First Day!

After completing the round trip bus ride out to Alcalá de Guadaíra (the town where I teach...10 km from Sevilla centro) on Friday, I felt pretty confident going out there this morning. The bus ride was very smooth and I met two more auxiliares who were repeating the program and headed to my same town! I bought my bus pass yesterday which is good for all city transportation but I did not realize I had to tell the bus driver he had to type in double credit for my card. I thought it just took the exact amount but because I am going outside of the city, I had to be charged the extra fee. One of the auxiliares who was in his second year helped me out with the whole situation so I could avoid a bunch of angry Spaniards cursing me out for holding up the line. As it turns out, this auxiliar attended both undergrad and grad school at Virginia Tech (my sister Monica would be so happy)! It really is a small world.

I had to depart from the other two auxiliares a few stops before because my school is on the very edge of the town. So I walked to school and saw my coordinator in the teachers' lounge. He told me to go with him and the only thing I had to do was get the students to talk. Well, I walked into the classroom and my coordinator sat down with the students and I taught everyone. My first day...standing in front of the class...running the WHOLE class! I thought there might have been a time where my coordinator stepped in and said thanks Bridget, I will take it from here. But no. It was just me. I actually enjoyed it though! The only difficult part about the day was that I discovered that all of my students were on different levels with their English. I had some students who looked at me like I had two heads when I spoke while others knew exactly what I was saying. I was a little nervous but my coordinator was very happy at the end because I got everyone to say something in English. I did not really look at it as that big of an accomplishment because all I was doing was having a conversation with them along with some speaking activities, but to the Spanish students and their professors seemed very happy to have me there.

After an hour or so my coordinator told me I could go home which I thought was weird. That's it? Work is over for the day? I do not think it will be like this every day because my coordinator is still getting my schedule together but I was shocked I was done.

So I guess overall it was successful. I even got two students to tutor out of it! It was so easy that they came to me so I don't have to go soliciting around town. I was so surprised at how much the people in Spain value the English language. Everyone seemed so fascinated by my culture and language. I envy them because they are fluent in Spanish and they are fascinated by me because I am fluent in English. I guess the saying is true that the grass is always greener on the other side!

I really do think this will be a challenging yet very rewarding and enjoyable year. I am excited to see the progress my students will make throughout the year as well as watch them achieve their personal goals. I know some of them are planning on taking the English test for the university and want all the help they can get and I really want to do my best to prepare them and watch them succeed.

Oh and if anyone was wondering, I did get a "Were there large parties at your university with lots of beer?" question asked by one of my students. I did not know how to explain Penn State's social scene to him without thinking I was a raging alcoholic, but I did not lie. I told him those parties exist, but we like to join clubs, go to class and attend sporting events as well ;)