Tired

Well, it is Monday, I am back from Morocco and I am exhausted! I will update properly later with all my pics and tell you all about the most amazing weekend I had.

By the way, I got 99.9% in my exam on Friday! I basically got it all right, but got stuck with a couple of the irregular verbs. I had made a sheet about the subjunctive (what it is, how you form it and when you use it) with loads of colours and some pictures. Teresa made photocopies of it for everyone else and they were all really impressed! I was a bit embarrassed, but quite proud too.

Right, lessons now. I might be doing level B2 from now on. I really hope so, as many of the students on the trip this weekend (from other schools) were doing B2 and my Spanish was as good as theirs.

¡Marruecos!

So, I've just met with Abdel and I've paid up - I'm off to Morocco tomorrow!

The bus picks me up at 3pm and we head to Algeciras where we take a boat to Ceuta. The we go by bus to our hotel in Tetouan and unpack. We have some free time and eat there. On Saturday, we visit Tetouan and get to go on a short camel ride for just €1! Then we visit Tanger before returning to the hotel.
On Sunday, we visit Chechaouen and then head home, arriving back in Malaga at about 10pm.

All travel and food and hotel and guided tours for just €185. Not bad, eh!?
I'm extremely excited!

I have a big test tomorrow with Teresa, all about the uses of the subjunctive. I need to go and revise now... on the beach of course!



I just made a fool of myself again by taking a photo of the supermarket trolley/basket hybrid. It must be quite entertaining to see a mad brit taking a photo of their shopping: I did get some funny looks!

Lessons and lights

I am typing this on my laptop! They only charged me €30, which is not bad. They cleaned a lot of viruses off and also installed a better virus scanner free of charge!

I forgot to tell you about who is in my extra class this week. The teacher is Isa (the one who did the cultural classes in week 1) and there are 2 girls from my conversation class: one from Brazil called Christina and another from Norway called Taru. Their Spanish is of a higher level - they do a separate grammar lesson at level B2. This means that what I am doing with them is much harder - good! We have been studying how to use compound tenses in subordinate clauses expressing causality etc. It is definitely above A level and I am almost in over my head, but holding up just about.

Isa pointed out yesterday that us 3 have different learning styles:
Christina just listens, takes in and does it. Being a portugese speaker helps!
Taru looks confused at first, then suddenly has "ah-ha" moments, when you know she's got it.
I ask lots of questions, constantly checking I have understood and needing examples. Isa says this is because I'm a languages teacher and that she would be the same if she were in my position.

I always stay for the full 90 minutes with Isa - she said it doesn't bother her. What a bargain!

Whilst in town yesterday, I took photos of the traffic lights I told you about.



I felt very silly taking them!

Hobbies

Not much to report. Have my fingers crossed that I might be able to pick up my laptop later today.

I have swapped some books at the school - they do this useful intercambio (exchange) where you give them a novel in any language and then pick out another one from the bookshelf. Since I had read all of my (6) novels I had brought with me in 2 weeks, I was relieved to be able to get some new ones. The staff think I have no life, to read so much. I do, I just read a lot before I go to sleep (as in, for 4 or more hours) and also on the beach. I do also do all my homework and spend time with friends and even watch a little Spanish TV (mainly just the news in the morning)!

I have submitted the form to extend my stay by 2 weeks. I am trying not to think about how much money this will have cost me. After all, it is an investment in my future and maybe makes doing the job from hell for 2 years worthwhile (i.e. the increased salary -> savings -> this experience)!!!

I wish I could just see Pip for a bit though. I miss her so much!

Well, I had better go into town to see if my laptop is ready.

Yummy juice!

Today I got 90 minutes of extra class instead of just the 45 I was meant to have! We are studying things that are far above A level - surely degree level grammar. I´m totally happy with this and am going to extend my stay by 2 weeks in order to get to the highest possible level before I go home.




Yesterday I chilled out on the beach and then had a fresh melon juice in a bar by the beach. Brought my usb cable into school, so can upload the picture!

I will also add the photos to the previous post (churros etc).

Rain and sun and churros

Well, my laptop is still poorly and I won´t be getting it back until Wednesday. I popped into school today to see if it was open and it is, so I can quickly update!

On Saturday, I went into town to ask about my laptop. When I got there it started raining and didn´t stop for hours! I was wandering around trying to find the shopping centre and I got soaked - no umbrella! Totally drenched... Then I found the shopping centre and was able to dry off in a toilet with hot air hand dryer. I tried on lots of lovely clothes and then went to the supermarket in the centre to look for an umbrella. At this supermarket, you have to wrap up your bag in sealed plastic (a security measure). I started chatting with the security guard and he helped me to find an umbrella. As I was leaving, he gave me his phone number! I´m trying to decide whether or not to call him. He seemed really nice and is called Sammy.

Then I came home and watched a film in English on the TV.



On Sunday, José collected me at 10am and we made our way to Churriana and Ana´s house. Her and her husband have a churro place, they make churros that people buy at a hatch thing next to her house. It´s ironic that she is called Ana and she makes churros in a town called Churriana!







There were 6 of us in total: Ana and her husband (also called José), José, me, Raoul and Juan Antonio. We ate churros and drank coffee and they were yummy! I have some photos but can´t upload them until I get my laptop back.





We stayed until about 5, including eating a massive lunch at about 3.30 - pork and homemade chips and salad and then I had a yummy curd thing that comes in a pot like yoghurt called cuajada. Very yummy with sugar. I also saw a weird fruit I had not heard of before, called a chirimoya or custard apple. It wasn´t ripe, but Ana is going to let me try it when it is. The weather was lovely for several hours and we were sitting in Ana´s kind of patio area which is within her house, but is outside. How very Spanish! (Photos at a later date!)


José then took me to a house in the mountains that he had rented over the summer, with the possibility of buying it. In the end he decided not to buy it as it is very remote, but it was beautiful. We had to pick up some things he had left there and return the keys. I could imagine myself living there and writing a book. It really was so idyllic. Again, photos to follow!



On our way back to mine, José and I tried to find a swimming pool near me, but there didn´t seem to be one. I got home at 8.30 and was exhausted!

Today the weather is uncertain. It is a little chilly, but the sun seems to be trying to come out.

Poorly laptop

Apologies for lack of post yesterday... my laptop is not well! It seems to have caught a virus and it had been being quite slow for a few days, but yesterday it was totally knackered and wouldn´t even log in properly. I asked at the school and they suggested a repair place in the centre. For now, I´m at the school, using their computers.

I had my classes, including my private lesson with Sergio, where I learnt about the uses of the imperfect. Normally, it follows the same rules as French and English, but there is one use I had no idea about: they use the imperfect as a form of politeness. It is from the conditional, which resembles the imperfect for verbs ending with -ar. This means it is possible to say "I was having a coffee" where we would say "I would like a coffee"! Very odd but kind of cool too, as it is not a use I had heard of before and I hope to be able to use it soon!

Then I headed into the centre. I found the PC shop and it was closed. Shops here usually shut in the afternoon and then reopen later (to avoid working during the heat, I suppose). It was 3pm and the shop was due to reopen at 5pm, so I wandered around and even went into the huge department store called el corte inglés. It is rather expensive so I didn´t buy anything! Then I had a coffee and sat in the sun. At 5pm, I waited a bit and the shop reopened. They said I would need to leave my laptop with them so they could clean it because it is full of bugs. It should only cost about €30 which is their minumum price for anything. I hope to be able to collect it today. If not, I´ll have to wait until Wednesday because of the double Bank Holiday next week.

When I got home, José came to pick me up (in his car - the motorbike has a dead battery) and we met up with some people in town. I have been invited to someone´s house on Sunday to eat churros, a very typical Spanish breakfast thing. It should be fun... the woman makes them herself!

So, today I am off to the centre. I´m going to take my power cable into the repair shop so, if they haven´t fixed it yet, at least it won´t run out of juice before they can. Then I am going to try to find the other shopping area I have been told about, near the station.


I have some very exciting plans for next weekend! I´m going to go on a trip to Morocco! It costs €185 but this includes travel, 2 nights´ accommodation, all your meals and guided tours around various cities. It will be my first time out of Europe and I can´t not do it while I am so close! I was going to go alone, but José banned me, saying it is far too dangerous and I would end up spending more than that anyway! I am also seriously considering extending my stay here by a week or 2. At the end of our stay, we get a certificate of our level and I hope to be able to do B2. At the moment I am doing B1 and I reckon I could ask to move up the week after next and then do 2 or 3 weeks on B2 in order to get this certificate. The levels are from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages Levels and I think the B1 would not look very impressive. Ideally I would like to get the C1, but I would need months here to manage that. I am very aware that this experience is a once in a lifetime one for me and it would be silly to leave before I have reached an adequate level. Although less time might be cheaper, it would be a waste of money in many ways.

So. That´s that for now. Unless (a) my laptop has been fixed or (b) I can find an internet cafe, you might not hear from me until Tuesday. ¡Hasta luego!

Every cloud has a silver lining

The outcome of yesterday's horribleness is that I now have a private lesson (just me) with Sergio at 1.45 each day. It means waiting around for a couple of hours, but I just went to a cafe and read some more of the book. Then I get to do whatever grammar I want for 45 minutes - at my own pace!

We looked at direct and indirect object pronouns today and it really is not that bad. We also touched on how to use the future tense to talk about a hypothesis in the present. I'll be able to do all the little bits and pieces that I'm not clear about now with Sergio.

I am absolutely exhausted today. I don't know why, but I just couldn't face the walk and got the bus to and from school, despite the sun being out. I suppose we are all entitled to a lazy day sometimes.

There is a Bank Holiday in Spain next Tuesday and, being Spain, they take the Monday off too "el puente" (the bridge)! I think the school is going to use the Monday in lieu and we will still have classes on the Tuesday. I might use this long weekend to travel a bit. Or maybe just explore the touristy things of Málaga.

I was comparing French and Spanish earlier when I was learning about pronouns and I tried to give a sentence in French. It was a really simple one but I couldn't remember the words at first. It was like I needed to work out where the switch was to return to French mode. Aaargh! Maybe I should visit France after I finish here!

Intracontinental relations reach breaking point

It was a bit chilly again this morning, but it is now scorching!

Grammar lesson: First of all we read some more of the book. I seemed to be the target for criticism about my pronunciation today and felt a bit upset that I couldn't say the words with feeling. The problem was that I didn't understand what I was reading, so struggled to put feeling into it. Before tomorrow's lesson, I will read the next few pages with my dictionary (instead of re-reading it after the lesson as we are meant to). Then we continued looking at temporales.

Sergio's lesson was more on the environment and then we used the subjunctive or indicative to give opinions about things.

Then it was time for the extra lesson. Laura was not there and the 2 german women had got themselves into full german speaking mode by the time Teresa arrived. We marked the homework on prepositions... in the whole 45 minutes, we managed to just mark 2 exercises because the germans didn't get it and were taking so much time. It was a gapfill and we were taking it in turns to give our answer (a choice of 4 possible words). After half an hour of slow progress, I was getting quite frustrated with the constant silences when one of them didn't know the answer. I started saying the answer after a silence. Annoying, maybe, but can you imagine how much time we had already wasted and now we were sitting waiting for each answer. Had they not done the work at home?

I had just said one of the words, when one of the women whipped around and had a go at me in german. I don't really speak german, but I got the meaning: "would you just shut up!" Then she proceeded to rant about me and how annoying I am to the other woman - in german! I was so extremely shocked by this that I just sat there in silence, my heart pounding. Teresa didn't understand what had happened and we carried on with the work. At the end of my 45 minutes, I got up and said to the women (in Spanish) that I could understand some german and if they had a problem with me, they should tell me this in Spanish as it is very rude to speak about someone in another language. They just shrugged and said "bye then". HOW RUDE! I was absolutely fuming. Bless her, poor Teresa had no idea what was happening and followed me outside. I explained it all to her and she told me that she finds them pesadas (tiresome) and that she agreed that what they had said was very rude. I am going to be taught separately from them from now on - my level is above theirs so I will be given my own work to do away from them.

I will refrain from making any xenophobic comments here as I know plenty of polite and pleasant germans. These 2 are simply rude, old women and their nationality is irrelevant. I am still very shocked at their arrogance and hope I don't have to see them too much in the school.


Afternoon on the beach and now I am going to watch some TV

Motorbike-tastic!

Jose collected me at 7.30 and we went on the moto to Rincón de la Victoria for a couple of hours. It was a friend's birthday so we had some cured ham and delicious little cakes to celebrate. I got Jose to take a photo of me on his bike to show you how amazing it is... also note my tan - you can only really see my feet!

Here comes the sun!

Thankfully, it was nice again today. It was fairly unhot this morning, but the sun was out and getting hotter when I finished lessons.

Teresa's lesson: we tok it in turns to read aloud from the novel for 15 minutes. So far, so good. It has a few words I don't know, but the gist is fairly clear. Then we looked at when the subordinate clause in a sentence takes the subjunctive because of the linking word. It is very high level stuff and I am sure I will be more than prepared for A level grammar after these 4 weeks!

With Sergio, we continued on the theme of the Environment. The Dutch and American girls looked like they were close to sleep several times but I enjoyed it.

Laura and I were joined by 2 more German women for our private lesson. I started to get a bit pissed off with the way the 3 of them were chatting in German before Teresa arrived. Not only are they (presumably) in Spain to learn Spanish, but they were 3 Germans in a room with an English person, so it was actually quite rude. Once Teresa was there, I felt OK about saying in a jokey way that we only speak Spanish in the class. Teresa backed me up and they stopped conversing in German. I am going to be so hated by all the other students! The other 3 all have 90 minutes and I am meant to leave after 45 minutes, but we were in the middle of something, so Teresa said I should stay for a bit to finish it off. Bargainous! We covered prepositions today and I finished this off on the beach later (as well as the 2 other homeworks set earlier on - it took me a good hour and a half!)



I spent the afternoon on the beach and had a little swim in the sea too. The back of my neck feels a bit sore, I think I missed this area with the suncream! There were really cute pigeons on the beach. One near me had a purple patch on its neck, so I took a picture.


I think Jose is collecting me later to go into town, but it might have been tomorrow... I'll get ready and see if he turns up!

Week 2

I was lazy this morning and got the bus into school because it was drizzling. It has been rather dreary and cloudy today, so I haven't done any sunbathing.

Lessons:
Teresa: we went through the homework in some detail. I'm not sure how, but it took the whole 90 minutes! She is very good at deviating from the subject in hand, so we ended up chatting a lot - all good when it is in Spanish and therefore useful! Teresa said it would be good if we bought a couple of short classic Spanish novels and read them in class and at home. I bought them both in the bookshop near my flat on my way home. Haven't started reading them yet - decided to watch the Spanish film I downloaded instead: El Labarinto del Fauno. I've watched it before (with subtitles) but had forgotten how sad it was. I almost wish i hadn't watch it because I cried most of the way through the last half an hour and now feel rather morose. I also ate too many pipas (sunflower seeds) whilst watching it and feel a bit sick!

Anyway, the books are:
Crónica de Una Muerte Anunciada by Gabriel García Márquez (this is the book from which came the excerpt we studied with Sergio last week)
Bodas de Sangre by Federico García Lorca

Neither book looks very easy or fun, but they are both short and I hope to finish at least one before I leave.

Sergio's lesson: Our topic is about being ecological and we looked at lots of vocabulary and discussed how things are in each of our countries. It being a Monday, the next cohort of students arrived. We had one new classmate today, a Finnish girl.
Our class is now:
Me (UK), Timmy (USA), Barbara (USA), Steffi (Holland), Lila (Germany), Lothar (Germany)Isabella (Sweden) and New Girl (Finland).

Then Laura and I had our private lesson. Sergio has taken over a bigger class at this time, so we had Teresa. I do really like her, but I find her quite tiring - she is so dramatic and cheerful! Sergio has a way of explaining grammar calmly that I had got used to, so I am having to adapt to Teresa's method. We went over the preterites and did some worksheets, then she explained the imperfect. My homework for this class was to revise the future tense, as Teresa was going to do this with Laura in the second half of the lesson. In the end, I spent 2.5 hours doing this and a load of exercises on the preterite when I got home. The weather being how it was, I thought I would make the most of some indoors time. The forecast is good for the next couple of days, so I will get some more beach/pool time in then.

Teresa keeps telling everyone what a brilliant student I am! It makes me feel proud of the work I am putting in, but also a bit uncomfortable because I remember resenting her favourites last Monday! Then again, I would rather be a favourite for being hardworking than for being cute and ditzy like last week's teacher's pet, who usually just giggles when she doesn't understand something. She giggles quite a lot.

Rain!

I woke up at 5 because it was raining so heavily! I think it has stopped now and at least the pavements won't have so much dog poo on them today!

I had quite a dull day yesterday - just did my homework on the patio and wandered around a bit. I met up with some English people last night, which was OK, but I did not like speaking English at all. I think I'll stick to Spaniards again for a bit.

3 very cool things I have seen here:

1. In supermarkets they have a kind of cross between a trolley and a basket. It is like a big basket with an extendable pulley thing, a bit like on a suitcase. It is smaller than a trolley, so more maneuverable, but so much less sore on your arm when you have a pack of diet coke cans than when you have to hold a full basket in the UK!

2. The pedestrian crossings in the centre have a countdown on them. When it is red for pedestrians, it counts down until you can cross and then it counts down again how long you have left to cross when on green.

3. The curtains in my living room have a rod attached to them so I can open and close them without actually pulling the curtain (they are white muslin-type material and would get dirty if I kept tugging them.

All so sensible and so simple. I'll ty to remember to add pictures when I have some.


Lessons again today. I've missed school over the weekend. After all, that is why I am here and I have felt a bit restless without the structure. I wonder how many new arrivals there will be and if Laura and I will be joined by anyone in our little class.

Clothes and mortorbikes

I went into the town centre yesterday to explore a bit. The main shopping street is called Calle Larios (see picture) and there were lots of tourists and shops. I am totally in love with Spanish clothes shops. I remember this from when I lived in Bilbao, but then I had no money and couldn't justify buying much. That said, it is clear that Spanish clothes are a lot cheaper than English ones. The prices that you pay for poorer quality clothes in the UK (H&M, New Look etc) are the standard prices in these shops for clothes of a much higher quality.


I bought a really cute skirt so I can stop wearing my tattered denim cut-off mini skirt all the time. The photo doesn't really do it justice - it is very cute, with a kind of puffed effect that looks nice. It was just €12.


Then I saw a shop that looked quite fun and went in... It was like my idea of clothes heaven! Called Desigual (which translates as "atypical", it lives up to its name. The clothes are all brightly coloured and funky, with floral and animal patterns, made of really comfy material and totally gorgeous! Apparently there are Desigual shops in London, but the prices are double there. It is not cheap in Spain, but on a par with FatFace, so manageable. I simply had to buy a dress! The neckline is very low, so I wore it with another top underneath last night (more about last night in a bit!) It cost €44, so I did feel a bit bad, but I had to treat myself! This site gives you an idea of their lovely clothes and the prices in the UK. My dress would cost about £70 in the UK!

Then I decided to have a coffee and some lunch while I wrote my postcards. I found a cafe that did tapas and had a slice of tortilla with bread and a coffee. Very nice.

When I came home, I went to the beach for a couple of hours and then got ready to go out. My new friend José picked me up at 7 and we went into town to meet with the others. He collected me n his motorbike - a very lovely Harley! It was such a buzz!!! I felt like a really wild young thing in my short dress and brown legs on the back of a shiny moto! José got me home at about 11 and then he stayed for a coffee and we chatted until 1am! He doesn't speak any English and he has a really strong Andalucian accent, so it wasn't always easy to understand what he said, but we coped. In Andalucía, they do not pronounce the 's'. An example that makes me smile is mí mismo (myself) is said mí mimo which I totally didn't get at first!

Many of the other people last night spoke with strong local accents and I struggled to get what they were saying. The people I understood most easily turned out to be from other regions: one from Galicia in the north and another from the Costa Rica in South America. I learnt another great verb last night: equivocarse, which is to make a mistake.

Well, today is Sunday, so it must be a another beach day! I think I will treat myself to some more tapas for lunch. This evening I might be meeting with some of Bill's English friends, but I am kind of reluctant because I am worried that, if I speak English, I will find it hard to get back into Spanish again.

Being sociable

So I finally met up with some Spanish friends of a friend who live here this evening. We spent a couple of hours chatting and it was great fun. We are going to meet up again tomorrow night. It is great to start to meet people not linked to the school at last! I found it really hard to understand them when they spoke to each other, because they spoke really fast and not very clearly, but when they spoke to me or I spoke to them, they were very patient and slower! I hope that, by the end of my month here, I will be able to follow what they say more easily. It is a very different matter trying to understand "real" Spanish, as opposed to the slow, carefully enunciated Spanish at the school!

Frustration!

I am so frustrated by some of the other students. The young ones seem to be here for a holiday - they are very brown and clearly spend far more time on the beach than anything else! In class, they work hard on the grammar, but as soon as they have to actually discuss things, they clam up and refuse to speak. It seems that only Lothar (an older German bloke) and I actually make an effort at times. I don't mind too much - I'm here to learn and to practise, so I take every chance I can get to do this, but I hate that there are often long silences and I always end up stepping in to fill them. I think it might be because Lothar and I are older and are paying for this ourselves, so we intend to get the utmost out of it. The young 'uns (mainly German/American and in their early 20s) all live in the student house and they appear to speak English and/or German together. When they speak to me in English, I always reply in Spanish! I know I must get on their nerves a lot but, as I said, I'm paying a lot of money for this experience and I intend to get my money's worth.

Teresa's lesson was looking at the way using ser or estar with certain adjectives can totally change the meaning (I must remember to say significado (meaning) and not significación (significance) as I have been doing). It's really amazing how it works: e.g. el chico está orgulloso = the boy is proud, el chico es orgulloso = the boy is arrogant; estoy lista = I'm ready, soy lista = I'm smart etc.

Then we had a new teacher as Sergio is away today. Antonio is young and obviously not very experienced (está verde - he's inexperienced, as opposed to es verde - he's green!) so he had a hard task holding a conversation lesson for 90 minutes with our class. He had prepared talking about mitos (myths) and it was like getting blood out of a stone for much of the time. They warmed up a bit when we discussed the superstitions that exist in our countries, but couldn't cope again when they had to create their own superstitions. I enjoyed it, but kept feeling myself cringe when the others went quiet.

After the lesson, I expressed my frustration to Lothar and he said that he found that Antonio spoke too fast and the others didn't understand. Maybe I need to go easy on them!

So, I am now all finished for the day and am going to go to the beach this afternoon. I think I'll go to the centre of town tonight and have a wander.

Thursday

I have just bought the most delicious chocolate ever! It is milk chocolate with coloured bits like smarties in it. Very yummy!

I am so impressed with the quality of teaching at Málaga ¡Si! The 2 teachers I have are so different, but both are amazing! Whilst Teresa is like a flamboyant actress and carries us along with her enthusiasm and drama, Sergio is calm and patient with a twinkle on his eye. I have learnt some extremely complicated grammatical concepts this week and the lessons are entirely in Spanish. I never imagined that I would be able to learn so much in just 4 days.

Teresa's lesson briefly revised what we have been doing with the subjunctive in present and imperfect. I was thrilled to remember something I had read on a sheet the other day and got something right that no-one else knew: when the word that expresses probability (maybe/perhaps etc) is at the end of the sentence, you do not use the subjunctive, but stick to the indicative. I now know how it feels to be a star student! We then looked at SER and ESTAR (the 2 verbs 'to be' in Spanish). I have taught this, so am quite comfortable with it and was able to relax a little bit!

In Sergio's textbook lesson, we read an excerpt from a book by Gabriel García Márquez (he also wrote 100 Years of Solitude) and answered questions about it. There was a lot of vocabulary that I didn't know, so much frantic dictionary searching took place!

Then it was Sergio's grammar lesson. I really enjoy this because there are only 2 of us in the class and so it feels really special. The other student, a German girl called Laura, is very nice and her Spanish is somewhat weaker than mine. She is only here for 2 weeks, so I wonder if anyone else will join us or if I will be on my own when she goes. Today we looked at when you use the pretérito perfecto (I have eaten) and when you use the pretérito indefinido (I ate). I kind of knew this, but was quite hazy because French doesn't use the indefinite past much and we use it differently in English. The way Sergio explained it was so clear and methodical and now it makes total sense! I find myself using the tenses I have been learning/revising - the first time, I have to think "which tense, what is the stem, what is the ending???) and then the next time it feels natural. It is like my brain has been crying out to learn Spanish properly and now I am letting it do what it so yearned to do - I love learning!

After a quick chat with my parents, I headed to the beach. I even had a little swim in the sea when I got too hot sunbathing! I bought a Telegraph today and was extremely pleased with myself when I completed the cryptic crossword, although am not sure why 28 across is 'dressed'.

I finally got myself a tarjeta bus today which means each bus ride I use costs just €0.70 instead of €1.10. You pay €1.80 for the card and then top up however many trips you want in multiples of 10 at a cost of just €0.70 each. I might even treat myself to a bus ride into school tomorrow instead of walking...

Now I need to go and do my homework!

El día de la Huelga General

So today was the day of the strike. The day when everything was meant to grind to a halt in sympathy for the impoverished workers... as far as I could see, everything except the buses was business as usual!

I managed to work out a good temperature for my aircon last night and, as a result, slept really well. I woke up feeling ready to work.

Teresa's lesson (8.30-10) was grammar as always. Today we looked at the imperfect subjunctive. In French, this is very rarely used, but Spanish seems to use it far more. The subjunctive generally in Spanish is far more necessary and the imperfect is the common past tense use for it. It was far less complicated than I was expecting!

Sergio's main lesson (10.15-11.45) continued with more conversational Spanish. We looked at some photos and had to suggest what was happening and use the subjunctive to do this "maybe/perhaps/I hope that..." We also looked at how you use the future tense for present tense hypotheses.

Sergio is away on Friday, so I had a longer 3rd lesson with him than normal. Normally, I have this from 12-12.45, but I stayed until 1.30 to make up the lesson we will miss on Friday. Laura is doing the 30 lesson intensive course, so she always has a double then (I am doing 25 lesson intensive, hence 1 extra lesson per day on top of most people's 2 doubles). If you understood that, well done! We continued with the preterite and looked at irregular verbs.

Then I was able to use my new toalla. I went to the beach and sunbathed for a couple of hours, before returning to the school for a swim in the pool. I also did my homework whilst sunbathing! I love homework... I know, crazy, but there you go! I enjoy the process of consolidating what I have learned - completing worksheets and taking my time with verb tables. There is something very pleasing about the whole thing. I'm sure my students never said or thought this. (Then again, I don't think I enjoyed homework or worksheets when I was at school and uni... must be an age thing!)

In my culture lesson, I was told about Spanish pop music and we listened to a few songs. I really like Spanish music. French music generally seems a bit lacking, but Spanish is just the right kind of language to sing about heartache and desire!

The weather is glorious: blue sky and hot sun, but not unbearable, stifling heat. I am starting to change colour and have that panda look that comes from sunbathing with sunglasses on!

First whole day of lessons

Just got home and am knackered! Definitely one of those days when you are quite glad to be able to get home and relax!
Quick summary:
Teacher for first 2 lessons - Teresa. Had her favourite students and kept saying how beautiful and wonderful they were. Doesn't exactly inspire you... She seemed quite dramatic and hypermanic at first and I wondered how this lesson on the subjunctive would be. In the end, she was a great teacher and I understood the (fairly complicated) stuff well. I managed to get on the wrong side of the American student when I contradicted his "we don't have a subjunctive in english"... um, what about "I would prefer that she stay there"??? Oh well, must be the teacher in me!

After break, we had Sergio again and did some more text-type things, then another break and then my lesson with just Laura and Sergio.

After that, I dropped books off at home and returned to school to chill by the pool until culture lesson at 4.15. At this point, I was feeling a bit ill (too much sun) and regretted signing up for cinema trip, especially when I discovered no-one else had signed up and poor Joanna (non teaching staff) would be taking just me. I decided that I would still go, as I have made the decision to take up all possible chances to practise speaking etc. I was feeling a bit homesick (and missing Pip) after a quick phone call home, so in fact the cinema and a chat with Joanna was just what I needed.

We got the bus into the centre and I even managed to buy a beach towel before we went to the cinema. A proper swim tomorrow!!! The film (Inception) was far too complicated for me (I think I would have struggled to understand it in English, let alone Spanish!) but was interesting. Before catching the bus home, we made a quick supermarket trip as the shops and everything will be closed tomorrow because the whole of Spain is on strike (huelga) about something!

Please excuse the brevity of this entry, the lack of photos and any mistakes: I need to eat something then go to bed!

On the other side of the desk!

So, my learning has started. I got to the school at 8.15 and immediately started my test to determine my starting level. It was a grammar test and it all started so easily... then got quite a bit harder. The tenses necessary for GCSE are fine. After all, I have been teaching them for 3 years. Suddenly, I found a large flaw in my grammar. El subjuntivo. The subjunctive in French is always a hard one for students (A level students), but I am quite comfortable with it. For some reason, I have never learnt it in Spanish and so I was extremely sketchy and wildly guessing random uses and endings.

I finished fairly quickly and then had a coffee while I waited for the rest. At 9.15 we were given a presentation by Sjef (pronounced Chef) who is one the non-teaching staff. He told us about Málaga and the school. He also gave us information about the extra (optional and free of charge) cultural classes, which are every day from 4.15-5pm. The topic changes weekly and is in order to inform us about random aspects of Spanish culture. This week is la música española. The whole culture side is an important part of the A level, so I signed up. Finally, Sjef told us about the trips and visits we can take part in. I have signed up to go to the cinema tomorrow evening, to see Origen which I think is Inception, a film I wanted to see and didn't get around to seeing in the UK.

After the presentation, we had a tour of the school. It used to be a family's house and has several classrooms and a lovely garden out the back with its own little pool.

Then we got our results individually. I was where I had hoped to be - higher intermediate. This means I am starting at a respectable level but have room to go up too. I asked Sjef about my TV and I now have TV in my flat! (I have to put it on channel 15 and then use the digibox remote... I had given up at channel 10!)

Then it was straight to lessons. My timetable is a morning one, so I start at 8.30 and have 4 lessons of 45 minutes in a full class (with a couple of breaks). Then I have a final extra class with just one other girl, Laura. (I think she's German, but I have forgotten. There is only one other english speaker, an American bloke, which is great.) This extra lesson is because I am doing the more intensive course. We focus on grammar - today we started on the subjunctive! In the bigger class, we were studying from the textbook and looked at a text about paranormal-type things. It was a very discussion-based lesson and was great for general conversation and improving confidence.

My teacher is called Sergio and he seems really nice. All the staff are very approachable, in fact.

After my classes ended (12.45), I headed home to drop off my textbook and laptop, then popped to the beach before remembering I had signed up for the culture class and made my way back to the school. It is a good 15 minute walk, so I think I might have to wear shoes other than flip-flops in future: my feet are killing me now! I decided to relax by the pool for half an hour before class and it was great - the sun hits the garden in the afternoon and the sunlounger was perfect! I only brought towels for shower and have not been able to buy a beach towel yet, so I didn't go in the pool before my class. I did have a quick dip after though!

The class was very interesting. The teacher was Isa and she is lovely. Only one other student had signed up (the American, Timmy). Isa told us all about the origins of Flamenco (I hadn't realised it was from Andalucía) and we watched some clips of the guitarristas, bailaores and cantaores. After a quick dip and sunbathe by the pool, I made my way back home. Now I am aching from all the walking and carrying a heavy bag, but I am looking forward to more learning tomorrow.