Rollercoaster

One day, a group of students are staring blankly at you, wondering what you are saying. On that same day, it rains for the first time in over a month, you forget how to speak Spanish (and English for that matter), and everything goes wrong. You question your decision. So many small problems could have easily been fixed if you would have just stayed in your country, speaking English and living the day to day life you have always known.

Other days, the students are laughing and having a conversation with you, your English and Spanish are both perfect and you understand what everyone is saying. The bus arrives on time, the Spanish people are helpful and you never, ever want to leave Sevilla.

Sounds about right. Yes, life here is in fact a rollercoaster. As the saying goes, you really do learn something new every day. In my experience here during study abroad and now, I think I have learned more about life than I have ever learned in a classroom. Here, I struggle with something every day whether it is something big like speaking to Spanish parents about why their child might not be understanding something in one of my classes to remembering the word for "chicken breast" when I go to the butcher. When I struggle, I sometimes think, "This would be so much easier in the United States!" Or "If that person would just speak English, my life would be a lot easier!" But then I think about how much I need this experience for myself, for my future. Because, after all, life is what you make of it.

So after the whole "rollercoaster" lead into this blog post, I will finally get down to a day in the life of a Language and Culture Assistant in Spain.

My week here begins on Monday mornings and ends on Thursday. I take either the 8:15 or 9:15 bus in the mornings depending on my schedule. I have three classes a day, four days a week. Sounds easy, right? Yes, I love where I work and I love my schedule, but it is far from easy. I spend about six of those hours in the classroom. I teach English conversation courses in the high school and I teach lessons in the "Trasnporte y Comercio" ciclo of the school. What is a ciclo? Well a ciclo is basically equivalent to a 2 year college or an associates degree. People who are in the ciclo have completed high school (even though the ciclo classes are in a high school) and they will go straight to work after the two years or attend the university to continue their studies. So I have a mix of classes and topics and students with so many different levels of English. When I am not in the classroom, I am working with English professors to help them improve their reading, writing and speaking abilities. Oh, and my whole day consists of speaking. Speaking, speaking and speaking. Whether it be English->Spanish, Spanish->English, all English with some people, all Spanish with others, and Spanglish. Oh beautiful, wonderful, Spanglish. It works wonders.

When I return home for siesta (the mid day break for lunch, resting, etc.), I eat lunch and run, relax or prepare lessons for the week. Around 7 pm, my day picks up again. Mondays through Thursdays, I teach English in an after school club in my neighborhood. The classes are from 7:30-8:30 pm, and as in the high school, my students are on so many different levels which is challenging. At 9 pm, I am usually back in my house, eating dinner and getting ready to go out to grab a drink with friends, or recently, just finishing lesson plans and going to bed.

Sounds pretty uneventful, right? But I have actually really been enjoying this experience because each day is sooooo different. Honestly, not one day here has been the same. Yes, my routine is the same more or less, but you never know what kind of questions the teachers and students are going to have for you or completing tasks you know you SHOULD do but have been too LAZY to do. For example, today, I FINALLY went to get a library card. It was a pain having to go do it and learn all the rules about the library from a Spanish librarian, but it opened up so many new resources for me like free wifi and teaching materials. There are also copy machines and printers (like most libraries) which is good because I do not have access to those resources in my piso, where I live.

All in all, everything is one big rollercoaster. I wake up knowing that the day I am about to experience will definitely not be like any one I have ever experienced before. But that's what makes this whole thing so great!