Confusing contracts and customer service

When I finally got my water switched on again yesterday after 24 hours with no water at all (thank you to Jamie and the security guard for fixing it!), I lost my internet access and my mobile phone connection. Went to the local Vodafone dealer this evening (after a sunny afternoon by the pool - lovely!!) and she told me to call "189". So I did, and they spoke Spanish, so I didn't really understand anything. Then the not so helpful woman at Vodafone told me she'd listen to the message for me. Apparently the message from "189" was that I had to pay my bill. "But I've got direct debit banking", I thought. Hmmm.

So I went home, checked all my Vodafone documents, went over to Adrian's place and asked him if he could phone "155" for me which is the Spanish speaking customer service. It turns out that on my contract with Vodafone there's a limit the first six month, since I'm a new customer. What?!?! No one ever told me about that when I signed the contract. And of course I have exceeded that limit. OMG. It turns out that I will be reconnected on 5 October... Lovely:)

As regards the use of internet, I'm now back where I started: at the local internet cafe (next door). My aim is to try to understand how to use my internet bank. The rent is due today, and my bank, which ironically is called "Solbank", has a veeeery interesting internet platform.

I'm erring on the positive side: Going to Benalmádena tomorrow to sort out my car insurance. Finally I will soon be able to pick up my car. Yes!

FYI: I can receive calls and texts on my Spanish mobile, but will not reply from that one. Luckily I managed to unlock my Norwegian mobile the other week....

Tarifa and Istan

The trip to Tarifa was great! Tarifa is a beautiful kind of hippie town at the southernmost part of Spain. We could see Africa. Wow! Fascinating!

All the activities (ab seiling, archery, mountain climbing etc.) were organised by two guys (Matt and Matt) from an adventure company. We teachers supervised the different activities, and had to give a hand with first aid every now and then. The students were lovely! The weather was fantastic on Friday!! In the evening we enjoyed a nice meal at the camping site where we were staying. It was fun going on this trip with the three other teachers; Elaine, Tim and Fran. We talked about lots of interesting things, and I guess we were just as tired as the students on Saturday morning.

Unfortunately the weather was awful on Saturday. There were thunderstorm and lightning, but we carried on with some of the activities Matt and Matt had planned for us. As the pictures show, the sand dunes were amazing! Fantastic!! It's a pity the weather was crap; we actually had to cancel the three hour walk to somewhere very beautiful because of rain... Anyway. we returned to Aloha College in the early evening, and everyone were happy about the great trip! As a matter of fact, we will arrange a trip down to Tarifa for the teachers later on this autumn. Then we can have fun in the sand dunes and enjoy the cute but small bungalows! Looking forward to the trip! :)

Fiona and I went to Istan today, a small town up in the mountains near La Concha, the big mountain close to Marbella. The roads were extreeeemely curvy, and I thought I'd be sick, but I managed! There was a festival in Istan, and several activities arranged in this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. Istan is a very Spanish town, and there seemed to be a very traditional way of living up there. Fiona and I were discussing how different the lives of the teenagers in Istan must be to the life of our students. Interesting. I'd say it's like two different worlds... Only 20 minutes apart. Hmmm... This is Spain. Diversity?

Here are some images from this exciting weekend!

The view from the mountains.

Ms Mc Girl and me and our lovely bungalow!

Matt talking to the students about daydreaming etc.


Mr Escobar trying to escape when playing "the kings on the hill"...

Ms Mc Girl and Ms Raustoel enjoying the sand dunes and the stunning view!
Peace and quiet. No comment. Beautiful! Already looking forward to the return trip with the teachers in November/December...


Here are a few images from Istan.

Mrs del Aguila in front of one of the very "Spanishy" houses in Istan.

Sweet old couples dancing on the town square.

Local girls wearing traditional (?) costumes.

Ms Raustoel and a very old fountain.

Beautiful!

Tarifa

School life in Spain is definitely never boring! This week I sent a student to detention for the very first time in my life. Tomorrow, I'm going to Tarifa (thank you, Google maps) with the Year 13 students and three teachers. Aloha College has arranged Adventure trips (for CAS points, Activity) since 2003, and the Year 13 students (and teachers, hopefully!!!) will get a chance to try activities such as advanced rock climbing, abseiling, low ropes challenges, archery etc. So I guess students, as well as teachers, will have a great weekend down in Tarifa. The beach down there looks lovely, as can be seen on the picture. The students will sleep in tents, whereas the teachers get a cabin. Great! :-)

My parents visited last weekend. We had three great days together where I showed them my life here in La Maestranza, the swimming pool, the market, Puerto Banus, the yachts, the local tapas bar, the local china restaurant etc. We even did some gardening! So this is the new boat my parents consider buying for our "hytte" in Kragerø... Looks great, doesn't it?? :-) Just what we need in Barlandskilen. Haha!







This week has also been a dramatic week! First there was a huge fire next to the complex. Someone left a cigarette, apparently... My garden was covered with ash. Luckily I had closed all the windows before I went to work that morning. It still smells extremly burnt-out in the area... Then, when I got back from the pool yesterday, my hot water tank had started leaking. And not only my water tank, but all the water tanks in the complex! Scary. Unfortunately I couldn't geth hold of Mike Delfino from Wisteria Lane (picture), but Adrian (friend and neighbour) came over and helped me sorting it out. It took a while to empty out the biiiig hot water tank. Mr. Handyman Jamie fixed the tank (temporarily) this afternoon. So hopefully I can have a hot bath tomorrow morning. This is what it looked like last night. I think I emptied 10 buckets of water before I went to bed...

The C day,

This has been an adventurous day, and almost everything interesting happening today started with the letter C. The most creepy experience was the cockroaches outside Mercadona (the local supermarket), literally next door to the complex where I'm living. Awful!! There were about 10-15 of them... Say no more.

My friend Lisa's car almost broke down today as well. Poor Diego (the car, a Mini Cabriolet) couldn't open the top (how do I say that in English?!?!) after the heavy rain that surprised us this afternoon. Lisa picks up me and Amy every morning on her way to work, so we're kind of dependent on Diego. Luckily he recovered quickly!

As most of you probably know, almost everything in this country is dubbed. This means that you need to have a certain knowledge of Spanish in order to enjoy films on TV or at the cinema. However, there's a cinema in Puerto Banus where they show one film per week in English. The cinema is called Cines Gran Marbella. So, this afternoon I could have said this in Spanish, in the present tense, about Lisa, Amy and me: "Vamos al cine. Dan un película en Ingles" Translated to English it means: "We're going to the cinema, they're showing a film in English". (?!) (Haven't learnt the simple past yet...) We didn't even bother checking what the film was about, and probably we should have done it! The film was called District 9, and it was horrible. A science fiction film.

What else could we do but leaving the place? So we did, and we ended up shopping at el Corté Ingles (yes, another C-word!), and I bought a new pair of Campers shoes. Very nice. Me gusta!

So what will tomorrow be? The D Day?
:-)

Wet Weather Policy

I can't belive I've been living here three weeks. Feels like I've lived here a couple of months already... Have had some lovely days with my auntie Margit and my cousin Mathias. They've been visiting since Wednesday. We've enjoyed the beach, the pool, the local tapas bar, the local market (oh la la!), San Pedro, and Margit and Mathias even visited me at Aloha College on Friday. I think they found school life there quite different from school life in Norway. Mathias tried to adopt to the dress code for students here, - take a look at the picture!! Cool guy, isn't he? :)

At the staff meeting this afternoon, the "wet weather policy" was discussed. What is this, you may think? That's what I thought, anyway. Coming from Norway, there's nothing like wet weather. Apparently there will be rain tomorrow, and what happens in the break times then? Will the students be allowed to be inside if it's raining? Obviously they're not allowed to be inside the school buildings during break time, but with the heavy rain that is expected tomorrow... who knows what will happen? Seeing this from a Norwegian point of view is actually quite interesting. I'm definitely learning a lot about cultures, experiences, communication and so on down here.

Have to mark essays now. My English B students (IB Diploma Programme) write one essay per week! Hasta luego! :)

Å snakke norsk!

Had a great experience at work today. In the morning break, a year 13 student knocked on my door and asked me if I was the new English B teacher and whether it was true that I was from Norway. Of course, I said! And we had a nice chat in Norwegian. Didn't really know how much I'd miss speaking my language just after 2,5 weeks. There are only two Norwegian students at Aloha, and both are in year 13.

Life in Spain is still fantastic, and I'm slowly getting used to the differences in the school system. (Obviously I can't write too much about it on my blog since I really don't know who the readers are.) Social life down here is great, and I find that I'm not always spending enough time alone. The number of tourists have decreased already, and hopefully there will be less tourists here in a couple of weeks.

The after school activities will start next week. Karol (the music teacher) and I will start a school choir on Thursday evenings. I'm really looking forward to that! Apparently Aloha is exceptional in that all teachers offer an after school activity!! Wouldn't even think of something like that in Norway...

Have to clean the flat and tidy up here now: expecting visitors from Norway tomorrow. Tante Margit and my cousin Mathias. Looking forward to it!

First day with the students

I made it through my first day! Had forgotten how tiny an 11 year old can be. Very nice students! Polite, and well behaved! Have to get used to the school uniforms and the constant "Miss, can you help me?" and "Miss, can I go the toilet?" etc. Not used to being called Miss. Apparently it is very difficult for Spanish, English, Dutch, Russian, Italian, Latin American etc. children to pronounce "Raustøl" so we've had much fun with that today! My greatest challenge tomorrow: How many students must be sent home because their uniform is not according to the dress code??
So, to sum up: Great day! Great students! Great teachers! We get a free hot meal (+ salad!) in the school cafeteria every day as well. Perfect! Will take some time to adapt to teaching KS3-students (11-14) and KS4 (14-16), but they were lovely and sweet! And my IB Diploma students (sixth form, as they're called here) seem really great and mature! Very happy about the fabulous first day!