Tag: Libby

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Last Weeks in Villanueva – Libby

Hi everyone! The last few weeks and classes went well. It is nice to get to know my students better. In one of my classes we did a questionnaire about what they wanted to work on in English and what kind of activities they like the most. This was very helpful for me, and Giulia and I used their feedback when we made lesson plans. Last week, Janine and I started to work with two new women who want to learn English for their jobs. In my classes that week, we listened to “If I Were a Rich Man”. The students understood it well and thought the song was fun. Janine and I also taught a new B2 for the first time. It was nice to learn about his life and talk about the meaning of songs.

That weekend I went with Janine and my friend, Emma, to the Málaga. We went to the beach. Janine and I were going to take the tour bus with the tourism office, but it was full. It was fun, but the sun was so hot that we got tired and a little sunburnt. There were a lot of people at the beach. I liked swimming in the water, but I didn’t know it would be so salty. We saw some other English speakers there, who were British. Emma really wanted paella, but all of the restaurants were closed because of siesta. We had lunch at the train station mall. We had a good time.


Back at the academia, this week we played twenty questions. My classes really liked it, especially my high school class. They really liked playing in teams because they are very competitive. I taught the young learners class alone on Thursday and the kids really liked playing with play dough again. They also liked a video about broccoli and ice cream. I was happy that they wanted to sing the songs. In the upper level classes, we played “Chained to the Rhythm” and it was interesting to look at its meaning. Through talking about it with the students, I saw how much more complicated and interesting it is than I first thought, which was cool. We also practiced numbers and writing sentences with different tenses. Next week will be busy and we plan on doing a fun last thing in classes. I’m sad that this is my last weekend in Villanueva, but I’m excited to go home.

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Updates – Libby

Hi everyone! The first week of teaching classes went well. The students were learning entertainment and money vocabulary. In two of my classes the students heard the song “Money, Money, Money” and answered questions about it. The B1 group C class really liked the song and were singing it the next few days of class. Two of my classes really enjoyed playing Pictionary. My two B1 classes are competitive. Later, in the B1 group C class we played “Seven Years” because we heard them singing it before. They did a writing exercise with the song, where they had to fill-in missing lyrics from the song as they listened to it. The students were very good at this activity. We also practiced giving advice with the answer using “should”.

Outside of class, I started aqua aerobics with Lucy and the other interns. It is fun so far. The first day it was cold outside because we do it at night. We started out doing Zumba and then went into the water to do a few dances. We had to sign up for the classes at the Ayuntamiento the week before. This was my first time doing aqua aerobics, but I have seen people do it before. I like the music that we exercise to.

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The two weekends before I went with Catherine and Kaelan to Morocco. We went to Tangier and saw the Hercules cave. I got to hold a bird and a monkey there! It was beautiful and it was especially cool to see where the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean converge. We also saw Malabata beach, which was beautiful. We took some pictures there. I really liked the old medina or town, which had the old city walls and a pretty mosque. We also drove to a lighthouse, but we couldn’t go inside because it was closed. I tried Moroccan food. It was delicious. My favorite was the tagine chicken and beef. The chicken had olives and a really good sauce.

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Last weekend, I went to Madrid with Giulia, Kaelan, Janine and Maya. There were lots of people. We met up with Emma, someone I met this summer, who is working at a hospital in Córdoba. We also met up with my friend, Maya. She and I were on the same study abroad program and she goes to my college. She is doing an internship in Madrid this summer. It was nice to see her and hear about her internship. It was fun to spend time with everyone and see a lot of couples being happy. The weather in Madrid was surprisingly not too hot, which was very nice. We walked a lot around Madrid. We saw stages for concerts in Puerta del Sol and Plaza de España.

Until next time!

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Trip to Salamanca – Libby

The past few weeks since my last post have been very good! I have really enjoyed getting to know the students and learning about their interests. It also was nice to meet Janine, the other intern, who arrived last week. I have been able to visit a town in Spain that was the first place I went to on my study abroad program’s orientation tour, Salamanca.

Salamanca was beautiful. My friend from high school is studying there and it was great to see her. I climbed the cathedral tower and saw the Art Deco museum. The view from the tower was gorgeous and the museum was beautiful. They had many of Francisco Goya’s etchings, which were very cool. I’ve studied his art, so it was cool to see it in person. The weather was hot there, but it seemed more humid than Villanueva. It was nice to hear about my friend’s life and her classes in Salamanca. She said that there are students around her age, but also students who are thirty or older, who want to learn Spanish. I think that is really cool.

That end of the week was an art event in the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca. They projected a video onto the main arch in the plaza. The video images went with the music that they played. It was beautiful! There were so many people in the plaza and some people had glow sticks. I couldn’t find my friend for a bit because there were so many people. I didn’t know that there was an event going on. It was a cool coincidence that it was the week I came.

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In terms of work, we’ve been working on quizzes for the intensive classes and making lesson plans for this coming week. We also recorded a video for our newscast, which will be used for listening practice during classes. We also decided when each person will teach class. I look forward to starting intensive classes and meeting more students!

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First Weeks in Villanueva – Libby

I now have been in Villanueva de Córdoba for almost two weeks. I have met most of the students. We practiced the students’ topics and interactive speaking tasks. I really enjoyed meeting the students and getting to know them. Their topics helped me learn about their interests and their lives, which was very interesting and fun to learn. Last weekend, was the Féria chica. I had lechón for the first time, which was delicious. I also had flamenquín and pizza at mycafe, which were also delicious. The caseta was fun and there were a lot of people there. I knew some of the Spanish music, but not all of it. I had dinner with my host family one night and helped my host sister, Luna take her niece and nephew on the bumper car and carousel rides. I also went to Calerito 2.0 that has a different kind of flamenquín, that was very good with lemon.

I am starting to feel more comfortable with my host family. I went with my host sister, Luna to the animal shelter that she volunteers at. I really liked it! The dogs were so cute and happy to see us. There were dogs of many sizes. I have now met four out of five of my host parents’ children.

Monday was the romería and I walked with Luna and her friends from Villanueva to the Virgen de Luna sanctuary. It was a fun walk, but a bit tiring because it was hot outside. We saw the Virgen de Luna in the church and ate some food at the stalls by the sanctuary. It reminded me of processions during Semana Santa, but it was different because there were tractors pulling carts of people yelling and having fun and there were lots of people on horses.