End of week 1!

 This week has been incredible, but it's also gone by incredibly fast! Monday was a holiday here in Valencia, so we all went exploring in the city for a while, walked along the beach and through some beautiful parks. The architecture is stunning! My school wasn't ready for me until Thursday, so I spent Tuesday and Wednesday evening observing Schola students (which involved a lot of songs for the 4 year olds!). On Thursday and Friday though I went to my actual school and it was lovely. My mentor is very nice and theatrical, and the kids clearly love him. Even though I was just observing, he got all the children to introduce themselves to me and he kept me involved throughout the lessons by having me read aloud some excerpts and be the 'English expert' example for some of the vocab. I feel like the shiny new toy for the students; they're always coming up to me to ask my favourite colour and animal, how old I am and basically any question they know how to ask! All of them seem particularly amused by my name and that I am like 'Hello Kitty'. Today at break-time a few girls chatted with me (as far as their English skills would permit) for the whole time and they even started putting flowers in my hair, which I wore with pride for the rest of the day. I'm look forward to the rest of my time here, I think I'm going to have fun. 😊

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 1b - I cannot dance

Today was the first day of school. It all feels so non-stop. I am exhausted already and there is a whole week ahead. I still cannot quite process what is going on. UKLC have flown me out, given me five-star training in Kent, provided great and uncomplicated accommodation, fed me and have basicaly done everything from putting me on the plane in London through to just short of tucking me into bed in Spain. It's like magic. I realised today that being here for such a short time makes my place at Pastorina (my school) all the more important. ‘There’s nothing worse than a handshake agreement reinforced with legal paperwork, humbling generosity and notable kindness’, I thought. ‘I’m in big trouble here…’ We were driven to the school by Sophia from Language Kingdom who was lovely and spoke with perfect English. Stepping from the car, I was greeted by the sound of Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley in the air. As we were led to the school, the sound seemed to grow louder until we reached a ...
Read more

Haiku 5: Food

 --- In a wash of heat a Colombian woman proudly lays out food --- This weekend has been wonderful. Yesterday, me, Lieve and Bob went to Leon’s contemporary art museum in the morning. We took a slightly longer route to get there (which, hem, had nothing to do with my map reading skills..) which took us down smaller streets with beautiful views of Leon’s old and new buildings crammed together – it still hasn’t stopped surprising me how evidence of different eras exist so easily together here. People will zoom past medieval walls on their electric scooters and a block of 1920s flats squeezes up beside a supermarket. I didn’t like everything in the art museum, but some things I loved, including an installation of a city street reflected in puddles, changing from day to night. The visit made me feel grounded again. Me and Lieve went on to find a café that turned out to be more like a restaurant – a very proud Colombian woman seemed to be running the place and put a tablecloth and...
Read more

Patrick's Packing list

I looked through all the blog posts from previous years and could not find anyone who has posted a complete list of items they packed. I thought I would do the honours instead. This might be the last year of the Erasmus+ because of Brexit, so I'm not sure if this will be so useful for future applicants, but in case the government changes its mind and restarts the programme (perhaps not named after a dutchman but someone more relevant to the 21st century like Bernard Matthews or Ainsley Harriet) refer to calm your minds, people from the future! - Passport  - CELTA Certificate ( Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults, not the  Certification in Elephant and Lion Taming--easy mistake to make!)  - GHIC Card - Proofs of Address used for DBS Certificate - Jeans - Shorts (jorts?) - Medication (meditation?) - Coat + hoodie ('expect an arctic tundra' is what I heard in conversation with permanent staff) - GoPro (odd name for a camera used exclusively by amateurs) - Sock...
Read more