» School Trips

This is my fist question of the week. And I said my first one would have to be big. So here goes,
It was a couple of years ago to Spain. I think it was a bit of a “coming of age” thing. The best way of dealing with it is just by listing my highlights:

The fact that we even went there is great. It really highlights the stupidity of my school. There are two European languages in my school – German and French (well Irish too but that doesn’t count). We were accompanied by the stupid teacher who spoke Spanish and the GERMAN language assistant (As in the person who was born in Germany, is training to become an ENGLISH teacher there and was working in our school as experience). It was a completely illogical place to go. It was great though.

The drinking at the weekends. We all went to the shady out pub. It was a shady man with a lot of alcohol for sale with a large speaker blaring out Spanigh pop music (which doesn’t sound too bad after a few beverages). There is no such thing as “too young too drink” in mountainous Spaninsh villages. And all drinks were a euro. And all girls liked talking to you cos you’re foreign. At sixteen this is like being six in a big bucket of chocolate.

Getting propositioned by a prostitute. At about three in the morning in a tiny picturesque Spanish village.

We went to a non-alcoholic disco on the last night. The place had a pub though with a bartender. A small group of us refused to dance and hung around the bar, being used to getting pissed and then dancing. The barkeep gave us free drink. In front of the people in charge including our own teachers.

Getting lost in Seville. I wandered through the back streets with my friend for about an hour. Then I remembered, in very typical bad sitcom style, that all the horse and carts in the city congregated at where the bus was. Cue two Irish teenagers running through the streets of a major Spanish city after a horse and cart. Sure enough, we arrived just in time.

Our days consisted of us hanging around the school while our exchange parteners went to school as normal. Sometimes we’d sit in and cause distractions. But one day we were just pissing about their cafeteria and the German language assistant asked us if we wanted to go talk to some twelve year olds with her. We were all sixteenish and thought ourselves as too cool to do that. But I decided “Ah new experiences, why the hell not? etc.” And also because the language assistant was hot. It was a suprisingly memorable experience. It involved the two of us, with equally bad Spanish explaining who the IRA were and what they were about to a room full of people with shite English. Hard.

The time it snowed. In Spain. In May. For the first time there in ten years. I lie you not. The entire village was completely covered in snow and we partook in a village-wide snowfight. Probably the oddest thing to happen. Not ever, but on the trip.

Well that’s all I can think of know. Hope I managed okay….
(Thu 7th Dec 2006, 21:18, More)