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Published: February 15th 2010
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January in Guardo
eating out with Sofia, Mariana, Ana (a teacher who works at my school) and some of her friends Hola a todos!
So January flew by and I regret never updating my blog! I had a great trip over my winter break visiting friends in London and Cambridge around Christmas time and then traveling to Amsterdam, Budapest and Vienna with my friend Courtney. (Will send links to my photos from this trip separately.)
Things have been going really well for me so far in Spain in the new year. I'm teaching more private English lessons outside of my work at the high school than I was before winter break, which means I'm more occupied than before (a good thing in a small town!) and I'm earning more money that I can put towards travel. I am also working 3 more hours in the high school than I was before winter break because the other assistant who was working at my school (Dan) is no longer here. He had been fairly unhappy living in Guardo and did not enjoy the teaching work very much so he made plans not to come back to Spain after winter break. We had gotten along fine but Dan acted very unprofessional upon leaving Spain which ended up frustrating me quite a lot. He
January in Guardo
out on a Saturday night with Mariana, Sofia and Natalia (a teacher who works at their school) never told any of the teachers or the directors of my school his plans not to return to Spain after break, even though I thought for sure that he had. Neither did he tell the junta (regional government that pays us) his plans to quit the program! So my first day back everyone was asking me about Dan and where he was and I had to break the news to everyone that he would not be returning to Guardo to finish out the school year! My first week back in the school was a bit strange but I'm now working with 2 additional teachers in the bilingual program as a result and it's good to get more teaching experience. I'm working 2 hours a week with a math teacher and 1 hour a week with a technology teacher now, in addition to working with the English, History and Music teachers so it's really nice to be involved in teaching such a variety of subjects. I get along with all of the teachers that I work with really well and I feel more comfortable working with my students than ever.
Spending weekends in Guardo are now much more fun than
January in Guardo
with Mariana and 2 of our neighbors (Sheila and Isabel) who live across the hall from us they used to be because Sofia, Mariana and I know a lot more people who stay here on the weekends than we did before. Ana, a math teacher at my school who is from Guardo, is only a few years older than us and we've started hanging out with her a lot and gotten to know some of her friends which has been fun. She had been on leave for over a month in the fall due to a medical condition so unfortunately I didn't really get to know her that well until January. I've also started to hang out more with a friend of mine that I play tennis with and I've met a lot of his friends which has been good.
The weather in January was cold but halfway through the month the temperatures rose enough so that all the snow melted and it did not really snow for the rest of the month. I've really been enjoying the dry days because since mid-January I've been able to resume running outside in Guardo (which I prefer over going to the gym to get my exercise)! In February it has been colder (well below freezing on some days)
January in Guardo
with Ana and her friend Oscar but it still hasn't snowed enough for any to stick around. I was actually able to play tennis once 2 weeks ago (for the first time since October) which was fantastic! I hadn't really been expecting to play tennis again until sometime in March. I'm hoping to play again tomorrow as well because the sunny weather is holding up!
I traveled to Madrid in mid-January for a weekend to visit my friend Alyssa (another assistant in my program) which was really enjoyable. She moved apartments since the last time I saw her and now lives in Chueca, a fashionable central district of Madrid. On Friday we went over to one of her friend's houses for dinner and I got the chance to meet some more assistants in my program in Madrid. On Saturday I took a day trip with Alyssa outside of Madrid to the famous Renaissance palace and monastery El Escorial. It was a cloudy day which didn't make for the best pictures but the monastery is HUGE and I'm sure the surrounding gardens are especially beautiful in the spring. Inside you can see a small architecture museum, a fine arts museum, royal chambers, tombs of Spanish royalty,
January in Guardo
view of the mountains north of Guardo (and the power plant) on a clear and cold winter day courtyards, the basilica and a library! On Saturday night Alyssa and I went out to dinner with a friend of mine who is another assistant in Madrid that I met randomly while in Austria over winter break. She was staying in my hostel and we started talking in the elevator the first night there together and realized we were both living in Spain and working as assistant English teachers! It was really nice to see her again and I also got to a meet a friend of hers who had lived in Madrid last year but is now living in Asturias (a region on the northern coast of Spain, fairly close to Guardo). She told me that I could come visit her in Asturias anytime so I'm hoping to go sometime within the next month. One of the teachers I work with is from Asturias and could give me a ride there and back any weekend :-)
During the last weekend in January I went to León with Sofia, Mariana and Erasmo (the P.E. teacher at the school where Sofia and Mariana work). León is a mid-size city about 60 km west of Guardo. For its size it has
January in Guardo
view of the mountains north of Guardo and the río Carrión (I go jogging on the road that runs by here) a great night life and many tapas bars. It is also known for its stunningly beautiful cathedral. I had been there once before in late November but Sofia and Mariana hadn't been so I decided to go with them to celebrate Mariana's birthday. Erasmo is from León and returns most weekends so he gave us a ride there on Friday afternoon and a ride back on Sunday! This was a big favor as he saved us some money and a lot of time. (The buses can take nearly twice as long sometimes!) He also took us on a tapas crawl on Saturday night and took us to the movies at a mall in the outskirts of town on Sunday. We saw Invictus (dubbed in Spanish of course) but I thought it was a pretty good movie. On Friday night I also had the chance to meet up with a music teacher that I worked with in the fall, Celia, who is from León and tends to be there on the weekends. She was substituting in the fall and our first week back in January she found out that the music teacher with her position was returning to work. This came
January in Guardo
Soledad and Marcos (the directors of my school) during the weekly Friday snack break held in the teacher's lounge. Laid out on the table is tortilla (Spanish omelet often made with potato and onion). It is sliced into pieces and served on baguettes as a tapa. as a big surprise because she had initially been told that she would be working in my school all year. Now she is substitute teaching in a school in Burgos (a capital city east of Guardo). It was sad to see her go! The new music teacher is a nice guy but I had more in common with Celia.
So overall I'm very happy in Guardo and will be traveling to some more places soon such as Bilbao (in the Basque Country) and Gijón and Oviedo (in Asturias). I also may be going skiing this coming weekend. The P.E. teacher from my school said I could come along with him and his friends to ski on Saturday if he goes. There are several small ski stations under an hour and half away by car from Guardo. I haven't been skiing in 2 years and have really been looking forward to getting on the slopes again...
Hope things are well with you in the new year!
Besos y abrazos,
Dana :-)
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tio buck
non-member comment
very nice!
Thanks, Dana! Great pics. I am glad that you are having such a good experience. You deserve to have some fun after four years of hard work at UVA. Did you get our snow pictures? It is still out there. Our friend Giorgio Cingolani is visiting for a few days and will return here the end of the month for another 5 days. We are having a great time talking agriculture. Love, Tio Buck