I know, I know. It's been a while. I hadn't been updating because there was nothing going on, but now it seems like so much has happened since I last posted! Where to begin??
I had orientation about two weeks ago. It was useless at times and really helpful at others. However, the important stuff, like things regarding health insurance, national ID cards, etc, were all told to us in Spanish, while the less-important things, like ideas for teaching English, were told to us in our native tongue. Funny. I made a few friends, though I've only seen two of them regularly since then. One of them, Jessie, asked if I've heard of Broken Social Scene. Instant friend.
Last Tuesday, I went to visit my school so I'd know where I was going, how to get there, etc. before my first day. It was sort of overwhelming--hopping on a bus to a random suburb 22km (metric!) outside Madrid and having no idea where I was going or who I'd meet--but a nice lady from Torrejón sat with me and helped me get off at the right stop and pointed me in the right direction of the school. After a bit of trouble with the entrance (you have to use a buzzer to get in and out of the three choices on the buzzer I managed to choose the correct one last), I was met in the lobby by the director and the head of studies, who took me to meet the two English teachers in first grade, Inma and María. I'll be working exclusively with María this month, until I switch horarios with the other assistant and work only with Inma. The way our schedules work is that we switch each month to spend that time with one teacher and two of the four first grade classes. Right now I'm working with groups C and D.
Anyway, I digress. I went to visit the school, met the teachers, saw the kids, and then after school let out, Inma took me around the entire building (which is enormous) and introduced me to every teacher who was still around after the kids went home.
The next day was the 29th of September, or 29-S, the day of the Huelga General, or general strike. The recent economic crisis caused many of Spain's civil service workers to take a 5% pay cut, and it left a lot of people who lost their jobs without the typical severance package, about a month of pay minimum. The metro system was (allegedly) running 50% of its normal services during rush hours, and 20% for the rest of the day. I didn't notice a lot of strike-related changes in town other than some roads being shut down because of a bunch of protesters gathering in some plazas and roundabouts, but I also spent most of the day lying around in the park with my friends, eating bread and cheese and getting some sun.
My first real day at school was Friday, and I mostly observed but I did get two gifts already--a boy and a girl both said the pictures they'd drawn were for me, but unfortunately I couldn't accept them because they were in their student workbooks and part of the day's assignment. Hopefully they'll make some more for me!
Friday, I went out with my roommates to a pub quiz at an English bookstore in the Malasaña neighborhood. Photo of me, the roomies, and our friend Rachel (blonde) crammed into our tiny old-school elevator on the way to the pub quiz. We did pretty terrible. Considering the questions were done by an English guy and a lot of them were fairly UK-centric and we had a team of 3 Brits and an American, I would have expected to do a little better (especially considering my history with trivia nights!) but I guess not coming in last is good enough for our first try. We are probably going back this Friday, and the store has an intercambio night twice a week, and we have also been considering finding one to attend regularly so we can meet some more people and hopefully find someone to help us with our Spanish, since we really aren't supposed to speak it at school. I wouldn't mind meeting someone from Brazil, though, since I think it will be pretty easy to find Spanish speakers here (imagine that) but I'd really like to keep up with Portuguese in some way. If not, I'll just start skyping my old professor and classmates all the time. Hah. Speaking of skype, I have it! Add me by my email address if you have it, too!
I woke up Sunday with a sore throat and it has since progressed into cough and congestion. So, the bad news is that I've got my first cold in Madrid, but the good news is that I'm not necessarily allergic to Spain! Hooray!
This week, I've just been waking up at 7 (yuck) to catch the metro at 8 to the suburban bus at 820 to start school at 9 every day. I am in class from 9-2, and usually get home around 3 or 4, depending on which bus I manage to catch back to Madrid. A typical day has three sessions split between two classes, a 30-minute break, and then two more sessions with either one or both of the morning classes. During the 30-minute break, the kids go outside for recreo and the teachers hang out in the teacher's lounge which always has a delicious spread of coffee, juices, fruit, and a special tapa. Usually they are really good--today's was a slice of baguette with a red pepper/chorizo/cheese bruschetta-type mixture, but yesterday there was a plate of fried calamari rings, yuck! On Monday we had toasts with tomato, manchego, and the part that ruined it, tuna on top. I managed to find one that the chefs missed that only had tomato and cheese on it. Yum!
In general, I am really enjoying my "job" in the school (so far). It is obvious which kids are picking up on English quicker than others, and which of them are still afraid to try to use English with a scary native speaker. This is my school's first year doing the bilingual program, and when they start the program, they start from the bottom and work up. My first-graders are the only kids in the school taking English, and almost none of them have had much if any contact with English before now, so it is going to be an interesting year. I really hope I can make some progress with them, even if it is only that they know what "I'm fine, thank you" means rather than just knowing it is the acceptable response in the English classroom to the question, "How are you?"
