Missing in Moncada

After the slight hiccup with the flights, we had to take a slight detour to Alicante. On the bright side we saw more scenery and got to spend more time together. The on-board entertainment could also be used as ESL games. Heads up was particularly popular.

We finally arrived at the apartment in Moncada tired but with just enough time to politely agree who got which room and freshen up before my first lesson.

I arrived at the school much to the surprise of all the teachers. They had heard about our detour and had not expected me until the next day. My first two classes were headache inducing. The children and teenagers were boisterous and loud. Several students tried to play tricks by introducing themselves using the name of another student just to add to the confusion. So, the first week has been a blur of names, faces and levels.

To add to the fun, I seemed to have been given two completely different maps and wasn’t sure what they showed. My flat mate very kindly walked me there and back that first night using Google Maps. However, he found a different route on the way back and a better route the next morning. Unfortunately, this meant a lot of places looked familiar and I got a bit lost. Once I started getting lost I could not seem to stop doing it as of course the more I got lost the more places looked familiar.

Unable to get the Google maps on my phone to work, I ended up getting lost several times that first week and had to be rescued, from traipsing all over Moncada, by my flat mate. The most embarrassing thing was getting lost on the way to the school which must have been the fourth day just when I thought I had it down. My level of Spanish is quite good enough to ask for directions but unfortunately I got directed to the Office building which is in another road. I know it is not too far from the school because I found it by accident the second night. Sadly, I could not remember where the school was from there. The printed map I had didn’t show enough detail or all of the road names. It didn’t help the road name is spelt differently on the signs then it is on the maps. Ines was actually Agnes! I think I was within a street of it several times but went the wrong way as the street names didn’t match up. Finally got a good, well lit route fixed in my head and there were no more incidents.