Beach day

After a nice Friday night out and on the town there is nothing better than the...........BEACH!!!!

The beautiful but chilly sea was extremely refreshing during 5 minute swims. So refreshing in fact that I (slightly stupidly) bathed 3 times!!!

3 times seemed to be a bit too much for my body's ability to get warm as I was shivering for long after my last bathing extravaganza.

However despite this freezing feeling I can't say that I regret it being the true water baby I am. I also enjoyed exploring the rocks with my fellow corunian teachers and the football/ bonding experience that followed the beach.

~Maya M-S

The five best things to do if you’re living in Valencia for one month

1. Find a good local café

I first visited the café opposite school during my first week at Sagrado Corazón. All the teachers have one day a week free from playground duty and my tutor invited me to accompany her and some of the other primary teachers to the café over the road. The tostada was good and the coffee even better. When I went up to pay, I was astounded by how cheap the prices were. In fact, initially I was convinced there had been a checkout error. But there wasn’t … a break time snack that could easily average around £4 in the UK came to a grand total of €1.50.

Since that first week, I have been back most days after school and I really cherish the time, drinking coffee, eating tostada and not having to do anything at all for a whole twenty minutes.  

2. Walk as much as possible

With the river park running through its heart, Valencia is a city that promotes travel by foot. The sprawling flora that covers most of the park’s walls blurs into the periphery as futuristic sculptures and an assortment of gym equipment divert you from your path along the dried-up riverbed. The diverse range of sports and activities being enjoyed in the Turia adds further distraction (and entertainment) making your afternoon stroll so much more interesting than your average walk in the park. Last weekend, a group of twenty-somethings happily partook in a game of Muggle Quidditch, while three bagpipe players blasted out tunes mere metres away.

3. Drink sangria and catch a flamenco show

A Google search quickly yields the names of venues hosting traditional flamenco shows in Valencia. Last Saturday, we arrived at a tiny, crowded bar, ready to see real flamenco. The bar itself was tucked away and looked unassuming from the outside, but once inside, we quickly realised it was packed out and the bar staff directed us to the only remaining seats in the house. Glasses of sangria were ordered and swiftly brought over before the show began.

And it was a fabulous show. To be in such a small venue and so close to the performers and musicians allowed us to really appreciate the precision, passion and speed of the dance. At the end of each sequence, the crowd applauded fiercely.

Despite the show going on till well past midnight, one couple had brought their two toddlers along, who successfully slept on their parents’ knees through the entire show seemingly oblivious to the stamping, clapping and strumming from the performers and the audience.

4. Explore the quieter streets and discover the best shops

Valencia’s old town has an abundance of independent shops that sell some marvellous clothes and trinkets for the most reasonable prices. I visited one such shop and lost track of time altogether, busying myself trying on floaty smocks, diaphanous skirts and outrageously bright dresses. Below is a picture of the zany earrings that I couldn’t leave the shop without buying.

In addition to the shops in the old town, many of Valencia’s traditional markets have been revamped and now host a variety of cool cafés and arty pop-up stalls.

5. Take a cooking class

Before I arrived in Valencia, I knew (like most tourists in the city) that it is famous for its plethora of orange groves that cover the surrounding countryside. However, the list of other foods that you should try during your stay in city is long. Most cafés serve horchata, which is a bit like a Spanish marmite, not in the way it tastes (it contains no yeast extract, but plenty of tiger nuts), but in so far as you either love it or hate it. A safer bet is paella which seems to be universally popular. We were lucky enough to attend a cooking class where we learnt to make traditional Valencian paella and vegetarian paella, along with gazpacho and sangria. Learning to make gazpacho was a highlight for me. Ever since arriving in Spain, I always make sure to have a carton in the fridge, chilled and ready to pour. It is perfect when the days are hot and you have returned home for lunch after a morning of back-to-back classes. One of the tips from the cooking class was to remove the ‘heart’ out of garlic cloves before adding them to your gazpacho. Prior to the class, I didn’t even know that garlic cloves had hearts … but they do and apparently you should remove them in order to avoid your gazpacho tasting bitter. Because nobody wants bitter gazpacho.

Moncada Musings

Wednesday

Well after the long weekend it was a struggle for both teachers and students to get motivated with the students ‘forgetting’ to do their homework in some classes but the majority had done so. My timetable is an easy mix of secondary and upper primary classes.

In the upper primary classes I assist one of two local teachers, Pablo or Juan Angel, and the patience that these two gentlemen have is amazing as at times it seems like they are ‘herding cats’! The planning for one of these lessons is completely different that that done for the secondary classes as to achieve the simplest task a lot of thought has to go into it. I don’t know if upper primary will ever be my forte but I will need the patience of a saint to do so I think.

In the secondary classes I have been assisting and teaching part lessons with my teacher mentor Maribel. She has a sense of humour to match mine which can lead us to start laughing at something innocuous and sometimes leave the secondary students baffled. At other times my wayward sense of humour can cause me to start giggling during a serious moment in the lesson much to student’s delight. I ought to curb this but what is life like without some amusement?

Teaching the Secondary classes

Thursday

Normal service resumed (almost) in this short week with the students working with as much enthusiasm as they could muster.

As part of my timetable I have several ‘reinforcement’ classes which can be anything from conversational classes with the local teachers to practice their English or discussing methods of teaching to being invited to speak or teach another class. Last week I was invited to speak about the English Reformation and Henry VIII during a Religious Education class (being an English/Irish catholic I was suitably qualified, obviously).

This week I was invited down to the Kindergarten and Lower Primary to meet a class of 5 yr olds. I was given some idea of what their level of English would be and I admit I was quite nervous about meeting them. What a bunch of little darlings they are!!! I introduced myself and they giggled uncontrollably at my poor pronunciation of their names. Next I got them to perform basic movements (stand up, sit down, stand on one leg, turn around, hold your nose, etc.). Next I got them to sing and perform the action song ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees And Toes’ – they loved this! I followed this up with Word Bingo in a 2x2 square using the vocabulary groups animals and then fruit. As their level of English is restricted to speaking and listening at their age and they are only just learning to read and write is Castellano (Spanish) we had to resort to drawing animals and later fruits. That was a bit of an eye-opener as some of the drawings made no sense to me but at least the kids knew what they represented. This Word Bingo too was another success – I was on a roll! Finally they sang to me the song ‘I Can Sing A Rainbow’ to which I then sang back to them and they joined in (don’t worry Eurovision you’re quite safe, I won’t be entering). Lastly the hour was up but they wouldn’t let me leave and mobbed me like a rugby scrum that didn’t quite reach up to my waist. Quite amazing, I look forward to seeing them again next week.

Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

Friday

I, like most of my fellow placement teacher, were busy preparing our formal lesson plans for our final observed lesson next week. Once our teacher mentors had agreed what we would be teaching during our observed lesson the planning was easy as it should take a maximum of a tenth of the lesson time, e.g. 50 mins lesson = 5 mins planning. However, then it can take an hour or two to type up the formal lesson plan – deep joy!

Today we said farewell to the three girls from Dublin who had been here on a month’s exchange with the school attending 4^th year seniors’ classes.

One of my weekly reinforcement lessons is with a mix and 1^st and 2^nd year seniors where we practice various vocabulary groups and grammar points using games. Once again Word Bingo is a success as it was last week – word must have spread. Last week ‘I Went To Market …” was a big hit so to keep things fresh I expanded the vocabulary groups for Word Bingo from animals and fruit to numbers (1-20) and then feeling really ambitious I tried regular verbs! A little too ambitious as it turned out as all everyone could think of was irregular verbs. So to round things off with I introduced Buzz using multiples of three (x3) and four (x4). Again, this went down very well.

Lastly, the school posted some photos of me teaching in various classes with the Secondary students and a (very) short video of me singing ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees And Toes’ with the Kindergarten and Lower Primary. This was quite unexpected that they would mention me on their Facebook site so it is a very nice compliment by the school.

And now the last weekend L

Weekend Numero Uno

The eclectic style of the flat (as mentioned in my previous blog entry) only heightened my interest to meet the people who owned it and when that time finally came I can tell you that I was not disappointed. A very friendly, older gentleman gave us a full tour of the apartment and an in-depth demonstration of how to use all (yes ALL) of the flats appliances – with not a single word of English, might I add. He then proceeded to invite us all on a tour of Valencia. However, wanting to be sure that we had fully understood all of his instructions, appliance advice and invitations, called his son from Boston, USA to reiterate everything in our native language.

We accepted his invitation and our weekend officially commenced on Friday evening. He and his wife picked us all up and took us on a private tour of the city viewing some of the nicest and most famous sights that Valencia has to offer. We then went to a small and authentic juice café where we had the bowl sized cups of amazingly fresh and delicious fruit juices. We all sat and did what we could with our broken English/Spanish – See below.

Saturday was jam-packed and was genuinely one of the most fun days I’ve had here. We met up with the rest of the group, which in itself, was lovely to catch up and hear stories about everyone’s teaching experiences. We had a Spanish cooking lesson in the morning where we cooked a three-course traditional Spanish meal of Gazpacho, Paella, both a traditional chicken and an all veggie version too, (which suprisingly, was my favourite!) and a typical Valencia style cake.

After paella making we took a stroll through the beautiful park which stretches the entire width of Valencia. We walked to the science and arts museum, of which I can show pictures and describe as best as I can, but realistically you need to go and see for yourself just HOW beautiful it is because neither of the above will quite do it justice.

We had coffee and sangria and rode water bikes. (I’d never heard of them either, but see below to understand just how happy they made me.)

After this, we all went for tapas and more sangria in Plaza de La Reina where we could see the city’s stunningly beautiful Cathedral. The rest of the weekend was spend cycling around the park and the city and having lunch (more paella) on the beach front. This was where I ate my first (and probably last) Snail. My next beach trip will not include snails, but hopefully some swimming in the sea.

WEEK THREE  -   CASTLES, CELLOS , AND OTHER ATTRACTIONS

MONDAY

Valencia again.  Sheila still in Benidorm enjoying Tango,  Dave making his second attempt at getting up to sky dive  (in the end very successful).  So Polly and I went into Valencia for the day  to do the Free Tour,   with Valentina,  a very expressive and informed Italian.    Again this was worth doing, although in  2  and half hours, it seemed we only scratched the surface of what there is to see, just in the old part of the town. We went from the artfully submerged ruins of the Roman city looking down through a small   water feature (but not into the Archaelogical museum and down to the actual level of the ruins) across to the Serrano  Gate (nothing to do with the ham !), used as a prison over the centuries  with only one escapee  (using his bedclothes as a parachute !)  and a store for the art treasures  during the Civil War,then   to  the Bomb shelter used during that conflict when  Valencia was bombed 400 times, often by the Italian air force, for which  Valentina apologized.  There were ghost stories about a government building, and markets to see,   but we did not really go into any of the buildings and it would have been nice to have had more time later to go back to some of the places to get a better look.  No time for the “Tomorrowland” section of Valencia this time either.    It was soon time to come home, thinking that there is still a lot more to see.

Tuesday   we all tried to work on our lesson plans,   and not much else done  that I can immediately remember, and then a short week , during which I was introduced to the joys of marking after a written work lesson.  You really do have to go over them at least twice to see what mistakes you have missed !  Another  conversation class with the Sixth form, which was supposed to be about THE CLIENT by John Grisham on which they had a test on Friday.  Perhaps, not surprisingly, most of them had not yet read it, and so  ended up talking about Las Manadas  (the Pack), on which they were all quite passionate, and cynical about the politics of the judgment and sentence.  This class was not as committed as the last two, and I later discovered that   the teacher has asked for volunteers for each group, so that  as each week passes, the enthusiasm  and ability of the group is diminishing .  Next week should be interesting, although I think there are only a couple of students who have managed to avoid the class so far, so I may have some of the more interested students again.

On Thursday,  I had my second conversation lesson with a teacher, and on Friday picked up another, Pepe.  I now also have a third for the last week, so it will be a full schedule as far as teacher conversation is concerned.   These conversations are a real opportunity to find out more about the Spanish way of life, particularly for teachers.

I was also able to find out, in the staff common room,  some of the best places to eat in Gandia, and on Friday night we went to  a genuinely authentic  Valencian restaurant    Casa Senchis  (it did have menus in English).  We had tapas, but I suspect that we missed some of the more authentic dishes.  Still, we did feel we were in a proper local restaurant.

  Despite my comments about   Valencia above,  I also felt that I had not really  explored Gandia sufficiently either and decided to stay close to home for the weekend.  On  Saturday I finally found the foot route to Castle Bayren, following some flower  stencils in the road, and  enjoyed some beautiful views amongst the very reduced ruins at the top of the hill   (not really a mountain).  On the way back  I tried to get to Ullals Lake, but it eluded me again, and I ended in the centre of town where the flower marks end, at a beautiful park, with a moat filled with water lilies in flower and  little bridges.   It was a good three hour walk there and back, but I found that Dave had run up there and back in an hour, which slightly diminished my sense of achievement !

On Saturday evening, there was a cello concert in the Casa Cultura, which turned out to be the results of a day workshop for children from   about ten to 18.  Most of the pieces played were popular songs,  Ed Sheerin,  ColdPlay,  Halleluia,  and even the theme from Game of Thrones, done by different levels, but there was one solo by a very young girl of a Bach Sonata that was eye wateringly good.  Overall it was great to be standing out in the park watching them in the mellow evening.

Sunday

My plan was to visit the Museu de Faller, but access to a computer for the morning meant that I worthily decided to type up my Observed lesson plan, and so got there just after it had closed for the day.  Polly and I then walked up the footpath beside the River Serpis  (completely dry) to the Viewing point and into Playa Major.  We found a lovely restaurant for tapas just off the square with a waiter from New York, and  watched  rockets of confetti being set off for a first communion that had just taken place in the main church.  I know all this because I met one of my pupils, who explained that it was his cousin who had been taking her communion.

Back to cook a vegetarian supper, not my best  (i am no longer allowed to talk about my good meals !), but we are now thinking about using up all our food.

First impressions - A Coruña

A Coruña is a fusion of an Orwellian universe and a Celtic land with a Roman history, on the 

Atlantic part of a Mediterranean country. Ugly as its tall, stiff blocks of flats are, you have 

splendid beaches to compensate for the town's unimpressive architecture. But, if anyone ever 

claimed that this historic Galician town is not appealing or enjoyable, they would be a liar. I am 

many things -stubborn, weird, Greek- but a liar I am not. 

My first week in A Coruña has been pleasing in so many different ways. Food-wise, my 

Mediterranean palate is happy, since all the tastes are familiar, plus I had the chance to try fresh 

scallops, a gastronomic experience that

 left me with the best of impressions! The school I am teaching has a relaxed atmosphere and the teachers 

I work with are all very helpful and giving me all the space I need to practice my skills. Teaching 

7 year-olds and 13 and 14 year-olds, presents different kinds of challenges in the classroom management 

section. The teenagers in particular are harder to control, but I am not intimidated. 

Last but definitely not least, there are 13 other creatures here with whom I am sharing this experience in a much enjoyable way. Going for coffee and beer, having lunch and dinner together and playing football again after nearly fifteen years are all things I welcome with a warm heart. 

A Coruña is a lovely place and I'm glad to be here.

Hey Va-(lencia)

So, I’ve been busy eating pan con tomate, but I now take a break from trying to officially become a Spanish Person to bring you some highlights from a week and a half ago.

Juice with Jose Manuel and Wife

It all started with a bag of lemons. As in, around thirty oversized (think Willy Wonka vibes) lemons, in a plastic shopping bag, from the garden of our landlord. Who brought them to our little flat without so much as a batted eyelid (or explanation). They were, and have remained (THIRTY, I repeat), the core of many of our beverage choices.

Post Ice Cream Joy in Plaza De La Virgen

Then we were whisked away by said landlord and his as yet unnamed wife to a random but beautiful sandy stretch of beach, the lights of a port a Valencian skyline in the distance, and then around the city as we got a driven tour to the main sites.

Commence midnight ice cream eating (8 year old Natalia yes this is your life now), uber healthy juices in what can only be described as an authentic pre-hipster café, and a night-time trip to the futuristic City of Arts and Sciences, where a day later we “water cycled” our hearts out.

Paella Making: Dessert Team

The following day began with a rather fabulous paella making class for the 15 of us in Valencia, complete with equally fabulous Italian chef. Sangria was imbibed, rice was eaten, joy was produced (been teaching the passive, can you tell).

We wandered through the park, only to discover the nigh impossibility of keeping 15 keen people together (kudos to Amy), and I ended up with Dave and Asta watching a two man guitar/cello band playing funky Spanish music to an audience of dancing children. Note: English clowns are weird, Spanish clowns are weirder.

Tune in tomorrow for a teaching based segment – but for now, I’ve got a lesson plan with my name on it…