Salesianos

While the experience is still fresh in my mind (somewhat), I would like to write a short post about my first day of work at job number two.

My previously mentioned friend, Samantha, who got me job number one, also led me to job number two. There is a man who studies at the academy, who is also a teacher at a somewhat private school in Utrera. The school is a chain I guess you could call it, I don’t know if that word applies for schools, but there are a bunch of these schools around the country. It’s a catholic school, founded by a famous priest, don’t rememer his name, forgive me I’m Jewish. Its public in that it is funded by the government, but in every other sense it seems like a private school. There are boarders, and uniforms, and it looks a little like Hogwarts.

Well, back on topic, this man, Carlos, asked Sam if she would be willing to help out at the school a couple of hours a week. Since she is already working at yet another school in the morning, Sam decided not to take the job and offered it to me. Good deal. Thanks SammySpain!

So this past Thursday morning, I had to wake up at 6:45 AM, yuck, in order to be at Salesianos at 9 (normally I will be arriving at 9:30 but this was the first day so I had to take a tour and meet all of the millions of teachers there). Well I am now becoming somewhat of an expert at taking the train to Utrera, so that part of the commute presented no trouble for me. But as soon as I got off of the train, I realized all I really knew in terms of how to walk to the school was, go to the right. I did however plan a little bit ahead and picked up a map of Utrera at a hotel earlier in the week.

For some reason, maybe the fact that it’s impossible to find street signs in Spain, I was having trouble following the map. I couldn’t exactly figure out where I was, so it was hard to figure out exactly how to get to where I wanted to go, obviously. Luckily, I turned a corner, and saw three boys in school uniform! I followed them the whole rest of the way to school, without them noticing! Maybe I have a future career as a spy?

The school is an entire city block, like NYC style city block. So once the boys got me close to the school it was really hard to miss. Also there were tons of little school kids in uniform, gossiping and cramming last minute for a test. I met Carlos at the main gate to the school, and he gave me a tour of the school, completely useless because it’s so big that I will never remember how to get everywhere. He introduced me to almost every single person that works at the school, even the teachers I will not be working with (which is almost all them because I’m only working with one teacher). But it was nice to be introduced anyway.

The job itself is very much like what I did last year as a language assistant. I will be in each of the first grade classes for one hour a week, because they want to start something of a bilingual program at the school. Since it is not technically a public school, they do not have the official bilingual program and therefore are not assigned a native speaker as an auxiliar de conversación (fancy name for language assistant). Right, so I’ll be in the classroom so the kids can get used to hearing a native English speaker, learn correct pronunciation and all that fun stuff.

The morning was fun. Taught the parts of the body and face, three times. Made little 6-year-old friends. Looking forward to more.

Since I don’t start at the academy until 4:30 on Thursdays, I was invited to stay at the school for lunch (they serve lunch there because there are afternoon classes too and not everyone can go home to eat). Also there are boarding students and they obviously need to eat there. Seeing as this is Spain, and lunch is the most important meal, I was served not just a sandwich or basket of chicken fingers (like what you might find in a school cafeteria in America) but rather an entire 3-course meal. There was salad and a potato stew to start, chicken and more potatoes for the second course, yogurt and fruit for dessert. Not too bad. I think I can get used to having a good meal made for me once a week.

In the cafeteria there is a student eating section and another one for teachers. I sat in the teacher’s section because I was eating with the primary school kids, and also I’m a teacher of sorts. It was a little lonely because no other teacher was eating at that time (1pm is really early for lunch here). But eventually some started trickling in, a couple even sat with me! Exciting, new friends! Some teachers were young and seemed cool but the only problem is that they mostly all live in Utrera. And I don’t. So, that’s a bummer. But still, good to know there are young, friendly people working there.

After lunch, I spent a couple of hours sitting in the teachers’ lounge (one of the lounges I should say) preparing my classes for the academy. I believe in that time I met the rest of the staff I hadn’t met earlier in the day. It’s a great environment at that school. Everyone was super nice to me, many complimented me on my Spanish (always nice to have a little confidence booster) and a lot of them spoke English pretty well. I’m excited to have some extra work in the mornings, and the extra money of course, but by the end of the day Thursday I was dead tired. I don’t finish at the academy until 9:30 so I was out of the house almost 14 hours. For me, that’s a lot!

Sorry I lied, not a short post.

My Morning in Macarena

On the topic of new beginnings…I thought I’d take this opportunity to enroll myself in an official language class for the mornings, partly because I love learning languages, and partly because there are some aspects of my life that would be easier if I were officially a student here. So this morning I ventured into the Macarena neighborhood of Sevilla, might as well be another city for all I know, think I went there once the whole time I lived here last year. Luckily, the bus pretty much dropped me off right in front of the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas (Official Language School). I had to walk a little but my handy dandy iPhone 3 maps app helped me out. I only walked in one cirle. I thought the fact that I arrived without (with relatively little) trouble was a good omen. And, I was wrong…

When I arrived there was a line that wrapped around the entire building. I thought it was odd that there would be so many people wanting to sign up for a language class TODAY. I mean I know a lot of people are unemployed and want to take advantage of their free time to learn English, but it literally seemed like the entire city of Seville was there to sign up for classes. And I didn't want to wait.

Well I walked myself to the front of the line where I could see people entering the building, to wait on more lines, but couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I didn’t know what specifically these people were waiting for. I couldn’t see a person they were waiting to talk to at the front of the line, although I assume there was someone there.

As I was walking back to the end of the line, feeling a little defeated, I heard something that sounded like my name. I was listening to my iPod so I thought maybe I was just going a little crazy, imagining things as a result of lack of sleep (this work schedule really throws off my sleep schedule…dinner at 11pm??? That’s bedtime for me!) Turns out I’m not crazy, or at least in this particular instance, and there was actually someone I knew in the line! What are the chances, I know about five people in Sevilla!

A fellow volunteer from the Davis Cup was waiting to sign up for English classes.  She was very confused to see me there, seeing as I am a native English speaker. Luckily she explained to me that all the people in line were in fact signing up for English classes; the signup for other languages was in another part of the building. Phew! One point of confusion settled.

When I ventured into the other side of the building, I did in fact see signs indicating that there were classes besides English at the school. There were class lists on the walls, and things written in Italian and German and French. But that was about as much luck as I had! I know there are classes in languages besides English. I asked one very unfriendly lady about signing up, and she said, from what I understood, “you can’t, look online.” Well that was super helpful, and she was about the only actual person I could find who seemed to work there. So, I left. I’m taking her helpful advice, and looking online. And all the information is for the 2011-2012 school year. Awesome!

I do however have a Plan B. And that includes bringing a Spanish person with me next time I go, if there is a next time…. or making one of my Spanish friends call. Keep y’all posted! I know you are dying to find out what happens next!

In other news, it looks like my bank account from last year was never actually closed down even though I did cancel it. Lucky for me! Now (I’m pretty sure) I don’t have to open a new one!

New Beginnings

Today marks the beginning of a new month, but it’s more than that for me. It is also (one of) my first days living in my new apartment, and the beginning of my full work schedule.

For the past few weeks I have been living with Pilar and her family, and now I am finally settled (mostly) in my own place. I am living in the apartment I mentioned earlier, with the three Italians. Still have only met two of them, the third one is on a really long vacation/business trip (not sure) in the USA. So far the living situation is good. Of course, being as this is Spain, the apartment has some…quirks let’s call them. For example, there are one and a half bathrooms. Or should I say one bathroom and a closet with a toilet in it. When one of my roommates was in the shower yesterday, I decided it would be a good time for me to explore the second bathroom. Well, for those of you who don’t remember, I am relatively tall…and I didn’t exactly fit sitting down on the toilet seat correctly (sorry if this is TMI), so I had to sit sideways on the toilet. For those of you who haven’t tried it, it is not as comfortable!

Also, on the theme of bathrooms, I feel obligated to mention my first experience in the shower here. As in most places I’ve been in Europe, the showerhead is hand held, but has a place where you can let it rest so it becomes a normal over the body showerhead. I thought this would be no different; hold it in my hand when I need to, but have the option to put it in the rest (I’m not sure what the appropriate word for that is) when I want to shampoo or soap up. Well, when my hair was adequately rinsed and I was ready for shampoo, I put the showerhead in its holder, and just like a scene in a movie it started spinning around in circles, water spraying everywhere. I mean the shower head was running laps swinging back and forth from one side of the shower to the other, somehow also managing to spray water on the ceiling. At the time I didn’t think it was that funny, but looking back, it’s just one of those things you gotta expect and accept when living in a foreign country.

Also, as I mentioned, this week I start my full work schedule. For the past two weeks, I have been only teaching primary level classes, children basically. Then in the evenings we were doing exam practice for those students in the academy who are studying to get their FIRST or PET certificates. Honestly, I’m still not quite sure what those things mean, so I can’t explain it to those of you who have no clue what I am talking about. But I know there is some European Union standards for learning English and these tests represent different levels of proficiency.

Now the test prep is over (I think because the test is in the next two weeks) and we are starting with the adult classes in the evenings. I am actually a little nervous to teach adults, especially because my past experience is mostly with children. Of course adults will be easier in terms of discipline, or at least I hope! But the problem is that the English is more difficult, more grammar than games. I guess there are pros and cons to each level. Who knows, maybe I’ll love teaching the adults. Only time will tell.

So, here’s to new beginnings! Happy October everyone!