Views from the 11th Floor Apartment I'm staying on and other matters

There was one thing I didn't mention in my La Salle Comtal post, and that is the bizarre brotherhood they have going on at the school. I don't no how I forgot such a striking and utterly bizarre piece of trivia, but there you go.
     The school has four "brothers", who are some sort of modern incarnation of Christian missionaries. And these lot really are missionaries! I talked to one brother, whose name I can't recall, over lunch and he was telling me how he hadn't long been back from the Ivory Coast, where he'd spent 17 years working at a technical school of some sort. The man is 82 now, and spends his lunch either gorging on the free red wine they always have available or trying to thrust it on me! Sometimes of course I relinquish. The elder brothers are very punctual to lunch, enjoying the food and as always the red wine which they keep fridge-cold. They then add sugary sparkling water to the wine to thin it out, apart from Mr. Ivory Coast who chucks it back as if it was cough medicine and he was suffering with a bout of whooping cough so severe you'd think he'd picked it up in Africa... Oh wait...
     Anyway, there is a younger brother who is also a teacher. I don't know how sacrilegious it is to be on Facebook - probably not at all actually; OK to rephrase - how against the rules of the Christian monk society or whatever it is that these lot belong to, to be part of facebook, but, Brother Jabi is on the old fb nevertheless. I'm now friends with him.
And just to complete this mumble-jumble-Christian-alcoholics-fairytale-adventure, some new Mexican monk comes swinging into town midway through last week. I'm picturing Dr. Gonzo from Fear and Loathing; apparently he's back from a prolonged stay in Mexico and he just wants to get down and groovy in Barcelona now. I'm yet to meet him but all the same, he sounds like a fascinating character.
And just when you think I've exhausted the monk story, I've got another punch to swing; apparently there's some other monk who was meant to be back at the school this week but apparently he's having too good a time living it up in the Balearic Islands - no doubt doing shed-loads of Ecstasy with the other ravers in Ibiza - and so he isn't coming back. Oh, and I forgot to mention, the monks live in the school - day and night.

Right, now I'm going to illuminate your frazzled minds after the crazy-messed-up monk story, I'm sure your much in need of some tranquil pictures, so here we have some general ones I've taken out and about in Barcelona. The ones of the views from high up are from the balcony of my apartment!

Enjoy,

Barcelona: The City

Hello everyone, I'm pretty exhausted from the schoolwork and thing, so I'm going to let the pictures do the talking (or writing), plus they will illuminate Barca better than my wayward prose could any day!

So starting with the city, my first impressions were of the Gothic Quarter, in the centre of the city. Here we find the Cathedral, the Roman Ruins as well as a paved passage leading to an open square bordered on all sides by Catalan government and ministerial buildings, one may belong to their version of the mayor. Also when you walk this way you can wonder into the side church of the Cathedral where there are many religious monuments behind bars as well as an open space where for some absurd reason they have geese knocking about! Also in this area there are two ponds and some shrubs and plants - which isn't your normal sightseeing experience in a city's Cathedral!

Anyway the pictures;

Starting with the Cathedral:

And these are the Roman Ruins, around the corner from the Cathedral

And the same room from lower down:

This is the Catalan Ministerial building in the central square just beyond the Cathedral:

The first weekend I arrived, Pere took me to see these sites. There was a big group of people as you can see, and there was a procession of horses and horse and carriages coming through. The people riding the horse's were either dressed like traditional Catalan soldiers or more often rural farm-hands. It really was quite a site, I'll attach a couple of videos at the end of the post,

And this is a nearby Church, just around the corner. Pere told me its significant because in the Civil War there was much fighting here. The holes at the bottom of the stone walls are actually bullet holes. Infact Pere told me there was a massacre here, with many children being shot.


These are the ones inside the side church I aforementioned:

And the Geese!

This above one was impressive but hasn't come out well on camera because of the steel bars.

Two traditional Catalan Musicans, playing Catalan songs.

Again, inside the Cathedral.

The side church from the front.

A monument opposite the Geese festivities

And lastly, one of the Roman Ruins

And I caught this amazing beggar woman with one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard, I'm not sure the video will do justice to her voice,

Adeu!!

La Salle Comtal 25/01

     In Stephen Fry's Chronicles he chronicles the time before university when he became a teacher or a teaching assistant at a boarding school. He wrote that it was the first time he had ever felt true happiness in his younger years and that the job was satisfying, interesting and  fulfilling. He also wrote that he never realised how exhausting it is; constant lesson planning, constant interaction with new people and students, deciding on homework, choosing the syllabus, covering other teachers lessons... ad infinitum. Well not all of those things relate to me as I am only a humble Conversation Auxilliar but I can still relate to feeling knackered! But also happy. The job has been great thus far, nice kids, lovely school, great teachers and a fantastic location. Everyone here is extremely friendly to me - one teacher has arranged for me to meet her daughter who is a student at Barcelona's university and I can go out and have a laugh with her friends - she's friends with an Australian guy - and all the other teachers have gone out of their way to make me feel settled. I'm lucky though, as I was talking to one of the other language assistants called Becky, a nice girl from Nottingham, and she said as soon as she arrived they piled on loads of work and told her to prepare for exams! She said she was especially anxious because the assistant before her was fired and she was given the girls notebook which she said had copious notes on lessons and teaching! So, comparing my experience to hers, I have to say I've got a great school.
     My personal tutor is Jose Luis, who is the main primary education English teacher. He's a really good bloke, at first I didn't know why he was helping me with everything so extensively until I found out he was infact my personal tutor - I was under the impression that my tutor would be someone from CAPS.
Well he's properly taken me under his wing so to speak - I think he likes the whole big brother looking after the younger scenario we have going on. The only thing I will say is, it was a bit disconcerting when he winked at me and called me a "good boy" just because I had described my fondness for Paella to one of the other teachers. It was a bit weird and also a bit depreciating.

    Well, let me give you a little education on the school before I post some photos of the escola and the nearby area - which is of course the Gothic Quarter.
The school is a primary, secondary and nursery all in one. The ages range between 3-16, and I will be teaching all ages! This week I haven't been teaching the secondary lot as they have been doing different activities than usual. Infact, I haven't been teaching at all, but I have been sitting in on Jose's lessons to get a feel for it and to observe the level of the different grades.
So we have the kindergarten, which has three years:
P3, P4 and P5 - the number relates to their age. These guys are easy and fun, they mostly draw, play with puzzles or watch cartoons.
     Then we have the primary school of which I will be helping in Jose's classes, as well as the other English teachers. I will be taking the kids in groups of 3,4 or 5 to my office and then we will be practising conversations. I have spent the afternoon working out the activities for next week and its all sorted now. I'll be reviewing various games etc. on this blog so in a way this blog may morph from being a traditional travel blog to a teacher training one!

     So in primary school there are grades 1 to 6. 1 being 6-7 year olds, 2 is 7-8 years and so on. Then at thirteen they start secondary school which carries on to 16. From here they have the choice of working or continuing their education at their version of a sixth form college.
     So I'll be having contact with all the different age ranges and currently the most difficult aspect for me is trying to work out the level of English they all have. And the secondary problem to that is the levels vary widely in each year range. There is a girl in grade 4 for example whose father is from Chicago and for this reason her English is wildly better than the others. So I think I'll be picking the best and putting them together, ranking groups according to their level of English.

     Anyway, I have some photos of the school which is better than my words;

This is the street view of the school early in the morning.
Its a square building and you wouldn't notice it or even know it was a school if you weren't told or maybe the children weren't at the front door come 9 o'clock waiting for it to open.

A Piece of graffiti I'm guessing one of the students did as the school don't seem to mind in the slightest.

The street view of the school facing the Palau de Musica which is an amazing building and very famous in Barcelona. The next photos show off the splendour of its Art Nouveau façade, inspired of course by Gaudi but not actually built by the man. Here they have world-renowned musicians, mostly classical, but also some more "mainstream" acts.

A look inside...

And the corner of the school, which I think I've captured quite brilliantly...

                                          The Palau with its magnificent creatures collected together at the corner and leaning outwards into the street.

And lastly the view before I take a left and head into the school.