Seeing the light

My flight left Dulles airport at 7:00 pm EST and I arrived in Madrid about 13 hours later. Sick with a cold and hopped up on Sudafed, I felt like death by the time I arrived at my hostel here. They're doing construction on the building and when I walked in there was no one around and the place was covered in dusty marble and sheets of plywood. Exasperated, I called out "hello" about twenty times until an annoyed manageress told me to come up to the third floor, which in Spain is actually the fourth floor, and I think by that time I had lost all my ability to speak Spanish.
Long story short, I slept for about 6 hours and then went downstairs to get some dinner (I hadn't eaten since the flight to London Heathrow, my layover stop). There was a really cute tapas bar downstairs from the hotel and it was crowded with fans watching a soccer game. Standing there felt just like being in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and even Maryland. Things were looking up.
Not an hour later, other things started coming up too. Let's just say my digestive system still dislikes Spain even if my heart is willing to give it a chance. I spent the entire night sick and finally at some hour before sunrise I fell asleep again. I woke up around 3:00 pm (remember Dad I'm still jet lagged too!) and decided it was time to see some Spain, so I got dressed, and feeling much better, headed out to buy some food that I recognized. My first awake and alert impressions of Madrid are fantastic. The buildings are the type I've seen in movies- tall apartments with wrought-iron balconies, there are little pastelerias with the most mouth-watering cakes and pastries in the windows, and people sit at sidewalk cafes smoking and drinking espressos. It's sunny and warm outside and now that I have left my dark hostel bed and my sickness behind, I'm truly enjoying the light.

C.R.A. Valle de Bullaque, or, First Real Day on the Job

Greetings once again, this time from the wonderful-- and finally sunny-- provincia de Ciudad Real! I write presently from what will be my place of work for the next eight months, el Colegio Rural Agrupado  (C.R.A.) Valle de Bullaque, a small primary school of only 130ish kids and 25 professors just a forty minute's drive from Ciudad Real. For the time being, this will be the only place where I can post updates because alas, we have not yet purchased the means to proper internet access in the apartment! And as my photos all reside on an external hard drive that I did not choose to lug around with me today, this will also be a post sin fotos (photo-less), but nonetheless a sufficient one.

So then, yes. It has been a little under a week since I arrived in Ciudad Real last Wednesday afternoon, but it's been long enough to have gotten lost and then gradually more accustomed in its numerous streets whose names change constantly, to have found and signed the lease on a charming apartment close to the town square, to have met fellow teachers, future students, and easy-going roommates, and to have sampled of some of its finest local culinary offerings (including of course, being who I am, the ice cream from one of the local heladerías).

I cut my stay in Madrid short by a day in order to finalize rent on a place here, and was rewarded for that sacrifice in the form of an aforementioned well-placed apartment, a chance to come by the school and meet with teachers and become acquainted with the lay of the land, and the ability to really get a sense of the town. What's more, I can go back to Madrid rather easily on most weekends via the relatively new and state-of-the-art sistema de Trenes de Alta Velocidad España (AVE, which, as a clever aside, is also the word for "bird" in Spanish). These high-speed trains run from Madrid to Seville in a matter of only a few hours, and thus can get me to la capital in under sixty minutes.

Ciudad Real, although much smaller than Madrid and with less "cultural 'wow' factor" than other sites in the country according to Lonely Planet's 2007 guide to Spain, is still a very self-sufficient and burgeoning town where one can always find life, liberty, and the pursuit of tapas. I mean-- happiness.

The school, C.R.A. Valle de Bullaque, is very nice as well and all the professors are welcoming, friendly and blessed with a wonderfully sharp sense of humor. I'll be working most closely with the youngest students, ages 3-7, as a teacher's assistant in their Bilingual English Acquisition program. Understandably, my work with the 3-5 year olds won't be as intense as it will be with those in first and second grade, if it can even be called "intense" learning when working with this age group. Instead, Most of it is learning basic vocabularly with simple contextual cues and situations. For example, today with the second graders, we reviewed terms for weather and distinguished between them using current conditions outside, flashcards, and gestures.

This afternoon I've been invited to attend a luncheon that is being held for the teachers of many of the primary schools in the area. There will be around seventy other teachers in attendance so it will be a neat way to meet a lot of other teachers. Tommorw is the official orientation for the Language Assistants that live in the region of Castilla y La Mancha like myself, and so that will be similarly nice because although I have already met two girls from the UK who are living in Ciudad Real, I'm very excited to meet others on the program.

Well, I'm needed for the last hour's class. Nos hablamos más pronto (we'll talk soon), and I'll be sure to add photos and such dentro poco (sometime soon).

Chau, chicos!

Abrazos,

-nick

Introducing Sarah, and Granada

Hola desde Granada!

I'm going to take Laura and Nick's lead and introduce myself.

I'm Sarah, 22 years-old, and your guide for the next eight months to Granada, Spain and the nearby town of Churriana de la Vega. I recently finished my undergraduate studies in Romance Languages at the University of Maryland, after doing brief stints in Aix-en-Provence, France in Summer 2006 and Buenos Aires, Argentina in Spring 2007.

Granada is a smallish city located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Andalucía, Spain. It is probably best known for being home to the Alhambra, a massive Moorish fortress and palace that overlooks the city. Granada is also known to be youth-friendly with its university and ubiquitous bares de tapas. I will surely write more about them later!

Finding housing here is often a difficult task, involving scouring the internet and city streets for advertised pisos compartidos (shared flats). Though there is a lot of available housing, demand is also high, and available places often go quite quickly.

I, however, have been exceptionally lucky: I found a room in a lovely flat in the very first day of my search! This is largely due to the help of J, a future coworker of mine whom I met in the wonderful Hostal Oasis, where I've been staying since Friday evening. My apartment is near the city center and the bus line I will need to take to work, and its rooftop terrace boasts magnificent views of the mountains and of the Alhambra. I begin moving in tomorrow.

As you can imagine, the apartment keys currently residing in my handbag are making me a lot less nervous about these next eight months. As I continue to gain my footing here (a nonlinear process, I'm sure), I will do my very best to share with you not only my leaps forward, but also my missteps; and whether you end up cheering me on or berating me, I hope that you are at least from time to time entertained.

Meet Nick (and First Impressions of Madrid)

 Hello one and everyone! As I've been explaining in countless e-mail and other written correspondences to people and organizations in Spain in recent months, I'm Nick Burka, a recent graduate of the University of Maryland who comes to España to participate in an English teaching fellowship through the Spanish government's Ministry of Education. It's a mouthful, but that's really the long and short of the job. Specifically, I'll be living in Ciudad Real, a moderate-sized town two hours south of Madrid (I'll come back later and spruce up this entry with links and photos a-plenty), and teaching at a small primary school located about a thirty minutes drive outside of said town.

Currently, I'm sitting in the spacious living room of a hostel in Madrid, planning the itinerary of my second afternoon here. It's incredibly surreal being actually here, when for days, weeks, and months prior it had all been talk and discussion. During the fall semester of my junior year at UMD, I went on an university-sponsored progam in Buenos Aires, so I'm not new to the idea or the general feel of living abroad, but this is very different. For one I'm in Spain, not Argentina. Obviously.

Second of all, I am not studying, per se, but rather acting as a teacher in training. Therefore, my role in the classroom is inherently different and I'm being granted a modest monthly stipend for my services.

Which leads me to my third point, and perhaps the most pressing issue at present: the finacial situation, or more specifically, room & board during the eight+ month adventure. The program guidelines and provisos state that we, the language assistants, are required to find our own manner of housing. We can, however, ask the help of people from the school where we will be placed in order to make the search and acquisition easier. Regardless, I was not lucky enough to finalize living arrangements before arriving in Madrid, and so much of today, tomorrow, and possibly the two days following will be reserved for searching. Being in the country, however, makes it much easier to go about this than before when I was only able to communicate through e-mail correspondence and the occasional skype conference.

And that's what's been up. I took a good long stroll around some of central Madrid yesterday afternoon and evening, again I'll come back through and post some photos (or just save them for a later entry),  and it's been very neat. My Spanish is faring well enough, I suppose, though I do become jittery and uncomfortable if I feel that I'm making too many mistakes about word-choice. All in a day's work of course, but I'm optimistic, as I should be, that within a few weeks, I'll have entered a new, more well-established confidence in my ability.

Hasta luego, che (nunca voy a perder la influencia de las experiencias porteñas - i'm never going to be able to forget the influence of my experiences in Buenos Aires)

abrazos,

-Nick

Meet Laura

I'll take this opportunity to introduce myself before I leave and get lost in the insomniac chaos that is Madrid. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Laura Brewer, I lived with Sarah all through college, I know Nick through the Language House, and I met Paige in Argentina while visiting Sarah.
I just graduated from Maryland with a B.A. in Spanish and Anthropology and a Certificate in Latin American Studies, and I definitely agree that Latin America is in my digestive system. Although I've always been sort of an anti-Spain snob (damn the man and all), I am genuinely excited about this trip.

This could be due to my amazing luck in placement; I'll be teaching at the Instituto de Educacion Secundaria Rey Carlos III, a high school in a small town called Aguilas (see the photo below and the map), in the region of Murcia on the Southern Mediterranean coast. I know nothing about Spain so I picked my top choice based on which region had the prettiest photo on the application's website.
To top that, I have already found 2 roommates, Brandon and Julien (other language assistants at my school), and Julien has already arrived in Aguilas, found a sweet piso (apartment) and settled us in. I can arrive in Aguilas without all the hassle of trying to find a place while keeping my excessive luggage unstolen in a hostel. Beginner's luck? Perhaps. Here's hoping it continues throughout the next 8 months!

Saludos y bienvenidos! Hello and welcome!

The idea for this group blog was born out of a concern shared by all of its participants: How does an American whose heart and history lie in Latin America survive a year in Spain?

Though born and raised in the U.S., all of us have spent time living and traveling in Latin America. Collectively, we have been to the Dominican Republic, Peru, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico, with one or more of us having studied abroad in the last three countries. We travel on colectivos, not buses; we get each others' attention by calling out "Che!" on crowded streets; we adore the poems of Ernesto Cardenal and decry the name of Christopher Columbus; and we think that there is no better food than the empanadas and pan dulce bought on the street. In short, Latin America is in our hearts, our minds, and our digestive systems.

If our travels and studies have offered us some insights, however few, into the cultures of our hemisphere, we know even less about that peninsular fatherland, Spain. Sure, we've probably read a play or poem by García Lorca and seen the latest Almodóvar film, and yes, we know the general history of the reconquest and of the Spanish Civil War, and it's even true that a couple of us have traveled there as tourists, but all in all, Spain is a mystery to us. How are we to survive life in a country where one coge the bus, pays in Euros, and calls her friends vosotros?

Over the next eight months, we will all be working as English conversation assistants in Spanish public schools, during which time we plan on keeping this blog as a record of our experiences and observations. We write on no authority but our own, and recognize that our opinions are not absolute and our perspectives are inevitably subjective. Nevertheless, we hope that you, dear readers, will here find things informative, interesting, and perhaps even inconceivable to you, and if anything you read elicits any of these reactions in you, please let us know.

Faithfully yours,
Laura, Nick, Paige, and Sarah