I love going to work and I cannot believe that a month in Ecija has already flown past.

Yesterday was a trip to the employment office with my boss to register my contract and while there she gave me the feedback that my students have been providing positive feedback about my teaching style.

I was very pleased to hear this given it is the first time I’ve had whole classes from one country – which means they all have the same common language (Spanish) – and some of the English levels are quite poor so I need to really focus on making them speak English only in the classroom.

I have been wondering how much some of the students have understood as for many I am the very first native speaker they’ve had teach them. This positive feedback makes all the hours of unpaid research and lesson planning so worthwhile.

In between work I have lots of time to discover my little town and explore the winding streets. From my rooftop I have a view of 4 of the 11 towers (complete with bells!).

My Spanish is coming along but on Thursday I managed to ask for eggs instead of grapes in the greengrocer but quickly realised my mistake when she said I needed to go to the carneceria for them. Luckily I remembered the word and was able to walk out with a big bunch of plump, juicy red grapes. It’s not self service here so you need to ask for what you want.

I am a source of amusement for the locals as they don’t have many native speakers here. The chap in the employment office was impressed when I was able to rattle off my address and phone number in Spanish and gave me a big thumbs up. The fellow who sells the chestnuts on the street corner said he’s never met anyone from Australia and the chap at the greengrocer smiles now when I come in and teaches me the words for the fruit and veggies I can’t remember.

Life is never dull!

Michelle