Busy, busy times

Hey folks,

A warm welcome from Argentina for all reading this post. Sorry for such a long delay in writing but, as the post title attests, these are busy, busy times. I can truly say that I have scoured the city in search of the right place for me to stay when December finally roles around. However room hunting down here can be something of a messy and impromptu process and one I don't care to delve into too much. I have also been busy preparing for the TEFL certification course (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) which began yesterday. 

We spent our first day getting to know our fellow classmates and building up a friendly rapport. The teachers are wonderful, friendly, and willing to assist us in every way and my fellow students, there are five of us, hail from England and Austria (I represent the US!). Probably the most exciting part of the day was getting placed into the role of a beginner language student who is just learning a foreign language (In this case Afrikaans) for the first time. 

"Waar wil jy woon?" "Ek wil in die plaateland woon." 

I feel fluent already! Well not quite. The goal of this exercise is to put each of us into the mindset of a beginner student. With this in mind we can better understand how to work with beginner students, what their needs are, and what teaching format is most helpful to them. The course is fairly intensive for the first two weeks as we get through all of the teaching material while the second two weeks will be more flexible with lesson planning and actual teaching taking up most of the time. 

The class is held in the art nouveau era Palacio Barolo. The building is based on Dante's Divine Comedy and the floors of the palace are divided into the different levels of afterlife: hell, purgatory, and heaven. Since we are on the third floor I think that puts us in hell. I hope that isn't symbolic in any way. I have added a photo I took of the top of the beautiful building, although I couldn't get a better shot because there was too much of an angle at street level.

Today, Tuesday the 20th of November (also called 20N here) was a national strike by two of the largest unions in the country. We weren't sure if we were going to have class today and the professors said they would email us if class was canceled. Anyways, class wasn't canceled and while walking to class I saw very few if any signs of protest. They were probably more prominent in other areas of the city and one of the students couldn't make it to class because the trains were shut down but the center of the city was fine. I did notice the supermarket was nearly cleared out of eggs, which means they probably didn't get any in today due to pickets blocking the main access roads into the city. 

On my way to class I discovered a wonderful little coffee and tea shop that pretty much hit home for me. It is difficult enough finding inexpensive and quality coffee or tea down here so finding this place really made my day. I decided to visit the shop with another trainee while we were on break from class. Here are a few photos of my visit to the shop.

TEAPOTS!

Una Cafe Chico

I think now that I have this TEFL course to occupy me my life is beginning to take on a structure and normalcy. This is helping me to stay balanced and occupied throughout the day. Not to mention the professors are wonderful and I thoroughly enjoy the company of my classmates. After two days this has already turned out to be a very rewarding experience and I hope to bring what I learn from this teaching course to my future students, inspiring them to learn English in an active and fun environment.