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Well I finally have internet at home! I am so excited!!!
Things are still going well here, I really enjoy my job and have good
relationships with the other teachers. The highlight of my week last
week was the lesson plan I made which consisted of listening to and
analyzing a Taylor Swift song, "You Belong With Me." My students
learned a lot of new words and enjoyed it, and of course I loved it.
Haha.
I am not sure if I told anyone about this but a couple weeks ago one
of my teachers invited me to a family party. Her dad has a house on a
vineyard (it was beautiful but I didn't take any pictures because I
didn't feel comfortable doing so). We went there with her husband and
kids, and I met all her siblings and nieces. There were about 8 of
them, roughly my age and we hung out all day eating (home made paella,
and I tried some really nasty seafood thing) and drinking sherry and
listening to various family members sing or play the guitar. They are
a very talented family! One of the young women, maybe 20 years old,
was a fabulous flamenco singer. Another, 14 years old, played guitar
and sang her own songs in Spanish and English. She was so good,
almost everyone in the room was crying (including me, well... I wanted
to cry but I didn't let myself because I was at a stranger's house!).
She was so talented. Also one of the family friends sang Portuguese
music (Fado) and it was extremely emotional as well. It was so
different from any party I have been to - it was so Andalusian! I
really enjoyed it.
Over Columbus Day weekend I took a trip to Portugal with my American
friends. Another weekend we went to the nearby city of Cadiz, and we
have taken a couple other short day trips to nearby towns: San Lucar
de Barrameda, and Arcos de la Frontera. Here are my photo links:
Cadiz trip-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2228762&id=1614330&l=897143c6cf
Halloween party-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2228761&id=1614330&l=7ac782c398
Jerez photos-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2227339&id=1614330&l=cd95f51b2a
Portugal-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2227334&id=1614330&l=802129e0b9
i had my first day yesterday and it was awesome! i
love my coordinator (boss) and i had three classes and one planning
session with a teacher yesterday. in the morning i worked on music
materials with a teacher and in the afternoon i taught part of the
lesson. i gave a short presentation on sound, pitch, duration,
frequency and intensity. i did not remember any of it but basically
made it up and looked at the teacher to see if she was nodding along..
it went really well!
the other classes were english as a foreign language, and the students
had very different levels of ability. i gave the same presentation
about the united states and introductions with the students, and one
group was really able to follow and ask questions and the other was
all blank stares until the teacher translated everything for me.
anyway i think i will really enjoy the position, the only problem is
i´m still not settled in an apartment so that is a little stressful.
we´re hoping to settle everything today.
last night was one of the american girls´birthdays so we went out to
celebrate- got a bottle of wine for 87 cents (not bad wine, they are
all really cheap here) and we hung out for a while. the group is
really fun and we make each other laugh a lot, which i am grateful
for.
i have arrived safely in jerez de la
frontera, my new city! it is very cute and the people are quite
friendly. in that way it kind of reminds me of buffalo. it is a
walking type of city with winding cobblestone streets, not very good
for running, but nice for wandering around and getting to know the
place. there are a ton of plazas, basically around every corner, and
lots of shops everywhere. there is one main street that runs through
the city which has all the bigger shops. i have already found a
grocery store and a daily fresh market that sells fruit, meat, fish
(of course) and clothing too.
the food has been an experience so far but i´m sure it will get better
once i have a place to live. we had a farewell dinner with the group
before leaving sevilla and everything had fish in it. finally they
brought out soup and i asked if it had any seafood in it. the waiter
said CLARO! which means of course! i was like yes, of course....
ick. i have been trying some new things but even my roommate who
likes seafood didn´t like those particular foods. i hope she will
introduce me to some not-so-nasty fish here. today was the first day
i found a banana - at the fruit market- and it was heavenly.
yesterday i arrived in jerez with another fellow teacher, jessi, who
is also my roommate in the hotel. we started wandering around, and
heard someone speaking english on her cell phone in the plaza. i
thought hey maybe she is one of us, so when she hung up i said hello
and she is another CIEE teacher! haha. we met up with the whole
group and went to lunch, took a walk around the city then got tapas
and beer. they are a really fun group, we were laughing all night,
and we had a great time. it was such a great way to spend the first
day here, especially because the city seems to be pretty dead on
sundays and there would have been nothing to do.
today i am running a few errands and starting the apartment search.
one of the teachers from my school contacted me about living together
so i am going to try to meet with her tomorrow for coffee and to see
the school. my coordinator seems very friendly and i am looking
forward to meeting all the teachers and staff at my school this week.
my first official day is thursday, october 1.
