Up to date here in Spain

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Hello all of you out there that are still reading my blog! I am giving you an update finally! So as you read in a previous blog, you saw I went to a little town south of Spain (El Puerto de Santa Maria) for a Spanish immersion course. It was a great experience and I picked up a good amount of Spanish since I was immersed in it. The school only allowed Spanish and I was staying with a family who spoke Spanish. Also, the other students wanted to practice so outside of class they spoke Spanish. It was fun, but quite exhausting.

I left El Puerto on the 13th to take a train to Barcelona. I headed to Barcelona to take a one month TEFL course. I am going into my last week next week and will be returning to the states...😞

The course is pretty intensive, but extremely helpful if I want to teach English as a foreign language. We will have had taught about 10 lessons of teaching by the time I am finished. However, there is a lot involved so we have grammer lessons and teaching techniques. I had no idea what past perfect continuous verb tense was until this course. Having a basic sense of English is important in order to teach it. However, it is a lot different teaching English to native English speakers than as a second or third language.

I have completely enjoyed it and our class includes 7 people--2 from London, 1 from Dublin, and 4 of us Americans. 3 out of the 7 will stay in Barcelona, 1 is going to teach in Berlin, 1 is going to continue travelling through Europe, 1 will go back to England, and then there is me.

Outside of class, lesson planning, and teaching I have had some down time to explore and have fun.
I went to Sitges last weekend, which is a little beach town about 40 km south of Barcelona. I went to Montjuic which is a nice ara with lots of gardens and a castle on the top. I have been to the Picasso museum in town, have eaten tapas, went to an Irish pub, and a club on Halloween. I have walked along the beach which is 5 minutes from our flat and I have watched men play the Spanish guitar and have seen Flamenco dancing. I went to an art opening managed by my Irish classmate. I hiked along the long tourist street, Las Ramblas and eaten in Barcoleneta. This coming up weekend I am going north to the town dali lived, including his museum. So, it hasn´t been ALL work.

My flat is nice and is in a newer part of town, Vila Olympica, which was built up for the 1992 Olympics held here. It is in the same square as the school and I have a view of the ocean. You can see our flats in many postcards. I live with a girl from Austria who speaks fluent English. She is a sweetheart and is here to learn Spanish. All, in all, I think Barcelona is a great hub where I could see myself living. It is an international mecca and has modern areas and older areas. The weather is fantastic!! So, that is where I am right now!

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