Monday 21 July 2008

Cazorla

Cazorla (ka-thor-la) is a small town in the South of Spain, below Madrid.. but not quite at the Mediterranean. For those who don't know.. I'm teaching English here for a week, it's volunteer work which means I don't get paid, but I'm put up in a villa with free food and lots of free Spanish young wine. I have the best views from my bedroom. For example, and this is the truth, from my bathroom I can be showering whilst looking out of the bathroom window, looking towards the horizon and all I can see are Olive groves... as far as the eye can see!!

Behind me would be some big hills, and on the opposite side is a famous National Park. The moon rises from behind these hills, the past few days it has been a full moon too.. so it lights up with sky, but then you get the silhouette of the hills! It's great! There's also a castle here within view of.. where I'm teaching. It isn't just me here, there's a bunch of people teaching English, people form Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and America.

This has to be the best way to experience Spain; going to a town off the tourist trail and experiencing a side of Spain most people never have the chance to see. I've become friends with many of the Spaniards here, a few of them are very high up in their respected industries.. yesterday I had a 1-on-1 with a man who works as an engineer within Nuclear Power Plants/stations, there's another bloke.. Javier, who is a Health Inspector.. so if someone complains about a doctor.. Javier will go and sort out the problems. I'm learning a great deal about the Spanish, Spanish culture.. and of course myself. Something this program does to people is it makes them reassess their lives, opens up our eyes and can literally change lives. That's not taking things over the top, this is an amazing program.

I have plenty more to talk about so I'll leave that for another time, keep looking back for updates!!

Adios.

2 comments:

Nana Gabe said...

Tobias I am wondering what you would achieve in 1 week teaching English. I would think there would not be any continuity either for you and more importantly fot the students. Can you clarify what you mean by teaching?I am intrigued

Tobias said...

The Spanish who pay to come here are already at an intermediate level of learning English, they come here and have to Speak English all day, everyday for 8 days. It's an intense learning program; we have 1-on-1's with all of them and various group activities, we talk to them and correct mistakes they make when speaking.

What I get out of this program are experiences, but they're the most excellent experiences!