I now officially live in Spain. Ok, so it’s not exactly official because I don’t yet have a residency permit. I do, however, have an apartment, which basically means I live in Spain.
Monday was the first day of school. I got really lucky. My town/city is manageable and reasonably priced and my school is small and brand new. They moved into the building in January, which means everything is still shiny and bright. They don’t have many decorations up on the wall, but everything works and they have supplies. The other awesome thing is that our classes are small! My first grade class has only ten students in it. Some grades have 13 or 15. The fifth grade has two classes of 15 or 19.
Monday was spent meeting people and walking around the school with David, our language coordinator. He’s young, probably in his late 20s, and speaks English well (for the most part). He teaches 2nd grade homeroom along with 5th and 6th grade English. We met some students who were confused to see strangers wandering around their school. Most of the students could barely speak English, which was not surprising. We’re not supposed to speak to them in Spanish, but they all know that we speak Spanish and understand when they ask us things.
Monday afternoon, we moved into the apartment. We immediately went out to the dollar store (or the China store as we have come to call it). We bought things for our kitchen, which was pretty well stocked but lacked Tupperware and knives. We also did a huge grocery-shopping run and bought tons of fruits and veggies. It was nice to finally have a kitchen again so we could stop eating out all the time. Monday night we unpacked. This was probably the best part about having an apartment; we could unpack our clothing and discover what we had. Living out of a suitcase was starting to bother me.
Tuesday, Erin (roommate and other girl teaching at my school) and I went to school and met with David again. We introduced ourselves to a few more classes and assisted him in the 6th grade English class. We made circles and talked to students about clothing and colors. It was fun even though most of the students were bouncing off the walls and misbehaving.
Wednesday was the first day Erin and I split up and followed our own schedules. I had a “coordinación” period with the younger-grades science teacher where we planned our class for later on in the week and practiced English. Then I had 2nd grade English with Ana, who is possibly the best teacher at the school. It’s only her 2nd year teaching, but she knows how to handle the kids perfectly and she is excellent at maintaining control of the classroom. After that, I went with David to 5th grade, which is probably the worst part of my schedule because they are horribly behaved and it’s frustrating to try to teach them.
Wednesday evening, Erin and I went to Ana’s apartment to celebrate her birthday with the rest of the teachers. She’s only 24, which is cool because we can hang out and stuff. Her apartment was amazing. The views of the mountains were spectacular. We had actually looked at a place on the other side of the block from it, but decided against it. She has 4 balconies, an electric stove and a nearly-American-sized refrigerator (ours is miniature). Her décor is also a little more modern than ours. The other teachers bought her a purse, which she already began using. At the party we snacked on gummy candies and she served disgusting cake. The sponge cake part was soaked in some kind of sour liquid. The chocolate top was really good and the whipped cream around the cake was gross. Everyone else loved it. The teachers also played karaoke (some Play Station version) which was hilarious. The game actually keeps score and I kicked David’s ass. The song was Baila Morena; it’s in Spanglish so it was completely fair.
Thursday we found out that we have to get all of our paperwork together and go to Córdoba Friday so we can get our residency permits. Actually, we just have to bring some papers to an office there and the woman in charge of English assistants will bring our papers for us. Then we have to go back to Cordoba when the police department calls us to pick up the residency cards. It’s a pain in the ass because we were planning on going to Málaga (a city on the beach) this weekend. It’s a long weekend and we don’t want to stay in Priego because everything will be closed on Sunday and Monday. So, we’re changing our plans and going to Córdoba. I’ve been dying to go there for a few years, so I’m happy we’re finally going. It also means we get a day off from school (aka I miss my 5th grade classes!).
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