Idas y Vueltas

I’ve been an absent blogger for, let’s face it, pretty much the whole time I’ve been blogging. I did OK when I first started this thing, in Granada in 2008, but the consistent writing only lasted a few months. I don’t know why I’m feeling inspired to start again now…but true to a commitment phobe’s nature, I’m making no promises that I’ll keep it up.

Here I am again, in Granada, after a nine-month stint in Madrid and a couple summers spent living at home. Last time I was here, I was a teacher’s assistant, part of a popular program organized by the Spanish and American governments to bring native English speakers into Spain’s bilingual schools to combat the country’s bad reputation associated with learning the language. I played that game for two years, as it provides a nice monthly stipend to live off of — complete with health insurance, paid vacation and legal resident status — but I was absolutely out of my element most of the time and basically just getting by in the hopes of figuring out what I really wanted to do in the meantime.

The first year, in Granada, was markedly worse than the second, caused by both circumstances and poor choices. I was placed in a school that was in the process of becoming bilingual, and it was my job (in partnership with the other language assistant at the school, a girl my age from Quebec) to “teach” the teachers who would be expected to teach at least 30 percent of their classes in English the following year. Did I mention I had no teaching experience or training, and my job description explicity prohibited me from leading a class without the supervision of an actual teacher? So the other girl and I spent every morning giving “conversation classes” to small groups of teachers, which involved a lot of coming up with games and activities that would let the teachers practice speaking English in a hopefully not-too- boring way. But it was boring, and I habitually started dreading the work week, consisting of 12 teaching hours over four days plus some private evening classes, as early as Saturday afternoon.

But the school situation was not the only factor contributing to the bad year. This was technically my first time living completely on my own, as I started the program right out of college.  I’d been working since I was 16 but had never had to make a budget for my monthly earnings in order to cover all my living expenses, wants and saving goals. Thus, I picked an apartment that was too expensive, planned trips I couldn’t afford and stressed myself out to save more than feasible on my stipend. In order to meet those goals, I took on too many private classes, which were spread out all over the city, paid me less than I should have accepted and filled most of my evenings Monday through Thursday. All lessons learned the hard way, but learned well.

The second year wasn’t so bad, even rewarding at times. This time I worked at an elementary school with only 100 students in a pueblo just north of Madrid. I worked with everyone from three-year-olds to sixth-graders to teachers, and the staff was small and welcoming. My favorite thing about the year was having a purpose — preparing the young’ns to take an important English level exam at the end of the year and helping the English teachers make their classes more authentic. I didn’t just fill hours like a student waiting for the bell to ring; I was needed, even too much at times, and I got to see my students’ progress over time. I even discovered something that shocked my friends and family, not to mention me: I really like working with kids, like little ones. I thought I had no maternal instinct, and maybe I don’t, but they’re so darn cute and just make you smile. I never would’ve thought being an elementary school teacher would even cross my mind as an option, but if I decide to teach one day, I will most certainly consider that age group. If for that experience alone,  the year was more than worthwhile for me.

What’s more, the experience was better than the last because I made smarter choices as far as planning my private classes. I decided to set the condition that in order to accept a class, it had to be SUPER convenient for me. And it worked. I limited myself to just a few classes, and I got a ride directly to their houses via a co-worker in every instance. I even lucked out and was hired to give a weekly class at the royal nursery, which just happened to be down the street from my school and pretty much ended any financial worries I may have had. Needless to say, I was generally much less stressed overall than the previous year.

All of this leads me to this year, in Granada again, but no longer as a language assistant. So, what am I doing now? The better question is, “What am I not doing?” In mid-October, I begin a master’s program at the local university. I’ll spend full evenings Wednesday through Friday studying “international cooperation,” which involves things like economics, politics, humanitarian aid, management and government. In my two free evenings I’ll give English classes in people’s homes, a job organized through a language academy in the city. During the day, I’ll run (my boyfriend and I are training for a half-marathon, you know), give private classes I arrange on my own, and do freelance translation work and hopefully some writing.  At least this is how I envision my year to come, but I’m fully aware that my eyes may be bigger than my belly, so to speak.

I wanted to do this year on my own, without the hand-holding of any program designed to facilitate foreigners’ experiences abroad. I’ve done that type of thing four times now, study abroad programs included, and it’s time I do something with no expiration date. I got my legal papers (well, they’ve been accepted and are being processed) on my own, translated all my academic documents and got into the master’s program on my own, got the English teaching job on my own and will hopefully build more translation contacts on my own, as well. This means that when the academic year ends in June, I won’t be back at square one, wondering what to do next. I’ll have jobs that could potentially carry on into the future, or at least contacts and new qualifications that could lead to such a job. Thus, my reasons for telling myself that I’ve started off this new adventure by making smart decisions, and we’ll see how the circumstances turn out to be. So far, things are looking good.