What’s the catch? As our final week gets well under way I am forced to realise just how lucky we have all been with this project. From our first unbelievable week in Howells to our month in France we will never again get such an opportunity. The training we received in Denbigh has been invaluable to, I think, the all of us whether some people want to admit it or not. I know I would never have been able to get out of the CELTA mind-set without the help of Michael, Jackie and Carole and there’s no way my lessons would have gone anywhere near as smoothly and pleasantly as they have done. I’ve managed to do monsters with 6 classes of 15 year olds who are too cool to try and pronounce ‘through’ in front of their peers but none of them are too cool to turn down an opportunity to colour in a monster with 6 legs, 4 ears, 5 mouths, 2 noses, 1 eye….I haven’t just let them have a lesson of colouring in, of course, there was a pretty clear English lesson buried within but they’re not to know they’re learning or the whole thing will fall apart. Like tricking babies to eat. So depending on the class, some wrote about a day in the life of their monsters using the present perfect tense and some wrote what would happen if their monster wins a million euros today using modals. Occasionally I need a filler lesson so I’ve been using the bit Michael taught us I think on our first day at Howells; ‘how old are my shoes?’ then I progress to using for/since and the present perfect again, although if I actually say the words ‘present perfect’ they all magically lose their hearing. In the two weeks Michael left us we managed to help each other with any problem lessons we were stuck on. Almost every time someone asked for some help my mind immediately raced through our time in Wales and I don’t think I’ve thought of anything outside of our training there. Without the help of Celine, Catherine, Michael, the wonderful Jackie and Carole, Gemma and Christophe here in France and my amazing teacher Nicole at my college I could never have had such a rewarding experience. I have been talking about this to my other CELTA trainees non-stop and they are all as sceptical as I originally was; ‘what’s the catch?’ We’ve had our flights and accommodation paid for, two trips paid for (to Nice and St Tropez), our food allowance every week, transport to and from our respective schools paid for, transfers to and from the airport paid for and free French lessons every week. Plus, we get the privilege of teaching in one of the most beautiful spots in Europe. Yes, we’ve had the occasional apocalypse-style thunder storm but never mind! Dodging lightning is pretty fun especially if you’re swimming in the sea at the time like one brave member here was. We’ve been given the most wonderful experience here and I think we are all very,very grateful. No seriously, what’s the catch? I’m still yet to find one.