Welcome to Mislata

On Monday evening, after arriving in Mislata, I prepared myself for spending one month in Spain teaching primary school children. I packed my woolly jumpers to the bottom of my suitcase, dug out my sparkly dinosaur stickers and replaced my British banknotes and coins with Euros. Before getting an early night, I looked up again at my bedroom’s ceiling. The ceiling is bordered by an elaborate cornice decorated in two different shades of gold paint. In the centre hangs a brass chandelier complete with plastic light fittings that are designed to look as though the energy saving lightbulbs are oozing candle wax.

The following morning, I enjoyed a five minute stroll to work along the narrow streets behind our apartment until I arrived at a small square. It is easy to miss the school from the outside as there is only a small sign over the reception door. However, once I had clocked it and been admitted, my tutor and the headteacher were quick to take me on a whistle-stop tour of the school. I realised that the school actually consisted of multiple buildings and was much bigger than I had originally thought. In fact, it was only yesterday that I managed to locate the staff room without any help for the first time since arriving. It is a double form entry school with an age range of 3 years old up to 16 years old. I teach in the kindergarten and the primary school classes.

The first couple of days at my school in Mislata flew by in a whirl of introductions, observations, café con leches at break time and invitations to extracurricular activities. On only my second day in school I was invited to accompany my Year 5 class to the theatre. I was doubtful as to how much of the performance I would understand as my Spanish is non-existent. However, as the lights dimmed in the auditorium, two brightly made-up clowns pranced onto the stage and proceeded to perform a series of badly executed science experiments. Luckily for me, the nature of slapstick comedy transcends the language barrier!

Sadly I didn’t get any photos of the clowns, but here are some pics of my fabulous ceiling instead ...