New year, new job

This year I'm working in a high school in the little town of Canjáyar, Spain, located in the Alpujarra mountain range about 45 minutes from the capital. It's an itsy bitsy town like Rioja (where I worked last year) with only like 1400 people. It's famous for one product, olive oil. There's an olive oil production plant there called La Almazara de Canjáyar. You know what I'll be bringing back to the states when I come!

Rioja, the town where I worked last year is located between Benhadux and Gádor on the map and was about 20 minutes away from the capital, so that gives you some idea of how far I have to go to get to work. Luckily, there are plenty of teachers who live in Almería so I don't have to take the bus. In fact, it's a really good thing that there are teachers in Almería because there are no buses to Canjáyar in the mornings haha.  The drive is long and the road is really small and curvy but the landscape is really pretty. 

In any case, I've got a pretty sweet schedule. Since it's so far and since I'm also gonna be at the university on average 3 days a week, I talked them into letting me work 3 days a week instead of 4. So I work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tuesdays I leave Almería at 7:30am and get back home at 3:30pm (my longest day), Wednesdays I leave at 9:30am and get back at 3:30, and Thursdays I leave at 7:30 and get back around 1:30. All in all, not too shabby.

I'm really happy with my job so far. The 6 teachers I have classes with all speak really good English, the classes are small, and the kids are good kids--don't have to deal with disciplinary problems like at bigger high schools. I'm teaching 7th-10th graders and one class of adults who are there doing a ciclo formativo de gestión administrativa which is essentially vocational training to be able to work in an office as an administrative assistant, etc. That class is basically business English. With the high schoolers, I help out with their English classes but I've also got classes of Social studies/history, technology, and math (my favorite of course!).

With Halloween and Thanksgiving coming up, I'm sure we'll be doing some celebrating in English classes so there will be pictures to come! :)