Third time's the charm

Back in California for Christmas, this is my third time coming home from Europe for the holidays, and each time has felt very different.

The first time was coming back from my semester in Italy in 2008, and I was too cool for America. I'd gotten my first taste of living overseas. I remember despising anything American, any reminder that I wasn't in Europe anymore. Pick-up trucks, super-sized grocery stores, and kids running lemonade stands would all anger me. "That's so American," I would think, imagining myself a highly cultured individual now that I had spent four months in Europe. Looking back now, it was immature and arrogant. I eventually got off my high horse, but that deep desire to be somewhere else in the world is what got me to Spain, so I can't regret it.

How could I not be cool having lived a short walk from here?

Last year I came home for the holidays four months in to my time in Spain. It was perfect timing for me, right at that stage of culture shock when I was getting really homesick. The honeymoon stage of culture shock had ended and I needed a taste of home. Peanut butter. Mexican food. Target. Driving a car. People being on time. I was craving it all. I needed a break from jamón, tapas, cobbled streets, and being a guiri. Two weeks at home was exactly what the doctor ordered and I went back to Spain in January with a new wave of motivation to make the most of my experience.

On my "To Eat" list every trip home

This year I feel different from either of the previous two times. I am of course enjoying all the comforts of home, but to be honest I wasn't ecstatic to come back like I was last year. Spain has absolutely turned in to home for me, and I was sad to be leaving it for the holidays. All the little things that used to bug me are just a part of life I've adapted to. I've found the shinier side of the coin for nearly everything that I at one point complained about in Spain. Nothing is open on Sundays, but there are six other days in the week to run your errands. Waiters and sales clerks don't put on fake customer service smiles like they do here, but when you run in to someone you know, you kiss them on both cheeks and ask them how they and their family are, because you actually care.

I will always be glad to see my family in California and they are the reason I will keep coming back, but I didn't have a check list of things to eat and experience while at home like I did last year. If there was a list, it would have been: 1- Spend time with family. 2- Spend time with friends. I am definitely fulfilling that list, and enjoying every minute of it. Ten more days of family and friends, and ten more days until Spain. Both are good things in my book.

The Emerald Isle

I apologize for the dearth of bloggage lately. I've been busy freezing my face off in Ireland and England the last two weekends, working in between, and now have three days left to pack and bid farewell and happy holidays to the Spain family before I head home for Christmas on Thursday. Did I mention I'm also still working all this week? That I plan to find time to make Christmas sugar cookies to bring to work? That I still need to do my Christmas shopping? Who needs to sleep anyway?

In the mean time, enjoy a bit of Northern Ireland and Ireland, which is better expressed in pictures than words (especially since I couldn't understand a word of what some people said there anyway).

Northern Ireland coast

Steak and Guinness pie and a hot toddy

Giant's Causeway

Belfast Christmas market

Queen of Tarts, please go there when ever you visit Dublin

Mandatory tour of Guinness storehouse

Christ Church Cathedral, which had a Christmas market in its crypt

Feliz Navidad a todos!

Andaluz: the tiny soccer ball of Spanish

One of my soccer coaches when I was about 12 had a brilliant idea. We did our drills at practice with size one soccer balls. Here's a picture I stole so you can get a size comparison for just how small it is.

As you can imagine, this made simple exercises much more difficult. A pass or volley you normally do with little effort now takes much more precision. The benefit to practicing this way? When you switch back to normal sized balls, it's like washing your windshield for the first time in ages and finally being able to see again. Or like taking a blindfold off. If you can do something with a size one ball, you'll never have a problem doing it with a normal one.

Why do I mention this now? Because I recently had an epiphany, and I decided that Andaluz (ahem, Andalú), the particular dialect of Spanish I'm learning here in Andalucía, is the tiny soccer ball of Spanish. I could go learn the crisp, clear, Spanish of Madrid or Valladolid, but where's the fun in that? Only pronouncing every other syllable means listening to everyday conversations is like deciphering cryptic messages.

In order for the words to make sense, I used to have to mentally fill in the blanks and reread the sentence in my head. By the time I'd processed that and was ready to chime in to the conversation, I was way behind. Poco a poco it's getting easier, and now I find myself very conscious of the fact that I'm understanding words and phrases that once would have left me puzzled.

However, when I switch to the full size soccer ball, when I talk to a student's mom who is from Salamanca, or a coworker back home who's Colombian, the full effect of Andaluz hits me. Listening to them compared to Andalucíans is like night and day. I can go the entire conversation without missing a word (sometimes), a feat I have yet to accomplish in Andaluz.

But am I packing my bags and running away to the north? Absolutely not. If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere in the Spanish speaking world, but I'm not going anywhere. I'm hitting the books and working on dropping the 'd' in my 'ado' endings. Study with me:

Bullet dodged

As I've mentioned before, I have private classes with two boys every day after work (Every day being Monday through Thursday). The family is Spanish, but the kids go to a British school, so I help them with their homework in English.

Yesterday I was helping the older of the two, who is eleven, fill out diagrams labeling the parts of the male and female reproductive systems (always a fun topic, but wait, it gets better). He had his textbook with more or less the same picture, so all he really had to do was copy. There was just one small problem. The worksheet had more organs, glands, etc to label than were in the book. But never fear, the teacher had anticipated this. His suggestion: If you can't find all of them in the book, use the internet.

Yes, my student had instructions to do his own research on the human reproductive system online. We all know that the internet contains nothing inappropriate for eleven year old children. Even he knew he was likely to see things he didn't want to see. Thank goodness super-tutor Amy was there to save the day. I haven't taken a biology class since ninth grade and don't remember which gland is which, but I do know how to choose my search engine criteria carefully, and we arrived safely at our destination without scarring anyone.

Biology teachers around the world, please don't tell your students to google the reproductive system. I can't be there to shield all of their eyes.

Please excuse the lack of pictures in this post, I assume you'll understand.

Seven days, a farm, and 50 eleven year olds

If at any point in your life, you should find yourself staying on a farm in rural Madrid for a week with 50 ten and eleven year old Spanish children as a part of an environmental English camp, here are a few things you can expect:

• You normally see each group of kids for 2 hours per week, meaning it's been difficult to learn any of their names. But this week, you will know all of them by Tuesday.
• You will know the three Manuel's and two Sara's by last name.
• You will learn to tell the twins apart by facial features and by personality.
• You will make friends with four golden retrievers, five horses, two miniature horses, and countless goats, sheep, and pigs.

• You will teach the kids how to do the electric slide, which most of them will think is the coolest thing ever.
• Back at school on Monday they will beg, "Teacher, can we dance?"
• You will help the girls blow dry their hair after shower time. They will love you playing with their hair, and you will now be able to tell them all apart by the backs of their heads.
• During said girl-bonding time, some of them will drop their pants to show you their days of the week underwear. "Very good, today is Wednesday. Now pull your pants up."
• You will here the words "Teacher, can I go to the toilet please?" more than you ever thought possible in your life.
• You will start having dreams about telling them to put their coats on.
• By Wednesday you won't have to argue with them any more about the necessity of a coat. The coastal kids will learn that not everywhere has weather like Málaga.

•  You will realize just how "city" your kids are when a) half of them are afraid of the horses, b) most of the girls still insist on being pretty and sparkly and pink to go on a hike, and c) one teacher whipping out nail polish results in an absolute mob.

•  All of them will speak in English. Even the ones who are normally terrified and getting them to speak is like pulling teeth.

• Working seven days straight, rather than your normal 12 hours per week, will be worth every minute of it.

• You will have an absolutely amazing time and grow to love your kids more than you ever thought possible.

 

 

Want my life?

I'm well aware that a good portion of this blog is dedicated to bragging about how awesome my life is. No apologies. I just speak the truth. However, I'm not completely heartless. So I'll let you all in on how exactly I got to be here. Want to teach English in Spain? Here's how.

Option 1: My first year here I came with CIEE, a non-profit organization that arranges the teaching job. They charge a program fee, which varies depending on which of a few programs you choose, and in return they act as a middle man throughout the application process, provide visa assistance and an orientation to help you get your life set up in Spain. They provide tips on everything from cell phones to setting up internet to apartment hunting to lesson planning. You also have the option of adding on Spanish classes and staying with a Spanish family before you start the job. CIEE places only in Andalucía. See their website for full details.

Option 2: This year I applied directly through the Ministerio de Educación, as the vast majority of people do because it's free.

To be eligible for either you must have either a US or Canadian passport, be a native English speaker, have a BA or BS, and have at least an intermediate Spanish level (this one can be fudged a little bit with CIEE´s classes).

Both of these options lead to the exact same job: an English teaching assistant, or auxiliar, in a primary school, secondary school, or official language school for the academic school year. You work 12 hours a week and earn 700€/month (Madrid is a bit different, more hours and higher pay. I'm not sure but I'd imagine Barcelona is similar). So what's the difference?

CIEE
Pros: Andalucía only and ability to request cities, informative orientation if you need the help, streamlined CIEE application
Cons: $$$$

Ministerio
Pros: Free, all of Spain available
Cons: Only can select preferred regions, not cities, complicated Profex application

I chose to do CIEE mostly because of the Spanish classes offered. Looking back, I could have survived without them; my Spanish was better than I gave myself credit for. However, I´m still glad I did it because of the fantastic experience in my homestay, and for the friends I made during that time who were friends all over Andalucía for the year.

Which ever option you choose, get started now. The application for the 2012-13 Ministerio program opens today (November 7). Complete and submit the online portion of the application in Profex as soon as you can. You´ll get a number that indicates the order in which placements are given out. Last year I submitted within two or three days of the application being open and I was number 104. Don´t worry about mailing in the other documents right now (personal statement, letter of rec, etc), just get them in by the deadline, which I believe is in February.

The timeline: apply now, get placed in your region in February/March, find out your specific school as early as May, start the fun visa process, and be in Spain to start work in Septmeber/October. If you apply with CIEE you´ll probably get your placement information a little sooner, but not by much.

If you have any questions check out the websites for more details, or feel free to ask me at teach.learn.run@gmail.com and I can share my experience. Just remember, I´m not an employee or spokesperson for either program, just a current/past participant.

Get started on that application and good luck!



Side note: There are loads of auxiliares here from the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, but I don´t know anything about their application process. Sorry!

Tuesday observations

It's an ordinary Tuesday in the life of an auxiliar, and here's what's on my mind:

1. Spain really needs us here. I was teaching a cute little lesson involving my kids reading about people from various parts of the United States, and was really excited that their textbook actually included something outside of the UK. Until I turned the page and found this in the activity book:

Think they consulted an American for this?

Madre mia. Those two little blobs are supposed to be Nevada and New Mexico, and they didn't even try drawing the shape of New York state. I know that the exact shape of the states isn't the point of the lesson, but how hard would it have been to get it right? I could have drawn them by hand more accurately. (Trust me, my flatmate challenged me last year to draw a map of the US from memory, and I did pretty damn well)

2. I'm getting through books far too quickly for the good of my bank account. I've been back in Spain for just over three weeks and have finished four books, mostly due to not being able to put The Hunger Games series down. I love all the time on the train each day I have to read, but it's time to get back to the free, out of copyright material ------> Started Jane Austen's Persuasion today.

3. I've scored just about the sweetest private class deal ever. I spend two hours a day after work sitting in a sun room out on a terrace, helping two wonderful little boys with their homework, while looking out over this:

On a clear day we can see from El Palo in the east to past Fuengirola in the west, and sometimes even across to Morocco. But even in rainy weather it manages to be beautiful. The nine year-old I work with absolutely could not focus on his work until the rainbow had been sufficiently documented, so this picture was as much for him as it was for me.