Keith O'Farrell with his new host family in Olivos.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
CII Teach Argentina
Christy Vickers surrounded by children at the school in Bahia Blanca where
he was doing his placement.
CII Teach Argentina
I have been here in General Villegas for almost 2 months now. It’s hard to believe that it’s September already! I am teaching the New Westlands School and I work about thirty hours a week. My classes vary from teaching adults one-on-one to assisting children with their oral exam preparation. The children attend the school outside their normal school hours and mostly the juniors come in the morning and older students arrive in the afternoon. They even have a kindergarten class. Although it’s an institute, it really feels like a normal school to me as there are classrooms, lots of books, skipping ropes in the playground and even a school t-shirt.
Villegas is bigger than it seems. The population is about 20k and there a substantial hinterland. I have become a regular at the park and ice-cream parlor, although the local night-club has not been receiving my custom yet! My host family has been giving me a crash course in all things Argentinean and they have been very welcoming. I think I have also though them a few things about the norms and customs of Ireland. I will never forget the look on their faces when I made a cup of tea to drink after dinner!! I have worked at two of the weekend English Immersion camps. They were on at an estancia near Pigue called La Nancy. It’s a beautiful place; wide fields, beautiful sunsets and striking mountains in the distance.
Additionally, I have started my Spanish classes. We are reading the BFG by Roald Dahl and I love it. The bar was set high at the beginning, as we started reading a famous Argentinean novel which was recently adapted on screen and won an Oscar for best Foreign Film. It didn´t work out! Next we tackled some Jorge Luis Borges, a emblem of Argentina. It was all so atmospheric, reading a classic and drinking coffee. Another failure! I am content with the BFG at the moment! I am hoping to go to Iugazu Falls in October and perhaps fit in some more trips at the weekends between camps. So far, I am enjoying my experience. I feel that I am learning a lot about myself and life in a country like Argentina. It’s so far away from Europe so I´m interested in finding out about the way they view the world here.
Villegas is bigger than it seems. The population is about 20k and there a substantial hinterland. I have become a regular at the park and ice-cream parlor, although the local night-club has not been receiving my custom yet! My host family has been giving me a crash course in all things Argentinean and they have been very welcoming. I think I have also though them a few things about the norms and customs of Ireland. I will never forget the look on their faces when I made a cup of tea to drink after dinner!! I have worked at two of the weekend English Immersion camps. They were on at an estancia near Pigue called La Nancy. It’s a beautiful place; wide fields, beautiful sunsets and striking mountains in the distance.
Additionally, I have started my Spanish classes. We are reading the BFG by Roald Dahl and I love it. The bar was set high at the beginning, as we started reading a famous Argentinean novel which was recently adapted on screen and won an Oscar for best Foreign Film. It didn´t work out! Next we tackled some Jorge Luis Borges, a emblem of Argentina. It was all so atmospheric, reading a classic and drinking coffee. Another failure! I am content with the BFG at the moment! I am hoping to go to Iugazu Falls in October and perhaps fit in some more trips at the weekends between camps. So far, I am enjoying my experience. I feel that I am learning a lot about myself and life in a country like Argentina. It’s so far away from Europe so I´m interested in finding out about the way they view the world here.
By LIANA LEONARD
CII Teach Argentina
I am in Bahia Blanca teaching in a school called Colegio del solar. It is a bilingual school. My first day here was a blur because of how tired I was. I had just arrived back in Buenos Aires from Necochea and was ready to sleep when i received a call saying that I had to leave straight away and get a taxi to the bus station and then get a bus down to Bahia Blanca. When i arrived to the station I was greeted by a teacher from the school and brought to the school to meet the headmaster. But I got dropped in at the deep end and had to teach a class that day. I basically spent the class half asleep. But after school I finally got to go home to my host family and sleep. When I woke up I had dinner with the family and was feeling right again. And from that moment on what can I say. It has been an amazing experience. I quickly got set up with a rugby team called Nacional that have really been good and have taken me under their wing. We start a new competition on the 24th and I can't wait to get stuck in. The kids in the school are great although I am still getting used to the amount of affection they show and their obsession with me not having a girlfriend which seems to be an alien concept to the people of Argentina. The nights out are fantastic and the gym I have joined is also full of the most friendly people I have ever met. Basically it has been one of the most exciting and greatest experiences of my life to date and I hope it keeps getting better. But as much as I love meeting all the Argentinians and getting to know them, I still miss home like crazy and above all the people I have met in Argentina my irish/american creeps still hold the highest place. That is not putting the people from Argentina I have met here down, it is just putting the group of creeps up. But all in all, I couldn't be having more fun.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)