Back for Round 2

The transition back into la vida española has been crazy, seamless, and so much fun.

New apartment and barrio:

I arrived on Thursday at 7am and, as expected, a nice gentleman carried BOTH my bags out of the Tribunal metro steps for me (80 lbs in total).  I saw 2 apartments on Thursday, 1 apartment on Friday, and was moved into a piso by Saturday at 6pm.  The apartment is a microscopic 5 bedroom, 1.5 bath, and a 5^th floor walk-up, but I couldn’t be happier with it.  It’s two and a half blocks from the Argüelles metro stop, my door-to-door commute to work is only 40 minutes, and my roommates are an amazing motley crew.

New job:

My new school is in Alcorcón.  It’s a GIANT Catholic school with over 1,000 students.  It runs from infantil to bachillerato, but the auxiliares only work with classes from pre-school to 7^th grade.  I’ve got four 1^st grade classes, four 2^nd grade classes, and one 7^th grade class.  The way the bilingual program at this new school works is that the teacher takes half the class and the auxiliar has the other half, so I have complete independence to carry out the hour anyway I want.  I meet with my two teachers once a week, so we can coordinate what I have to cover for the chapter, but I have so much more creative freedom than I had in the public school.  The only negative part; we’re required to take a 3 hour “postgrado” class every Monday at the Comillas University campus in Cantoblanco.  It. Is. A. Pain. 

Arroyomolinos:

I still go back to Arroyomolinos twice a week to tutor my three favorite girls from last year.  It’s a bit of a pain in the butt because there’s no direct transport between the two towns, but it’s worth it for the amount of love I get in return!  For the month of September, most Spanish schools are still on the summer schedule, so I get out of work between 1pm and 2pm (with more than enough time to take the train to Mostoles and the bus to Arroyomolinos) and start tutoring at 3pm.  Once the full schedule starts in October, I’ll get out of work at 4:30pm, take the train down to El Soto, and Isa will pick me up!!! I’ve got it made, for sure.  In addition to paying me for the classes, Isa and Gemma are paying for the difference between a B1 and B3 metropass every month (so it won’t be any extra cost to me for the commute), AND I basically get a home cooked dinner twice a week. I LOVE IT.

Free time:

Well, it looks like my genius plan to tutor, take Italian lessons, take dance lessons, and attend the Comillas course, was a big fat failure.  I am EXHAUSTED at the end of the day, so for now it’s going to be just tutoring and Comillas.  Once we get our student I.D. cards from Comillas (the ONLY perk to having to attend that course) I’ll be able to get into the gym at their campus in my neighborhood…but who knows if they’ll have dance classes that even fit my schedule. 

I’ve gone out so much in the past two weeks with my roommates and new guiri friends.  I’ve already decided that I’m going to England over Christmas to spend the holiday with my co-worker from Manchester, visit an old co-worker who also lives there, make my way down to London to visit a guy I met in Italy and a girl I met last Saturday who was only in Madrid for the weekend. Then, there are the 3 people I know in France who obviously will need a visit in October!
This is going to be a good year!