Once again, it’s been busy here in Argentina! I can’t believe soon I’ll have been here for a whole month. I’m not sure exactly where it’s gone.
Anyways, on with what I’ve been up to from last Wednesday (19th June) to Wednesday just gone (26th June).
On Wednesday evening I went to the Echevarria’s house (a family from church), where I hung out with two of the girls (Vale & Sofi) who taught me how to make cabsha. It was a really fun evening! Bonding over making cake is definitely the one. Turns out they both speak some English too (when I asked how much they spoke they said ‘oh not much, just went to an English institute for ten years’… TEN YEARS! This makes me feel woefully inaccurate when people say ‘oh so you can speak some Spanish’ and I tell them more or less (mas o menos) as I definitely haven’t been studying for ten years haha) so that’s always a bit easier for me as I can fall back on English words if I don’t know them in Spanish.
Cabsha is my absolute fave cake here! The making of cabsha itself is not actually that hard to follow, just a tad faffy as there are a lot of different processes to follow but easy enough. Well, I say this. The only time I’ve made it was on this occassion under the watchful eyes of pro Vale, so I’ll report back when I try and make it on my own haha. Since this is an educational blog (😉) I thought really, I just had to eat some of the cabsha so I could put a picture of how it looks in the middle for this blog. For blog purposes only, obviously. You’re welcome.
Thursday was a bank holiday so no work for me! (Or most people in fact). This meant that this week (w/c: 17/06/19) I was only at work 2 days! Bizarre. Anyways, so Cristian & Luci invited those in the worship band at church (about fifteen of us) to their house to study the Bible and look at the theme of worship. Supposedly it started at 9 so in reality we probably didn’t start till around 10, 10.30 but it was a really good study. I could understand a fair amount of it and pick up through the context what Luci was most likely saying so it was satisfying and helpful. It ended with burgers and playing with the puppy Dona, so that’s always a win in my eyes! I also found out, by chance, that Sofi from the youth has the same birthday as me. Hurrah!! This is incredibly good news. At church, if there’s been a birthday in the week, they get you out the front and all sing happy birthday to you. This means there will 100% be at least another person out the front with me. Phew!
Friday was my long day at the institute. Although, when I say long, it’s only 4 hours! But it is quite intense going back to back from one class to the next. Once I’d finished at the institute Noly came to pick me up and I went back to the Matus’ for the weekend.
On Saturday I had a pretty severe case of craving all of the food that ever existed. (I was going to refer to this as having the munchies, but I checked it on urban dictionary and apparently that comes as a result of having smoked weed. I’m glad I checked as I don’t want anyone getting the wrong impression of what I’m up to over here..!) I was craving chocolate, crisps and a nice big fat sandwich (with chips) all day. The hour finally came (at about midnight) when the craving of the big fat sandwich con papas was fulfilled and it was glorious. So glorious, that I finished before everyone else and ate more than most of the boys.. Mmm… I should potentially go back to the gym one of these days or it’s likely that I’m going to be rolling home at this point…
Sunday was church followed by lunch at the golf club where Cristian was competing in a tournament. When we got back to the Matus’, I actually had a ciesta where I fell asleep (unheard of for me), although it was somewhat strange as I’m not sure if I had sleep paralysis (I’ve had this before. It’s really horrid!) or I was just dreaming that I had sleep paralysis. Once I’d awoken again, after a while Noly succumbed to my numerous demands of wanting chocolate and off we went to get me some chocolate from the shop. That was also glorious. Then did some prep for the following day as I was having my first 1:1 meeting and then went out for dinner with Noly and his parents. This made me super happy as it’s just so nice being able to communicate more with his family and be more a part of things!
Monday was the day of my first 1:1 meeting! I think it went okay! Although when I asked the student if he liked learning English his response was ‘..no..’ so that’s not particularly ideal haha. I got a fairly good idea of what level of English he has though so that was helpful. It was also the first time I’ve been paid in my capacity of being a teacher so that was exciting!! After meeting with the student I met with Laura and we went through some material together, looking at what we’re going to do in each class this week.
On Tuesday I had another meeting with two students who want to have conversation classes with me. This meeting was just to assess what they aim to get out of English classes and see what level they’re at. I think this lesson is going to be interesting! One lady has quite a good grasp of English and spoke a lot, the other seemed to understand a lot of English but replied mainly in Spanish. This is going to be a challenge! The good thing was that I could understand most of what she was saying in Spanish and sometimes managed to reply in both Spanish and English and on the times when I really didn’t understand, her friend translated for me. Still, this is going to be an interesting mix to cater for both of them! We’ll see how it goes I think.
After returning back to Marta’s from this meeting, I could feel myself slipping into feeling panicky so naturally made myself a cuppa tea (classic British move. Crisis? Have a cup of tea). This didn’t quite work so I rang one of my besties from home who calmed me down and repeatedly told me ‘you’re killing it girl!’ which made me feel better haha. I have since made a list of my ‘wins’ since I’ve been here and I think I will continue in recording my wins each week.
I also told Noly that I’d been feeling wobbly and so his response was ‘let’s go out for dinner tonight! ..With chips??’ (referencing my toddler break down I had a few weeks ago haha). Obviously he has picked up on the fact that food tends to make me feel better, so this is a good development in the life of me!
Wednesday 26th was a good day for me! Usually I meet Laura for a while to look at materials but she was busy so all I had on was a 1:1 meeting with a new student. I thoroughly enjoyed this meeting and later was told that he’d said it had been an amazing lesson and he was very content so I’m definitely counting that as a win! So encouraging for me, particularly after Tuesday when I had such a big wobble over doing 1:1 lessons. Next week it’s going to be the winter holidays so I won’t have my 1:1 lessons on, but this student said maybe we could meet over coffee and have another lesson so that’s also encouraging as it seems that he’s keen!
In other news, a funny moment from the other week that I forgot to write about.
Noly and I were in the city centre the other day. Let me paint the scene for you about the city centre- fairly narrow streets so cars very close together, a lot of pedestrians, car mayhem. To while away the time we had la musica on and more specifically, High School Musical ‘Can I Have This Dance’ (I am a sucker for this song and High School Musical generally. Don’t judge me, it’s so cheery!). I was trying to find the harmony for this song and was singing Gabriella’s part (obviously), with my head thrown back in wild abandon and was belting it out, when I happened to look out the window and there was a girl observing me from a passing bus. No smile, no laughter. Just observing me. I imagine she was thinking something along the lines of ‘What a pecular specimen of a human we have here. Interesting.’. I must admit, her complete lack of emotional response ruined my wild abandon as it completely cracked me up but y’know, you win some, ya lose some!
Lastly, some things to thank God for:
– I spoke to Laura, the head at Camelot, and they’re going to try and see if they can put a work visa through for me. This is amazing as it requires her to register Camelot at the migration office in Argentina and potentially other costs and work that needs to be done. The Matus’ told me that most people probably wouldn’t have done that for me, so this is really amazing.
– Whilst I still feel a bit lonely sometimes, the communication barrier isn’t too bad and generally, I’m managing to communicate (unless I’m tired and lacking in energy because then I really can’t understand much). There are also a few things on the cards for me to do in my spare time. I’m going to an arty thing on a few Thursdays with Sofi and potentially might go to some art classes with Luci so I’m looking forward to that!
– I have some 1:1 students lined up! One of these students wants to have 1:1s with me to prepare him for the First certificate (Cambridge English exam) one is a group of two who want to have conversation classes and another two are having private conversation classes with me. Whilst having the responsibility of tutoring someone for an exam is fairly intimidating, this will be good for me as I will have to practise teaching all the skills and not just speaking. Having these 1:1 classes will also be good for my finances!!
– It’s soon going to be the winter holidays from the institute (i.e. two weeks off for me) and myself and the Matus’ are going to be going on a road trip as Javier’s TV channel has been nominated for an award again. The timing of this is impeccable! I’d been wondering what I was going to do in my time off work (when I’m not busy I tend to feel lonely/upset/grumpy/aimless) and so I’m really pleased that this has come up!
Nadia's Adventures 