First Day of Work

Today I started my job working as a language and culture assistant in a k-12 spanish classroom. Compared to other people who are doing my program I would say I lucked out a bit. I am working in a brand school bilingual school in Dos Hermanas. It is about a 15 minute train ride from Sevilla and not to far of a walk from the train station. I am working with a group of teachers and 150 students ages 3 to 5 years old. I am the only "cultural ambassador" in my school. I spent my day going from class to class telling the students my name and where I was from. They told me to repeat easy english translations to the students that they would understand.

"Hello, my name is Zack, what is your name?"

"What color is this?"

"Can you count to 10? 1, 2, 3..."

During there recess I was completely surrounded by little kids screaming "HELLO!" "GOODBYE!" and asking me if I spoke spanish and where I was from. The boys were showing me there soccer skills and others were asking my random questions. I feel like its a little difficult to understand the kids because they can't grasp the concept that I might not understand what they are saying. With adults if I look confused, they slow down or reword what they are saying. The kids just keep repeating themselves over and over until I respond or they get bored. Regardless I had a blast and I'm very excited to be working with this age group. They all think I'm someone very important and even when the teachers are talking they are trying to get my attention or show off.

The best part is my schedule. I am only working three days a week, Tuesday - Thursday, 4 hours each day. I start at 9:00 am and finish around noon. I will have 4 days now off in a row where I can take short trips to other cities around Spain and really get to explore Sevilla as well.

The only problem I still am facing is finding a place to live. Yesterday My friend and I went to Dos Hermanas to look at a place. I spoke with him via skype the night before and it seemed like a sweet place. When we got there he informed us that it was no longer available, which was a little strange considering I spoke to him only 10 hours before. He said his "friend" had a place to rent across town. We got in his car (sketchy) and they took us across town to this ridicoulsy small apartment with only one room with one bed and a pull out couch. Needless to say we were not impressed and we left shortly after. Today we were supposed to look at another place in Sevilla. The rent wasn't bad but when the lady called back she told us we would have to pay a commission to the renter who showed us the place equal the the first months rent, 520 euros! Luckily one of the teachers at my school said she had a friend with a place in the center of Sevilla with rooms available. HOPEFULLY this works out. I am currently awaiting a response from her, and I really hope this will be the final chapter in finding a place. It has consumed the first week of my stay here and it has been nothing but a pain in the ass and very stressful.

I don't work until Tuesday so until then I will be trying to find a place and exploring Sevilla. I will take some photos of the school on Tuesday to post.