Chalky

That's right I finally have a proper job, a trade if you will, I'm a chalky.

Sadly, chalk is a thing of the past so past we should be called whiteboard marker-'ies' but for obvious reasons we aren't.

Yep, I'm a teacher. Ok, I don't work in a proper school and the kids don't call me sir but I still teach, kids still sulk, I give reports, take registers, do marking, and moan about 'the youth', so for all intents and purposes I am a bloody teacher.

The idea of teaching teenage children has previously ranked alongside no. 892 Removing my own spleen with needle-nose pliers in my all time list of 'must dos', but so far the experience has been almost fun. It's true that 12yr old Javier, whilst failing to master the future simple tense, has trained his facial features to spell out 'you are the most uncool boring twat in the world I wish you would die so I could go home and be all cool 'n' stuff'', and its also true that I have been belittled by 13 yr old girls whose boots are more expensive than my wardrobe in a language I will never understand, but what has surprised me is how little effect these slights have had, and that I still like it when they get the answers right!

Luckily its not all hormone war-zones. When not empowering the youth of Donostia to better understand 50cent lyrics I am one of four new members of staff at Real Sociedad. La Real (as they are known locally) whilst having slipped temporarily into the second division of Spanish football are still a famous club who command a big following. Their training ground (where I teach) is a big stadium as it is. The trophy cabinet (which I pass on the way to my classroom) is brimming with odd shaped silverware and as I sit at my desk an almost life size photo of Xavi Alonso (ex-la Real now at Liverpool) watches over me.

Since my English school got the contract La Real have not lost a game. I can't help wondering whether the new found ability of the centre back Mikel Gonzalez to use the past continuous to describe the scene in a story or the relative ease with which striker Immanol uses the past simple to identify completed events or individual actions has got any thing to do with this success – it surely must.

Finally a note on the weather. If there is a wetter place on earth than San Sebastian its mayor has gills and the post is laminated. I was told yesterday that it has rained here everyday since October 19th, and I'm not talking drizzle, it's wet rain, the kind that seeks out your underwear soggying your smalls just to show off. Luckily the local luminaries have thoughtfully tiled ninety per cent of the city's pavements with polished white bathroom tiles to ensure minimum traction for all bipeds – genius!

Still you can see snow on top of the mountains so its not all bad eh?