First official week of work!

So today was the first week of work as an Auxiliar de Convercacion, and boy was is exhausting! Tuesday and Wednesday I was actually working and in the classes talking with and teaching the kids. And despite only having three and four 45minutes classes on each day it was exhausting!

And since I didn't have my horario in my last post here it is: EDITED 16 TIMES!

It seems that every day I go to work something needs to be modified!
Spain is definitely teaching me to be more flexible

On a Side Note:
The atmosphere of primary school here in Malaga is very different from my own experience in NYC.  And from discussing with other Auxiliares in CEIP schools (Centro de Educacion Infantil y Primaria) [aka primary school] these are common trends in schools across the region.
For instance: the kids just get up out of their seats and wander towards the window or the back of the room to get a book or to talk to their friends. They come right up to the profe (teacher) while they are talking/explaining things to show them their work, and they are very informal and don't call their teacher "Ms. _______" and they just shout out "Oye seño" (ayo teacher!). It took me by surprise the first day! And the teachers are not afraid to shout at the class or bang on the table with a roll of duct tape to get the classes attention. They also have no problem calling out a child in front of everyone when they're misbehaving.  But from what I see these kids need as much dicipline as possible!

My school: CEIP El Tomillar

But so far the teachers I've met are really friendly and are excited that I'm in their class.  And even though I'm not with the same class more than once a week there aren't that many teachers so I've had periods with the same teacher in different classes, which I think is good so I can get to know the teachers and their teaching methods and work off of their techniques for the kids. And, all classes in one grade use the same book so I can recycle activities for the whole grade.

Thursday was orientation.  It wasn't very informative and pretty boring because they didn't tell me anything I didn't already know: "you are an ambassador for your country" and "you are expected to not speak any spanish in the classroom, just your native language" I did learn that the Spanish government funds the same program for people that are native speakers of French, German, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, and Chinese too, it's not just for native English speakers!  The only real noteworthy part of orientation was the cocktail hour after where the drinks were unlimited and the food was delish! It was great to see the other Auxiliars in Malaga and actually meet the people I've been talking with on the facebook group for months now haha definitely worth it to go! Orientation "started" at 11am [but in typical Spañard fashion it started 30 minutes late haha] which gave me ample time to sneak Nick in ;) and it went until 17:00 (5pm) when the band cleared away and the bartenders left

One of the tables of finger foods served at Malaga's Orientation

Today (Friday) I finally got my temporary NIE! ((and for future auxiliares Sarai posted step by step instructions on how to go about getting your NIE, which is what we did the first time - only for me and Lenny to be turned away (not Sarai tho!) and told to come back after October 1st because we went on Sept27 and aparantly us two had to wait =[ I'm not sure what made the difference between Sarai being able to get hers at that time and not me and Lenny - an example of Spain's ineffeciency lol))

But today I got it! The line and wait was more than doubled, but it was a great success! The guy made me run across the street tho and get new pictures cuz he thought the ones I had were pubic lice (and i'm kinda glad: those pictures were evidence of my swollen face and remnants of a black eye and today's pix were way cuter haha)

My temporary NIE

And for future auxiliares: this is your temporary NIE, but in 40 days you go back to the Comeseria and get the actual card which is hard like any other ID card and that is your TIE which enables you to travel outside of the EU without being hassled to get back into Spain.

So all in all - a successful week! I even posted an ad for myself to give private tutoring lessons in english clases particulares on http://www.tusclasesparticulares.com/ and got a ton of emails from people inteseted in lessons! I'm supposed to meet with one potential student today and I hope it goes well cuz I know I'll be needing the extra cash for all my travel plans and much needed new wardrobe for the Malaga nightlife because people get really dressed up to go out almost every night of the week!

Another week finished! Time just seems to be flying by!