Half way through and surviving!

Another week has gone by and I'm not sure whether to be relieved or sad that I'm half way through my time in Granada.I've managed to fit a lot into the past 4 weeks - 2 tapas tours, visits to the mountains, monuments, twice to the Alhambra etc. etc. I've enjoyed exploring Granada and having surprising conversations with random people.

This week also marks my first full week back in group classes at B2 level. I admit I wasn't sure I was going to make it and was seriously considering having a further chat to the Head of Studies about whether I should change the rest of my course. Wednesday was probably my worst day but today, was finally a day I could say I was happy with. I got most of my homework exercises correct (more good guesswork I suspect) but in class today, we covered the same material again and I was able to answer "off the cuff" as it were so maybe, finally, something is sinking in. I seemed to have less trouble today than the other students in my class who all vented their confusion and frustration in small ways. I think we all were happy to see the end of the week though.

Well, there's only 4 more weeks to go and I'm off to London for 4 days and then a few days to get ready for the biggest physical and mental challenge of my life - walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostella for 6-7 weeks from St Jean Pied-du-port in southern France to Santiago de Compostella in north west Spain. As the walk is approx. 800kms long, that means about 25 kms every day, over mountains, flat plains and the "bathtub" of Spain (Galicia) which is bit like Ireland I'm told, constant rain and storms, likely to be foggy and cold and very, very green. I'm looking forward to this part of my trip as a bit of a "sabbatical" from life. Time to slow down and just live in the moment. It will be an interesting part of the trip, I'm sure.

For anyone who has been watching the news this week, Spain had a terrible train accident just outside Santiago de Compostella where at least 78 people have died and 35 are still critical in hospital. It seems that the train was travelling too fast and didn't manage a curve in the tracks and derailed. It's the worst train accident in Spain for over 40 years according to the local press and had hit people very hard, especially in the current climate of high unemployment (officially 26.2% as of yesterday), government corruptions and royal scandals and uncertainty about the future. It's certainly been a week of grief for many people. This tragedy has had almost blanket coverage on the news for the past 2 days and a major topic of conversation at school as well.

Next week sees me increase my contact hours at school yet again (I really do like punishing myself) to include 2 hours per day of conversation classes. That means I'm back to 35 hours per week of lessons, usually 1 hour per day of homework and somewhere in there, I like to eat. I won't be having a lot of time to visit too much more of Granada and surrounds before I leave, except for weekends so I'm trying to make the most of each opportunity. I'm hoping to finalise a trip to Cordoba for next weekend and maybe I will fit in Seville as well.