Welcome!

Bienvenido! Bienvenuto! Karibu! 歓迎!

I've decided to blog about my experiences as an English Teaching Assistant in Madrid because it seems like the most efficient way in which to keep my family and friends updated about my adventures here. My goal is to discuss any interesting tidbit that I come across, including observations, the inevitable protests, etc. 

First, here's a little background on how I got here.

 I'm from the United States and am in Madrid for ten months as a Fulbright Fellow. For those who don't know about the Fulbright Program, it was founded in 1946 by Senator J. William Fulbright (D-AR). Random fact about the good Senator: he was a segregationist (he's probably rolling in his grave at the thought of all the minorities who are benefiting from his program.) Anyway, the purpose of the grant is "to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs and thereby increase the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship." For more information, feel free to visit the website at http://www.iie.org/fulbright. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and and provides funding for research, graduate studies, and teaching.

I applied for the program during my senior year of college. The application opened in May 2011 and was due in October of that year. I was pretty OCD about the app, so I started applying on the first day and submitted it only when the study abroad director at my school told me to stop looking for mistakes and just click send. After about a six month waiting period, I finally received word that I'd been accepted. What a blessing! I'm participating in the U.S. Student Program as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in Madrid, where I'll be working at a secondary school in the town of Alcorcón, which is outside of the city. Orientation hasn't started yet, so I'm not sure exactly what my duties will be. However, I can say that I won't be just living here. Fulbright is an extremely generous program; indeed, they pay grantees well enough to maintain a decent lifestyle. In return for the generosity, they expect recipients, who have been pretty meticulously selected, to be goodwill ambassadors for the U.S. and committed to the work that they were assigned to do.  Further, since ETAs work only 16-20 hours per week, we were asked in our applications to have an idea of what we would do in our spare time (besides eat, drink, and be merry). I said that I'd like to volunteer with Amnesty International, an idea to which I'm still pretty committed. 

Outside the official realm of my time in Madrid, I'd like to learn more about the impact Franco had on the country since the end of his dictatorship was fairly recent (after all, 1975 wasn't even 40 years ago). I also plan to do as much traveling as possible, especially considering that I'll be entering law school upon my grand re-entry to the States. I also hope to live as stress-free an existence as possible.

Finally, on a personal note, I hope to grow as a human being. If, by the end of my time here, I can consider myself a little more patient, optimistic, open-minded, sociable, and kinder--in addition to impacting the life of at least one person--my experience will be a success.

I'll do my best to update this blog often. Feel free to read my posts any time and share with friends. I hope that by writing these entries, you're able to experience some of this journey with me.

Ari.