The other side of the desk

After a few weeks of trying to sort things out and understand what is expected of me in class, I have actually started my assistant teaching in the class.

At the meeting we had two weeks ago, they told me I didn't have to work for another week because there was insurance papers still to be made, so I had another week off and another week of seeing lovely Santander and going to the beach. Believe it or not I was actually looking forward to starting work. My tutor on Monday emailed me telling me she wanted a power point presentation about myself and Wales. As I had Monday off I thought I would start it as soon as I got up, just to realize my laptop thanks to Microsoft and it wanting me to pay for Microsoft Office, I decided that I wasn't going to pay a penny for something I can get for free, so I tried to download Open office, but obviously my little laptop and Windows didn't like my decision so in any way did it let me use it.As you all know I am known to panic, A lot. After a long time of thinking how could I fix this, I waited for my friends to be back at home and I went to their house in the evening and used their laptop to do my presentation, but it got to about 11and realized I had to wake up at 6 the next morning.

As I have a lot to tell you I am going to make this very quick, I got up on Tuesday for my first proper day, just to realize the train wasn't arriving. To not be late I got a Taxi, my work is about 30 minutes away, and it cost me more than I can afford. After all this, the day went very smoothly.

The whole experience of teaching has made me go back to my school days, and it is very strange to be at the other side of the desk. Now I know how it feels when a teacher asks the kids if there is any questions and nobody answers. As one of my classes nobody asked me any questions when I said if anyone had questions. Therefore it makes it very awkward and makes you think that nobody is interested in anything you have said.

One of the things that has made me laugh the most, is the different translations or explanations different people have said. For example: someone asked me what music do they play in clubs in the UK,so I said that in my students union, there is a night with cheesey music but told him I couldn't think of a word to translate cheesey into Spanis, but he thought he was very clever to translate it "Musica Queso" for you who might not know, queso its cheese, and it does not translate well. Also in one of my classes they were describing how famous people look, and one of the boys instead of saying "he has a beard" said "he has a bird" and someone tried to correct him by saying "he has a beer". Some people might have laughed at this, but I just thought in my head all the years that I was one of the kids, and probably said worse things in school.

Another thing I forgot to say in my old post is, how do you react when one of you're flat mates (no longer here) thinks that Wales is in Scotland? she is studying to be a nurse, for how much maths and science you might know it is not right when you have been to school and higher education to think that Wales, a country, is in Scotland. I had to explain the difference between England, Wales and Scotland and after that she said "Oh, I thought it was all in England".

I will try and write more blogs, so hopefully something worth writing happens to me soon.

Lots of Love,
Catrin

First week

I haven't done a blog in a while, I was rather busy last week (when I say busy I mean go to the beach during the day and socializing and meeting people during night). On Wednesday I met up with a few other British Council assistants, one of them Bethan, lives in Torrelavega, so as we all decided we were going out that night, I told Bethan to stay the night so she didn't have to go back home, but one night turned into 3. Which was fine, as we got lost together, and it was good to have someone there apart from my housemates as the other two girls in the flat were having an argument, the argument last it two days, I am going to talk about this later on.

We went to the beach everyday, so it felt I was on holiday and I felt guilty the fact that I wasn't doing much, didn't have much to do, so going to the beach and enjoying the nice weather(which they say it's not normal here in Santander) but it's safe to say I am in love with this city.

My housemate Liz had a BBQ party which I didn't really mind as I was going out that night anyway, but my other spanish house mate, isn't use to a student flat, and found that she didn't like garden parties or house parties for that matter, and decided to have an argument with Liz. Well, any normal person would have left it for the next day as Liz was in no state to argue and there was another 20 people around. I didn't agree with the way Ana handled the whole situation and was rather childish but I have decided no to take parts,(although you always have an opinion) Ana is moving out, today or tomorrow(although she was going to move before all this happened) she is blaimng everything on Liz, which in my opinion is a bit harsh.

I decided to stay out of all this and told them both I wasn't taking sides (but obviously deep down you always have an opinion), I dwanted to tell you all, as I felt proud of myself for the way I handle it all. Ana is moving out today or tomorrow, although she is using the party as an excuse and blaming it on Liz(which is a bit unfair) as she was going to move a long time ago before all this happened, and she is just finding excuses.

Anyway, on a happier note, I started school today. Panicking so much and thinking I was going to be late, I arrived one h earlier (the train was very early)so I decided to go to a bar there was on top of the gasolinera(petrol station). I have a problem every time I go to a bar in Spain, they don't seem to ever have normal tea, and I don't really want coke at 9 o'clock in the morning. For the people who know me, I don't like coffee but I was very tired and decided to have one anyway and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be(still not a fan of it though)

After I finished my coffee I decided to go to the school(even though I was early). I was meant to be working at two schools, but one of them is new, so didn't have any contact details, and didn't know I was even working there, and the other one, didn't want me to work at the other school because they wanted me for 12h and didn't want to share me (I can honestly say, Spain is a very laid back country. Too laid back a times).

When I arrived at Santander, I went to have lunch at my friend Sarah's house and we went to town and met up with Joe (he is from Glasgow) I had trouble understanding him, never mind the kids his going to teach!!

Love,

Catrin