These past three months have been filled with incredible experiences. Weekend trips to a village on the Spanish/Portuguese border, weekends spent exploring the city/region with friends, time spent at school and giving private lessons have kept me busy, so here are some of the highlights.

One of the highlights of these past few months has been watching the Spain/Germany soccer match at Balaidos stadium in November.

                                                      Running into friends at half time :)

                                 Fiesta de castañas y setas en el sur de Galicia.

                                                                Grilling Chestnuts

                                                                  Lago de Sanabria

Exploring Parque de Castrelos in Vigo

                                                    Thanksgiving dinner (esta de carallo)

   "It's very traditional for Americans to throw broccoli in people's mouths on Thanksgiving" -James

                                                                 Yay for Breakfast.

Random poems in bottle caps  from strangers.

(Castañas) Grilled Chesnuts - aka my favorite food. 

 Churrasco (ribs) Cooked over a fire and enjoyed with friends and typical liquors of the region.

                                                          Chaves, Portugal (bagpipes)

 I crossed this river in Chaves, Portugal, and almost fell into the water because the rocks were unstable. I obviously haven't changed.

 Castle in Portugal

                          Hiking the Ruta del Contrabando either in South of Galicia or Portugal

                                           

                       

Teaching

     I have just finished my seventh week of teaching at CPI de Panxón. I teach 14 hours at the school and also help out at lunch by cutting food for the little kids and basically telling them to eat more. I also teach 11 hours of private English classes in Vigo, the city where I live. I am also very lucky because I teach in the region of Galicia, and it is one of the most well-organized regions. I received my first paycheck at the end October, but many language assistants who work in the other regions of Spain are not as lucky and will have to wait until December or January to be paid.

    The first week was difficult because I was second guessing everything I did. Because I have taken Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Russian classes, I know what works/what the students like in terms of language learning, so obviously I want to be a good teacher. By the second week, I was feeling more confident and after seven weeks of teaching I am teaching 25 hours in total and enjoy planning lessons for classes as well as for individual students. I teach seven classes composed of students from 11-16 years old and I take four or five students out of class each week and we often play board games designed for ESL students. I just finished teaching a group of 15 year olds who had an excellent level of English, they never spoke in Spanish and were very interested in the game. I love it when the students are interested in English because it is more fun for me when we can do an activity, as well as have side conversations. But the students before that class were a different story, I had to remind them every minute to speak English... I always tell the students to speak English the whole time even if they are embarrassed because from what I have learned, making mistakes and being corrected is the only way to learn a language. Because once the students have the ability to speak they can take the learning into their own hands by delving deeper into the language by asking meaningful questions.

     I also assist in 9 music and art classes. I learn so much in music class, because I have forgotten everything I learned about reading music and the names of the notes. This is great because by assisting in this class I am learning the vocabulary in Spanish and English (and sometimes Galician) at the same time. I enjoy the art classes but sometimes the children say my name 100 times during class, which gets annoying. But I can't complain because when they finish an activity they usually spend their free time to draw me a picture.

                                A halloween project I did with the six and seven years old.

I enjoy my private classes because I get to base the activities around the likes of each individual. I have one student who is moving to New York next year and last class we figured out her Starbucks order (a latte with a double shot of espresso seems to be the closest order to a cafe con leche) we also talked about Sunday Brunch and other typical things in the United States. I teach a group lesson on Fridays and we play games. I also teach a 14 year old girl with a very high level of English and I bring songs for her and we translate the songs, as well as discuss the vocabulary, phrases and meanings of the songs. I am planning on staying in Galicia over the summer, so that I can enjoy the nice temperate weather, the beach, the many fiestas, and take advantage of the fact that I am in Europe and travel to another country. The fact that I am teaching many private lessons will allow me to enjoy the summer without having to work as much.

    I am at the school from 9-3:30 everyday and because I only teach 14 hours a week I have many breaks so I am a regular at several cafés where I spend my time reading, writing or lesson planning. I enjoy getting to know the people who come into the bar. I have a 3 hour break on Fridays so I bring my laptop (so I can blog and lesson plan). A funny older Galician man told me (in Galego) that I was beautiful and wants to set me up with his grandson, this town is full of characters....

     I am so happy that my first job out of college is that of an English conversation teacher/ Cultural Ambassador, because I learn so much in school, during my private lessons, and during my free time. I am also lucky because the nicest teacher drives me to and from school everyday (because we both live in Vigo) and the village of Panxón is 20 minutes away. She teaches the Galician language and she is always teaching me knew words and always tells me about the different festivals that are occurring around Galicia. I also love my job because the beach is a downhill 3 minute walk from the school.

Playa de Patos, Celta de Vigo, and other adventures

     On Thursday, October 2nd I Went to the beach after school ended. My friends wanted to go surfing, so we went to Patos, which is a two minute drive from Panxón, the city where I work. One of the teachers dropped me off at the beach and I spent the afternoon with everyone, while we watched the dolphins in the distance, so picturesque, right? I then ate tapas with my friend from the United States and everyone was looking at us funny. When I was in line for the bathroom, one of the waiters saw me outside and asked where I was from. He then said "Oh welcome to Spain I'm from Venezuela" and my friend jokingly said that I should be the one welcoming him to Spain because I have been here longer than he has.

     We then went to the fancier area of Vigo to have a drink, this area is called Arenal, I enjoy going there because the crowd is older (which means that I don't run into my 16 year old students.)We then went to a street called churruca (known for cheap drinks) and I ran into some of the other foreigners. My friend left so at around 3 in the morning I went to the apartment of a friend of a friend and we then proceeded to meet other friends at the bars.

    On Sunday I walked 10 kilometers with my friend. The event was a solidarity march for people with disabilities. It was a sunny day and it was nice to walk around the city with people who care about the rights of minority groups. The mayor of Vigo spoke and said, "Esta marcha es un grito de la ciudad que esta gente tiene los mismos derechos que nosotros, sin discusión"

    After the march several of my friends came over because we had tickets to see a Celta soccer match. We brought beer to the game because I asked my friend who always tailgates at the games. He told me that we should bring beer because everyone tailgates together. When we arrived there were police everywhere and of course I was terrified to take the beer out of the bag. After five long minutes I saw some people drinking and asked them if I would get in trouble if I also drank and they said "of course not.  So in true galician fashion we opened up some Estrellas and joined the crowd.

A normal friday

I will post photos later, the uploader isn't working.



 I wake up at around 7:30 in the morning and around 8:20 I walk to the bus stop where one of the teachers picks me up. I love riding to school with this teacher because she is so nice! She also is the Galician Language teacher, so she obviously knows a lot about the language, literature and history. We listen to the radio in Galician. I would like to stay in Galicia for at least 2 years and I think by the time I will be conversational in both Gallego and Portuguese.

    I am with the older kids on Friday, so my co teacher sends 3 or 4 students to practice speaking English with me. After doing this for 8 days I think I could have a conversation with a rock. Trying to get shy 12-16 year olds to speak English and answer my questions isn't the easiest activity. Because my contract is for around 13.5 hours a week I have many breaks during the day, so I go to a local cafe. The owners are very nice and wanted me to give them English lessons, but their time preference does not fit into my schedule, so I just speak English with them whenever they aren't super busy. I teach in a town where the primary language is Gallego, so I am constantly surrounded by the beautiful rhythmic language. 

     At 2, I go to the dining hall to help with lunch. I bring food to the kids as well as tell them to eat more and cut the food if necessary. The kids are so funny and always tell me about the 6-10 year old gossip. I then eat with the other teachers at around 2:45.

     One of the teachers at my school asked me if I could teach his son English, so every Friday I will go there and teach a group lesson with the boy and some of his other 11 year old friends.The mom is from Senegal and she was preparing a dinner, because they have a group of friends who have a big dinner together every month or so. She invited me and of course I said I would go! When I arrived they gave me a Senagalese style dress. We ate some kind of delicious meat, rice and yuca, while we drank Galician beer, Portuguese wine, Irish coffee and gin and tonic, so by 2 a.m., when everyone was leaving I was set for the night. I had plans to meet my friends near the port to have a drink and then go to the discoteca. The family I was eating with also have a 23 year old son, so he went with me to help find my friends, but he ended up staying with us until 6 a.m., obviously because my friends who have become my family are amazing :)))

      We left the discoteca at 5 a.m. and usually I walk the 35 minutes back to my apartment, because it is very safe and there are so many people out and about, but my friend was wearing heels so we decided to take the bus. We waited for over an hour because the bus we wanted to take never came, so we took the longer route. When we were finally on the bus, I was ignoring someone who was speaking to me in incoherent English. I absolutely hate it when people I do not know speak English to me out of nowhere, because by this time I am almost completely fluent in Spanish and it makes me feel uncomfortable when I'm singled out like that. As it turns out the poor kid wasn't crazy he just had too much to drink and thought that he was in London (because they had just arrived to Vigo after a trip to London) his girlfriend apologized to me and then we became friends with everyone else on the bus, because it was around a 20 minutes ride. I had a drink with both of them today and had a fantastic time. Friends you make on the 6 a.m. bus are friends for life.

Las Islas Cíes and surfing

     I went to one of the most beautiful places, located off the coast of Vigo during my third day (and first Saturday) in Vigo. A girl from Argentina posted on the Facebook group for international students that she was going to the Cíees Islands and wanted to know if anyone else wanted to go.  Because it was only my third day in Vigo, I left my house one hour and a half before the boat left to allow myself time to get lost... I took a bus to the port area and went to the cruise ship entrance to ask someone where I should go in order to buy tickets to go to the islands. The Guardia Civil then joked with his friends and asked me "quieres ir a las Cíees conmigo" He was obviously joking but it was still funny. I took the ferry to las islas Cíees with people from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Germany.

    We spent the day hiking around the beautiful island and enjoying some coffees while waiting for the ferry to take us back to Vigo. We hiked to two lighthouses, relaxed on the beach and had long talks on the rocks near the ocean. I am so thankful for that trip because I often hang out with the friends I made on that trip.