Colegio Caja Granada

When you make the decision to study abroad, studying will definitely be just one of the many things you will do during your time. Other activities may include traveling and meeting/becoming friends with the locals. But one of the coolest things you could do while studying abroad is to volunteer in your host city. 

The (amazing, wonderful, incredible, etc.) program that I studied abroad with, Academic Programs International (API), has a relationship established with a local school in Granada, Spain  called Colegio Caja Granada. This is where I decided to do my volunteer work. First, API set up a general meeting for interested students with the director of the school. Afterwards, if we decided we were interested, they assigned us to a classroom of either primary or secondary students. That was when I was placed in a classroom of 27 primary school students, between the ages of 7 and 8. For 6 months, I volunteered around 3-4 hours per week.

Similar to the elementary schools in the States, the kids studied a variety of subjects throughout the day including Math, English, and Religion. I served as a teaching assistant to the main teacher, María Carmen and the other permanent teaching assistant, Mario. I taught Conocimiento del Medio or the Social and Natural Sciences. I taught many different types of things (including things I didn’t even remember or know about in English!). Some of them were:

-        --  The body including the respiratory system, teeth, and the digestive system

-        --  Nature

-        --  Nutrition/how nutrients are absorbed by the body

It was so much fun to teach these kids about these subjects. I put together different activities for each one from channeling my 4^th grade leaf project and bringing in real life leaves to study, to taking an hour to tape string to the end of a straw to teach them about our breathing/respiratory system.

Mi clase!: My class with their teacher, María Carmen

My class and me :)

Throughout the whole school year, the 3 classrooms of primary students worked to prepare a theatre production of the Little Red Riding Hood, entirely in English. It was such a fun way for the kids to learn English. I helped them with the songs and dialogue of the play. There were the main characters while the rest of the kids wore bees, flowers, butterflies, and ladybugs to depict the forest. While the main characters had all the speaking roles, the ‘chorus’ sang songs in between. Let me just tell you, it was the cutest thing ever.

The forest for Little Red Riding Hood

The Lumberjack, Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood, me, the Grandma, and the Narrator

Little Red Riding Hood when she found the Wolf instead of her Grandma

Ta-da! All done their first performance

The day of the production was my last day in Granada so there were already lots of emotions flowing. After seeing my kids up there doing all of Little Red Riding Hood in English, pride was added to that list. It was so great to see all their hard work paying off. It was also very cool to see at my school in Spain because Little Red Riding Hood is such a traditional and common thing to see during the elementary years here in the States. 

So, if you choose to study abroad, don't forget about the great opportunities to volunteer! No matter if you decide to teach or do a different type of volunteering, it'll be a great learning experience and an awesome thing to put on your resumé.

 

Typical Spanish dishes: Sopa de Picadillo

                When I studied abroad with API, the housing options we had were a home stay, a residencia, a shared apartment, or independent living.  I elected living with a family in a home stay during my first semester abroad. This meant that I would live with a Spanish family and my host mom (or dad) would do my laundry once a week, provide 3 meals a day, and cleaning once a week. One of the best things about this option (besides the great daily Spanish practice with a local) is the food. My host mom, Maria Jose, was a fantastic cook. She believed that a proper meal always consisted of a first plate, a second plate, and bread. While I was living with her, I took to habit to take pictures of almost all of our meals. Here, I will share with you some of the typical Spanish dishes she cooked for me!

                To start things off, one of my favorite dishes:  Sopa de Picadillo

The lunchtime spot: the kitchen table of Maria Jose

                This dish has shredded chicken, small thin noodles, carrots, and cooked egg. Sopa means soup in Spanish and Picadillo means mince, such as minced meat. So Sopa de Picadillo means a soup of minced meat. In this photo, the meat is not so much minced as it is shredded. This soup is delicious during colder weather; it’s a perfect pick-me-up! That day, it was served with a side place of an egg, ham, and green bean omelet as well as bread (what I observed as a huge staple in the Spanish diet) 

Sopa de Picadillo

Stay tuned for more pictures and 

information about typical Spanish dishes!

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The last five weeks... of this trip at least ;)

               And so starts the reality check of the 5 week mark. I’ve made it through 34 weeks already, which in all honesty feels like it happened in a day. At this point in time, while I still have some time left here, I’m going to do a little reflecting that I’ll let you guys in on. To think what I’ve done in these past 34 weeks is a little overwhelming. I keep thinking ‘I did all that?’ it’s quite extraordinary, actually, the things you can accomplish by studying abroad and the unexpected things that happened.

                Here’s a little summary of some of the most memorable things that happened or things that stuck out in my mind:

So far I have:

• -    Traveled to 10 different countries and to 2 continents

All the red dots are the places that I've been lucky enough to have traveled to!

• -        Played charades due to language barriers (sometimes better than other times) in 10 different countries and 2 continents

• -        Opened my 1^st bank account in Spain

• -    Had to use 4 different types of money

• -        Become a temporary student resident of Spain

• -        Had to actually pay taxes in Spain

• -        Moved into my 1^st apartment ever to live with españoles

• -        Haven’t taken any English classes since last April

UGR Centro de Lenguas Modernas --- The Center of Modern Language aka my school :)

• -        Made Granada a third home

So much love for this place

• -        Eaten enough Kebab for a lifetime (what up, Kebab King. Anyone that has ever been to Granada will understand)

• -        Watched the sunrise at 8am after dancing all night long

• -        Watched the sunset over Florence at the Michelangelo lookout with great friends

• -        Been able to go to the Cologne/Koln Christmas markets

• -        Made best friends that, at the moment, I cannot imagine living without (shout out, Rachel and Hannah)

True love

• -        Become a regular at a few tapas restaurants (and consequently, sometimes get some free goodies from the waiter-friends!)

• -        Taught social and natural science in Spanish to 7 and 8 year old kids at Colegio Caja Granada

• -        Realized that I will be returning to Spain in 2013 to hopefully continue teaching somewhere in Andalucía upon my graduation from Pitt

• -       I’ve been able to improve my Spanish skills immensely by studying and living here for an incredible, wonderful, eye-opening, everything 8 months

• -        Grown as a person in ways that are simply indescribable and incredible to me
  

What’s even more incredible is that this isn’t even half of it. I cannot wait to aprovechar –take advantage of- the rest of this experience and the 5 weeks I have left :)

Hasta pronto, queridos <3

Until soon, loved ones <3