Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Wow...it's been a while

This post is dedicated to Hailey Apter.

Wow, so it's been a long time since I've posted. I haven't been living up to my goals of blog posting, but it my new month's resolution to get better. I'm sorry! Thanks Hailey for kicking my butt :).

So...as you can imagine, some things have happened from the time I first wrote (those crazy days of staying in a hostel, looking for an apartment, not knowing anything about the city other than the Sol metro stop, trying to get a cell phone is spite of Spanish siesta times, etc.) I have found an apartment with two wonderful roomates named Ricardo and Alex, two journalism students at the complutense *pictures to come.

I'm living in Batan, a little suburby area that about 10-15 minutes to the center by metro, a little sad that I can't walk into the center but I'm getting a lot of reading done during the ride! Also, my room is nice and big and I have a pretty view from my window. Again, the roomates make it all worth it.

I'm teaching in a bilingual school in Boadilla del Monte, a small town about 45 minutes from my apartment. I teach the 12 and 14 year olds, and I help out with all different types of classes (technology to science to history). It's pretty insane the level of English these kids already have, and the fact that they're learning all of their subject material in a different language is kind of unreal. In addition, I'm helping the older kids on Model UN. Every year in February we have a model UN conference in Madrid. These kids are going to represent a country and go to the model UN this year, speaking the whole time in English. How exciting!

Also, I'm trying to get a couple of projects done while I'm here. I would like to start a bilingual magazine (which is much facilitated by the fact that I have two journalists as roomies). I would also like to work on a project about immigration dialogue in schools, since immigration is becoming a big problem in Spain and they don't seem to know how to handle it.

I want to take a salsa class--not done yet--as well as sit in on a class at the university, but, as the Spanish say...poco a poco. I mean, I have an apartment, a bank account, and I just went through the final procedure to get my NIE spanish identification card today, so I feel like I'm on the right track.

All in all I'm feeling very busy but satisfied. I really love Madrid and it is a great city to live in. Also, the other fulbrighters are incredibly sweet people, and I'm even meeting other Spaniards/ people from other countries.

This is going to be a memorable year, I know that for sure.

P.S. I went to Valencia last weekend. Check out pictures on facebook!

1 comment:

Hailey said...

YAYYY! Thanks for updating and dedicating to me! I love to hear about your awesome life and be super jealous.

<3 Hailey