Introduction

I know. Just what the internet needs. Another 20 something American in Europe with little to no adult responsibilities babbling on and on about Spanish tapas. But more on those later.

I know some people have taken a mild interest in what my life is like here in Spain and this seems like a great way to provide a little insight. From October to June I will be teaching English in a Spanish high school. I'm not exactly and official teacher. I'm a "cultural and language assistant" for teachers of English or other bilingual classes such as science, P.E., and music. I plan small activities, help with things like pronunciation, and generally just try to communicate as much as possible in english so the kids can have as much exposure with a native speaker as possible.

The program is done through the Spain's Ministry of Education. They accept around 2,000 recent college graduates a year from mostly from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., and to a lesser extent from other European countries who will assist in teaching their given native languages. When applying you're given the option of choosing three preferential regions (basically like states), an urban or rural site, and whether you would like to work with younger or older kids. I was given my first choice of working in the region of Andalucia (the southern most region) and was able to work with older kids. My actual teaching site, however, is very rural. It's a small town of around 2,500 people (nearly 6,000 using the metric system!) in northeastern Andalucia called La Puerta de Segura. At times, I would definitely prefer something a little bigger where there are more things to do and I could be a bit more anonymous. However, everyone I've met has been very friendly and willing to help me with whatever I needed. All and all, I'm happy to be here.

That's it for now. Don't worry, I'll get to tapas soon enough.

If there's anything you would like to know about, leave a comment and I'll try to work it in to a later blog.