Week 3 of Madrid TEFL Course

Week 3 was incredibly intensive with classes, teaching, and an oppressive heat which threatened to drain all energy or motivation. Somehow, through the grace of God, along with supportive classmates and roommates, I made it through.

I did manage to get out to the park with my Language Partner, Ricky. There is a little pond just in front of a pretty glass building and on the path alongside it they built this cave-like tunnel with a waterfall that made for a fun photo op!

Week 2 of Madrid TEFL Course

Debut of the ninja pants!
We started teaching during the 2nd week of the course.
It is amazing how much confidence wearing ninja pants can give you.

Ben had a little hiccup with his lung collapsing. This pic is of Lisa, Julie, and I visiting him in the hospital. Truth-be-told, there was much worry over the situation and much relief as a week and a day later he finally left the hospital. We love you Ben!

The TEFL course teaching had us all in full gear with studies and stressing. This first week really had me focused on what I wanted to get out of my experience both personally and professionally.

Madrid weekend #1

Saturday of my first weekend here in Madrid was spent with some of the girls from my class. We got out and did some shopping in Fuencarral, had some tapas, and crashed a party.
I also found some sweet ninja pants which will be featured in a future post.

Here we see the lovely Cathi enjoying the grass floor of one of the shops in Fuencarral.
Lukas, you would have enjoyed it!

Week 1 of Madrid TEFL Course

A big week and I am going to see if I can fit it all in to one blog post!
I was really fortunate to connect with some great people right from the get-go here in Madrid.
Ben did a great job with my accommodations that came complete with 2 incredible roommates!
My first full day they took me to what is considered to be the Madrid version of the church I attend back home. I met a girl named Julie Brown who, as it turns out, also attended Jacob's Well back in KC. She was gracious enough to invite us over to celebrate at her place and the rest, as they say, is history! But the story doesn't end there! This is one instance where I did not have my camera on me, *gasp*, so this photo is courtesy of Julie.


My class got off to a good start and I'm very glad to have arrived early so that I had a chance to map out how to get there so I wasn't struggling with that element on the first day.
We have a really diverse group in our class, which I personally like. The program directors are British and Australian and our class is such a great mix of people from all over. I am picking up so much fun vocabulary! By Thursday of the first week we were starting to get into a groove and four of us girls decided to go for tapas after class. First tapas! Cheers! Slante! Prost!On the topic of good friends and good food, it turns out that both of my roommates cook! The first week they were in a particularly fine mood to get creative and we sat down for long, late meals and enjoyed each other's company. Here is Christine dishing out her creation.
I felt the need to reciprocate, so I put together a little taste treat from the spaetzel I'd brought back from Germany. If anyone actually knows how to reconstitute it from a dry form, please let me know as I still have half of it left.

In this next picture, Lisa and Christine are preparing to be very gracious about my first attempt to make dinner. The asparagus actually turned out pretty well. Good thing there was ice cream for dessert!



On Friday I was invited to a gathering to say farewell to Ashley and Matthew, some wonderful people who've been living in Madrid but are returning to the States. I was invited by my friend Ricky who I'd met the previous weekend. Here is acting the gracious host to Vicky. In the end we ended up playing a song trivia game and singing songs from our childhood. I am delighted to find versions of 'Brother John' in almost every language!

There was an exciting weekend as well, and that post is soon to follow!

Day 19: Spain!

The weekend before my class begins.
I am in my apartment in Spain. My place is better than I had hoped and I have been blessed with some really great roommates.
This morning Lisa took me through the market as I needed to buy food for the week ahead.
It is an overwhelming place, sharp scents and softer sweet ones mingling with the people all crowding in to hunt for the freshest catch, the best price per kilo, and shouts going out on either side from vendors in competition.
Cherries are in season here and I purchased a kilo which was placed in a paper cone and folded over. The 1/2 kilo of strawberries was presented in much the same way and I added some bananas to the mix for good measure.

Saturday evening Christine took me to the church called Oasis where I met a number of new people. It is the same church attended by my friend Ben from back home and he was there as well! He had actually met with a girl named Julie while at Oasis who had attended the same church we went to back in Kansas City! Small world!


After the service we went to her house for a celebration of her transition back to Kansas and on to new adventures! On the way we coordinated the group for a shopping trip to pick up some food for dinner. Just before entering the subway, Julie noticed a rainbow had appeared. I was kicking myself for not having my camera so she took hers out and snapped this photo. Thanks Julie!
At her apartment we broke out the food and beverages; I met even more great people and had some really good conversation. All-in-all, a great start to my Spanish experience!