Friday, October 26, 2012

Home Sweet Home – Hogar Dulce Hogar

For those of you that don’t have it yet… here’s my address!

Calle de Alfonso XII, 19, 3-C
28014, Madrid, Spain

Before leaving for Spain, one of my top priorities was finding a place to live as soon as I got here. With only a list of phone numbers and names of apartments in my notebook, I was a bit weary of not finding anything for a while. I created an account on Idealista, a site for searching and saving apartments up for rent in Spain. I could search by the area of Madrid and size of the apartment (called piso here). It was so helpful!

After getting my Spanish phone number/sim card my second day in Madrid, I started calling the numbers on my list. It was interesting… not used to the accent here in Madrid (very different than Spanish spoken in Mexico), so I had a hard time understanding. I met up with a few other girls in the Fulbright program that wanted to look for apartments together. Kim (now my current roommate) had arrived in Madrid a few days before me. She already had a long list of appointments for the day luckily! We were looking in the same area, Atocha, because it’s near the main train station called Atocha-Renfe. Jamie (my other roommate) was also looking in this area because all three of us had to take trains to our schools south of the city. Atocha is in the city center but in the southern part of it. There was a big group of us all looking at apartments together, but when we found our place we decided the three of us would get it because the others worked more north or west in the city, so living in other areas would be best for them.

We lucked out finding a place on me & Jamie’s first day apartment-searching (Jamie had arrived on her plane only hours before)! Kim had spent the day before looking at places and said they were all very strange… so we didn’t have the highest hopes on our first day, but it went better than expected! The first place we saw was awful… it was a Spanish guy’s apartment with all sorts of weird decorations and things around. One bedroom had a chandelier that looked like giant, creepy paperclips all bent around each other. We were a bit discouraged but kept on. The second place we considered. It had a nice entry and courtyard. The apartment was okay, just very old. The bathroom was teeny-tiny. There was just a toilet that barely worked and a shower you could stand in but not really move about. The rooms were decent in size but with a tiny bathroom, no oven, and an electric stove we had to think about it.

Then… we had the appointment for the apartment we have now! The second we walked in we knew it was what we were looking for. It has an entry hallway, kitchen on the left side, and then a decent-sized living room area.

On the left of the living room are two rooms (now me & Jamie’s) and on the right side another room (now Kim’s) and the bathroom. There’s only one bathroom, but it’s long and has hooks on the walls and shelves along the other side for all our things. We each have our own shelf and another couple shelves for things like the blow dryer and soap. The hot water didn’t work for our first month… it was as cold as ice and showers were awful. We got it fixed now though!!


Each bedroom has pros and cons and we each decided on what we wanted most. Kim’s room has the most floor space, a chandelier, and the nicest closet. Jamie’s room has a giant wall-length closet. My room has the biggest bed but less floor space, a smaller desk, and a smaller closet. I decided the bigger bed was worth it though for when people come to visit. I also liked the flower photos on the walls and mirror above my desk! I took a whole Sunday afternoon decorating the wall next to my bed with photos from home. I made the word “LOVE” out of photos with a heart underneath. I was going to write “AMOR” (love in Spanish), but the “M” and “R” were too wide to fit on my wall. Oh well this works and reminds me of home all the time <3


Okay so the kitchen is tiny, but it has all the essentials I couldn’t live without! Because my independent study project while I’m here is studying Spanish and European cuisine, there were certain things I needed to be able to cook everything. Most importantly our apartment has an oven! Many apartments here don’t sadly. And we also have a gas stove, which is awesome since most are electric and I prefer gas. We have a neat drying rack over our sink too. It looks like a cabinet, but when you open it up it has racks to dry the dishes! And the water just drips into the sink while they dry. Dishwashers aren’t common here, and dryers for clothes are almost non-existent. We hang all our clothes on the line – the old-fashioned way!


We almost immediately decided on the apartment and signed a contract that night! We met a couple of days later to write up an official lease and pay the deposit and utilities for the year up front. Then we were handed the keys – such an exciting moment!

With our landlady, Marie José, the night we signed the lease!
Since moving in we’ve been making our piso more and more like home. After orientation we took trips to Al Campo (similar to Walmart) and Ikea. Each trip took a whole afternoon since they’re a bit far, but it was worth it! We bought organization supplies for our rooms, sheets, pillows, comforters, décor, kitchen & cleaning supplies, and much more! We made trips to the grocery store, and as of the last couple weeks we finally have a fully stocked kitchen! It’s great to feel like I have a “temporary home” for the next months. Always good to be home at the end of a long day J

Our mailbox (buzón) now has our names on it - we were so excited for our first mail!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

So... I'm a teacher now!!



In just a few months I´ve gone from being pretty much a lifelong student to a teacher! It seemed surreal my first couple weeks. When did I get the permission to teach classes of 30+ kids? And multiple classes a day! Well here I get the chance…

I was nervous my first couple weeks here to say the least. I spent my first week at Fulbright orientation and moving into my apartment. Then it was time for my meeting with the other two English Teaching Assistants and our coordinator. I had no idea what to expect. My school was so much farther away than most other Fulbrighters, would it be much different than central Madrid? I gave myself plenty of time to get to the town. I took a train from Atocha (right next to my apartment luckily) and arrived about 40 minutes later in Ciempozuelos. With the navigation on my phone I followed the roads up to the address I´d been given for the school. Google maps had told me originally that it was about a 20-minute walk... well after about 25 and still another 5 or 10 minutes to go I was getting worried! Then I ended up there - navigation saying: "you´ve now arrived at your destination". And what do I see? A run-down building with no one there except two construction workers. Hopeless I ask them where Instituto Francisco Umbral is... they look at me confused and say it´s another 15-minute walk up a couple roads headed northeast. At this point I´m panicking. My appointment starts in just minutes. I call my coordinator who gives me directions down a road completely different than the workers had told me. Seems I had been given the wrong address on my original Fulbright paperwork… I can´t find the new street name on my phone. And after wandering around in circles for another 5 minutes the construction workers pull up in their truck and ask if I need some more help. They offer me a ride to the school... and at this point I wasn´t sure what else to do! Mom, you would likely kill me for this. But yes, I agreed and got in the truck. And luckily it proved to be a good decision! After driving for about 5 minutes we arrived at the school. It would have taken me ages to walk to on my own. I arrived about 10 minutes late to the meeting and was not greeted too happily. I guess my coordinator had somewhere to be in about a half hour... whoops! At least I made it and got the information I needed! I walked back to the train station with the other two TAs, Feargal (from Ireland) and Angela (from New York), and they showed me the right way to the station. Never will I do that again!

Where I teach - Instituto Francisco Umbral in Ciempozuelos

About another week passed before we started teaching, which was great so that I had time to decorate the apartment, get situated, prepare for classes, etc. I received my final schedule at last and am very happy about it! Here’s a photo from my planner… I’ve written in my schedule with my classes, breaks, and teacher coordination times. Everything written in pencil on the sides is the train and bus times… it’s a bit confusing! Just now getting used to it and we’re already a few weeks in. I'm gone for about 8-9 hours per day total for work (other than private tutoring or other events of course).

My schedule/"horario de clases"


Being an assistant teacher, I’m assigned to a variety of classes. I teach 4 natural sciences classes, 5 technology classes, 5 art classes, and 2 English classes. So 16 hours of teaching plus 4 hours of coordination (1 with each teacher). I’m contracted for 20 hours per week in session, but I also spend several hours a week lesson planning and commuting. The commute is about 1.5 hours there, 1.5 hours back each day. Sometimes it can be just over an hour, depending on how long I have to wait for the train and/or buses. It’s a bit of a trek, so mornings are rough. But I’m getting used it! Little did I know that sleeping until 7 would be “sleeping in” now. The days I get up at 6 are the hardest!

My classes are good though; I’ve learned so much about teaching already! I teach 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years at a secondary school (middle school/high school here in Spain). 1st years are 12-13 years old, 2nd years are 13-14 years old, and 3rd years are 14-15 years old. Mandatory secondary schooling finishes after 4 years (at about 16 years old), and the last two years is called bachillerato. This is only necessary if the student plans to go on to university.


I have only A, B, or C classes, which is great. The Spanish school system is set up differently than in the U.S. Kids are organized by how well they do in school/how much English they know. At my Instituto, A-level students are sección students, meaning they passed the exam to let them into the completely bilingual program. These classes are smaller; one of them only has 13 students. All other students (B, C, D, E, & F) are programa students. B and C classes know some English and many of them try to be good students, however, the class sizes are much larger (30+), so those classes are harder to handle. D, E, & F classes are tough. Some of the kids don’t want to be at school and they don’t know much English at all, making it difficult for English teaching assistants. Luckily I wasn’t assigned to any of these classes… but I hear many stories from Feargal and Angela (the other TAs). I think it helps to have the best students in classes with other students that do well at school because it encourages them to strive for even better. However, for the students that don’t do as well in class I think it is tough for them to aim for better when they’re surrounded by others who distract and struggle through. I don’t think it’s quite fair to them. But like anything, it has its advantages and disadvantages compared to our system in the U.S. Viewing it from the teacher point of view for the first time, instead of the student view, has given me a whole new perspective.

My classes are all very different. In the science classes I either help or lead the class, depending on the lesson. For example, in the lab I assistant the teacher (Mercedes) or take half the class and lead the experiment. In lecture classes I may lead half the class session with an activity or lesson, or take over a full class session, depending on the day. Sometimes I get to do a PowerPoint if we have access to the audiovisual room for the class; otherwise the classrooms only have chalkboards. A picture of me with my smallest class, 1A, after a presentation on phases of the moon and eclipses is shown below.

My 1A Natural Sciences class after a PowerPoint presentation
In the art classes the curriculum is already set, so I don’t come up with my own lessons unless it’s for a special holiday, such as Halloween (picture shown below of the pumpkins I taught the kids how to make today). The art classes are more of technical drawing classes. The students use compasses, rulers, triangles, etc. and learn about geometry and drawing lines, shapes, tangents, and much more. It’s a lot different from the classes I was accustomed to in high school, so it took me a couple weeks to learn what to do. But now I’m able to assist and help out the students as much as I can! It’s neat to see the artwork and designs the students come up with. I have either 1st year or 3rd year art classes.

We decorated the classroom with the mini cardstock pumpkins!
I only have two English classes – 1B and 3A. For these classes I come up with a full lesson plan for each class period. The curriculum is completely different for 1B versus 3A, so each lesson plan varies significantly. The teacher, Paz, (also the director of the bilingual program and therefore my advisor) is in the classroom while I teach but is only there to assist and translate when necessary. So these classes give me the full opportunity to write my own lessons, manage complete classes, and get the comprehensive teaching experience. It can be tough coming up with lessons that will engage the class and take up the whole time period, but it’s great to come up with unique ideas and see how the kids learn from them and react. Each class I learn something that I can use in the future.

My technology classes are fun. They are in the computer rooms, so the classroom setup and atmosphere is different. We only have 15 computers, so it’s difficult with the classes of 33 or 34 because the kids have to share. Somehow it works out! The 1st year students are learning the basics, like making tables in Microsoft Word, creating and saving files, and learning PowerPoint. The 3rd years are learning the basics of computer-animated drafting programs and engineering programs like QCAD, CAD, etc. This was tough getting used to at first since I’ve never been taught the programs, but being that I studied graphic design the basics came pretty easily to me. Virginia, the teacher I work with, is great. It is her first year at the school as well, so we help each other out as much as we can!

So far it’s been great teaching. Because it’s my first time as a teacher, it takes a lot out of me. I’m not used to being on my feet all day, working with kids, the long commute, etc. Over the coming weeks I feel I am going to get used to it though, it’s already gotten more manageable. Preparing lessons over the weekends really helps so I don’t feel too stressed on the weekdays. I really enjoy helping kids learn and making it as fun for them as possible. I’m finally getting used to being called “teacher” or “profe” (short for profesora) all day! Sometimes they use my name... but usually it’s “teacher, teacher!” all day long… It’s a neat feeling though that the kids look up to me. I’m seen almost as a “celebrity” at school because I’m from California. I find it funny the kids idolize my state so much. They get excited to hear and learn about where I come from, my family, my schooling, etc. Some of the girls in the younger classes love to ask me all sorts of funny questions after class. A girl in the 2A class asked me last week if grocery store shopping was the same in California as it is in Spain. She had all sorts of questions about it! I explained it to her and she seemed thrilled, not that there’s much of a difference. But hey, if I can make her day – awesome! Another neat moment was when I was walking to school one morning and a 12-year old girl from my 1A class, Elena, came up to me with her group of friends and walked the rest of the way with me. She talked for a while, and as we were arriving at school told me that she practices English at home by herself even though no one in her family knows much of any. She said that her dream is to become an English teacher like me; it was such a sweet feeling knowing that she aspires to do good and wants to teach too!