After all the craziness of moving to another country about a week after receiving the job offer, I feel like I’ve neglected this blog a bit. Half written posts are still only half written, and I haven’t had a new post idea in weeks. But ah well. So I decided to just write a little update of my life, which is basically me gushing about my new home.
Burgos is as pretty as I expected it to be, if not more so. The Gothic cathedral is huge and stunning, there are lots of lovely old architecture, and I have been around a couple of museums and the cathedral (shamefully without my camera), with plenty more to see. Plus it has an abundance of cute cafes and bars with ridiculously low prices – you can’t expect to get food for cheaper if you buy the ingredients in a super market and make the food yourself! I’m still a committed tea drinker, only rarely I have a cafe con leche.
It’s cold here! I think I have ended up in the coldest city in Spain (typical). On mornings and evenings I’m snuggled into my winter coat, but sometimes in the afternoon it still gets really warm and then I’m boiling in my winter coat.
The people I have met so far are super nice – there are quite a few English teachers in the city which is awesome, and the company I work for and the school I work at have been utterly helpful and welcoming. I will be teaching infants, primary, and secondary aged kids on alternating weeks. This week I was with primary kids who can be hyper and hard to control (luckily that’s the main teachers job!) but they are very sweet. I have even been given a Pokemon card and drawings to welcome me! The younger ones love saying hello when I pass them, and I hear them explain to their parents I’m the “profesora de ingles”, and it’s nice to see the parents looking happy and impressed with them greeting me in English. It’s interesting that some schools in Spain are bilingual, so I assist in classes that are taught in English. In my school it’s English (obviously), art and p.e., so wish me luck because I have to attend p.e. lessons 5 years after I thought I was done with them!
Right now I’m trying to find a Spanish class at my level I can attend, as my Spanish is even worse than I thought. I’ve even eyed up a dance school that teaches flamenco, but with my two left feet it might be better to avoid. We’ll see.
So yes, first impressions are two thumbs up. Spain is a wonderful country, and a friend from back home came to visit and she commented on how I seem much more relaxed. Which can never be a bad thing!
Inside a Mind 