Last Day Before Break!

Oh how I love La Semana Santa. Easter is a huge holiday here because a large majority of the people are Catholic. There have been processions all week, and many more to come. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make it to any of them because they all happen really late at night, and I'm too much of a wimp to stay up late enough to see them! ha! But the best part about all of this is that schools get a week and a half break! From tomorrow (Thursday, March 28) until Sunday, April 7, we don't have school. What a lovely break for us :) It is a bit sad, though, because today will be my last day with the first grade classes. These little guys are simply adorable and I have so loved their eagerness to learn! It's been a learning experience for both me and the classes; I have struggled through my Spanish and they have struggled through their English, but I am proud to say that after about one week together, we have all improved! Hopefully my Spanish just keeps getting better. 
Tonight I'm supposed to go out with some of the teachers! They want to take me out for dinner (or tapas, I'm not sure) and to show me a little around town. I really hope this is still the plan because that would be a lot of fun! 
Leslie and I will be traveling a lot during break. We leave for Rome on Friday evening, and will be staying there until Tuesday. Then we leave for Bremen, Germany and will stay until Thursday. Finally, we will fly to Paris and stay until Saturday. It is taking everything I have in me not to be completely freaking out right now! I'm extremely excited for our excursion--I've always wanted to travel around Europe, and now I am!! How amazing! 
I leave you with a picture from Toledo--one of the girls and I as we attempted to pose in front of the amazing scenery of the city. I'm really growing to love these girls--we have so much fun together and I can't wait to see where our next adventures take us!

 

First Weekend!

My first full weekend in Spain was a complete success :) Two of the girls and I went to Toledo (pronounced Toe-Lay-Doe for all you Americans out there haha) yesterday. IT WAS GORGEOUS!! I was so proud of us for figuring out the Renfe (train) and getting ourselves from Avila to Toledo. We left the Residencia at 6:15ish AM and we hopped on the 6:50 train to Chamartin in Madrid. Then we bought tickets to Atocha (also in Madrid, just a bigger station with more destinations), and from Atocha we were able to catch a train to Toledo. We were in Toledo by 11 AM and we were super happy with ourselves! haha While we were waiting in Atocha, though, we stopped for breakfast. It was arguably the best breakfast I have ever had: Chocolate Crepes and Cafe con Leche!!! I mean, you can't get much better than that. 

Once we got to Toledo, we saw a bunch of tour guide-type excursions, but we opted to just explore by ourselves. I'm really glad we did! The architecture in the city is absolutely stunning. I couldn't believe some of the buildings we saw! And the little alleys with apartments? So cute. We felt like we were in a movie! 

There was so much to see and do and we walked for hours just staring! We went into a lot of different shops--some more "touristy" than others--and had a blast just walking around and talking. I really feel like I got to know the girls better and I'm glad we decided to go together. :) 

One shop that we went into was small but looked fancy from the outside. There was a little old man and a woman (his daughter maybe?) who owned the shop. They were incredibly kind. Everything in the shop was handmade by them--and there was a lot of stuff! It was all super gorgeous. There was everything: jewelry, swords, hand mirrors, credit card holders, pottery, and more! The man and woman walked around the store with us, telling us what each piece was made out of; they were just so nice! I would post a picture of what I bought, but it's a gift for my mom. :) After we paid, though, the old man told us to wait a moment. He went  

towards the back of the store and picked out three post cards, one for each of us! And he gave them to us as gifts. He gave us each a different one and told us what the picture was. It was literally the sweetest part of my day--it made my day! 

Side note: we found a McDonalds, and I'm happy to report that even in Europe, McDonalds still has the best soda ever. Even though the Diet Coke doesn't really taste like Diet Coke, it was still the best I've had!! ha! 
This week is a short week because of Semana Santa (Easter Week, essentially). We go to school until Wednesday. Then, on Friday, one of the girls and I will be flying to Rome!! Needless to say, we are extremely excited about our upcoming trip! 

I'm going to get myself ready for the day and then head out to do some exploring of Avila by myself. I think some "me time" is in order. I'm hoping to find a little cafe to have breakfast and then do some grocery shopping. Adios! 

Finally feeling a little more adjusted...

 FINALLY a truly beautiful day in Avila. So thankful that I'm finally starting to feel more adjusted to everything around here. Granted, I'm not 100% adapted, but I'm certainly on my way! These pictures are the view from my window..its around 50 degrees here..so just warm enough that I don't really need a coat. And the sun..it feel fantastic! Was definitely missing the sun in Indiana. 

 Today I did a lesson with my first graders that was all about Indiana. The idea of countries, cities, the world..its all so abstract to 6 year olds! I'm definitely not used to this low of a level, so it didn't go exactly how I had pictured it. That being said, I had coloring sheets for them and and they loved that, of course, and they loved telling their other teachers that they now know what the Indiana flag looks like and "los colores de Indiana son azul y amarillo." (Indiana's colors are blue and yellow.) I also talked to them about football--they were totally mind-blown. ha! They are, of course, obsessed with soccer over here and I suppose I thought they would have at least heard of football, but no, only one or two in each class had any idea

what I was talking about! I showed pictures and talked about the Colts, which they also loved. 

At the moment, I feel like I'm learning so much more than I'm teaching. I was sort of hoping that would happen, though, so I'm happy.
I met with one of the other English teachers yesterday. Her name is Ines and I can tell we're going to get along great. She's so much fun and loves talking--like me! She was so sweet and she said (and I quote) "Taylor, listen to me my darling, if you ever get sad, you come to me. I'll give you a good shaking and tell you everything will be alright." I smiled the biggest I have since I've been here after she said that. I'm lucky to be able to say that complete strangers have made themselves completely available to me and are already treating me like family.

Today, the teachers celebrated two of their birthdays. They brought in--get ready--chocolate..TO DRINK. Like..I'm not even kidding. The 2nd grade teacher, Vanesa, brought in liquid chocolate, warmed it up in the microwave, and served it in cups for our drinks. Loco, no?? Then she brought in this pastry that was absolutely to die for. I have no idea what it was called, but on the outside it looked like an elephant ear. That being said, it tasted nothing like an elephant ear. haha But it was filled with different cremes..I had the vanilla flavor and thought I was in heaven. It was delicious! She bought it from some bakery and I need the name of the bakery so I can get some for the girls and me to share..pronto! Rodrigo, the PE teacher, brought in some cheesecake (well, that's what they called it...it didn't look like the kind of cheesecake that I know!). I was so full from the pastry that I didn't get a chance to try it, but everyone else seemed to really love it.

Overall, I'd say that I'm getting used to everything here..the times of meals, the sleep schedule, the children, etc. My Spanish is improving bit-by-bit...I even carried on a small conversation with the secretary today! Granted, he did most of the talking, but I didn't just stare blankly at him when he asked me questions. I understood him!! Woot! I'm totally counting the little victories :) 
Well, its almost 3, so the dining hall should be serving lunch soon. I wanna go explore Avila some more now that it's such a nice day, but we'll see what the afternoon brings. Shops close around 2 and don't open again until 5, so it will be awhile before we decide what to do!

La Dia Primera

Yesterday was my first day at school! It finally stopped raining, and Avila is just that much more gorgeous when its a sunny day!

I discovered that I will be teaching in both Spanish and English. Something that I was not even slightly prepared for. So now I'm sufficiently nervous, considering my Spanish is incredibly rusty. (Side story: I told one of the teachers at school "I'm sorry if I'm not making sense, my Spanish is a bit rusty," and he LAUGHED at me!! He told me how funny the word "rusty" is to him and how when he studied in Ireland, he was told that his English was "rusty" and he just thinks that word is the weirdest.) Anyway, school is completely different here than in the US. To start, school begins at 9 am and it ends at 2 pm. 2 PM!! I have been so used to getting to school at 7:15 and staying until 4ish...that this is going to be odd. Very nice, but odd. I will be with each of the 6 "English" teachers (I use the adjective "English" fairly lightly haha) for about one week each. I start this week with the first grade class. THEY ARE ADORABLE!! And they love English! The first thing they did when I walked into the classroom was said (altogether) "Good morning. How are you?" So I said, "I'm good, thank you. How are you?" They replied, "Fine, thank you very much, and you?" I LOVE IT! Totally scripted, but so cute. They were so proud of themselves, and I was so happy to be able to have that little experience. All of the teachers were so sweet, and seemed excited to meet me. I hope they could tell that I was excited to meet them, too! I'm sure I looked a little glossy-eyed, though. They all speak so quickly and I was apologizing left and right for my slowness. I'm hoping that tomorrow is smoother, though I can't say for sure. I almost feel like tomorrow will be harder because they were all taking it easy on me, more or less, since it was my first day. haha

In other news, I took a siesta! I definitely didn't want to get out of bed, though. I'm still working on making my body change to Spain time. After my nap, I went to Supermercado El Arbol with 2 of the girls. 

 Definitely a successful trip!!

¡España!

Well, I´m officially in España! I´m so excited to be here. I won´t lie, it´s been a hard transition, but that was expected. 
The trip to get here was complicated, especially once we got to the Madrid airport. Once we got there, I expected to be able to find an information station of some kind. No such luck. But after much wandering around (and incredibly sore backs), we found La Renfa, which is the train. We bought tickets to Avila and had to switch trains once. Once we got to Avila, we had to hire a taxi to take us to the Residencia, where we immediately set our stuff down and took a moment to breathe. ha! The place is pretty though. I have my own room and my own bathroom, which is much more than I was expecting. So hooray for that! So far the food has been great and people have been fairly nice. The other people living here don't seem too talkative, but the man who works at the front desk was really kind and I feel comfortable here already. 
Today, three of us went walking around Ávila to find our schools. We were told that it "never rains in Ávila" but it's been pouring ever since we got here...just our luck. We got lost for around 3 hours, but managed to eventually find our schools and made it back to the Residencia safe and sound. 
Tomorrow is my first day at my school! I'm nervous but extremely excited as well. I can't believe that I'm actually in Spain and actually about to start teaching at a Spanish school!!! 
I think I might go take a short nap...its about 6:30 here but dinner isn't until 9. haha
I'll throw some pictures down for everyone to see:)

Picture one: The display on Renfe that told us that Avila was the 2nd stop.
Picture two: The zoomed in view from my room--its not great since its raining--hopefully a better picture to come later.
Picture three: My bed!
Picture four: The best coffee in the world.
Picture five: Calle Juan Grande, where my school is!

 

Incredibly Close--SO much left to do!

As I'm writing this, my head is spinning with lists and lists of things I need to still do. At this time (10 pmish) in 3 days, I will be headed to SPAIN! I feel like I've been preparing for this moment for so long and it's finally almost here!!

I got an email from a teacher I will be working with while in Spain tonight, and though it's a little late, I'm glad to finally have more information about the school in which I'll be teaching. There are 6 English teachers, and I will work with each one for around a week. I will be starting in 1st grade! I am very excited to know kind of where I'm going to be. The teacher seemed super nice, so now I'm even more excited than I was.

Leaving my kids here in the states will be hard, though. I have learned SO much from them--and the other teachers--and it won't be the same without them! I'm working on little surprises for each of them for my last day...something to be remembered by. They are also working on pen pal letters for me to bring with me, and I'm really hoping that there are students in Spain that have a high enough English level to write back to them! My 3rd graders have been working so hard on learning about Spain and coming up with good questions to ask a student from Spain, and it would mean a lot to them to have someone write back and answer all of those questions.

I will plan on updating my blog a lot more while I'm in Spain--mainly for my family's sake--but for my own, as well--as a way to document everything that happens! It's hard to believe that the biggest adventure of my life (so far) is just a few days away!