The course has been going well. We started yesterday to get to know each other in the morning. There are 7 of us: all British boppers except for me (and another woman who's parents are Irish but was born in Spain). Two other guys, three middle aged women and a younger girl. They are all very easy going and fun to be around. We went for lunch yesterday to a semi-nice restaurant where I had some type of meat-nothing real espanolish. We had some more tutorials and did some pre-lesson planning before we left around 5 or 6. Today we each gave our first lessons. We are going to have a total of 6 hours teaching practice time, today was a 30 min some are 60 min. I'm in the group split into 4 people and we each had a section of learning exercises-reading, writing, speaking, listening. I did the listening. We were given an outline of what type of activity they wanted and basically walking us through the planning now where we'll soon be given less instructions. I had us four teachers record a short summary on tape of where we're from and what we liked to do there and was supposed to use it for their listening exercise with some questions made up. I gave a brief introduction of what the instructions are and anything about the questions I made up that they might not understand, played the tape through for two different sets of questions, had them compare answers in pairs, asked if any would like to answer, then talk about anything related to their reactions to fill up the 30 minutes. It went pretty well. I felt comfortable. Theres only 7 students in this class which is pre-intermediate, and then the last two weeks we'll do an intermediate class. They are all college age or older. Simple, basic instructions and reviews of simple grammar points are all we're focusing on presenting for now. And getting comfortable with the students, vice versa. They're really friendly and eager to learn since its their decisions to enroll in the classes. Tomorrow I'll be doing some preposition activity and have them converse about objects in the room, and in pairs have each other describe their own rooms while the other draws a diagram. We have our tutorials and lessons in the mornings at 10 until about 2, then the lessons 4-6:30, feedback and stuff afterwards. The requirements for us like a portfolio, lesson plans, feedback, responses and such are all pretty formal, and I'm liking the system so far and feel pretty comfortable with everything. And then hopping on the metro to and from the school is growing on me. I get ten trip tickets for 6.50. The metro stop is right outside our apartment and right in the Plaza Castilla where the school is. It's about 20-30 minutes one way, but never boring when hundreds of people are feet away from each other with glum faces and awkward glances. "Proxima estacion:" "Next stop" ringing in my ears. But it's interesting to see how this city works and how its part of their lives everyday. I'm trying to pick up quick phrases hear and there and studying whenever I get a chance. I took a walk a few blocks each way around our neighborhood and saw a lot more than I expected with shops, restaurants, parks, so I'll send those pics