Ahoy there from the classroom

Hello and it´s nearly the end of the first week teaching...I actually have 7 classes not 5 as I thought before. It´s fun taking the bus down there, they have mega sound systems and pump out quality tunes in the morning- Eternal Flame etc.. sounds even better on these buses. It is a bloody nightmare being a pedestrian here as cars rule and there´s so much belching smoke and not really much pavement going on by the road. It is pretty much chaos I think I can safely say no one knows what´s going on. I also can now say that teaching adults where they voluntarily come to study as I was doing in London before seems like a total luxury. I´ve been trying out different things and probably have had about one good class with each group. It´s been momentarily fun also knackering and bloody difficult. I salute anyone who teaches this age group, and the thought of doing this in England seems like it would be much much worse. They other teachers have been friendly but it feels like going on an orienteering run with heavy rain obscuring the way. It´s mega challenge trying to keep them all interested, not yelling at them (although one of my colleagues, a teacher from the US, who laughs heartily after all his comments advised me, "if in doubt, shout") also getting a sense of the right tasks for them, I really don´t think I am teenager EFL teacher material.

It turns out the purchase of sensible shoes mght have been a little premature as my last day with these groups is tomorrow. I was substituting while they found the next teacher, who has been found, a good thing for the students. I am going to see if there´s any work with the younger kids though next week. So this weeks been all teaching and the art workshops. Yesterday´s was great and I feel like I learn lots there through working with the kids and being with someone who knows what they are doing.

Things that I have seen that you wouldn´t see in England in the last week- a rubbish collector on back of full rubbish truck eating an orange with bare hands, a invitational poster up by a church to a sermon titled ´the causes of homosexuality´, man on old ladder in middle of road in rush hour traffic fixing wires, puppies packed in cages on the side of the road, live crabs and parrots on sticks for sale at the roundabout near me, the widest selection of stray dogs you´ve ever clapped eyes on...

So a short blog to offset the last one. Hasta la proxima xxx