A Tarheel in Madrid

To all who are not yet in the know, over the summer I was accepted into Spain´s Auxiliar de Conversación program to go work as a North American language & culture assistant in a local high school in Madrid (I know, sounds heavy). As a history aficionado, I was always intrigued by Spanish history, especially after I started reading novels by Arturo Perez-Reverte, and as a lover of the Spanish language, I figured some time in Spain would really help me to fine-tune my language skills. Also, I just needed a break from Wilmington. Anyways, after hearing about this program from several professors at UNCW, I immediately put this on my to-do-in-the-near-future list. I just didn't know how soon that would be. After much thought and after listening to my friend Erika, who had just finished one year of the program in Bilbao, I decided to apply last January. Ever since then I have had "Spain on the Brain" as my friend Kat so blunty put it. Before long, I was on a plane from RDU to Kennedy and then from Kennedy to Barajas Int´l Airport in Madrid. It was September 25th, 7AM Central European Time. The sun had just begun to rise above the horizon, a view that was incredibly relaxing. But once I had gotten off the plane, the ride became a little bumpy.

The transition has been kind of tough, but thrilling at the same time. This has included going to orientation, visiting my school and meeting the faculty, coming up with conversation lessons, applying for a resident alien card, learning the metro route, buying a monthly metro pass (which are only available at cigarette stands, weird!), searching for an apartment (I checked all of them out in person because you can never trust the pictures online sometimes), opening a bank account, getting used to the central-north dialect of Spain, etc., etc., etc., phew!! That's partly why it has taken me some time to get this blog up and running. But to say the least, I finally feel settled down now.

The school is great! In general, the kids have been very enthusiastic since I got here. I teach 13 to 17 year olds with another teacher shadowing me; for conversation classes I usually lead the class and for grammar classes I usually follow the teacher´s lead. All last week I practically talked to them to death about Halloween. They loved it though. Some classes are more eager to learn English and learn about American culture than others, and the ones that are not as interested tend to be more rowdy, but I always try to help the teacher out by giving them a hint to shut up. The faculty is super chill and and they have been very helpful with the transition; every now and then they invite me for coffee at the shool cafeteria and sometimes a teacher who has a car might give me a lift to my apartment (The shool is not exactly in Madrid so I take the metro and then the bus to school). One of the hardest things for me is that I can´t let the students know that I know Spanish because once they do they will probably never force themselves to communicate in English with me. More about this later.

As for my apartment, it is epic! I live in the neighborhood of Puerta Del Ángel in Madrid which is filled with many hole-in-the-wall restaurants and bars. The apartment is also three blocks from the Manzanares river which runs through Madrid. I live near where it passes by the Royal Palace and the Almudena Cathedral. Both are breathtaking. And the Plaza Mayor is only a twenty minute walk away. There is also a huge park nearby called Casa Del Campo to going running/bike riding. I have two roommates around my age, an Italian who teaches European constitutional law at a local university and a Valencian who works in a financial services office. Son muy majos. That means they are really cool. The landlady is a trip though. She never stops talking when I see her and barely lets me say a word, but she means well.

One of the things that I have trouble getting used to is the time people eat here! They really eat lunch around 2 or 3pm. This has forced me to bring some snacks to school to eat during break otherwise my stomach starts sounding like chubaca. As for dinner, people don't eat until 10pm which means many people don't go to bed until midnight! I still eat dinner relatively early sometimes, or I might eat a big lunch and two small meals in the late evening and night. I also have to wake up super early so I am in class by 8:20 AM most days and I get out around 1 or 2 PM depending on the day. The way Spaniards stay up so late, I think they have no choice but to take a nap or siesta in the afternoon, which is growing on me.

Anyways, I finally found an adapter for my mac plug and wi-fi access is included in the rent so I will be in better contact with you all, but that will be hard to do if I continue to go exploring around Madrid for extensive periods of time. ¡Hasta luego!

-Charlie