Oh, what a day!

Today we were expected at college at 8h30. Professor Laurie ran through the schedule of the programme giving precisions here and there.
We were then invited into smaller groups. Mine consisted of teacher-trainer Barbara Mandeloni, Viktor from Russia, Dai from Japan, Paola from Italy, Stella from Uruguay, Larissa from Kazachstan, and Nora from Paraguay.
After a brief introduction round, we spoke in pairs about our best and worst teaching experiences and then reported them back to the rest of the group.
It was interesting to note that all over the world teenagers are hard to deal with - but principals too; parents are more and more demanding - and principals too. There's a parallel between Paraguay and Belgium, in the sense that in both countries some population groups don't show any interest in learning the other group's language. But we all agreed that the best moments are about seeing our students succeed, feeling their appreciation in whatever way, building connections. If teaching is essentially about giving, then we all admitted that we get a lot back too; that it can be a very rewarding job, although very often a lonely one. Here, we feel supported, understood, listened to without prejudice. That is really wonderful.
In the afternoon, we were given instructions about our final assignment: a lesson plan about one of the topics covered in the programme.
Finally, we went to the library to get our cards and the necessary information about the loan system.
At the end of the day, we were pretty tired. I walked to the town center (in the rain) and bought some stationery.
Tonight I'm going out for a milkshake and that'll be it. Tomorrow will be another busy day and I still need to do a lot of reading before going to bed.