Skiing in the Sierra Nevada
After an eventful night in Granada and approximately 3 hours' sleep in the lovely Nest hostel, we took revenge on the guy keeping his phone light on in the hostel room all night by setting our alarms for 7am and sneaking out to hit the road to the ski slopes! Having never gone skiing before, navigating the ski resort was a new experience for our very sleepy foursome...
We arrived in good time for our 10am lesson (or so we thought!), parked and made our way to the resort. This was much bigger than I imagined! A cluster of chalets housing restaurants, ski hire shops and clothing stores sat atop the hillside, buzzing with Spanish families kitted out in full skiwear, stomping around in their clunky boots. We wove our way through them to find our kit hire shop and got dressed in our borrowed gear - we looked hilarious!
Our group on the slopes - I'm on the far left!
Me enjoying Spanish sun and snow
Unfortunately, once we had all our gear on, it was exhausting to walk around, and we were soon overheating in all our layers! We stomped around looking for our ski school, being directed up and down the slopes by various attendants - they're obviously not used to first-time skiers not knowing their way around! Eventually we established that we had to buy our ski pass in order to ride the cable car up the side of the mountain, so Bijan and I made our way to the ticket machines and off we clomped to join the queue. The view from the cable car was breathtaking, and the sudden hush when we pulled away from the crowds on the ground was startling.
Before long we arrived at the top of the mountain - a whole 45 minutes late for our 2-hour lesson! Oops... After recommending to our ski instructor that they signpost the way to the ski school better for beginners (!), we embarked upon our first foray into skiing, first learning how to "snow plough" (brake - very important!) and then trying it out down a few little slopes. A few hilarious episodes ensued (I didn't fall over at this point, but found it quite difficult to stop a few times!), and before long our lesson was over, leaving us to explore the slopes on our own....
We made our way up one of the ski escalators to try out the second beginner slope - this one was a bit bigger, and really fun! Gaining confidence, we then decided to go down the blue slope, which involved going up on the chair lift. Having never ridden one before, I was a bit uncertain as to how to get on it - this then involved me falling over pretty comically on the moving belt! Luckily I managed to right myself just in time to jump on! The 8 year olds I was sharing the lift with managed it just fine....Oops!
After posing for a picture at the top of the mountain (see above!), we made our way down, agreeing to meet at the bottom in case we (inevitably) got separated. This slope was a LOT bigger than the previous ones.... I gingerly made my way down, then suddenly gained speed and promptly toppled over, leaving my poles behind me! Fortunately I was helped by a Spanish ski instructor making his way down, who advised me to strap them to my wrists - so THAT's why they put those straps on there! So off I went again. Unfortunately, the next time I fell, one of my skis detached itself. Now, I don't know if you've ever tried to reattach a ski to a ski boot on a fairly steep mountainside, covered in fluffy, yielding powder....Hmm! After many failed attempts to reattach it to my boot, I decided to trudge down to a spot with firmer snow. Who should be riding over on the chair lift above me, but the ski instructor from before! What he must have thought of me...I had explained earlier that it was my first day skiing! Even then, I wasn't able to get my ski back on, and decided I'd have to give up and trudge back to solid ground at the bottom. On my way down, I met a Spanish girl doing the same - we decided that we weren't really cut out for this skiing business! Nonetheless, it was a fantastic day out, and was an absolutely bargainous way for me to try out skiing for the first time, in some truly breathtaking surroundings. I don't think I would ever have made it to Sochi 2014 though!
Week 1: Shadowing Alice
My first full week in Lucena was mainly spent observing Alice teaching our classes and taking notes on behaviour, the way she structured the lessons and her advice on how to deal with the 10 different groups of kids I would be teaching. This was an invaluable experience in preparing me for taking on the classes on my own once she had left! I also became very familiar with all the songs and chants that she used in her lessons - yes, I sing in my classes (a lot!)! I also observed the director, Assieh, teaching one of her classes. I was incredibly impressed with the discipline she had instilled in her kids (I think they were around 10-11 years old) - they were all chanting adjectives and the dreaded phrasal verbs (think go in, go out, go away, go off, go on....understandably a nightmare for English learners!) by rote, and were very well behaved. Something to bear in mind with my classes!
On Friday, Alice handed over all the classes to me, meaning that Friday afternoon was my first time teaching 4 hours of classes back to back - pretty daunting! It was exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable - the kids are great, and were very excited at the prospect of a new teacher!
On Friday night, we had a lovely farewell dinner for Alice, prepared by Assieh herself - she doesn't come to the school on Fridays, and had spent the whole day cooking! She brought an array of foods to the school for when we finished teaching, including a lovely traybaked Valencian coca - a sort of crispy flatbread made with olive oil, topped with roasted red peppers and tomatoes - absolutely delicious! There were also slices of delicious local Manchego cheese, pepper, olive and feta skewers and slices of baguette topped with blue Brie and Assieh's incredible home-made quince jelly - a feast! We toasted with glasses of wine and Cava, then invited Assieh and Miguel Angel to come out for a drink at a local bar with us. Understandably, they rarely socialise in Lucena, as they can hardly step outside without seeing a parent of a child at the school, or one of their students, who wants to talk shop - so they were a little reluctant, but we managed to coerce them!
We made our way to the Hacienda, a local bar where one of our friends works. When Bridget asked Assieh whether she felt like drinking beer or wine, Assieh responded with, "Hmm....tequila?!" So soon we found ourself knocking back a round of tequila slammers.....that escalated quickly! We stood chatting and getting to know each other for a while, until some salsa music came on, and Bridget and Bijan took to the floor to show us some salsa moves. Naturally I wanted in on this, so I had a crash-course lesson with them! Assieh then revealed that she and Miguel Angel used to dance, and promptly wowed us with their moves! I then mentioned that I loved flamenco and wanted to continue learning here in Lucena, so myself and Miguel Angel ended up dancing some sevillanas under the scrutiny of the Spaniards in the bar - oh dear! It was a fantastic night, and one which ended up being rather more raucous than I think any of us were anticipating! Great fun :)
That'll do for now - I've still got to write about what happened when Quinny came to visit and my first full week of teaching! We've also just met the other new teacher who's just joined, so there's that to update you on as well....so much going on!
Love to everyone xxx
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