Well, the school year has kicked off and here we are again, full of energy and willpower to change the world 😉
The groups in my office started again, some old and new faces, but everyone smiling 🙂 and plenty new ideas to challenge the traditional ways of learning…
It´s been a great pleasure to see kids relieved at realizing how enjoyable English speaking can be, without the pressure of exams… A lot of experimenting still to come but, without a doubt, the ball has started rolling and is not going to stop (for a while)…
Getting somewhere, on Google´s world, has also been a high 🙂
I feel so grateful…

You just never know how many people are going to turn up when you organise a pintxo-pote event. For those of you, unfamiliar with our typical Basque style of going out, I must clarify that here, we like to change bars on each round and we usually accompany every drink with a miniature dish (called tapas in other parts of the country).
The itinerary was the same as usual, the weather too 😉
But the people always amaze me… We get locals discussing Brexit with the Brits attending, we get travellers stopping in Bilbao for a couple of days and joining us to learn about our ways and peculiarities, and others, who usually are just happy to talk about trivial things like holidays and cruises… But then there are the ones you can consider friends, and with which you can develop the conversation into a deeper chat, a confession, a relief…
Highly recommended, these sessions, and also, the best way I know to practise English speaking in Spain…

We had a superb morning in an organic farm called Biozaki. This farm is run through a social project led by Asier Odriozola, who was very kind to show us around and explain to us (in English, as some of us were not able to speak good Spanish) how everything works. We had the chance to taste, pick and carry home (after paying) the lovely vegetables we had taken in the fields.
The experience was wonderful. I can barely describe with words how enlightening and refreshing this activity can be for one´s mind. The fact that some of us had also been here the previous week, has made it an even more fulfilling sensation, as we we were able to see how the plants had developed in a very short time…

The theory…
The theory is there to help us… The practice is another story… But let’s talk about the meetup this week…
We had a fantastic evening yesterday. There were 9 of us to start with. Nationalities varied from Portugal to Korea and even The Netherlands, some regulars came too. We met for a drink first, then entered the cinema to watch “The theory of everything”, a wonderful movie about the life of Professor Stephen Hawking. In theory, the movie should have started at 6pm but, due to some unexpected problems lasting about 30 min, we had some extra time to chat with others before the movie started… And this chatting led to some of us arranging to visit a farm this week. In theory, once there, we should be able to buy some organic vegetables…

We had the chance to visit a very impressive exhibition last Sunday. Together with a group of 17 people (all of us indeed eager to practise speaking in English) we marvelled at the wonders of the reproduction of an ancient temple from Old Egypt, created by the artist Hany Mostafa. Prior to entering and after the visit, we enjoyed some drinks and pintxos together and talked about various topics…

On Thursday we attended a Toastmasters session where, between others´ performances, Koro entertained everybody with an improvisation game she had made up. She gave every volunteer who dared to come up to the stage a “magic potion” awarding that person a super power… The speakers´ imagination describing the series of events they could experience was awesome, so enjoyable!!

Our last Cruces conversation group before the summer break took place last week. We talked about many different news and played the usual vocabulary games.
From September, new changes will be introduced to our regular conversation groups. More groups will be on offer and the range of materials to work with will also increase, further enhancing our knowledge and progress.
More classes are also to come, with small groups to prepare the official Cambridge exams (B2 and C1).

August is a month to disconnect and reflect, to rest and get inspired by everything around us which, without a doubt, differs from what’s seen along the rest of the year… Let’s enjoy the sun, the cloudy days (here in the north) that give us a break from the heat, the fresh breeze, the long evenings outdoors (neighbours in flip-flops on deckchairs in the middle of my humble street, chatting till late… )