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Hello all,

As some of you might know, I had to cut my adventure short. As of now I am back in the States and doing well. Still trying to get my health issues sorted out, but I feel better being back home. Below is a post I made to Facebook a few days before leaving that kind of sums up what was going on. Now that I have better internet access, I'll post a link to some more pictures. 

-Jeremy (aka Yeremi)

Dear friends,

For those who have not yet heard, I am leaving Spain this Sunday (27 May) to return home to the States. I know this is quite sudden (I only finalized my decision this morning) and could come as a surprise, but I feel this decision is in my best interest.

The past month or so, I have been going to different doctors, clinics, and hospitals with stomach problems. Each medical professional made suggestions on what it might be but I have never received a definitive answer. Along with these stomach problems, my anxiety, something that plagued me in the past, has been increasing. For the last few weeks I have been suffering from bouts of anxiety, stomach pains, and the associated physical symptoms. After much consideration of my health, I think that it is best that I return home to hopefully improve my anxiety problems and therefore allowing my doctor to better treat my stomach problems.

That said, I can safely say that I will not have any regrets returning home now. With all certainty, I have accomplished everything that I set out to do, and then some. I remember my biggest fear coming to Spain was my Spanish abilities. Not to say that 4 years in high school and two in college didn't prepare me, but I vividly remember my first day in Madrid trying to tell my hostel's address to the taxi driver. In comparison, one of my proudest language moments in Spain occurred less than a month ago when I was able to successful talk to someone in Spanish on the telephone. While this might sound silly, I assure you this is not a feat to be laughed at. At this point, I definitely do not consider myself fluent, but I am extremely pleased with the progress I've made over the past 8 months.

Besides increasing my knowledge of Spanish, I was also nervous about how my work would proceed. Thankfully this went well. I have loved nearly every minute of working with my students and teachers in my schools. Thinking back to the first days and hearing my students speak now, I know that my work helped to improve their English skills. If nothing else, my students can now respond to my habitual question of "how are you guys?" without a puzzled look and some Spanish side discussion as to what I said. I've also enjoyed working with my other auxiliars. Kyle, Tremaine, Afeefa, Aaron, and Nat are some of the most patient and passionate people I have ever encountered.

Of course, I was also nervous about meeting new people in such a foreign environment (pun intended). Thus, I also want to acknowledge all the friends I have made in this experience. With all honesty, I would not have made it past the first week of Spain without all of you. I would name you all, but there are so many of you and I would hate to leave someone out. I consider you all very good friends of my mine and I hope that no border will keep us from keeping in touch.

Thank you also to all my friends, family, and loved ones back home for your support. I'm sure I've talked to many, or all, of you sometime in the past 8 months with some sort of gripe and I want to thank you for listening, or at least pretending to listen.

In addition, my time in Spain wouldn't have been as pleasant without my flatmates Tiffany and Felipe. Everyday you guys helped me to see the world a little different and I was constantly learning from you both. Plus, you're both awesome.

As for my last few days in Spain. Tomorrow I bid farewell to my school, students, and teachers. Followed by a lot of packing and meeting up with some friends throughout the day. On Saturday I am going on my final day trip, to a city called El Escorial. Then finally on Sunday, I catch a 9am flight that arrives 9.5 hours later around 1pm in Charlotte, N.C.. Finally, I have just a two hour flight from Charlotte, after a three hour layover, which should get me to Detroit around 6pm.

I just wanted to share with you all this short, disjointed, farewell to Spain and collection of my thoughts. I'll post some more thoughts at a later date in my blog, most likely when I'm in the States.

These past 8 months have been a time of my life that I will never forget. Absolutely no regrets.

Final Two Months

 

Everyone said it, “before you know it, you’ll be done”, and I didn’t believe them. But, here I am, with but two months left wondering where the time has gone. Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to heading back to the States and continuing with “real” life, but I just can’t believe my days are numbered. It seems like just yesterday I was planning my trip to Spain, celebrating Thanksgiving at my apartment, cooking pizzas on Christmas morning, ringing in the New Year in Budapest, admiring the Lisbon coast, and eating pasta in Italy. While I feel like my time is short, I do have TWO months left, and I intend to make the most of them.

The other day I made a Madrid “Bucket List” which I’ll share with you all. In no particular order, here are some things that I will do before my time is up.

• Go to Cuenca
• Cuenca is a city in the south of Madrid famous for its hanging houses
• Go to El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen
• El Escorial is a palace and a city in the northwest of the Madrid community. The palace is supposedly beautiful, but I also want to go to see the Valley of the Fallen. The Valley is a monument made during the Spanish civil war that is still controversial.
• Go to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
• One of the famous art museums in Madrid
• Return to the Prado
• The most famous museum in Madrid
• Museum of America
• A lesser known museum but I want to see how the Spaniards look at the discovery of the New World
• See a bullfight
• While I don’t think I will enjoy it, given the history and the cultural impact bullfighting has had on Spain, I feel like it’s something I must do
• See the San Antonio de la Florida
• The San Antonio is a lesser known church that contains many works of Goya and it was recommended by NYTimes as something you must do
• Eat churros and chocolate at San Gines
• San Gines is a Madrid institution, especially popular at 5/6am when people start to return from a night out
• Visit the Royal Palace
• Something extremely tourist that I have not gotten around to.

I don’t have a bucket list for my time in Spain/Europe but one is forthcoming. Looking ahead I have a trip to Marrakech, Morocco May 18-20th which I am very much excited for. After that, I don’t have any trips planned but I can promise at least one more trip before I return home.

Speaking of returning home, my flight home is July 3rd; just in time for Independence Day.

Hasta Luego

Thanksgiving Abroad

Tomorrow marks not only my first Thanksgiving abroad, but also my first Thanksgiving away from my family. Now Thanksgiving of course is an American holiday, so while my friends and family back home will be enjoying their turkey dinners, I’ll be busy working (in full disclosure, by the time you’re enjoying dinner, I’ll probably be asleep given the 6 hour time difference). But do not fear, since us expats stick together for the holidays. Tomorrow, besides working, I’ll be getting my haircut (should be interesting), preparing some croquetas de jamón for the apartment, and enjoying some Turkish kebab with my Madrid family. Since we are all working tomorrow, we are going to have our real Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. I’ll be preparing the Tyrrell family stuffing recipe, and I’m also in charge of trying to find a turkey, which is a little more difficult than going to Kroger and grabbing a Butterball. Most likely, tomorrow I’ll be going to my local butcher and placing an order for a turkey for Saturday (which reminds me to look up the Spanish words for “take out all the guts, please”). Expect some pictures of my Madrid family tomorrow enjoying our kebabs and of course the Spain family (some of my friends live outside of Madrid) and the real dinner on Saturday.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I do want to share what I am thankful for. I am thankful for all my friends in Spain, without whom I would surely not have made it thus far. The government of Spain for offering me this once in a lifetime opportunity. My fellow teachers and students, who have made my job so much easier with their compassion and understanding. And of course my friends and family back home, for all their love and support while I’m abroad.

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.