El trabajo comienza...

Only a week has passed since my last post, yet so much has happened. Where to begin?!

Well, last weekend went down like a lead balloon. As we still hadn’t been in Cuenca long and didn’t know many people, opportunities to socialise had been few and far between, and it was starting to get to me. I was so bored that I had to practically beg Natira to come out with me on Saturday night, lest I shrivelled up and died from a severe lack of oxygen and vitamin D brought on by being cooped up in the flat for yet another night.

It’s not that I can’t cope with boredom – really, I can – but there’s only so much reading, watching TV, surfing the net and ‘getting a good night’s sleep’ (i.e. going to bed ridiculously early because there’s nothing else to do) that a person can take.

So, off we went to Calle San Francisco: a street of laid-back, low-cost cervecerías (places that serve beer, basically) and eateries, each with terrazas full of tables and chairs for alfresco eating and drinking. There, we sought out a place that specialises in burgers, serving 30 different ones, each supposedly representing a different country. Naturally, I chose the Argentinian burger (those guys know about beef!). After three glasses of white wine – at 1.35 euros each, I might gleefully add – a couple of hours of people watching and a double chocolate Magnum ice-cream, my boredom was somewhat appeased and we headed home for another ‘good night’s sleep’.

On Monday, I had my first class with Ana, a petite, very Spanish-looking lady with dark hair, dark eyes and tanned skin. I liked her immediately, and my nerves about meeting the class soon disappeared. They were a lively bunch of 13-year-olds, with a good level of English as they were part of the British Council’s ‘bilingual programme’ and had been learning English since they were 3 years old. As there were only 12 of them, it wasn’t as intimidating as I’d feared. Once I’d started reeling off my speech about my life – in very s-l-o-w, CLEAR English, of course – I was surprised to find it came quite naturally to me, and I started to enjoy myself. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were much the same, except with different classes: sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller, sometimes with older students, sometimes with younger, and all with different levels of English. In 3 days, I had met 5 of my classes and was beginning to tire of the sound of my own voice, not to mention the same old questions that kept being asked of me by pupils:

•          Do you like Spain?
•          Do you like Spanish food?
•          Do you like sports?
•          What kind of music do you listen to?
•          Have you got a boyfriend?
•          Can you speak Spanish?

By the end of each lesson, I felt as if I’d just survived the Spanish Inquisition (no pun intended!). I was exhausted, my mouth was dry and my feet and back ached from standing at the front of the class. However, I must admit that I was quite enjoying being the object of interest; the exotic zoo animal that these too-cool-for-school Spanish teenagers just couldn’t help but gawp at. It’s an amusing situation to be in, to say the least.

On Wednesday evening, I met with Marta for our first conversation class. All I had to do was keep the English conversation flowing for an hour, and help her with any vocabulary or pronunciation questions that cropped up. At the end of the hour, she said she was ‘happy with me’, so we’ll be meeting once a week now, and next time it’ll be at her house instead of a bar. When she asked me my price, I self-consciously mumbled something about having heard that 15 euros is the going rate, hoping that she wouldn’t think I didn’t deserve that much! But, to my relief, she happily handed over the money and even paid for my drink, despite my protests. 

She’s so passionate about English; I really admire her attitude to learning it. She immerses herself in the culture and the language, always reading English books and watching English TV programmes online. In fact, I would say she is the true definition of an Anglophile, and I aspire to be the equivalent, but with Spanish.

After I’d said goodbye to Marta, I met with Natira and a teacher from her school, Beatriz, for drinks in Calle San Francisco. She was very friendly, and the three of us chatted amiably in Spanglish as we moved from bar to bar. When her fiancé, Pedro – who doesn’t speak much English - joined us, and with the wine still flowing, I found my Spanish tongue loosened! The merits of the free tapas in Cuenca really showed themselves, that night: we had so many nibbles that there was no need to have dinner. Yes, you read right: when you go to a bar and buy a drink, you get free food! A personal favourite for me is the tortilla (Spanish omelette). Yummy!

The last bar they took us to was a charming little place right up in the dizzying heights of the old town, where we sat on the roof terrace and admired a panoramic view of the city and its twinkling lights, including the illuminated casas colgadas and statue of Jesus, overlooking Cuenca  from a mountain top. Even the cliff faces were dramatically lit up. It was truly beautiful. I will endeavour to take another trip up there soon, this time armed with my camera!

Yesterday was the jornada (orientation) for all of the language assistants in Cuenca and its surrounding villages. I went somewhat reluctantly, accompanied by Ana from school, and feeling slightly the worse for wear from the wine I’d consumed the night before. The orientation itself was much like any other training day: dry and boring, but with a free lunch to compensate! However, meeting the other assistants was an interesting experience. As well as myself, there were three American girls (including Natira), two French girls, one French guy, a German girl, an Irish guy and a girl from Bermuda. An interesting mix, to say the least! Apparently, there should’ve been not one, but TWO other Brits (one of whom, incidentally, had originally agreed to live with Natira and I), but both had promptly decided they couldn’t hack it and dropped out. That’ll be me representing the country on my own, then...

A few of us swapped phone numbers and email addresses, so I expect we’ll be meeting up for drinks in the coming days and weeks, since we’re all foreigners in Cuenca!

Today is the first of a 5-day weekend for me, since I don’t work on Fridays, and next Monday and Tuesday are bank holidays in Spain. On Sunday, I’m off to Madrid for some sightseeing and a good night out with my half-Spanish friend from university, Carmelo, and some of his Spanish friends. I’m looking forward to getting away from Cuenca for a day or two – it is, after all what most of the locals seem to do at the weekends... 

¡Hasta luego!