Holiday:
The holiday was amazing! I had loads of people from here in Catalonia helping me to pick places to go which was so useful because there are so many great things to see. I'm still not going to go into too much detail because each post is taking me longer and longer to write, but we saw a lot of things and did as much as we could! I was pretty excited by everything and thought it pained me to plan so much, lead so much of the time and hear my mum thanking every shop assistant in English, it was wonderful. Seeing my family after a month was lovely and grounding, sometimes it's hard to remember that this is actually my life now. (This is the first year since I started school that I've not been in formal education, after all, it's a little hard to know what to do with myself.)
The disasters stemmed from actually needed to go home after a holiday. First, because something just had to go wrong, my mum had booked tickets back to England for her and my brother on the 22nd of MARCH. She'd been wondering why she wasn't able to check in but instead of double checking her booking she just thought it was RyainAir being its shit self. And it kind of was, it automatically changes the month of your return and it's an easy mistake to make. But, there are lots of chances to confirm that all your details are correct and it was so stressful changing it the day before that I probably did it the most expensive way.
I also had my own disaster getting home. There's one coach in the morning to my city from Barcelona at 9am and the next one isn't until 4pm, so I couldn't afford to miss it. But of course I did. It was hell getting home. Honestly, I've never been so stuck in my life. What would've been a 2 and a half hour journey took *6 hours*. I'm not even gonna go into it, just the bus station in Lleida is the worst thing I've ever seen and I need to get back to London Victoria!
My third disaster ended up with homemade pizza so maybe it's not such a disaster but it was so embarrassing. Basically, I went out to meet our baldy beardy friend, then obviously afterwards, I went home. Well, because life is hard or bad things come in 3s or just because, when I went to open the door to the building, the key wouldn't turn. So, that doesn't mean I'm instantly banished to the streets for the night does it? Well, when its 2am, you panic and you don't want to wake up your host family, you kind of banish yourself to the streets. Orrrrr to a friend's house, after sending your host family a massive paragraph on WhatsApp explaining where you'll be and that you'll return at 8am to do your job. Guys, if this ever happens to you, just call your host family at 2am and sleep in your own bed. Even if there might be pizza, you might also look a bit silly
Settling in:
Anyway, I was actually excited to be back with the Trillas. I'd missed them in 5 short days and most of the information I'd been spouting about Barcelona had come from them. Perhaps this excitement dampened a little when I found out the kids hadn't done anything at all in English, let alone the homework I set them.
However, it was probably a welcome break for us all. I haven't really been tracking our progress, but it's not like at the beginning where learning a new word or phrase is a big accomplishment. It kind of gets added to the list now and there's always so much more to learn. I'm still proud of everyone of course, but it's become routine now and learning languages is tiring!
Still, Roger and I ended the week playing card games which was really fun so I'm going to focus more on playing games and less on teaching. I think because I'm more confident with academic stuff, I fall into this pattern of teaching and instructing when really we should be playing. We can play verbal games at mealtimes and more physical games during free time. Yeah, I'm thinking out loud here.
Other stuff:
I've been reading so I'm going to do another book review soon and read some more to see what else I can write about. Things are a bit different now because I have a few friends and spend less time by myself thinking about the differences between here and home, but I miss making posts every day! I'm also going home in mid-March so I'm trying to make the best of everything while I'm here. Still, I might not have much of a job when I get home as there are new staff and less hours that need filling so you might hear more from me!
Until next time,
Antonia xx
However, it was probably a welcome break for us all. I haven't really been tracking our progress, but it's not like at the beginning where learning a new word or phrase is a big accomplishment. It kind of gets added to the list now and there's always so much more to learn. I'm still proud of everyone of course, but it's become routine now and learning languages is tiring!
Still, Roger and I ended the week playing card games which was really fun so I'm going to focus more on playing games and less on teaching. I think because I'm more confident with academic stuff, I fall into this pattern of teaching and instructing when really we should be playing. We can play verbal games at mealtimes and more physical games during free time. Yeah, I'm thinking out loud here.
Other stuff:
I've been reading so I'm going to do another book review soon and read some more to see what else I can write about. Things are a bit different now because I have a few friends and spend less time by myself thinking about the differences between here and home, but I miss making posts every day! I'm also going home in mid-March so I'm trying to make the best of everything while I'm here. Still, I might not have much of a job when I get home as there are new staff and less hours that need filling so you might hear more from me!
Until next time,
Antonia xx
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