8:20/8:40AM: Wake up- After having the usual fight with the snooze button on my alarm, I begrudgingly pull myself out of bed. Depending on the exact time I wake up I may decide to have breakfast or after I take the kids to school (when Top Gear is on TV)
8:50AM: Take Simó and Júlia to school- This is just a short walk through the local park before crossing two fairly busy roads which takes about 5 minutes at most depending on how quickly the kids decide to walk.
9:00AM-1:45PM: Free Time- During this time I have free roam to do whatever I please. On Mondays and Wednesdays I go to Silvia's at 12 for my language exchange and I should be starting a second one with Aina and Sonia sometime soon. I spend the rest of this time either doing my TEFL course online, playing guitar or doing some exercise-usually Running or Swimming however I've now started to do some more Cycling. I'm slowly but surely becoming an all singing, all spanish speaking, all english teaching triathlete!
1:50PM: Pick up Simó and Júlia from school
2:10PM-ish: Lunchtime- This is usually cooked by Elena. Whilst we eat Josep arrives home from work
3:30PM: On Tuesdays and Thursdays Simó plays Football at school. This leaves me to play some games and speak English with Júlia (and with Simó on the other days) while Marta arrives home from work, has lunch, then goes to pick Marina up from nursery
5:00PM: Activities for the Kids- Everday there is something happening. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays Simó has Basketball while Júlia has gymnastics and on Fridays both girls have Swimming lessons. I go with Simó to Basketball for the hour while Marta goes with the girls to the sports centre for Gymnastics/Swimming. I don't have to watch Simó all the time while he's playing Basketball so I tend to stay and play FIFA for 30 minutes before either reading a few chapters of The Motorcycle Diaries (the travel diaries of Che Guevara, thought it would be good for my gap year) or doing some circuit training in the exercise park next to the sports centre. This park is incredible! As it is designed for exercise there is equipment dotted around it such as chin up bars and rowing machines with plenty of grassy areas for chore muscle exercises. It's like an outdoor gym! If only there was one like that in Stockport...
On Tuesdays and Thursdays ,after picking Simó up from Football at school, Marta, the kids and I take the bus into the city centre for Júlia and Simó's music lessons- Piano for Júlia and Guitar for Simó. Júlia has Ballet at 6 so Marta takes her to the dance school while I wait for Simó. I use this time to have a wander around the city centre which often ends with me watching the buskers outside the FC Barcelona shop before going in for a quick nosy.
8:00PM: Dinner with the kids and Marta. At about 8:30 Josep returns home from the IT course that he leads. We tend to head out to Alcúdia around this time on Fridays so dinner is a little later on.
9:00PM: Kids bedtime although Marina often stays up watching TV with us anyway
9:15PM: Off Duty- Once the kids are in bed, I can relax. I sit down with Marta and Josep and watch a bit of Spanish TV or any Football that's on whilst catching up on the internet world. Occasionally, Marta and Josep will go for a run at this time leaving me to babysit.
11:30PM onwards- This is more or less the time I go to bed but if I'm heading out like on most Thursday nights then that will be much later...
I know I haven't said too much about the actual Au Pair work I've been doing here but there isn't too much to say. The main idea is that I create an English speaking environment as much I can when I'm with Simó and Júlia (sometimes Marina) whilst playing games, doing music practice and preventing them from becoming slaves to the TV (la caja tonta). I'm compiling a list of all the games and activities I've done with the kids and I'll be putting it up on here by the time I leave Mallorca for anyone interested in becoming an Au Pair in the future. I have continued to get on well with all the kids. When I first arrived here, I must say I did feel a little unwelcome with the kids as they were used to their previous Au Pair Ollie so it was a bit like I was stepping on someone else's turf. However, as they have got to know me better and vice-versa, I have manages to create a rapport with them in which we share our own personal jokes and they're almost constantly going around the house singing the songs I play for them on guitar which I find amusing. I have spent a lot more time with Marina as the weeks have gone on and although she refuses to call me by real name and instead insists on calling me "Efrer", she has got used to me being around and we've even traded words in our respective languages! I have taught her "Hello", "Thank you", "Shoes" and "Sock" and as she only really speak Catalan; I have learnt several new words which like with my Au Pair games I'm adding to a list to be uploaded onto here by the time I leave. The word which she seems to use the most is "Aquest" meaning this/that however the first Catalan word I have learnt here was "Gelat" which means Ice Cream!
For many of you who have been reading my blog posts over the past month, you will have seen that I've been writing a lot about all the exciting things that have been happening so far on my gap year all of which have given off quite a positive vibe. Now I don't mean to be a party-pooper but, I'm afraid that many gap year blogs and other such things only seem to go on about the good side of things so I would just like to take a minute to put into perspective the harder and not so glamorous things I've had to deal with so far, a lot of which is mainly psychological. A gap year is something quite strange and different. It requires you to really step out of your comfort zone and to grow as an independent being. Thanks to the discipline I have gained through swimming over the years and as a solo musician I often consider myself to be quite a strong-minded individual who has never really needed a close family, a large network of friends or a relationship to get by. I often like having some alone time to myself yet what I hadn't accounted for during this year was the sheer loneliness and isolation that I have felt at times so far which has caused me to have what I like to call 'University Envy'. Now I'm on my gap year it feels like I've just hit a massive pause button on my life. Whenever I look to Facebook/Twitter or Skype with two of my best friends-Josh and Peter, I see people my age at University having a ball of a time. Meeting new people, joining sports clubs and societies, making friends, starting relationships, getting stuck-in to their degree courses. In short-becoming the person they're going to be for the next 3/4 years and for the rest of their lives. Everyone seems to be moving on with their life while I watch on alone which for someone who has been researching going to Uni for nearly the last 2 years is hard to take and it does make me question why I agreed to do this. I suppose it would help if I knew a few others 'gappers' like myself however for now it feels quite solitary. I find myself reading just about every article in the Soton Tab and Wessex Scene so I get more of feel for what Southampton is like yet I'm now starting to think this is quite unhealthy for me as I'm probably over-hyping the whole idea of University and not living in the moment. To counter this, I have been getting my head down and into my TEFL course so that I can finish it and move on with the next phases of my gap year which is hopefully getting myself a TEFL job in Asia or South America where I expect there to be a lot more 'gappers'. I've been looking up trips on sites like STA travel to motivate me and so far I've completed the 30 hour grammar course and half of the 50 hour learn how to teach TEFL course with just Video section of the course left untouched. At this rate, I should be done by mid-November at the latest!
In other news... I managed to watch the England vs Poland match on Tuesday night from a live stream on my laptop. Marta and Josep were watching Spain play Georgia on the TV next to me on the sofa at the same time so I had the privilege of keeping up with both matches and they found it especially funny when I lept up off the sofa when Rooney and Gerrard scored the two vital goals to send England to Brazil next summer. Spain also won 2-0 to qualify so everyone was happy. I may have to find a way of getting myself to the samba nation this summer whilst I'm still on my gap year!
It's now only 3 days until my birthday so I've got somethings planned to help me celebrate over the weekend. Blog-wise, I have introduced a new feature in my posts called 'FOOD OF THE WEEK'. I will be posting a picture of the dish I have most enjoyed during the week of any post I do and I have also applied this to all my previous posts if you would like to check those out (once more?). Although this week isn't finished yet, I think I've found a winner from Mondays lunch time: Marta's Courgettes filled with meat filling and topped with a layer of thick Tomato purée. Just like a Cornish pasty but with a vegetable casing, gorgeous.
I do apologise for how boring and in some cases how depressing this post has become but I felt it had to be said somewhere so why not make it my 2nd post of the week?
That's it for now, make sure you stay tuned for more posts which I can almost guarantee will be much more happy and interesting than this one. I shall have some more news for you very soon.
Ta ra for now,
FP
#FraserOnTour
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| FOOD OF THE WEEK |
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