I was wondering all night about when the alarm was going to go off which I thought was at 7, but I wound up getting up at 6:45 and showered and dressed before the alarm ever went off. I made it down to breakfast before 7:15. This time I found the yogurt and they even had waffle fries. I really like those little pastry things filled with the tomato or bean paste.
Sessions at the Conference–What I Actually Came to Spain For.
My session was at 9 but they didn’t open the door until about 10 til. A woman (I think her name was Marsha Postelnek) stopped by who used to teach at Barrett and Pasteur who lived on Galewood who was now teaching in Warsaw and loving it and both her kids went to Del Campo. How nice she stopped by. My session had over ten people which was great and they seemed to enjoy it a lot. There were advisers from Spain, Switzerland, Nigeria, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Austrailia, Italy, and Portugal. They especially loved the prizes. The nuts were the biggest hit. It is amazing how well it goes once you stop thinking about it and just get started with the teaching.
I came back to the room and Robert was still sleeping so I went down and found the girls at breakfast. We finally went back up and they got Robert ready and left a little before 11. Their plan was to head for the zoo. I sat around the room for over an hour working on my sessions and writing in my journal. I went down a little after noon and went on line and while I was sitting there Russell stopped by and then Michelle Daughtry walked by. It was actually the first time I had seen her since I’ve been here. She let me know that she thought all my critique slots were filled but one. I went back to the room and got all my stuff and I went back to the ECIS desk and gave Michelle her Hershey’s bar and she gave me the list of the names for the critique sessions. They were all filled. I got one of the horrid bag lunches and then went and sat on the floor and went online. I got to the room in plenty of time to set up. I even got my plug to work in the funky power strip with the converter I found. First I did the coverage session and I had about 8 people. It was weird. None of them got most of my jokes. I had a few more for the copy session and it went well too. They were quite fascinated by the prospect of having student writing in the book. It seems that at many of the schools teams of teachers actually put the book together and the idea of even having students work on it is foreign.
The critiques were supposed to start at 3 and what I didn’t realize they were half an hour each. Which meant I would be done until six so I would never be able to meet them at 6:30. The critiques went very well I thought. Many just wanted to see if what they were doing was OK. Others were brought by their headmaster and were sent by their adviser. Others had me actually had me write comments in their books that they could take home to show their staffs or adviser. I had teachers from Austrailia; Istanbul, Turkey; Beiruit, Lebanon; Budapest, Hungary; Antwerp, Belgium; and Quito, Ecuador. Quite an eclectic group. The two women from Antwerp with their cute little flip book. After I finished with the principal from Quito, I headed up from the room and texted Christine that I would be late. I didn’t get out of the hotel until about 6:30. The trip went smoothly and I got to Sol at about 7:30. I lost cell service and didn’t get a text from Christine until I headed up toward the Persal. She said they were at the Cervezeria Alemagna on the Plaza Santa Ana near where we had tapas on Thursday. I found them in the back and they were already drinking and eating. We had calamari, empenadillos, a wicked chorizo, tortilla españa, ham and cheese bocadillos and cervesa and bread.
Someone Tells Me It's All Happening at the Zoo
They all shared about the great time they had at the zoo called the Zoo Aquarium at Casa de la Casa de Campo which had two pandas.
It wasn’t cheep at around €15 each. But the kids all seemed to love it. Zoe and Kate showed me all their pictures.
The big fun of the day seemed to be Sue’s three amazing falls. One where she tumbled down an escalator, another mini trip as they went into the zoo, then she fell down when she ran into a pole as they were going into the park, and then she fell into the hole and went totally down by where the kids had bought the crafts on Thursday. She actually cracked her head pretty hard on that one.
After dinner we headed straight back and were back by 10. Kate came by and got some money as it looks like she will need to take a cab and leave at about 4:30.
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