Getting settled in Badajoz

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog that will document my year living and working in Badajoz, Spain. Here I am working as a language assistant in a school in a small town called Santa Marta de los Barros, a town that I have been told has some of the best churros con chocolate in the world. I have yet to try them, but I'm sure they will be delicious.

 I have already been here for almost three weeks, so today I will just focus my post on my first few days here and getting settled in Badajoz. 

My trip began with a drive to JFK airport, where my flight was delayed because Barack Obama's plane had priority over mine. A United Nations meeting had just ended and all of the diplomats, including Obama, left on their private jets. We sat on the runway for two hours watching all of their jets leave, each accompanied by a motorcade. Once I arrived in Madrid I had to lug my 70lb. suitcase to the bus station, where I boarded a 6 hour bus ride to Badajoz. I finally arrived in Badajoz Saturday evening, where I was unable to find a taxi and had to walk the 20 minutes to my hostel where I crashed immediately. 

Later that night I met some Spaniards in the hostel and they brought me up to the Alcazar of Badajoz, one of the oldest Moorish castles in Spain, where a Feria was in full swing. It was a festival weekend and it was a fun introduction to life in Badajoz. My new friends left the next day, so I was on my own again. In Badajoz everything closes on Sundays, and I wandered around for a long time searching for somewhere to eat.

The next day I moved into my room in a university residence hall. Here I am living with 80 Spanish college students, and it has been quite overwhelming at times. I was offered a free room and meals here in return for teaching two English classes every week. I never expected to be living back in a dorm, but it is really worth it to be saving all the money I would otherwise spend on an apartment and food. 

View of Palacio de Congreso from my window

My tiny room

The next few days were a whirlwind of moving into my room and meeting the Spanish students. It turns out that in all Spanish residence halls the new students go through a period of initiation, called Novata, that lasts for a whole month. I moved into the dorm at the same time as the rest of the students, and it took me a while to establish myself as a teacher instead of a new college student. After a while everyone accepted that I wouldn't be participating in the Novata, and I was invited to observe the process instead. Everyone is very friendly here, but it is still very hard for me to communicate in a room full of native speakers using coloquial language. It is especially difficult at meals, where we all sit at a couple long tables and everyone talks loudly, quickly and there are many people speaking at once.

My Spanish has already improved so much in only a short time, but there is still so much more to learn. Though I am constantly surrounded by other students, I sometimes feel very alone because I can't express myself completely yet. I also am not a student, so I have a very different life than the rest of the people living in the dorm. Everyday is a challenge, but everyday it also becomes a little easier.

I will end this post here, and will continue next time with a little bit about my first week teaching at IES Sierra la Calera in Santa Marta de los Barros.

Hasta pronto,

Stephanie