Almendralejo, Appetition & Agendas

I am nearing the end of another great weekend! It is hard to believe how quickly time is going by- I have already been here for 5 weeks. I took a trip to Almendralejo with Angela for Friday and Saturday. We took a train after finishing up our clases particulares (private English lessons/tutoring). It was my first train ride in Spain! The train station in Mérida is less than 5 minutes from my piso and the prices are comparable to taking a bus, so I am sure it will not be my last! One surprising thing I found out is that the trains almost always run late, which is the complete opposite of buses here- running a couple minutes behind often means the bus will be long gone when you walk up.

Most of our group from Friday night :)

We stayed with Sophie, an auxiliar from England, for the weekend. I had met her at orientation, so it was fun to catch up again. On Friday night she organized a get-together with the other auxiliares in town. We went for drinks and tapas at 2 different places then headed out to a bar. On Saturday a few of us girls went shopping. I found a jacket that will be perfect for in-between weather (too chilly for just a light cardigan, but not cold enough for a wool coat). I also bought a few scarves for 2€ each! ...speaking of these things, it is starting to cool down here. Considering summer stuck around until Oct 20th I know I cannot complain that it is over, but I will say that it still took me by surprise. It almost seemed like summer would last forever!

Exploring Almendralejo

This afternoon Angela's host family had me over for lunch. A few others from our church were there as well, so it was a pretty large group. The meal consisted of a Columbian salad, the Spanish equivalent of pork chops, 2 kinds of potatoes (some with herbs in a buttery garlic sauce & the others with ham in a creamier sauce), fresh bread, a rich raspberry custard (that's probably not the right word, but I'm not sure how else to describe it), assorted fresh fruit, and coffee. Everything was so good, and needless to say I was very full when I left. They slowed down their Spanish so we could understand them better, which was very nice. As long as I remained focused, I could understand a lot, but when my concentration slipped, I had to have Angela fill me in. I actually understood more towards the end of the lunch because during the beginning I kept forgetting to concentrate on the Spanish instead of just relax. ...Angela and I are planning to cook them a Thanksgiving meal, which I am really looking forward to doing. It probably will not be on Thanksgiving Day, but sometime that week. If anyone has Spanish-ingredient-friendly holiday recipes, please share!

I did not take a picture of our meal, but here's a similar version of our main dishes.

Since I have only posted about the primary school, you are probably wondering how the secondary is going, but to be honest, I am still figuring that out! Here's a breakdown of how my first week at the secondary school went:
Day 1- Met my tutor, the principal, and a few other teachers.
Day 2- Attended an English department meeting. This was when & where my schedule was made. I do not have any Tuesday afternoon classes, so I was able to go home after the meeting. I will be working with 4 different English teachers, and I will only be seeing each class one time per week.
Day 3- School holiday, no classes.
Day 4- This would have been my first and only real day at the school. However, I ended up being pretty sick so I was not there for very long.
Day 5- I have Fridays off every week, so this does not really count towards my work-week.
Tomorrow starts week 2 there, so I will be getting a better feel for it soon.

My secondary school

I only ended up being at the school for an hour the entire week, and I only met once class of students. Students were allowed to ask me questions about myself, but they had to do it in English. They were a bit shy to use their English in front of me, so they only came up with 3 questions:

1- What part of the U.S. are you from?

2- Do you like Spain?

3- Do you like Spanish boys? (haha, I guess that student wasn't so shy...)

I actually came close to having a 4 day weekend, but ended up with a 3 day weekend plus Tuesdays off. Definitely a good schedule, even though I cannot use the extra free day towards traveling :/ For both of my schools, I will start late on Monday & end early on Thursday, so I really can’t complain! Here is a breakdown of things worked out:

	Primary	Secondary
Mon	11:00-2:00	10:20-2:20
Tues	10:00-2:00	---
Wed	11:00-1:15	8:30-2:20
Thurs	9:00-1:15	8:30-12:40

My plans for the upcoming break have changed! Guess where I'll be going for my 5 day weekend?? Other auxiliares, how will you be spending our first long break?

Home Away From Home

I spent most of the weekend in Mérida (other than a short day trip yesterday) and I really feel like I'm starting to settle in here. Since arriving, I've encountered a variety of situations- in some cases, the people I interacted with were very welcoming; other times, not so much. The past few days though, I've experience a lot of hospitality, so I wanted to share...

Jess and I in Plaza de Constitución during our day trip to Almendralejo. 

Scenario 1: The lunch with teachers from my school (that I mentioned in my last entry) went great! We meet at a restaurant called El Castuó, near some of the Roman monuments on the edge of town. We got several raciones (platters, more or less) to share. They were excited about introducing me to some new dishes. Everyone was very nice to me even though I ended up doing a lot more listening than talking because my Spanish is kind of rough. A couple of the teachers have kids visiting/studying in the US! Although a few of the teachers know English, most of them happened to be at the other end of the table; however, my tutor was very helpful in explaining things to me when needed. (I finally learned the difference between jamón iberico & jamón serrano!) I prefer to use my Spanish anyway, even when it means I miss certain parts of the convo.  They talk quickly most of the time, but one of the teachers told me I knew a lot (of Spanish), which is the best compliment anyone can give me right now. They said they will invite me to come with them when they go out again :) ...oh, I can't forget to mention that when the check came, they didn't let me pay a cent!

One of our raciones had 2 types of chorizo & 2 other types of jamón- all very tasty!

Scenario 2: I went to a church service for the first time since being here, and the congregation was extremely friendly! Several people introduced themselves to me while waiting for the service to start. They seemed enthusiastic to get to know me, and asked lots of questions such as what's my name, where am I from, how long will I be here, when did I arrive, what am I doing here, do I go to a similar church back home, how did I find out about the church, where I live in Mérida, etc. That might sound a bit overwhelming, but every person did not ask every question, though I probably answered each of those at least twice this morning. I had not been sure what to expect beforehand, and actually thought there was a good chance no one would talk to me- turned out quite the opposite! They also introduced me to another American auxiliar, Angela, who had attended the previous week. She then introduced me to more of the congregation whom she remembered from her previous visit. (I had been wanting to find a church since I usually attend one back home, and just found out the exact time and location for this one yesterday afternoon. I will definitely be back on the weekends I'm not traveling!)

Scenario 3: Walking home from lunch today, I passed one of my primary students on the street. She said hi & that she was looking forward to seeing me in school tomorrow. So cute! ...although I did have to explain to her that I will be teaching at a secondary school this week and will only see her class every other week.

Another friendly face from this weekend.

Us auxiliares are sharing a bit of our own hospitality with each other too! Our potluck dinner on Friday was fantastic! There was plenty (or possibly too much) food and lots of good conversation (and in Spanish as often as possible)! The dinner was at our piso, and it was the first time my flatmates and I had  the group over to our place. It was fun to host & we hope to do something similar again soon :)

Sorry to be behind on pictures again, but the potluck photo is only on my flatmate's camera
...so for now, here's one from the Cáceres orientation- Jessa, Edward, me, Sophie

We have also begun discussing travel plans for our first long weekend at the end of the month! Nothing is finalized, but I am leaning towards País Vasco in Northern Spain. If anyone has advice on things to see and do there (Bilbao & San Sebastián), please share!

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

Last Days of "Vacation" Before Working

Apartment searching in Spain was far less intimidating than I expected :) One of my biggest concerns before I got here was finding housing, but it turned out there were TONS of options, so I had nothing to worry about! You can use your other senses to find what you want, which you cannot do for things such as setting up internet or opening a bank account. I talked with a few other auxiliares about housing over the summer. One of them, Jessa, had contacted a realtor about 2 she saw online. I arrived a few days earlier than her, so I was able to look at them and send her pictures. This made things move a bit faster once she arrived. Our favorite had an extra room; shortly after arriving I met Mariana, an auxiliar from Puerto Rico, so she was able to join up with us. Jessa’s boyfriend Patrick is also in Spain this year, so there are 4 of us total. Our piso is in a great location & it’s a nice size. So far the landlord has been on top of taking care of things when we ask, which is a good sign incase other things come up.

This is the view from my bedroom window! 

What’s the next step after moving in to a new apartment in a foreign country? TAKE A VACATION!! Well, not always, but that’s what I did! I wanted to take advantage of having a few days off before work starts, so Mariana and I went to Lagos, Portugal. It was a great time to go to the beach, because it was still sunny everyday. Lagos has the prettiest beaches out of any I have visited, and we explored a new little beach near our hostel each day. We met a few others our age, mainly from Germany, so it was fun to hang out with them a bit too. Our bus ride was a bit long, but it was well worth the trip! On the way down we had to switch buses in Sevilla (there’s not a bus straight to Lagos from my city), and so we got the chance to walk around a bit and eat lunch in a cafe. Mariana and I had both been to Sevilla in the past, so it was fun to reminisce.

Mariana and I in Lagos

The past 2 days we had our orientation in Cáceres, an hour north of Mérida. Most of the information they gave us was pretty basic, but I enjoyed exploring a new city. Cáceres has an old section with lots of beautiful, medieval architecture. Their main plaza is huge and the city as a whole seems like it’d be a fun place to live. (Badajoz, Cáceres, and Mérida are the 3 largest cities in my region of Extremadura.) All of the auxiliares from Extremadura were there; I think there are about 100 of us. There are a lot more in Mérida than I realized: 2 from France, 1 from Puerto Rico, 1 from England, 1 from Canada, and 4 from the US. In addition to my roommates, I spent a lot of time with Fachon (French) and Jess (English), so we spoke in all Spanish because that was our common language. It was neat to use so much Spanish because I speak a lot of English with my roommates, and the 3 of us were at a similar level of Spanish.

I haven't uploaded any Cáceres pictures yet, so here's another picture from Portugal :)

Things here in Spain are moving along pretty smoothly so far. My main frustration has been that I wish my Spanish was better; however, I know that will improve with time. It can be easy to forget how much progress I’ve made with the language when I'm speaking with native speakers. The most beneficial thing I took away from orientation was realizing that my Spanish is decent.

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 :) ]

¿Hablas español?

My most recent Spanish course ended in May of 2009, so when I applied to the NALCA program 8 months ago, I knew that I had some catching up to do. As the year continued, I found several practical ways to improve my Spanish:

1. Spanish music- Listening to this is a fun, simple change to make. My drives are now about 90% en español, unless I have others in the car with me.
   
   
2. Spanish podcasts- My favorite series is called Nómadas in which the host spends 55 min. talking about a city somewhere in the world & interviews several people with connections to that place throughout the show. This is great b/c it exposes me to various accents & I love learning about the different destinations.
   
   
   
3. conjuguemos.com- I do not think I appreciated how helpful this site was for brushing up on verb forms when my high school Spanish teacher made us use it for hw assignments. I had forgotten so much, especially with irregular verbs, but this is a quick & easy way to bring that info back. ...verb conjugations (or lack thereof) were the main thing to slow me down at the beginning of my study abroad semester, so I'm NOT trying to have the same problem twice!
   
   
4. CanalExtremadura offers many media forms including radio, TV, and newspaper articles. My favorite part is watching the daily news segment (about 45 min.) from Extremadura. It is especially helpful b/c it covers a wide range of vocab, includes a variety of newscasters & exposes me to the local pronunciation/accent, although news anchors tend to enunciate better than the people you run into on a daily basis. During meals when I studied abroad, my Spanish host family usually had the news on (or the occasional telenovela or fútbol match), so this seems like a practical way to learn the language.
   
    
5. Reading children's novels in Spanish- I am currently on La Casa en Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros about a girl whose parents immigrated to the U.S. The most beneficial method I have found is to read for the general idea, while underlining unfamiliar vocab. At the end of the chapter, I will look up the words & write them in the margin. Later I can flip through past chapters & quiz myself on the vocab by covering up the margin. ...others I have read are La telearaña de Carlota (Charlotte's Web) & Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal. Reading books you have previously finished in English can be a good way to start. And again, I try to cover a variety of topics to better increase my vocab.
   
   
6. Reading out loud- This aids pronunciation & helps me to pick up new words more quickly.
   
   
7. quizlet.com- This is a site of electronic flashcards. What's neat is that you can make your own flashcard sets (I made one for piso searching terms) or use 1 of the 1,000s of sets made by other users (there's one of 250 Spanish verbs I really like- 501 is just too many at one time!) They also offer a couple vocab games in addition to straight-up flashcard review.
   
   
8.  livemocha.com- Essentially this is a Spanish textbook in Internet form, including video dialogs, vocab & grammar exercises, and quizzes, PLUS it lets you submit writing prompts & audio recordings to native speakers of Spanish for critiquing. (In return students learning English submit similar assignments to you for feedback.) Unfortunately this one isn't free, but I was able to get an extremely discounted 1 year subscription using a Groupon :) ...and a 1 week trial happens to be free!
   
   
9. Using old Spanish textbooks to review.
   
   
10. Speaking with the Ecuadorian exchange students at work. This is probably my favorite form of practice, though I sometimes don't take advantage of it since they all know/are studying English...but I have been making more of an effort here in the past few weeks!

All-in-all I have TONS of resources at my fingertips & I have actually made fairly good use of them, despite my lack of regular Internet access this summer. Now that lots of auxiliares are finding each other's blogs I thought it would be a good time to share my resources!

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.