Mush

Wow. What I week. And I'm feeling it!

I've been out every night, (mostly) teetotal. Plus starting a new job teaching individual English classes and heading out to the countryside this weekend.

I've learned this week, that city life can quite easily drive you mad if you don't get out and take a break every once in a while. The plan of heading out for the long weekend fell apart due to people dropping out and doing other things. Just generally being indecisive. So Leandro and I ended up going to San Antonio de Areco just for the day.

A picturesque little country town bordered by a river and some countryside. Perfect.
Spent the day wandering about in the sun, drinking mate and attempting to avoid being bitten to death by mosquitos. Luckily I had my repellant which seemed to do the trick. :)

I climbed some trees, visited a museum and took a siesta. Bought some Artisanal Fernet to share with Andres and came home to find he's made me salad for dinner. I love my housemate!
Some of his friends are coming over soon and then they're going out, I think I'll bite the bullet and stay in. Don't think I can take any more! Need some sleep!
It's a shame, Andres' friends are great. We went round to a casual gathering last night and I met a few more of them. Also discovered for the first time that his nickname is El topo, the mole. Apparently he had really big ears when I was younger like a cartoon mole that was popular. Cute. :)


Work

I've finally found myself a job! Giving individual English classes with an Institute in the centre of the city, though they also do some home visits. I went in on Wednesday to observe a class and then was told to teach the next! Not much induction! But ah well! Their method is pretty much immersion, so just conversation for the whole hour and a half with a few extra bits added in. Falling in at the deep end.
My student was a 50 something Peruvian woman who spoke very little English but was  very excited as her (boy?)friend is coming to visit from London, who she has only ever communicated with by email and phone. He doesn't speak a word of Spanish. Odd. We spent the lesson going over useful things to say at the airport!

I think the main tips I took away were to speak a lot slower than I'm used to, and repeat everything. And ask questions multiple times so the answers become automatic. Defintely stealing tips to use at conviven!!
Had another class on thursday (straight after conviven!!) but that was just conversation. Easy.

Everyone there is really friendly, and there's a Columbian guy who's a good laugh. I'm the only Brit atm so I think they'll be advertising British English now. I think it's going to provide a reasonable amount of work! Good to have some income. :)


Sleep deprivation

It's a lot easier to manage on less sleep when you drink less. I had 2 drinks on Wednesday (due to some miraculous free drink scam action) and one last night with Andres' friends. Other than that I've been clean. If not I don't know if I would have made it this far! Haha.

I don't know if I've mentioned before, but our flat shares a wall with a club. Most of the time it's ok, but the weekends can be a little tedious. The one downside to this flat. And that it's in the middle of all the parties, making it hard not to go out!

Such is city life!

Heading to the middle of the French countryside will certainly make for a change..


Complaints. 

Writing this is the first English I've spoken (thought?) today and it annoys me that I can't do this more often. I want total immersion dammit!!!

Also I've come to appreciate that Sheffield is really pretty unique when it comes to the balance of city goings on and countryside.