Gooooood afternoon, friends! Joanne, here, from SPAIN (woot woot)!
After a stressful day of spending an entire day at the airport, getting lost in Atocha station, and almost missing my train to Pedroches, I am HERE. It is currently June 7th, my third day here in Villanueva and so far I am having the time of my flippin’ life.
Villanueva de Córdoba is a very small city with approximately 8,774 people; it is adorned by beautiful architecture which I have had the pleasure of looking at on my way to the Academia. Caty, my host mother, is a very sweet and caring lady and has been showing me around the pueblo. From what I have noticed, everyone is very kind and greets each other with two cheek kisses (~so euro~). SPEAKING OF MY HOST FAMILY, everyone is so nice and funny! Because they speak a very limited amount of English (and my Spanish is… improving) our communication oscillates between hand gestures and Google Translate. It is a fantastic system.
My host family also has a dog, PEPITO! He is very cute and I have been playing with him regularly. He is a very charismatic pup and is fond of belly rubs. I like him a lot.
After spending the first day catching up on some sleep, I had my first day at the Academia. Lucy, my supervisor, gave me a tour of the place and we reviewed the summer schedule together. Because of the Trinity Exams that are taking place today and the “feria chica” happening this weekend, there isn’t a lot of work to do yet. However, today I helped with the review session for students taking the B2 exam by working on the conversation section with them. I was very impressed by their fluency and how well they discussed the social dilemmas of Spain in English.
After the review session, my new friend Vivian and I walked around the town and checked out a small cafe called Churreria El Lagarto (lol, lizard). And let me tell you, this cafe has THE BEST café de leche I have ever had. After catching up with Vivian and doing some work, it was time for lunch and the siesta and I walked back home where Caty was waiting for me with huevos y patatas. Again, we communicated using hand gestures and GoogleTranslate. It is still very funny.
In the middle of lunch, my host brother Fernando and his friends walked in and I got to meet them all for the first time! But it was slightly awkward because I didn’t know that boys in Spain did the cheek kiss greeting to girls so when they all leaned in I was like, “Oh! Uhhhh, hola…. *kiss kiss*” Yeahhhh, awkward. But, noted! (Just confirmed with Lucy, it is common for everybody to do the cheek-kiss thing regardless of gender/sexuality).
Now, I am here back at the Academia to do some work before I meet with the examiner to go over what students need the most improvement on and what parts of the exam went well. Then, I will be working alongside Lucy by assisting a C1 class (the most advanced). Yay!
Thanks for reading, friends!
Hasta pronto,
Joanne