Week of 15/2 - Getting Used to the European Way

Blog - week of 15/2 (I have to get used to writing it this way) 

Sunday - did work in the morning and afternoon.  By mid afternoon I needed a break.  Went shoppingand bought some warmer cloths and a new jacket for €35 - super cheap!!  How silly was I - I packed thinking about the Spanish sun and how hot it's going to be over the summer.  I totally forgot about winter.  Then I 'went out for a curry' with some Brits and others from school.  It was a lot of fun and very delicious!!  

Yummy curry and shots

Monday.  We started phonics and phonology today.  It's really cool - new alphabet / chart.     

Tuesday - learned more about phonology.  Went to Karen's for dinner and work with Caroline.  They are the two gals in my group for our Learner Project Profile.  In this project, we have to do a full assessment on a student to see what level they are.  Our gal is Level B1 - again, A1 is lowest and C2 is highest.  She's a little on the low level side but is as sweet as can be.   

Wednesday - I led a telephone class with Nuria, who is the gal from our group project.  It went really well.  This isn't surprising as most of my career has been spent on the phone in one way or another.  

Thursday - taught C1 class.  Went well. They seemed to enjoy it.  Unfortunately, I got another very good as a grade as I keep making silly mistakes.  Oh well - maybe next time I'll improve.   

Friday - I finally had my breakdown.  Apparently, we all have one, it's just a matter of when.  We have to pick our own topic for the next two classes we teach and in addition, we have to create our own materials and I couldn't pick anything.  Nothing made sense to me and the books might as well have been written in Spanish for all the sense it made to me.  I got frustrated and had a meeting with one of the teachers.  She knows I'm getting it because of the work I've turned in so far and she's observed me teaching.  She seems to think - and I tend to agree - that I was having a stress block.  There is so much going on and haven't been getting enough sleep.  I get the TtMadrid business model of running the course every four weeks and it makes sense in that regard.  But we're not training for a high stress job or industry.  There is no need to put us through this stress. The course should really be 5 or 6 weeks. But oh well - one more week left.  This really has been the shortest, longest 3 weeks of my life. 

We took a practice exam today and oh boy am I in trouble.  I wish I could spend some time studying but we have to complete our group project by Monday and do our 2 lesson plans for next week.  I'm not really sure when I'm going to be able to study.  

After classes we went to Karen's to work on our group project.  We seem to be on track but there is still a lot to be done.  We went to dinner after and had some great conversations, food and wine in a cute Irish pub.  

Spent Saturday at school working on our group project and amazingly enough we got it done.  We have a great team - no drama or bickering and I think we did a great job. Went out after for what was supposed to be a drink then diner - yummy curry.  Well a few drinks in - we met up with some other folks and had tapas and more drinks instead of a proper dinner.  That's just one other thing I love about Spain - when you order drinks most places give you tapas.  Some places give huge portions of tapas so that could really be dinner.  Spain rocks!!!!  

Sunday I did some work in the morning and then met up with Gwen for tapas and salsa dancing at the Mercado de San Fernando.  It was great fun - met loads of great people and even danced a bit.  Then we went out for a curry - yummy!! 

Tapas and Salsa dancing at Mercado de San Fernando market

Came home - did more work.  I can't wait until Wednesday night when our exam is over and most of the work is done.  Then Friday is our graduation party - yippee!!!  Hopefully I'll get some good work somewhere.  My resume will be blasted out to 300 companies in Madrid on Friday.  Hopefully I'll have some interviews soon after. 

Feel free to comment and ask for any clarifications.  I apologize if things are a bit muddled but my mind is in a million places and going a million miles an hour right now.  Hope you're all doing well!  I look forward to reading your comments!!!