Change of Plan

I had spent a month in Barcelona as an aupair earlier this summer and intended to return to the UK to take up my PGCE place (teacher training course to be a secondary school languages teacher). However 3 weeks into my month long stay I decided I needed to come back to Spain instead!

Arc de Triomf

Parc de la Ciutadella

Montjuic fountains

In my last week I ran around like a headless chicken researching TEFL/CELTA (teaching qualifications to teach english as a foreign language) schools in the city and trying to find a new host family for September. My host family in July lived in the city centre and although I really enjoyed the experience of rushing around being a full-time tourist for a month, I liked the idea of being slightly outside the city for a longer stay. I had successfully managed to pack in a lot of sightseeing, boosted by visits from friends- one came armed with a vegetarian gourmet tour of Barcelona. This was a very enjoyable mission that we took very seriously.

Ice Cream time!

Top of the world

Barcelona city beaches

Day trip to Montserrat-monastery in the mountains

Dressed in professional hiking gear

I managed to find a part-time CELTA course which would be two mornings a week starting in November and a lovely host family in a coastal town backed by mountains. I really appreciated being able to meet the family and mitigate some of the internet dating aspect of aupairing! I had found both my previous aupair jobs in Barcelona and Galicia last year through a website and of course the internet can only tell you so much... So it was great to be able to meet the family of three kids- girls age 14 and 11, boy age 10, golden retriever and a cat.

My hectic tour of the country to say goodbye to friends and family coincided with me finally entering the world of smartphones (very helpfully set up for me by my brother) and therefore a slight obsession with snapchat, instagram and all these new revelations! 

Goodbye to London:

Dinner with my ladies who lunch

View from Blackfriars down the Thames

The Shard from the train into London

Say cheeese

Hyde Park in the sunshine
Family cricket match up North=super British experience:

And we won!
Exploring the New Forest with the family:

Bike ride along the coast path

Duck patrol

Worrying local news

Teddies living it up in the sweet shop

Never too old to paddle

Wildlife safari with Dad

Goodbye to Salamander:

Grandma's visit

A sunny town quay

Waterside living

Rush hour on the river

So after just over a month in the UK saying goodbye to family and friends I hopped on the plane on September 1st from Gatwick to Barcelona! (it had to be raining)