Sofia Somewhere

For my second time around doing the auxiliar de conversación program, I opted for a change of scenery. I lived in the north (Pamplona) back in 2008, and then in the south (Granada) last school year, so I went for something more central this time around. I originally wanted Madrid, but Filipinos aren't allowed to choose Madrid for the program, so I chose the next nearby thing: Castilla y León . Time rolled by and the next thing I knew I was assigned to Valladolid . My school is actually in Arroyo de la Encomienda , another city, but still in the Valladolid province. But it's very close to Valladolid city, a mere 8km away, or a 15 minute bus ride. There isn't much in Arroyo, so I chose to live in Valladolid, and make the commute everyday (the bus is €1,40 one way, which isn't too bad). Life in Valladolid is quiet and simple. It's a decent sized city, good for comfortable living, but there's not much to do . It has its fair share of shops, bars, restaurants, a...

Four months have come and gone without a blogpost (I can be terrible at updating this), but here's a quick message to say that I've renewed for another year doing the Auxiliar de Conversación program, and I'm currently in Valladolid! Now that I've settled in quite a bit, the next step would be to get this blog up and running again. Stay tuned :)

Last Friday, a friend of Lyle's colleaguem MJ, invited us to join one of the activities in the school where she works. We had met her before, and had talked about it a bit, and we were happy to go for the day. She warned us that the school we were going to was very different from the schools we were teaching at. The school, IES La Paz, is located in the worst neighborhood in Granada, and it's one of the worst schools not only in Granada, but also in Andalucía. The school is 'bad' not because of the facilities or the teachers, but rather because of the students. The school building is actually quite big and well maintained. They have a basketball court and a football field (something my school doesn't even have). They do receive a lot of money from the government, but they have very few students in the school because nobody really wants to go there. They only have a total of 40 students at the school, and with 20 teachers, it's practically a 2:1 ratio. Unfortunat...

On January 30, my school celebrated the "School Day of Peace and Non-violence." It was founded in 1964 by Llorenç Vidal, a Spanish poet, and is now celebrated in schools all over the world. Its basic message goes, "Universal Love, Non-violence and Peace. Universal Love is better than egoism. Non-violence is better than violence. Peace is better than war." Throughout the week the different classes in my school learned about several peace efforts, and decorated the school with posters, paper cranes, and poems. They also had a short program that they did on the 30th (which I missed since I didn't have work that day).  Decorations in the lobby Update 1: The program didn't push through last Friday, so they had it today (Monday). The students just made short speeches and did their usual reading poems and phrases about peaces, and sang a few songs. Aside from the program, the 3º de ESO in my school went to Alfacar on the 29th to do do an activ...

One of the Spanish songs sung at the radio program was "No dudaría" by Rosario Flores . I was able to video Marina singing a part of it. I wish I had videod the whole thing because it's quite a beautiful song. (Lyrics and translation after the video!)

Life back in Granada has been... cold. The temperature has stayed below 8ºC the past few weeks, and my second week back, it rained pretty much everyday making it even colder. Not much has really happened this month. I've been keeping indoors trying to stay warm (trying since our cold apartment has no central heating). Nevertheless, a few happenings from this month: - The Pope's visit to the Philippines made Granada's local newspaper! There was a short article on his visit particularly the last mass he celebrated. - In my history class with the 4º de ESO, their current topic is imperialism and colonisation. After reading an English excerpt, the teacher proceeded to discuss the lesson in Spanish. I zoned off for a bit, and the next thing I knew the teacher was asking me to say something about Pope Francis' visit to the Philippines. I admittedly wasn't paying much attention (oops), but I did manage to say something about the Pope, Catholicism in the Philippines...

As the city has getting ready for Christmas, so has my school. We had a little belén  and a Christma tree set up by the main entrance. This December, the school also had a small Christmas card making contest. The cards could either be in Spanish, English or French (which is the other language taught in the school). There were a lot of really nice ones and several extra creative ones. Strangely, there was also one Valentine's day card and one Grandmother's day card.

So yesterday was Thanksgiving, and for one of my English classes I did the presentation on Philippine holidays and festivals since we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in the Philippines. To introduce what I was going to talk about, the teacher went on to ask the class what day it was. (Note that I alternate Week A & B so I see this class every other week, but I didn't see them 2 weeks ago since they had a conference to attend). Teacher: So what day is it today?  Student 1: November 27.  Teacher: Ok, yes, but it's the 4th Thursday of the month. What happens?  Student 2: Sofi comes! We all had a good laugh and it was a fun way to start the class. And after my presentation they all gave me a round of applause which was surprising, but nice. It felt good to be appreciated, especially by the older students. Although Spain doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, I do have an American flatmate. So a couple days back Elisa and her friend Katie planned to host a Thanksgivin...

Because Thanksgiving is approaching (and most of the previous auxiliares have been American), the English teacher at school for the b achillerato class asked me if we celebrated Thanksgiving in the Philippines and if I could prepare a presentation on it. I told her we didn't celebrate it back home, and instead we decided that I'd talk about holidays and festivals in the Philippines. For holidays I chose Independence Day and the EDSA Revolution , and for festivals I stuck to the bigger ones like Ati-Atihan, MassKara, Santacruzan , etc. I actually bought a deck of "Philippine Festivals" flash cards from National Bookstore before I left so I used the information on those cards, googled a bit more additional information, and downloaded some pictures to go on the powerpoint. I had a good time researching some of the festivals, and was particularly trying to find some relation between Spain and the festivals, or the influence the Spanish had on these festivals when they...

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...

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

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...