Receiving my placement and feeling like I'm starting to climb Everest.

Here's a quick rundown on how I applied and was accepted into this oh so amazing program. It actually has absolutely nothing to do with merit, training, or experience. As a matter of fact it BARELY has anything to do with education, except for the fact that you have to have a degree, but that can be in any subject so long as you have that oh so important Diploma! lol Basically the day they open the application period, you create an account which require a bit of info and hit submit hoping you have a low application or "inscrita" number. AKA the lower your number the better change you have of making the cut since they only took approximately 1600 of the 4000 or so this year that have applied. I believe mine was 197. Mostly because I screwed up the first time and had to redo it otherwise i was about 105? So that's that. Then came the MONTHS of waiting. and I do mean months. According to the manual we should have received our placements the first of April. We didn't. We did however start hearing rumors about the program canceling. 3 regions did back out because of the horrible budget cuts but thankfully it will continue. Finally after 3 regions backed out I received my email, not only had I made it, but I was put in my first choice region. Andalusia which is in the southern part of Spain, and pretty much my favorite place on earth.

A few weeks later I received the news that I would be teaching at I.E.S Francisco Fatou aka middle school + high school kids 12-17 in Ubrique, Spain. Which as previously stated is in the middle of NOWHERE! You would think the people who applied first would have received the best placements seeing as how most people prefer a more mainstream life closer to a city. But alas, that is once again Spanish bureaucracy. I'm pretty sure then just have a giant map and throw darts at it while trying to place us assistants and laugh while they do it. Needless to say I'm just a little bitter that people who are hundreds of numbers higher than mine have received better placements and I'm in the equivalent of Spanish farmville. lol Then again at least I'm in spain doing what I want to do so I'm making the best of it. Besides, if I renew next year who knows maybe I'll be in Madrid or something.

The Big Decision: To move out of the country or NOT to move out of the country.

Well for me it was definitely an easy answer. I AM OUTTA HERE!!!!

For those of you who don't know me,  I'm Becky. AKA Beckers, Bex or Little Bo Peep. The super awesome American girl moving to Spain to teach English for a year in the TINY southern town of Ubrique. Please refer to the map below, curtsey of Andalucia.com.

Thanks to the grant I am receiving from the Spanish government, I shall be working in a public middle school helping to teach English to I believe middle school aged kids. (I still haven't had the official ages yet.) From October first through the end of May. I found out about the program from a fellow blogger who was repeating her second year in Spain and was kind as to give me the information. Hopefully next year I can pass on that same kindness. So I applied for the program on November 1, 2011 and was officially accepted on May 21, 2012. After a VERY long and arduous process that required much paperwork, the promise of my first born and a blood donation for testing to make sure I was human; just kidding about two of those, I was finally eligible for selection. 7 months of waiting to find out where I would be placed. Since the Spanish have a very relaxed was of life, I waited several weeks past when we were told we would find out to actually receive my placement. Almost a full two months actually. Then came the background check, notary stamps, half a dozen trips to fed-ex, and lots of nervous shakes worrying I didn't have the necessary documentation when I needed them etc. But that was just the start of this tremendous journey and I shall write more about the lead up next time.

I would like to put a disclaimer on this blog in case you've already gotten a bad taste in your mouth from my not so perfect style of writing. I am not an English major, nor do I care that I am not the most eloquent blogger. I have started this blog to make it easier for my friends and family back home to keep up with me while I am abroad. So please, if you don't like it, please feel free to not follow this blog. :-)


Hasta Luego!