It’s lashing

Although we had some good days this week, the rain continues. We have beautiful mornings most days, but then the rain comes with a vengeance. A state of emergency has been declared in some parts of the country because of flooding and landslides.

Technical problems with English Horizons
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It is funny how sometimes the internet classroom mimics a regular classroom. Students hit the control button when they want to speak, which I can see. We call it ‘putting your hand up’. Sometimes students stay back to talk to me after the class is over. Students can arrive late, or ask permission to leave early. But on Monday, I had a frustrating hour with a technical problem that doesn’t have a real world equivalent that I can think of. I arrived to my class as usual (i.e. logged in). I looked at the register, 7 students had registered. Nearly a fully class. I waited for them to arrive. 2pm, no one there. 2.05 still no-one. Then I got an email from one student. We’re all outside trying to get in but we can’t. I went out and got back in no bother. I tried locking and unlocking the room. No problem. By 2.15 I still had no students, and 3 emails. I messaged the school administrator, but got no reply. I wasn’t sure if it was something I’d done incorrectly, which is why I was so frustrated. I had to wait the full length of the class in case anyone arrived. Anyway, in the heels of the hunt, it turns out that the time on one of the servers was incorrect. So when my students were trying to get in it checked the time, and thought that there was no class. I have been assured that this fault has now been rectified and won’t happen again!

Moo like a cow
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I was back in Spanish classes this week. We were covering some fairly boring grammar. One part was learning the irregular verbs of the past tense. This would be similar to English where we say ‘went’ instead of ‘goed’, ‘took’ instead of ‘taked’ or ‘met’ instead of ‘meeted’. One exercise we had to do was to do a time line showing 4 significant years of our lives, saying whether they were excellent, good, average or bad. Some people revealed quite personal explanations. But Natalia the teacher saw it all as an opportunity for grammar correction. One student got quite upset while talking about her father’s near-fatal skiing accident (he still has paralysis in his legs). She said that he nearly died, incorrectly using morió as the word instead of murió. Tears were brimming in her eyes. Natalia’s eyes lit (not lighted!) up as she saw opportunity for grammar. With a big smile she asked, He nearly died (morió)? He nearly died??? No, the word is incorrect. It’s MURió, Mooo-rió. Mooo like a cow!

River dispute
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The Rio San Juan runs along the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Although the river is in Nicaragua, a treaty from 1858 gives Costa Rica navigation rights. However Nicaragua is now not agreeing to this and wants to stop armed Costa Rican border patrols and tourism from the Costa Rican side. The dispute has been in arbitration for three years, but there’s been no agreement. The President this week sent the case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. It looks like it could yet get nasty, with Nicaragua now threatening to put a 35% tariff on Costa Rican products.

Anyway, thanks to anyone who has sent me emails. I’m way behind in my replies, but I’ll reply to them all, just bear with me. As I sign off, I can still hear the rain against the tin roof. I taught my students ‘it’s lashing’ this week to give them a little bit of Irishness.

Hasta luego,

Éamon