Week 2 of school

Week three of school begins in the morning so it is about time I tell you how week one ended and how week two went. The first three of days of week one were great, as you can read in previous posts... and the last two were just as fun. Particular highlights included sending the 1st years (age 12/13) home saying that's boss.... I'll have a class of scousers by the end of the year. There was also an Irish kid in that class who has just moved here, so at long last I have found somebody who can say my name properly! That class was followed by 4th years (the lowest ability group) which was a class of all boys except for one poor girl. As their English wasn't as great as other classes I used a computer and loads of photos to describe myself and my city too them. On seeing my house they al asked could they be invited (everyone here lives in flats) and half of the class loved me when I showed a picture of me with former Everton/Real Madrid star Tommy Gravesen! Final class of that day was with another teacher who had done his Erasmus in Liverpool with the 4th years on the Bilingual Program, all of whom spoke excellent English but were loud and boisterous to say the least. This class went great until the teacher - who had a slide show of things about Liverpool - decided to play "You'll never walk alone" needless to say I was less than impressed! On Fridays classes I had a lesson with 2nd years on the bilingual program who again spoke great English and were very enthusiastic. My final class of week one was 2nd Bachillerato - Year 13. As expected they spoke very good English - and there were three girls in particular sat right at the front who seemed so interested in every word I said and asked tonnes of questions. Whenever anyone in the class spoke they shushed them... It was great working with the older ones as I was able to have a laugh with them. One of the boys who clearly usually messes around answered my questions about Everton correctly and when I called him teachers pet they all laughed. Then at the end the class nominated one pupil to comically sing along to Penny Lane - great fun! 2nd pupil to be able to say my name was from this class too - a girl who said she has an irish friend called Siobhan!

So now for week two, which didn't start til wednesday because of bank holidays. This week was a bit more interesting - the topic had moved on from me and liverpool to.... well pretty much whatever the teacher decided to spring on me before or during the lesson! For starters it was British Habits with 2nd years so we say please and thank you a lot, shake peoples hands, wait for cars to stop before we cross... and wait in queues - something which the spanish fully admit to not doing! I then moved on to teaching two lessons on Columbus Day (a day which I didnt even know existed!) and thankfully my lack of knowledge whatsoever about Columbus didn't really matter. The article told me everything - and the kids told me things they knew as well! Thursday started with 1st years - a listening activity which I had to read to them, and then giving them a topic each which they had to talk about for a minute. The teacher still can't get his head round my name, but lucky my irish pupil was at hand to teach the class how to say it! After 1st years I was due to have some 4th year classes, however they were off on a school trip... so I was sent off with them! We went to the theatre in Huesca to see Yerma by Lorca.... I understood most of it and it was a great chance to mix with some more teachers - the Spanish department are really nice too! After the theatre there was still time for one more lesson with the 4th years on the bilingual program. A reading aloud exercise for me... and they had to identify adjectives, followed by splitting the class into two halves for some exercises - they fought over which half had me which half had the teacher! On Friday I had this class again for some dictation work - the 4 different sounds the letter C makes - again I was the speaking dummy and they all copied me in glorious scouse accents! Last lesson Friday was the 1st years again and I gave them a speech I had been asked to prepare about Shakespeare (cue Wikipedia) and they did some activities and asked lots of questions about that!

As well as school I have also started some private classes - two one on one classes with teenage boys (to start we spoke about Liverpool, Huesca, the Beatles and Football!) and a class with three girls aged 9/10 - so much fun! Spent the hour singing heads, shoulders, knees and toes, teaching the body parts, left and right, prepositions, pointing to things and playing Simon Says.

So that was week 2 - lets hope week three carries on the way its been going so far!

Siobhan

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Fiesta del Pilar - Zaragoza

So after a really busy long weekend and few days in school I am finally getting round to talking about last weekend! Tuesday was Día del Pilar in Spain, which meant a four day weekend... so here's how it went!
Friday night went and met up with Matty (Fellow Leeds Uni Student/Scouser/Evertonian) for a few drinks in Huesca and a bit of tapas. I'll be spending the next year living off Cañas con Limon (Basically ein Radler to any Dortmunders reading - Shandy to us Brits!) Germany (specifically Eastend and Spunk) turned me into a Beer drinker over the last 6 months.. the Limon just makes it taste a bit better! We ended the night in a VERY dirty old mans bar watching Spain beat Lithuania 3-1 - random Spanish thing of the night: the police (probably on duty) stood at the bar having a smoke and a drink (Coffee... not Beer!)Saturday was pretty uneventful, I did mundane things like washing, cleaned my room, and went to the supermarket. Went out later on for a wander and got caught in the most torrential of downpours on the way home.So Sunday we headed off to Zaragoza to see what was going on during the Fiestas del Pilar. Basically every year to celebrate the Fiesta del Pilar there are lots of events going on in the city of Zaragoza around the 12th October every year. Every city in Spain has its own Fiesta usually based around their patron Saint. So in Zaragoza there was parties, concerts, bull fights, all sorts... and the highlight being on the Dia del Pilar... but I will come to that later.

Anyway we got to Zaragoza about 4 and wandered round the whole city. Ate, had a few drinks, and a few more drinks to dodge the rain... ended the night in an irish bar! Because the last bus to Huesca was at 10pm we decided to stick it out til the 1st bus the next morning... 6.30am! So we spent a couple of hours bored in Zaragoza bus station... and got back to Huesca at 7.30!

Monday - SLEEEEEEEEEEP!

Tuesday - Día del Pilar in Zaragoza... best day of my time in Spain so far! We got to Zaragoza around 12 and as we were driving into the city we immediately noticed people wearing traditional looking clothes... everywhere! The teachers at school had told me I had to go to Zaragoza but all I had understood was people walking through the streets and taking flowers to the Virgin Mary. We got off the bus and wandered round until we ended up at Paseo de la Independencia - Zaragoza's main city centre street. Here there were barriers up at the side of the road and people in their traditional dress were being led into the road in groups. We stood at the side for a while and watched and soon realised that people had come along in groups from different areas, towns, churches, all sorts of variety of groups. Whole families were there in their traditional dress and a group at a time they would start walking down the street, with their flowers. The outfits were fantastic, the attention to detail was great! Instead of trying to explain what they looked like there are a few photos above. So they gradually moved further down the road - and as time went on so did we, they moved in the direction of Plaza del Pilar. We stopped again further down towards the Cathedral and spent an hour or so cheering them past, some came through singing or dancing, and I took a mountain of photos.

We then moved from the parade down towards its end - in front of the Cathedral in the Plaza del Pilar. Here the Parade ended in most spectacular fashion. The flowers that the people had carried with them along the way were given to volunteers and put onto the base on which the statue of Our Lady was standing - again impossible to explain so look at the pictures - but it was so impressive! The people continued flowing through on the parade until about 7 in the evening - when it was lit up and the public was allowed closer. In between time we watched a Jota concert - a typical Aragonese Dance/Music - before heading back to Huesca.

All in all a great weekend, Zaragoza was a beautiful city, much bigger than Huesca, and I will definitely be heading back there soon!

Siobhan x

Primeros Días en el Colegio.

Finally Internet!

So here I am at the end of day three of school and so far so good. First day was more of an induction. I met my mentor teacher at the front of school and she took me off on the grand tour! First stop the staff room: pretty small with desks and computers and a few teachers working away during their free periods. Next stop – the head masters office: two kisses (how European!) and Bienvenido! Then onto el departamento del Inglés – English Department. A pretty small long room with shelves either side full of text books, cd players, the usual! There I met most of the department. As well as Nieves there is Lourdes who studied for a year at John Moores and therefore loves Liverpool. Her job was to organise worksheets for a couple of Beatles songs to play in my first week of lessons in which I have been introducing myself to the different classes. I also met Carmen and Teresa, was given my timetables (I have a different timetable every other week so that as many classes as possible can make the most of me!) and also asked by a couple of teachers whether I would like to give private classes to their children and children’s friends (more money!!). After that Nieves took me around the school to show me where all the buildings are, there are four named A B C and D so I shouldn’t get too lost! By that point it was breaktime – the time of day when Spanish teachers escape to the nearest café for coffees! And then I received my 1st task – Find them an English School to do an exchange with!

So that was day one at school. On day two my classes began. I had 3 classes of primer bachillerato – year 12. The first class was with Lourdes so it was great to start with someone else who was enthusiastic and knew a lot about Liverpool. I spoke about the city, they asked questions, we showed some pictures and then listened to two songs – Penny Lane by the Beatles and Woman by John Lennon. Although this class were really noisy it was great because they were asking and answering questions. The second class were a lot more difficult. We did the same activities but there were two pupils who spoke really good English and the others therefore didn’t want to participate (apart from the cheers I got when answering that Barca was my favourite Spanish football team). At the end one of these two pupils came over to me and chatted to me – I had mentioned about studying in Germany and she told me she was half German so if I ever needed any help with German then I could ask her. She also said the other girl who was talking a lot was half English – that explained everything! My final class was the perfect balance – not to loud but willing to participate. Their teacher is Pepe who is head of English and he is so enthusiastic as well! He was just as excited as the pupils (if not more!) to hear things about Liverpool! In between classes I met another member of the English department. Mabel, who can’t be much older than me, works part time teaching English in school.

Day three was today – and my first 8.30 start! I began with year 11 – year 11 at 8.30 was so difficult! They were all very reluctant to speak so I did most of the talking! After this lesson I went off with Nieves to open a bank account and register with the doctor (doctors were no help – we have to go back later in the week!) and then we came back to school where I sent off relevant details to the ministry of education in Madrid. Time for coffee break again (and because we had a free we beat the rush) and I had the chance to meet a few more teachers whose names and subjects I can’t really remember but whose faces I can! Nieves had to go off to prepare an exam for one of her classes so I was left with all these teachers chatting away in Spanish about things teachers talk about! One of them was really keen to get to know me – shes a music teacher who has to teach music in French but wants to learn English! The school has a bilingual program for both French and English whereby each year group has a small class who do extra classes in English/French as well as certain subjects in the foreign language. Anyway this teacher was telling me that she is about to start basic English conversation classes at the language school in Huesca, and in February after she has finished lots of the things she has to do this time, she wants to do private classes with me – another one to add to the ever growing list! After that I had another year 11 class who were a bit more talkative than the last one and took it upon themselves to recommend bars to me in Huesca (in English of course), a free period spent chatting in English to 3 of the English teachers, and finally the best class so far – the year 10 bilingual program English class – 11 pupils. This class have Nieves as their teacher, so as we walked to the class where they were waiting outside most of them realised straight away who I must be and started firing questions at me, whats your name, where are you from etc. when we got into class and did the same activities as with the other class they all sat and listened “in awe” as Nieves put it, whilst I told them about Liverpool, gasps as I said I live near Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields, and laughter when I told my ongoing joke about how English people associate two things with Spain – Fiesta and Siesta! When the chance came to ask questions they were firing away. When I said I was only twenty the girls all became my new best friends, when I said I hardly knew anyone in Huesca they offered to take me out. I also have my token favourite pupil in each class – the one boy who knows that Everton is the other team in Liverpool (and the best as I keep telling them) and who manages to name our one Spanish player (I have so far told every class that there’s nobody better than Mikel Arteta he’s the best little Spaniard we know). And we finished this lesson with a mass rendition of Penny Lane. As I left school two of the girl were stood by the school gates and shouted Bye Siobhan! So if all else fails I have a bunch of year 10 girls willing to befriend me.

So that was school, in between time I have wandered through Huesca in hope of finding decent shops (Bershka, Mango and Stradivarius.. that’s it!), met my other flatmate who’s nice – and is exactly as described to me by the one I had already met… what an odd bunch we are! Met a friend of my flatmate who wants me to give a private class to her son, watched Spanish TV attempting to understand at least half, watched the Bodyguard in Spanish, and I think that’s about it!
Hasta Pronto!
x

To be more Spanish I must:
Get used to this whole eating lunch at 3pm and dinner at 9.30pm thing!
Drink more coffee and still be able to sleep.
Find things to say other than Si Vale all the time!

Día 1 en Huesca

Ok so I made it and I am still alive. I am actually writing this on word as my flat seems to have a pretty shitty internet situation going on, and the story couldn’t be any more Spanish. According to my flatmate (who I’ll talk more about later) there’s wireless but it doesn’t really work, on the opposite side of the flat from my room you can sometimes pick up the library’s free wifi, otherwise shes not really sure…. And my response was to be even more typically Spanish… I’ll try and get it to work tomorrow (mañana mañana)… if it doesn’t work then in the words of a certain yorkshireman I’m going to suicidarme.

Anyway back to Spain. I’ll start where it all began…. Madrid. After an early start down in Luton thanks to the striking Spaniards and stupid EasyJet (I’ll rant about this some other time) myself and two others from Leeds (coincidently both from Merseyside and both also going to Aragon) made it to our hotel after a pretty amusing metro trek. We managed to make it all the way to our tube stop avoiding stairs, using escalators and being pointed in the direction of lifts by kind Spaniards whilst we stared at flights of stairs wondering how we would get our bags down. Then we came to our stop and there wasn’t a lift out of the station in sight, so we took shifts to watch and carry bags up before (almost getting lost first) finding our hotel. First stop was find Phil. I left my stuff in my room which I was sharing with Faye, the other girl from Leeds, and headed to Puerta del Sol where I was reunited with Phil for a cheeky Tapas lunch… OTG. I then headed back to the hotel to be reunited with Nicky and we caught up before the British Council Meeting.

Funniest moment in Madrid so far – the two weirdos the british council picked to talk to us about their year in Spain (cue uncontrollable laughter) Particular highlights included:
Guy number 1 – laughing about his friend getting jumped, telling us to go to a pharmacy, generally mumbling and not making any sense.
Guy number 2 – high pitched Middlesbrough accent and Middlesbrough shirt, laughing about having suspected appendicitis (which I have had and believe me it ain’t funny) and his powerpoint with Sting playing in the background.

The meeting was followed by dinner (where I happened to be sat on the same table as the assistant from Jorge Manrique in Palencia – location of the worlds greatest Spanish exchange 2006) and then an early night.

The training on Friday was long, boring and really doesn’t need to be spoken about. A few of us went out for a wander afterwards before the final lot of free food and then a night on the town in Madrid with Phil and his friends- definite highlight… Moji-toes, rum and giant cocks but surprisingly no tequila led to a great night and it was lovely to spend time with Phil and crack out the Slappers jokes once again. Low point was the DJ having no Gaga songs.

Got to sleep around 3 and was up at 7 for the next part of the adventure, that’s the reason its now ten to ten and I am about to go to bed (despite the fact I think my flatmate may still be eating dinner!) So I made it onto the AVE at Atocha, waited around for an hour in Zaragoza station and then made my way to Huesca. When I arrived I was met by Nieves – my mentor teacher from IES Sierra de Guara – where I will be working for the next 8 months. She picked me up in her car and took me and my things to my flat. On the way pointing out school which is a two minute walk from where I am living. That will make rolling out of bed for 8am classes so much easier! She took me up to my flat where I met one of my flatmates (I have to admit I can’t actually remember her name… I think its Olvido which actually translates to I forget… so it could well be that!) Nieves and I briefly chatted about the school, apparently I will be working 4 days a week with Mondays off, she mentioned something about years 11 and 12 and also that I have to pretend to the pupils that I can’t speak any Spanish at all! I’m meeting her on Monday to see the school and do some stuff like NIE, bank account etc.

After she left I got better acquainted with my flatmate. I have two flatmates but the other is yet to move in. They are both teachers at the school next door to mine although I am told mine is the better school. Anyway Olvido as I think shes called is from Leon and has to be at least 10 years older than me, however she has been great so far. She’s been living on her own in the flat for a month and only just moved to Huesca… so I am her new best friend who has saved her from nights in with Telepizza and a film. To start with she showed me the flat… I think she may be a bit OCD as there is loads of cleaning stuff around and everything seems to have its place (shes gunna love me!) and she also suggested sorting out a cleaning rota…. Great. She told me about our other flatmate Vanessa (much easier name) whos from Zaragoza who apparently has her tongue and eyebrow pierced, her hair is long but shaved on top and she has wood through her ear (although I could have completely misunderstood all of this and may be mistaken… she speaks very fast and I just keep nodding and saying si and ah vale) She also asked would I like to cook all together with everyone or alone… went for alone, not to be antisocial but I wouldn’t like to inflict my cooking on any poor unsuspecting foreigner, and after having done everything for myself in Germany I’m not sure how well I would do… plus the Spanish eat too much fish/weird stuff, and the whole loads at lunch at 3pm and small dinner at 10pm ain’t happening anytime soon!

Anyway so after the grand tour she took me to the supermarket and I bought some food and then we went back and made our lunches and sat and ate together which was nice. Although I am not sure she realises that I don’t actually understand her most of the time! After lunch we went for a walk into town (less than 10 minutes walk) and its nothing special at all, maybe like 4 decent shops, loads of banks, a few cafes and a telepizza (my new answer to the doner man), it was pretty with loads of old buildings, but the lack of life didn’t fill me with much confidence.

After that we went and met with her friend who she had worked with a few years ago and who lives near Huesca and her friends husband (Sophie and David, probably spelt differently and said with a more Spanish accent) and we went for coffee with them. They were nice but the speed of conversation was so hard to keep up with. Because my flatmate is also new here she doesn’t really know it, but they knew it really well so they took us for a drive round and showed us everything! This made me realise it was a bit bigger than I first thought and now I am less worried. Spotted Dubliners Irish Bar (Limericks the 2nd!) and I pretty much plan on spending the rest of the year there. Then we came back and here I am…. Ready to sleep off the lack of sleep the last few days brought.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring a better internet situation, as that will improve life so much!

Siobhan
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The beginning...

Well here goes… my year abroad has begun.

In true scouse gegging style I am jumping on the blogging bandwagon after reading some of my fellow study abroad crew from Dortmund’s efforts. I really wish I had done this whilst in Germany, but I guess now is not too late to start. So my year in the tiny city of Huesca located in the region of Aragon in the Spanish Pyrennees is here for you all to see, along with a few flash backs to Germany along the way.

Siobhan (recently renamed Siobhan of Aragon… goodbye Catherine)
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