Settling Down

Hellooooo!

Yes i know it's been a very long time since my last post, and everyone keeps telling me that as well! So maybe this time's title is appropriate! i seem to be settling into life here and getting on with things! i feel like not too much has happened but will share with you what i can remember of the last couple weeks! and plenty of photos this time! ready set GO!

Ok so firstly i wana back track to my first week of school and show you a couple pics of one of my classes! these are the students from 1º ESO who are all about 12years old! this is one of my younger classes who all wrote me cards for my first day!

 

This is English Department

 And while we're backtracking i have a photo to share about our orientation here in Murcia

Ok so classes have been going well! lately i've been talking about NZ television, so typical shows we would watch! i even included a picture of coronation street! hahaha but tell all my students not to waste their time with it XD also i love to talk about tv ads! Here in Spain tv ads are horrendous! To begin with there is alot! in NZ we'd expect to put up with ads for maybe a few minutes but here ads can last like 15mins and i'm like WTHEck! also some of the ads are so stupid! i saw an ad which was talking about a product to make you taller and i thought it was a joke! but no! it was dead serious! hahahah anyways i've been showing my students my favourite tv ads from NZ (def not the one about the baby driving the car!) Also a while ago in classes we went through and named all the cities and countries of the British Isles so i went a head and made a map of NZ for the kids to fill in! accidentally wrote that Christchurch, Dunedin and Kaikoura were all on the West coast! fail XD but anyways i have prepared a presentation to go with the map so everyone can see what the cities are they're naming on the map! Then in my 1 Bachillerato classe (older students) i went through a theory lesson on the human bones/muscle structure/fitness/health/flexibility etc with the PE teacher! was cool! i could teach PE theory just not the practical side hahaha XD then my 2 Bach class i took a debate/discussion group which was really cool! these are probly my fav students (not that i have favs, it's just alot easier to relate to)

Ok so now a few day to day observations i would like to share! It is officially cold! hasn't been very good weather lately! so much for not raining much in Murcia >.< thank goodness for flatmates who have umbrellas! :D but yea i thought my days of walking to school in the rain were over! guess not lol, so what am i doing right now? i'm wearing shorts! hahah refusing to believe this horrible weather will continue! so maybe i should change! what else? Omgosh i cooked Chorizo the other day! one of the most tastiest foods EVER! so wish i could bring some back or get everyone to try it! it's nothing like the chorizo you'd find in the supermarkets in NZ, also the sliced chorizo you eat on sandwiches is incredible too! hahah XD

Before i continue i would like to make something very clear for everyone in NZ! we are now exactly 12 hours apart! if you have 4 30 in the afternoon it will be 4 30 in the morning here! we had our change for daylight savings the other day! Good thing my mate called me to tell me otherwise i would have turned up at school and hour early the following day XD

Ok so continuing with random things! i now officially have my Bacher of Arts qualification! came in the Mail! how awesome is that! shame i never got to go to a graduation ceremony but hey! life goes on! Thank you very much Mum and Dad for emailing it to me!

I have also now been to my first mall in Murcia! one called Thader! it's not huge but not small hahah can anyone say oxymoron? XD went with a friend! they have a massive electronics store there which is cool! electronics seem to be fairly cheap here, maybe that's because it's all priced in Euros! hopefully i get paid sometime this month! will have to make a trip back i think! Kinda gutted! one of my good friends from Murcia has gone to Bilbao to study which is on the other side of spain! a rather long bus trip >.< i'll have to go visit sometime tho! Every friday after classes the english department teachers go round the corner to a small outdoor bar thing and we just sit there and chat which is really cool but half the time i don't understand what's going on and am pretty quite! so hard to keep up when everyone is talking at the same time! O.o

Ok so something else i must say is i am incredibly surprised at how many public holidays there are here! maybe it's just me? i've only been here a month and already we've had 2! this sunday just been was Dia de todos los Santos or All saints day! it's the same holiday as Mexico's Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead! which occurs on the 1st of November! Needless to say i had the day off! was really good! the weekend just been all my flatmates returned home for the weekend so that was super boring >.< But day of the dead is a fairly big thing here! most people will go to their dead relatives graves and do them up and i asked, so what? you only go once a year? and they said no! we go all the time but this is a special day for it.

Last night i went out with a all my flatmates and some of their friends! was good! i don't really understand bar hoping but we went around different places and sometimes just stood talking without ordering any drinks lol it was good because there was another person who doesn't drink either last night which made me feel better! got back at 3am lol was fairly tired after thaT! i tell people in the in NZ people go out till about 11 and they think it's hillarious because they don't even leave till around 11! before we went out we just sat around in the flat eating pizza! i think after a while of trying to pay so much attention to people talking in spanish with ridiculous background noise i kinda just give up! XD

Oooooooook well you can probly guess what all these photos are about! lol Halloween! So in NZ Halloween isn't a big thing at all and people don't really care or celebrate it! but here in Spain it's a lot bigger! so on monday i turned up at school in my bright spongebob t-shirt and Maria says to me why aren't you wearing black! hahaha anyways the english department mustered up a costume for me to wear anyways! Wasn't too sure what i thought about halloween but i think really it's alot of harmless fun and that's all anyone really sees it as! anyways we did bobbing for apples and picking lollies out of flour with your mouth games during break! it was lots of fun! then in classes we did things like wordsearches and bingo! kids loved it!

That's about all for now! i am still alive, don't need to worry! Just finished trying to play trivial pursuits in spanish! if the questions weren't hard enough to  understand it's all about spanish things and i'm like WTHeck! who would know this >.< anyways that was a fail! had more fun playing a card game before thaT!

Hope all are well! what's happening on your side of the world? By the way if you look on the right side of this blog you'll be able to see a poll! please vote and let me know your thoughts! And i will leave you with that till next time!

A week of Activity

Hello lovely people! long time no see!

Well really not that long but people have been requesting i update my blog and what better time to do it then now! i have had a full on week this week and have been doing lots of different things! there is much to tell and i fear i've probly forgetton some of it! but bear with me!

Let's start at the beginning of the week! this week i only had 2 days of classes!!! hahah was super stoked! classes are good but at times i freak out if i don't know what i'm suppose to be doing! anyways i have now obtained the email addresses of all the teachers i will be working with so i can email them and see what the go is! the key to teaching is being prepared! preperation preperation preperation! i'm sure some of you may all ready know that! i may have mentioned it before but i prefer older classes! simply because the younger classes have lower level english and it's a mish trying to communicate in english without speaking spanish! But i have to say i love the younger classes enthusiasm! they're so excited all the time (maybe not about learning) but at least they have no fear in asking questions and giving things a go! that i love! the older classes understand everything alot better but don't want to talk so it's like Come on guys!!!!!! get excited would ya! XD

This week in one class we did a listening excercise and the kids had to fill in the missing words to a song! cry me a river by justin timberlake. Of course i knew it and half the girls did but otherwise it was fairly unfamiliar XD so this week i am going to do a similar exercise but with a nz song! so should be really fun! :D

Moving on! on Wednesday was Columbus day! the day that Christopher Columbus arrived in America! But here in Spain it is celebrated as Dia de Hispanidad! and thus everyone gets a day off! so i was stoked with that! So wednes day night i went out with my flatmate Juan and a couple of his friends and we drove around in a car to park some random place on the other side of Murcia and we looked for a certain bar place that was suppose to be near the Plaza de Toros and we finally found it so we got hot drinks and i have to say hot chocolate is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay different here! Unlike the NZ version of hot chocolate the spanish version actually adheres to it's name! Literally just Hot Chocolate! XD lovely thick melted chocolate! but thankfully it comes in a smaller cup cause i don't think i could handle a big mug full XD then after that we all went in searc of 'Billar' or Pool! we found 1 place but it was busy and by this time is was getting late so we decided to head back to the car! In all honesty i think it might have been quicker to walk back to our flat! because we got hopelessly lost, which seems to be a normal thing for me lately >.<

When we got back to the flat, a friend of our flatmate Mariavi had broken down outside, seemed like a flat battery! i was just like hang! i'm so glad i don't have to worry about that! XD

Ok so Thursday! Well on thursday i had another orientation! this time it was just for language assistants in Murcia! you know there are far more of us then i ever expected! in Murcia alone there has to be at least 50+ Anyways this time i went with Maria! So that was good! they talked alot about things i already know so it was long winded! But on our break we joined up with a bunch of other teachers and another language assistant and went for drinks and toast! was sooooooooo nice! hahaha even toast is different here! We had it with like blended tomato paste then you cover it with oil and salt! amazing!

I think this might be a good point to talk about english here in Murcia! Ok so by no means do alot of people speak it but it's far more spoken then spanish is in New Zealand! English is a cumpolsory subject for like 4 years! so most peoeple will be able to say a few things and help you out! they run at my school and alot of others bilingual programs! which is what i'm involved in! so all their classes are given by teachers who speak english to them! and i'm like flip! no wonder the english level is so much better then spanish in NZ! Even after my studies at uni my spanish was soooooo lacking!

Ok moving on! ready for some pictures? :D thought i'd put in some pictures of typical food here! but by no means is this anywhere near all they have here! just a snipet

 A Bocadillo! Spanish style sandwich

 Chorizo - Here pronounced Choritho XD bet you've never seen it like this before? Oooooh it's so tasty!

 Here in Murcia they are know for their Jamon - Ham

 I think i might have talked about this already but this is Ensalada Murciana! Murcian Salad! Other then the boiled eggs omgosh i love it! :D

 Another one of my favourites! These are pasteles de carne! Meat pies! but not like any meat pie from NZ! hahaha

 Pickled herring! And here they have everything with lemons which is fine by me! love it!

Pickled Olives! yum! So it would seem the spanish are almost fearful of spicy food! some1 told me to be careful because something i was about to eat was spicy but it wasn't hardly spicy at all XD but they love their salty food! and i'm just like Yus! :D

No prize for guessing what these are! or why they are here! hahah XD Chips! everyone keeps telling me not to say Papas! they are Patatas Fritas! >.< but you'd eat these with lemon juice, olives, herrings etc

Tortilla de Patatas - Litterally just a potato omlet kinda thing!

omgosh after all that i'm hungry!!!!! XD

Where were we? Ok moving on to Friday! Fridays i get off because all my classes have been scheduled for mon-thurs! Stoked! :D anyways i went out and joined a bunch of the teachers after school for a drink (don't worry i don't drink alcohol) and a bite to eat! Was really cool! enjoyed just sitting there chatting! not that i understood alot >.< ok so i'm warming up to the accent but there's still alot that i plain don't know which can make things hard! if some1 is talking to me it's not too bad i can understand them! in groups it's alot harder following the conversation! i can pick up the general gist of what's happening like they'll be talking about a movie or something but i'm really bad at picking out the subject! like what is the movie they're talking about! but i'm learning! little by little!

I'm afriad the pics are rather limited this entry! i wish i had taken my camera with me everywhere but alas i didn't XD Last nights, being saturday i meet up with a friend to go to church! hahaha i think we finally arrived over an hour later, after getting well lost some1 came to pick us up in the end! Thank goodness i didn't try getting there by myself! Church was really cool! i'm gutted we missed out on the singing tho >.<

Anyways that's about it for this week! Hope you are all doing well! Love to hear from you all!

P.S

Good job All Blacks! :D

A Career in Teaching

Heeeeeeeeeeey all! I know how much you desperately await my blog updates so here is another one for ya’ll! And the great news is that it is coming to you from my own internet! Wooooooooooo! Everything has been setup! It’s a great comfort just knowing that I can contact friends and family from back home! I do miss you all!

First of all! I’m going to have to apologize that there will be no photos in this blog entry! I’m gona run out of things to take pics of really quickly! Hahaha I’m sure I can find stuff! I’ll try make this entry quick! It’s 11pm and I’m tired!

Ok a couple things to write to you about! Firstly let’s talk about the time here and my general life from now on! It seems here that everything is done later! I.e. you get up late, you eat late and you go to bed late! Hahaha which suits me pretty good really! Hard to adjust to at first but I understand the reasoning behind it all! Here it’s still light out late into the night so anything before 9pm they call the afternoon here! I get up and eat breakfast at around 9 then lunch is around 2-4pm and then dinner around 9-10 and bed should be around 12-1 but lately I go early cause I’m tired!

Here is the time rule for people in NZ! Take your time and add 1 hour! That’s where I am but the other end of the day! For example in NZ it is 8pm, so add 1 hour = 9pm and that’s where I am but the other end of the day so 9am! Easy right? But it can be super annoying being at opposite times of the day cause it’s hard to talk!

Anyways I want to back track a little to my journey from Madrid to Murcia which I forgot to tell you about which were the windmills I saw! They were incredible! Literally hundreds of windmills spread out across the country side and we drove right down the middle of them all! They were so awesome! I wish I were sitting on a window seat so I could have taken some pics for you all! Suppose it’s not that exciting but there were soooooooo many! :D

So far Murcia is a great city! I like it a lot and am slowly getting to know it! I think I’ve done more walking in the last week around Murcia than ever before! You’d be proud of me! Although every day I am sooooooo worn out!

Murcia is a rather hot place! And now I understand why they all tell me it’s a desert! Lol so yesterday I went out at 5pm (afternoon) and it was still 31C and then last night just before I went to sleep it was 27C in my room! So the heat can be fairly intense here! Our classes at school swelter without air conditioning! One lady told me today that just last week they had 38C so I’m relieved I’ve come just in time for autumn! ^^ another thing that has been rather strange for me is the smell around town! At times it smells like you’re walking past an open sewer line! I think it must be the heat and it’s like woah! That was yuk! XD

Ok so the main part of this entry is to tell you a little bit about my school! So a 20 min walk will put me right at Miguel Espinosa! My new school! I have about 9 different classes which is about 225+ students so hang if I can remember all the names and that’s with about 8 different teachers! I had my first day yesterday and I am teaching kids between 12-15 and their knowledge of English in some cases is veeeery little! I’ve only has 4 of my 8 classes so I haven’t meet everyone yet! So far I’ve been giving the slide show presentation that I prepared and answering questions! The students are very excited and extremely noisy! Hahhaha but they are all very happy to have me! Today when I came to a class they all applauded me which was very cool! And had written me welcome cards! :’D

Most of their questions are along the lines of do you like Spain? Do you like Murcia? Do you have a girlfriend? Do you like soccer? Do I support Real Madrid? Do you speak Spanish? Lol etc.!

I do prefer the older classes because they are more controlled and they speak English better! I have to tell all the students that I don’t know a word of Spanish! And sometimes it’s really hard because they’ll yell out things in Spanish and I’ll understand perfectly fine but have to pretend like I don’t! and I have to be careful not to say anything is Spanish which is pretty easy to do when everything else is in Spanish! XD

The other exciting news is I meet up with my friend from Spain Marta! It was really cool catching up! Hahaha maybe it’s just me but all the girls I know here honestly speak at the speed of light! But I get the gist of the overall conversation, still doing my best to pick up that Murcian accent! >.< we found a store that had a piano in it and I was so excited but then there was a sign that said do not touch and I was like stuuuuuuuuuuuuupid! But I shell go commandeer the one at my school sometime! :D some1 said something bout me playing Christmas carols and I was like hmmmmm yea I dunno, you know who I feel bout Christmas carols! Hahahha jokes! You couldn’t keep me away if you tried! :D

The other great thing you’ll be excited to know if I have found the Manga shop here in Murcia! Aaaaaaaaaaah it was awesome! Lots of Spanish manga! I think it’s a lot more known here and popular then NZ! Quite a few of my students like it which is cool!

Finally to cap it all off I found a store that sells salt and vinegar chips! My happiness level went up bout about 10! Was really sad with the range of chips they have in Spain! Not a strong point but at least now I’ll have salt and vinegar chips to remind me of home! Ooooooooh and another thing is the Fanta orange here looks waaaaaaaaay more like actual orange juice then fluorescent orange liquid! Also they have Fanta lemon which is my favourite!

Still have a terrible cough which isn’t going away! Appreciate your prayers! :D