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