I'M IN SPAIN!!!!

Hola a todos! I’ve only been in Spain for a few days now, but I thought I should write a little bit about what’s been going on so far. For those of you who aren’t exactly sure what I’m doing over here, my official title is an “auxiliar de conversación” – an English language and culture assistant – at a primary school in Cádiz, Spain. Basically, I will be working with children from the ages of 3 to 13 helping them to increase their knowledge of English as a foreign language as well as help the school establish/refine its coursework for next year when it makes the full transition to bilingual curriculum. It’s going to be a huge challenge, but I can’t wait!

Right now I’m writing from La Hespería Sevilla, the hotel where we are staying for our orientation. The first few days have been great. We have had lecture/activity sessions for about 4 hours each day and learn things like how Spain’s education system is set up and suggestions for designing and implementing class plans. They (CIEE, the organization that helped set up this whole opportunity for me and 200 of my peers) also have taught us the basics of how to open a bank account, find an apartment, and find medical services when/if we need them at all throughout the year.

Once business time is over, we get to have fun time. So far, I have gotten to enjoy various types of vino y tapas, a flamenco show, a tour of Seville’s ENORMOUS cathedral, as well as spend time wandering through the city’s incredibly narrow, windy, and confusing cobblestone streets. I love admiring all of the beautiful architecture and observing the street life in general – not going to lie, people-watching in the city center is an excellent pastime what with the crazy (“fashionable”) clothing compilations, loud/random bursts of noise, not to mention just the sheer number of people who are out and about at any given time throughout the day.

Well that’s all for right now (sorry, I’m trying really hard not to write way too much and end up boring everyone!), but I’ll try and keep this blog thinger up to date with the more interesting happenings of things over here where I am.