Photo updates!

"Hot Meal"vending machine in Villanueva.... no comment

Don Miguel - candid photo of my teacher/mentor at the Portador in Trujillo

A view of a street in Villanueva

A gazebo in the Plaza de la Constitucion - Vva. de la Serena

"brasero" - a way Spanish families keep themselves warm in winter, they plug this in, then put a blanket over the table and put their feet under the blanket to keep themselves warm. Heaters/furnaces not common in Extremadura.

Roman bridge in Merida

Roman Public forum on the way to the anfiteatro in Merida

Taking a break on the Roman bridge with the moorish castle in the background

Entering the Roman anfiteatro in Merida

Side-stage entrance for Roman performers...

Morning of the pilgrimage to Las Cruces - Ana, Beatriz, Aitana and myself on the 'famous' rock del pollo

Inside the capilla where the Virgen statue was taken that morning

"How do you say igneous rock in Spanish?"

Yes, I am not only helping out in the English classes at IES San Jose, but also in the bilingual program which means I'm helping teach Natural Sciences, Art and even Physical Education... talk about random?
My first day of work at the highschool was eventful, seeing as the professor whom I had two classes with did not show up - her child was sick as I found out later - so I had two upper-level classes (4o ESO and 1o Bach) with Maria-Jose Tapia where she literally explained to me what to do for the listening portion of the class 2 minutes before going into the class. She gave me the textbook and I had to fly with that. After my carefully enunciated introduction of myself - blank stares galore - and a short question and answer period I got going on the listening section and found myself greeted by more, you guessed it, blank stares. Despite having had English classes for about 6 years by 4o ESO a native speaker is still hard to understand even with questions as simple as "How are you?" or "Where are you from?". Needless to say, I have my work cut out for me.

Before I go into explaining what types of classes I have I will outline the Spanish high-school system briefly. There are of course both Private and Public schools, but unlike Argentina, the majority of children go to public schools and the "grades" are as follows into "ESO"s (Educacion Secundaria Obligatoria)

1o ESO - 11 and 12 yr olds
2o ESO - 13 and 14 yr olds
3o ESO - 14 and 15 yr olds
4o ESO - 15 - 17 yr olds
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1o Bachillerato - 16 and 17 yr olds
2o Bachillerato - 17 and 18 yr olds

Highschool education is only obligatory until the age of 16, whereby the child can then choose to continue and do her/his "Bachillerato" (or basically prep for entering university or further training at some point) or enter the job market. The bachillerato classes are much smaller as they are not obligatory, and the students still need to take English in order to pass the university entrance exam which has an English section. Hence, where I come in to help with pronunciation, reading, vocabulary etc. 

My role in each class varies, I am with about 8 different groups this term, then starting in January I will be helping in other classes... by far my favorite groups though have been the 1o and 2o ESO bilingual classes - they are VERY participative, curious and unafraid to try and pronounce tough words like "igneous" in their bilingual Science class. The older highschool students seem to be warming up to me though, the teachers have noticed because they seem to be more willing to participate and try to speak when I'm there versus when I'm not, so apparently I can keep them entertained which is great! I have to admit though, since they don't understand everything I say, I do have to be a bit of a ham to keep them following at times... which can include making noises, playing charades while speaking and thinking of simple ways to explain ideas like "What's he like?" versus "What does he look like?".

Now, my job in Don Benito still only involves sitting in on Teacher Pilar's classes with the kids (from age 5 - 15 for about 16 hrs/week) but I had my first taste of teaching them on my own this past Wednesday since she had a doctor's appointment. The first group of 10 was a nightmare, not paying attention, fighting amongst themselves, complaining about everything, not completing their work, all talking at once, and all about 7 or 8 years old. I couldn't wait for that hour to be up. The next group was perfect and I had so much fun with them reviewing how to say the time in English... When Pilar returned and we had a chance to speak after the 5 hours of lessons she said that that first group is her worst-behaving group and that I shouldn't be afraid to be stern with them as they are a cheeky group. I'm hoping over the next couple months I will get a hang of this other job and be ready by January... it'll be a challenge, but I'm chipping away at it bit by bit.

This is definately more work than I expected but I still have Friday, Saturday, Sundays off and the occasional Monday too (puentes = long weekends)! Another thing I'll have to adjust to is the noise level in the classrooms... the notion of raising your hand quietly and waiting for the teacher to acknowledge you does not happen here, everybody just seems to shout over eachother although it really depends on the teacher present as well.  I still say kudos to the kids in the bilingual program for learning about types of rock in English...

Acabo de Empezar

Having not updated in so long, seeing as this website has refused to upload any photos at the moment I have neglected to write down everything I've been up to - and wow, it's been a lot. I feel as if I've been here a few months already, just because of how busy the days have been and the places I've been on a whim... or a train.

So since the "puente" or long weekend caught both my roommate Jessica and I by surprise we didn't have time to plan a big trip to Sevilla or Lisbon as we were hoping, but we spent the weekend in Villanueva and then woke up on Monday morning with the idea that we could go to Merida, to see the Roman ruins and see a bit of the city. Note that this decision was made at about noon... In any case, we packed our backpacks with lunches, rain jackets - you never know here honestly - and a change of clothes... just in case! Luckily we found a train leaving Villanueva at 14:00 to Merida for only 3 euros so we took advantage of that to spend the day there. Of course, arriving in a city during siesta (between about 14:00 and 17:00) when nothing is open is not always the best if you're looking for shopping but we in fact loved the lack of busyness when we got there, walked by the river and took pictures while navigating our way through the ghost-town. We stopped at a Doner-Kebab restaurant to pick up some snacks and chatted with the two men running the place, recent immigrants from Pakistan. We never really figured out why they wanted to come to Spain to work but apparently they know that Turkish kebabs sell well in Spain?

After that we bought our passes to see the Roman Anfiteatro and Stadium and spent a few hours just gazing at the ruins, touching the stones, touching history. I don't have any words to explain how it felt to walk and sit in the anfiteatro, despite the mass of tourists, it was relatively quiet.. silent amazement, I suppose. Unfortunately, by the time we left the ruins the Moorish castle was closed for viewing for the day as were the other sites included in our ticket… sights to be seen another day as the tickets don’t have expiry dates, much to our delight. Merida is a beautiful city dotted with Roman ruins, architecture, archaeological sites and beautiful buildings along the river. We are actually quite lucky it’s only a short 40 minute train ride away.

We returned home to our piso that night, deciding that the last train back at 20:50 gave us plenty of time to see what we could, sit in the plaza to enjoy a glass of cold – yes, cold – red wine and then be able to sleep in our own beds. The next morning I agreed to do the pilgrimage to Las Cruces to celebrate “La Vela” – the day where the statue of the virgin/patron saint of Don Benito is moved from the main church there to her basilica in the mountains (not really mountains, just a hill really compared to Canadian standards). So Miguel, Ana and the kids picked me up at 10AM, about 2 hours after the devotees already left to do the 5km walk. It only took about an hour and a half to do, in the hot sun no doubt. When we arrived, the chapel was stuffed with people taking pictures, leaving flowers at the Virgen’s feet and praying, singing etc. But the area around the chapel, a large grassy area was filled with picnickers, and tons of food and souvenir stalls were set up – this was really the place to be that day since everyone and their horse and donkey were out at this event. I met Miguel’s parents, a sweet couple who insisted on buying me “pinchos” – skewers of marinated pork with a salty/curry flavour – and to try various meats and cheeses. Such torture, no?

After many thanks and insisting that I was full we waited for the bus to take us back into town and I spent the rest of the day relaxing at home and getting ready for my first day of work. But that in itself is another story to follow soon.