Week 3: Semi-employment

I actually started teaching again. The school I interviewed for called me on Monday to officially offer me a job. I was a bit nervous considering I haven’t really done it since January. My first class was with a 31-year old woman. She was nice and it was easy with her since we just talked for two hours. My second one was with a 13-year old boy. As always, children are always such a challenge for me. Thankfully, he seems like a good kid and very polite. I hope it goes well with him.

The school I’m working for is a bit interesting. It definitely makes me miss my old school in Madrid. This one is much smaller – only about 5 teachers – and I still don’t really understand how it all works. I went there to prepare for my class and no one was there. I sort of panicked since I didn’t have any background on the student and the secretary said she would be there. When the boss finally did get there, it took him a while to find the student’s file and the actual file didn’t really have much for me to work on. Their resources are also very minimal and very unorganized. I badly want to alphabetize and categorize all the books. Basically, the teachers are left to their own devices, which is good but also annoying at the same time.

I continue to hope for more private classes. I’ve noticed a lot of people have taken the strips of paper with my info from the ads I’ve posted up. I still haven’t heard from anyone but I’m keeping my fingers cross.

I’m also starting to feel kinda useless…or I just feel bad that Francisco is constantly working and I’m not doing much. Not that he makes me feel bad, I just wish I could do stuff. I wish I could at least cook for him, but we have no cooking equipment. I wish I could buy cooking equipment, but I have no money to do that or to buy things to make the house homier. It’s crazy how a lack of money can make you feel very powerless. It didn’t matter before when I only had myself to think of. This selflessness thing is really not fun.

Other than that, things are really pretty good. At the end of the day, I just gotta have a little bit of perspective. I know I’ve said this so many times, but everyone here is really nice. I spent most of the afternoon last Sunday with Francisco’s sister. She invited me over to her house for lunch, showed me her wedding (in a castle!) photos, and talked about random stuff. I also hung out with her very entertaining 4-year old son. I can tell everyone’s trying their best to make me feel comfortable and welcome. And when he’s not working, Francisco and I try to do as much as we can and we always have a good time doing it.

Slowly, I’ll get there with work and my never-ending money situation. I know I will…