So as you all know, this is my second time in Madrid! I am so lucky I get to live in this beautiful and lovely city again.
I arrived on Wednesday morning (now a week ago!) at 9:30 local time after a long day of traveling! My flight was at 9am from Chicago to London, and I had a seven hour, overnight layover in Heathrow. I was exhausted! There were tons of other people doing the same thing as me, though I didn't actually end up sleeping! I was worried about all of my stuff. Luckily, I had Bridesmaids and When Harry Met Sally to keep me entertained.
Traveling note- if anyone ever brings a jar of peanut butter as a safety net while they travel- this might be scanned as a liquid! At security in London, my entire backpack (perfectly-packed up to that point, I might add) was taken apart. Thankfully, I was allowed to keep my peanut butter (a rare find in Spain, and when it is found, it costs around 8 euros for a small jar).
Anyway, once I was finally allowed in my hostel (I had to wait about 2 hours to check in), I met up with another auxiliar with who I am sharing a room! We met with another girl in Casa de Campo, a huge park in Madrid, and walked around a bit, then had a drink at the lake!
We finished the night off by going for tapas in Lavapiés, a really cultural neighborhood in Madrid. We had tinto de verano- which is more or less wine with soda or juice added in- and croquetas, salchichas, and berenjenas.
So the rest of my week was pretty crazy! The most stressful part during the first few days by far is the piso hunt. This is, of course, looking for a room in an apartment to call my own for the next 10 months. It is really competitive and rooms go really quickly! I had to search multiple sites, call and text landlords, and run around Madrid looking for these random places. Not to mention the always-fun WiFi search, where I would take my computer around so that I would hopefully connect to WiFi in between viewings, usually at the price of at least one Starbucks coffee every 45 minutes (really, only 45 minutes of free WiFi).
The first few days of being here were pretty much all apartment hunting, tapas, and sangria. I finally found a place on Monday and moved in on Tuesday! It is simple and cute and in a nice area.
The other highlight of my week was my friend, Livia, getting to Madrid! She arrived Sunday morning and we reminisced for the past 3 days. As she is teaching English in Lugo, which is in Galicia in Northern Spain, we did a few of our favorite things here (revolving around eating aka Cien Montaditos, which I will explain at a later date). On Monday we visited our old program coordinator (from when we studied here in 2012) and Livia helped me move into my new apartment!
Now for the reason I'm here---
So it seems like I have nothing to do in Spain (partially true), but I have been working on getting prepared for my position! On Friday morning, I went to the school I will be teaching at with another auxiliar. It is a really big school, and the bilingual program is in first through sixth grade. At then end of second, fourth, and sixth grades, the students are required to take Cambridge exams that test their level of English. This will be a huge part of our job, I think. We met the bilingual program coordinators and some teachers, and even had the opportunity to meet two of the classes! Everyone seems really nice and helpful. I'm looking forward to a great year. Our first day is on Tuesday!
While I am here, I am hoping to teach private English classes. There is actually a pretty big demand for them in Madrid. Because we are only committed to working in the school for 16 hours per week, we have plenty of time during the day to do other things! I have a couple of resources to search for classes on, so hopefully it works out.
I had orientation for my program on Tuesday. Much of it was read directly from the handbook, but we need to apply for a TIE card, which is a residency card for the year we are studying here (this program is a grant and we are technically considered students), so that information was helpful.
Anyway, it is about 9:30 here now, so I am starting to think about dinner! Things were kind of crazy this past week with the apartment search, but now that I am more settled, I should be able to become a master blogger.
Please comment or email me! I would love to hear from everyone! :)
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