Model UN

It's been one crazy, exhausting yet wonderful week. For most of the day A and I are in school for our TEFL certification. It's a great program, but it's an intensive four weeks. Our class consists of a lot of really awesome people from around the globe. I want to say half of the students are from the UK and the other half are from the US. We also have one from Canada, Ireland and Australia. Even our teachers are from all over-one from the UK, one from Australia and the other from Romania. Of course, this means that certain colloquial phrases are being integrated into our 'Merican vocabulary. For instance, no one here says "I'm on vacation." No, that would be stupid. Instead, it's "I'm on holiday." I wish I would explain the pronunciation issues as well, but that may be for another blogpost.

I really like this international class. We're all pretty laid back and we tease each other about how we pronounce things, etc. At one point, A had to be the teacher and teach us like we were Elementary students. He asked our Irish friend to say "garage," which of course he said with an accent (they accent the first syllable in garage, where we accent the second). Anthony made him repeat it until he said it the US way. We all though it was pretty funny and A said we could berate him on his accent as well.

We also have observed some classes where Spaniards take English classes. We observed an Elementary English class and one woman came in drunk. She was very animated for class, but she had a hard time staying focused. I couldn't believe it. In addition, she works in Spain as-I kid you not-an English teacher!

Anyway, the last week has been filled with all-day courses, large amounts of reading and attempting to make our own lessons. After a difficult first week, it is quite nice to have a safe haven where people speak English! When we leave for the day, it's like we're walking into another dimension. When we walk home, we pick up some food items at the market or grocery store for a quick meal in order to finish doing more homework in the evening. One of our teachers said this is harder than Australian military camp.

We attempted to relax this weekend for one evening. On Friday, we met up with some classfolk to see the sights. We got to see the palace pictured below.
I would not mind living in that place. Apparently, the king doesn't live there now and it's a museum open to the public. Around the palace is a line of statues of ancient kings. Pretty sweet.

We then went walking toward an indoor market that all the locals go to. It was packed. We were able to get some good sangria and start to vent about the course. Here's a picture of us wandering towards more drinking fun.

During the evening, we found out that one of our classmates went to high school with our friend who sang at our wedding! She knew our friend very well. Quite a small world!

A and I headed home a bit early. We were so exhausted from the week and we needed to be comatose for several days. Unfortunately, the metro closes at 1am, which doesn't give us much incentive to stay out late.



On Saturday, we went out in the afternoon to check out the only English bookstore in Madrid. It's pretty cool. A couple decided to buy a bunch of second hard books in LA and then move to Madrid to start up this store. It's really nice. Here's a shot from the inside.

I'm relieved there is some kind of bookstore here. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to read (and I would slowly die). I hope to post more soon, but it might not be until next weekend again. This week, we begin trying to teach. A and I are feeling ready, but you never know what can happen in a classroom. Wish us luck!