So, I'm a Teacher['s Aide]...

God Bless the little kiddies and I. We're going to need it! 

Sigh. It's been a long week, y'all. I started work on Monday at IES Parque Lisboa in Alcorcón, Spain, which is about a 45 minute Metro ride outside of Madrid. Parque Lisboa is a bilingual school, meaning that some subjects are taught in English. I chose to live in the city because Alcorcón is pretty small and I wasn't necessarily trying to run into my kids at every turn and, well, I'm young! Of course I want to be in the in the city where social and cultural activities are more easily accessible!

As far as work goes, I'll be teaching 16 hours each week and will be required to attend the bilingual department meeting. Though I'll be helping students improve their English skills, this will occur through a variety of classes, instead of just English grammar. So, I'll be working with Social Studies, English, Technology (I sincerely hope this is the equivalent of typing), Computer (let's hope this only utilizes my basic knowledge of search engines and Microsoft Office), and Natural Science (God save us all) courses, all of which are taught in English. Now, regarding my really long week, the easiest way to tell the story is to just give a day-by-day synopsis, so here we go:

Cute little "first day of school" outfit

Monday: This wasn't any ordinary Monday/beginning of a new week/first day of work. Indeed, there was a huelga (see dictionary). So, instead of the metro running every 3-5 minutes like it typically does, it was operating at 50% of its normal capacity, so it was only running about every 10 minutes. Thus, I decided to leave early. So, I got dressed in my cute little "first day of school" outfit and left about 2 hours early in order to give myself plenty of time to deal with the inevitable crowds. Oh, I also had to go to the bank to withdraw money the old-fashioned way (aka walk in and speak to a teller) because my ATM card hadn't yet arrived. After the teller yelled at me when I didn't understand him and I caught myself before I started rolling my neck (you can take the girl out of Down the Bay, but...), I got my money and went to the Metro station. 

I'm pretty sure my ancestors were packed onto boats like
sardines, but I didn't think they'd want me to relive the
experience on their behalf, so I decided to wait.

When I got to the section for my train, it was completely packed. I mean, people were deep waiting to get on that train. Props to the organizers of the huelga for organizing it for the busiest time of the morning. So, the train arrives. I'm southern, y'all; I was raised to have manners and not shove random people around just for my personal gain. However, such is not the case for Spaniards on huelga days. People not-so-politely knocked my black behind to the back of the crowd to make it on that train. I just rolled my eyes and sat down until the next train arrived, since it really wasn't that serious for me and I had plenty of time to spare. As I was sitting, more people started arriving to the terminal. It finally dawned on me that I may want to stand and actually try to be standing close to the edge of platform in order to shove my way onto the next train. Alas, too little too late. The next train came and I still didn't make it on. Enough was enough and I decided it was time for me to grow some and get my tail on the next train. And that is what I did. I retained enough politeness to let those who were exiting do so, but after that I made sure to shove my way right onto that train before anyone else could touch me or get a foot on. Thereafter, I became an impromptu pole dancer, as I was pushed into clinging to a pole as people continued to shove their way onto the metro until I felt like I was being given a minuscule taste of what the Middle Passage felt like. Success!

Four stops later, I got off (thank God, before I started humming Negro spirituals) and walked to my second train. This platform was also packed, but I made it on the first train that came by. I could breathe a little better, so there were no comparisons to bondage. A few stops later, I made it to my third and final metro platform. When this train arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't packed at all. I could sit down without having people surround me and just relax, which is exactly what I did. I also discovered that I'd taken the extended route to work, since I could have taken two trains instead of three. After about 25 minutes of relaxation and realizing that my school is pretty much out in the cut (see dictionary), I arrived...20 minutes early. I mean, yay for arriving early, but 20 minutes is a long time to just be chillin' in a small city. However, it passed quickly and I survived the metro ordeal. 

After this, Monday's story is completely anticlimactic. Our supervisor met the other Fulbrighter and I at the metro station and walked us to the school, where he gave us a basic breakdown of the way in which the Spanish educational system is organized. After about 90 minutes of dealing with administrative things, we were told we could go. That was a let down since we didn't get to meet students. I was really excited to see my kiddies, introduce myself, and just jump into the whole experience. Yet, I told myself to be patient and I would most likely meet them on Tuesday. So, I hopped back onto the Metro, took only two trains, and made it back home for lunch and siesta.

Tuesday and Wednesday: My patience started to wear thin. Though there was no huelga and I took the shorter route, these just weren't the best days of my life. I mean, they certainly weren't the worst, but they could have been better. I missed my stop on Tuesday and arrived to work at 11:45 a.m., whereupon I was duly fussed at by my supervisor for being late, even though he told me to arrive after 11:30 without ever specifying what "after" meant. However, my patience started rapidly depleting because I wasn't any closer to meeting my students than I had been on Wednesday. Further, some details were still pretty obscure and I didn't know whether it was a language/translation issue or what, but the confusion started to wear on my nerves. Both of these days, I left earlier than I normally would. In theory, leaving after 90 minutes isn't necessarily a bad thing and, once I'm deep into the job and the kiddies start to challenge me, I'll long for the short workdays. However, I don't have my monthly metro pass yet and I have to pay a second fee to enter and leave the metro station in Alcorcón, so I felt that I was wasting time and money traveling there each day to receive information that could have been transmitted via email. The only thing that marginally appeased me was the knowledge that I would finally be meeting some of my kiddies on Thursday.

Thursday: I met some of my students! At the same time, I was also cheated out of one class since, purportedly because I don't have a good enough knowledge of physical geography (though I'm pretty sure I can tell you what a fjord is), I have to spend one class period translating a document (which isn't what I was slated to do here, but that's a whole other story.) However, I got to meet some of my other classes and I'll actually be doing real work with them. One of my classes, English for the Segundo Bachillerato level, which is the equivalent of 12th grade in the States, is full of little geniuses. They speak such good English, they seem completely dedicated (and they have to be, since this level isn't required and anyone enrolled in it is preparing to attend college), and I'm just completely excited to be working with them. I finally started to feel like I had a purpose.

Friday (finally): Fridays are, sadly, my long days. While most other Fulbrighters will have Fridays off, those of us at IES Parque Lisboa will be working then and will have Mondays free. In any event, I met four of my five classes. Two of them are Social Studies classes in which they will be learning about 19th and 20th century history. Yay!! When I was introducing myself to those two classes, I discussed the type of history I'd studied (American and African American, primarily post-1865) and dropped the basic names, like Dr. King and Mandela. Immediately thereafter, I almost had an aneurysm when the teacher called Dr. King the "leader of the black people." There are still things that I discovered about Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement after reading Taylor Branch and spending four years in college that I have yet to reconcile, so not interjecting and completely confusing the kiddos (and possibly destroying the foundation of their limited knowledge of African American History) became a lesson in self-restraint. Honestly, I have to pat myself on the back for not going off on a tangent or ranting. I almost lost the battle, though, when the teacher asked me to talk about Rosa Parks. Again, four years of acquired knowledge and Taylor freaking Branch introduced me to the details about Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott that your average high school history textbook neglects to include. So, I almost choked having to use the age old "she sat down on a bus one day, refused to get up, was arrested, and started the Montgomery Bus Boycott" story when I know it's more complicated than that (cough Claudette Colvin). But I survived and, since they're still learning about the French Revolution, I have some time to figure out how to give them a slightly more detailed version of these stories without completely confusing them.

Overall, I would say that Friday was a success. So many of my students seem really eager. I'm pretty sure that the enthusiasm will wane once they settle into school and the homework starts piling on, but I'll enjoy it while I can. Some of them also speak extremely good English, which shows me that they've been applying themselves, since learning a language requires no small amount of dedication. 

By the time I got home Friday, I was pretty drained. Between the huelga and first week of work confusion, I was relieved to see my little room in a way I hadn't been thus far. So, an extremely long nap ensued and once I woke up, I was ready to celebrate the last day of summer and the 21st night of September ;)