What am I doing here, you ask?

I guess I have not really explained why I am in Madrid, and what I am doing here. According to the last blog post, you can guess I had a pretty rough, yet "successful" undergraduate career. Thus, I could not see myself going straight to medical school without taking a year to not only recharge batteries, but truly appreciate life in all its forms. I didn't "live" those years in undergrad when I was in the US, and imagining myself 21, starting medical school, and continuing life without "living" an important period of anyone's life was something I could not accept. If I thought I was a robot during undergrad, I knew it would only get worse in medical school (even though I think I would enjoy my course material more in medical school). By no means did I ever second guess my desire to go into med school; academically, I was ready, but mentally I was not there yet. I would not necessarily call it burnout, because I have an immense capacity (and desire) for work. It was more of a realization that this immense capacity has had it's drawbacks.

Another important thing to remember is that I'm not the typical pre-med--I've always wanted a global career and mobility. In addition, when practicing in the US, I primarily want to work with medically underserved populations in urban areas and that typically necessitates a great level of Spanish. However, I am only fluent in English. Thus, when the opportunity to spend a year living in Madrid--immersed in Spanish-- came up, there was no way I could deny the offer.

Thus, here I am. I accepted an offer teaching Science and English (both taught in English) at a school here in Madrid through the national government of Spain. Basically the government sends you to work at a colegio (primary school, 1st grade-6th grade) or secondary school (7th-12th) to act as kind of a supplemental teacher. Thus, I don't have my own classes that I am responsible for, but my job consists of taking a group of 3 or 4 students at a time out of their 18-25 student class, and tutor-teaching them the material that they're working on. The school is a bilingual school, meaning that some courses are presented in English. When I am not tutor-teaching, I lead classroom lesson activities or lead "science experiments." For example, next week I'm showing the kids how the diaphragm of our body helps us breath by using soda bottles for a demonstration! You probably also remember this activity from elementary school

 

So how is all this going so far? I love it. We have two classes (45 min each) in the morning and then a 30-minute break where all the teachers eat a full spread of coffee, tea, toast, french bread, chorizo, salami, yogurt, fruits of all kind, and more (for free!) while the kids have recess. Then, we have two more classes, and then a 2-hour lunch period. During that period I typically play soccer or basketball with the 6th graders and then eat lunch. Afterwards, we then have our last two classes. I promised the kids that next week I'll bring my American football to teach them the "other" beautiful game (thanks, John, for sending over the football).

At my school, there are three other "auxiliares," as we're called, who are American and recent-grads as well. We all hang out during lunch and the break.

Peace!

Ameer