It has been quite a while since I’ve updated (or even thought about) my travel blog. Lots has changed since I last wrote so I’ll do my best to give a summary of highlights up to this point.
My first post on this blog outlined the purpose of this online space: to document and share my experiences during my study abroad experience. Sadly, those plans fell through – not only for fall semester, but once again in the spring semester – leaving me feeling a bit defeated and powerless to achieve my goals of traveling abroad. Making the best of a bad situation, I continued to take Spanish grammar, composition, and conversation classes during my final year at Appalachian State University. One of my professors was on exchange from Pontevedra, a city in the northwestern part of Spain, and shared the Auxiliares de Conversación program with me. The Spanish government hires native English speakers from the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom to assist the English teachers in public schools for a nine- or ten-month contract. My professor knew how much it meant to me to travel abroad and encouraged me to pursue a spot in the program for the year following my graduation.
The application period for Auxiliares de Conversación opens on January 10, and assignments are made on a first-come, first-served basis. You had better believe I had everything ready to submit the day it opened – I was so determined to get a spot in Madrid! Once I applied it was a waiting game for a good five months until I heard anything back. In that time I continued to tutor a dozen students or so and support social media outreach at my university’s student learning center, excel in my academics, enjoy the mountains surrounding my university, and immerse myself in Spanish in any way possible.
My favorite resources to practice Spanish are through music and reading. I picked up a number of used books in Spanish from The Readers Corner and used a program that saves my liked songs on Spotify to a monthly playlist. (You should give my montly playlists a listen!! July, and August, and September 2019 are lots of fun.) Reading out loud both improved my vocabulary and my pronunciation, and listening to more music in Spanish greatly helped in speech recognition. For extra credit I would watch reality talk shows such as Caso Cerrado and the Laura Bozzo show – they often go off the rails, but are a great resource to recognize different accents and reinforce daily vocabulary and storytelling skills.
May eventually rolled around, bringing with it lots of changes. I was assigned a school in the northern part of Madrid, I graduated from Appalachian State University, moved out of Boone, found a sublease near downtown Raleigh for the summer, and secured summer employment. I knew that I had lots of preparation to do before my flight to Spain and would have even more to adjust to after I moved, so I made sure to optimize my time this summer as much as possible (I’ll sleep when I’m dead, right?).
One of my last hikes before graduating. 
My bother and me dancing at my 25th birthday party.
This summer has been busy as usual for me, but I have enjoyed it so much. I kept myself on a tight work-gym-cooking routine for a good portion of the summer, filling in the empty spaces of my schedule with supportive friendships like that I have with Red and looking for apartments with my good friend and future roommate Danielle.
Red pre-haircut 
Red post-haircut
To ensure I could move to Spain and work in a school without any issues, I had to jump through a number of hoops, including: getting fingerprinted for a FBI background check, traveling to DC twice for an Apostille appointment and a visa appointment at the Spanish Consulate, and setting up meetings at Spanish banks, doctors’ offices, and immigration offices to register for an identification card. My friends and family have been so supportive up to this point and I can’t thank them enough for their help!
I leave for Spain a week from today. It’s getting more and more real to me every hour. Right now I am feeling a bit anxious but I know it will all fade the second that Danielle and I touch down in Madrid. Bookmark this page or subscribe to the RSS feed to stay up to date on my adventures!
