Seeing as we only have another 3 days before our first ever English class (seriously we must be insane), we decide we should have a look at what we’re actually going to be teaching. It’s a nerve wracking prospect, especially when they have none or very little english. Building a rapport with young people is hard enough without the added pressure of trying to communicate in sign language and hand gestures. We head down to koala school to take a look at the teaching text books and are slightly disheartened when the teachers instructions pack is all in chinese language! There’s no English version to follow, so it looks like we’ll be winging it by trying to decipher the topics based on the pictures and words in the kids’ exercise books. Now we’re even more worried! ... read more

After months of planning and dreaming about this day, it’s finally arrived and we almost wish it hadn’t as we are so nervous and unsure of what to expect… Still, it’s about time we took ourselves out of our comfort zones and try something new. Don’t think you could get much further outside the comfort zone than this! We use the afternoon to finish packing and making sure we have everything and then make our way over to the airport for our evening flight. By the time we get to the airport I am chalk white and almost lock myself into the car so I don’t have to go- all these thoughts about what we’re actually doing are swimming through my mind. Will the kids like us? Will they understand us? Will we like the job? ... read more

The thought of driving for at least 10 hours today is not inspiring me to get going, but we're on the home stretch now and needs must. As much as we've had a great and really eye-opening tour of Spain, I think we're both ready to head home and just relax for a while. I think Charlie also feels the same. I used to mock people who went on about getting home to 'have a cup of tea, put a washing on and put their feet up' but now I get it- I can think of nothing better either (N.B - for the youngsters amongst you out there, it will happen to you one day too, I can almost guarantee it will happen, so no mocking!). We once again try and phone the hotel in Rouen ... read more

Like all the best laid plans, what we expected would be a fairly straight forward drive to the north of Spain turns out to be a long 6 hour nail biting journey as Charlie starts to lose power 20 minutes into our trip, just as we're about to overtake a lorry on an uphill road. We pray it’s only a one off but he does it twice more and we look at each other with a sinking feeling. We’re in the arse end of nowhere, not even a small town in sight so for the rest of the journey Greg is reluctant to go more than 35mph. To add to the fun and excitement, at one point the windscreen wipers start to go awol and nearly fly off completely. I can understand why Charlie is beginning ... read more

We set off at about 11am and as we still can't use the toll roads we are stuck on the single lane b roads again. It’s a pain in the ass, but at least they aren't as bad as we thought they would be. Still, it takes us about 5 and a half hours to get back into Spain! But now we can get on the motorway again and hopefully make up some time. We're staying in Valdemoro tonight to see our friend Carlos who lives there. It’s just outside of Madrid and so will hopefully take us slightly less time to get to. It doesn't quite work out that way though and we don't end up getting there until about half 9 at night. We get lost trying to find our hotel but thankfully Carlos ... read more