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.

CPI de Panxón

    I started my job today at CPI de Panxón, a public school located 20 minutes outside of Vigo. I am an "auxiliar de conversación" which means I assist with the teaching of different subjects. I am only supposed to work 12 hours a week, but I agreed to teach an extra 1.5 hours so that I can teach all of the students. I will teach 16 classes a week, encompassing all the age groups. The school is for children ages 6-16. I am not exaggerating when I say that I teach in a castle overlooking the ocean. I can't wait to explore this town on Friday when I have a few extra hours to spend in-between classes.

     I met one of the English teachers in the Plaza near where I live at 8:30. I will go to school with this teacher everyday, regardless of when I start because I can always use my breaks to lesson plan or walk around the town. When I arrived to school all the teachers were so welcoming and all of them offered to show me around, meanwhile going above and beyond to make me feel comfortable. I received an outline of my schedule and from my understanding I will be at the school until 3:15 everyday because I volunteered to help with lunch. At 2:00 the primary school children eat lunch. Along with  five other teachers, I  help the younger children cut their food, plate their food, and pick up their plates when they are finished. When the primary students finish eating the secondary students come to eat and during that time I sit with the other teachers to eat lunch. The food at this school is amazing! The first plate was a garbanzo bean soup and the second plate was a salad with fresh fish, and for dessert a generous slice of melon. I will definitely learn a decent amount Gallego (the regional language) this year because the teachers speak Gallego at lunch. After lunch I ran to the bus because I have been babysitting around 11 hours a week for the past two weeks for an amazing family.


    The first class I taught was art class for the six year old children. It is a good thing I know Spanish because I basically translated everything the head teacher said into English. The kids are currently drawing pictures of farms and anything dealing with agriculture. I am supposed to speak in English during class, but these kids hardly know the colors, so I walked around pointing to the apples, strawberries and potatoes they drew and would teach them a word or two. The children spoke to me in Spanish, so I responded to them in English and because they didn't understand I spoke to them in Spanish. At the end of class at least five of the kids ran up to me, asking if I would be their friend, of course I said yes! The little ones then proceeded to show me all of their toys and told me how much they liked me, it is so easy to win over the little ones, as for the older children........

    I then went to assist the English teacher who will drive me to school everyday. I taught her 14 and 15 year old students, as well as the 16 and 17 year olds. She is a fantastic teacher because in Spain the curriculum is very grammar focused and normally students have trouble understanding and speaking. This teacher is fluent in English and follows the curriculum, as well as asks them interesting questions in order to encourage their oral and speaking skills.

    I am definitely more busy than expected but I don't mind at all. I will work from 9-7 three days a week (because I babysit after school tuesday, wednesday, and thursday)  and from 9-3 two days a week.  I was planning on taking Portuguese classes three times a week because I live less than 20 miles from the border, but I now realize that I will not have the time. I like meeting my friends at the bar every night to have a drink because it is part of the culture, I would not be happy if I couldn't see my friends and enjoy everyday life. Furthermore, in Vigo I can buy a beer for 1.50 and the waiters bring enough tapas to be considered dinner, so obviously going to the bar is the most economical option.