Cory Saavedra
October 14, 2023
I’ve really settled here in Madrid and have spent the last couple weeks just enjoying my time and living life like I normally would in Canada. At this point I feel like I’ve seen everything that I have wanted to see in the city and now I’m really just trying to enjoy my last couple of weeks doing what I enjoy. I watch a lot of sports (I know big surprise the gym teacher watches sports) and so I’ve watched as many soccer games as I can. We went on a day trip to Toledo, and overall I’ve just been enjoying my time in this great city. My Spanish is improving every day, I can order food and drinks no problem, but it’s still not good enough to have proper conversations with people. I’ve made a couple friends here and although I understand a lot of what they are saying we often have to use google translate to help out in our conversations to help out with the more complex words. We also just started doing a Spanish course that is offered by the University that we are helping out at and I’m hoping that it will help me to improve my Spanish as well.
My goal before coming to Madrid was to watch every soccer game that was played while I was here. I have attended all four Atletico Madrid games since I’ve been here and every single one has been great. Every game has been exciting and close, and the atmosphere is something that is indescribable. The fans sing the entire game, and although I’m unable to understand the songs I love them all. It is so different from American sports and the fans just seem so much more passionate. There is another team in Madrid that I wasn’t able to buy tickets for (Real Madrid) as they require you to have a European visa to buy tickets for their games. This was a big disappointment because they are the biggest team in Europe and I’ve heard so many great things about their stadium. Last week I was lucky enough to get a ticket to one of the games as I have a friend that allowed me to buy a ticket using her Visa. It was a great experience but I was honestly a little disappointed by the atmosphere in comparison to the Atletico games. There were a lot more tourists at the Real Madrid game and that led to less singing and overall a worse atmosphere, although it was still fun. I definitely consider myself an Atletico Madrid fan now and I had to buy some merch as those games have been some of my favorite moments so far here. Unfortunately there are no more home games while I am here and so I will have to settle for watching the games on tv from now on.
Although we only spend two days per week at the school volunteering, I feel like I’m starting to make really good connections with the students, especially the ones that don’t speak English or Spanish that I have mostly been helping out. It is really rewarding seeing their progression so far in such a little amount of time. The one student who speaks Hebrew, that I’ve been spending the most time with, started the year with a cheat sheet that his mom made that had different phrases that were written in Hebrew, Spanish, and English, and whenever the student needed something he would pull out that cheat sheet and point to what he needed. He was really struggling and overwhelmed with being in a new city and trying to learn two new languages at once but at this point only a month later I feel like he has really settled in and his English is actually getting pretty good. He knows all the major phrases and he hasn’t needed to use his cheat sheet in a long time. This last week the school had an important visit from Harvard University and all the staff was stressed out about it. My partner teacher was sick and in no shape to be at school but she felt like she had to because of the visit. She could barely talk and so I ended up having to do a lot more that day than I usually do. It was nice to actually be needed in the classroom rather than just being a helping hand. Although it was a stressful day it has made me excited to be a teacher and have my own class.
Overall this trip has been a great experience so far and I’m starting to get sad that it’s coming to an end, even though it will be nice to see my family and friends when I get back to Calgary.
