Spain Day 3:

Monday! First day of work in my language assistant program. Today I went to both schools that I will be working at and introduced myself to the teachers and children. With the help of one English speaking T.A, Ana, we went from class to class where she introduced me and I fielded some questions from the students. We started with the youngest classes, 3rd graders, and went all the way up to the 6th graders. The most common questions were in reference to my favorite color or sport or food. Most of the kids were pretty shy but I attribute that to any time a large unfamiliar black guy shows up at this school in Malgrat. The kids are very funny and I'm sure they will come out of their shell soon enough, they better because I'll be teaching them.

The school system here is interesting because the students start at 9AM and go until 1PM then they go home and come back from 3PM to 5PM. To me this is very interesting because it's not at all like home and the teachers have to be mindful of a gap in the middle of the day. Plus school doesn't end until 5PM!! Can you imagine being in a 3rd grade class until 5 at night? Then again dinner isn't usually until 9 or 10 at night so it's not so bad.

After leaving the primary school I walked over to the secondary school where the kids range from 12-18. I didn't enter the classrooms there to avoid the commotion that the older kids are bound to make when I do. I met with several of the teachers and had lunch with them as well. As we ate lunch there were two old nuns that used to work in the school and when they heard me speak Spanish they were quite surprised. I told them that my goal was to get a lot better at Spanish and the immediately said that I could practice with them. It was more of a command than a nice gesture but I'll take it. I'm not gonna mess with a nun plus I get more practice. Win win.

I left the school after lunch and grabbed tea with two of the teachers that are my guides. Both speak english and collaborate with me on the gameplan for teaching english.

For those that don't know what exactly I'm doing over here I can explain. I admit I was a bit confused myself early on. Basically I am an assistant to the English language development program. I help a few teachers each day for about an hour as I rotate between the classrooms and grade levels. I'm responsible for making a few lesson plans and helping them find the best way to teach English. It's difficult because the students have no one to practice their speech with so me being here is a type of trial run the will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of assistants like myself.

Oh well I'm excited to actually start teaching tomorrow but not going to bed until after I watch the Breaking Bad finale. It's Heisenberg time. Till the next time.

That language barrier is coming down! (Hopefully)

Spain Day 2:


After getting plenty of sleep Saturday night Sunday arrived and the plan for the day was to meet up with the other people in the program and have an orientation of sorts with the program director. After breakfast Marga, Joan, and I set off for Girona where the meeting was to be held.

The meeting included the other eight participants in the program and the goal was to conduct an orientation of sorts. We went over the basic expectations for the program participants then the other host families arrived to greet the others. I had arrived a day early so of course I spent the previous night with my host family. The other participants were very interesting. Some were from the UK and some were from USA so it was good to hear some english for a change.

After the meeting we drove back to Malgrat then SIESTA. I was still feeling jetlagged and tired in general from all the goings on. Around 5oclock Ruben took me to explore the beach area and we walked down toward the beach clubs and restaurants. The beach looks amazing pretty much any time you step outside to look at it and today was no exception. We stopped at one beach club for a few cervezas and conversation. Ruben basically doesn't speak English so into the fire that is full conversation in Spanish I went. It wasn't so bad though although I do admit all the Spanish and Catalan can be quite overwhelming.

Pretty relaxing afternoon

After the drinks we explored some of the other beach clubs that were still in restaurant mode and they all seemed like good spots to go on the weekends. We walked around until about 8oclock then went back to relax until dinner. So far Marga has been making some amazing dishes so I look foward to each meal.

Cool beach club 

I spent the night resting up for the first day of work and uploaded some pictures while I was at it. All in all it was a great weekend and first venture into life in Spain. I don't know what else to expect but I'll try to take it one day at a time.

Spain Day 1:

My first day in Spain was pretty amazing, despite feeling super jetlagged and being awake for almost 36 hours straight.

Waiting for flight #1

I Flew from SFO to Miami then had a four hour layover. From Miami I flew to Barcelona.

The flights were pretty smooth save for some turbulence near the end of the Miami to Barca flight. I think that turbulence should really be renamed because for the unsuspecting passenger mere "turbulence" doesn't do it justice. Over the years I've become accustomed to it and just pretend I'm on a roller coaster of something of the like because if you're gonna go you might as well be thinking you're on a roller coaster and not a flying metal tube of doom. The PA system should just go ahead and be honest in saying that "folks we're going to be hitting a patch of near death in a minute, please buckle your seat belts." Or maybe that's just me.

Landed safe in Barca.

I didn't have to wait long for the people from my program to find me and after I got some money from the ATM we went off to the next terminal to wait for the next participant to arrive. Because my host mom was feeling under the weather, the people greeting me were Syliva (my main contact through all of this) and Josep (the program coordinator). We walked over to Terminal 2 where Alana, a girl from Ireland was supposed to be arriving around 10:30. My flight got in an hour early and since we had a little extra time we stopped to grab a bite to eat. After talking for a bit we walked back into the terminal and proceeded to wait. 

 dinero en mano

Part of the welcome committee

After we made sure Alana and her host family were all set Sylvia, Josep, and I went to the car and drove into Barcelona. They had to stay near the airport for the day as more participants flew in and they wanted me to see the city before I drove to Malgrat that night so the called a girl called Jessica to be my tour guide for the day. Jessica is a student from the UK and she is doing her compulsory year abroad in Barcelona as she studies Spanish. She wasn't really expecting to give a pop tour that day but she was a trooper about it. Apparently she had been out partying till around six that morning but she was really cool in showing me around Barcelona. 

We saw many of the main attractions unique to Spain included la Sagrada familia, camp nou, and el estadio olympico. We must have walked at least three miles altogether in combination with the buses and trolleys. Overall the views and atmosphere was crazy cool and I did my best to take everything it. It can be a bit overwhelming for a traveler as they are bombarded with sights, sounds, and potential pick pockets all around you. 

Lunch time! Pizza burger

Site of the 92' Olympics

After a busy day of flying, walking, and sightseeing it was finally time to drive to Malgrat. Jessica was helping out with the program introduction in Girona so met back up with Josep and Sylvia and Josep. After about an hour drive I finally got to meet up with my host family. They are awesome and really nice. The mom (Marga) constantly insists that I tell her if I want more food or to immediately tell her if I don't like any food she makes. It's all been delicious so far. By this point I was beyond tired and the jetlag had settled in nicely. I took a shower and unpacked then hit the hay. A very successful day in my book, I mean who can say they step off the plane and get a free guided tour of Barcelona?? I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to such a beautiful city and country.

Siesta time. More updates and pictures on the way.

Once again I'm back at the task of packing up for a trip to the other side of the world. However, this time instead of a week long trek through Osaka, it's a 9 month journey through Catalonia and beyond. I figured I would meet the 50lb weight requirement from American Air no problem but after the first time packing and seeing 55 pop up on the scale I knew that I'd have to scale back. I feel like I was packing light the first time but I swear my shoes must be extra dense.

 

 The checked bag ended up being something like 50.2 pounds at the airport so that was a relief and I'm glad that I could fit everything in one bag that I needed clothes wise. I'll probably do a video later on what I should and should not have have brought with me. The carry on bag and backpack were much easier because I didn't have much left to pack and I knew they wouldn't weigh them

.

 The carry on ended up being about 30 pounds and the backpack was around 20, so all in all I was toting around close to 300 pounds! It wasn't so bad though as American sent my checked bag from SFO all the way to BCN for me (props to them) and with my four hour layover in Miami I didn't have to rush to make the next flight. I hope that everything I brought will be used and used well so I don't regret using precious space for it. All in all it went well and despite having the heaviest backpack I've ever carried it was worth it to get to the destination well prepared.

OFF TO BEAUTIFUL CATALONIA!!

That's in Barcelona, Spain for all you non geography buffs out there. In less than 12 hours I'll be off into the sunset to start my near year long journey. Hopefully in addition to my teaching internship where I'll be sure to teach as much as I'm taught, I can pair up some amazing adventures along the way. However, before we dive into that I feel like I should recap the last few months and especially the hodgepodge of unfortunate events leading up to me getting my Visa, but we'll get to that. This past summer I worked at a sports camp making money and using a large portion of that money to pay for rent. The real world hits you hard once you see those rent checks start leaving your hand but it's all good and the house I stayed in was awesome so no complaints. The summer was comprised mostly of work and sleep but I had fun. Toward the end of the summer I was focusing more on getting my documents together for a meeting at the consulate to apply for my Visa. Little did I know how difficult the process would turn out to be.


CONSULATE APPOINTMENT #1 My first appointment was in July, plenty of time before my September departure date, so I thought. I gathered up all my documents and the required funds to apply and drove up to San Francisco. When I spoke to the representative at the window for my appointment things went smoothly enough until one of the final documents. Sidenote: The people at the consulate can sometimes come off as insensitive or cold, but just a piece of advice don't take it the wrong way some of the things in how they talk can comes off as mean when translated to English. They don't mean to sound harsh, I hope. Further advice is to make sure you have everything they list on the Visa application form. Serious double, triple check because it's really no fun driving back and forth to the consulate as your departure date looms. Anyway this appointment ended with the lady telling me I needed to get a different type of Visa despite my clear indication that I would need a student Visa. No amount of pleading would convince her otherwise and I was sent packing.


CONSULATE APPOINTMENT #2 Immediately after the first failed appointment I scheduled another because they have limited meeting times. The next one was for August and I was thinking to myself I still have plenty of time before my flight late in September. I went back over all of my documents and called my contact in Spain to make sure everything was good. I trekked back up to the consulate and met with someone new this time and I had hoped this time it would go more smoothly. The guy looked over all of my documents and once again we were almost through to the end but he said that I was missing a stamp on one of my documents. In my head I was thinking this guys can't be serious and that luckily there's a glass pane between us. He said that my background check, already approved by the FBI, needed to be approved once more by the Secretary of state. Luckily he took all of the documents that were ready and gave me a reference number so that all I had to do was get this document signed and bring it back no appointment necessary. At this point I'm thinking that I may not ever get these documents processed yet alone make it onto my flight.


CONSULATE APPOINTMENT #3 A few more weeks go by as I had sent in  the background check to the office in Washington, DC but when I got the mail back it was just a note saying sorry "sent to wrong location." They essentially wasted two weeks of my time just to send back a note saying that I mailed it in to the wrong place. I definitely learned a lot about the government and how much extra time to give things to process. It wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't taken so long or I knew that you had to get the certification done in your home state. (All you future Visa applicants out there had better be taking notes). Also this was frustrating because by the time this came in the mail my flight was two and a half weeks away. I took it for what it was and accepted that I couldn't change the facts then took the document on a journey to Sacramento where I could get the stamp I needed in person. The waiting time for mail in Apostille stamps in about a week and I didn't have the time or patience at this point to risk that.

Off to see the secretary of State

What's funny about this whole process, which I currently reminded myself, is that I was doing all this driving around and panicking and throwing things all for a single sheet of paper. I think the laughter is what kept me sane throughout this process. Also funny was that after three weeks of trying to get this paper stamped the stamp process took about three minutes to finish. More laughter. So now I set off back to the consulate full of confidence that this was the last step on my road to having a Visa in hand. Can you guess what happened next? I get to the consulate and yet again another form was mysteriously in need of adjustment. When the lady said that I'd have to come back again I just about lost it and thew the table through the window. Luckily there was a little girl playing with some dolls next to me and I didn't want to traumatize her. I calmly exchanged one fixed document for a "damaged" one and headed home.

CONSULATE APPOINTMENT #4 The aforementioned document detailed my health status and indicated that I didn't have any infections diseases. Even though at the first meeting this document was just fine apparently things change from employee to employee. Appointment #3 was on a Monday so I drove back from SF to Stanford. Literally the only thing wrong with the documents was the fact that the words "International Health Regulations 2005" were not on the page. Even though it said I don't have any diseases, that didn't matter I just needed those four words. I tried looking online to find the document to no avail. So just in case any Spanish government officials are reading this, let's just say I had to pull a play out of the bag of tricks to get this done. After that I went to find the doctor in sports med that signed off on my paper the first time. And to my elation he was on leave. Great. So now I'm asking the front desk to ask literally anyone with M.D after their name to sign these papers for me. Luckily one of the other doctors was in and he got a nice laugh out of the story I told him as to why I had to have these documents singed yet again. The next day, 15 days before my flight, I went back to SF and to my astonishment they took the documents. Every last one. #win

Monday September 23 - Visa in Hand

Tuesday September 24 - Day of Celebration 

Friday September 27 - Spain!