First real week: work, move-in, and more!!
Updated: Oct 17, 2023
This week has truly been jam-packed between starting my teaching job, moving out of our Air BnB, moving into our new apartment, furnishing said apartment (not fully done yet), and checking off still more boxes so we can be official residents here. Having a routine with work and fully unpacking my bags has made Motril feel more like a home but I definitely still have some adjusting/settling to do.
However, the highlight of my week, and the best part of my days, has been meeting my students! I am working at a public primary school, Colegio Virgen de la Cabeza, and until February, I am teaching 4th through 6th grade science. The kids are so full of energy and want to know absolutely everything they can about me, the US, why I'm here, and if I like their city. Their curiosity is so adorable and seeing the lightbulbs go off around the room when they translate what I've said, is a contagious feeling. I thought I would like being an auxiliar de conversación, but I was woefully unprepared for how rewarding I find this job.
Monday was my official first day as an English language teaching assistant and I got to school a bit early to take care of some paperwork with the secretary. We had met on Friday (I cannot remember his name for the life of my but I will be asking him again next week) and so he was a friendly, familiar face on my first day! He gave me a key card that I will use to scan in and out to track my hours. He then reviewed my schedule with me, giving me pointers as to where the different rooms are, and escorted me to my first class.
I spent the morning giving a "Get to Know Me" powerpoint presentation to two classes of 5th graders and waiting patiently as they got the courage to start asking me questions. The two slides that get the biggest reaction from the students were of me playing soccer and of our dog Reina. Some of the funnier questions I got included: What is your favorite brand of car? Do you like Real Madrid or Barca better (they want me to pick a side because they class is always split)? Do you have a boyfriend? Who is your favorite Marvel character? Are you a Tik Toker? Do you have Tik Tok? Do you like Tik Tok? (SO much Tik Tok). And then the basics...What is your favorite color/food/animal/movie/book, etc?
After those classes, the teacher I am working closely with for 5th and some of 6th grade, Mariano, walked me to the teachers lounge for break. It was another teachers birthday so there was a type of chocolate filled dessert that they had me try. Unsurprisingly, it was delicious! I met a lot of new people during this 30 minute span and I cannot remember a lot of names, but everyone was so kind and welcoming. I talked for a while to one of the teachers for the younger students, Buse (a nickname from childhood that is short for "Buzz Lightyear"). He lives in Granada, the city where I studied abroad, and actually works with one of my housemates so we had lots to chat about!
I finished my first day giving the same presentation to two classes of 6th graders taught by my coordinator Ana. She gave a lovely introduction to the students before I began (in Spanish) talking about how I am far away from my home and family and how they must be my family until May and look after me. I was really touched by these words and it solidified my high opinion of the people working in my school.
After siesta I went to go set up the wifi contract for our new apartment. Although it took a lot longer than expected, I was able to fully rely on my Spanish and I felt very accomplished leaving the Wiber store. In celebration, and because it is HOT here still, I bought myself a cute, summery dress to wear to work!
Tuesday morning started early for me with a run through the park and on my way back, I caught the most beautiful sunrise. The sky was so pink and it gave a whimsical hue to the statues and church.
Since I only work 14 hours a week, Tuesday's are my short day where I leave directly after my first two classes. I was running a tiny bit late that morning but was promptly greeted with a huge hug and mini conversation with one of my students from the day before. She was one of the children especially excited that I am a "footballer" since it is also her favorite sport.
I again gave my presentation to two new classes of 6th graders before heading to the bank to finalize some things for my new account. I worked on organizing my papers for my Spanish green card appointment during siesta and Sophie and I moved some luggage over to our new place.
From our new place, I went for a very warm but nice walk while talking to Ada on the phone. When I lived in Granada, Ada and I would do weekly/biweekly language exchange walks and we've decided to continue that tradition! Unfortunately, instead of face-to-face we now talk from across the Mediterranean, but it still so good to catch up and get some conversation practice.
Sophie and I met up with the French conversation assistant at her school, Victoria, for tapas at a place we have seen bustling every time we walk by it. It was really nice to get to know Victoria as she is a second year and has some previous experience doing this job in Spain. However, we all shared a thing of mushrooms for dinner so Sophie and I stopped for dinner/dessert crepes on the way home.
On Wednesday morning, before heading to school, I finished moving the rest of my luggage over to the new apartment since our check-out was at 11 am that day. It was a little bit hectic, as moving always is, but I made it to school on time and without sweating too much. A win in Southern Spain this time of year.
My two morning classes were 6th graders I had already met so we moved on to a lesson about nutrition and the food pyramid/food wheel. I read from their textbook for them and we practiced their pronunciation of words like carbohydrates, proteins, sugar, fat, etc. We also made our own food pyramids and filled them with different examples of food. I really enjoyed this lesson and the students were so happy to participate!
At break I learned that it was Día de San Francisco and that naturally meant the table was full of churros, two types of cake, and other sweets. One of the teachers is named Paco (short for Francisco which is something I still find confusing) and so everyone was congratulating him on "his" day. In one of my afternoon classes, I had a student preform almost the entire dance to the Michael Jackson song "Billy Jean". He was fantastic and the whole class got so into it! It was awesome.
After work and siesta my roommates, Sophie, Liz, Lauren, and I went grocery shopping to fully stock our empty kitchen. We walked there but had to taxi home with the amount of stuff we got...
We had a very late-for-us-but-normal-for-Spain dinner before I quickly set up my bed and went to sleep. Our apartment is located right above a tapas bar and from my room you can clearly hear conversations from the patrons. However, I was so exhausted that this didn't bother me much or impede my sleep.
On Thursday morning one of the other language assistants, Skye, and I went for a little run/jog and got caught up on our new jobs and apartments. It was nice to explore a new part of the city with someone and have a running buddy again!
My work day started off with two new groups of 4th graders before break. This age is definitely harder to get to stay focused than the 6th graders and they resort to Spanish a lot more. At break there was more food once again. I'm not sure if this is a normal occurrence or if I just got lucky my first week. I tried a locally grown fig that was absolutely delightful and half a guava that was very good as well! Hoping for my fresh fruit at break in the future.
Thursday afternoon was spent trying to figure out how to pay the fee for our green card since we had our appointment later that evening. After some frustrating failures and a nap, Sophie and I finally got our barcodes to scan at the ATM so we could pay the tax. With the last part of the requirements done, we headed nervously (we had heard some horror stories with this process) to the local police station. Less than 10 minutes later we were back outside with a date to pick up our cards and smiles on our faces because everyone was so nice and the appointment went perfectly.
We got some celebratory gelato of course!
Loaded up on sugar, I decided to finally tackle cleaning, rearranging, and unpacking to get my room in living order. It took me a couple of hours but I definitely slept better knowing it was done.
Friday was a relaxed start to our three day weekend. We got some much needed house shopping done (I finally got a fan to drown out the noise from the bar!) and hung out until dinner. My housemates and I met up with the two other auxes in our town for some G&Ts and a good catch up session :)
On Saturday, Renne, Skye, Sophie and I took an afternoon bus to the neighboring beach city of Almuñécar. I had heard such great things about this oceanside town from Granada locals and was super excited to check it out! We spent the afternoon hours sunbathing and swimming. There was definitely a bit of surf but the water was the perfect temperature and I wanted to stay in forever.
After we had our fill of sand and salty water, we walked to a nearby restaurant and topped off the day with some drinks and a tapa. It was a lovely way to spend a Saturday and I am looking forward to spending many more weekends like this.
This morning, Sunday, Skye, Renne, and I headed to Torre del Mar for an Oktoberfest celebration! We had a lovely Spanish breakfast with the tastiest mango green tea and wandered around the touristy beach town. There were some live music and dance performances happening on the blocked off streets and we stopped to enjoy all there was to offer.
We had some delicious cocktails at a beach bar to start off the celebrations and continued with the more traditional cerveza and tinto de verano when we were back in the city. A few auxes from the surrounding area where also in Torre del Mar for Oktoberfest so we got to meet some new people and swap experiences from our time here so far.
I had such a great time enjoying all of what Spain has to offer today and this weekend and I am very much looking forward to what the rest of my stay has in store!
mucho gracias senoirita Papa
Pan con tomate 😍 quiero toda la comida