On the Clock

Now that I've officially finished my first week of school as a Language & Culture assistant, I think I can finally say that I've started to figure out my daily routine here in Madrid. Here's my schedule as of now:

Wake up, make a cup of coffee and be out the door by 8:45 a.m. (not bad compared to my roommates who have to leave a lot earlier)

Take the metro and arrive at the school doors by 9:30 a.m.

My school, unfortunately, does not follow a "condensed" schedule; which means that instead of getting out at 2 p.m. like most other schools, mine likes to give 1 hour "breakfast" breaks and two hour lunch periods. So I'm out the doors by 4:30 p.m...

The fortunate thing is I love my school so far! I'll be honest and say that I was a little nervous if I would take to teaching or not...I didn't know if I would enjoy it, or even be good at it for that matter. But I'm teaching 4th and 6th grade and love those ages! (I tend to "mesh" better with older kids rather than 6 year olds).

I not only love the kids and helping them learn English, but I also really connect with the teachers I work with as well. They are pretty close to my age and really want to use me, so I feel like what I have to say, as well as my ideas, are valuable and really mean something to the school.

As for the breaks…that’s a tough one to settle. I mean what are you supposed to do with yourself for two hours at lunch? Or an awkward 45 minute break.

Well as of now, I’ve actually found a couple of “intercambio” opportunities. For those of you that don’t know, intercambios are almost like blind dates (at least for the first time) where you meet with a Spanish-speaking person and simply help each other with the language—a symbiotic relationship you could say. So I may meet with a Spaniard for a coffee and we speak for 30 minutes in English and then switch to Spanish for the last half hour. I tried this out quite a bit when I studied abroad in Sevilla and loved it. Not only did it help me with my conversational skills in Spanish, but I also made quite a few friends through it as well.

I’m meeting a Spanish girl on Tuesday at 1 p.m., and then at 2 p.m. going back to the school to eat with the teachers. Then on Wednesday (my half day), I’m meeting with another Spaniard at 1 p.m. before catching the metro back to my piso for the day.

Also, on Fridays all of the young Spanish teachers at the school go out to lunch. I joined them yesterday and it was a lot of fun (very interesting—will post more about it later), and I also used a lot of my Spanish!

I thought the hour-long morning breaks would be painful, but not when they have a buffet of different pastries, breads, carbs, carbs and more carbs; and also fresh fruit and coffee. So no, I can’t complain about that. It also allows more time to bond with the teachers and the three other language assistants who also work at the school.

After this first week I still can’t say too much, but I know this will definitely be an experience for the books! I’ll probably always be exhausted from working with 8 to 12 year olds all day long, but at least I know I’ll always have a glass of wine waiting for me when I get home.

#teaching #routine #intercambio