Monday 28 September 2015

Learning About The Community

As part of one of the primary units, the students are to learn about the community and their surroundings. Mako's job is to teach them about the different jobs in the community, such as policeman, firefighter, teacher, doctor, dentist etc. Every other day, I prepare classroom materials for Mako to use during her lessons everyday. I'm not particularly experienced in planning lessons however for students ages 5-6, I don't think it's too difficult for myself to handle! 

The students had already been introduced to the 'community' at the end of last week and therefore had some fresh ideas in their head when it was time to brainstorm. On Thursday, I came up with the idea of creating some sort of 'map of the community' - a group work activity for them to demonstrate what they know and have learnt about the community. Mako thought this was a great idea and went ahead with it! ^^ I

Mako actually started this map activity on Friday afternoon with the other class but all gap students have half days on Fridays so we finish at 1:30/2:00pm and I didn't get to watch the other class start this activity. Today the other class had the opportunity to work on this fun activity and it was great to see the students thinking hard about what is going to be put on their map and how careful they were with their colouring, cutting and sticking! It's amazing to see how creative children are nowadays ^__^ 

The purpose of this task was to teach the students that not only is the school a part of the community, but our 'community' begins with our family and ends with the rest of the world. And within these stages, there are lots of different jobs that help the community to work - to function properly. The students are at the age where they need to know what job is what and who does what. 

Here are some images of the students and their maps. None of the groups finished their maps and will have the chance to finish them on Wednesday when they have English class again. 








- Tiffany

Friday 25 September 2015

Weekend Trip To V a l e n c i a!

After a near enough spontaneous decision to make a trip to Valencia for the weekend, Esther and I managed to book our transport and accommodation within the space of an hour (maybe less!) after work one day last week. I mentioned in one of my previous posts that we wanted to venture out of Madrid because we felt a little bored and tired of doing the same thing every weekend, so we headed to V a l e n c i a for two nights and three days ^^...

Friday, 18th September 2015

We finished work at 2pm on friday, 18th so we had a few hours to kill before we left home. We attempted to nap for a short while as we knew it was going to be along journey to Valencia. Our mode of transport was BlaBlaCar - a 'trusted community for sharing your city-to-city car travels'. In other words, you hitch hike with a stranger who's driving to the place you want to go to...a decent way to ear some extra money! We purposely chose two female drivers with plenty of experience to share a car with just to be on the safe side! We took the bus to Moncloa and took the metro to Atocha station which was where we were meeting our driver. I must admit, I was really nervous whilst on our way there as I wasn't too keen on the idea to begin with but you don't know until you try, right? We found our driver waiting for us at the petrol station and there were two other women in the car too - a 30 year old lady with her mother! It was such a coincidence that the mother could speak a little bit of Cantonese so we were able to speak to her as well as some broken Spanish (Esther, not me). The car journey took 3.5 hours and we stopped just the once as the ladies wanted to grab a bite to eat and also to have a cigarette. I'm not one who enjoys sitting in a car for a really long time so the journey was a pain in the butt for me. I felt hot, tired and uncomfortable! But I knew I just needed to look forward to the weekend and be grateful that we were able to be driven to Valencia for less than half of what we we would have to pay to go by train. After a long 3.5 hours, we arrived shortly after 11pm and were dropped off in central Valencia. We then walked to our hostel, The River Hostel (it was about 15 minutes walk away). The hostel was noisy and alive as it was a Friday night...which was not a pleasant experience because I was so tired from being up early for work and all that travelling for so many hours. Our night consisted of a quick shower and a late night due to people choosing to shower at ridiculous hours (2:30AM) and to make things worse, our room was right next to the shower rooms T__T

Saturday, 19th September 2015

Esther and I woke up early to make the most of our two days in Valencia and we planned to visit one of their many city beaches to relax and sunbathe. For breakfast, we went to a nearby eating area called, 'Mercado Colón'. It consisted of lots of small tapas restaurants and downstairs had a few bigger cafés and restaurants. We chose these original-looking restaurant 'Ma-khin cafe' because it had pictures of nice breakfasts on the sign just outside its door. The café looked new and modern, its decor was cute. We decided to have very British breakfasts as we were both missing home comfort food! I ordered the Eggs Benedict and Esther had toast with ham, tomato purée and cheese. Oh and not forget, we both had ENGLISH BREAKFAST TEA! My first, I repeat...my FIRST cup of tea since I have been in Madrid T__T...my close friends and family know how much I love drinking tea so this was a huge deal for me ^^' it was so comforting to the tummy having this delicious food for breakfast and to be able to drink a lovely cup of tea! It was definitely a great start to a great day.





After we finished our breakast/brunch, we took the metro to the beach which wasn't too far away. Check out the cool metro tickets in Valencia! - 


We decided to head to one of Valencia's many city beaches to relax and sunbathe for most of the day... a well deserved break I'd like to think ^^. If you ever travel to Valencia, I would definitely recommend checking out their beaches! They're truly beautiful. The name of the beach we visited is called Paseo Maritime - Playa de la Malvarrosa. The weather was amazing - 28 degree heat, not a cloud in sight. Honestly, it was perfect for us who were prepared to do nothing but lounge around all day xD. Here are some pictures of the beach ^__^ 






What could possibly be better than sunbathing on the beach in 28 degree heat with an iced coffee in your hand?! The sea was ever so warm too. 

We managed to drag ourselves away from the beach after 4/5 hours of cooking in the sun to head back to our hostel to freshen up before dinner. Esther had found a popular Tapas restaurant on Google so we went ahead and made a reservation for half 7. We didn't really have lunch so you could imagine how hungry we were! The restaurant was a small traditional tapas restaurant which offered you seats inside and outside. We chose to sit inside because I get cold easily ^^'. 7:30pm is considered really early to have dinner in the Spanish culture so the restaurant was pretty empty when we arrived. A kind English speaking waiter explained the menu to us and recommended a set menu for two to us and we decided to go ahead with it! We've been meaning to try some good traditional Spanish food since we've been here and we were definitely presented with it! ^__^ every dish was appreciated and I must admit that it was delicious. Everything was homemade and the flavours were to die for. I would eat this type of food everyday if I could :) 









To burn off our huge dinner, we had a nice stroll back to the hostel whilst stopping by any building that looked pretty ^^.. Valencia was buzzing by the time we had finished dinner so the atmosphere was great! We walked by the bull ring and Valencia's train station. Oh and we also stopped for froyo (frozen yoghurt) @ llaollao again... can you guess who was desparate to have it for dessert? Yep...my dessert-loving roomie! ^^' 






Sunday, 20th September 2015

Our last day in beautiful Valencia! I actually woke up feeling very ill. My back was aching a lot and hurting, not a great sign. I think due to the lack of sleep I'd had during the week had finally caught up? Nevertheless, we still went for lunch in the sun and tried some cool infamous alcohol. We had lunch just outside the cathedral. There were lots of seats for people to grab some food and have beer. I had a seafood linguine (a dish I tend to have at Zizzi's back home, a lot!) it was really nice to sit back and enjoy some tasty food before we headed home to Madrid. 




Esther really wanted to try this infamous alcohol they have there in Valencia called Agua de Valencia and again, found a restaurant/bar that is known for it. The bar was just round the corner from where we had lunch which was convenient as I was not feeling well at all at this point. The bar was very quirky. The decor was very traditional and offered a strange yet exciting setting. The drink itself tasted very nice... it contained vodka and rum with orange (I think). I am not a huge fan of drinking alcohol but I must admit, this drink was ever so refreshing ^__^





It was such a shame that I was feeling so crap on our last day in Valencia...I felt so bad for Esther and felt like I ruined and wasted our day - I'm sorry roomie! Our car ride home to Madrid was at 4pm so we walked to the area which we were going to get picked up which was Plaza de Espanya. We sat in the sun for a while and decided to find toilet somewhere before getting in the car. We found a café round the corner (the only shop open) and we ended up eating! ^^' I had a really nice and cheap croissant and Esther had an ice cream with a watermelon slush(?) that did not taste nice what so ever!! False advertising!! We went home with a lady and a guy who was also using the BlaBlaCar service to go to Madrid. It was a long journey home but we were so tired that we managed to get some sleep...despite the driver blasting her rock music!! 

We arrived home around 9:30pm, showered and got into bed. I am really grateful that this weekend away happened. It allowed me to enjoy myself in the great weather and I couldn't have asked for better company. To be honest, I really needed this trip and I'm glad we made this spontaneous decision to go. I never normally go on trips out of the blue but maybe sometimes they are better than planned trips? I hope Esther and I (and Samra too!) can go on many more trips away and explore Spain together before the weather gets too cold for us to even want to leave our rooms! 

I apologize for the late post, I haven't been well the past week so I wanted to rest up and get better before I tell you all about my first weekend trip away. ^^ 

Please look forward to more posts! - again, thank you for reading. 

- Tiffany




Photo credit: TeenyTinyMui












Monday 21 September 2015

...But Together We Are A Masterpiece

Both my teacher (Mako) and Sonia had been inspired by a photo on Pinterest of a 'hand-made flower' which was basically colourful hand-cut paper hands made by children. They really liked this creativity and were captured by the quote that tagged along with it. So as a task, Mako and I drew around each 40 students' hands and allowed them to colour them in making them beautiful as ever. After they'd finished, I cut them out during my free time (whilst they sat on the floor doing activities via the Smartboard). The classes are split into 1A and 1B and it was a little tiring having to cut out so many hands ^^' but I knew the outcome would make it all worth it. As I worked on the pieces, the children would walk towards my table and touch the hands - they told me that what I had put together was 'beautiful'. This was rewarding itself! They were ever so excited to see their hands be made into a 'hand-made' flower and were eager to see the end product...

...and here they are! 



I'm not the most creative person in the world but what made me most happy about these artworks (can you call them that?) is definitely the quote. 

We are each unique and beautiful, but together, we are a masterpiece. 

Yes, there are individual students who stand out, who prefer to read more, who work harder, but together as a class, you create so much more of an atmosphere. As a team, you can bring more to the table. There is no 'i' in 'team'. 

I get to see these flowers everyday - before class starts and when I leave. It's a small reminder to myself each day that it's so important to think of others and not just yourself. To always help others, even if they do not seek help. 

Both 1A and 1B joined classes one day last week to do a team-work task. There were 8 students at the table at a time and they were given two rolls of tape, two pairs of scissors and a few straws... you might be able to guess what they had to do(?) Each student at the table had a specific job and was only allowed to do that job - they weren't allowed to help others. The teachers set the sand timer and they had to go through each student... starting off with the tape, then the scissors and then finally to the straws station where they had to tape as many straws together possible to create a huge tower! But during this time, the teachers were distracting the stations...whether that was the scissor station or the straw station. They did this by telling the students to fetch a classroom material and give it to me (standing across the classroom). It was super obvious that the students were not doing well and were clueless as to why the teachers were giving such random demands! The motto of the task is that in order for a task to be completed, all members must be present. If one member of the team is missing then the task simply cannot be completed - simple yet efficient. There were two rounds where the students were being distracted and the final round the teachers didn't get involved and let the students do as they were told. This led to the students creating a very long straw tower... and also taught them a lesson. They realised that the teachers were trying to teach them something. It was great to see this... that the students had caught on and they were all saying that if one person is missing then they could not continue the task. Kids are really clever nowadays ^^... 

- Tiffany


Monday 14 September 2015

Sumo San | Infamous llaollao | Temple of Debod

Sunday is fun-day and today was sure fun :) ...so what did I do?

Today started off with a delicious lunch date in Madrid with my roommate and her friend from University! I accompanied Esther because I didn't want to be stuck inside on the weekend >_<. We took the metro to N. Ministerios and waited in Starbucks for Esther's friend, Aga...turns out she was in a completely different Starbucks! [F a i l] After finally meeting her, we walked to Sumo San which is a Japanese restaurant very close to Korean Restaurante (ever so convenient for us food lovers!). Sumo San is a Japanese sushi buffet restaurant that offers a range of different types of sushi, tamaki, ramen etc. for the price of just 15 euros per person. Of course, we ordered lots of food and it definitely filled out hungry tummies! ^__^










Do you agree that the food looks great?! - it sure tasted it anyway... 

After Sumo San, we headed back to Sol as a trio to have some 'froyo' (frozen yoghurt). We heard that there's a really good froyo place called LlaoLlao and wanted to try it out. I myself am not a big fan of desserts or anything sweet (yes, i'm odd =P) so I stuck to a refreshing watermelon slush whilst Esther and Aga had a big portion of froyo! So, I'm guessing you order different sorts of toppings to go with your frozen yoghurt... including fruits or chocolate?! Oh, just to mention that Spanish people or just the children absolutely adore chocolate! They have it in their bread...they dunk it in their chocolate milk... chocolate crazy over here. Here's a picture of what Esther had at the infamous llaollao


Honestly, the weather wasn't great during the early afternoon, it was quite chilly to begin with but it started to get warmer in the late afternoon whilst we were in Sol so it was nice to sit down and talk with good company. We said our goodbyes to Aga who had to leave for Granada that evening and headed for our next destination... 

The Temple of Debod! 
I was very thankful that the weather had drastically improved which turned yesterday into a beautiful day. The sun was beaming and everyone knows that the sun can brighten your mood ^__^. We walked from Sol to the Temple of Debod - it wasn't too far and we prefer to walk everywhere anyway. Here's what we were greeted by;








There wasn't much to do there but it was beautiful to look at and walk around. The scenic view is fantastic and it allows you to see the city more clearly! It was great to see the water glistening in the sun ^^ - it was peaceful to watch. It's definitely a landmark worth visiting if you're ever in Madrid. Another bonus is that it's close to the Royal Palace of Madrid too so you could visit both in one day. 

It was really lovely to meet Aga, she's a really nice girl. I wish her all the best in her studies! 

Est and I are hoping to venture out of Madrid next weekend (hopefully). We feel a little trapped always being in the city and to be honest, it's pricey - nothing is cheap. Maybe next weekend I'll be able to share an even more exciting post with you all! 

- Tiffany




Photo credit: TeenyTinyMui