The Denbigh experience.

Day 1:

Woke up 5am. I don’t think I've ever had breakfast so early. After getting the car to Slough and the train to Paddington on completely quiet roads, I arrived at Paddington. From there I was a little confused by which underground train to catch, and ended up letting two pass me, of which both would have got me to my destination. I caught the third, and assumed everything would be straight forward, and it would have been if not for two people telling me I was on the wrong train when it was actually them that needed to change!

Anyway, I got to Victoria coach station with enough time to spare to introduce myself to my fellow ‘colleagues’, who had chosen the worst place to meet. I had to push through a queue all the way to the front to meet them, with every other person I passed complaining at me for queue jumping.

Most of these people had a group interview together before being accepted so they already know a little about each other. I, on the other hand, had my interview 2 weeks before we left over the phone while my interviewer was driving in her car! The reception was bad but I must have got myself across well enough as I got accepted within a couple of days.

Coach to Wales was long, and incredibly quiet. People barely spoke, except for Mark and Aaron who I assumed knew each other before coming. The only other sound was coming out of Tom’s headphones. A sound I would become very familiar with over the forthcoming month.

Delightful Denbigh

The initial training week is now over, and while I planned to update this throughout, I was far too busy! Here is a fairly detailed, and possibly quite boring rundown of events.

Our coach arrived late in Denbigh so as soon as we arrived we were thrown straight into the action.

We were then gathered in a very large room with 30 chairs. We were introduced and straight away were given ideas for fun games teaching kids.

In the evening of the same day they took us to a nice quiet pub. The barwoman was slightly shocked seeing 30 people turn up to an empty pub. She’d already sent her colleagues home because it was so quiet! After 20 minutes getting everyone their drinks, everyone spread out and enjoyed a good chat until around midnight.

The following day we started with language lessons. I was in the Spanish group with an English guy speaking Mexican Spanish, which for the majority wouldn’t make too much difference, but for those of us with higher levels of Spanish Spanish, it probably wasn’t as helpful. The teacher had previously lived in Mexico and some of the things he taught were not used in Spain (I’m proud I managed to spot them, it shows my Spanish is pretty good!).

It also didn’t help matters that our class was so mixed in levels, from complete beginner to degree level!

The rest of the day consisted of a 6 hour long first aid course. I learnt so much from this but there was also a lot of what I’d consider irrelevant information being taught. The inside of the heart? Really? I’m not saying it wasn’t interesting, but knowing this information isn’t really going to help me save lives, unless I give up teaching to become a heart surgeon. Who knows?

The first aid trainers were extremely knowledgeable and great at their job, although some of their comments may have been better kept to themselves rather than sharing with the class.

The next day we had another useful lesson and in the evening, something different. Sports leadership. We met Keith who is quite a character. He taught us simple games to keep kids entertained, how to project voices and other useful tips. Such a long day though. 8am breakfast, and classes from 9am to 10:15pm! And of course we went to the pub again…

The following day we had two new teachers who were really good. I enjoyed what we were taught. It was more geared for primary & kindergarten but most of the activities can be adapted in one way or another for older students.

In the evening we were supposed to set up blogs but the internet was down, so we played more sports! Aeroball was the most memorable. Imagine basketball, on trampolines. You may be thinking ‘slamball’ but it wasn’t like that. I’m not sure how I can explain it, so like, google it or something. What I do know is that it’s a fairly new sport in the USA which Howells school decided to spend a large amount of money on. It was great fun, and an excellent workout.

This was followed up by climbing which was a good challenge. Our arms were quite tired after that so some of the guys decided to have a little football match. This was fun, and very tiring. I didn’t play very well and our team lost badly, but never mind.

Nearly everyone went out this night. It was the last night out we’d have with everyone (French + Spanish group together). We went to a small pub with karaoke first. Some dodgy people in there, but great night. Leonardo project karaoke included The Doors, The Spice Girls, and my choice, Tenacious D. So much fun. I found some new rock fans! That pub kicked us out at 12 so we went to another that was still open. There just happened to be more karaoke which many of us joined in for. That pub was due to close at 1, although we ended up staying until almost 2 before everyone finished their drinks. After we got back, most of us went to the common area to drink lots of lovely tap water and have a good chin-wag. Four of us even stayed up until 4am chatting about very random things such as carpet and melons.

The next day, after 3-4 hours sleep, we got up for breakfast and another session until 12:30. Followed by lunch and the coach home. There were so many traffic lights in Manchester against us, we almost missed our coach to London. We were the last people on so had to take whatever seats were left. I made sure I sat next to a small person this time to avoid the mistake of the first journey where I had very little space...

Denbigh --> Home --> Denbigh --> Elche

We returned home with a lot to think about but it wasn't long before we took the long trip back up North for the pre-departure weekend.

This was more of the same. Useful lesson ideas, a little bit of sport and a lot of fun. 

Our flight was a very early one which meant leaving Denbigh at 4ish in the morning. Me, Alex and Ben decided it wasn't worth sleeping only to feel terrible in the morning, so we stayed up and watched some TV series. We both slept like logs on the bus and plane though.

That's all for now. I'll chuck in some lesson ideas and personal experiences from Elche later in the week. 

Mike.