Hola,
Well it's been a crazy week or so since I last wrote. My course ends this Friday and I can speak for all of us when I say that it couldn't come sooner. We've been working hard and now are studying like mad for our phonology exam tomorrow and grammar exam on Wednesday. Just passing is fine with me. We need 65% to pass. Grammar is a bit dry but I find phonology to be pretty interesting stuff. I understand most everything we've been taught but am worried about memorizing it all.
Last week was especially draining and to be honest, I was in a foul mood for a few days. We were all so stressed and tense. One day we came back to Rosa's for lunch and were all pretty much silent during lunch except for a bit of venting about how bad of a day we all had. Our instructors have been pretty hard on us in terms of not communicating well and just being kind of rude to us at times. We feel that one of them is not happy with her job and creates tension in the classroom.
But anyway, we're almost through! Our practice lessons for the Spaniards have been successful. We've had to teach reading, listening, and basic conversation. I volunteered to go first because I wanted to get them out of the way. We rotated daily on who taught but my lesson was the very first one. What was I thinking? I got so nervous!
After my course ends, I'll move to a different room in Rosa's house for the month of September while I try to find housing and a JOB. My new roommate at Rosa's will be a girl from Austria I think. She's a medical student or something. There are other girls coming for the TEFL class from other European countries as well. I'm hoping to make some more friends this way. Still have not quite figured out the best way to meet Spaniards but will get there eventually. It's likely that I'll teach private lessons and maybe in a language academy for a few hours per week. As an American, it's harder to get work, but possible.
What else? I miss Seattle a lot but love Spain! Seville really is lovely, and the weather is hot! I went back to the Catedral (cathedral) yesterday and climbed the Giralda (bell tower). It was a cool view of the city from way up there though I do admit that my fear of heights kicked in...lol. I felt like I needed to go somewhere religious since it's been so long since I went to church and since friends from church have some rough stuff going on. The catedral is gorgeous and used to be a mosque so it's got a unique history. For example, the walk up the bell tower is ramps instead of stairs because when it was a mosque, horses carried men up there to ring the bells 5 times a day when it was time to call everyone to prayer. 34 ramps later, I arrived. Also, the tomb of Cristobol Colon (aka Christopher Columbus) is there!
I think that's it for now. Back to studying!
I remember that Cathedral, really neat! The tomb was a bit of a surprise but interesting. The tower was quite cool...if I remember right, it doesn't have stairs but a ramp? Is that right?
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear things are rolling along.
:)