La Lagantija

(The last playground)

This is it. The last unknown playground ;) It´s not much left to say about it. The only specialties are that it´s actually more a garage than a big area but I didn´t see many playgrounds that are arranged with so fondly self-made (by the kids and teachers) details and where is a so trustful relationship among everybody J This is also the place where Iza and I started our first little “project”: after teaching the oldest kids the most basic sentences in German/ Polish (i.e. hello, how are you, thanks …) we showed the typical dances (Waltzer and Bolognese). Everybody had much fun but the dancing lessons afterwards hadn´t been very useful and Iza and I recognized for the first time how difficult it can be to seriously work with children, to keep them quiet and interested. Bigger projects could be exhausting… but at least as funny ;)

La Pescera Feliz

3rd playground

La Pescera Feliz. This is where I spent the last four afternoons. Just another playground. Similar to the two before. And also totally different! Like in the previous playgrounds the teachers fixed a weekly schedule with new activities every day and also the whole routine of the day resembles the former ones. Besides this the children are divided, too: the older ones attend from 15.30 to 17.30, the younger ones attend the following two hours. That´s the plan. Sadly there are every day only one to three children present during the first two hours. This means, that during this time there are altogether four teachers amusing one single child. Quite boring :( For the future I would like to offer sth like language lessons during this time. Being in that a small group is perfect for this kind of intensive work.

first language lesson

Half an hour ago I had my first language lessons :) my head is still aching.... the teacher is nobody else than Iza, my flat member, which makes things extremely easy ;) from now on I will (finally after almost one month) have 3 hours of lessons per week (2x 1.5 hours). The most important thing is now to learn as many vocabulary as possible! I already recognised that it´s quite easy to learn those vocabularies which are known from Latin but also extremely difficult to learn the completely unknown ones as they are so similar... work is waiting!!

leisure time

Being new in another town/city/country the weekends are always a sensitive theme: used to go out with old friends and visiting the favorite places you could feel pretty lonely at a saturday evening... but not with the four of us! :D spending the weekends lazy on the beach, at Salsa classes, going hiking with friends of friends which are randomly neighbours, having some Sangria/ beer, practicing extreme-tourism in the city centre, cooking and asking the neighbours for lasagna forms, doing noisy artisan activities at 22pm or get to know new people through AURI (= organisation which prepares trips etc. for erasmus students) activities and making plans for explore the islands..... no chance for boredom or loneliness!


Hiking: Roques de Anaga

 

...

How could I forget this? There´s one thing you probably don´t know yet about Tenerife: people here love celebrations. Big celebrations. Huge celebrations :) Especially La Lagunas´ citizens! This is why there was this holyday on Friday the 14th (holyday only in this single city!!) with an incredible firework that evening and all in one one month of festivities. Enjoying the astonishing firework at a roof balcony, having delicious traditional foot and relishing the crowds in the streets afterwards I get a deep impression of Spanish way of life ;)


firework

El Dragón

(2nd playground)

During the last four days Iza and I visited El Dragón. Also here the two teachers are likable from the beginning on, even if none of them speaks English at all. The area of this playground is –connected with a school- even huger than the first: additional to the football fields there is a big assembly hall which affords playing in a cooler climate than outside J besides this there are many similarities between both of the centers: the same kinds of kids (the “Spanish teachers”, the rebellious ones, the loud ones, the touchy ones…) and besides the continuous high volume there is a fixed daily program. In this case the program is as follows: conversation in a sitting circle followed by a daily changing activity offered by the teachers (such as handicraft work or traditional games), then free time*. After the first two hours the older kids leave and the younger ones arrive. We have the eating break all together, afterwards again free time*, sitting circle and common game. This playground convinced me not only through the balanced contact between kids and teachers and towards us J Nevertheless, after several days you can see a difference concerning the behavior of the kids towards Iza (who perfectly speaks Spanish) and me …they are not as… blustery, more reserved. The Spanish lessons still didn´t start.

 

*free time= Iza and I have to play with the children in the assembly hall. The preferred game is a mixture of hike-and-seek & chasing...played for at least 55 minutes a day = VERY exhausting! = sports compensation ;)

El Dragón

self reflection

Today two things happened:

1.       I arrived at the flat and thought for the first time: “Home sweet home” or sth similar (the point is clear I think) and

2.       I recognized for the first time that I already started to think in English language. After less than one week. Crazy!