Officially employed!

Yesterday I started my job as an English teacher! I babysit and speak English with 2 young girls named Ceci (age 4) and her sister Lucia (age 7) for 2 hours each Monday afternoon. It feels good to be employed and making a few extra euros each week (especially because the unemployment rate in Spain is about 20%, double the rate in the U.S.!)

I took a bus from Madrid to Majadahonda, a nearby suburb. The minute I stepped off the bus I realized how much I missed suburbia! In Madrid, I live in the city which means all of the buildings are tall and connected and you are always walking in a giant herd of people while simultaneously trying to dodge oncoming humans and avoid getting lost. It is exciting but talk about sensory overload! In Majadahonda, there was green space in between the streets and space between the buildings. It is funny how I needed to be in a suburb to realize how stressful living in a city can be. It made me miss the good old suburb of Mendota Heights! Anways, after finding the apartment (and buzzing up to the wrong apartment multiple times) I found the family! They are very sweet and Lucia can understand and speak English very well. Their proficiency at such a young age amazed me and made me jealous at the same time. Like the picture above says, all the cool kids really are doing it! In most schools in Spain, multiple languages are taught and many kids are multi-lingual. This made me wish my grade school in Minnesota taught another language because I am 19 years old and still stumbling over my Spanish! We worked on their spelling homework and I had a chance to reminisce and brag about my spelling bee glory days. On the way home I got on two incorrect buses before finding the right one. My quest to find the right bus stop was anticlimactic because once I found it I had to wait a half hour for the bus to arrive.

Yesterday we went to the bus station and purchased our tickets to go to Sevilla for the weekend. I am so excited to begin travelling and seeing other parts of Spain! I am actually learning about Andalucia (the region of Spain where Sevilla is located) in my Spanish class so hopefully I will be able to give my travel compañeros the inside scoop! It's always fun when school actually comes in handy.

I am no longer sick and I am happy to report that my appetite is back! Hopefully this means there will be a food post in the near future, full of exotic new dishes and drinks.

¡Hasta la prόxima!