Discovering Cheltenham...
How you doing, Pale Mates?
We´ve just come back with handfuls of experiences about our stay in Cheltenham.
Let me tell you some... The journey to England was endless because we had to take 3 planes(Madrid-Paris-London!!!),so at the end we doubt that we were really there. We had enough time to meet each other in the airports: Tere and Gema from A Coruña, Eva from Lugo and Lucía and me from Pontevedra. I´ve been pretty happy with my family: a young couple with 3 too polite &peaceful children and some interesting neighbours (a WWII veteran in the Battle of Normandy!!). Tere “Crossing-roads” was so lucky because she enjoyed real cooked food served with piano concerts by her housefather. Lucía lived in a sort of United Nations headquarters full of people and anecdotes. Gema brought us the chance to visit an infants classroom and find out how all the school stuff works there. The course didn´t contribute with any new methodological idea, so we are even more proud of our 1st stage Pale teachers and of Galician Teacher Trainers. We all think that our English Teacher Trainer (“Lovely Sue”) was the one who really improved her methodology asking us: “Girls, what do you do/think about...?” all-the-time. I´m not kidding!.
Cheltenham is full of extremely polite people who use “lovely” everytime they have the chance to. At night, we had fun looking at Fitipaldis-teenagers who took part in illegal car races in the town centre and at “happy people” dressed up as insects, disabled old ladies, hen party girls in limos...
So, Cheltenham is a too small place for well-travelled people, so we didn´t stop moving in spite of the “four seasons in one single day” weather(or as Lucía says:menopausic weather): Gloucester, Cardiff, Stratford-upon-Avon, Tewkesbury, Great Malvern/London,Bristol, Cirencester, Bath,Oxford/Stonehenge-Salisbury and the Cotswolds, as well.
We won´t forget our religious experiences having fun in old churches (now pubs/restaurants), or at La tasca (desperate for Spanish stuff), our outdoor lunches feeling like homeless, our happiness when the shy sun came out, our “deep analysis” of English culture and people, our attempts of drinking real coffee, and my experience of cooking paella for 8 starving Britons.
For all the shared experiences: Thanks Lucia, Gema, Tere, and Eva. See you soon!