I've decided that is is a lot of work to think up cute or catchy names for everything. Blog titles, facebook albums, everything needs to be clever. It's too much work and I'm just not that creative. Plus I want to write about several different things in this entry. So sorry, no cute creative title.
I finally got to travel this past weekend! I would have blogged about it sooner, but I actually had a busy week. Yes you heard correctly, I was busy this week. I almost forgot what it felt like. But I will talk about that later. This past weekend I went with my roommate to Lagos, Portugal. It was beautiful. There are only two buses that go, so we ended up not being able to leave until 5:30 on Friday and then had to come back at 1:45 on Sunday. We wanted to stay longer. First of all we had gorgeous weather. Warm and sunny the whole time. Definitely beach weather. The water was a bit cold, but nothing i'm not use to. I kept thinking, wow its october 16th and I'm swimming in the ocean. It is the off season so hotels there are really cheap and ours was right on the beach. It was awesome. The coast is lined with these cool bluff cave things and we went on a boat tour of them. It was sweet! The rest of the time we spent laying out, walking around the centro and eating the most amazing sea food! The first night I had a HUGE tuna steak and the next night some delicious sea food spaghetti. Sunday came much too quickly and we had to leave the beautiful sunny beach and ride home. Oh funny story. You learn to overhear English wherever you are because it's pretty rare in Huelva. So on the bus there were two older couples behind us speaking English. Turns out they were from Minnesota!! One couple from Rochester, the other from St. Paul. We spent some time discussing the twins and the vikings and how much we hate the Yankees. It felt like a little slice of home while abroad. They were just a couple of couples traveling around Europe together. Emily and Marissa, we are doing that when we are old. It's happening. But yes, that was my first travel experience thus far. It was successful.
So this week was once again crazy at school. After teaching 3 classes on my own last Thursday, I was ready to have a more relaxed week, where I'm not having to come up with all the lesson plans on my own. It seemed it would be that way until Wednesday morning. The bilingual coordinator found me and asked If I could do her a favor. One of the English teachers is very sick and will be out of school until Nov. 2nd. This puts the rest of the teachers in a bind. It's not like in the US where a system calls a sub and one is there that same day. The school has to call the government who sends someone. It usually takes a week, and smaller schools like mine just try to cover the gap. The teachers switch around their classes, and teach during their planning hour to cover the other teachers classes. Talk about rallying. Anyways, she asked me if I could teach the English classes this teacher usually teaches that day. They really don't want the kids to miss any English classes. I said of course I would help out. I usually teach Bilingual, which is mostly science classes in English, but that the children have already learned in Spanish. This is their English class. So I go into the classes with no idea as what they are covering or anything. I totally had to improv. But I think it went ok. We even played a fun memory game. At least it wasn't a total waste of an hour. My schedule will now be changed to teaching the English classes until the teacher gets back. I guess I will never know what to expect each week at school.
Its crazy though because the children here learn British English. We were learning to ask if we had different kinds of foods and the students learn "have you got?" instead of "do you have?" They also ask if they can use the toilet instead of going to the bathroom. French fries are chips and erasers are rubbers. I hope I don't confuse them too much with my American English. Oh and when they tell time it isn't 11:15 or 11:40, it's half past 11 or 20 to 12. So not what i'm use, so its a little bit more difficult to teach. But i'm still really enjoying my school and my private lessons are going well also. Next week I get to share about Halloween, so if anyone has any fun Halloween ideas for any age elementary students feel free to let me know.
No traveling this weekend, and another work week starts monday. I wonder what I will encounter this week. Still enjoying the weather here. On a funny side note, on monday it was absolutely beautiful outside and I was wearing a sleeveless dress with capri leggins. I got many many stares from people passing by in their sweaters, scarfs and boots. I just chuckle when the teachers at my school are complaining how cold it is and I'm wearing a tank top. Thanks Minnesota for preparing me for the cold. Well I will take advantage of the warm as long as I can.
Until next time
Katie
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