Just over a week has gone by since, bleary eyed after a 3am
start, we stumbled off the plane into the Spanish sunshine. Seven days on, there
has been little improvement on the sleep deprivation front, however, with a
good twenty hours teaching under our belts and plenty of guidance along the
way, the prospect of this Monday’s three hour lesson was a whole lot less
daunting.
Rewind back to last Sunday and I was trying my upmost not to
fall asleep on the sofa as we all crammed into one of the flats to discuss the
all important first lesson, which was looming ever closer. The twenty kilo
luggage allowance had left little room for books or extra resources, and
although the week’s training in Wales had equipped us with plenty of ideas,
translating those from paper to reality suddenly seemed decidedly intimidating.
It turns out, however, that the only resource that we actually required was
Michael, as half an hour later, we all had an introduction lesson plan ready to
go. Luckily he was here all week to offer advice, inundate us with lesson ideas
and nudge us in the right direction. Hopefully we’ve taken enough on board to
survive the next two weeks without him...
A far cry from the cold streets of Denby, Elche is all sunshine
and palm trees (admittedly we have yet to compare the karaoke...) and although
the locals are still awaiting the onset of summer, twenty odd degrees is
suiting us just fine. We have found a local, destroyed our body clocks in the
name of a truly Spanish night out and sampled many a caña y tapa. Most memorably, however,
was probably second class in, when a camera crew interrupted my lesson. Two
more news interviews later, it’s good to know that should TEFL teaching fall
through, a career in front of the camera awaits:
