The weekend I met Don Quijote

I spent this weekend in Madrid and Toledo and had an absolutely amazing time. :) I flew down to Madrid on the Friday and met Jess, my friend from secondary school and college. We met in Retiro park and spent ages chatting and walking around, we then met Kate and Dan for a spot of lunch and some day drinking before heading back to Retiro park to go on the rowing boats. We enjoyed it so much that after our first go we went back on again, with Sangria, it was perfect, sitting on a boat, with my friends on a lovely sunny day, it may as well have been August, it didn't feel like February.
After a Chinese take away and an early night Dan, Kate and I headed to Toldeo, in Castille La Mancha for the day. It is a really beautiful town and very tranquil, it was nice for us to all get away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a while, we then headed back into Madrid where the evening took a turn for the weirder...
exhibit 1:

We witnessed a group of men lift up and transport (very very slowly) a giant wooden frame, for some unknown reason. Only in Spain! So after seeing this when we sat down for wine and tortilla the craziness continued when we were approached by these guys:

Yep, that's right it's Don Quijote and Sancho! They were leading a bar crawl and stopped off at our bar, they then returned by themselves later, it was all a little crazy to be honest, speaking in true Spanglish with these too was utterly mindblowing.

Sunday was a laid back day, we had a lay in, then headed to Retiro for another go on the boats, before I flew home and went to watch Barca win at a bar with some friends.

Today school was pretty normal, then I went to the gym, with my trips to the hot sunny south coming up I feel I need to get my beach body in shape. :p Off to Catalan class soon, should probably finish the homework before I leave.......





Time is slipping away like sand through my fingers....

I'm writing todays blog as a break from my packing (I'm off to Madrid and Toledo for the weekend). I just can't decide what to take, so rather than getting myself into a fluster I decided to update the worldwideweb on todays school time adventures. Today I only worked one hour, again with year 4, my timetable has compeltely gone to pot the past few days with the other English teacher being off sick. Most of the group have now mastered the basics of "O'clock, quarter past, half past, quarter to..." except for a few who can't tell the time in Spanish, so I can't really expect them to be whizzes at it in another language. I then palnend my lessons for next week and eventually (after an hour of trying) managed to get the unusually slow internet to send my project of "at the restaurant" videos to the Catalan government. Once they are up on the school blog I will link you guys in to the work that I have been doing.
Last night after my catalan class I enrolled for the next level of the course, which providing I pass the exam in a couple of weeks starts immediately after my current course, without a break. It also runs until the 14th of June, so I may miss the end of unit test depending on when I need to leave Spain to go to France. I can't believe how quickly this year hoas flown by, I don't want it to end. IIf I have to leave Spain as soon as my palcement finishes, I've only got 5 weekends left here where I don't already have plans; and three of those weekends will be taken up with trips and actvities that are planned but don't have definite dates yet.
Thirdyearabroad.com have published an article I wrote about being an English Language assistant; if you're interested then take a look:
http://www.thirdyearabroad.com/work-abroad/teach-abroad/item/1084-being-an-english-language-assistant.html
I was really pelased when they asked me to write something, hopefully I can help soemone out on their year abroad choice.
I think that's updated you all on everything.
I'll blog again on Sunday when I get home from Castille la Mancha/Madrid and the Barca match.
Hasta Domingo!
x-x-x

Year 4 overload!

Today I spent the entire day working with year fours, which was a bit of an overload, for the first to hours I was helping to teach them how to tell the time in English, the only problem is that some of them don't even understand how to tell the time in Spanish or Catalan....
Over lunch today I spoke quite a lot, which is unusual because I usually can't get a word in edgeways! Everybody was saying how well I speak Spanish which gave me a boost, and on Monday I was approached in Spanish by someone wanting to know how to get to the airport; maybe I'm starting to look like a Catalan? Also at lunch today one of the teachers was whistling, when I said I couldn't whistle people were shocked, I quickly said that no English people can whistle, this got me a few laughs; and even more when one teacher actually believed me! Bless her, she said "Oh really is it to do with how you pronounce things or something?" Most gullible award ever goes to her. :)
Then in the afternoon I was invigilating their end of unit exams, it seems so weird watching 10 year olds sat in an exam, although to be fair it was pretty short and easy, even the class teacher has said she would be shocked if anyone failed.
This evening I had my Catalan class, I have a speaking exam on the 14th of March at 8.30pm.... that's when you know you live in Spain. I also discovered that I am a master of Catalan tongue twisters much to my surprise.
That's about it, I'm getting excited to head to Toledo and Madrid this weekend.
Fins Dema!
x-x-x

The flu continues to strike....

All the teachers at my school have been going off sick with the Flu due to the cold snap we had a few weeks ago and it has final hit my tutor which means that my timetable for this week has completely changed and as I will be spending the whole week with Isabel, the other tutor, so I will be spending a lot of time with the year 4's again. Today at school I recorded the final still life voices for the year 4 project and then with year six we started to record some pieces they have written using comparatives and superlatives.
After school I went to the gym, which made me feel amazing and both the classes were really fun. Then I went round to Rosa's house to make pancakes as it is also traditional in France to make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. We had a couple each and then we started making some for her to take into school tomorrow for the kids to try. She needs to make 40 and I reckon we got about half of them done before we both had to leave to go and teach our respective private classes.

I also managed to flip a pancake dozens of times in order to try and take a photo, I felt like a whizz! 

My private class was ok today, the girl I teach was a little under the weather, I felt sorry for her and we played a game in English for a little bit longer than usual today.
Now I'm going to do my Catalan homework for tomorrow and write an article for third year abroad, if I'm not too tired.
For anyone that is interested here is a picture of me and some people from my Catalan class when we went to the Caixa Forum yesterday.

An extra long weekend

So as you can probably gather by the title I got an extra day off this weekend! I wish I had Mondays off every week, but I do usually only work 4 days a week, so I can't really complain, yet only working 3 is a bonus. Today I had a lie in to recover from carnival weekend then I met up with Gavin and we went on the Camp Nou (Barcelona's football ground) experience, there is a museum documenting the history of the club, then you can head into the stands/next to the pitch/press room/changing rooms. It was a really good trip, it was only 16.50euros and we were in there for over 2 and a half hours (even if online it says it only takes an hour!) I bought a Barca shirt which I will be wearing with pride at matches and when I visit Madrid. :p
This evening I went on a trip with my catalan class to Caixa Forum, a converted cotton factory which now houses temporary exhibitions and artwork. It was interesting and a pretty cool modernist building, very different to the factories we have in England. I also understood the entire tour without many problems which I feel means my Catalan is improving.
Tomorrow I'm back in school, I feel that getting up early will hit me, but oh well that's the life of an ELA for you!
Hasta manana!

Carnival!!

Well the Spaniards know how to party. Starting on Friday at my school, all the kids were dressed up in an array of outfits, from snow white to smurfs. Here is the promised picture of the giant snake, which seems to have no reason or meaning behind it, except that it is carnival..

The teachers were all dressed up as mourners for the death of the public sector and carrying "no a los recortes" (no to the cuts) symbols. It was a really fun afternoon. Then in the evening I went shopping and bought a summer hat :) and then to a concert which was really good, followed by Catwalk with Rosa and Soizic. This is a club where the people really are crazy, I have never seen so many crazy dance moves in one place.
So Saturday morning, after sleeping very little, I met Catania, we booked our flights and hostel for Samana Santa in Malaga and afterwards, with Ollie we headed to Sitges for the Carnival. Ollie and I were dressed as musketeers, the best part about this outfit choice was when we encountered a group of 3 musketeers who called us over to say "todos para uno, uno para todos!!" Not quite the same as in English, but hilalrious nonetheless. We danced to a samba band around the streets of Sitges and had yummy frozen yogurt.
Today I returned to Sitges this time with Sam, Adam and Rosa to watch the official parade, it was really good, slightly less spontaneous when compared with yesterday, but really fun. I even got an action shot of a giant monkey!

We got covered in confetti, then after the parade we wandered down to the beach, took a few photos and ate a huge bag of churros! It was delicious and much needed seeing as it didn't feel that warm out. Sam and I bought masks to wear, and to keep as souvenirs, then we all headed home. I'm just glad that I don't have to work tomorrow as I am absolutely shattered!
I'll leave you guys with one final carnival themed photo:

Crazy Hair Day

Today was crazy hair day at school, this was the only possible way to avoid the dreaded face painters of year 6. I rocked some odd pigtails for the hour they were patrolling the school then took them out again. Today I worked with year 5 on the differences between a/an/some/any as well as there is/there are/there isn't/there aren't/is there?/are there? they really struggled with this. I never realised just how hard English is in comparison to Spanish until I started teaching it. They have no grasped the differences between a and an, as well as knowing when to use singular and when to use plural, although the difference between some and any is still hard for them to grasp, they also have great difficulty pronouncing these words, it's hard work, but it'll be rewarding once they grasp it.
Before I finished for lunch I watched the other year 5 class do a little five minute play based on the book, The Little Red Hen. It was adorable to watch and they did so well.
This afternoon I have been planning some travels around Spain and I am now more or less booked up until the end of April, my year abroad is flying by, I am trying my best to make the most of every opportunity given to me and to travel as much as possible, but sometimes it feels as though it is slipping through my fingers.
So now I start my weekend of carnival celebrations, got to love working 12 hours a week. :)
Fins ara tothom!
x-x-x