I awake bright and early to meet my coordinator at the school. I am excited and nervous at the prospect of meeting all the teachers. I manage to get lost on the way but still make it on time. (I don’t know HOW exactly I manage to get lost as the map shows a straight line.)
Let’s just rewind for one little second. When I wake up in the morning, being used to English weather, when I open the window at 08:30 it appears chilli. I wear a long sleeved dress/jumper and quickly realise within 15 minutes of walking towards the school I have made a horrific mistake. The sun suddenly comes up in all its glory and mocks me. It says “foreigner!” I laugh and explain to the teachers later about why I have chosen this particular outfit. They tell me it’s normal and most people make this mistake when they first arrive. Rookie error.
The teachers are incredibly friendly, the school is beautiful and the director of the school welcomes me. I am told that I will be teaching 10-11 year olds and I am pretty happy with everything. I go for coffee with the teachers and we chat about different ways to order coffee.
I will skip forward to after I have registered being a resident of Palafrugell (which was rather annoying as I waited in line to be seen and realised I not only needed a letter from the school and my passport but also my house contract. Point is – now I officially live here!)
I go to Espada – It’s a shop which sells everything necessary for homes. I hear its quite expensive so I only buy some more essentials that I need for that evening, such as a mixing bowl, a drainer, a chopping board and a knife. Ah, the knife.
So I spend at least 15 minutes in the knife aisle thinking about which knife I should buy. AT LEAST 15 minutes. This is an important decision – do I want a kitchen knife set? Or do I want to buy one for now and perhaps add onto it later? And if I do buy now, do I buy a steak knife or an all purpose knife? Do I spend the extra 10€ on a Chef’s knife? No, I don’t. But I do update from 3€ to 6€. This looks like a good knife. Small, but good.
And indeed it is, in fact it’s a bloody amazing knife. On my way home walking home from the shop, I have all my newly purchased belongings in one of those cardboard bags that you usually are given in places like B&Q. For one second I push the bag to my back and use my left arm to balance the items before bringing it back to the front. While I attempt to do this though I suddenly feel a very sharp feeling in my left thumb. I look at it and, yes, it is bleeding. I look at the bag and see that the knife (which was wrapped in plastic wrapping!) has cut through the wrapping, the bag and has decided to aim straight for the thumb. I’m laughing, and also a little scared, as I am not sure how deep it has cut.
It’s my third day and here I am running down the street with a big bag full of items to the pharmacy by my house (they did say on the first day that if I needed anything I could go back – I had bought cold tablets). I run in and I am sent straight to the back where a nurse helps me out. I’m laughing and explaining what has happened. The nurse laughs too. I thank them and excitedly head back home ready to use my knife for the first – sorry – second time. =)
