovely and also very cheap, all the dishes were between 1euro and 2.50, even my friends who unfortunately are still waiting to be paid could afford that!

Yesterday and today were the Christmas concerts at my school, it was so cute (photo below of us being reindeers) I was really proud of them all managing to sing their songs in English, especially the youngest, they may only be 5 and 6 but they definitely were the best.

I've received lots of Christmas presents this week from teacher too, I got a hat, scarf, necklace, turron and a flower, very spoilt. I feel so at home here in Barcelona and at my school that it's really sad to leave, but it's best to see my family while I can and I know I would have regretted not going home.
So I fly tomorrow, hopefully all will go well and I'll be back in England tomorrow night, freezing to death but enjoying a lovely Chinese takeout with my friend Becky!
Feliz Navidad a todos/Bon Nadal tothom/Merry Christmas everyone!

th teacher's curse....

So I have now been hit by the cold that seems to hit every teacher in the world as they finish work for the holidays, leaving them ill and unable to function. I felt tired and a bit funny all morning so decided to have a power nap this afternoon.. it lasted 6 and a half hours and I still don't feel A1. :(
But on the plus side my last two posts now make some sense, I did go to the circus with school today, but it was held in the building of the old flowers and silk market, so I got it right both times! (glad to see my Catalan/Spanish hasn't failed me) The show was good, a mixture of acrobatics and drama and comedy, I've never seen anything like it before but I did enjoy it, as did all the pupils (we took 8 classes...) On the bus to and from the Mercat de flors we sung Christmas songs in preparation for the show next week, I have learnt that they sing better in English than they do in Catalan, guess my job isn't going to badly. I was on a bus with 3rd level so this was all very cute. However at the front we also had two boys from 6th grade, one with a broken foo and his friend. They were made to sing their songs! Oh it gets better... they couldn't remember the words to the English song (John Lennon's Imagine..) so yes, I was forced to sing with them.... on the bus' MICROPHONE. I think my skin was somewhere between the shades of beetroot and crimson...
Also my block of flats now has a Christmas tree in the lobby! As does my school, but that was more likely to happen.
Tomorrow I need to pay for my Catalan course and buy the book. Should be easy enough......
Bona Nit a tothom!
:)

Webcam = dead

So my webcam has died, my uber-technical friend John attempted to fix it remotely, but it still isn't working. :( Yet another bad thing about my computer.
But I have now got a much quicker version of Internet explorer; which means I can final delete safari  - yay!
However on the up side of things I am definitely moving up a class in catalan, I got 90.4% overall on the course. I am very pleased with myself, seems like my hard work has paid off. :)
Tomorrow I'm off to the Circus with school, then maybe iceskating later, not some sort of flowers and silk thing, to be honest I don't know where on earth I got that idea from....
Also planning to watch a Barca match with Gavin at some point early next year, which I can't wait for, to see some live sport, I miss it.
Starting to get excited about meeting up with everyone over Christmas, although I am not looking forward to those temperatures... eeek.
See you soon England.

Christmas is nigh..

Today was pretty boring, I went to school, the gym and then have mainly chilled, partly due to the fact that my private lesson had to be cancelled as my pupil is ill, and partly due to the fact I ache all over from the gym. I hurt in places where I didn't know muscles existed! Maybe it will have some effect so I look good on my return to England, but I doubt it, seeing as I am going out for chinese food on Friday.
It really feels like everything is grinding to a stop here. I have no private lesson, no homework to do for my catalan class tomorrow and a bad case of not wanting to go to school, along with all the other teachers, and pupils. 
But I did manage to find out that my school trip on Thursday is to some sort of flowers and silk market, I have a party at catalan to look forward to tomorrow, as well as my final weekend in Barcelona being filled with Christmassy things, and going out.... and maybe the gym
All in all life's not too damn shabby, I guess I've just gotten used to be so busy that I'm not really sure how to have nothing to do anymore..
Hasta Manana
x