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Published: October 11th 2010
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Last week was interesting, to say the least. I had my first week at school, language assistant orientation, NIE (National Identity Card) issues, missing post, lots of trips to Seville, my first hostel adventure, FLU! And plenty of rain. So a lot of ups & downs !
I really enjoyed last week at school. It was my first experience of all the lessons I’m going to be helping with, including Geography (which I was dreading, but was actually great). More than anything I am really impressed with the level of the kids English at this school, it is easily better than my Spanish ever was through high school! Also, I have a good mix of ‘Levels’ to help (Level 1 - Year 7, Level 2 - Year 8 etc.) I probably shouldn’t have a favourite group, but the Geography Level 1 Bilingual and English Level 2 Bilingual are really great classes. They are enthusiastic; love speaking English (and asking me embarrassing questions) and seem to enjoy having me there, which is always good!
One thing I need to learn is how to be LOUD. I don’t know how all the teachers don’t have constantly sore throats here. Spanish people
are generally very loud, Spanish children even more, but teachers need to be EVEN more than that. When I think I’m speaking loudly there is always someone at the back who can’t hear me! But I guess I will figure that out eventually.
Tuesday we went to Orientation in Sevilla, which honestly I was going to miss as, if it was anything similar to a University enrolment; I knew it would be extremely boring (it was). But, being in the city centre and having some normal city life was a much needed change, so I went anyway.
If anyone reading this hasn’t already been to their Orientation or missed it, you didn’t miss anything (apart from www.asisa.es could be useful to help you find your nearest medical centre.)
I got a lot of wrong information & wrong forms from the Ministry of Education and the Orientation that when I went to the Oficina de Extranjeros at 7am Friday morning to apply for my NIE, I basically didn’t need anything but a copy of my passport.
I spent around 6 hours queuing and waiting with my ticket to get my appointment, only to be told when I finally
got in the room that because I’m from Europe I need to go to the Police to apply for it. I got a whole new set of forms (very difficult to fill out in Spanish and in a rush) sat next to someone who smelt like they had a crate of beer for breakfast, dealt with by the most miserable Spaniard I’ve met so far and ‘ya esta’ (that’s it) as the man said once he had stamped everything, stapled it together and put it in a folder. SO, as far as I know I will be getting my NIE in a couple of weeks by post. But to be honest I wanted to leave so fast I wasn’t exactly paying attention to what he had to say. It wasn’t the best way to start my day.
But, Seville made up for it. It’s a really great city, possibly one of few that I enjoy being in. Most of the time I prefer quieter areas but Seville is such a nice mix of everything its hard not to love it. Huge parks, the river- Rio Guadalquivir, amazing architecture; which is spread out through the whole of Seville so everywhere
you turn there is something beautiful to look at (La Catedral de Sevilla being my favourite), great food, horse & cart rides, lots of shops! Basically everything you could ever want from a place is there.
While we were there we stayed at ‘The Garden Backpackers’ Hostel (http://thegardenbackpacker.com/ which we booked through http://www.hostelworld.com/) If anyone is wanting to visit Seville and stay in a hostel I would say I recommend this one. Granted it was my first ever stay in a hostel, I found it okay; good location, clean, cheap (around 20-30 Euro for two nights) & friendly staff, and according to my friends who have stayed in a few hostels before it was a good one!
We stayed in an 8 bed mixed room with en-suite where we met an old Italian guy, who we called Giuseppe, a man with a mullet (enough said) and an American girl called Stacey who was travelling round the world on her own. It was weird to be sleeping in a room with people I didn’t know at all, just because I’ve never done it, but if you’re tired enough you will sleep!
It’s now the start of a new
week, yesterday (Sunday) I managed to develop some kind of flu / severe cold over night. My landlord took me to the emergency doctors (which was free because of my EHIC, so make sure you have it!) where a woman asked me hundreds of questions, took my temperature, listened to my breathing and looked down my throat, all while trying to concentrate on what she was asking me in Spanish.. Can’t say it was the best experience when you already have a headache! But I now have some tablets to take for 3 days that will hopefully help and by Wednesday I can get back to school (Tuesday is a national holiday!)
I still feel like I have been here forever, maybe because it feels like home? I’m not sure, it hasn’t even been a month yet, but I am feeling more & more settled and finally getting into a routine. I’ve also picked up a few new words & getting slightly more confident with my speaking, my listening has definitely improved too and in general I don’t feel too daunted by it all. So things are looking up!
Hasta la semana que viene. Adiós!
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diane reuben
non-member comment
happy days...
Hi Sammi, Love reading all thats going on, feel like im almost there myself... So glad your settling, cant wait to see you, lots a love mum..x