Teaching a year one class “Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer” in the warmth of a Spanish afternoon, when the temperatures are still around 20ºC, is EXTREMELY confusing. In reality, it should be 2º and raining cats and dogs for me to be able to believe that we are only 18 days away from Christmas. However, I am finding it extremely difficult to accept that we are in December, or even, for that matter, in winter! However, all of the Christmas activities we are doing in the school are helping to improve my festive spirit!
In other news, im (still) ill (again) – choose whichever option you feel like. I’ve been ill for about 3 weeks now, so I decided to go to the doctors (again…), especially as my ear had started to hurt like when my eardrum exploded in summer. At reception, I was told “the doctor that was here next to me a second ago? That’s your doctor. She’s just gone out to do a home visit, wait outside her room”. Not what I was hoping for but, almost an hour later I managed to go home armed with ear drops and amoxycillin.
On Saturday the “Valencia Gang” plus invited guest met up in Valencia to get a head start on the Christmas shopping. Not much Christmas shopping happened as we spent a long time getting distracted, trying to find a restaurant that had a decent vegetarian option. Vegetarianism isn’t a big thing in Spain, and less so in Valencia, where the closest thing on the menu to a vegetable was tuna! After finally finding a margherita (pizza) on a menu, we went to look at the falla that had been placed in front of the torres de serrans to celebrate the naming of Fallas as a UNESCO world heritage. While it was nowhere near the biggest/best/most interesting falla it was yet another reminder that this amazing week of fiesta takes place in just over three months and that it is a huge part of this society.
Monday at 4.30am we woke up to take Laura to the airport where she abandoned me left to go to Brussels for a week. Te echo de menos cari!
The start of the week was spent helping Laura’s English group with their English project. 4 massive posters, 6 cardboard ecosystems and 4 million coloured in animals later and their project does at least look good!
Tomorrow is fiesta, meaning that one of my two working days is now not a working day! I’m not going to complain, it means I have a 6 day weekend!
A Brit In A Foreign Land 
We recalled that there is a celebration in early January and that Christmas is not so much a holiday in catholic countries. Is this still true?
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Yes, they celebrate the arrival of the three kings, in Spain it is called reyes (kings). And as the kings were the ones who gave Jesus presents, this is when they give out lots of gifts.
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