Sunday, March 31, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
19/03
My birthday looms heavy in the headlights of my future, but in all honestly turning 23 doesn´t really bother me. I´m still young, at least I feel it, and every year I´m getting more and more messed up and mixed up and I suppose in life that´s all you can really ask for...
Anyway, it was a fun weekend and I´m currently in the school. I´ve got a few minutes to spare as my morning lesson was cancelled because the ESO are off on a school trip. About the weekend... I was going to go out both friday and saturday but I literally closed my eyes for a couple of seconds on friday night, at home relaxing, and woosh there went 3 hours - I woke up startled at about 2 in the morning with all my lights on. This has actually happened a few times, I think with this job I haven´t really ever felt this level of tiredness. Well perhaps after some of the nights out when we were working at the olympics... I felt close to madness a few times... But yer, with this job it is tiring and when your tired in the day the last thing you want is aload of rowdy 6 year olds to deal with. But you do your job, and its one of those the more you put in, definately the more you get out. I try and keep it as fun as possible for the kids but I do have to be careful I don´t bridge the gap between friend and teacher - I mean I no I´m only a language assistant, and the kids know that, and some of the younger ones use that as an excuse to play up, but I take it with a pinch of salt, try and just have fun whilst hopefully teaching them something. I wouldn´t compare this job to anything as panic-inducing as being a stand-up comedian, but there is the element of performance to it. This is not so much with the young kids, but with the ESO (secondary school), this is definately true. I do have to get up infront of them and I suppose I do get a rush from it as I do have an addicts relationship with my adrenaline and I enjoy to entertain, but if I feel abit shaky for whatever reason, the task can seem 10times more daunting. Generally though, its all going fine, even if I have been blagging my way through some hours. The best thing I´ve found is actually counter-intuitive; don´t rely too heavily on your prep, have it as a guide and structure to the lesson, but wherever you can ask them questions and get them talking - as soon as you do this they feel involved, the confident ones have no problem with it, and it brings the shy ones out of their shell.
Anyway, the weekend was one, I saw some of the language assistants on sat night and me and mike went to La Ramblas with a friend of his called Andrea, bit of an odd girl. And we also met another language assistant whose been nicknamed Cat Aids..... Well 1euro shots all around, free entry into a nightclub because the swedish promoter thought we was cool, all this talk about chicks with dicks because some promoter kept going on about - and to round it off I´m sure I saw them same prostitute gang who tried to rob sam streets wallet when we were here on our way to Bestival. Well it was good to have a mad one for St. Paddy´s, the old guy would be proud. And then on sunday I used Prezi succesfully to make this presentation on St. Paddy´s which should get its airing this afternoon to some of the ESO classes, the 15year olds I think they are...
Anyway, it was a fun weekend and I´m currently in the school. I´ve got a few minutes to spare as my morning lesson was cancelled because the ESO are off on a school trip. About the weekend... I was going to go out both friday and saturday but I literally closed my eyes for a couple of seconds on friday night, at home relaxing, and woosh there went 3 hours - I woke up startled at about 2 in the morning with all my lights on. This has actually happened a few times, I think with this job I haven´t really ever felt this level of tiredness. Well perhaps after some of the nights out when we were working at the olympics... I felt close to madness a few times... But yer, with this job it is tiring and when your tired in the day the last thing you want is aload of rowdy 6 year olds to deal with. But you do your job, and its one of those the more you put in, definately the more you get out. I try and keep it as fun as possible for the kids but I do have to be careful I don´t bridge the gap between friend and teacher - I mean I no I´m only a language assistant, and the kids know that, and some of the younger ones use that as an excuse to play up, but I take it with a pinch of salt, try and just have fun whilst hopefully teaching them something. I wouldn´t compare this job to anything as panic-inducing as being a stand-up comedian, but there is the element of performance to it. This is not so much with the young kids, but with the ESO (secondary school), this is definately true. I do have to get up infront of them and I suppose I do get a rush from it as I do have an addicts relationship with my adrenaline and I enjoy to entertain, but if I feel abit shaky for whatever reason, the task can seem 10times more daunting. Generally though, its all going fine, even if I have been blagging my way through some hours. The best thing I´ve found is actually counter-intuitive; don´t rely too heavily on your prep, have it as a guide and structure to the lesson, but wherever you can ask them questions and get them talking - as soon as you do this they feel involved, the confident ones have no problem with it, and it brings the shy ones out of their shell.
Anyway, the weekend was one, I saw some of the language assistants on sat night and me and mike went to La Ramblas with a friend of his called Andrea, bit of an odd girl. And we also met another language assistant whose been nicknamed Cat Aids..... Well 1euro shots all around, free entry into a nightclub because the swedish promoter thought we was cool, all this talk about chicks with dicks because some promoter kept going on about - and to round it off I´m sure I saw them same prostitute gang who tried to rob sam streets wallet when we were here on our way to Bestival. Well it was good to have a mad one for St. Paddy´s, the old guy would be proud. And then on sunday I used Prezi succesfully to make this presentation on St. Paddy´s which should get its airing this afternoon to some of the ESO classes, the 15year olds I think they are...
Thursday, March 14, 2013
14/03
So things are going good atmo. Been keeping healthy, playing football with the teachers on thursday's which is always decent. I've been making some trips around Barca, piecing the city together piece by piece slowly but surely. I've been spending alot of time working and trying my best to stay organised - which with a 7 second memory does prove very difficult. Tbh the planning and staying organised things are where I go most awry, but the lessons generally seem to be going well and the kids respond to me positively. Most of them think I'm half-mad, but if I'm reinforcing the English eccentric stereotype I suppose I'm doing a sterling job.
At the school, I think I'm regarded as something somewhere between a quiet, well-dressed gentleman and a half-mad, English oddity. Well to be honest its usually when I let my mad impulses and quirky side take over that the kids seem to find me funny and entertaining.... but at what cost? Whether or not they're learning anything is a completely different matter. And then there's the matter of what they're learning. Having no filter between my brain and mouth has engineered some interesting and highly regretful moments throughout the meandering course of my life, and I think at the school the kids find me somewhere between entertaining and baffling. The other day I caught myself talking about Heroin because we had stumbled on the conversation of Trainspotting and films... and then in some desperate act I started raving like a lunatic high on the stuff "look I'm not promoting heroin, I don't want the take-away message of this lesson to be that Tom endorses heroin. Only the high quality China-white stuff...." Well thank god I didn't say that last sentence, but nevertheless I had started ranting about heroin and I just hope some of the topics of conversation don't get back to the teacher cos I'll be hung, drawn and quartered.
This afternoon I was running late for my afternoon lesson which was partly my fault for not giving myself enough time but also because none of the printers seemed to be working in the school.. well luckily I finally found a functioning one and after shouting my head off and cursing all the computers in the school in a state of frantic rage - the sentiment being something akin to Harry's words in In Bruges "YOU FUCKING INADEQUATE OBJECT" - I grabbed my worksheets and ran off to the secondary school, almost piling face-first into a dutiful cleaner on the way, and made it too late to even do any of the work I had printed off. So this is where my frankly astounding talent for talking utter bullshit kicked in; the conversation ran along the lines of the kids telling me their favourite bands, bad impersonations of Brummies as I tried to explain different accents in the UK and me shouting my head off at the primary lot through the windows because one of them slammed a football into it, "you jackasses!!" And then to my students, "That, class, is an impersonation of a typical American accent...." To round it all off I finished the lesson by showing them the one pound fish man, "a typical bartering market man from London on display for you here kids...."
Well somehow I've still got a job, so I suppose all the stress and constant demands of the day is worth it. Its bloody tiring, but luckily I've got some good ideas now. It's just bringing these ideas to fruition.... I wanna teach the kids about sports they don't no such as Rugby and Cricket, which could be good, so I'll have to try and find a cheap basic cricket set and/or rugby ball from somewhere and we can play a little in the school-yard.
Anyway, that's enough ranting for one day. So the past weekend was packed full of vista-points; the spectacular Park Guell on friday, designed by Gaudi, offered some of his unique architectural delights such as a spell-blinding church which looked like something out of a Tim Burton film and great 360 views across the city and the sparkling ocean beyond. A particular highlight was when I first arrived and went up the viewing monument replete with a mounted cross reaching the highest point of the park, visible from everywhere else, and many an american accent drifted on the warm currents of air... well a complete lunatic broke the sanctity of the scene I just painted. But it was hilarious. Here was a madman screaming and thrashing his guitar in some sort of attempt to play acoustic glam-rock. His hair was down to his arms and he wore ridiculous white shades and was fully decked in a leopard-print outfit and would just shout a random word outloud and bash his guitar, every now and then he went into some terrible rendition of an Elvis song... well the video will illuminate all.
Anyway, I'll post some pictures and the video, but I'd better be off, Adeu!
Ha Duff Beers!
Perfect day to see the sights, the graffiti on the building wasn't bad either..
The lunatic
I decided to walk back from Park Guell to see if I could just do it, half because I hate the metro and half because I thought I could do it. Well turns out I could, took about 3 hours mind but then I was stopping for beer fuel along the way. The above statue is on Diagonal. The building below is a now-redundant bull-fighting arena.
And the water bottle building, 15mins or so away from the flat. Pretty funky at night.
Oh and on a side note I've now had my running shoes chucked away by Laura, who thought because they were near the rubbish they were included in that rubbish... I'd put them in a bag to dry out in the laundry area. So that's my nexus and running shoes gone, the last being from San Franscisco bought as a birthday present...how much where they again? Well I told Laura those last two things just to sadistically ram home the guilt, but alas, we made a joke of it and she said she'd buy me some new ones. I'm not sure whether to say just pay half, as they have been good to me and running shoes can be expensive....
Anyway, here's the video;
Enjoy!
At the school, I think I'm regarded as something somewhere between a quiet, well-dressed gentleman and a half-mad, English oddity. Well to be honest its usually when I let my mad impulses and quirky side take over that the kids seem to find me funny and entertaining.... but at what cost? Whether or not they're learning anything is a completely different matter. And then there's the matter of what they're learning. Having no filter between my brain and mouth has engineered some interesting and highly regretful moments throughout the meandering course of my life, and I think at the school the kids find me somewhere between entertaining and baffling. The other day I caught myself talking about Heroin because we had stumbled on the conversation of Trainspotting and films... and then in some desperate act I started raving like a lunatic high on the stuff "look I'm not promoting heroin, I don't want the take-away message of this lesson to be that Tom endorses heroin. Only the high quality China-white stuff...." Well thank god I didn't say that last sentence, but nevertheless I had started ranting about heroin and I just hope some of the topics of conversation don't get back to the teacher cos I'll be hung, drawn and quartered.
This afternoon I was running late for my afternoon lesson which was partly my fault for not giving myself enough time but also because none of the printers seemed to be working in the school.. well luckily I finally found a functioning one and after shouting my head off and cursing all the computers in the school in a state of frantic rage - the sentiment being something akin to Harry's words in In Bruges "YOU FUCKING INADEQUATE OBJECT" - I grabbed my worksheets and ran off to the secondary school, almost piling face-first into a dutiful cleaner on the way, and made it too late to even do any of the work I had printed off. So this is where my frankly astounding talent for talking utter bullshit kicked in; the conversation ran along the lines of the kids telling me their favourite bands, bad impersonations of Brummies as I tried to explain different accents in the UK and me shouting my head off at the primary lot through the windows because one of them slammed a football into it, "you jackasses!!" And then to my students, "That, class, is an impersonation of a typical American accent...." To round it all off I finished the lesson by showing them the one pound fish man, "a typical bartering market man from London on display for you here kids...."
Well somehow I've still got a job, so I suppose all the stress and constant demands of the day is worth it. Its bloody tiring, but luckily I've got some good ideas now. It's just bringing these ideas to fruition.... I wanna teach the kids about sports they don't no such as Rugby and Cricket, which could be good, so I'll have to try and find a cheap basic cricket set and/or rugby ball from somewhere and we can play a little in the school-yard.
Anyway, that's enough ranting for one day. So the past weekend was packed full of vista-points; the spectacular Park Guell on friday, designed by Gaudi, offered some of his unique architectural delights such as a spell-blinding church which looked like something out of a Tim Burton film and great 360 views across the city and the sparkling ocean beyond. A particular highlight was when I first arrived and went up the viewing monument replete with a mounted cross reaching the highest point of the park, visible from everywhere else, and many an american accent drifted on the warm currents of air... well a complete lunatic broke the sanctity of the scene I just painted. But it was hilarious. Here was a madman screaming and thrashing his guitar in some sort of attempt to play acoustic glam-rock. His hair was down to his arms and he wore ridiculous white shades and was fully decked in a leopard-print outfit and would just shout a random word outloud and bash his guitar, every now and then he went into some terrible rendition of an Elvis song... well the video will illuminate all.
Anyway, I'll post some pictures and the video, but I'd better be off, Adeu!
Ha Duff Beers!
Perfect day to see the sights, the graffiti on the building wasn't bad either..
The lunatic
I decided to walk back from Park Guell to see if I could just do it, half because I hate the metro and half because I thought I could do it. Well turns out I could, took about 3 hours mind but then I was stopping for beer fuel along the way. The above statue is on Diagonal. The building below is a now-redundant bull-fighting arena.
And the water bottle building, 15mins or so away from the flat. Pretty funky at night.
Oh and on a side note I've now had my running shoes chucked away by Laura, who thought because they were near the rubbish they were included in that rubbish... I'd put them in a bag to dry out in the laundry area. So that's my nexus and running shoes gone, the last being from San Franscisco bought as a birthday present...how much where they again? Well I told Laura those last two things just to sadistically ram home the guilt, but alas, we made a joke of it and she said she'd buy me some new ones. I'm not sure whether to say just pay half, as they have been good to me and running shoes can be expensive....
Anyway, here's the video;
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
06/03
So recently things have been ok, fairly quiet. I had my google nexus stolen so I´ve been on abit of a bummer.
Coming up with new lesson plans is taking its toll and with my 10second memory and shite organisation its been difficult. But I´m getting by. The weathers taking a bad turn and its been raining really heavily. Shame because the weekend was real nice. The playground becomes like an ice rink with the water, its so slippery, so kids have been colliding into each other all week.
Well I´ll keep you updated about the Nexus situation. The schools in the process of seeing whether we can claim the money for it via the insurance. The headmistress seems optimistic about it.
Ok, until next time, Adeu!
Coming up with new lesson plans is taking its toll and with my 10second memory and shite organisation its been difficult. But I´m getting by. The weathers taking a bad turn and its been raining really heavily. Shame because the weekend was real nice. The playground becomes like an ice rink with the water, its so slippery, so kids have been colliding into each other all week.
Well I´ll keep you updated about the Nexus situation. The schools in the process of seeing whether we can claim the money for it via the insurance. The headmistress seems optimistic about it.
Ok, until next time, Adeu!
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