Teaching English In Spain: Auxiliares de Conversación May Update
Hola! If you are new to my blog, bienvenido! You’ve stumbled upon my monthly Auxiliares de Conversación update, where I share all about my experiences teaching English and living in Spain. If you are interested in teaching abroad, are curious about life as an auxiliar, or simply enjoy keeping up with my Miss Adventures, then you are in the right place!
I can’t believe that it is already time for my final Auxiliares de Conversación update of the year! Its crazy to think that just 8 months ago I was heading off to my first day as an auxiliar, and now, here I am, with 300+ hours spent in the classroom!
This month seemed to fly by, and was filled with lovely moments, bittersweet goodbyes, wonderful adventures, and so much paperwork! While I will be publishing an overall recap of my experience during my first year teaching English in Spain soon, this month I’ll be focusing more on my experiences during my last month of teaching, my renewal process, travel adventures, and plans for the summer!
Final Month Teaching
While part of me was definitely ready for summer break, it was crazy returning from my long weekend in Lake Como, Italy and realizing that I only had 5 weeks left until my last day of school. For the most part, lessons went on as usual. As the weather continued to get nicer, the children (and I) started to get more and more restless! Before I knew it, 5 weeks became 4, 4 weeks became 3, and soon the weeks had dwindled down to a few final days of classes. While auxiliares finish classes in May, the students aren’t out of school until June, so my last few days weren’t too chaotic! I spent my final few weeks reviewing material we had learned throughout the year and trying to prepare fun lessons for the students to remember me by.
Saying Goodbye
My final week of school was definitely an emotional one! I explained to each of my classes that it would be my last week at the school, and I taught the younger students lots of vocabulary that has to do with saying goodbye. During this week, I brought my nice camera to school every day and made sure I snapped a photo with each class. I also had students practice using goodbye vocabulary by making going away cards, which doubled as a fun activity for the kids and a great memento for me! The cards were so cute and fun to read, and I absolutely LOVED the students’ drawings! Eventually, I want to put all of the photos and drawings in some sort of scrapbook for safekeeping.
My school was also more than generous when it came to my last day! I had enlisted one of my teacher friends to help me get a traditional cake from the local bakery (I wouldn’t have time after my academy lessons that week). Typically, when a teacher is celebrating a birthday or a final day of teaching, that teacher is the one responsible for bringing cake. However, when I arrived at school the next day, a delicious cake was waiting for me and all of the teachers as a gift. Additionally, the teachers had all generously come together to gift me a beautiful backpack, and a few students had gotten me gifts as well. They presented the gifts and cards to me at recess, while all of the kids excitedly chanted “CAT-A-LIN-A”. The students even got a few extra minutes to play outside thanks to all of the excitement! While it is definitely overwhelming having 200+ tiny humans chanting your name, I was at least somewhat prepared for this moment thanks to a fellow teacher’s going away celebration in April.
I am not typically much of a crier in these situations, so there weren’t any tears shed that day. That being said, it was a very sweet and touching sendoff, and it was the perfect end to an incredible year teaching at my school. I will miss the sweet students and the kind and welcoming faculty so much, and I look forward to visiting the school next year and keeping in touch with all of the friends I made! It is sad to say goodbye, but I am happy that I won’t be going too far!
Speaking of which…
Renewal Update
Last month I wrote all about how I had received my renewal placement and will officially be working at a school in Sevilla during the next school year! With all of my application and renewal paperwork out of the way, this month I had to immediately get started on renewing all of the paperwork that lets me legally live in Spain during the year!
TIE Renewal
The first step in this process was renewing my TIE. Since I am not leaving Spain for more than 90 days this summer, I, fortunately, do not have to go through the process of getting an entirely new visa, I simply have to renew my TIE. I found the paperwork for this to be relatively straightforward and had to visit the immigration office a few times to follow the proper renewal procedure. While I will probably write a more detailed post on this process later, if you are an auxiliar and are nervous about the renewal process, don’t be! While immigration paperwork oftentimes seems stressful or intimidating, if you stay on top of your dates, it doesn’t have to be! There are also so many helpful posts about renewing in the many auxiliar Facebook groups, so if you aren’t sure about something or have questions, those are an excellent resource!
If I can do it, you can do it!
Regresso
Since I am planning on leaving Spain before my new TIE arrives in the mail, I also had to apply for a regresso. A regresso is a super important bit of paperwork if you plan on leaving the country during your renewal process. I applied for mine about 2 weeks before I was scheduled to depart for Malta and Sicily, and I was able to pick up in about 4 days. Applying for the regresso was also quite simple, I just made sure to pay the proper fee, and brought copies of all the right paperwork to the immigration office.
I was honestly pleasantly surprised by how easy this process was-perhaps I am simply getting better at immigration paperwork the longer I live abroad? In theory, my TIE will be ready for me to pick up at the end of July and I’ll be all set for next year! Fingers crossed!
Travel
This month was a crazy month, but you know me-I had to squeeze some travel in somehow! While I didn’t visit any new destinations, I had an amazing time returning to some old favorites.
Córdoba Patios
Before I moved to Spain to teach English, I spent some time traveling through Andalusia and took a day trip to Córdoba. While I enjoyed my visit to this historic city, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to visit during Córdoba’s famous Festival of the Patios (Los Patios de Córdoba). This year, I was determined to make the trip during one of the two weekends when the festival was in full force.
I am so glad I decided to return to Córdoba-my visit was easily my favorite day trip I took this year, and was possibly even my favorite day trip of all time! The entire town was decked out in flowers as the various private homes competed to have the most beautifully decorated patios. I had such an incredible time leisurely strolling from patio to patio, admiring the flowers and decorations within each courtyard. The trip was the perfect way to spend the day, the weather was incredible, and the flowers totally had me feeling ready for summer! If you happen to be in Spain while the festival of the patios is taking place, I highly recommend making a trip! Read all about my visit (and tips for planning your own trip) in this post.
Florence
I also ended up visiting Italy again, surprise, surprise! I can’t help it-tickets from Sevilla to Milan were only 50 Euros! Who could resist a deal like that? I had so much fun eating my way through Florence, seeing old friends, and enjoying the European city I first fell in love with and was lucky enough to spend a year living in. While I enjoy living in Spain and love Sevilla, Firenze will always be my primo amore!
Summer Plans
While many auxiliares choose to return home for the summer, I absolutely love Europe in the summertime and am planning on (mostly) staying in Spain. To support myself, I will actually be moving in with a family in the town where I worked this year, living with them and speaking English with the children. I will also continue working for about 8 hours a week at the academy I worked at throughout the school year. This is a great opportunity for me, and I am so looking forward to both of these jobs this summer!
While I won’t be saving quite as much as I could working a summer camp in Spain or working back in the US, I should have more time to blog and a pretty relaxed summer. I also love that I will be in Europe, so I will have plenty of opportunities to travel, and of course, hit the beach-which is only about 45 minutes away from where I’ll be living!
Right now, I have plans to visit Sicily and Malta for about 2 weeks in June, and I will be heading back to California and Illinois for about two weeks in September. I am also so excited to plan a 2 week Ireland trip for my family in September, just before I start teaching again on the first week of October! I am sure that I will also be heading on some more local adventures here in Andalusia, and you never know when a cheap flight will pop up and tempt me to fly somewhere else! You’ll have to stay tuned to see what else I get up to by checking here on the blog, or following me on Instagram @missadventuresabroad!
Budget
I was a bit over budget this month, primarily due to my trip to Italy and a few clothing items I needed to purchase. You can see a detailed breakdown of my month-by-month earnings and expenditures as an auxiliar here!
Next year…
There you have it! My final auxiliar update of the year! I can’t believe it! What do you think? Should I continue this series again next year? When I was first looking into teaching English in Spain, I found lots of posts about teaching English, but I struggled to get a sense of what daily life was like as an auxiliar. These monthly updates were my attempt to share my personal experiences with other future auxiliares. If you haven’t read my other monthly updates and are interested in reading more, you can find the rest here!
Are there any other posts about teaching English in Spain that you’d like to see? I still have quite a few topics to cover and will continue posting all about the Auxiliares de Conversación program, but I would love to hear your ideas! Let me know in the comments below, shoot me an e-mail, or feel free to DM me on Instagram @missadventuresabroad! If you happen to be teaching in Spain during the 2018-2019 school year, you know where to find me! Don’t be shy! I’m always happy to meet a fellow auxiliar!
Interested in learning more about life as an Auxiliar de Conversación? Read all of my Auxiliar Updates here, or check out some of these posts:
- 10 Essential Tips For Your First Day Teaching English In Spain
- My First Month Teaching English In Spain As An Auxiliar de Conversación
- Auxiliar de Conversación Budget: Exactly How Much I Make (And Spend) Each Month In Spain
- Teaching English In Spain: Auxiliar Updates
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