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Published: February 13th 2011
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At the end of my second week in Balaguer I finally found the time to travel to Barcelona to meet a friend. It has been a long difficult week and I really needed to see a friendly face. Life at Centre Cultural is ok, but I do have long hours and some of the classes are particularly difficult, mainly because there are no overall behaviour codes in the school and since I never physically see the other teachers during the school day there is no time to chat about individual students or ask for advice on particular classes. There is a certain air of disorganisation in the school in general. A fornight into the term I still don't have class lists and new students arrive every lesson, and I have no idea what is expected with regard to end of unit exams yet I need to start giving them soon.
Most bizarre of all was what happened yesterday. I was told Wednesday night that I would be having a new conversation student starting next Thursday. Obviously there was an error in translation as to me 'next Thursday' refers to the Thursday of next week not Thursday, tomorrow. I woke up late
on Thursday happily planning a relaxing morning at home before my lessons started. I ignored the doorbell assuming someone else woud buzz the postwoman into the building and ignored it when it went a second time. It was when the buzzer went again half an hour later and kept ringing that I thought I ought to check what it was. I heard the director's daughter on the other end obviously crying and asking me where I'd been as I hadn't shown up to work that morning. I explained I thought the new student started next week and got the response that the principal had waited at the school with the student to introduce us and when I didn't arrive had come to my house but I hadn't answered. She said he had driven around to see if I were late and walking to school and then called back at my house a second time and after that the whole family had been out looking for me.
I was completely astounded by the whole thing. Not only had it failed to occur to any of them that the only reason for me not turning up for work would be that I
thought I didn't have work, or that if the principal were indeed standing around at school with the student he could easily have taken the lesson himself; but his daughter's strange behaviour and her constant references to walking along by the river to look for me.... did they actually think I'd drowned myself?! The whole thing was very strange.
It was with great relief I set off on the bus early this morning for Barcelona. I was so excited to see my friend again as we haven't seen each other in two years, not since I was last in Spain studying. Unfortunately I had serious bad luck as not only did the bus break down an hour outside of Barcelona, but it took nearly two and a half hours before a replacement bus arrived to take us on. I was furious at the company's inability to get replacement transport out to us and annoyed at the general cheerfulness of the other passengers for whom time seemed to be no issue. I finally arrived in Barcelona and then took the metro the last part of the trip, getting off opposite Casa Batllo and running to my friend. My late arrival scuppered
our sightseeing plans but I was very happy just being able to catch up on news and spend time together. We wandered about and it was great to be back in Barcelona. Though I haven't seen all the tourist sights of the city there felt no urgent rush to do anything. I have seen the city before and I will be here for a year so there is time enough to cover the tourist sites on future visits. We grabbed a pizza for lunch and walked along the docks before finding a sun filled grassy area to collapse in. We finished the day by having a drink in a cafe before I had to leave for my train.
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