I took a wonderful trip to Girona about a week ago with Kyle. It was my second time there and I think I like it better in the fall. The word that keeps bubbling up when I think of how to describe the quaint town/city is “enchanting.” It has ancient buildings with beautiful arches as well as skies and mountaintops in the distance. The ancient is balanced with interesting little shops and cafés occupying the side streets. There are some pictures of the trip on flicker, here.

I also went to Montjuic a second time, but to a part that I hadn’t seen before: the castle. I had a picnic sitting next to a cannon with my CELTA friends, and well… not much else to say about that. Some pictures from around there are in another flickr set. I also left out the part about getting lost in the Spanish countryside at night for a couple of hours. I guess you’ll just have to ask me about it if you want the story.

In other news, I had my first real-world teaching experience! I substituted for a school in Molins de Rey, just outside of Barcelona. It was a huge challenge, but I didn’t feel like I was drowning. In fact, by the end of it, I had enjoyed myself so much that I forgot there was money for me at the front desk. I think that’s the sign of a good profession: when you forget that people are paying you for what you’re doing. I haven’t had many jobs, just the one movie theatre job for about 4 or 5 years and the summer camp job for a couple of years, so maybe I can’t say, but from my experience so far I remember waiting anxiously for the paycheck at the movie theatre and with teaching or working at summer camp, I really felt the “flow” of it and didn’t think about doing the job as a means to an end.

Hopefully I get called in again to substitute and I can get more experience which might lead me to an actual job.

————

Well, the only other news I have for you is that I’m flying home in a few days. It’s quite shocking to me how quick this is approaching. I’ll be in Michigan on December 14th. I get to spend the holidays with my parents, and an even more amazing detail, my brother will be there. I had been mentally preparing myself for my first Christmas away from home, a part of being an adult, but with the return ticket already paid for, and encouraging anecdotes about getting back into Spain, I decided to go for it and fly home.

On the morning of December 31st, I’ll be flying to New York City – my return to Barcelona leaves from JFK, so I’m getting there early to enjoy myself. I don’t know why, and I haven’t been there more than a week or so at a time, but I think I like the city in the winter. Walking around all bundled up in scarf and gloves, ducking into shops and book stores is made more cozy, and the snow makes it more romantic.

I’ll have my first NYC New Years celebration. I don’t know how awesome it will actually be, but I’m sure it can easily be better than watching movies at home. (No offense, parental readers.)

One last exciting part of my holiday travels is that I also get to go to Massachusetts for a few days.

So to boil it down for people like me who prefer to skim:

• December 14th (arrive 5:35 pm) – Detroit, MI
  • Christmas at home – yay yay yay
• December 31st (arrive 10:33 am) – New York City, NY
  • New Years in NYC – awesome awesome
  • Massachusetts with Kyle – awesomer
• January 6th (10:10 am) – Barcelona, Spain
  • Resume finding a teaching job – meh.

Hey Mom, I finally found Los Caracoles. Haven’t eaten there, though.

Maybe when I’m bored and unemployed I’ll put some things up here! All is well in Barcelona, though. Fall is obviously rolling in, but I’ve been told it should get warm again. I have yet to learn what to expect from this place.

I need to be apartment hunting, but I have no time during the weeks as you can tell, and on the weekends all I want to do is relax. At the moment, I’m at a bar with wifi. I miss having a good internet signal at home, but when I finally find my own place I’ll be fine. Oh, and I have a new requirement: a balcony. I love the one I have now!

On Monday I started the CELTA course at International House Barcelona and after a few hours of instruction, each of the five people in my teaching group taught for twenty minutes. We each did a getting-to-know-each-other excersice, so it wasn’t very difficult in content, but in it we had to practice clear and simple instructions so that people with minimal English could do the task. The next time I teach, it will be for 40 minutes on Thursday. We rotate observing other trainees teach, and then I teach on my own day.

So far everything is going well, it isn’t too much for me to handle, but it is a new and different kind of challenge. All of my classmates are very nice and it’s quite interesting that they’re from different places. It makes for good conversation!

Well, I’m going to have a small dinner now. I’ll try to update at least once a week, but this month will be very busy with class all day and lesson preparation at night.