Hola a todos!
So, at the suggestion from a friend, I've decided to finally update this blog after having lived here for approximately a month and a half. I've been having a good time here and things have been quite chaotic and time has absolutely flown by. This year, I am living in the city of Valladolid, which is approximately a 3 hour train ride north of Madrid (on the regional train) or a 1 hour train ride on the AVE (Alta Velocidad España... high speed train). It has a population of around 300,000 people and is the capitol of the region of Castilla y León. Though I'm living here in Valladolid, I'm actually working in the small city of Palencia, which is about a 50 minute bus ride north from Valladolid. The population in P-town is around 80,000 and the majority of the people are between the ages of 0-18 and 35-100 years old. There seems to be a gap in my age category because most of them are studying or working elsewhere... which is why I've decided to live here in Valladolid. I see a ton more people around my age here and the night life is fantastic compared to Palencia.
----- Mom in Valladolid -----
So, I arrived here in Spain on Thursday, September 10th with my lovely mother. We flew together into Madrid and she stayed with me in the flat of a wonderful and very hospitable Spanish woman named Yolanda until October 8th. It was wonderful having her here so that we could explore the city and its gastronomy, buildings, walking paths, and get lost together. The very first weekend that I was here, I took a train to Barcelona so that I could finish my paperwork for my residency and also attend the birthday party for little Julia, who I took care of last year. It was a wonderful weekend to spend with my host family and catch up with my host parents and play with the kiddos. When I arrived back in Valladolid, our family friend, Yvette, paid us a visit and explored the city with Mom. They had a blast and have some great pictures to show for it. While Mom was here, she really helped with getting me on my feet with food, cleaning supplies, fixing my internet, and many more things. It was wonderful having her here. We went on walks and got to hang out more than we ever really have before… and we ate a TON of bocadillos de calamares (calamari sandwiches). I’m still living with Yolanda and she is a great compañera de piso (flatmate) and landlady (she owns her flat) and an amazing cook!
-----Orientation ---
Around the end of September, I attended the orientation for my program in Madrid, which just happened to be the same weekend that the location for the 2016 Olympics was announced. Madrid was among the four cities chosen as finalists for the Olympics and in anticipation of the announcement, there was a huge concert in front of the royal palace with handouts (huge Styrofoam hands that said “Madrid 2016”) and newspeople everywhere. Unfortunately for Madrid, they were not chosen, but I’m excited for Brazil’s opportunity to host the Olympics. I think they will have a spectacular opening ceremony. Anyways, the orientation proved to be quite useless in terms of actually learning how to teach English, but was fun for making connections and meeting people. We also got to meet the officials working at the US Embassy in Madrid who gave us important information about living abroad and protecting ourselves.
----- Teaching English in Palencia ----
After the orientation, I finally began working at the high school in Palencia. The first two weeks were chaotic and frustrating because it took so long for us to finally finalize our schedules. Fortunately for all three of us girls working at the school, we were able to create a pretty sweet schedule. All of us are pretty much only working 3 day weeks with only 12 hours/week. Apparently, this is considered half-time for teachers because here in Spain, teachers are only teaching in the classroom for a total of 24 hours/week. The rest of their paid time is for planning and other activities. So, with that in mind, we are getting paid pretty well, but also with the expectation that we are doing some planning of our own. I will admit to also being quite frustrated with how the program is run in this particular school. We have a Week A schedule and a Week B schedule, which means that we’re working with quite a few classes between the two weeks. I guess my main complaint is that I am working with 9 different teachers who each have their own different expectations, styles, and class levels. I’ve found it quite difficult to keep track of all of the classes that I’m helping teach, especially in regards to their level of proficiency in English and what activities I’ve done and will do with each class.
Here’s a glance into my confusion: Teacher E only wants me to grade papers for her class, which I’m totally fine with since it is less work and planning for me. Teacher F doesn’t ever ask me to do anything and mainly uses me as a walking dictionary/translator. Teachers G, S, N, P, and L ask me to plan activities for each of their classes, suitable to the level of the class (and considering that I’m working with kids from 12 to 18, that’s a considerable amount of work!). Teacher L can’t keep her class under control, so she yells at them at the top of her lungs and then threatens them with me leaving if they don’t behave (which still doesn’t work). Teacher I splits her classes into the “higher level” and the somewhat mentally challenged (this is what she says, though I doubt that all of the 12 kids that she takes with her are all truly mentally challenged) and gives me the higher level kids to teach all by myself for an hour… with material that I’ve never seen before. Lastly, teacher N, who teaches science in English, asks me to find science articles and perhaps prepare possible fun activities for the kids to enjoy.
I work with approximately 16 or more different classes that all have different levels of comprehension, speaking, and writing. Also, to add to the confusion, my school has a program called “British” where the students take more hours of English each week in addition to studying history and science in English (the teachers teach the classes in English). They obviously have a very high level of comprehension and need to be challenged and given more difficult material than the other classes. Ideally, I would like to create one activity per week that would work for all of the classes and levels, however, with such a huge range of levels, this is impossible. Anyways, I’m sure after some time, I’ll finally get into more of a routine and figure all of this out. For now, I still feel a bit lost in the chaos.
----- Spanish Classes! -----
Other than that, I’ve signed myself up for Spanish classes though the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas (Official Language School) and am now taking approximately 6 to 7 hours of Spanish a week. It was super cheap (only €70 for 5 months, 5 days/week, 2 hours/day), so I decided that it would totally be worth it, especially since I’ll receive an official letter at the end of the course stating my level of Spanish fluency. I have to say that I love being a student again and that going to Spanish class is actually one of the highlights of my day. It also helps that my instructor, Raquel, is a great teacher and quite hilarious and animated.
----- Other Auxiliaries and the Film Festival -----
I’ve been getting to know quite a bit of the other auxiliaries (people in the same program as me), which has been a lot of fun. In Valladolid, there are auxiliaries from France, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Canada, the US, and even one gal from China. Just last night, Brooke (who is from Boston and works at the same school as me) and I went out to take advantage of the Semanici, which is the annual International Film Festival in Valladolid, and met up with some of the French auxiliaries. It is quite cheap to watch the movies during this week (€3.50) and there’s a red carpet on the main streets that wraps around from cine to cine. The movie we watched last night was actually quite depressing and a bit too “artistic” for my taste. It was called “Petit Indie” and is a Catalan film about a poor boy who lives in the outskirts of Barcelona and competes in canary competitions and saves a fox. Here’s somewhat of a synopsis about it:
http://videos.themovie-fanatic.com/index.php/movie_news/trailer-petit-indi
----- Church -----
I’ve also been getting involved in one of the churches here and will be going on a retreat with them on this upcoming four day weekend. I found out about this church (and Yolanda) because I searched for it online and then e-mailed them regarding housing with other women and churches in the area. They e-mailed me back with Yolanda’s e-mail saying that she was accustomed to renting out rooms to foreigners and that she probably had space in her flat. It was an amazing blessing that everything worked out the way it did: Yolanda is so great to live with – she’s very kind, chill, and super sweet and understanding – and the church is great too since it is so close to our piso. However, the only downside about Valladolid in comparison to Barcelona (where I was last year), is that the churches are about 100 times smaller and have so many less people my age. For example, the two churches I attended last year in BCN had a regular attendance of around 100 to 200 people. At this church on any given Sunday, we usually have between 40 to 60 people, and most of these are families with very young children. Haha, it is definitely quite the adjustment coming from Seattle’s Mars Hill Church which has a weekly attendance at the Ballard campus of around 7,000 people (and most of them around their 20’s and 30’s) to here, where I’m one of the only “jovenes” (youngin’s).
----- Cooking -----
So far, it’s been a great experience here. Since I’m less busy this year compared to the last in Barcelona and don’t have a host family with free meals, I’ve been finding myself thinking more about home and the things I miss. I’ve also found out that I’m an absolutely horrible cook with no common sense when it comes to rations (though I’m an expert at being sanitary, at least in comparison to the Spaniards, who don’t like to wash hands). I’ve already messed up at least 4 simple dishes since I’ve been here:
-Spaghetti – I made enough for at least 5 people when I only meant to make dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day for just me. I didn’t have enough sauce so I had to cake it with cheese.
-Nachos – I put a terrible combination of cheese and spices on top that really made it unbearable to eat
-Hard boiled eggs – Turned out incredibly soft boiled even after following the directions completely.
-Rice dish – Incredibly bland even though I put garlic, onions, and salt in it.
I don’t even want to know what would happen if I attempted anything more complicated. Maybe I’ll move onto meat sometime soon and see how that goes. Haha. I could definitely use suggestions and recipes if any of you know of some quick meals (with very few ingredients, por favor). Mom – I’m going to be hitting you up for some recipes. ;) At the very least, I know how to cook some amazing breakfast dishes – French toast, anything eggs (except hard boiled, of course), pancakes, etc…
-----
Other than not being able to cook for myself, things are going well. I’m really looking forward to going to my home in Barcelona (host family) for Thanksgiving at the end of November and seeing the family and kiddos. After that, I’ll be making the super long trip home for about 3.5 weeks for Christmas and for Linnea’s wedding (I’m in the wedding). I can’t wait!! I just have to wait two months!
I hope all is well with all of you and I apologize for writing a novel of an update. Take care.
Lots of love and abrazos!
Linnell
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