So yeah, it all turned out to be a piece of cake, in more ways than one.

Let me explain. . .

Two of my students, Carmen & Paco, have racked up quite a few recuperation classes over the past few months (regular classes that had been cancelled – to be taken some other time) due to their rather hectic work schedules. So I suggested that as they are the same level, even pretty much on the same unit of the same text book, that we get together a couple of Saturday mornings in an attempt to ‘wipe the slate clean’ again. The idea was that they’d have a 3-4 hour session with both Nog and me and do a lot of communication stuff, and they were both very keen on doing it. BUT … everytime we booked a Saturday morning (and even finding a free Saturday took some doing), one or both of them had to cancel and it kept being put off so that I began to despair that we’d ever get to do these recup classes.

Then last month Carmen further complicated things by suggesting that I have a little ‘student party’, including some of the people she’d been hearing about through me. Because it’s true that since some of my students have also become friends, it’s quite natural to talk about them during the conversation part of the class. So I thought that a small group including Carmen, Paco, Agustín and Paloma (plus me and Nog) would be quite pleasant … but if I couldn’t even get Carmen and Paco to agree on a Saturday morning, how was I going to get four people to agree on a time to meet for lunch?

Well, after a couple of false starts it turned out that not only was everyone able to meet for lunch yesterday, but Carmen & Paco also said they could come over to my place earlier so we could have a recuperation session! So that’s what happened. We had ‘class’ from 11am until 2.30 and it was great. Thing is, people get used to talking to ‘the teacher’ but then sometimes feel shy about speaking to somebody else in English, especially another Spanish person. So doing something like this every now and again is very good for opening students up a bit. So it was quite a fun morning with C&P. We swapped travelling stories, played 20-question ‘who am I?’, Boggle and also a game of Pictionary (great for learning new vocab), which had us laughing quite hysterically at times. In fact, we had to stop the game short in order to make it to ay Maricrú for lunch.

I’d made the reservation earlier in the week with some trepidation, fully expecting at least one or more people to pull out at the last minute. And so I was quite thrilled when we all actually showed up at the restaurant. And the wonderful Carlos had set up our table so prettily with tea candles and little spangly flowers strewn about. Both he and Melissa took very good care of us … and everyone was very happy to speak in English, though there were occasional lapses into Spanish.

It was a real pleasure for me to see all these people together and enjoying themselves and each other’s company, because I like them all so much myself. I’ve known Agustín since I first moved to Sevilla in 1993 – you also know him as El Viajero. Carmen has been my student for about four years now – she can be seen here (with short hair) and also in these photos, when she took me & Nog to Gibraltar in December. I’ve known Paco (aka Iskenderum) for about a year and a half and Paloma started classes just three months ago. But she and Agustín have been friends since childhood so we already had quite a bit in common. And so, it was truly a delightful gathering … and the food was amazing.

The food. Was. Amazing. And you are going to have to take my word for it because it wasn’t until Carlos & Melissa had cleared away the last of the plates and asked if we wanted to see the dessert menu that I realised I hadn’t taken even one photo for the Sevilla Tapas blog!!! I couldn’t believe it. I had my camera out and everything. Gaaaaa!!! So I quickly took some shots of everyone around the table and then also some of the desserts (which were also wonderful). And guess what – only one photo turned out. That one piece of cake.

I have to admit I was quite upset about missing such a good opportunity to get more fab shots for the tapa blog … really, the presentation of the food was gorgeous, the table so pretty, etc. But everyone said not to worry, it just meant we’d have to do it again. And I think it was Paco who pointed out that the reason I’d forgotten about taking photos was because I’d been having such a good time. And well, can’t say truer than that.

So after all was said and done, it turned out to be a piece of cake. 🙂