so much to say - beat but happy

Hi everyone!!!

I bet you found it stange that I disappeared for some days and I was not abducted by aliens!

I was in Lisbon for the 25th APPI congress which went great (I'm aware that I use the word "great" quite often).

Lisbon is quite busy but still very beautiful. I got to walk around a bit yesterday (walking around is my favourite way of "meeting" cities) and there were lots of different people, tourists, musicians, shoppers or people who were just walking around like me and some homeless people too (they sleep near Prada and Louis Vuiton shops)!

I always get the feeling that I must stay for a week or more to get to know Lisbon but I never do - it's quite expensive to stay there.

As for the Congress, it was called "Shaping the future of ELT" and we had speakers from several countries sponsored by editors, by the British Council and the Ambassaty of the United States. The talks I went to were really interesting (there were often five at the same time so I had to select - which I was quite successful at)! I learnt about literature in class, speaking, the use of images, assessment, memorisation and some good tips about motivating students.

While I was at the sessions, I often made connections to things in our course and I even wrote down some stuff to comment with you (I'll do that another time).

I also met another e-teacher who took a course similar to ours and went to Baltimore (I'm not sure of this). She is a very interesting person and we exchanged some ideas. Just like me, she also found it hard to leave the computer and all the activities and go to teachers' meetings and classes sometimes because what we do on the courses is so much more interesting than some school stuff! I also found out a colleague I worked with 5 years ago is also an e-teacher. Soooooo cooool!

For two days I listened and spoke almost only English and the nice thing is that the speakers are really accessible people, they go to other sessions too and they comment on them and make connections.

My conclusion? I LOVE learning. At the workshops I'm permanently making connections, writing them down and thinking about my students and lessons. I come from workshops really motivated and full of ideas. I go to people and exchange ideas with them, I feel at ease with English and I want to take more and more workshops.

Finally I came home totally loaded with handouts and books and two great dictionaries besides a tone of literature (Lisbon Book Fair was just across the avenue and I spent almost 4 hours there getting great books for my mother and me) and I felt that if I was robbed in the subway I'd thank the guy for taking some weight off me!!! My husband said I'm crazy as I left home with a small bag with some clothes and came back with a backpack (which I had to buy) too other bags which in the whole weighed about 25 kg (I'm not exagerating, I actually weighed them!!!)

Well, I'm crazy but I'm happy!