My Spanish Life.

I have my last class for the week in a little over an hour. It´s been exhausting, and I haven´t prepared much for this lesson, but nor do I have any books for this class yet.. well, not a teacher´s copy anyway.

My hours have already been increased from 18 to 22. It is sooo easy to get work here. Even the illegals have too many hours that they’re declining offers left, right and centre. This week I didn’t have a full schedule but it´s already exhausting. I was up at 6.30 for my 8am class of bratty, 12 year olds. They knew I couldn´t speak much Spanish and utilised it continuously to their advantage. I´m sure I picked up a few swear words directed at me. Luckily, I was only taking that class for a week! I also have a class of 8-9 year olds, a proficiency class with 3 17 year old guys (who were kind enough to explain the virtues of Franco – they´re nice kids, but a little misguided. nb. the politics here are incredibly interesting. One guy I met even suggested that the prospect of civil war wasn´t that far off). My other classes are all adults.. I´ve only met a couple of them.

I´m settled into my place now and the internet should be connected shortly. Rocio and Santi are fantastic. They´ve tried to ensure that I feel as at home as possible, introducing me to their friends and explaining conversations I don´t understand. Santi and I were discussing España the other night, specifically about the dying siesta. His quote was pure gold ¨Ah, yes, that is very bad… but on the weekends, we make our revolution, FIESTA!” Spanish kids do tend to party hard, drinking botelos on the street until 9 or 10 in the morning. There’s no way I’m attempting to do that with the amount of hours I’m working.

The apartment is a good size, large by Spanish standards and with a street balcony. Whilst this means it´s noisier at night, it also beats the hell out of looking down at an interior courtyard, like my previous room did.

A fellow teacher of mine brought his car with him from England, and we may head to Toledo on the weekend. Next Friday is a holiday for the Festival of Virgen del Pilar. It´s apparently the patron saint of Zaragoza, so we may change our destination for there, but we’ll work it out. It will be nice to get out of Madrid for a while, if only a day or two.

I finally got my NIE today. So much for having an appointment. I still had to line up and wait and didn´t get in until 12.40 instead of 12pm. But now I am a resident of Spain for five years if I want. I can open a bank account and I can get Social Security. Now I just have to learn the language. I started my classes on Wednesday. So far, it´s mainly going over things I already knew- the basics ¨¿Como tú llamas? Me llamo Luke. etc etc. But I´ll get there.

I´d kill for a meat pie, and an iced coffee right now though!