Sofia Somewhere

My classes so far in school have been so-so. I've had a few pretty great classes, and a few not so great ones. As I mentioned in this post , as an auxiliar we technically are not supposed to teach a class, just assist. In the Philosophy, Science, Geography, and P.E. classes I assist in, the class mainly consists a worksheet with texts and activities and/or questions to answer at the end. We usually read the text as a class - one volunteer per paragraph, and I correct the students' pronunciation - and then we go over the vocabulary they don't understand. Sometimes the teachers ask the students to translate the text to Spanish, to see if they understand. After, they usually answer the questions individually, calling on me if they need any help with vocabulary. For History and English Project, the students are tasked with doing a report/presentation on a selected topic. They work in pairs or in a group. In these classes I just go around the classroom and help those who ca...

Just this weekend, Lyle and I headed to Madrid to visit our friend Julie who's also doing the same program there, and because I had to pick up a few stuff. When we got to Madrid, the first thing on our agenda was to hit up the Pinoy store. We were only really looking for some soy sauce, but we couldn't help ourselves and bought more stuff. (I really wanted some corned beef, but it was so expensive. Maybe next time.) Our Pinoy stash Lyle and I actually missed our bus to Madrid (by 10 minutes! The bus to the bus station was going really slow). But we were able to change our bus ticket for just €5, which wasn't too bad. So we arrived in Madrid at almost 6pm already. After visiting the Filipino store we had some dinner, then met up with Pablo, one of my sister Angela's really good friends from London, who's currently doing an internship in Madrid. 

While walking around Granada, I notice graffiti every now and then. This for example, is down the street from where I live. So I decided to do some Googling, and was surprised to learn that Granada had such a big street art scene. And since I do love street art, I decided to do some research on where most of the street art is concentrated, and walk around. It was such a beautiful day out. We headed past the park and walked up to the  Realejo  quarter (we live just at the bottom of Realejo, near the Center), which was once the Jewish neighborhood. At the time of the Nasrids rule, there was a huge Jewish population in Granada. Realejo is on the hill/mountainside, and is full of steep, narrow cobblestone streets. Its whitewashed walls were perfect canvases for street art. It was such a beautiful day The city actually has a famous street artist, Raúl Ruiz, nicknamed "El Niño de las Pinturas." Most of the graffiti in Granada is done by him; they're quite co...

Last Monday, the Philosophy teacher at school, Fulgencio, warned me that we might not have class today since the students were at strike. True enough, none of the students showed up today. I still had classes yesterday because I taught in 1º and 2º de ESO. Today, none of the kids in my bachillerato class showed up. In my 3ºA class, I had 3 students, and in my 3ºB class I had 4. I asked the students why they weren't on strike and they told me that they didn't receive permission from their parents. (Those under 16 years old need permission to strike.) The 1º and 2º are too young, and none of them are on strike. Most of the 3º were able to go on strike, and all of the 4º and bachillerato students were absent. Though the teachers have been telling me that most of the students are absent not because they're actually protesting but because they want the 3 day vacation (kids will be kids). The 4 students in my 3ºB class

Last Sunday, Elisa, Paula, Orla and I decided to take advantage of the good weather and go for a hike. (Speaking of, the weather in Granada is so strange! The week before it was cold every day for a week (it would dip to 12º in the mornings and 14-15º in the afternoons), while last week it was hot (26-28º in the afternoons). The mother of the two boys I tutor joked that it's either really cold or really hot, never in between.) It was pretty hot out that day, maybe 28-30º, but the heat wasn't unbearable. We originally wanted to go up to Beas de Granada, a small village in the north-east of Granada and trek down the 16km. (We found a trekking website that gives a detailed explanation of the route to take). Unfortunately it was a Sunday, and there were no buses running on a Sunday (much like how half the city shuts down, because, well that's Spain for you). Instead we decided to trek up (do the reverse of the detailed route) maybe halfway and then come back down again. The...

When we first moved into our apartment, we didn't have much food. Our fridge looked like this - that's my bottle of taba ng talangka from back home. We went grocery shopping that afternoon, and for our first dinner at home I bought a bottle of wine and cooked some lentejas . Blurry pic of our first dinner at home

Last Saturday we decided to head to the beach while we still could - that is while the weather was still nice and it's not too cold. We took a day trip to Nerja , a small town on the Costa del Sol . It's actually part of Málaga province, but is just 2 hours from Granada by bus. Lyle and I actually missed the morning bus, so we got there in the afternoon, but with still enough time to enjoy the city. The forecast said that the sun would be out, but it actually rained on and off the whole time we were there. Despite that, we still managed to enjoy. It was raining when we arrived in the city, but we were able to find Elisa (our roommate) and two other Irish girls we met the day before, Paula and Orla. We ducked into a café to get away from the rain, and Lyle and I had a late lunch. Paula and Orla had to leave a bit after (they had been there since the morning), but Elisa, Lyle and I went about the city. The light wasn't great because of the grey skies, but it's prett...

Now that we're finally settled down in our apartment, we've gone out a few times to explore the city. On one afternoon we walked to Plaza Nueva , which is one the main (touristy) squares near Albayzín . The Albayzín is one of the districts in the city, and is actually a World Heritage Site since it still maintains its Moorish influences. Popular in this area are narrow winding streets, and along these streets you'll find many tourist shops as well as teterías (tea places). We visited this one tetería that Lyle had already gone to before. It had such chill vibes and was decorated really prettily. We enjoyed relaxing here and trying some of their tea. Pretty interiors I tried the "tunecino" tea which was black tea with a hint of vanilla

Aside from an apartment, the three other important things I'd be needing for life here was a phone number, a bank account, and my NIE and TIE. Luckily our apartment came with wifi already set up (and included in the rent!), so we didn't have to worry about that. 1. Getting a phone number Getting a sim card and phone number was easy and took all but five minutes (all you need is your passport number). After researching a bit on the different phone carriers and plans, I went with Orange . I'm on a prepaid plan and for €10 a month I get 1gb of data. Most people here in Spain use WhatsApp, so you don't really need load/credit for texting. I had unlocked my iPhone back home, but unfortunately it didn't work here in Spain with the Orange sim. So as of now, I'm currently not using my Spanish number, and still waiting for a friend's mom to bring me a phone when she visits Madrid at the end of the month. (Smartphones here are crazy expensive, even the secondha...

The days leading up to my departure for Spain were crazy. I was running last minute errands (buying things I'd need for Spain, activating my cards, emailing my coordinator, etc.), meeting up with friends, and packing (and unpacking and repacking). I finally left Manila on the evening of the 28th, and after a change of plans in Taiwan and another stopover in Amsterdam, I landed in Madrid noon of the 29th. I took the cercanías train to the Estación Sur de Autobuses and met up with Julie, who's doing the same program but in Madrid. We had lunch together while waiting for my bus, then I was finally off to Granada. Five hours later, I arrived! Lyle was already in Granada (had been for a few days) so she picked me up at the bus station and we headed to the hostel. We had some delicious sangría and tapas and then called it a night, ready for the next day. Since Lyle had already been in Granada for a few days, she had already messaged a few people and visited a few apartments. ...

I'm back in Spain, settling down slowly in Granada. I just finished my first week of work and now that things are a little less hectic, I thought I'd take the time to write my first entry to restart this blog. I'm here in Spain for 8 months under the Auxiliares de Conversación program. Back in March, I (and my other coursemates in U.P.) received an email from one of my professors inviting us to apply to the program. I took this description from the info sheet they gave us when we were applying. The language and culture assistants programme is an initiative of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, devoted to providing scholarships for university students (majoring in any subject, but preferably in Languages and Education) and graduates with proficiency in Spanish. The Assistants will have the opportunity to teach English in Spain in primary and secondary education and in Official Schools of Languages for a full academic year, from October to May/June...