Hello! The internet place is very lively today, theres a Chinese woman behind me chatting away into skype, in fact now she is singing, theres a man watching soft porn to my right and the Nigerian woman who owns it even smiled at me. Heady days indeed.
So ends my first proper teaching week at CLEN college (it transpires it has its own name) and overall its been good. The lessons were fun, my students are lovely and I´m getting back in the swing. One lesson was great as the subject was the media and the textbook, a mainstream English textbook, taught that the Daily Mail is a racist newspaper so I got paid to lay into the Daily Mail for an hour and a half. Every now and again you get a lesson that just goes horribly wrong. I had one of those on Wednesday. You know they just don´t understand and you try and try but they still don´t understand and you want the ground to swallow you and drag you to the circle of hell reserved for teachers who can´t explain the concept of a hero to some 11 year olds.
My timetable is being settled and they took away all my teenage classes. I was pretty happy until I met the replacements. A class of six eight year olds whose only words in English are ´teacher´ and ´why´ at a private Catholic school. It´s strange teaching under a picture of a Saint, I´m not sure which one. Being paranoid it did cross my mind whether they would ask me if I was a Catholic or they´d be suspicous of my Protestant ways, "what do you mean you don´t accept transubstantiation?!?!?" but so far so good. After the class I actually wanted my teenage classes back. It´s not that they are bad kids, quite the opposite, its that they are kids. School has finished and rather than going home and doing whatever the devil it is that Spanish kids do, they have to stay and do an hour of English. They want to run around, sit on the desk, punch each other and throw each others stuff around the class. I´m sure it will soon become normal, at least I hope so or next time you see me I might be rocking back and forth slowly muttering "Ignacio put the compass down" over and over again.
Life outside of school is good as well. Went to Osasuna at the weekend. The ground is about the size of the Valley but they stands are much steeper so you feel really close. The front row is incrediably close to the pitch as the linesman found out when fans actually reached over and tapped him on the shoulder so they could politley inform him that they disagreed with his desicion to his face. Osasuna aren´t bad and beat Sporting Gijon 1-0. I do need to learn how to whistle. Been out a few nights. One ended with Mauro playing harmonica (where is there always a harmonica?) while the rest of us tried to make up blues lyrics on the spot, the best I came up with was "oh I wish it was me, but she left me for a man called Steve". That sort of rhymes. The record contract is probably in the post.
We´ve acquired two house mates, a Mexican called Daniel and a Spanish guy who none of us have actually set eyes on. Stuff appeared in the spare bedroom and a note was left on the table that worringly read "Hi there boys!!" and not a trace of him since.
I´m beginning to like Pamplona more and more. The old town is fantastic, the buildings are colourful and unique and they tower above you but you don´t feel trapped in. Theres always a good chance of coming across something as well, today there were guys playing the trumpet, accordian, saxaphone and a massive drum while people were dancing and singing in the street. There´s a lot of statues which I always appreachiate. Theres lots of green space, its clean and safe and I´m now able to leave the map at home. Which is great as it turns out map reading is not something I excel in. So get yourself on a plane.
love love love x
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