Working girl

Hi all!! I’m so sorry, I know I owe everyone an update, but it’s just that not too much has been happening really.  Life is pretty normal here, which is strange to say since I’m living in a foreign country, but honestly, things are really normal.  I have the normal daily grind…wake up at 7 or 8 and be grumpy because I didn’t sleep enough, go to school, deal with grumpy kids who don’t want to be there, go home, eat lunch, plan for the next day and then do it all over again.  With some variations of course, and weekend activities.  Basically, my schedule looks like this right now:
Mon: 9:45-1:45 SCHOOL (with a daily recreo break in between)

4:00-7:00 WORK at Covent Garden

Tues: 8:15-12:15 SCHOOL

12:15-??  FREEEEEE

Wed: 9:45-2:45 SCHOOL

4:00-7:00 WORK at Covent Garden

Thur: 8:45-11:15 SCHOOL

11:15-?? FREEEE for the weekend!

I do things in between my time off in the afternoon and during school.  There’s some holes in my schedule but I get to relax in the teachers lounge and chat or prepare for other classes, or prepare with the teachers. Not all my time at school is spent teaching, some of it is spent relaxing and some of it is spent planning with other teachers.  It’s a really nice and relaxed atmosphere.  It’s very different here, and very relaxed, I like it.  A lot of them wear jeans and some even wear T-shirts, which is very funny, also, the teachers do not go my Mr. or Mrs. or Miss.  The students tend to call them Teacher (our equivialant of Miss!) or they call them by their full name, so I had to introduce myself as Bonnie.  I have to admit, it’s kind of strange.  I’m so used to them called me Ms. Srubas by now that I almost prefer that, and it helps put a barrier between me and my students, since we’re so close in age.  But, I’m getting used to it, and to them butchering my name.  You wouldn’t think that Bonnie is very hard to say, but for them, the “ie” makes it hard, they want to say Bon-ee-a, but that’s wrong, or they want to say “boonie" (like I’m stuck out in the boonies).  Now, I tend to answer to any variation of my name and Teacher of course. 
I got to teach about the Beatles today!! It was great, and I can’t wait to show them the picture of the Beatles outside of Wild Bill’s and tell them about how the vine’s have grown up the building in the order in which they died.  FUN FACTS about Middletown!!! :)  I get to teach a lot of different things at school, some are good and some are not so good.  I have to teach the following: Math, Physics/Chimestry, Natural Sciences, Ethics, Geography, History, and Music.  SO MANY CLASSES!  It all proves to be very interesting, especially when I have to look at the math teacher to make sure the students get the correct answer, I have no idea how to solve math problems, especially not ones that involved negative numbers, powers, and sequences now!  I also had to explain to students how to say mathematical expressions in English and describe some symbols.  FYI: I got a C in math in High School, I should not be allowed to teach this! haha, but I guess I did well enough since all I had to do was say the phrases and tell them how to say 2+2=4 (two plus two equals four), and yes, my spelling was off when I wrote it on the board…oops.


So I know you all want to hear about late nights and nights out here in Spain.  I can almost hardly believe it because nights out here are ridiculous, they last forever.  Literally.  Friday night I decided that I would hang out with my roomies, one roomie had a friend from Sevilla and Laura mentioned that they were going out together tonight.  Little did I realized that we weren’t just going to a bar to hang out, nope, they were botelloning (drinking in the streets) first, then going back to the party to “pregame”'/ drink in the apartment and then go to the discoteca….at 4:30 in the morning.  So Friday night first I went out with some people I work with at Covent Garden, we met up at work and went down to a bar around the corner for casual drinks.  Later, at around 9 we went to get some tapas at a really good tapas bar that my boss, Hayley, knows about. There I chillaxed with 2 Brits, and an Irish woman, and then 2 other girls who I work with (both through CIEE).  It was all great fun, and we left at around 11 to go our separate ways, that’s when Sarah and I decided that we’d try to rally and go out with the Spanish tonight….Now, I thought I partied hard in Granada last year…nope, the Spanish party harder.  We showed up at my apartment at around 11, Laura was just getting out of the shower getting ready to go, and no one had arrived yet to pregame, so we sat around awkwardly making small talk with my roommate and his friends, and then people started to show up, at Midnight-12:30.  Yup, they started that late, haha.  Basically, we partied till 4:30, left for the club, danced the night/midmorning away in the underground club below the bar in the center of town and I was out of the club and in bed by no earlier than 6:30 in the morning.  They roommates came home closer to 7 AM. But it was a great time and I met some really great people.  I’m really happy I stayed up, it was awesome roommate bonding time, and something I really needed because I haven’t quite figured out how to bond with them yet.  The language barrier poses a problem when I want to have small talk, it’s harder in a second language!



Also, I went to the beach again this weekend!! :) Yay!  I met a bunch of other auxiliaries, mostly second years, which was very interesting because they always have great stories. I also met a Scottish person who’s teaching here in Erasmus and a girl from Northern Ireland with the cutest accent (she’s Sam size too!), who’s also teaching through Erasmus.  The weekend was so much fun, I was crazy busy all weekend.  After I stayed up till 6:30 Friday night I woke up to go to Cartaya with those people (in the photo above) and we had some fun walking around Cartaya. Cartaya is a small pueblo outside Huelva where they had their Feria, a fair, celebrating Nuestra Senora de Cartaya, basically, Mary, and they had a crafts fair and all sorts of other things going on.  I was way too tired to stay till later in the evening for the fair activities, so unfortunately we left before the good stuff started, but we had our own good stuff going on and bonding experience when some Gyspsies tried to get us to go in a taxi with them back to Huelva.  Basically, we were disagreeing with them on when and where the bus back to Huelva would show up, they believed it was never coming, we knew it was, so that was fun.  We hung around for about 2 hours because our original bus showed up 20 min early, we missed it and then waited around for another 1 1/2 or so. It’s cool, it was fun times, and then we made plans to go to the beach on Sunday and just sun bath.  It wasn’t too hot, only about 80 or so, but I didn’t get sunburnt and I was able to relax and meet some new people. 
Basically, my life is pretty awesome right now.  I’m making plans to travel soon, I promise, then I will have great stories to tell or travel catastrophes' and about all sorts of old things.  Until then, bear with me as I live a mundane life of surviving on a small salary and savings, and once I start getting paid I will be off and traveling! :) Much love! <3

I’m a teacher…say what!?

So the day has finally come…I’m a teacher.  How I got from college, the student teaching to teaching is beyond me.  How all this time flew by so quickly and all of a sudden I was told to “go!” I’m also not sure.  But maybe I should recap so people will actually know what kind of overwhelming feelings I’m feeling right now.

1. My actual job at my IES Clara Campoamor started today, and lasted from 10:30-11:30…yup, it lasted a whole entire hour.  Really, since I had met with my coordinator so many times before school started, there was only so much to do, and she just wanted to introduce me to the teachers really and give me my schedule, explain to me what I’ll be doing and give my some materials and stuff.  So Basically, I’ll be floating around the English department in like 30 min increments and helping out the teachers in teach classroom.  I’ll be working with science, math, music, and history, sadly no English.  But as I was explained today, it’s because they simply can’t give me more hours than I’m allowed to work and they would love to have me in the English classroom, but I’m needed more in other areas.  Unfortunately, I won’t get to work with my coordinator directly :( but I’ll be working with plenty of other great teachers.  They have had 2 assistants in the past, helping them out, but since the crisis they simply don’t have the budget needed to get two assistants, and they’re even lucky to have me because some schools lost their assistant.  So unfortunately, my schedule is a bit crazy and I’m not in one place for long, but it should be interesting.  Since I’m only allowed to work 12 hours (I think I can work a max of 15hrs but I won’t argue), Belen has me in different classrooms in 30 min increments.  I start off my day at around 8:30 or 9:30 and go until only about 1:30 Mon- Thur.  I bounce from room to room and help the teachers in whichever area they need.  I have to meet with each teacher once a week to talk about what’s happening that week and discuss planning. 

Unfortunately, I’m a bit worried about how much I’ll actually be able to accomplish in the classroom and how much help I’ll actually be, because 30 min is really nothing with each class.  I feel like I’ll constantly be looking at my watch trying to get from one class to the next to do my duties.  Although I have been reassured that I am not merely a piece of furniture and should make sure to put my input in and suggest ideas to the teacher.  So it sounds like I’m really helping them plan and get materials and ideas and occasionally assisting in the classroom during my 30 min there.  So that could mean that I just pop in and help out with whatever activity is happening and then pop out to another classroom.  I guess since I haven’t done anything yet we’ll see.  Either way, I am quite nervous to see how all of this plays out.

2. My second job, which I almost consider a bigger job than my first, is working 6hrs a week at a private language academy after school.  I’m in charge of my own classroom, 2 classes of about 9 and 11 students teaching English.  These kids are here to learn and their parents are paying, so they expect them to buckle down and learn.  I landed the job thanks to my amazing coordinator and have been talking with my direct coordinator there to help get me started.  Since I’ve never actually been told to fly on my own without any support it was a little overwhelming.  And they obviously have their own way how they kind of want to run the classroom.  So while I’m allowed freedom, I obviously still have to follow the book and follow their format: 15 min review, 30-45 min book work, 30 min oral and written practice.  Also, since I’m starting the semester with them too, I have to figure out how to spend an hr with them without doing any work because they don’t want me actually starting the book until next Wednesday.  So you can imagine my sense of overwhelming.  Therefore, I stopped by again today to go over things and feel much, much better, after having some guidance and such.  And overall, I’m excited.  It will be fun to be in charge and have my own space.

I’m hoping I have the perfect balance of things, of being able to relinquish control at my placement and of being able to run my own classroom at the academy.  And it’s not a full load of teaching, which is nice, it’s always nice to not have to be constantly planning for 5 classes and making materials.  I’m glad I’m being able to do this though, because I don’t want to lose my confidence being in the classroom and in charge while I’m gone.  It’s already gone now, haha, but I’m sure once I get thrown back into it then I will be just fine!

Sorry I don’t have a picture of IES Clara Campoamor yet!  I tried to get pictures today and they came out really awful, so I will take better ones tomorrow or another day as I’m leaving or something.  And I’m sure more pictures will be to come as the year progresses.  I’ve actually really been slacking on the picture department so far, I guess I’m just trying to live rather than capture moments, which is a good and bad thing.