Ponferrada

The poster I made for the kids of Halloween vocabulary

Río Síl

Castillo de los Templarios

Plaza de Ayuntamiento

Fotos!

On the bridge in O Barco de Valdeorras

In Ourense

Ourense

Ourense near the hot springs! 

                                                                Ángel  y Conchita

Aventuras

We've had our first long weekend of traveling! Friday night we went to Ponferrada, a nearby city of about 80,000 people. It was nice to get out of our small town for a little bit. Ponferrada is about 40 minutes away by train. The other American Stephen lives there, so we went out with him and met up with some of the teachers in his school (he works at a high school in O Barco). The teachers were all really nice, and a lot of them are studying English because of a lot of classes like gym and art are being taught in English now.

Saturday, we went to Valladolid, which was about 3 hours by bus. It's where Amanda studied last summer, and it was really nice. It's a very traditional Spanish town, which was cool to see. We hung out with some of Amanda's friends from last summer and went shopping! I bought a jean jacket and red pants. I'm trying to look as Spanish as possible! haha Everyone wears boots and a lot of scarves too.

On Sunday in Valladolid, we had lunch with Amanda's host family! Her name is Conchita and her husband's name is Angel. It was Angel's 88th birthday, so a ton of their relatives came over for lunch. We had a delicious meal of caldo (Galician soup), chorizo, bread, chicken, potatoes, cake, and ice cream! All of the family was really nice, and some of the grandkids are studying English, so they were practicing their English with us.

On Tuesday, the director from Amanda's school brought us to Ourense to finish our paperwork (about an hour and a half away). It's the final part of our visa process to verify our legal status. We can now officially open up bank accounts, which we did this morning! I'll receive my debit card in the mail within the week, so that'll be great because I won't have to pay to withdraw money from my American account anymore. We should get paid at the beginning of November!

School has been going well. I made a poster for the kids in English about Halloween, and I am making a Powerpoint about Halloween in the United States, and my mom sent me a bunch of pictures from when Dylan and I were kids and dressed up. Next Friday, the whole school is having a Halloween party, and the kids are singing a song about Halloween in English. Amanda and I are currently on the hunt for Halloween costumes, and if I find one, I'm going to wear one next Friday. I also have a big bag of candy corn that I'm going to have the kids try. I'm hoping Amanda and I can get a pumpkin (calabaza) for our apartment, but I'm not sure where to get one.

Some of the kids are genuinely interested in learning English, which is cool to see. I'm definitely getting better at Spanish because the kids always talk to me in Spanish and I respond in English. So far we've worked on numbers, colors, time, and animals. The school is really tiny, so I know most of the kids and I'm sure I'll get to them quite well. I really like that I work with kids of all the levels, because I get to work with 3 years to 11 year olds.

No big plans for this upcoming weekend. Enjoy the pictures :)

First Weekend!

It's been a good and relaxing first weekend in O Barco! Once we got back from Santiago de Compostela, I finally got a chance to catch up on sleep. Saturday, we explored O Barco, which is a very beautiful area. We are only a few blocks from the Río Sil, so there are walking paths and bridges in that area. There are also a lot of little Taperías, bars that also sell tapas. We went to a place called Guirerri , where we order Calimocho, which is red wine and Coca-Cola. I had heard of it before, but was surprised that I really liked it.  Drinks come with a free tapa, so we both received little pieces of bread with ham on them that were pretty good. We sat outside with a view of the river, which was really nice. Between the times of 3 and 5 (around), there are a lot less people out and about, because they are taking their siestas, but after that time people usually come out and go for tapas and drinks with their friends and family.

Today, we did more exploring and found another tapas bar. We had ham on bread again, and tortilla, which is similiar to an egg and potato omlette. It was delicious! It was around 80 degrees today, unseasonably warm and really nice outside. We tried to go to the grocery store, and they were closed because it was Sunday. I'm not sure if there are other grocery stores that are open on Sundays, but we didn't see any. It's interesting because many businesses are not open on Sundays.

El Apartamento

We are really lucky to have a nice and spacious apartment in O Barco! Here are a few pictures.

Orientation

Buenos dias!

So I have worked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week. We had orientation today in the capital of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela. The coordinator at Amanda's school took us there, and it took about three hours to drive there. We left at 6:30 this morning, and returned around 6:30 tonight. It was Amanda, her coordinator, and Stephen, a boy from Florida who also is doing the program in O Barco. The beginning of orientation was pretty boring, but the second part was interesting because a handful of auxiliares de conversacion from the past few years presented about their experiences helping teach English. We also received information about opening bank accounts here and other paperwork.

Afterwards, we went to the Catedral de Santiago. It is giant and built in the 12th century. Amanda's coordinator went to college in Santiago, so he knew a lot about the area, and we got to go inside the cathedral. It is famous because people from all over the world travel to Santiago in the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage that has all different routes. People walk across Spain (the most popular route starts at the border of France and Spain on the east), and take this religious/ spiritual journey.

We stopped for almuerzo (lunch), the biggest meal of the day in Spain around 3. There is the menu del dia, where you select a first, second, and third plate and pay one flat rate (10 euro). For the first plate, I ordered a soup with seafood in it, for my second I ordered beef with really good french fries (they don't use ketchup and they eat their fries with a fork and it has olive oil on it). For dessert, we had a choice of  cake or ice cream, and we all chose ice cream. It was delicious, and also comes with bread and a drink.

We headed back to O Barco, and I took a nap and I've been cleaning my room. I'll post some pictures of my room and our trip to Santiago.

The kids are really cute and excited for me to come into the classroom. Most of them really need help with their pronunciation, so I feel like I can help these kids to hear a native speaker. My Spanish is getting better, especially since no one at my school really speaks English, so I'm forced to speak Spanish all day. The kids also talk a lot in Spanish and I have to remind them to respond in English! I work with kids from ages 3 to 11. The school is really small so they have some levels together. I am still getting my schedule sorted out, so am not sure whether I will be working three or four days per week.

Buenas noches!

Arrival in Spain!

Hola a todos!

After a full day (or two) of planes, buses, and automobiles, we are finally in O Barco de Valdeorras, Galicia, Spain in our new apartment! Both planes were on time and we got into our bus right away without too much waiting. We took about a 5 hour bus ride to Ponferrada (a nearby larger city), where the director at Amanda's school picked us up and brought us to our new apartment. He is very friendly, and I generally understand what he is saying. We have WiFi (pronounced WEE-FEE) in our apartment.

We went to Eroski, the grocery store, and picked up dinner of frozen pizza, and some other food for a few more days. The store is less than two blocks away, so it is very convenient. I even found Special K with Red Berries (Frutas Rojas), and have some for breakfast tomorrow! The only main differences we've spotted between the grocery stores are that the milk is not refrigerated (it is in a carton and has a later expiration date) and the store charges .03 centavos (European cents) for each plastic bag that they give you. So we crammed most of our stuff into one bag, and will start bringing our own bags to the grocery store.

Tomorrow is the first day of work! I am getting picked up at 9:30am. I am excited to see my school, and meet the students. My director and I will also meet and discuss which days/ what hours I will be working. Since my school is about 5K (3 miles) from O Barco, the town we are living in, I will ride into work with either my director or the other teachers who live in O Barco as well.

Our apartment is very spacious, and I will be posting pictures soon. There are two bathrooms and three bedrooms. We have an oven and a microwave, but no toaster. We also have a washing machine, but no dryer (which is very common in Spain).

It's great to finally be here and I am excited to get a little bit of rest before I start at the school! Hopefully after work tomorrow, I will pick up a SIM card for my cell phone, so I can use it outside of just WiFi. We have a home phone at the apartment that is free to local (Spanish) numbers, which is how I've been in contact with my director.

I always appreciate email! I also have my address, so please email me if you are interested in that :)