¡Hola todos!

Hello, and welcome to my blog!  For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Rachel, a native Ohioan who’s decided to quit my job of 2+ years and move to Spain for a while.  

Yes, that’s right, I’m leaving my job and moving to Spain.  Why?  Well, I’ve decided that I want to be a Spanish teacher when I grow up!  Exciting, right?!

See, working in the land of cubes for a while has led me to reconsider my career goals.  When I graduated from college as an English and Spanish double-major a few years ago, I dreamt of a career in editing and/or publishing.  I landed a job as a Software Auditor instead.  Through this position, I have learned what kind of career and work environment I’d prefer and am no longer interested in the corporate world long-term.

 Now, the whole teaching thing seems rather appealing.  I’ve been lured in by many factors; among them, the chance to make a positive difference in people’s lives, the challenge to be creative, the excitement of teaching someone a new skill, the prospect of forever practicing and honing my Spanish language skills, the potential to share my enthusiasm for Spanish with others, and, of course, the absence of a cubicle.  Teaching is my new dream and I am excited to pursue it! 

As a first step, I realize that  I need to be a little more proficient in the language I intend to teach before I can (or should) actually teach it; and, what better way to improve my Spanish skills than to live in Spain for a while?  None that I can think of!  So, I’m taking advantage of Spain’s North American Language and Culture Assistants program and moving to Sevilla (Seville) for the upcoming school year. 

This program, through the Spanish Ministry of Education, provides an educational grant of 700 Euros per month to accepted North Americans as part of a language and culture exchange program.  We help schools provide superior English (and/or French) language and American/ Canadian cultural education for their students, and they provide a monthly stipend and ample opportunity to practice our Spanish language skills and learn about the Spanish culture.   Pretty cool, right?  I think so!

When I first read about the program, though, I was a bit intimidated.  The idea seemed like a great one, but the prospect of handling all the pre-departure and in-country details on my own was a little daunting.  I wanted to have some guidance and support along the way. 

Luckily, it just so happened that such guidance was available – through CIEE (the company through which I had studied abroad in college). I looked into their Teach in Spain program and found that they would provide all the guidance and support I desired.  The downside – it was a little expensive.  Considering the pros and cons of going either directly through the government program (free) or CIEE’s Teach in Spain program (costly, but including support, a guarantee of being in Andalucía, and options to add Spanish classes and/or a TEFL course), I opted for CIEE’s program.

So, I started saving my dinero, applied last winter, got accepted, and am now counting down (only 24 days!) to my departure for Spain!

I have only 1 ½ weeks left at my software auditing job and, while I’ll miss the wonderful people I work with, I am SUPER excited for this new adventure!  In just a few short weeks, I’ll be on a plane bound for Madrid (…and then, a train bound for Sevilla) to start my adventure in Spain!

I’ve been preparing for this for quite a while and it’s almost here!  I’m so excited!