Classes and coffee

 Welcome back “loyal readers”! 

So I’ve now been in León a whole week and that’s a crazy feeling. I’m very much enjoying the café culture and the generosity of the Spanish at the moment. 

I've done about 6ish lessons so far and they've all gone ok...😖I definitely prefer the slightly older years as I'm not that good at getting on with the 4/5 year olds- it's difficult to engage with them in the same way. I'd say the other lessons went well though, I really like playing games and having fun with the class as I think they do get bored of just reading from a textbook (just to clarify I'm not just playing hangman every day I am actually teaching them things😂). 

It's really interesting that different classes from the same year group are at such different levels, and this took me a while to realise. I turned up to a class ready to teach one particular phrase which their peers struggled with and they turned out to be absolutely fine. I then had to find something to do for the next half an hour until the lesson ended 😭. I think the key is to just have a lot of things prepared just in case something doesn't go according to plan.

Otherwise though, I love going into school! The children are so sweet, and always say "hello Lydia" whenever they see me. I've had a few interesting questions like "How did you find learning Spanish from an English perspective?" from a very advanced 10 year old; it did catch me by surprise haha! I'm starting to get the hang of the primary school now, and understand what I have to do for each lesson. I'm just worried about this coming week as I have to go to the secondary school this week which is a bit daunting as I am sort of back to square one in terms of knowing the level of each of the years. Hopefully this time though, I'll be allowed to use the textbook so I won't be as lost as in the primary school!

I've also been having a great time outside of class, going out with the other Erasmuses and exploring a bit of León nightlife, which is definitely not as bad as I thought! Unfortunately though, I've sprained my ankle so I've been hobbling through the streets in desperate search of a coffee and some tapas the past few days. The thing that's really saving me though is the siesta- how I'm ever going to live without it in England I don't know.

¡Pues hablarémos pronto!



Location: León, Spain

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