Thursday, June 11, 2009

I'll be the fire escape that's bolted to the ancient brick, where you will sit and contemplate your day


My photos of Toledo


I really do not have time for writing a blog post; I should be lesson planning. Tomorrow I am teaching an intermediate class about demonstrative pronouns. Which I like to refer to in private as DEMONstrative pronouns, but really, they’re not that bad, I just have to think of activities to practice them. Ay ay ay. Lesson planning has been filling my days here in Madrid. So if you have been having romantic notions of me speaking Spanish to gorgeous men while sipping my café con leche in a bar, snap the hell out of it. I have been frantically trying to think like a non-native English speaker and figure out how to teach this fear-inducing thing we call ‘grammar’. Here I need to complain: why oh why don’t we learn English grammar in school? Come on High School, enough of the goddamn book reviews and poetry writing; we don’t even know how our own language works! So while I have been trying to figure out how to explain what I intrinsically understand, there hasn’t been much time for exploration.

I did go to Toledo, though. It was the bomb-diggity; hells my English be owning, y’all. I was sitting on the train smiling to myself thinking ‘I am in Spain, lah di dah di dah’. Then I walked around alone for four hours and thought ‘I am still in Spain, lah di dah di dah’. Oh oh! I even ordered lunch, and not even at McDonalds, I am improving! No, but seriously, Toledo lifted my spirits a lot; it is gorgeous, and how I expected Spain to look. I bought some marzipan (It's famous...in Toledo) and ate it all myself. Then I was sad that it was all gone. I am still sad it is all gone. I can see the empty box in the rubbish bin, sometimes I stare at it longingly; perhaps I should take the rubbish out.

Since I have been so busy with my course I haven’t really had any time to look for a summer job. Well, I sent a few emails and got ‘our summer positions are filled’ replies. So, in 10 days I will be homeless and jobless with no concrete plan and little money. SUPER! Don’t you just wish you were me? It’s oh so exciting. Well, actually…it sort of is. Tomorrow I am going to give money to my local homeless man. There is a possibility though, that the minute my course ends I will be on a plane out of here.

Not back to Australia, but off to England for at least a month to work. I have to be back in Madrid by September for the beginning of the teaching year, but from the end of June until then, I’m free baby. Well, I use the term ‘free’ loosely; I am free to find summer employment in any part of Europe, not free to roam it aimlessly. Roamy roamy, no, that is not a real word. Next week I am teaching my advanced class ‘Australian terms’, not slang that only bogans use, but actual words we use in Australia that the Spanish are not familiar with, since their teachers are predominantly British and American. Any suggestions, homebakes?

Oh! Today one of the other teachers asked her intermediate class ‘What would you do if you could change sex for a day?’ and one of the students said ‘I would have sex with her’ these kinds of mistakes bring me joy.

Oh Hesus, I just read over that load of pure dribble. Oh well, it’s my blog, I can dribble all I want. Okay, back to demon *cough* stratives.

6 comments:

  1. I quite like your "dribble". It's fun and interesting :)
    Beautiful Toledo views!

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  2. haha wholly crap this entry was enteertaining. Thanks lovey :)

    Spain eh? I remember reading when you were JUST about to leave and now you're all stable and exploring and teaching *sniffle* growing up far too quick little miss ;)

    And re your comment. I always thought it was the OTHER way around. People confusing NZ with Aus lol. I always get comments about kangaroos....

    Much love to you hunny bun

    xx

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  3. LOL i love your posts. They're always so hilarious and enjoyable to read seriously. Normally when I see a whole bunch of words my eyes glaze over but for yours? Eyes are still clear!! X)

    Hey I wanna know some special Aussie words!! So like homebakes = locals back home? Heh more more, please teacher!

    Hmm I'm a little confused though... so you're teaching english now but it's only going to be for a few more days then you'll have to look for a new job? Is this teaching stint considered a job now?

    Certainly is exciting ;p

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  4. HAHHAHAA! love this post.

    okay i will stop leaving comments about you getting attention from hot spanish boys.

    teach them 'woop woop' i didn't even know that word existed until recently.
    teach them the good ol "aussie aussie aussie. oi oi oi". i'm sure that'll be fun. hehe.
    and please don't teach them "crikey"...

    Toledo looks beautiful. it's like the old cobble stone filled towns you see in movies.

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  5. Great views and nice photos. Love them, oh my DEMONstrative pronoun..hahaha You can do it! =D Looking forward on your next post.=D

    Travel and Living
    Job Hunter

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  6. Kez: thanks dude, I´m glad my dribble is appreciated :)

    Eeli: Have I ever told you your name is really cool? how do you pronounce it? Ely?

    tis: haha, thanks, I´m glad I don´t glaze you over, I try to always add a pretty picture to even out the reading :P As for what I´m doing here, I´m taking a course at the moment to help me learn how to teach English, when the course ends I will have to look for proper teaching jobs.

    adreamer: everyone always asks the same question, the conversations go like this friend: so! how is Spain? have you met a hot Spanish guy? Te: No I haven´t Friend: That sucks, oh well... Te: NO IT DOESNT SUCK I HAVEN´T BEEN LOOKING FOR A HOT GUY AND MY HAPPINESS DOES NOT DEPEND ON IT!! Friend: Don´t worry, I´m sure you´ll meet one soon..

    summer: Thanks :) It´s not hard to take nice pictures when I had such awesome scenery.

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