Well this week I have! My first week at Spanish School has been…fun, frustrating, surprising, delightful, annoying, confusing, and rewarding. I’ve loved being a student again, though I suspect I may not be a good one. I ask too many questions, and I get impatient when others take too long to answer the simplest request from the teacher. For those of you reading this who remember what I was like at school, I don’t think much has changed! I’ll let you read into that what you will 😎.

But let me tell you about my classmates. We are a motley crew from all over the world!

The 4 Germans: early 20s, here for a good time which doesn’t necessarily include learning Spanish. The boys are very funny, and when they turn up they mostly ‘tienen resaca’ (are hungover). But they are hilarious and keep us all entertained with stories of their nights out on the town. There is a German girl with them, earnest, is clearly torn between wanting to learn and having fun with the boys. She is the only one of the group who has turned up every day.

Next we have a very austere Russian man, Dimma. He doesn’t say much, and despite my best efforts actually refused to speak to me for the first couple of days. I broke him by Day 4. Now we’re great friends. We have had some interesting conversations about life in Russia (surprisingly similar to ours) and the impact of the war (manned mostly by the poorest citizens who get paid handsomely for their service).

Finally there is a delightful older lady called Janet from the Netherlands. We share eerily similar lives – professionally she was a teacher, trained teachers, loves Ottolenghi recipes and cooking. We share eye rolling at the German boys and a few laughs.

My Grammar teacher is a 43 yr old man, local to Cadiz. Every other week he cares for his mother who has dementia. He’s also vegan. He berates people in the class who don’t use sunscreen because the sun causes cancer, but smokes like a chimney in the breaks. Lovely guy, genuinely. But has a short fuse and lost his patience with the German boys for not remembering the content he taught them the week before. He tells us he’s allergic to marriage. At some point he had a girlfriend from Melbourne. No longer. May explain why he hasn’t really warmed to me! 🤣🤣🤣

So life as a student…

We have a 25 min walk to school every day – the old town centre is beautiful in the mornings when there are not many people around. This is the Cathedral at 8am. By 1pm there are people everywhere!

I love being a witness to daily life here. One morning we watched a 6yr old girl throw an impressive tantrum just in front of the Cathedral about having to go to school that day. Her poor dad…

We have classes from 9-11:30 (grammar) and 12-1:30 (conversation). I find the conversation classes the most frustrating. I know what I want to say in my head, but the words just don’t come out. Correctly. Or at all. Some days I get very grumpy at my lack of ability to speak coherently (you’re surprised, I know 🙄). I fully expected I would be speaking like a local by now …

After school we have lunch, sometimes at a local bar that serves a 3 course home made meal for 10 euro. Food is great. The family who run the bar are lovely. There’s no menu, it’s just whatever Grandma decides to cook that day!

Some days on our walk home after school, I stop at the market to buy some fruit and veg, and then we have a siesta. I am loving siestas. It means I can stay up until after midnight!

In the evenings we catch up with fellow students, go for walks along the beach, watch sunsets (at 930pm!). Life is good. I’m lucky.