A Normal Day in my Spanish Life

 

Let me start out by saying, that I am indeed still alive.

I wanted to give you all a break down on what a normal (or as close to normal as it gets) day in my life looks like.

So for those of you who don’t know, I’m in Spain to teach (American) English and about American culture (whatever that is). I’m contracted to work a whooping 16 hours a week, which breaks down to 4 hours a day, 4 days a week, leaving me with a 3 day weekend. Don’t worry, we have plenty of breaks and holidays, so I’m never working too hard.

Monday through Thursday I normally wake up about 6:30am, read the papers (online of course), maybe watch a TV show from the other day, have a little breakfast, get ready, and am out the door by 7:40am. Everyday I take the Metro, which always lends itself to providing me some unique experience that forever changes my view on society, and my trip is about 30 minutes to either of my schools. By the time I walk to the building, it’s about 8:15am and I’m generally one of the first teachers to arrive for our 8:30am start time. The 8:30 classes always start late, normally the teacher shows up about 8:40, so this gives me plenty of time to prepare for the day.

At Juana de Castilla, my Monday and Tuesday school, I teach four gym classes, two technology/woodshop classes, one social studies classes, and one biology class, with ages ranging from my first ESO (12 years old) to second ESO (13 years old). All of these classes are taught in English, since Juana de Castilla has a bilingual program. In addition to these classes, all the classes are taught in English with the exception of Spanish (of course), literature, and math. Normally I work here until 2pm, which includes many hours of breaks.

I work at my other school, Las Musas on Wednesday and Thursdays. Las Musas is a non-bilingual school, so I only teach English classes. In Spanish non-bilingual schools, English is compulsory and all students have to have 5 hours a week. With the majority of my classes, I’ll take two groups of 2-3 students down to the library, over the course of a class period, and we’ll just talk. I introduce them to new words or concepts, and also teach them a little bit about American culture. For example, to illustrate typical American food and portion sizes, I showed them this clip:

I actually explained how this clip illustrates a false American stereotype, and told them why Paula Deen is one of the worst things to happen to American culture.

At Las Musas, I tend to teach older kids, from 13-18, and with varying levels of English; some classes we just talk about conversation skills, other classes we talk about American politics, literature, and news articles. I end at this school about 1pm everyday.

After work, I head home and do lunch with a siesta. Normally I don’t nap for my siesta, but I use the next hour or two to just kind of relax, read my kindle, watch a TV program, update my blog, etc. After siesta, I start preparing for tomorrow classes, go grocery shopping, apply to law schools, and any other not so fun stuff I have to do. About 9-10pm, I’ll have dinner (9 is considered a little early for Madrid dinner but I haven’t quite gotten used to eating so late) and I try to cook about 4 times a week and go out for dinner once a week, to save my money.

During the weekends I like to travel (I’m leaving for Barcelona tomorrow after work!), cook larger meals, hang out with friends, and try to enjoy the Madrid nightlife (read morning life since the last few times we wound up being out until about 4am).

I hope you enjoyed my little snapshot of my life in Madrid, be on the lookout for more regular posts. In addition, I’ll be adding some pictures that I’ve taken over my time in Spain.

First Week in Madrid

It has been a whirlwind of a week here in Madrid; from getting off the plane 8 days ago, to finding a piso (room in an apartment), to making new friends, cooking abroad for the first time, exploring the city that is my new home for the next 9 months, and successfully finding a way to watch the Wolverines beat their opponents.
I can only imagine it’ll get crazier once I start working.

Bank of Spain

I should begin work on Monday, but a few issues are complicating that. First, my lack of a schedule. I called both my schools on Thursday and Friday, IES Juana de Castilla said that I’ll be getting my schedule over the weekend, and the secretary at IES Las Musas said the principal would call me back in an hour, well that never happened. Regardless, I’m showing up to one of the schools on Monday, whether they like it or not.

IES Juana de Castilla

IES Las Musas

The second factor complicating the start of work is the an ongoing strike in secondary education. Spain is suffering a horrible economic recession, and in an effort to cut spending, the provincial government of Madrid has asked teachers to work 2 hours more per week, without an increase in pay. While this doesn’t seem like much, it means more students per week, less teachers (they are firing teachers too), and less qualified teachers (the government is firing the more expensive, qualified teachers).

Striking at Juana de Castilla

The first sign says “it isn’t two hours more, it’s 3000 less jobs/workers” and the second sign says “it isn’t two hours more, it’s an attack on public education and a benefit to private education”. It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out.

Today I’m going to a Spanish barbeque hosted by Felipe’s friend, so it should be an interesting day. Expect more posts during the week in the future, once I have a more definitive schedule the posts should improve in both quality and quantity. I’m also adding some pictures to previous posts, so take a look for some updates.