1st Week as an Auxiliar de Conversación

Since I have 2 school assignments, I will alternate weeks at each of the schools. This week was primary. I was happy to start there, as it is less intimidating to teach younger students. My school has...

• 1st-6th grades, so the kids are 6-11 years old
• Only 1 class per grade (the elementary school I attended in the states had 4-5 per grade)
• Very small class sizes, which I love! 10-14 kids in the younger grades, and 14-18 in the older grades
• English taught 2-3 hrs/wk per grade. There is a homeroom teacher who teaches math, science, reading, etc, then students attend English classes with a separate English teacher- in the same way that elementary students back home attend art, music, and P.E. for an hour at a time on certain days. 
• School hours of just 9 am- 2 pm. Most days I only have to be there for part of that time.

I found this photo of some of my students on the school's website.

Since these kids are just starting out with the language, I get to use both Spanish and English when teaching them. It's been great to practice my Spanish, as I only expected to be able to use English in the classroom. I have felt pretty comfortable with my Spanish in class, though it is easier to say something to them in the language than to understand what they are saying. 

There is only 1 English teacher, so it's nice to work alongside the same teacher for all my classes (secondary will not be this way). I have helped with portions of activities, but I have not taught an entire lesson solo (or anything close to that). I have also helped students one on one, especially with their speaking skills, as they have been working in their activity books. I am still getting a feel for how much English they know. It's been nice that the teacher has not put too much pressure on me at the start. Some teachers at other schools just throw the auxiliar into teaching to whole lesson right away. I think that is more common in secondary positions, but it seems more effective to first be given the chance to observe and pick up on the way the students are used to doing things. I am looking forward to having more responsibility as the year progresses, as I have learned that when I know I am responsible for presenting a topic and making it interesting, I am both more effective and more creative. Some people thrive on responsibility more than others, and I did not realize how much that it true for me until this week. 

I do not have any pictures with my current students yet, but here I am helping
some kids while student teaching in college.

One of the teachers is retiring (as of today), so everyone is going out for drinks and tapas this afternoon, and they invited me to go with them. Later tonight a lot of the auxiliares in Mérida are having a pot luck dinner together at my piso. I'm not sure of the rest of my weekend plans yet, but I'm sure we will discuss it at dinner. Hopefully the secondary school next week will go as well as the primary did!

Besides teaching, here are some other things I accomplished this week...

• Applied for my NIE/TIE (which allows me to stay in Spain for a year) ...it took 3 visits to the extranjería!
• Opened a bank account
• Several smaller things such as emailing about private lessons, practicing Spanish, and looking into upcoming travels

Getting Started

I have only been here a week, but so much has already happened! Getting settled in has been far less overwhelming than I anticipated. Other than a few small rough spots, things are coming together great. Here’s an overview of my first week in Spain:

Traveling: It went well overall, but was a lot of waiting! My plane was delayed almost 5 hours. On the bright side, this allowed me to meet a fellow auxiliar of Extremadura (Anna, near Cáceres) & a girl (Rachel) who is doing a TESOL program in Barcelona. About 2 hrs before our 10:00 pm departure, I thought I overheard those 2 girls talking about teaching English, so I went over & talked with them. All afternoon I had been hoping I'd be able to find another auxiliar on my flight! Having them to hang out with made the time pass by more quickly. After we landed, Anna and I figured out the Aerocity shuttle together. We weren't on the same shuttle, and unfortunately I had to wait quite a bit for mine to arrive, but otherwise it was a pretty smooth process. I got to the bus station just in time for the 2:30 bus, except that it was sold out. And so was the 4:30 bus. BUT I got a ticket for the 6:30 one. This one happened to be an express bus, so it was faster- only 2 stops between Madrid & Badajoz!

Welcome: Two of the auxiliares I had met over the summer, Nikki & Elliot, let me stay with them in Badajoz when I first arrived. It was awesome to see them waiting at the bus station as I pulled in & to have others to show me around and hangout with during my first days back in a foreign county. I cannot imagine how lonely I might have felt if I was in Spain all by myself for those first few days. Their piso is really nice too- it has an awesome, large patio & plenty of space inside.

Mérida: On Saturday, the 3 of us took a day trip to Merida to explore. I though about checking out a piso or two, but most places are only shown on weekdays. It did help to get a feel for the city though. I really like Mérida so far. There are Roman ruins everywhere, which gives it a different feel and appearance than most cities.  There are also more than enough plazas and parks, as well as plenty of stores, cafes, and restaurants. It is a great size too- both in terms of physical size and amount of people (UNLESS it is during siesta). The city is very walkable, and overall you can walk from one place to another more quickly than I anticipated from looking over google maps. However, when you are crossing the river, those bridges are longer than they appear!

Badajoz: On Sunday Nikki and Elliot gave me a tour of Badajoz. We spent a good portion of the day exploring the Alcazaba (an old castle). It also has a larger business atmosphere than Mérida, but there are still several plazas, fountains, and walkways lined with trees. Their city is a little bigger than mine & it’s fun to compare the two. Despite a few differences, I would definitely consider both of our cities to be good placements for the auxiliar program. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, there were randomly fireworks one night, and we had a pretty good view from their terrace!

Settling in: Monday morning I took a bus over to Mérida. Unfortunately, by the time I checked into my hostel, it was already siesta so I was not able to purchase a phone from the store. I wandered around, jotting down numbers of pisos for rent and taking pictures of sites I’d missed on Saturday. In the afternoon I met up with one of the teachers I’ll be working with at the primary school. He told me about Mérida, the school, the students, and answered several questions I had. He spent a few years in London, so his English is very good- we probably spoke about 40% Spanish and 60% English. He showed me around the city a bit and went with me to get my phone. It was awesome that he was there because the particular store I went to wouldn’t accept just a passport & I didn’t have my letter from the Junta de Extremadura with me (that letter is almost as good as gold as I’m setting everything up as a foreigner!) 

As the week has progressed, other auxiliares have been showing up. So far I have met 4 others, some of whom will be my roommates! The past 2 days have been much more enjoyable since I have had fun people to explore the city with. Not that Monday and Tuesday were bad, but there's only so much you can do by yourself before you get bored. I am definitely happy to be back in Spain & I'm very excited about this upcoming year! I will miss everyone back home, but I’m sure the time will go by very fast.

[I wanted to write about the piso search process too, but I’ll save that for another day because this post is already very long. SPOILER ALERT: tomorrow is moving day :) ]

The Excitement Continues!

Several things came together this week to make me more prepared & even more excited to go to Spain this fall!

I finally met some of the participants in my program, who will also be in Extremadura next year :) Up until Thursday, I did not personally know anyone else who will be teaching in Spain. Granted, I still don't know them well, but sharing conversation over coffee, tapas, and sangria is a step up from briefly chatting online. Plans to meet up had been in the works for a few weeks. Due to work schedules, there ended up being 2 separate get-togethers.

I met a girl and her boyfriend who will both being teaching in Badajoz (largest city in our region, about an hour west of me) & a girl in Jerez de los Caballeros (1.5 hrs southwest of me) at Starbucks yesterday morning. I had not actually planned on making it to this one, because I was APPLYING FOR MY VISA that morning, but I finished up around the time they were meeting, so I was able to join :)

Dinner last night was with the same girl who will be in Jerez de los Caballeros & the other participant placed in her city. These girls have been talking a lot with others currently in Jerez & also about their living/travel plans since they're placed together. I think it is awesome that they are able to share info & go ahead and work out some of the details. I cannot wait to actually meet someone living/teaching in Mérida! (So far I know of 4 others who will be living there, and another who's returning to one of the nearby cities) ...We went to a delicious Spanish restaurant called La Tasca, I recommend going there if you are in the DC area! We sampled several tapas, and my favorite was Shrimp in a garlic butter sauce with red peppers.

One of the best things about meeting up with other participants was that we are in the same situation & able to relate to each other. Several of my friends who have lived or studied abroad are able to relate to certain aspects of what I am about to do, but their situations were still a bit different. Some of our popular topics of discussion were flights, orientation, living arrangements, our schools, expectations, things we have heard from past/current participants, what we have been doing since graduation, future plans, and traveling.

Mérida, my soon to be home!

Another town in the region

Extremadura countryside

...I briefly mentioned getting my visa, which was my major accomplishment for the week! I had just completed the last requirement the day before by getting an Apostille of the Hague (basically an internationally recognized version of a notarization) on one of my documents. I might post more details about the visa process later, but in summary it's a bit of a hassle to figure out what exactly is needed & waiting for each item to come back requires a bit of patience ;) So having this out of the way is a huge weight off my back! Now that most of the technical preparations are out of the way, I can focus my attention of the fun aspects of going abroad, as well as spending quality time with my friends and family here.

Airline Tickets: Check.

My plans were already official, but now, it seems even more real- I bought my one-way ticket for Sept. 15th!! I've checked on flight prices a few times, and although they haven't changed much, something else caught my attention- one of the many available flights for under 500 was a DIRECT FLIGHT :) Just one. I previously planned to keep an eye on prices for a few wks, but I know I'd regret saving the small bit of money if a direct flight was no longer available (last time I flew to Spain, I had TWO layovers ...no gracias).

Typically, one-way tickets are not much cheaper than round-trip. I recently found out about 2 discount websites for "Youth" (ages 16-26) airline tickets: Student Universe & STA Travel. Both are similar to Expedia or Travelocity type sites. There may be more out there, but these are the 2 I know of... I'll describe my experience with each company incase anyone reading is looking to travel soon.

Student Universe I learned about because other participants in my program purchased their tickets here. It seemed like a great place to find cheap flights from the U.S. to Europe. This is where I first found my flight, but had to get my age verified as under 26 before being allowed to purchase the ticket. I was only put on hold when I tried calling, and I also emailed them 2 days ago, around 1pm. They responded tonight with an email including "It looks like you were looking for a ticket to Madrid but didn't end up finalizing your order. Would $15 off your ticket change anything?" ...Two full days seems a bit long for a booking agency, but maybe your prices improve as you wait it out? 


STA Travel had the same flight for essentially the same price. I found out about the site Thurs. night as I was waiting to hear back from Student Universe. I contacted them Fri. morning, and they were very prompt, organized and helpful. There was a $7 booking fee, but that's not a big deal. (I do not know if Student Universe has a booking fee). ...This company also sells International Student Identity Cards (ISIC) & International Youth Travel Cards (IYTC, under 26), which provide some additional discounts while traveling.

As a recent grad who doesn't have a ton of money, I will continue to search both sites for future travel. A good price is my biggest concern. If I can find a much better deal on Student Universe, I would not be against booking with them in the future; however, I do plan to start with STA Travel next time.


Here are the prices of my flight (including taxes & fees), if you'd like a reference point:
STA Travel: $439
Student Universe: $443 
Travelocity: $728
Expedia: $728
Orbitz: $728
Aer Lingus: $728
United: $2,692 
...on all of the flight search type sites, this flight shows up as a United flight, operated by Aer Lingus, which is why I added those two. (A round-trip flight returning on a random day is $750 on United (unless you want a refundable ticket ...making it 3,300?), but I plan to return in June, which is too far in advance for a RT ticket) ...basically, I'm very excited I qualify for "youth" status :) 


Once I get to Madrid I plan to take a train to Mérida (or possibly a bus). It will take about 5 hrs, due to several stops along the way, and cost about $30. 

Gold lines are regular train routes, Purple lines also offer the high-speed trains

My flight will arrive early on a Friday morning, which should make me available for whatever the train schedule happens to be. I've already been narrowing down my list of hotels/hostals for my first few days, so I may book that soon too. I'll probably take a couple days to explore the area while I get a feel for where I'd like to live!