I arrived in Spain yesterday (27/09/12). I had already arranged my accommodation in England so I went straight to my new apartment, unpacked a little then headed to the hotel with my parents. It wasn't a very long today... today was much more exciting.
I'd been in contact with the English teacher, Alicia and the headmistress of the school for a quite a few weeks now. They couldn't have been more helpful over email whilst I was still in England and even though I don't start work till 1st of October we arranged that I would visit the school today to meet everyone. Escola El Margalló is a very big primary school with around 250 students with a percentage of students with severe learning difficulties... the playground was the biggest I'd seen for a primary school and there were children running around free and happy everywhere. I was quite nervous to meet my new colleagues and to see my new work place but my parents came with me as invited by the school, which made things easier. The English teacher and the headmistress were waiting for me at the entrance when I arrive and couldn't have been more welcoming. So welcoming in fact that it was a little overwhelming. They were ecstatic to see me and my English teacher told me she had been counting down the days for me to arrive! They gave us a tour around the school and informed us that I was their first ever Language Assistant. My English teacher told me that there was an older class that was very excited to meet me so we went to their class to see if they were doing anything important. The headmistress peered in and noticed they were doing presentations so she closed the door, but once the students heard us talking English the whole class was shouting and two very confident boys ran out of the classroom to get me "Come in! Come in!"... Inside the classroom the entire class shouted "Welcome to Spain Adele!" I will never forget how at that moment a very young boy shouted "no welcome to Catalunya!" and then all of his friends cheered and praised him with high fives!
The playground was also crazy. As I walked through the playing area all of the students would stop and stare and many would come up to me to shake my hand. After a while the children were lining up to greet me with hugs and kisses. It was like I was a celebrity. They were beyond enthusiastic to practise their English and so excited to meet me. They seemed to already know everything about me, they addressed me by my first name and greeted my parents too. They also asked where my brother was as Alicia (the English teacher) had shown the class some of my family photos that I had sent her over email. The attention was overwhelming but I'm sure they will calm down once they are used to me!
We were back in the city by 12pm and managed to organise my NIE number, my bank account and new mobile phone sim card before heading back for a siesta at 3pm.
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