So here I am, back again, over 5,000 miles away from home, from any possible chance of snow or cold weather, and from family, friends and boyfriend, with whom I spent one of the most amazing Christmas holidays ever. However, even though I shed many tears at the airport and had a funny feeling in my tummy as I anticipated how difficult the following few months could be, so far away from the people I love, I find myself sitting at my ancient and uneven wooden desk in my new room feeling happy and settled once again.
I've moved out of the pensión and am now living with a new friend (I had met her a few times before moving in, and Matt knows her reasonably well) called Isabel. She's nearly 28 and works a lot, but is really lovely and I feel like we're getting on well so far :) The appartment is in quite an industrial bit of town but is in a much better location in terms of practicality. It's a 5-10 minute walk into the centre of town; 5 minutes from the gym, and although a fair bit further away from Chela cha chá, it's location cuts a whole 15 minutes off my daily commute, which means I now get off the bus with a smug look on my face feeling sorry for all the other suckers that have to pass all the way through the city to get to their destination. Mwahaha. Aside from it's location, there are several other benefits which I will list quickly: a KITCHEN (I CAN FINALLY COOK FOR MYSELF!), a living area where we can sit and chat, a bathroom that instead of being shared with 5 other girls, is shared only with 1, and an extra bed in my room in case anyone wants to visit. Oh and a beer shop round the corner, and a lady selling sweet breads and cookies on the other corner.
The only thing that bothers me really about this place is the noise, but I am gradually getting used to this. On the first night I was awoken by the sound of high pressure hose pipes at 3am. This was from the taxi wash directly in front of the house, which, for some crazy reason, feels the need to stay open for 24 hours!!!!! I tried to convince myself that it was the gentle sound of the sea, but it did not work. I used ear plugs for the first few nights, but I'm pretty much used to it now and it only bothers me when I'm trying to get to sleep.
So over the last few weeks I've basically been settling in again. Obviously we still go to Chela cha chá, and are keeping up with the gym, but Matt and I no longer have our Wednesday morning coffee catch up because I now work in the mornings. My timetable is to change every 3 weeks because Jessy wants every student to have the chance to speak to and listen to a native English speaker. This means at some point I will have to work on Saturdays, and also sometimes at 8am. She's started me off easy though for the moment and the earliest I start during these 3 weeks is 10am. I now only have conversation classes with teachers from the uni, and with the language teachers, and instead go into the other teacher's lessons with a speaking activity to accompany what they had been studying. It's quite hard because it has to take up the whole lesson and involve all the students (about 20), and be conversation based, but so far I've managed and am enjoying it. We played a balderdash type game the other day with English festivals which I felt went quite well and got some interesting answers. It feels a lot better this way than just giving the conversation classes because I feel like I'm already gaining a lot more knowledge about what it's like to teach. However, I don't yet feel like I've experienced enough to decide whether or not I'd like it as a career and that's one of the main reasons why I chose to do British Council though I'm sure I will in good time... :)
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