Seen as its been a week, theres a lot to talk about. Well sort of anyway. Last week was an easy one. Two days off at the beginning due to a national holiday and they gave me Friday off so I could go to Pamplona and get my N.I.E card, which I now have to prove I'm a resident here and I can get paid. Still a long wait until payday though unfortunately. Getting the card is a ballache. I had to go to the police station to go get it where I was greeted by a group of bulgarian/romanian immigrants who, like the spanish, have no real concept of queueing. This can be annoying when you've spent the past 22 years in various queues. I got in eventually and all was sorted.
Keelie came on Friday! Wahooooo. I've not seen her in almost a month which is a long time apart when you've been with someone for bloody ages! (2 and a half years if I may point out). So I showed her some of the sights of San Sebastián, had a walk around and that, went to the aquarium. I don't know why I wanted to go the aquarium because if you've been to The Deep then there really is no need to visit another one. We ate. We drank. Zerukos was shut for some daft reason. Gutted. She went back to London this morning (boohooo) but she's coming back next month so its aaaall goooood. I'm missing her already. I'd like to think she was missing me but I think she's missing the dogs more.
So works been great as per usual. I've got used to the job and the kids have got used to having me as their teacher. My 2nd year class are quite a lively bunch, mainly because their lesson is the last one of the day and the just want to get home. We had a discussion about hobbies. One lad likes to play the bass, which he very politely demonstrated by playing air bass and slapping his crotch. I must point out that the verb 'tocar' can mean to touch or to play (as in play an instrument), so when one student told me: "Me gusta tocar la chistorra", he basically meant that he likes to play his big, traditional, paprika flavoured, bright red, basque sausage, whilst pretending to hold a giant penis with both hands with a look of sheer pride on his face. He was using two hands. I have nothing but respect for this kid.
A bed!
Ok, a bit obvious. What else?
A TV!
Brilliant, keep going...
A wardrobe! Drawers! Bedside table!
Ok, any more? Come on there's looooads!
Games console! Er...DVD player!
Yes! Lets see how many we can get written on the board...
A gun!
Fantastic. Anythi...Hang on. You have a gun in your room?
I've mentioned 13 year olds owning guns in previous posts but I didn't know they kept them in their frigging rooms! Cuuuurrrrazaaaay!
95% of the students are extremely pleasant and well behaved. On the way home last week, I had an in-depth discussion with Jota and Iñaki, a history and P.E teacher respectively, about families and education in Spain. Even though Spain has a literacy rate of 97.9% it still performs low amongst other european countries. In my opinion as an outsider, the majority of Spanish children don't spend enough time with their parents. For most people in Spain, they work from 9am until 1pm, have a long break, and then go back to work from 4.30 until 9pm. So who's there when the kids get home from school? No-one. As most kids go to bed around 10 (I did, but I still watched Eurotrash in bed with the sound off and remote in the other hand incase me mam came in), this means they only get to spend about an hour with their parents and this is more apparent now with more women joining the work force in Spain (equality amongst women was still about 20 years behind until recent years, they must've taken the locks off the kitchen doors or something I dunno). All the norms and values that we learn in our early years, are being learn from somewhere else. In England, we have a society where most people work 9-5 and where some benefits help those who work part time, therefore giving parents more time to spend with their kids, something I think we should all be grateful for. This is similar in Bera, where most families are very close knit, with many parents (especially mothers) that don't have to work due to living in such a small and rural area and this is why, according to many teachers in the school, the students are much more well behaved here then students in other schools in bigger cities. I sense a disertation title coming on...
Anyhoo, I must reply to the emails the 1st year students have sent me. They've been practicing reading and writing, so emails are much more fun for them because it means they get to use a computer! I was going to get them to send emails to my friends, but knowing my lot, it would probably lead to my dismissal as a teacher and some mentally scarred 11 year olds. Especially since Jamie once wrote 'paedo' on the back of my passport photos I had to hand in with an application form for working with children.
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