Let's go, let's go! Teacher, Teacher!

Greetings all,

Who would have thought that a passion for Spanish and its cultures would help so many others learn English?  Maybe it was naive to think that when I first realized how much I loved learning a different language and how much culture fascinated me, that I was doing it for myself in order to better my Spanish language skills.  Quickly I've realized that doing this program has evoked something inside me, something very eager to share everything I have to offer to every human being.

Now I've been in Spain for ten days, five in Madrid and five in Jumilla, and it has been extremely heart-warming and life-enriching.   "Why? You've only been there for less than two weeks and you have thirty-five more to go."  For me it's simply because i'm doing exactly what I want, help people.

I found an owner of a flat that wanted to rent out two rooms because her roommates had recently moved out and she is a student at the moment and not working.  It all worked out way better than expected, the flat is brand new and very modern with laundry and hot water :)  Maite (leader of the bilingual program at Miguel Hernández) and her husband picked me up from the train station in Villena, Valencia.  They are incredibly nice people and took me to my apartment building where Ana, the owner of the flat, was waiting outside, eager to meet me.  Ana then took me to Aldi and Mercadona, two grocery stores very close to the flat, to buy some food so I could eat the next few days.  Here is a photo of our living room with the door to the balcony in the back right!  The other roommate is a gentleman that lives in Murcia capital and is taking wine production classes here in Jumilla.  We've decided I will help teach him English with an emphasis in wine and he will teach me what he learns in his class in Spanish.  The next day Maite invited me to go with them to a festival in Fuente de Pino (a small pueblo outside of the city of Jumilla, but still within the municipality of Jumilla) and we wandered around there and did some wine tasting where we were able to taste five different types of wine and keep the huge wine glass for only 1 euro!  They then ivited me back to their house to have dinner with them and watch some futból.

This Tuesday I started teaching my own classes in the afternoon.  On Monday I told the teachers in the school that I was interested in teaching my own classes and that day they made flyers for the kids to take home to their parents.  The rate is twenty euros per month per student and there are two, one-hour classes each week.  There are about 13-14 students as of now with ages ranging from 7 to 11 years old.  If anymore students decide they want to participate in the classes I will definitely break the group up and have two classes every Tuesday and Thursday.  I started the last class with writing "Why are we here?" on the board.  They were a bit confused so I wrote three answers to why we were there.  They were 1) To learn English, 2) To share cultures, and 3) To have fun!  I'm going to start every class off with these written on the board until the students can orally tell me the reasons why we are having this class.  I give my second class this afternoon so it should go a bit smoother.

This weekend I'm going to Cartagena to visit a few friends I met at the orientation in Madrid last week!