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!