FIRST CERTIFICATE EXAM (PART II)

Daiana and myself

The day of the exam I got up early. It was roughly 6.30 am and I didn’t sleep well. You know. I was thinking of doing the exam properly. Fortunately, Daiana’s host mum gave us a lift to the university. The exam took place at UCD university in Dublin. As I told you in the previous blog the FCE lasted 4 hours. We started at 9.00 am and we finished around 3 pm. There were 2 shorts breaks between each part and a big break to have lunch. The vast majority of people were from Spain. It looked like Madrid. Everybody talked Spanish and most surprising was that they were very young people, in their twenties. Even I saw a tiny percentage of them under 18. Unbelievable!!!

When we finished doing the exam, we went to Dublin. Daiana had an arrangement with Manon. She’s a girl from France who had studied in the summer. They went shopping but I prefered to go back to Naas. I was tired and I needed to rest.

I arrived at Naas at 5.30 pm and I took a nap. I was so exhausted. Later I arranged to meet the girls at Eddie Rockets. Eddie Rocket’s is a fast food restaurant similar to Foster Hollywood in Spain. There were Daiana, Cristina, Manon and I.

Afterwards we went to Grace’s. We were there only one hour and after we went to the Court Hotel. We were drinking and dancing. I heard the song “Macarena”. I couldn’t believe it. It was 15 years ago the last time I heard that song. People were dancing to it. It was so funny!!! In the end, Daiana and I went home early because we both were tired. The day had been long and hard.

Daiana, Manon and Cristina

FIRST CERTIFICATE EXAM

I’m going to talk about everything what I’ve done in the previous months. My live could be summed up in only one word: study. Consequently, I couldn’t write in the blog, but now I’m back!!!

Daiana and I were preparing for the FCE (first certificate exam) for  the previous 2 months. It had been a hard times but I don’t regret it and now I’m happy for having done the exam with her. She had been a supportive person to me. Thanks Daiana for your help and your advice.

Two weeks before I did the speaking part. This is the part of the exam that everybody is anxious about. Nevertheless, it could be the easiest part. I understand why people are nervous is because I also was. The situation isn’t easy because you’re in front of the examiner and he/she is asking you some questions and you have to answer him/her. It’s important to keep calm and try to say something. It doesn’t matter what you say. It only lasts 15 minutes. I felt confident although I had a little bit bad luck.

Normally the exam is in pairs but in my case there were three. One of the students before me didn’t appear and I had to do the speaking part in a group of three. Actually it’s the same structure but you never know if the score is the same or it could be less because you speak less than the rest of the people. I reckon that it’s a disadvantage. Any way, I did the best I could and for me that’s the most important thing.

Last week was the main part: reading, writing, grammar and listening. In this case the exam lasts four hours. I know it’s a long time. I’ve heard that next year the exam will be different. The same parts but with less content, therefore, it will be shorter. I believe that it’s better. 4 hours is too much.

The first part was reading. It lasted 1 hour. It was my worst part. I thought that it’ll be my best but in fact it was my worst. There are 3 readings and you must read each part in roughly 20 minutes. I spent almost 25-30 minutes in the first part. The articles were with a lot of phrasal verbs and the vocabulary was very hard and tricky. In conclusion it wasn’t easy. Everybody shared the shame opinion as me.

The next part was writing. There are 2 parts in the writing. The first part is a letter. It’s compulsary. In our exam it was an email and the second part is a report, article or essay. You have to choose what you prefer to do. I chose an essay about the difference between living in a very cold city and living in a very hot city. I think I did very good compositions although this part it’s very subjetive. Consequently, it’ll depend on the examiner.

The third part was “use of English”. I mean, grammar. It used to be my worst part but I think I’ve improved a lot and I did it well.

Afterwards we did the last part: listening. I’m glad about how I did it but sometimes you think that people are talking about something and they say something that it’s completely different but you don’t understand. As a result of that you put one answer and it’s another completely different. I have to trust in my listening and I think that the first impression was right.

To sump up, except for the reading the rest of the exam I did well. I did my best. Could it be enough? I don’t know. Only time will say. I’ll know the results more or less in four weeks. Meanwhile it’s high time I relaxed. I prefer not to think any more about the FCE. It’s done and nobody is going to change it.

TAKING A BREAK

Hi guys, I’m going to take a rest until finishing my exam. I need to prepare my FCE exam and for that reason I don’t have enough time to write you. By 10^th. of March I’ll have finished my exam and I´ll be writting you again. Anyway, if there is something interesting in these days, I’ll write you a message. On the other hand I hope that everybody is fine.

Best regards,

MY LAST WEEKEND

Last weekend I was in Eddie Rockets on Friday night. We went to have dinner. There were 4 of us. Silvia, Cristina and two morer girls. I don’t remember their names. I’m very bad at remembering names. One girl is from Avila. She lives close to Caceres and she studies in the academy. She works as an Au-pair in Newbridge. The other girl is from Spaina too. She’s from Malaga. I like her accent (Andalusian accent) and she works as an au-pair as well but she doesn’t come to the school. She arrived in Naas 2 weeks ago. After finishing our dinner we went to Grace’s. We were drinking and listening to the live music. It was fantastic. The band was really good. Probably the best group that I’ve listened to in Naas at the moment. Good songs and sound. I feel a bit jealous of other people when I see them playing the electric guitar. I wish I had played the electric guitar when I was a teenager. Probably some day I’ll play it. It´s never too late. I know that it isn’t easy but I’d like to do it.

In the pub we saw more people from the academy. It’s nice when you see people who you know because you can talk to them.

On Saturday morning. I arranged to meet with Daiana in the academy. She is going to do the FCE as I’m going to. Two brave people. The rest of the class will do the exam in June. We were preparing the speaking and listening. We spent all morning there. At the moment I think that she’s a little bit nervous. It will be her first time and I know that it isn’t easy when you don’t know exactly how the exam is. She needs to feel more confident.

Finally, on Sunday morning I got up at 8.15 am because I was training with the children in Kildare football academy. We’ve switched the facilities. From now on, we’ll work out in Kilcullen. There are 2 astro pitches there and in winter it’s better than working out on the natural pitches.

At Grace's pub

MICHAEL JORDAN

One of the most important people in my life is Michael Jordan. When I was a child I was a supporter of the Los Angeles Lakers in the nineties. Magic Johnson was my idol but I have to recognize that Michael Jordan had a special talent. There is no doubt that Jordan has been one of the best sportmen in the world. Recently I’ve read one quote about him. He talks about how important it is to never give up. He won a lot of Championships and MVP (most valuable player, not confuse with Messi-Villa-Pedro) in his life. However, he failed in a lot of matches. During the games he always tried to shoot the last ball. Sometimes he scored the shoot and sometimes he failed it.

I’ve tried to compare my life with his life. Yeah, I know, the only thing that I have in common with Michael Jordan is the name. Nevertheless the comparison is between his games (titles) and my exams (degrees).

I have 3 degrees. My first degree was in Administration in 1998. It took me over 4 years. After that I did a sports degree in 2003. Finishing my degree only took me 3 years and the last one was in 2010. It was education and I did it in 1 year.

What I want to tell you is that I’ve done more than 640 exams in my life. I’ve failed almost 110 exams. 3 times, I’ve done the FCE and failed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

What happens if I don’t pass the exam. Nothing. It’s just an exam. One more in my life.  I’ll try again in May or June. Here, in Spain or Mozambique but the most important thing is never stop. Always keep going. As Rafa Nadal says: Vamos!!!

FCE

Last week I've decided to do the FCE (first certificate in English – B2). It’s my fourth time that I’ll do it. I think that every time is different and this time will be different too. At the begining I thought to do the CAE because if you fail the exam (but your score is between 45-59), you would have the FCE. And I don’t believe that there is a big difference between one and the other.

Eventually I changed my mind and I’ve decided to do the FCE because preparing for the CAE could take me more time and I don’t have enough time, I want to have an English certificate before May or June.

So I’m going to do the exam on the 8^th of March. Even though it looks like far away, it isn’t because times goes quickly here. I can’t believe it but in March I’ll have been living in Naas for 5 months. 

MEALS

Meatballs

Everyone asks me what I’m eating in Ireland and who cooks the meals. Everybody wants to know what time I´m having lunch or dinner. Well, I’m going to tell you everything about the meals. I’m the cook. Nobody prepares the meals for me. I don’t think that I’m a bad cook what I mean is that my level isn’t as Chicote or Locote but I’m trying to do my best. I enjoy cooking but I don’t like washing the plates up after preparing the meals. I live with an Irish family. They rent me a room and I can use whatever I want in the kitchen. I have my own room in the fridge and my own shelf where I put anything like milk, vegetables, meat, fresh products, fruit and so on. I’ll usually have lunch at 13.30 pm and I’ll make pasta, rice, meat, beans, carrots... I’ve never made lentils and chickpeas so I decided to made them one day. It was curious because I only put a few bunches of lentils into the pot but later it grew up too much. So, I was eating lentils for three days running. My Irish family has a big ice box but it is full of food consequently it’s impossible to put anything inside so I have to eat all the food before it expires.

I remember one of my first day in Ireland. I went to Tesco and I bought salt but I had bought a light salt by mistake so the next day when I prepared the meal I used it. Consequently, when I ate it the meal was so mild that I had to use all the salt.

I like having dinner at 9.30 as I have in Spain but in my house I have one problem and it’s that my family hates the smell of oil. They have a different schedule than me and they’ll have dinner at 6.30 pm so at 9.00 pm the kitchen is tidy.

The next day after my first day I cooked my dinner but they asked me if I didn’t mind cooking in a different cooker. They have 2 cookers. The biggest is in the kitchen and the other one is in the laundry room. The problem is that in the laundry room is a very cold place. It doesn’t have radiator as a result it’s impossible to cook at night. The only solution for me is to make something in the oven, so everyday I eat pizza or paninis for dinner. I know that it isn’t healthy but I prefer pizza to feeling cold doing something different.

Best wishes,

Chickpeas with chorizo

Spaghettis carbonara

BADMINTON

Last week I played badminton in Naas. Badminton is a sport that I like playing because it's very easy to play and you don’t need to be fit. In addition it's a sport that there isn't contact with your opponent so it's more difficult to be injured. Someone told me that in Naas there's a badminton club and they play at Naas GAA sport centre so I checked on the internet and I saw that they'll play every Monday from 8 to 10 and Thursday from 9 to 11pm. Monday is a bad day for me because I have football training from 6 to 8 and I don't have a car so it is impossible to be on time but yesterday I didn't have work out so I decided to go there. The naas GAA sport centre is a little bit far from my house although I went by foot. It wasn't raining so I didn't mind going. The sport centre has only 3 badminton courts. The ceiling is high and the floor is made of wood so it's perfect for playing badminton although the walls are close to the lines. Not everything could be perfect. I didn't have a racket so I asked for one. Some guy had spare racket and he gave it to me. There were 19 people so what does it mean? It's very simple there were more people than there were courts. In every court only 4 people can play so 7 people had to rest. The rule is: you play one game with any mate and when you finish the game you have to rest. You play around 10-15 minutes and you take a break for 5-7 minutes. I have to tell you that I didn’t like it. I like to play continuously. Another thing that I didn’t like it was that you have to play with any mate. It means that you play with people who are a different level than you are. My level is OK, it isn’t high and it isn’t low. Yesterday I had to play with people who have a very low level. It was very boring. I’m very competitive and I like to win but when I play with people who haven’t enough skill I can’t focus on the game and I can’t stand it. To sum up, the expierence was good. I had the opportunity to look how people play badminton in Naas but I’d change a lot of things about it.

Regards,

NEW YEAR EVE

Made in Spain

I came back to Ireland on 27 of December so I was at New Year Eve in Naas. It was my first time that I spent my New Year Eve in another country. I’ve always been in Spain at that time. At the beginning I didn’t know what I was doing at New Year Eve but I spoke with Daiana and we decided to do something special. We though of the idea to have dinner in some restaurant before going to the party. Daiana knew one restaurant in Naas called “Tenours” because she had been there before. She told me that the restaurant was good and the prices of the meal weren’t too expensive so we finally decided to go there. We talked with Cristina and her polish friend, Jolie and Natty. There were six of us. We met at 8 pm there and we ate salad and prawns for sharing as a starter and everybody ordered different things for the main course. We drank wine and red wine. We talked about our Christmas traditions in Spain and Natty told us what the japanese christmas traditions are. Also we talked about our Christmas holidays. After we finished our meal we went to the Court Hotel. The pub opened at 10.00 pm and we paid 15 euros for enter. We put our coats in the cloakroom and we went inside the pub. We were drinking and dancing until it was 11.55 pm. In that moment we went to the smoking area (also called rulas area) and Cristina tuned the spanish TV on her mobile phone and she shared the grapes with us. Everyone had twelve grapes. When the clock was 12.00 pm it stroke each second and we ate each grape until the last strike. Afterwards we proposed a toast for the New Year. I hope that this year will be better than the last one. We took pictures for memories and we went inside again.I drank some glasses but not to much because I didn’t want to be drunk. People in Ireland drink a lot. I saw a lot of people very drunk and when they drink, they are very agressive and crazy. We danced and laughed until 2.00 am. Then the pub closed and everybody went home. Daiana lives close to me so I went with her and we talked a little bit and we said goodbye each other. New Year, new life.

Having dinner with some of my friends

Proposing a toast for New Year 

Daiana with her mask and I with my bow tie

DAILY ROUTINE

I'll usually get up at 8.10 am immediately I'll have breakfast. My breakfast consists on milk with chocolate and cornflakes although I'll sometimes have some chocolote muffins. I don't like taking breakfast with coffee. After I have breakfast I´ll upstairs to my room and I'll put my clothes on. At 8.50 am I'll go to the English academy. I'll go to the academy everyday except Friday. It takes only me only 10 minutes to go there. The class runs for 4 hours with a break of 20 minutes. We'll do different activities during the morning. When the class is finished I'll go back home.
I arrive at 13.15 pm I'll usually check my accounts in like facebook and hotmail and I surf the net as well. Thirty minutes later I'll make the meal from 2.30-3.00 pm I try to modify the meals every week although when I'll prepare something I make it for two days so the next day I don't need to make anything. Afterwards I'll usually take a rest I don't like the nap as all spanish people love to do because I spend a lot of time. Only during the weekend I'll take one because I have more free time. At 3.00 pm I'll often go to the library. I prefer to study in the library than my room for two reasons: the first that I don't have a table in my room so for me it's impossible to write properly on the bed and second the library is warmer than my room. I'll study until 6.00 pm because I have my training with the football team until 8.00 pm. It's only Monday and Wednesday. The rest of the week I'm in the library until 7.00-7.30pm. 
After I finish my study or my work out I'll go to Tesco to buy something. At the end of the day the price of some products is discounted and you can buy bargain things. At 8.00-8.30 I'll go running or watch TV until I'll have my dinner at 9.00 pm. At 10.00 pm I'll often watch TV in the dining room or I'll watch some serie on the net or I'll do whatever thing until midnight. At that moment I'll go bed.

Studying room in the library