Saturday, December 30, 2006

The end of the year

tree

Man, it is going to be a shock when I have to start waking up early again. Yes, it is nearly time to go back to work- Tuesday to be more precise. Good job that I am only doing it for four days really:)

That is right, ladies and gents, trip time is nearly upon us again. Two weeks yesterday until the big day. Which means that I only have one more Friday until I get on a plane and get the hell out of here.

People keep asking me why I am going to Colombia, to which I have no good answer. Why do I go to any of the countries that I go to? Usually because someone has suggested it to me. And I have many Colombian students who have spent quite some time telling me what a great country they are from. I also have Turkish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, French, Thai, Vietnamese, Brazilian ,Taiwanese, Chinese, Hungarian, Ukbekistani, Kyrgystani, Mongolian etc students. Some of the countries I have been to, some I can't find on a map (but would make great Scrabble scores) and I have decided to leave Asia alone for a while. I would love to go to Brazil one day too but it seemed silly to head off there when I have been learning Spanish this year.

And the Colombian Spanish does seem so much easier to understand than Spanish Spanish. And why have I been learning Spanish? Well, it was a resolution that I made last year on the way home from New York. I was really worried about how I was going to survive back in England without my friends around me. That is not to say that I didn't have friends here but the friendships are not the same when you are not relying on people as your only source of English conversation.

I was worried about money, work and housing. Also I felt that since I had made the choice to come home after an eventful three years in Korea then I really had to make the most of being here. I had to do all those things that I had missed while hidden in the depths of Asia for so long.

So I ate a lot of cheese.

And went to a comedy club. Went book shopping. Flirted with men! And I could do all this safe in the knowledge that I had a plan. And my plan was pretty simple. If I hadn't got a job by Christmas then I was going to leave the country again and do a DELTA (geeky TEFL qualification) somewhere. I also wanted to learn a new language, do a photography course and get a photo in a magazine.

Well I didn't have time to do a photography course this year but everything else I managed. I started work about three and a half weeks after arriving home and just before the Chritmas holiday last year I had arranged to have Spanish classes with one of my students.

And that was about the time that I got the first invite to Colombia.

Which I accepted.

So really this holiday has been a long time coming. I can't think of any other trip that I have been on which I have anticipated for so long. All of the others have been spur of the moment things really.

Originally I was going to go for a month and stay with a student. I have lost touch with that guy, more or less. Then I was going to study Spanish over there for a month. But that plan changed when the school that I had signed up with stopped answering my emails. Which is a shame but does give me more freedom to do what I want. And I might well sign up for a week or two in a school in Cartagena- seems a popular thing to do.

Who knows really? My students have made me an itinerary- which seems to include visiting a lot of parents' houses (cute) as well as seeing a lot of the country. They seem to think that there is a real danger that I will fall in love with the country and not want to leave. Half of them are predicted me married in two months. Never say never, I guess!

I am not sure what is going to happen. My Spanish seems better again though I still have a lot of studying to do- A LOT- so far this holiday I have only managed two hours at the books but have chatted in Spanish online a lot- including two weeks chatting to some guy in Colombia who I thought was a friend of a friend until he turned on the webcam!! He was cute though and it as a good chance to practice my Spanish with someone who doesn't know any English.

I am looking forward to the challenge. And seeing this amazing country that I have heard so much about. Right now I am more worried about the fact that I am staying with a Colombian student's parents for a few days. I don't know how to act with English parents(!) In between winding me up about me spending the next twenty years tethered by the ankle to a bed in their basement, Alex also tells me that they don't speak English and that I shoudn't worry so much. To be honest, I think that he has lost of a bit of interest in the plan since discovering that Shakira is coming to London. Not really.

Anyway, I should drag myself out of bed.

Any advice for trips to Colombia or South America in general would be greatly appreciated.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Views from home

We went back to Felixstowe today to drop our Auntie off after Christmas. So I took some photos
martello towerfishing boatfelixstowe ferrybenchbeach hutssbeach huts and martello tower
And that is about all I have done today:)

Saturday, December 23, 2006

So here it is.. nearly

For me one of the big differences between being an adult and a kid is that a kid shakes their advent calendar in the hope of dislodging a chocolate and being able to eat it as it takes too long to wait until the next day. But an adult can still taste the previous chocolate when they open the new day's door because the days rush by so quickly.

Finished school yesterday. We are closed for just over a week and back on 2nd January. I am only back for four days though as the following week I head to Colombia.

We celebrated in true style last night

santasint classalexdos juan valdezessarah and carloyuli sarah alex and me me and alexme and juan

weirdly I seem to be wearing my bracelets in all the photos from last night but I wasn't when I arrived home. Bugger. Only annoyed because Sam bought them for me when we were in Cambodia a couple of years ago. I still have a couple though and it gives me an excuse to buy more bracelets in Colombia.

the cuddly reindeer on the table was a gift from a Turkish student, as is the big pink necklace I am wearing. The santa hat photo was taken as I went out with a couple of other teachers designing a treasure trail for the students to follow. The hats were very warm and the day very cold so it all worked out lovely.

my kind of santa

Me and Sarah called Juan when we left the pub and he came and picked us up on his rickshaw and took us to Charing Cross- perfect:)

We are popping to Felixstowe tomorrow to pick up Auntie Doll and bring her back here for Christmas.

Have a good one!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Way to work

Took this photo on my morning stroll through Trafalgar Square today

london in the morning

It is bloody cold today. Sunrise tomorrow is at five minutes past eight in the am and sunset is two minutes past three, or something stupid, in the pm. Anyone else get the feeling that there really aren't enough hours in the day(light)

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Home away from home

elementary class

Knowing that I would have a busy week at work (Covering classes in all my lunch breaks) and several social engagements to attend to I wasn't looking forward to the trek to and from work each day. So I decided that I wasn't going to bother and checked into a hostel round the corner from the school. It is an idea that I have thought about many times before but never actually got round to doing.

And I have to say that it was an inspired idea!

alex and mistletoe

Tuesday I sent off for work with my small backpack to get me through the next couple of days- remembered to eat the extra chocolate from my advent calendar before leaving the house, of course. After work I checked into the hostel and had a shower before heading out for some Korean food with Sarah. Then it was off to the student Christmas party on a boat moored on the Thames.

It was a good night though I have to say that one Shakira tune and one from Juanes (another Colombiano) does not a latino room, as promised on the posters, make. Even if you do play them over and over. I didn't stay out that long really- home by midnight but it was a joy to be able to stay in bed later the next morning. Usually my alarm goes off shortly after six but for two days I didn't have to get out of bed until eight- hooray!


IMG_1096



I felt that I was really able to relax and enjoy myself rather than having to rush off at eleven like I usually do.

The next night was the closest that the school has to offer us for a Christmas party this year- a workshop in a pub. It was a good night and I was able to stay until the bitter end rather than running home bitter. After stumbling out of the pub at closing time I came across one of my students on his rickshaw

juan and rickshaw small

and he was only to happy to give me a run round the block. It was fun- I like rickshaws but they are very expensive in London.

I left the hostel the next day and despite promising myself I would go straight home I ended up back in the pub again but could scrape together enough money for a pint and a half before leaving.

Friday was the start of the Christmas parties at school because so many students were leaving

elisa and alessandro

I introduced the students to the wonders of crackers and mistletoe



alex nelly and max



Inevitably a lot of photos were taken

class

and after a hundred or so in the classroom I thought it best to get out for a bit.

alex and donkey

my donkey pencil case joined in the action too.



alex nelly jeannine yuli



we could hardly keep Yuli away from the mistletoe.

Then it was time for the pub again

alex and me

Where the Colombians told me many and varied stories about members of their families that have been kidnapped-why did they wait until after I bought the ticket to tell me? Gits!

I was saying that I needed some up to date photos of me for Penny to give the newspapers when I go missing in Colombia and the boys obligingly posed for a photo to go with the caption 'suspects wanted in connection with teacher disappearance'


kidnappers



I stayed at a friend's in Camden last night and didn't get to bed until six am. I was up at just after nine and out taking photos of the lock. Then I came home to catch up with my sister before heading up to bed to take a nap. But I have got a little distracted updating this.

camden tubecamdendoc marten shop

So my friends, I must go because I am knackered!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

My Secret Life

I guess that most of you know that I have been learning Spanish for the last thirty weeks or so. I made the resolution to study another language on the way home from New York last year and had pretty much decided that the language would be Spanish. Then I met my first Colombian student who said that he wanted to teach me. After a few classes he got a girlfriend and didn't have the time or inclination to teach me anymore.

So I started at a language school- my language school to be precise. And another course after that and I have just finished my third course. It has been an enormously satisfying experience plus I think that being a student has really helped to improve my teaching- though it is hard to improve on perfection(!)

I have listened to songs in Spanish and understood parts of them, I have read an entire book in Spanish (that turned out to be quite gruelling work but a great acheivement) and most importantly, I can now understand some of what is going on when my students speak to the other in Spanish.

All those little things that I used to miss (like knowing what the local latino criminals in CSI are saying to each other, in fact any of the little snippets in Spanish that crop up in adverts and on programmes) I now have a better grasp of.

Sometimes I am even able to make a joke that my English friends don't understand which feels good. I tend to think of my secret Spanish life- a part of my life that those who don't understand a word of Spanish can't really enter. It is another part of my life that has changed so much in the last year. I am mostly listening to Colombian music these days and try to always read Spanish on the train.

And then suddenly I have hit a brick wall- I seem to have lost all of my Spanish abilities in the last two weeks!! Which is scary because my first real practical application is coming up in five wees- my trip to Colombia. Where once my head was full of Spanish words now there is a gaping void of emptiness! My tongue which so readily tried to roll those r's is now reluctant to go beyond an hola!

Yikes!! I am scared.

I really need to apply myself more- back to the books this week and time to knuckle down, nose to the grindstone and all that. I went to a Colombian restaurant with my friend Sarh on Friday and we bumped into Colombian students- though not our students, we just recognised each other from the school- and they spoke to me in Spanish and I felt that I didn't understand as mh as I should have done...bad student! Must work harder.

On another note--- look what I found on my desk this week:

chocolate cats2

yes it is a scary chocolate cat sculpture

chocolate cats

Just what I always wanted and never knew that I did

It came from a guy in the this class

class

who claims to be my Colombian husband and is slightly less scary than the cats! And, yes, I have recently worked out how to get photos off my phone and onto the PC:)

Saturday, December 09, 2006

It is happening again...

sleeping baby

Colombians sleeping in my class!

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Behind the second door was a UFO

moon

Well here I am.. at home.. alone.. and what bliss!! It has been another hectic couple of weeks. Last weekend I caught the bus to Edinburgh with a couple of friends. Think about it- a BUS to SCOTLAND from LONDON. It is not a great prospect. The journey scraped in at just under eleven hours and we made it home in a speedy ten and a half- non-stop! Even if you are from a country slightly greater than Great Britain you have to admit that is a long bus journey.

But it was only fifteen quid return.

The UK was hit by storms last weekend though we didn't see much of one ourselves on our rush up the country. I left London in the rain and wind and we arrived into Edinburgh in the wind- strong and cold. Not even a mulled wine at the German Christmas market near Princes' Street Gardens helped to take the edge off.

perrine and me

But the next day it was beautiful- clear blue skies were the order of the day- as was the full British breakfast I ordered. Lovely:)

view

we went up to the castle to admire the views and it was fantastic. The bus ride was forgotten. A mad rally of shopping helped to block the pain a little too.

castle

Then it was Monday morning and time to head home again. Highlights of the trip include the complete bafflement of my French and Brazilian friends everytime a Scot opened their mouths and their wide eyed amazement at the amount of kilts worn after the rugby on Saturday.

I felt almost jetlagged on Tuesday when I went to work and had horrible toothache which was so bad I had to ran out of my morning class to go and get some painkillers. Didn't stop me nipping to the pub for a pint after work though to catch up with Sarah.

Wednesday I went out for a few jars with the folks from work- teachers rather than students for a change. Thursday was my last day in my Spanish class so we went out after to say goodbye or rather chao. I don't know what I am going to do on Thursdays now for the next five weeks at least until I go away. Since I started the classes (thirty weeks ago) I have found that my weeks have just rushed by- I have barely started my Monday morning and then it is Thursday again.

I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying learning a new language and it has impacted on my teaching too, of course. It was actually a resolution that I made on the way home from New York to London last year rather than something I decided to do after making plans to go to Colombia. My last teacher said that my writing was very good and both he and the last teacher said that I don't sound like an English person when I speak Spanish- which is cool I guess! the problem is that I really lack the confidence to speak. And I get more opportunity than my classmates because I spend a lot of my day with Spanish speakers. But it will come.

Last night I met Perrine and brought her back to Grays so that she could help Penny and me with the painting. Penny has done most of the work- OK, pretty much all of it- so I thought that getting an extra pair of hands would be the least I could do. We had a fun day today all getting covered in paint. I had forgotten how much fun it is to have a visitor too.

Post-painting I took Perrine into Grays town centre where she was overawed by the 99p shops.. in fact she loved it so much that she wants to come back next weekend to continue the shopping. And it took us two hours to get from London to my house last night so she has vowed never to complain about the bus journey to work again!

Forklifts
Free Web Counter
Forklifts