BootsnAll Travel Network



Full Circle

April 8th, 2011

Spring Has Sprung!

I have come full circle. It’s three months later, a fine spring afternoon, and I’m sitting in the open, in Finsbury Park, sipping a fruit beer and drawing on my Janty Stick.

The cherry blossoms are out, the trees are flushed with green, and people are jogging past in sleeveless shirts or flopping around on the velvety lawn, exposing as much bare skin to the sun as they dare. The temperature is in the late teens. I’ve been colder in Barcelona, plenty of times.

Three months have gone by but nothing much has changed, aside from the fact that this is about the first time that I’ve picked up a pen since the course has finished.

I have little desire to write. The depression is still hanging over me, albeit temporarily banished by the sunshine and the beer. I still don’t have any clue about what to do. Perversely, choices can be made harder if the world is your oyster.

Except, that is, for the one choice that I’ve made half a lifetime ago, when I first came here.

A police car crept past. I hadn’t noticed it. It may only be a can of fruit beer, but I’d better move on. It wouldn’t do to get into trouble now.

Laters.

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Cast Adrift

March 23rd, 2011

‘There are places in the world that will welcome you and where you can live. But the UK isn’t one of them.’
(Quote from a forum)
……………………………………

What was I thinking?

To my dismay I have discovered that I don’t have much money left. The TEFL experiment has reduced my nest-egg to almost nothing. There is just enough for a plane ticket to somewhere where there isn’t much competition and the living is cheap.

Costa Rica sounds like a cozy little paradise, but unfortunately I’m not the only one to think that. The rise in gun crime in San José may have scared away some of the gringos, but not enough of them. They get away with paying 4$ an hour, which is considerably less than Thailand.

Colombia may be a better option. The majority of gringos are wetting their knickers at the thougt of the drug war, but that has nothing to do with backpackers or TEFL teachers. However, travel to South America involves yellow fever vaccinations and malaria pills and for me it’s no longer a question of strolling down to the local surgery. And even if it was, I wouldn’t have enough dosh to spare.

But these days the wetting of knickers may apply to Mexico too. I don’t know whether it’s just the north—desert climate and macho men don’t appeal to me. But how choosy can I get? Who the hell wants a German TEFL teacher?

Come to think of it, there was a vacancy for a German teacher in China…

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A Lack of Sunshine

February 26th, 2011

Gaudi evening

For the past six weeks I have hardly paid any attention to this most unique of cities. In fact at street level Barcelona reminds me of my old home town. I think it’s the scale, and the shops. Barcelona has a far more European feel than any city in the UK and there are none of the chain outlets that disgrace every British high street.

But whenever I look up—that is once I stop running for the traffic lights and am forced to pause—I realise with a sudden jolt that I am somewhere else. Somewhere unique and decidedly Mediterranean. Not that I could tell from the weather. When the sun comes out there is no doubt about it: John says that in the UK we get winter days even in the summer, but in Barcelona we get summer days even in the winter. But, true to form, the sun disappeared once the pressure was off and it takes the odd near-collision with a palm tree to remind myself where I am.

The palm trees give me another jolt every time I see them. The current weather makes this place seem like an odd, twisted version of home—it’s as if I’m walking through a dream.

In an attempt to get to grips with reality—and to realise why I’m hard at work learning Spanish even though I’m speaking English all day at school—I’m going to spend the next week exploring Barcelona. I’m going to walk down the length of Las Ramblas, criss-cross the Barri Gòtic, revisit Park Güell and take a tour around Montjuïc.

Today I started with the university but it was closed and the area was oddly impersonal and devoid of students. I was reminded of melancholic weekends at Oxford. It’s been a while since I’ve contrasted weekends and work days and found the former boring. Maybe it’s time to start writing another novel.

Or to resume blogging.

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The end of 6 years of BNA Blogging…

February 12th, 2011

This blog no longer provides me with the necessary options—such as a decent post interface or the facility to pre-/postdate my entries—so from now on in you’ll find me over at my LJ.

BTW, LJ also links to Facebook!

[EDIT] OK I’ll cross-post when I get the chance. This blog contains all my travel stuff. But it’s no longer my main blog.

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Tasca i Vin

February 6th, 2011

It’s all over, but during the past two weeks we’ve barely had time to eat. So on this last day I went back to our old haunt: Tasca i Vins near the school where you can get a 3-course lunch with water, wine and bread for € 7.60.

My course mates weren’t there, but that didn’t matter. It’s common to lunch on your own on weekdays in Barca and I had my trusty dictionary in my pocket.

For starters I decided on something light. baby courgettes stuffed with Bacalhau perhaps?
Stuffed courgettes with Bacalhau

If these were ‘baby’ cougettes, I don’t know what they consider the adult version to be. Full-grown marrows perhaps. They arrived in a pool of guey white sauce, crusted with cheese.

Now you have to eat up, or the kitchen staff will be offended!

To follow, I had decided on something richer, namely Ossobuco—marrow bone and all.

This had to be followed by a postre, the lightest of which were pears in red wine. Seeing that I’d already had a quarter litre of red table wine with my lunch, I decided on an icecream which was swimming in a puddle of whisky 😉

I hope I can meet some of my friends there next week in a final attempt to re-live past times, but a lot of them have already left. Suddenly I find myself alone in Barcelona, at the start of a new career (or not, as it may be).

It is daunting and my ties to London remain strong. I must find a way to go back.

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On TEFL-ing

January 16th, 2011

Damnit, it’s a lot of work.

But here is what I like;

You’re supposed to crib.

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Indefinite Leave

January 11th, 2011

They taught us a heap of Spanish vocabulary yesterday night. The class was adequately titled ‘Survival Spanish’.

The daily rhythm is different here. Night is the same as morning, mid-day lasts until four and ‘tarde’ encompasses both the afternoon and most of the evening. I don’t think there is any time left for sleep in this schedule:

Mañana: 24h-12h,
Mediodía: 12h-16h,
Tarde: 16h-20/21h,
Noche: 20/21h-24h.

There are 14 of us on the course—including a painter, a Mexican-Californian who speaks fluent university-level German and a Kenyan who works as an IT instructor in Oxford and knows several famous Reggae musicians. A good half of them left before the optional evening class because they already speak enough Spanish.

Me llamo Denni. Soy de Londres. Vivo en Barcelona.”

Adrian hesitated when it was his turn. “Soy de Oxford. Vivo en…

En Barcelona ,” our instructor said firmly. “You have lived in Oxford, but where are you now? You are in Barcelona. So? ”

Vivo en… Barcelona.

Some of my course mates already have flats lined up Some are wondering what to do next summer: hit the local beach or take the ferry to Ibiza? It’s becoming apparent–very quickly–that my stay in Barcelona may be indefinite.

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January 10th, 2011

OxfordTEFL

I’ve left tourist-fantasy land behind and moved into the residential areas. Eight floors up to be precise, and it wasn’t until I got all the way to the top (with my backpack, my daypack and my books) that I found out that the lift works after all as my host pushed open the doors. You don’t slide them, and they are sticky.

“It’s 35 minutes to walk to the school,” my host said. No worries, I thought, I walk fast.

I had to walk faster, arriving out of breath and a little puffy-faced on this incongruously warm January morning. At least I made it to the class on time,otherwise I might get a reputation. I passed a stationer’s on the way and bought a notebook the title page of which just jumped out at me:

‘You’ve got to fight
for your right
to paaarty!’

It brings back memories of my student days, but the pairing with my red and black Totally Wicked pen with the smoking devil face might just give the wrong impression.

Anyway, the honeymoon will soon be over. On Wednesday (the day after tomorrow) I will be standing in front of a class to teach. College will be from 10:00-18:00 with 3-odd hours of lesson planning and journal writing on top of that.

I only hope that my new friends won’t knacker me out over the weekend!

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Barcelona: First Impressions

January 9th, 2011

I didn’t want to go. I had to drag myself away from London kicking and screaming, quite literally. But fuck me if Barcelona doesn’t just quietly take over your heart.

It does so quite without pretence. Yesterday we met in a park for a picnic. Parrots flew overhead (yeah, I know they are a pest here). And Gaudí is all over this town.

From the top of a hill we could see all the way across to the Balearics. It’s sunny in January. People sit outdoors and have wine with their lunch.

Barcelona View

But that would not have been enough.

FC Barcelona is fan-owned and the players display UNICEF logos on their kit. The club doesn’t get paid for it, it donates. And it is sticking it to its richest rivals.

The place is crawling with tourists, but the locals don’t mind. The Catalan language and sense of identity are strong here, yet Barcelona is international. Closer to Europe than to Spain, closer to the Continent than to London it has the heart of a world city.

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Barcelona: The Money Maze

January 9th, 2011

Cambio

I’ve said before that Cash is King and I stick by it in as far as it’s got to be better than going with the exchange rate offered by UK banks, or even airport bureaux de change (€1.08 to the sterling on Friday) on top of which you’ve got to pay commission. Commission and other hidden fees soon add up. A lot of people don’t seem to understand percentages, but basically they want anything up to 3 quid for every hundred quid you change and when it comes to paying a month’s rent these figures cease to look trivial. It is all in the percentages.

Basically nothing beats a good pre-paid cashcard (and I’m talking either FairFX or Caxton here), but you’ve got to remember to top it up. I hit a snag with the thing and in either case I couldn’t take out more than 150 € a day, which is how I like it.

So, armed with a bulging moneybelt, I went in search of exchange facilities as soon as I stepped off the plane. If you work in a bank you should consider learning a European language and relocating to the continent. Not only is there no Saturday opening, but working hours are from around 8 am to 2 pm most weekdays and the rest of the time is your glorious own.

But no fear: a few minutes of Googling told me that there is an exchange office which offers good rates in the basement of El Corte Inglés, the imposing department store that looms fortress-like over the Playa Catalunya.

El Corte Inglés

So on Saturday morning, the second day of the sale (‘50% rebajas!’), I spent a few surreal hours weaving zombie-like through the crowds that filled the cavernous mazes of one of the world’s biggest department stores. I looked everywhere, from underground supermarkets and drug stores to upper-level designer outlets, and—after consulting the big table next to the lifts—patrolled the third floor where the mysterious ‘foreign money’ was allegedly located. For all its formidable size I felt oddly reminded of my home-town’s shabby department store with its worn fixtures. I’ve never seen the point of sales (I’m a discerning Oxfam shopper with a sideline in Marie Curie).

Eventually I asked a shop assistant in tentative Spanglish and, from what understood, ‘foreign money’ could only be used for buying, not for exchange. There was nothing left but hitting the nearby tourist runway of Las Ramblas.

The first place I passed displayed a rate of around 1.16, almost as much as the Caxton card. But the interbank rate had been nudging 1.20, so I decided to investigate, thinking that I could do better. —And came down to Earth with a bump.

If I understand the small print, they were going to hit me with 18 cents ‘tax’ for every Euro I bought. Some places were overtly quoting rates of less than an Euro per Pound Sterling, a drop of more than 20 percent from what I’d got on my card.

Once again it would seem that I have to pay for the vainglorious British sense of head-up-arsedness. And all the money that I’ve put up over the years so as to uphold the currency of the realm does not pay for hospitals and schools or even for Olympic show-off projects designed to swell national pride, but goes straight into the pockets of the money-changers.

However, it pays to do the footwork (if only a little). Ria Change offered a rate of 1.1045, a good 4% above their nearest competitors. But if you can wait (and I couldn’t) it will be well worth to check out the rates offered by the banks. And if your home-bank is as greedy as mine, dynamic currency exchange may not be something to be sniffed at after all. One ATM offered 1.16 and 2.5% commission, which is miles better than the Bank of Scotland (who would presumably get to charge the £1.50 overseas ATM fee but not also the conversion fee and commission on top of their shitty rates).

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