Next step: CELTA Ecuador

Extreme Language College

Half a year teaching English in Arequipa seems to have gone by really quickly. Thursday 29th March marks my last day as a teacher at Extreme language college.

When I was first offered the job I must admit I was nervous. Not knowing anything about Peru or the city we were going to, we had many concerns. I had joined ESL forums and websites and it was the horror stories that other teachers had shared that stood out the most. The least of my worries was that it was going to be the first class I had ever taught.

San Pablo University

Luckily I chose one of the better language institutions in Arequipa. Here I have gained experience in all ages and levels of learners and made my mark, I hope, teaching English (Yorkshire!). My colleagues, who have always been friendly and supportive, and my students, who have on the most part been enthusiastic learners, will be missed.

My next step will be to start a CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course in Ecuador. This is an intense 5 week course of 170 hours, which is a week longer than the usual 120 hour 4 week course.

I found this image on Google to give you a glimpse!

The course is set on a beach on the Ecuadorian coast between the small fishing village of Manglaralto and a popular surfing beach called Montanita. Sophie and I will be living on the beach, just a stones throw away from the pacific ocean, in rustic style beach huts called cabanas. We have been told the cabana will come with en suite facilities but we have been informed it will be basic.

I already have a TEFL qualification but have decided to do this course, and choose Ecuador in particular to do it, for a number of reasons:

1. CELTA is more respected and recognisable all over the world since it is awarded by Cambridge ESOL, part of the University of Cambridge. There are institutions in countries around the world, especially ones I would like to teach in, that only accept teachers with CELTA. 
2. I feel it will show employers that I am serious about my trade. I see it as the next step in my professional development. I enjoy what I do and want to be the best I can be.
3. This course in particular is 5 weeks rather than 4 weeks, so I feel like I am getting value for money and the stress of an intensive course seems more manageable.
4. The course works out cheaper than it would do in England. Also included in the price is accommodation and food. Plus we'll be living on a beach!
5. We were travelling through Ecuador anyway, so why not make the stay an educational one.

We are both really looking forward to moving on to Ecuador. It's going to be sad to say goodbye to a place we've called home for the last seven months but we both feel like we are ready for the next phase of our journey around South America. 

We leave Arequipa on Friday 30th March on a week long travel up to Ecuador with some interesting stops along the way. You'll have to wait to read about them in our next blog :)

Thanks for reading,

Tom

Guinea Pig & Salsa Dancing

Tom and I have lived in Arequipa for almost 7 months now.  It's strange to think, that in less than 2 weeks time we will have left what has been our home and where we have settled into daily life.

Aside from the usual routines of work and volunteering, we have spent much of March doing all of the things that we haven't had chance to, but really want to do, before leaving Arequipa.

We have sampled some interesting food.  First was anticuchos, otherwise known as beef hearts.  These were slightly fatty, but rather tasty, marinated in a delicious sauce.  Second was cuy (guinea pig).  Served whole, the skin was very crispy, like pork crackling.  The flesh underneath tasted a little like chicken, although there wasn't much of it.  We ate some of the organs too, but drew a line at eating the brain!  Thirdly, we have eaten adobo, a soup which is traditionally eaten on a Sunday morning.  The consistency of the soup is quite thin, and is not spicy but does have a warmth to it.  It contains what can only be described as a pork chop.  It sounds bizarre that this would be eaten for breakfast on a Sunday, but it is delicious, and also a good hangover cure.

We visited Museo Santuarios Andinos, which is famous for holding the preserved frozen body of a young girl who was sacrificed to the gods, named Juanita.  She is also known as the Inca Ice Maiden or Lady of Ampato.  She was sacrificed during the 1400's and would have been aged between 11 and 14 years old.  Her body was preserved in the ice near the peak of the Ampato mountain for around 500 years, before the volcano erupted and her body was subsequently discovered.  It is amazing that much of her skin and organs have remained intact.  Children were chosen at birth, for sacrifice during their lives.  If the Incas felt that a sacrifice to the gods was needed, the most intelligent children, usually from wealthy families, would be selected.  They would have trekked for days, in cold temperatures, to the top of the mountain, before a ritualistic ceremony took place, ending in the death of the child.

Something else on our list of things to do, is to take salsa classes.  So, we booked in for 2 week sessions, our final class this evening.  We have learnt steps from 2 styles, Bachata and On 1.  It has been a lot of fun, complicated at times and certainly requires a lot of energy.

We will be interested to see what our final days in Arequipa bring, before boarding the bus on the next leg of our journey on 30th March.