Ruminations in Spain in the AM

I have had my actual first formal request to post something to this blog a few weeks ago, so I thought I’d throw something up at least for a bit.

I’ve been working as a teacher’s assistant in a small public elementary school in the north of Madrid since January of this year, 2009. Its called Lorenzo Luzuriaga, it took me about as long I’ve worked there to learn how to pronounce the name. I have had to learn how to deal with first graders on a regular basis because the last time I did that, I was one. I’ve really enjoyed my time amongst the kids despite how they can try my patience. I’m left to wonder if I want to keep doing something similar for the rest of my life. Teaching is something that could be really worthwhile and let’s be honest having bunch of weeks off every summer is not entirely unappealing. I can’t say that the subject matter or the age group is something I want to teach again, should I become a teacher but I have enjoyed my time in the land of munchkins.

The thing that is a hang up is that I’ve been thinking about staying in Spain for another year and possibly in Madrid. The problem with that plan is that I missed the deadline to reapply for next year and my school coordinator does not want me back. Not because I’ve done a bad job or failed to show up, but because I’m American. There is also a trumped up charge that I showed up late a few times, which is true but never more then 10 minutes and not more then 3 times in my 4-5 months of working there. As you can see I’m a horrible employee. I just talk to other people I know in my program and some don’t show up for days on end or even do what their schools ask of them. It just sucks because I live in the neighborhood around my school and I really like it. Plus the teachers and the school administration are great compared with some of the horror stories I’ve heard from more seasoned teachers then myself.

Other then work, I’m still trying to find my place in Madrid. It is by far the largest most diverse city I have ever lived in. Boston is great besides it being home, but Madrid is far more international. I’d venture to guess it’s probably the most diverse place in the Spanish-speaking world. Most Spanish speaking countries are represented somewhere in Madrid. I’ve met and hung out with Venezuelans, a few Columbians, and folks from Mexico. There is also people here, including a few of my students, from Ecuador, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic. People from Non-Spanish speaking countries are Asians (predominately Chinese) and Africans. All of the “foreigners” are having trouble finding their place among Spaniards, but the two later groups have the worst of it. It’s a cool town and just last weekend I went out to eat at a Senegalese place which had by far the hottest peppers I’ve ever attempted to put in my mouth.

Since the job I have is finishing toward the end of June, I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my summer. If I want to stay in Spain and sweat it out here (it’s already up to 30C here) or head home or try to live in another part of Europe. One of my coworkers is setting out to possibly head to Germany for the summer and consider how hot its going to be here come July, it doesn’t sound that bad. I also keep wondering about what I would do when I got home, sure there would be my friends and family, but what else would I do other then find a typical summer job. I’d first like to see if I can find something here before I jump the pond, that way I can work on my Spanish over the summer and enjoy Europe. We’ll see how that goes before the money runs out…