This past week has been packed full of bureaucracy, lesson plans and
some adventures. I officially live in Spain now, in case the past month
hasn't been any indication of current residence, I have all the
paperwork to back it up. I have my official copy of the lease, opened a
bank account, got my national ID card and my health insurance card came.
This means I can be paid, get sick and for a whole year can legally
reside in Spain. It's such a relief to have all of this taken care of
and in hindsight one month to get all these documents is not an absurd
amount of time to wait. The amount of time spent waiting in a single
line in Spain, however, is absurd. I think the biggest relief is knowing
I don't have to wait in any more lines for quite some time now.
Work is going so great. I am so lucky to have this opportunity, and I am even starting to feel a little teacherish. I love walking between classes and having the students say hi to me (Hay-low Tee-fony) and on Tuesday a student in 5th grade brought me a candy. My heart completely melted. My first gift from a student, this has to give solidify my semi-teacher status. I have led a couple of classes on my own and it is the best feeling I've ever experienced. The first class I did this in was 7th grade. At the beginning of the class none of the students were volunteering answers, but by the end of the period every hand was up, vying to be picked to offer an answer. I am so proud of how hard they try, and at the same time make sure that I am empathetic to the students that are struggling. It is hard for me to keep up with all the classes I have as each teacher wants me to have something different for the students, slowly but surely I am getting it all straightened out. This past week I also started with the Speaking Club, a club that Isabel had helped set up last year for her friends that want to practice English. It was really fun to have the chance to speak English with adults who are taking the initiative to learn English. Some are doing it for personal improvement and some are doing it to prove to their children that is it an important skill to have. I also began giving private lessons this week. Javier is a biology teacher at the school and has three sons. I will spend four hours a week at their house giving lessons. Each of the boys is so different from the others. The oldest, Xavier, wants all theory and no play. Raul, the middle, wants all play and no theory (I do their lessons together, so it's great they want the same kind of lessons...). The youngest, Xiro (I am almost certain this is spelled wrong), is really timid with his speaking so I introduced him to the wonderful language of Spanglish. He loves this. Though when I paused before translating a phrase for him into English (one with many possible meanings) he got sassy. He asked how long I lived in the USA for, I told him 22 years, he then informed me that it is unbelievable and unacceptable that I could have lived that long in the USA and not know every English word. Such sass for a 9 year old boy, I died laughing. He seemed wary of believing me when I told him that there are many ways to translate the phrase, but ultimately accepted the translation I offered. Next week I will begin conversation lessons with another family. I really enjoy private lessons because I can give the students the attention they deserve.
Friday was a holiday in Spain, Columbus Day, and Angel and I went took a trip to the beach to take a break from Santiago. We went to Finisterre, the end of the world. It is the point that was originally believed to be the end of the world, the western most tip of Spain. It is ironic and was unplanned that we would go to the "end of the world" on the day that celebrates the discovery of a "new world". The town was quaint and the views from the lighthouse, on the tip of Finisterre, were breathtaking. It is no wonder this point was once believed to be the end of the world. It was quite the hike to reach the end, so it was no wonder they stopped there and deemed it the end of the world. Those explorers had to have been tired from so much walking, I know we were. But good news, there IS a bar at the end of the world. It's worth the walk.
Work is going so great. I am so lucky to have this opportunity, and I am even starting to feel a little teacherish. I love walking between classes and having the students say hi to me (Hay-low Tee-fony) and on Tuesday a student in 5th grade brought me a candy. My heart completely melted. My first gift from a student, this has to give solidify my semi-teacher status. I have led a couple of classes on my own and it is the best feeling I've ever experienced. The first class I did this in was 7th grade. At the beginning of the class none of the students were volunteering answers, but by the end of the period every hand was up, vying to be picked to offer an answer. I am so proud of how hard they try, and at the same time make sure that I am empathetic to the students that are struggling. It is hard for me to keep up with all the classes I have as each teacher wants me to have something different for the students, slowly but surely I am getting it all straightened out. This past week I also started with the Speaking Club, a club that Isabel had helped set up last year for her friends that want to practice English. It was really fun to have the chance to speak English with adults who are taking the initiative to learn English. Some are doing it for personal improvement and some are doing it to prove to their children that is it an important skill to have. I also began giving private lessons this week. Javier is a biology teacher at the school and has three sons. I will spend four hours a week at their house giving lessons. Each of the boys is so different from the others. The oldest, Xavier, wants all theory and no play. Raul, the middle, wants all play and no theory (I do their lessons together, so it's great they want the same kind of lessons...). The youngest, Xiro (I am almost certain this is spelled wrong), is really timid with his speaking so I introduced him to the wonderful language of Spanglish. He loves this. Though when I paused before translating a phrase for him into English (one with many possible meanings) he got sassy. He asked how long I lived in the USA for, I told him 22 years, he then informed me that it is unbelievable and unacceptable that I could have lived that long in the USA and not know every English word. Such sass for a 9 year old boy, I died laughing. He seemed wary of believing me when I told him that there are many ways to translate the phrase, but ultimately accepted the translation I offered. Next week I will begin conversation lessons with another family. I really enjoy private lessons because I can give the students the attention they deserve.
Friday was a holiday in Spain, Columbus Day, and Angel and I went took a trip to the beach to take a break from Santiago. We went to Finisterre, the end of the world. It is the point that was originally believed to be the end of the world, the western most tip of Spain. It is ironic and was unplanned that we would go to the "end of the world" on the day that celebrates the discovery of a "new world". The town was quaint and the views from the lighthouse, on the tip of Finisterre, were breathtaking. It is no wonder this point was once believed to be the end of the world. It was quite the hike to reach the end, so it was no wonder they stopped there and deemed it the end of the world. Those explorers had to have been tired from so much walking, I know we were. But good news, there IS a bar at the end of the world. It's worth the walk.
Finisterre
The Atlantic looking beautiful. This is at the base of the hike to the tip, which is in the background
The end of the world.
Owning it.
It's no wonder they thought there was nothing beyond this point. However, I'm thrilled that in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue...
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