Realtors for Ventura | Oxnard | Camarillo

I was sitting at my desk overlooking the patio of our Casa when I first noticed a very, very gentle rolling motion.  I said to Leslie “Earthquake”!  It gently got stronger and frankly – I was fascinated by the experience.  It seemed to last for a couple of minutes but time becomes meaningless in an earthquake.  To me, it felt like I was riding on top of a bowl of Jello.

During my Jello ride, I continued listening to a very interesting ESL teaching video off the internet…

A couple minutes later Leslie called to me and said “Come – look at this”.  I took off my headphones, followed her to the lounge room (we’re on the second floor) and looked down at the street.  Everybody from all the buildings on the street (plus all the guests at the Casa) were outside milling around on our narrow, one way street!  I guess we were the only ones who stayed put in our room!

After living in southern California for 30+ years, I guess it’s been ingrained in me – don’t run outside during an earthquake!  Stuff will fall on you!

So I’ve just finished my 30+ minute internet teaching video (excellent teaching on controlled practice!), googled the earthquake and found out it was a big 7.5 earthquake near Acapulco.  That’s big.  Don’t know yet about damages, but from what I experienced here, I wouldn’t think Mexico City had any substantial damage.

Leslie’s 2″ binder – and we’re only half way through CELTA! This is just her notes and course handouts binder. She has another 2″ binder with all her lesson plans…

We knew the CELTA program was intense before it began.  We’d read blogs that grown women cry in the 3rd week.  It’s true!  Into the second week Leslie said she’d never be able to continue the pace we’d been on.  We candidates (10 of us) were averaging maybe 4 – 5 hours sleep per night – including weekends.  It’s hard to convey the intensity of the course.

I was recently asked if I was “enjoying” our class.  I said NO emphatically!  But that wasn’t the right question to ask.  CELTA is a fabulous program and I now understand why it is so highly regarded around the world in the ESL community.  We are fire-hosed with information and are expected to implement that knowledge immediately in our teaching sessions (TP’s).  After each teaching session we are critiqued by our peer candidates (frank and humbling) as well as by our tutors (who are master teachers).

CELTA has two courses – the 4 week intensive and the 16 week (or so) extensive program for working individuals.  In two weeks with the intensive class we caught up to the extensive class (which had started in February).  We asked if we could switch to the extensive class and our request was accepted.

Our new classmates are primarily full-time teachers.  Even though we only meet on Saturdays, the workload for these teachers (who have families and all the other time commitments of life) is intense.  It’s brutal for them as well.  We got home around 9 pm last Saturday night after being in school all day.

But for Leslie and me, we finally slept in last Sunday and have tried to catch up on our sleep these past few days.  It’s been great getting to bed at 10 for a change!  We’ve even taken time this week to visit the world class Anthropological Museum and the historic downtown of Mexico City (Zocalo).

And – hopefully – we’ll have the time now to keep our blog up to date!

I decided to go to sleep at 11 pm last night.  Leslie didn’t.  She stayed up until about 1:30 this morning.  We both got up at 4 am and I headed up to the conference table in the library on the 3rd floor.  A beautiful place in our casa. The ceiling is maybe 20 feet high and a huge floor to ceiling window faces the morning sun.  It’s coming up now.  Leslie is working alone back in our room.  We’re both working on our 4th teaching lesson for Monday (tomorrow…).

Leslie and I also have to start and complete a 1,000 word essay due tomorrow…

I’m hanging on for my dear life!

We’ve now completed our first week.  It was hell.  It was intense.  We were firehosed with information.

It reminded me of my first few weeks in my Navy Officer Candidate School when the express and stated purpose was to try and wash you out of the program.  (I don’t think our tutors are trying to wash us out, but…).

No time! No sleep!  Yet you still have to provide excellent teaching lessons to real students!  But Leslie and I are  still alive..

Just got “home” (our guest house casa) before 8 pm now and put together a light dinner in the guest kitchen and lounge.  Leslie and I went to bed after 2 am this morning and were back up at 5 am.

In these past 4 days Leslie has taught on 3 separate days and I’ve taught twice to “real” students (I teach tomorrow and Leslie is “off”).  The workload and planning is intense, but we 10 “candidates” are a great bunch.

We have a 1,000 word language analysis paper due Monday (and I teach again Monday) – there goes the weekend at the beach!  Oh wait – I’m in Mexico City now.