Spain: love and loathe

I started my job...finally... this week. After various unsuccessful attempts to get my schedule ahead of time, I finally got it the first day if school. The problem apparently was that they didn't know how many auxiliares (which is my official title...auxiliar de conversación) were placed in the school. Oh. hmmm. ok. So when 4 of us showed up the first day we were finally able to work the schedule out. The coordinator apologized for not having the schedules done beforehand. You see she lived in the US for 4 years and realizes that we (3 of us are Americans, the other is Australian) are used to having things planned out... in advance. But she apologized saying that Spain is the country of improvision. Well, that's one way to put it. Here in Spain things happen when they happen and everyone just has to adjust accordingly. Thankfully I have my experience of working in the chaos driven, improvision as a rule Atlantic City school district, so I am confidant I can handle it, at least in terms of school. More on that later.

So next question would be, "well Julie, what is your schedule like?" It's actually pretty good, save the fact that I have class after a 2 hour lunch break every day. On Mondays and Thursdays I have the good fortune of not having to go in until 10 and stay until 4 with no breaks except recess and lunch. Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have to be there for 9 but I get to leave before lunch on Tuesday. Wednesday is my only crappy day. I finish t 3:15 but might have to do a class with the staff from 4 until 5. In all despite the fact that I am only "working" 16 hours a week, I am at the school much more. Still I got a better schedule than some of my counterparts, so I am happy.

I am in English and Science classes for 2nd and 3rd graders. The kids have a decent level of English....definitely better than any of my kids in AC did in Spanish! The teachers I collaborate with are a bit spastic. I wanted to hand out xanex the first day. One speaks English pretty well but seems on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The other can use some private English lessons for herself (she asked me if I would be interested in teaching her children.) I think she is just nervous to have a native speaker there judging her English. I want to say that it is ridiculous that this woman teaches in the bilingual program but then again I taught Spanish for 5 years and was constantly waiting for someone to figure out that I really didn't speak much Spanish at all. I guess it is the same thing. And, anyway, that is why I have ehis job now, so I can't complain. In the meantime I will brush up on my CPR in case of any emergencies.

The apartment is still coming along. We have had some setbacks. The curtains I wanted are out of stock so my bedroom is still ugly. There is/was a clog in the main plumbing and all the water from the washing machine and kitchen sink came through a pipe in the bathroom causing a mini flood. The plumber says he's coming today. We'll see. The washing machine that we had was older than Adam. We convinced the landlord that we needed a new one, however when they man came to install it there wasn't enough room to get the old one out and the new one in, so now we have the washer disconnected in the middle of the kitchen and the new one waiting in the hall. In the meantime we figured out that the new one isn't going to fit anyway. Fun! Not that I could do much laundry anyway because it has been rainy and as Spaniards don't believe in clothes dryers, so you have to wait for nice dry sunny days to be able to do laundry. (People tell me that Madrid has a very dry climate, after living here over a year I cannot comprehend where that erroneous idea came from.) Now Amanda's telling me the hot water is out. greeeat. How I'd just love to make some comfort food, like chocolate chip cookies, but that would require an oven, which we don't have either. Another little used electrodomestic appliance that Spaniards often have but don't use, so yeah, we don't even have one. Adjust.

Last complaint. We got our internet yesterday. Except for the fact that we didn't. The tech people are "working on it." What's a few more days when we've already been waiting a month? Oh and in the confusion we lost telephone service, so don't call me.

Really it's not all bad, I am actually happy, it's just sometimes I miss the conveniences of the United States that I took for granted. Even though I was here all last year and should be used to it, I guess a few months at home de-programmed my Spanish mentality. So looking on the bright side, it's the weekend, the plumber is here and I am going to look online at washer/dryers to see if we can get one of those.