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