Friday 23 July 2010

Quick there's an internet connection - use it!

We haven't had internet access for just over a week - and all of the teachers have been going spare as we are about to enter our last week of teaching and need to arrange travel and accomodation for next weekend!

We've been having lots of fun too!

Last night we took part in a Terror Night organised for the kids - to pretty much scare the tripe out of them... and in the majority of cases it worked!

I had taken part in something similar in my first week of teaching but more teachers took part last night which made it a lot more fun!

Danielle and I also taught a wee Merengue class on Wednesday night for a laugh!

I've lots of emails to respond to - and photos to upload so I'll try and get on here again over the weekend to update you further on our antics!

Friday 9 July 2010

Drrrring! Drrrrring! Back to school!


Danielle and I started back to school this week with us both teaching Elementary English to 8 - 11 year olds in an old monastery in Uclés.

Lots of Lesson Plans along with 5 hours of English per-day!

The food is well below standard, served on prison style metal trays (apparently that was actually the norm here in Spain up until the 00s started!), and the double windows and doors just magnify the sun and heat so we all spend much of the day dying! But otherwise it is a lovely place!

This is the corridor from our staff room to my classroom.

And this was my classroom at the start of the week - but now it has a load of pictures on the walls and across the middle of the room. 

The children had an exam today... which one described as 'isi' (easy) - but unfortunately the same child didn't do too well in the exam! Oops there! Wasn't that easy then! lol!

We did have a fantastic night on Wednesday when we watched the Semi-Final match between Germany and Spain.  I admitted that I really was convinced that Germany was going to wipe the floor with a slow and lathargic Spanish team.... but was extremely pleasantly surprised to watch them finally step into gear and also see almost 400 students (packed into a small corridor) go absolutely wild as Spain scored!

We will spend Sunday evening with them too - hopefully watching Spain win!

As you can see - its been non-stop and it just keeps going....

As you can see there have been a lot of '...and then..'s, and there are still more!
On the last Thursday of June we spent the day with the Masters Students, of the Vaughan Systems English Masters programme, as they led a tour of some of Madrid's key landmarks as part of a presentation assignment.  Although the Tutors were not really sure why Danielle and I would even want to be there, we seen it as a golden opportunity to learn about Madrid from some of its own residents - and another ingredient was that it was completely free! lol!
We then went for lunch with Lucas, Almu and Luis and had our first tasty Spanish food! It was great! 3 courses including drinks for 10 Euro!
It was in a small street just back from the famous Gran Via - and it was great!





We ended up turning a morning's walk around the city sights of Madrid into a day long event finishing in the Retiro park later that evening.
We went to El Rastro (the Sunday Market in Madrid) early a couple of Sundays ago! It was really interesting and there were so many antiques and collectables around.  If we had loads of money - and probably more importantly a place to put it all - then we could have bought a few things but we were very sensible!

We then went on around the southern area of central Madrid for a bit of a tour with Lucas.  The other girls are Isabel and Meg - both two Americans that were absolutely lovely to have spent time with and fingers cross we will see them again!
It was Meg's last day in the city.
We then went to Lucas' parents' house on the Saturday to watch the football - and Spain win again!  Lucas cooked a bit of food outside while Danielle and Isabel went for a swim!

On the Monday we headed off to the hills again - on the Madrid side - and we went walking for a few hours over.  Too much exercise!

It was Isabel's last day with us and it was a bit hard to really let her go! But she is  now off with some other tourists (mainly Oz and Yanks) to visit all the sights of Spain.
This pic was taken in Segovia - just on the other side of the hills north of Madrid.  It started out as a lovely warm day and then it turned nasty with a cool Lightening storm that kept me entertained for a hour or so!
This was taken as the wind had really picked up - one of the parasols was lifted right out of a café table and came flying down the street, tumbling as it went.  I quickly lept into action (mainly because everyone else just stood and watched as it headed closer and closer to some children and a woman with a pram) and I took a hold of it... then one of the staff from the café finally turned up as I was taking it down and therefore I left it to him.  Another day of service to the world....

Its been a while!


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Originally uploaded by DKDance.co.uk
In order to try and catch up on this blog I'll try and post a few pics to explain whats been happening!

This pic is a photo on our way into Toledo during our first Saturday between the Valdelavilla weeks - so it was some time ago now!
It was quite a pretty town - very old and with lots of different influences - but it was steep and too warm so we ended up sitting in the town square for ages (see the pic of me asleep! lol) waiting for the heat to ease a bit!