Hello, from sunny Gandia,  still not as hot as UK-rats! -,  but the evenings are balmy  and the moon rises high and unpolluted in the sky., a crepuscular calm lying over the town, as we work out yet again how to adapt our leftovers to our idiosyncratic individual dietary needs….but I go ahead of ourselves…

Saturday morning at midday, we have one last group photo in front of the coaches and then set off en masse for Gatwick where we tearfully leave the La Coruna group, with whom we have bonded intensely over a week of games and pubbing (and of course some very useful advice on classroom management, first aid, and advice on how not to accidentally headbutt your date when dancing vigorously if she is taller than you).    We get to Gatwick,,  and spend a pleasant evening in the Travel Lodge with a spirited Romanian barwoman and waitress and a slightly laid back attitude to service of our meals with which they only seem to be able to cope with four people at a time.   My room was enormous with an equally large window, and a full view of the car park stretching away before me. 

We are all up for  breakfast and the taxis to the airport,  fully prepared for flight, only  to find our flight is not available due to “administrative difficulties”.  There is a short hiatus while other possibilities are explored and airport security pass through our encampment of cases and rucksacks with a sniffer spaniel, and then back to the Travel Lodge for another few hours, where the Romanian is driven to hysteria by the need to supply us all with another meal, and then told off for trying to get more staff in by her manager.  It is a drizzly afternoon,  and people drift off in pairs or singly to sit in the armchairs in the lounge, while I go out to see if it is possible to find a walk.  Surprisingly, despite the fact that we seem to be in one of those Edgelands that Symons Roberts and Farley write about,  I find that in the back corner of the car park behind the Hotel, there is a gate to a public  footpath, which is signposted as part of the Surrey Border Path.  One way, crossing a small footbridge, leads up through a small wood along side the dual carriage way; the  other leading along side a river up a meadow.  Unfortunately,  the rain has made this path so boggy that I have to turn back very soon, and my suit is spattered in mud.

Note 1:  Don’t bring a suit.  We were told smart casual, which is not really my area -  I am either smart or scruffy, but  on arriving at my school,  I found most of my male teachers were in t-shirts, one even in a hoodie, and apart from the Head teachers,  I was pretty much the smartest  man in the room, just by wearing a shirt.  Ties are virtually an endangered species.  Maybe one day I will surprise them all by wearing a suit, but at the moment I need to get the mud off it.

Back to the airport in the evening for a 9pm flight for Alicante,  only a third full, so that one of us is able to stretch out  and sleep on three seats, complete with neck support and eye blinds, while a couple of others at the front manage to blag some champagne from first class, pleading their despair at missing the earlier flight.

We get to  Alicante, almost deserted at midnight, although both  Dave and  Patrick try to relieve  a man of his bouquet for his  girlfriend coming off our flight.  By 1.30 we are all in bed at the IBIS, Alicante, and I wake to find a new view from my room, of the Mediterranean  stretching before with only a dual carriageway  and railway track  separating us.    After  breakfast,  a group of us walk along the road to a park., where we stand around for a while before heading back for our bus to  Valencia.  We are relieved to find that we are being dropped in Gandia on the way, and meet our  Spanish liasons, who give us our monthly allowance in cash and  keys.   The further dissolution of our group happens as  Polly,  Dave, Sheila, and I get off at Gandia and are taken our apartment.  It is perfectly situated near to the Parc De L’Estacion, where there is both a bus station and train station  (for Valencia and beyond), and an old steam train in the square surrounded by palm trees, next to the Tourist Information Office.  There is a supermarket around one corner and a computer shop around the other, but we have been left some food for the first night, so,  after we have  first decided to draw lots for the rooms, we find that we all have individual preferences, and end up amicably  deferring to each other to an amicable disposal . One room has two beds in it, but the study has also been converted into a bedroom with a fold down sofa, so we are all able fortunately to have our own rooms.  We later learn that in Valencia, some of the younger participants do have to share !   There is internet, but we soon discover that it is very unreliable and by the end of the first week, we are all in some difficulty in preparing our lessons on the computers at home, those who have them, because access is so infrequent.   Neither Dave or I have brought computers, so I am now writing my blog on Polly’s – and I think that this will become more of a problem as time progresses.  Natividad, my contact teacher, has given my her password so that I can use the computer at work,  but I am not sure whether I will have sufficient time at work to prepare the lessons, without reliable access in the evenings .  We have  also been discussing  getting a printer for the flat, which we could split at a cost of  about 60 Euros, but suspect we would also end up spending another 50 on ink cartridges as well.  Most schools will photocopy stuff for you, but you do have to let them have it 24 hours before your class, so in my first classes,  I was not organized enough to get the  Worksheets copied before the class.   Hopefully I will be able to plan further ahead in future.  However :

NOTE 2:  Bring a laptop computer !

Having settled in, we decide to walk to our schools,  to check the routes.  If our flight to  Valencia had been effective, I am not sure we would have had enough time on Sunday night to have done this, so this was very useful extra time.  One  school was particularly hard to find at first, and the furthest away.  Mine was the nearest being less than ten minutes, but Polly and  Dave both have over half an hour walks.  However we are all grateful that we do not have to rely on public transport, or go any great distance, something  some of those in Valencia  have to do.

SO…..on Tuesday morning I have the earliest class and am at my school for 8 am,  unintimidated by the statue of Lucrezia Borgia, a couple of Popes, and others of her family outside the school, for the Borgia family  were in fact the Dukes of Gandia.  I am wondering now whether I should have watched the TV series. It may not have improved their reputation.   As I have checked out the school, I know where to go, directly to the staff room, but have to wait a while as Natividad had been expecting to meet me at the entrance, but she is soon back, and very helpful  and friendly.  

Our first lesson  is with  Class 1A of the Secondary School, which is 12-13 years old and there are about 25 students in the class.  The students are arranged around square tables, so I note it will be easy to put them in groups to work, but there does not appear to be very much room for  games like Board Rush, as there is not much open space.  Natti(abbreviated form of Natividad)  explains that the school was a converted convent, and when the classrooms were made, there was a legal limit on the size of  classes, but that has long gone. We will see.  I have yet to try an activity game with this class, but hope to try tomorrow.   The first lesson, as are many of the lessons in the first week  in the secondary school, introductory lessons, and  the teacher wants to give them an opportunity to interview me and ask questions to practice their English.  This means that I do have a number of classes, explaining my hobbies, my marital status, and my lack of interest in football, but they are all very friendly, if easily distracted into talking amongst themselves.   Still, it is fascinating to deal with my first class of foreign children as students.  In this class I do not attempt to get them to fill in name cards, but they do begin to distinguish themselves by the interests they confess to, from football to flute playing.

MORE LATER

For my second class,  I meet Raquel,  also very friendly ,who has been teaching at this school for about 11 years , and we have a much smaller class of about 15, who are themselves about 15 to 16, and children who are deemed problematic due to behavioural issues.  They are however all very friendly and talkative,.

After the class I join a lot of the teachers all rushing over to a café across from the school for a quick coffee and snack.  There are no facilities in the staff room, and I later discover that  there is actually no lunch break as such for the staff in the secondary school.   I go back with Natti for another introductory meeting this time with 3A  (14-15 years old) and then sit watching while they go through some vocabulary on  occupations.

After three lessons, I am feeling really engaged and interested without having done any teaching as such, having presented myself to the students without being savaged and not used any of the techniques I have been taught !

I then have a 3 hour break until my next lesson, which is in the Primary School, around the corner, so go home for lunch.  A 3 pm  I meet Mamen, also very friendly  and accommodating.