Over a month in Europe: Busy making dem EOs

It's now been over a month since I landed in Spain and started my life in Europe...37 days to be exact! Honestly, it's been a roller coaster ride of adjustments and sentiments towards my new home for 8 months. On September 27th (last day of orientation in Cáceres), I moved into a 3 bedroom apartment on the northeast side of Coria with another auxiliar teaching in town from Eugene, Oregon. She (yes, I said she) is pretty cool, a punk girl who's into roller derby. We usually hang out after a long day of classes on Thursday evenings talking about the classes we teach and drink, watch stuff on netflix and basically chill out. We are both exhausted after teaching from Monday thru Thursday. Whilst reading this, you are thinking WHAT THE F*CK?! ONLY 4 DAYS?! BASTARD! Well, here is my schedule:

Cathedral in Plasencia nearby the other school

Officially and legally, I only work 12 hours a week in the schools for 700 E.Os -- EOs pronounced ['i.ohz], my universal slang for the euro. It sounds too good to be true and it somewhat is. Mondays and Tuesdays, I work 6 hours in Coria. Wednesday and Thursdays is a bit different because I have to travel to Plasencia, a town 40 minutes east of Coria. Its a bigger town with many more shops and place to eat than town. Also the Cathedral and Torre is a pleasure to walk by when I'm heading to school. I teach usually between 9am-2pm at both colegios (schools). After 2, siesta time sets in when all the shops close and people head home for lunch or nap. I usually head home for lunch then to the bar below my place and have an afternoon café con leche. Depending on the day, starting around 4:30pm the mayhem starts.

Café con churros

During the early evening hours (4:30pm-9pm), I am on foot in Coria traveling to different homes giving private English classes for an hour each, Monday thru Thursday. There is a massive demand for these private classes from all ages, yet the majority are 12-15 years. They are real fun but can be exhausting, helping them with pronunciation or trying to understand what they are saying within some context. Grammar is barely touched on because they learn it in school, so their parents want them to converse with real natives and they are willing to pay (and plenty too). Its honestly a good side business to make some extra money for food, travel and other things. It also helps battle homesickness but by 8pm I'm wiped out. I head back home, eat, do some chores and pass out around 11pm (like I did during gradschool). Friday thru Sunday is freedom, relaxation and sometimes boredom but long walks or blog writing help out.

 

Peace

In the cultural spotlight

After about a week of teaching, I have became accustomed to being stared at by students while I'm standing in front of the room. But in general, I never like being the leader of a group or in the spotlight. With that said, today was the opposite.

Today I worked at Colegio Sagrado Corazón here in Coria (the other school that I work at, La Salle, is in Plasencia). I usually have an hour break from 11am to 12pm from class, which is pretty nice time to run an errand or grab some café con leche. Around 11:45am to 12:15pm, the school has a recreo period, meaning recess. Most of the younger students go out and play soccer, snack on their bocadillos (sandwiches) that their moms made them or the older students (11-14 years old) hang out and talk. I walked around for a little bit in the playground area of the school then perched at a spot to chill away from the sun since it was starting to get a little hot. A couple of students of mine came up to say hi and were gather around me asking a couple of questions. Then, out of nowhere, A MASSIVE GROUP of pre-teens and teenagers gathered in a group around me. I just said HOLY SHIT (they didn't know what that ment) and started laughing because I was the man of the hour (or 10 minutes of recess).

I was asked the usual questions: where am I from, what do I study, what do I teach, how old am I. Then I would get random questions like do I have a girlfriend or can I sing. Most of the questions were in Spanish, so I understood everything. Some tried to speak in English too, which was pretty cool. But the whole time I felt I was an animal being stared at in the zoo, like LOOK! AN AMERICANO! It was a fun but an unique experience. Being from the states, that never happens since it is a very diverse country. Coria has one latin american family and one Chinese family, thats all. The rest are Spanish. It is a real culture shock for them, I suppose, to see a real foreigner. I'm actually happy to be in a foreigner's shoes. I somewhat know how international students feel when they come to UNT. Somewhat weirded out by the culture that you live in now but people are fascinated by you because of where you come from!

Sorry, no photos. Its about the story. READ IT, BITCH! (an ode to the finale of Breaking Bad).

The opportunity I've been granted

Tomorrow morning at 9AM I begin my job teaching English. My schedule is split between two schools: Monday and Tuesday in Coria, Wednesday and Thursday in Plasencia with Friday, Saturday and Sunday off to do whatever. That isn't all. I only work 12 hours a week, split between both schools. Its obviously VERY different than home, where people work 40+ hours to keep the lights on and bread on the table. I worked at a desk job in a computer lab for about 30 hours a week, attended 9 hours of grad school classes, worked on my own research and class work during the weekends and still made time for friends, the linguistics group, and many other things. Its a major change from academic life and even every day life. In many ways, my life is unfair to other people, in the sense that they have to work extremely long hours and additional jobs to survive to where as I have time to do many things and have a monthly stipend to somewhat live off of.

However, like many of us, I came from that world. Working a lot for not a whole lot but making ends meet. I've done that earlier in my life and learned a lot from it. I am not one of those people that says "that's not for me anymore" except for retail (NEVER anymore), yet I know I want something else in my life. I can't be afraid to do different things nor be in different situations hence the reason why I'm in Europe teaching English in the first place. However, I do feel odd not doing 40 hours somewhere for $7.50 an hour, like many people I know are doing (and what I use to do as well). I guess in hindsight I'm seeing the benefits of a college education. To do this program, a person needs a Bachelor's degree or be at least in their Junior year of college. Its an advantage not many people have, even those with that degree. I'm lucky that I don't have to pay a large amount of loans back either when I return. The $7.50 an hour wouldn't cut it.

I just have to keep telling myself that this is will help in the long run and that I should take the advantage of being here. I shouldn't be afraid of the world and the work that it comes with. I know that this program is not a kick in the door for job opportunities but I hope it gives me some kind of boost and push when I get back to the states.

CÁCERES y CORIA

I left Madrid about two days ago and went on another adventure: Cáceres. Thursday morning I left on a bus to the city of Cáceres where the orientation for my region is held at. It was about a 5 hour bus trip, carving in and out the roads of west Spain, making multiple stops to pick up other heading to the city. The trip was ok for me since I have taken a couple of bus and train trips in my life (headed to the Spanish Consulate General in Houston by ways of the Megabus). There were many people heading there for the same orientation so that was real cool. I sat next to a girl from Arizona, a first year newbie just like me, and we talked for nearly the whole trip. It was good yet tiring (I wanted to sleep more!). Once we got to our destination, that was another adventure itself. The girl and I got on a bus to take us into the inner city in order to take another bus to go to the orientation, which was basically a boarding school building. We met a French girl on the way to the same place, speaking only Spanish, but I think she's actually teaching French to students here. We got a bit lost looking for the place itself, walking around for 20 minutes in the sun. I was fine, but the American girl from the long bus ride had a lot of baggage so it was hard for her to get around. But we finally made it!

There was so many people there, all waiting around for the meeting to start. Saw a guy with a Mastodon shirt on walking around (NICE SHIRT DUDE!). I met a bunch of people from all over the states, a handful of British people, and a couple of French and Portuguese. It was a real awesome and interesting. Everyone kinda becomes a kindred spirit. We are all thrown into an unknown situation, figuring out what to do the next day, where to live, what to eat. Its scary but I think being out of your comfort zone is the best way to learn about yourself. I learned that I'm too anxious and that I should be a bit more loose, not so uptight.

The orientation itself was actually pointless. The presenters of the program were somewhat repetitive, did not give us any new information, and wasted time. I met a couple of people that are working in Plasencia, another city that I have to teach at that is about 25 minutes away. They were both real cool (British girl and an American guy). The second day of orientation was actually the life saver. I met a girl that had a flat situated for her already that had 2 spare bedrooms in Coria! I jumped on the opportunity. 150EURO! Piss cheap! Too good to be true though. Only time will tell. It honestly was pure luck for me. I think there are still some people that are looking for a place to live. I'm so lucky and grateful to find a place so quick. I don't know what I would have done.

Llegué a Madrid

ESTOY AQUÍ

This wont be the "to go to" blogs for advice on how to live abroad and do the Auxiliares de Conversación program, even though some tid-bits will be explained. This will be written in the point of view of a first timer's experience living abroad. I never new my mind would be blown this much.

I left the 19th of September and arrived the next day in Madrid. With a layover in JFK, the flight to Spain was about 6 1/2 hours to 7 hours long. It was very hard to sit still the whole way but I have managed to make it. When I arrived, I had a scare at the airport when I thought my luggage was lost. However, I just didn't look at the other conveyer belt and saw my bag by itself. I was incredibly frightened and didn't want to know what to do if that had happened. After that, I went out and hit up the Madrid METRO lines, which were incredibly fast and packed as well. I knew the routes decently and had a map on my phone for reference. I was still incredibly tired with only a few hours of sleep but I had to push through to get to my hostel. After 3 trains, I finally got out of the train, went upstairs and saw something I never thought I would see before: EUROPE. It hit me hard when I knew I wasn't in America anymore.

Five days in Madrid before I leave for Cáceres (where I have to teach) for the rest of the experience. Today was pure walking around and exploration. I took the advice from the spoken word show of the great Henry Rollins: Books are great for the meantime but knowledge without mileage equals bullsh*t, if you want to know you have to go. After checking in my hostel, I went out, bought a bottle of water and just explored. I wanted to know what Europe is aside from reading about it in the books of dead writers. I want to know who the hell I really am too. A linguist? A literary critic? A person who is just avoiding real work in the states? Whoever I am I will find out. This first month will suck because of the solidarity but it will give me loads of time to reflect, write, study and hopefully leave my personality completely vulnerable.

PS: I may make a Flickr or some kind of photo account to post up all the photos instead of clogging up my Facebook account. 

The start

This will be the first post of many about the trip to Spain and travels within the country as well as Europe. Many friends and family members already know that I will be living in Spain for about 8 months teaching English starting in October and ending in May. But not many know about the route that I went down to do this.

At the start of the new year, I honestly had no idea what to do after I finished my Master's degree in Spanish. After two years, I have finished my course work in May and now waiting to take my comprehensive exams in August (procrastinating studying by writing this blog). I didn't know what to make of my life after this degree because I know I will not pursue a PhD in the field nor teach it. The degree I have worked for and will obtain is a literature degree, offering very little career wise unless I go into a doctorate. Even though I love the language as well as reading and writing, literary theory and criticism is not what I wanted to as far as a career in academia is concerned. Taking graduate Linguistics classes helped me see this. I immediately wanted to start a career by studying language, but I was (and still am) bounded by the Spanish MA program until its finished. But, I have no idea what I was going to do after it was all set and done. Either apply to other programs for Linguistics or say screw it and teach Spanish. The second option is way more difficult because my lack of teaching experience.

Around Fall 2013, one of the students in the Linguistics program told me about his time teaching English in Granada before starting his master's degree. The program he did it through was called CIEE, a real cool program to teach English overseas and spend time abroad. I looked into it and knew that I needed something like this in my personal life, to live out of the country, and personal life, gaining teaching experience. However, I would have to pay about $2,000 for this program, yet it would cover everything. I showed this to my sister (a big supporter of mine when it came to school and life in general) and she did her own research on the subject. She found out that the Spanish Ministry of Education offers the same program, minus the price tag. I jumped on the opportunity, downloaded the application forms, got a letter of rec from one of my professors and sent everything in March. I didn't hear anything for a long time and I honestly lost hope until the second week of June when I opened my email and the offer was there to accept. I was at work, I lost my mind and I yelled:

I'M GOING TO SPAIN!!!
The rest, everyone knows...

I'm going to teach at two schools in Plasencia (Cáceres), in the region of Extremadura. I'm leaving for Madrid on September 19, arriving the next day. I will spend at least 8 months of my life in Spain, with an option of reapplying and staying longer. This is the biggest thing I am gonna do in my life. Homesickness, culture shock, complete independence and Spanish lexical differences will hit me hard but I know that this is an experience I will never regret.