celta week 4

I sit here now as a free woman! I am done (almost) with CELTA! I figure that since I am flying back to the States on Friday night, I will be too tired to write anything at the weekend. So, you get my weekly report on Wednesday because people: I AM DONE!! I completed TP8 and have Assignment 4 marked.

BAM. Finto. Done.

I admit that there is that slight anti-climatic feeling when you finish any course, but it has ended on such a great note for me. Well, almost ended. I still have a couple more input sessions and watch the other trainees in my group for their final TPs.

Monday, as you can guess from that post, went beautifully for TP7. I did a writing skills lesson and I wasn't all that chuffed about it. Why? Well, no one in the course had done a writing skills lesson and there was a lot of pressure to plan this very independently from the tutor. I did get some help from Helen, though. She had great ideas. There were the moments of up and down, but again I stepped out of my own head and into the classroom. That must be my secret. I had control of the class, but I also was willing to relinquish that control to make it more student-centered. There was a moment of utter fear when I realized that I forgot to tell them the purpose of a certain task, but it all worked out well in the end. The biggest lesson is: did you achieve your main aim? What is the evidence that the main aim was achieved? If you can answer those two questions, you are golden.

Tuesday was more input and a free afternoon! I went to the Ulster Museum (a post on that later) and the Botanic Gardens, only to get caught in a rather lovely rainstorm. People looked at me like I was nuts.

Today was more input. We are cramming a lot into the few days that we have left. There are many things to get done in a short amount of time. We are going over different types of English classes and how to handle them. Today was teaching young learners and business English.

But then came the moment of realizing that my final TP was only a few hours away. There were some butterflies starting in my stomach, so I figured that I needed to eat a good meal (you know, just in case it was the last one) and get in the zone. I went up early to the classroom, which isn't all that shocking considering that I do that all the time, and listened to Macklemore's "Can't Hold Us" on repeat for 15 minutes. Yes, judge me for my taste in get-in-the-zone music, but that song has been stuck in my head for days and it has a sense of excitement.

My lesson started and I only had two students. Okay, breathe. It would be a push, but I had planned for that situation,. Luckily, some students showed up later and I had a total of six, which couldn't have been more perfect. We did the reading skills lesson and when I finished, I dropped the figurative mic. I felt relieved. There was a bit of worry as I dissected my lesson in my head while another trainee was going, but I then I remembered that that was it! I am DONE!!!

Goodness, it is hard to believe how much I have learned in the past weeks in Belfast. This experience has been so worth it (another post on that later) and I am so grateful that I came and did this. I am looking forward to the next adventures and have gained the confidence that I cannot only do these types of experiences, but flourish as well.

the thing of nightmares

TP7 is done and my last assignment is done (not quite dusted, I need it double marked first). It is hard to believe how fast it is going. I even have the afternoon off tomorrow!

TP7 was a success. There was this moment where I completely forgot to tell them something, but it all worked out nicely in the end. (Hey, an above standard isn't too shabby.) I was doing a writing skills lesson, process not product writing. It was collaborative, which made the final stories rather entertaining. The idea was that the students needed to write a three paragraph story about Jack, a man that is afraid of everything. (They were supposed to write the stories based on pictures the drew, but that didn't quite work out. They ended up being about nightmares Jack had.) They needed to use at least one time phrase (i.e. one day, a few weeks later, eventually, etc.) per paragraph.

Here are the results with no editing on my part:

Story 1

Once there was a man called Jack that decided to have a nice weekend in the nature with friends. They rent a car and took a tent, and they drove for 2 hours.

When they arrived, they prepared the dinner. Also they built a fire. After a while, they went to sleep. In the middle of the night, when everyone were sleeping, a fox came near the tent and scared everyone. Jack was lucky because the fox ate all the food and all his friends. But he still alive.

Finally he came back home alone, and before that day he felt scared of all kinds of animals.


Story 2

Once there was a man who lives on the roof of a high building was very happy. One day, many years ago he saw a seagull. They were very hungry and they took his food and they gone. A few days later the seagulls came back, but they didn't come alone. There was another animal with them. It was a strange animal with two heads.

Hack was scared because he never saw this strange bird. The strange bird was very hungry but the food that Jack had it wasn't enough. And the strange bird started to bit him. After a while seagulls was getting more. Jack was very scared because he didn't know how to go out of there.

Finally, some neighbour saw him and he came to help him with his dog. The dog bite to the strange bird and he scaped for no more apperceded.


Story 3

Once upon at time there was a man called Jack, Jack many years ago went to an interview in a top of big building. When he arrived nobody was there, then he decided to go up stairs and he arrived to the top.

Suddenly he saw a lady who loudly said his name "JACK" and after that she felt down from the building. He couldn't do anything to stop her from suiciding.

A few weeks passed he had a new interview in the same building. He asked for Catherine and his surprised was Catherine was the same women. Finally he check round and Jack woke up.


Which was your favourite? Comment below. 

celta week 3

Week 3 is over and thank goodness for that! This has been the busiest and craziest week so far. There has been so much to do, so many things to think about that it can only be summed up by what I did last night:

I turned on the overhead light in my room. I got all ready for bed, got into bed and turned on the lamp. I sat there wondering why the overhead light was still on. Yep, I thought by turning "off" the lamp I was turning off the overhead light.

Or something that happened earlier today:

I got a lift this morning to church and the sweet lady texted me later and said: "I found a 5 note on the floor. Is it yours?" How did I respond? "I don't think so. Does it have my name on it?" She meant a 5 pound note! Wow, I am just losing it each day.

So, that is a great summary of the week.

Monday was a bit--a lot--hectic. We switched locations with the other CELTA group, so we now meet at the auxiliary location. It is about a 8 minutes walk from the school, so it isn't too bad. But we kept having to go back and forth on Monday since we had tutorials. Tutorials are sit-down individual interviews with the tutor that has been working with you that week. In my case for my TP group, that is Sophie. It was nice. We each had to respond to a series of prompts regarding our teaching, classroom management, etc., rating whether we were below, to, or above standard. Sophie then responded to the prompts of what she thought. It was a nice moment to have alone with Sophie and talk about my feelings and what I could do to improve in the latter half of the course. Very productive, though it caused me to get a little over my head on Tuesday for TP5.

Tuesdays must be my unlucky teaching day, or just the odd TP lessons, because TP5 did not go well. I passed it and all, but it wasn't that successful and I didn't feel good about it at all. I was so tired, I was in my head so much about how it could go, I was thinking about my tutorial and then BAM. It all just was a bit too much all at once. Suffice it to say there were a few tears after my lesson. Not sobbing or anything like that, but a few tears. I ended up just chilling on Tuesday night and taking a moment to get out of the funk.

It must have worked because my TP6 on Thursday went beautifully! I really focused on the students and getting them to be engaged in the learning. I stepped out of my own head and just told myself, "Hey, I love this. Let's crank it." Did I have hiccups? Over course? Did I ask any ICQs? Not really, and the one I did ask was rubbish. Let's face it, I'm terrible at ICQs. But the lesson felt so right on so many levels and I can only hope that it will continue like that for TP7 and TP8.

(And because of the changes for the last week of the course, I teach Monday for 45 minutes and Wednesday for 60 minutes.)

Friday was a blast. I think all of the trainees are a bit fried, so things are just becoming funnier all of the time! We played a grammar review game for one of the input sessions with Sophie and I totally made a fool of myself in the best way possible. The game was that one person from each team would go to the board and Sophie would as for an example of a specific grammatical structure, like a compound noun or present perfect simple. The rest of the team could call out answers.

Well, our team was doing well (we won in the end despite my blunder) and it was Matthew's turn at the board. Sophie asks for an example of a regular verb and I start yelling, "Bird!! Matthew, BIRD!! BIRD!!!" I have no idea what I was thinking because obviously I heard regular noun and not regular verb. Matthew comes back to the table and asks, "Who was yelling bird?" Colm, another one of the trainees, looks at me and just said, "Yeah, why were you yelling bird?" So I just dissolve into a massive fit of laughter and the rest of the day we joked about "birding".

Yep, the life of the CELTA trainee.

It is hard to believe that it is the last week already. Ione, my Spanish flatmate, left at half 2 in the morning yesterday to head home to Spain and I am waiting on getting a new flatmate from Germany for the week. I am still fried, but looking forward to my lessons. Since I teach Wednesday at 2pm, I will be done with almost all of my CELTA responsibilities on Wednesday at 3pm GMT. Think about me then, people. I will be dancing.

little red riding hood

Today in CELTA we did a writing skills lesson. We observed and took part in how to best teach both product and process writing.

The process came out with a rather hilarious result.

Sophie asked us to sum up the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale in 5 points. She then assigned each group a point and a genre in which to rewrite it (GENIUS!). Here is the result:

"Millions of years ago, on a distant planet where space and time are meaningless, where talking wolves are common, a young female in a red coat with a hood set off on an extraordinary voyage across a vast land. Her grandmother, relying on the substance the girl carried to maintain her existence, waited for her at the outer reaches of the land.

 Rugged, middle-aged male with good appetite (not a fussy eater), strong animal instinct, and interest in impersonation seeks a young, healthy, trusting female for one night dinner date and a relationship he can get his teeth into.

The wolf's sharp fangs sunk deep into granny's fragile neck. The bones crunched and the jugular vein spouted blood like a fountain. Granny let out a blood curdling scream before being devoured by that vicious, snarling creature. With a full belly, the wolf continued with his foul plan. He assumed Granny's identity by donning the blood-soaked garb of the deceased centenarian. He got into bed and waited for his next unsuspecting victim. His thirst for blood was unquenchable.

Little Red Riding Hood looks deeps into the wolf's eyes. "What beautiful eyes you have!" "All the the better to take in your breathtaking beauty, my darling." "What big ears you have!" "All the better to hear your melodious voice." "What big teeth you have!" All the better to nibble your ears." "What a big nose you have!" "All the better to smell your lovely fragrance." Little Red Riding Hood blushed, "Nibble my ears? Are you really my true love?" The wolf jumps out of bed.

So when you find yourself in a difficult situation, hearing a full-bellied wolf snore for example, remember that when the wolves are near, you are a strong, capable, handsome, wood-chopping man. Just because something looks bad doesn't mean it is. YOU have the power to fix it with these easy steps: 1) Enter the danger zone with confidence. 2) Approach the demon. 3) Take control. Make sure your knife (or any other weapon of your choosing) is sharp. 4) Decisively attack the demon and leave no room for error. 5) Pull good things out of the bad situation. Positivity is an attitude! 6) Enjoy your success.

Now, what lessons can you learn from this story? How can you apply this to your life? Fill in your answers in the space below and remember to act on it everyday."

Genius, am I right?

Comment below if you can guess the genre of each paragraph. And extra points to the person who guesses which paragraph I had part in writing (I think it is a bit obvious). 

a reminder for positivity

I don't know what it is about Tuesday, but I feel like that must be a bad day teaching wise for me. It was rough--not terrible--just rough. I was so prepared to teaching about defining relative clauses and it just didn't do the way that I had hoped or planned. Yes, the students were able to use them correctly by the end of the lesson, but that doesn't mean each stage was a success.

BUT despite all of those feelings, it is important to decide to stay positive. Things might be falling apart around you, you might mess up in front of everyone, but that doesn't matter. Decide NOW that you will succeed. It might take a thousand times, but determination always wins out over luck. Preparation is key. Practice. Patience. These are attributes of a positive mindset. I am learning on each day of this course to focus on the people and remain upbeat. I had some tears for a bit during feedback after TP and another trainee, Suzana, told me that she didn't know what to do with that because I am always so happy.

Be happy. Be positive. LAUGH! Seriously, read a joke today and have a laugh. It is important to let yourself be and remember that not everything needs to be golden, it just needs to work. Perfection is a worthy goal, but remember that being human is a practice of endurance, not perfectionism.

follow me on instagram

Hey, people of the blog-o-verse! If you want even more pictures, follow me on Instagram @robi653. 

a bit of craic

Craic. Isn't that such a good Irish word? It means a fun, enjoyable activity, but as you can probably guess it sounds exactly like crack. How did I come to learn this word? Well, it could possibly be my English is getting worse during the CELTA, so I might as well learn Irish. Or it could've been the fact that I heard one of the CELTA trainees Emma ask someone if they would "like a bit of craic."

WHAT??  For a second I seriously thought she was offering drugs. Emma? Drugs?? No way. Come to find out it is the Irish way of saying fun.

Random.

And scunnered. That is an Ulster Scot word for frustrated. I love these random words I am learning.

So, yesterday I had a bit of craic. Emma took me and the other American on the course, Michael, out for a bit of fun. We took the train from Belfast to Ballymoney and then Emma took us around to some beautiful beaches on the cost, Giant's Causeway, and Portrush. We tried to go to the Dark Hedges (I went there before the course started), but there was a bunch of runners and tourists. The so-called hedges weren't exactly amendable to being seen that day.

It was such a great and relaxing (almost) day. We did have to take a good hike back up a sizable hill (half sand, half huge steps) from one of the beaches, but it was a lovely day. We laughed a lot, made some truly terrible CELTA jokes, and of course, talked about how we are on the brink of losing our minds!

[Note: CELTA isn't that bad, but it is intense.]

Here are a few pictures from the craicy (can it be an adjective?) day:

This is the first beach we visited, Ballintoy. Some of it is actually "beachy", but it is mostly rocks and small rock pools with piles of seaweed. You can scramble on all of the rocks, which is so fun. The waves were beautiful too, cresting and crashing into the rocky shore.

Emma is a professional photographer. And that isn't a joke, that is part of what she does for a living. And her Instagram is amazing! She was so excited to take pictures of Michael and I so we could send some home to our families. She told me to look graceful on this rock...don't know if that quite worked out.

I climbed up to the top of this rock and Emma asked me to jump. Not jump off, you know, but jump for a action shot. Yep, I don't know how well you can see but that rock is most definitely NOT even. It would have been my certain death (or a broken ankle). This was another not-so-graceful attempt at being artistic. 

This is the second beach we went to and had a bit of a picnic. It was lovely and there were a load of cows enjoying the scenery as well. They were just walking up and down the beach all nonchalant-like. Emma has this fear of livestock (for a good reason), so she was trying to avoid the cows at all cost.

Here we are! Michael, Emma, and I. It was the only moment that it wasn't too windy and after I took our "selfie" (ick....I hate that word) I started to laugh since I feel like my head looks HUGE!!

Ah, standing in the cold water of the Atlantic Ocean. We were hanging out down there and Emma decided to wait to take the picture right as a wave crashed against me. It wasn't high at all, but managed to splash my bottom quite nicely. Cold buns.

This is one of the only non-full-of-people shots that I managed to get at Giant's Causeway. It is the amazing pile of the hexagonal stones, all naturally occurring! It looks completely fake, but it is real. What is even more cool is that there identical rocks right across the way in Scotland. There is a legend about a giant that built a bridge from Ireland to Scotland to visit his girlfriend, but the giant Finn McCool came along and destroyed it. 

Here is a better closeup of the rocks. 

Emma captured this for me. She is a fan of the windswept look. I laugh because that one piece of my hair looks blonde. It most definitely is not blonde. 

This just might be my favorite photo of the day. It is an absolutely breathtaking coastline with fantastic cliffs and the storm moving out to sea is just so beautiful. 

What is even better about the day? We didn't get rained on until the very end. We ate at a place called the Neptune & Prawn that served Chinese, curries, and Thai food. Oh, and steak and chicken. And chips, you can't forget the chips. The gluten free options were quite impressive. 

Overall, the day of craic was a success and very much needed.

celta week 2

The halfway point has been reached. As you can probably guess from my post on Tuesday, the week started out a bit rough. I was prepared for my lesson on Tuesday, but it didn't go very well. No need to bring that all up again. The rest of the week went up from there.

The input sessions in the morning were a little more intense this week. We had a lot of material to get through and only 4 mornings to do it. We went over more teaching frameworks, grammar (that was fun and somewhat depressing), sentence stress, connected speech, and guided discovery. The rest of the days were devoted to planning, preparing, and teaching.

This week was the last week with the elementary students. It is amazing how much I have come to love that class and those students. They are such fantastic adults and there have been some pretty funny moments. One of the older students (around 55) is Diego. He is from Spain and a total ladies man. He always jokes about when he travels that it isn't for the sites, it is to see women. Paco, another guy from Spain, is basically a man boy. He decided against university in order to start his music career (he plays the guitar). He always laughs that it didn't pan out very well.

I always like to start my classes by getting the students pumped up. I'll ask, "Are you EXCITED??" There is no point being there is you aren't going to be involved, am I right? And who said that learning a foreign language had to be droll all of the time? I say make it exciting and entertaining! Make it difficult and intellectual. I'm all for students talking more than the teacher (I just need to stop commentating the class).

There was something this week that was quite funny. I have a tendency to just "lose it" on Fridays. Everything becomes really funny and I have a tendency to laugh a bit too much. So, this past Friday we were doing feedback after observing the intermediate class since my TP group will be teaching them for the last two weeks. I was with my 2 other TP mates and we were talking about the need for ICQs (instruction checking questions). It seemed that in the intermediate class they weren't needed, which is good since I am rubbish at asking them anyway. Case in point being my lesson on Thursday on present simple v present continuous for the elementary students. I blocked my instructions, demoed the worksheet, handed it out, they started....and then I asked the most POINTLESS ICQ IN THE WORLD! What was I thinking? I interrupted the flow of things because that obnoxious CELTA gnome in the back of my mind was saying "ask and ICQ...you need to make sure that you ask an ICQ!" I ask something along the lines of how many things do they need to write--absolutely absurd. I was telling this to my mates and I started laughing so hard that I couldn't even tell the story. Ah, good times.

I know that it probably isn't that funny to read. I'll have to tell it to you in person, it is much more entertaining and humorous.

Anyway, that was good.

I will miss the elementary class. But I am excited for the challenge of taking on the intermediate class. I am halfway done with my prep for TP5 on Tuesday.

I feel like this post is a bit addled, much like the current state of my brain. Suffice it to say that it was a good and busy week. A lot of things got done, which is good considering that the tutors and reception ladies have told us that week 3 is the worst of the course and a lot of trainees start to crack.

Yep, looking forward to increased looniness. 

the harshest critic

It is a phrase that is often heard in the world: "you are you're own worst critic."

Why bring this up?

Today I taught my third lesson (3/8...almost halfway done!). It started off well enough and then I felt it take a swan dive into left field. It crashed and burned. Then managed to crash again in Hawaii, only to fall into the mouth of an exploding volcano.

Okay, maybe that is a wee bit dramatic, but suffice it to say that it wasn't my best lesson so far. I have the energy and the excitement to keep things going, but it just wasn't going the way that I had planned. My drilling for pronunciation was poor, the boardwork was confusing, the tasks were not clear, and the freer practice wasn't promoting the amount of speaking practice I had intended.

After the lessons we had feedback. We boarded it, meaning that we all wrote the positive and negative things that happened for each of the three lessons on the board. It was was amazing to me: only two negative things were written (and then I went up and added more before Sophie came back).

It was astounding to see the amount of positive feedback from the lesson. The things that I saw in such horrible light were not that bad. My classmates were supportive and helpful, showing me that the most important things was accomplished: the students learned. During the session Sophie turned to me and asked me what went well in the lesson. I gave my little 2 cents (it hadn't sunk in that people actually enjoyed my lesson yet). And then she asked the million pound question: what would I have changed?

Yep, as you can imagine that opened up a Mary soapbox, staring my own stupidity and self-doubt. And then Sophie looked at me and said: "your self-evaluation was quite harsh." Um, yep. I need to improve!

"True, but it is important to see what happened in the lesson and see what you have done well. You are your own worst critic."

It is so true! I want to do my best and succeed in the CELTA course. I hold myself up to a high standard academically, a standard (with the exception of 2 years of my undergrad) that has helped me achieve good marks. I don't want to settle. I want things to be a push, a struggle to get better. Yes, of course I enjoy the easy things! I love sitting down and chilling on Netflix or reading a good book. I love to mess around and be completely unproductive at times, but that doesn't mean that is my entire life.

MY LIFE is to be better, to want to succeed and improve. My life is to push myself and not quit (I have done enough of that in my time). My life is to make a difference, to help people be happy. My life is that desire to be productive, that desire to show something for it.

It hasn't always been the case, but I want that to be MY LIFE.

But, it is wise to remember the good things. I can't go through this entire CELTA experience telling myself I am terrible or that I can't speak English. I can't focus on the negative in each lesson because that will overshadow the positive. Yes, it is good to seek constructive criticism, but it is another to bask in it. 

on the street where you live

I'm a bit more awake than I was last night, so let's give this another go.

PICTURE TIME!!!!!

This is where I go to school:

International House, Belfast is located at 109-111 University Street in the Queen's Quarter of Belfast. It is two row houses that have been combined, so it makes going up and down the stairs with a lot of people very interesting. And since this is the UK and no one believes in air conditioning, it can get a bit toasty in some of the rooms. Most of the rooms have windows, but a lot of them have been "painted", which means you can't open them any more. All of the rooms are named after places or things in Northern Ireland. For example, I have input in Goliath, which is one of the names of two massive cranes in the harbour of the Titanic Quarter. For GLP, we meet in Donaghedee, which is city in Northern Ireland. 

Why call this the Queen's Quarter? It is because this part of Belfast is where The Queen's University of Belfast is located. 

These are two of the buildings on the campus. The red building is the most famous (just Goggle the university and this is the main picture that shows up). It was built in the 1800s and is still used everyday for classes and meetings. 

Here are a few other sites that I have seen in Belfast City Centre:

The actual city centre isn't that large. I walked around it for a couple hours on Saturday and it was amazing that one turn around the corner was an immediate change to a seedy part of the centre. It is nice, but doesn't have the bubbly-ness that Edinburgh or Manchester have. 

There are other parts of Northern Ireland, however, that are just breathtaking:

From those pictures, you can see why it is called the Emerald Isle. Too bad I haven't met any leprechauns yet! But today is Orangefest, so I can hold out some hope (even though I have lesson planning to finish).

celta week 1

The first week of CELTA = done and dusted (as the Irish say)

It is hard to believe that I am already here and a quarter of the way done already. Things seem to be moving fast and a bit slow all at the same time. It has been a great week: I've learned tons and did two session of supervised teaching practice. There isn't really any break with CELTA. It is full throttle from beginning to end (with the exception of tomorrow being a day off because of an Irish holiday....)

So, this is how things went down this past week:

Monday was introductions, getting into the swing of things, meeting the tutors and fellow CELTA trainees, meeting the first batch of students that we will be teaching for two weeks, and planning our first lesson and assignment. International House (IH) usually only takes 18 trainees in July with 3 tutors; however, there was so much interest in this course that there are 2 groups of twelve with 2 tutors each running simultaneously. My group of 12 is made up of 5 men and 7 women. 8 are from Ireland, 2 Americans (that's me!!), 1 Brazilian, and 1 Spaniard. It is a great group, all with diverse backgrounds. I'm one of the youngest in the group, which is a bit funny. There is even a doctor! The 2 tutors working with our group are both Irish, Helen and Sophie. Both of them are CELTA and DELTA qualified and quite fantastic ladies. They are fun and make learning exciting, but also keep things focused and organized. Because there is so much to get done in the course, there is no time to lolligag at all.

Each morning from 9-12 is Input. It is our time to be taught. There are two session per morning, switching between Helen and Sophie. Each session is focused on a different aspect of teaching. For example, this week included teaching frameworks, conveying meaning, phonemes, and how to give instruction. Each session is set up so that we can use the styles in our own English teaching, if that makes sense. Basically, the tutors teach us in such a way that we can use that for the students. Yes, I think that is a bit better. We work in pairs, groups, and as a whole class. We do different activities, all of which can be modified for the TEFL classroom.

From 12-1 is GLP (Guided Lesson Planning). Here we are broken down into our TP (Teaching Practice) groups, which is a group of 6. We work with one of the tutors (it was Helen for week 1 for my group, Sophie for weeks 2-3, Helen for week 4) to prepare and go over our lessons that we will teach our students in the afternoon.

A word about the students. IH is a language school and most of the classes that are run there are for people learning English. There are intensive courses that cost a bit more and are taught by tutors only. In the afternoons are the cheaper courses (1 GPB/day) for students that are taught by the CELTA trainees. All of the students come from various backgrounds.

Any-who, that is how that whole thing works. From 1-2 is lunch. Not loads to say about that other than I have had an apple everyday.

From 2-4(ish) is the class we teach. The first day we observed as Helen taught and from then on, 3 of us teach each day. I am in the first group, so I taught on Tuesday and Thursday. Though it was totally nerve racking, it was nice to be on the second day of the course just so I could get into the swing of things and move on.

And from 4-5 is Feedback. The TP group sits with the tutor and goes over the day's lesson. We talk about what went well and what can be improved, ideas for good activities, and liaise with the trainees.

And from 5-betime is study time (with some dinner mixed in there somewhere).

So, that is my day. There is a lot that goes on and things to accomplish. There is pressure to get things done, but to be honest, it isn't too bad right now. And that's probably because I have stayed on top of things (hopefully that will carry on into next week).

I'm a little fried right now and there is a house alarm going off outside that has been going for 7 hours straight. There will be pictures to come and better explanations, including a funny (well, funny to me at least) story about the word "false".

Stay tuned, amigos.

PS - I live in a block of flats that is owned by IH, just FYI. Pretty nice digs, not posh by any means, but nice. I have an en-suite shower! That makes me feel special. My flatmate (Ione) is from Spain and is here for 3 weeks learning English on the intensive course in the mornings.

PPS - One word about house alarms: THEY ARE USELESS! No one even cares....