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