Wednesday

On Wednesday, I have the same classes as Monday from 9:00am-12:30pm. Afterwards, I sometimes make it to the "bread lady" (I'll explain more later), eat with Elisa, and run to ASPACE for the evening. 

We took some new pictures as a class with our teacher, Elsa. Since this Wednesday was our last week of class, Elsa showed us a few cool places around town.

 And yes, we did finish our Literature class with drinks.

"The Bread Lady"

There is a little town outside of Granada (it's actually the town that Elisa's daughter lives in) that is famous for their bread. Since everyone loves it, they sell it at a few locations around Granada. There is always a line, and it never seizes to hit the spot. This little bread shop/stand is within a 3 minute walk from our school, so it's a great between-class snack.

ASPACE-Asociación Granadina con atención a Personas con Parálisis Cerebral

I spend my Wednesday evenings at ASPACE in the residence home for people with cerebral paralysis. Each evening, they have a different activity: going for a walk, crafts, singing, taking pictures, watching a soccer game, etc. The goal of my time there is to change up the scenery for the residents. ASPACE treats all the residents amazingly... I wish I could bring this back to the United States with me. They have tons of resources, sufficient help, and workers that thoroughly enjoy being at work, all factors that I could tell by just seeing the happiness the residents portray.

Sandra is in charge of the activities in the residence home. She's simply amazing; she knows how to balance work with some fun, while making all the residents feel at home. Not to mention, she was welcoming and hospitable to me while in ASPACE.

 Last night we went walking downtown with the residents to admire the beautiful Christmas decorations. Everyone loved it, except the "see you later" at the end.

Seven of the, I believe, 16 residents that ASPACE has with 3 of us volunteers and Sandra.

Tuesday

Tuesdays start out with Grammar class from 9:00-10:30. I usually come home and take a little siesta before I have to be at the elementary school to volunteer. One day I decided to ask the people at the elementary school across the street from my apartment if they needed any extra help in English classes. Once again, I was welcomed with open arms and started the very next day.

On Tuesdays, I go in from 12:00-2:00. For the first hour I help in Daniel's fourth grade English class and for the second hour, I help out with Maria Gracia's first grade English class. Walking into the classroom brightens up my day, all the kids come running up to me giving hugs. Likewise, they all enjoy speaking English with me, so it's a great learning experience for them. Usually the teacher's have a little something they want me to do with the kids because they love to have the children hear the language from a native speaker.

Daniel

Maria Gracia

Now that it is the Christmas season, I've been helping out with the Christmas program. The program has songs in both English and Spanish, so of course I intend to help with the English songs. Unfortunately, the program is two days after I leave, so I won't be able to see it.

I head home for lunch with Elisa after the school, then have Art History class.

Right after class, I meet up with my intercambio, Marta. I've already described what the intercambio program is, so I won't bore you with that again. However, we've done lots of cool things. Sometimes we meet on weekends and go to a movie, go to a tapas bar, go shopping, find a cool view of Granada, or walk around talking.

Marta, Alex (her brother) and I after seeing the Hunger Games

Some of the cool views we find.

 

I finish up my day again eating dinner with Elisa and watching some Spanish TV.

Monday

I've decided to post about my daily life here in Granada, starting with Monday.

Monday mornings I start class at 9:00am. It's about a fifteen minute walk from my apartment to school. I have two classes in the morning; one from 9-10:30 and the other from 11-12:30. Here is a photo of my first class (I wanted my professor to take a selfie with us in the background and this is what we got). Yes, there are only 6 students in my first class, Oral Spanish. There are I believe 8 in my second class, Spanish Literature, with the same teacher, Elsa.

 I have an hour and a half to get back home and relax for a little, usually chat with Elisa, my host mom, until I meet up with a different Spanish family. At my first day of volunteering at an elementary school (will explain later), the mother of a student came up to me and asked if I would be willing to come to their house once a week to help tutor their child in English. Of course, I agreed, which ended up being the best decision ever. They are such an amazing family, and I'm starting to feel like I am part of their family. Juan Antonio and Raquel are the parents, and María and Raquel are the girls. Each day they greet me with such open arms. I go to their house to eat lunch first, then María and I go work on some English. We practice vocabulary she's learning in school, sing songs, and record our voices in English so she can practice when I'm gone. It's safe to say I will miss them sooo much when I leave.

The first day I went to meet up with them, they introduced me to Raquel's brother, David. David is job searching, and today in Spain, with a high unemployment rate and difficulty with finding a job, English is key. In fact, some jobs here only interview people in English. So after I help María for the day, David comes over and I also help him with his English. We've done practice interview questions, translated his resume to English, and practiced anything else he feels like he needs help on. 

This picture is of Raquel (the mom) and David (the brother). I'm not posting any pictures of the girls, but I do have plenty on my computer for my memory.

Then I always finish up my day by eating dinner with Elisa, which usually is around 9:30. The meals here are much different. Breakfast is small, usually bread and coffee (but I still get my cereal fix). Lunch is around 2:30/3 and dinner is around 9:30/10.