Orientation and a Weekend in Madrid

This week, the Spanish Ministerio de Educación kindly put us up in a 4* hotel with all meals included for the orientation/training of auxiliares extranjeros.  I was under the impression it would just be British Council assistants there but there were people from all over Europe!  The orientation lasted for one day from 9am - 5.30pm and a variety of topics were covered.  For anyone who missed it or wants to know what went down, read on.

Click here for a list of songs and activities to use with Primary School children.




The session began with a woman from the Ministerio speaking to us all in Spanish and introducing each European country participating in the program and their 'representative', if you like.  Each said a short greeting and how glad they were that they're country was participating etc etc, you get the drift.

We were then split into groups we had been assigned to previously.  I was in a group with other auxiliares assigned to primary schools.  We were told about our role, what we are expected to do and what we are not expected to do and also given ideas for games and activities we could carry out in class.  Lots of them were very useful and could be easily adapted for different lessons, abilities and adapted into different versions of the game or activity.  I'm actually going to compile my favourites and add them to a separate blog post here.

After that, previous assistants came in to the room to talk about their experiences.

We then had a session about obtaining the NIE and a bank account which I, personally, found absolutely horrific, confusing and non-conclusive!  It seemed that we were being given different advice by our regions and therefore clashing in the meeting about what we should do.  I have applied for my NIE but I am yet to receive it or create a bank account but when I do I'll write a post about the best way to go about it (in Valencia! - everywhere has different rules, grrrr.)

There was also a British Council only session which was a little more helpful as we could ask questions in English.

I personally would recommend going to the Madrid orientation to everyone.  I know that it is not 'compulsory' and that there is also a regional orientation but I met lots of other auxiliares there, got some good activity ideas and had an amazing weekend with some of the friends I had made afterwards!

Madriiiiiiiidddddddddd

Me encanta Madrid! Like seriously, I love it! I arranged to stay for 2 nights with 5 other auxiliares.  Four of whom I had only met two days previously at the orientation for the first time!  We had such an amazing time and I really hope I see them all again! 

We bought a 10-journey metro ticket and in total used 6 of them.  Having the ticket was really handy but we also found a lot of the things we wanted to see were all within walking distance! 

On the first day we visited the Palacio Real de Madrid and paid a 5 euro student fee to look inside - definitely worth it! For only 5 euros you can walk around the King's quarters and visit the armoury. I thought it was really interesting to see inside and the rooms were so ornate and beautiful!  There's also a fantastic view over the wall of the courtyard.

   

At night two other auxiliares, Anna and Maddie, and I went for drinks and tapas at a few bars around Plaza Mayor, which looks amazing at night, it's pretty busy and has a great atmosphere!  We went for a wander afterwards and stumbled across El Mercado de San Miguel.  It was 11pm by this point and the market was still open (til 1am!) and inside were food vendors selling a hugerange of desserts, fish, jamón, tapas and there were bars offering all sorts of drinks.  We went to a wine bar and ordered Sangría de Cava - ah-may-zing.  There's a popular tradition of giving free food (yes, for free! God, I love free food) with your drinks and we got bright green olives with the sangria which I thoroughly enjoyed.  We also ordered Churros con Chocolate from a desserts place and the kind man behind the counter gave us a bag full of free Macarons, winner ;).

                  

The next day, we went to Retiro park and rode rowing boats which was easier than I thought it would be! It was such a warm sunny day (and it's October might I add!) and being on the lake was just so nice! I had so much fun.
                             

At night, again Anna, Maddie and I went for drink and tapas as opposed to going to a club (I love tapas, okay?) and met up with Anna's Spanish friend Silvia who lives in Madrid.  She took us to a bar to meet some of her friends who I was under the impression were also Spanish, when in fact two of them were Norweigan and one was American!  I spoke a lot of Spanish that night - I swear a bevvy or 2 or 5 makes me better?

Had an amazing weekend! Back to reality now and starting work tomorrow, eeeeek!

Beth xx