#ciee teach abroad

[geewhizze]

Hello! How did you get started teaching abroad? Where did you get your TEFL cert?

Hi! I got my TEFL cert through the CIEE online course that had placement aid in a couple different countries included. There are a bunch of other courses through different companies that are a bit cheaper, but the placement aid was super helpful so I was glad with my choice!

[poordesignchoice]

Madrid: Second Time Around

Madrid: Second Time Around

Coming to Madrid as an auxiliar de conversacion has been an interesting mix of the familiar and the new for me, and that’s been a little disorienting. I was lucky enough to study abroad in Madrid in 2017 and I was fairly certain that coming back to the city would be easy and the culture shock would be minimal.

However; it turns out two years is just long enough to forget a few key details, from…

[qtakesams]

September, Homestays, and Other Things

I’m really not sure what is stranger—that its already September, or that I have now been in Amsterdam for two weeks, going into the third. It should also definitely feel like summer vacation is ending because my semester begins tomorrow, but somehow it does not. Yesterday I had dinner with a group of my new girlfriends, and we started planning trips to Vienna, Budapest, Paris, and London. On top of that, I already know I will be going to Oktoberfest in a month, Prague, and Luxembourg. Really, I feel like my vacation just started. So, what exactly am I doing when I’m not at an event or planning a trip? Well, I live in a homestay.

           It’s very fun in the last two weeks to tell people I am living with a Dutch family. The study abroad program I am in, the CIEE, is only American exchange students and contains about a hundred students. When I signed up for this, they presented living options of two different student dormitories, both in Amsterdam West, and the option of a homestay. Only three people out of this group selected to live in a homestay. The student network I joined, the ISN, is not education-based but provides programs and events for exchange students living in a certain city. The basic idea is help foreign students meet students from other universities. None of the students in this program were given the option of a homestay, so they live in housing offered to them by their institution, also known as apartments.

           All of this means I am one of very few students currently living in Amsterdam, currently living with a Dutch family who is not my own by blood. A rather entertaining part of my abroad experience which develops into some fun conversations.

           Many of the fellow peers in my own exchange program are curious about what living in that circumstance is like. Many of them simply want to know how awkward or weird it is. Truthfully, after two weeks, its neither.

           For one, there are many perks of a homestay that I know my other classmates do not have. I am fed breakfast, some lunches, and most dinners for free. My family is only required to feed me once a week, but they eat every night at 6 so if I am home, I join them. They’ve also given me the privilege of using one of their old bikes, complete with a lock and lights. Although it would seem bikes are plentiful in the Netherlands (which they definitely are), they are still expensive. The ability to rent a bike for free saved me somewhere between 50-200 euros, which increases when you rent from a company because most require you also buy their insurance.

           I have three younger host brothers, which is interesting and fun. The older one is 13, and the younger two are 11-year-old twins. Although I’m really just about a decade older than both of them, it’s interesting to realize how much my world perspectives have already changed so much since I was that age. They ask questions about things I no longer consider. They tell me little fun facts about Amsterdam, and I tell them what the United States is like. Today, for example, we travelled somewhere in the car together and they taught me some basic Dutch words. In turn, they told me to teach them some difficult English words, so I taught them “annihilated”, “yacht”, and “colonel”. All three of them picked these words up quickly, which stunned me a little because those were some of the words I struggled with when I was learning my own vocabulary.

           It’s a very strange thing to go from begin the younger sibling, or even an only child of sorts, to having three younger siblings. While I am just coming into their preteen lives, and I’ll leave rather quickly, I already feel a need to look out for them. They make me laugh very hard, a lot, and given how much they already know about themselves and the world, I would say they are highly intelligent kids. I actually often find myself wondering if I was that observant when I was 11, or if I knew myself that well but lost it somewhere along the way. I also wonder if I was that lanky, but generally I don’t believe I was.

           My family lives two neighborhoods over from the Artis (zoo) in Amsterdam West, which puts me on the other side of the city from the two student dormitories where the rest of my academic program live. I don’t see them often, and it’s clear that they’ve naturally developed into their own groups. Well over half of them are from the same university, so the effort of trying to fit with them doubles anyway.

           It can be frustrating when I see them and they already know one another and have inside jokes I wouldn’t know about because I wasn’t there, but I usually just don’t mind. Afterall, most of them are friendly and they include me when I’m there. It took me years to find friends at home who would do that, so it feels good to find it here as well.

           Mostly, I don’t mind because it feels good to be immersed in this culture. There’s already many things I have experienced that I know I would have missed had I chosen to live with other American college students.

           Of course, it takes time to adjust to spontaneously moving into somebody else’s house, but now that I’m adjusted, I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in the city.

[maddie-nanjingsemester]

欢迎光临南京！Welcome to Nanjing!

你们好！Wow. Okay. How do I even start this blog post off? There’s so much that has happened within this past week since I’ve arrived that I almost don’t even know where to start – although I guess it makes sense to start at the beginning. So I’m assuming that if you’re reading this blog, you’re aware that I’m studying abroad in Nanjing, China for this whole semester. If so, great! If not, where have you been?? (Just kidding.) This first post is also probably going to be quite long because there’s a lot to talk about, but stay with me! Also, apologies for not posting this sooner – when our program advisors told us this semester was going to be busy, they weren’t lying!

What a whirlwind this first week was. (Oh and yes, technically I have been here for close to two weeks now, but I’m only going to be talking my impressions of Nanjing from the first week in this blog post, so we’ll stick with that.) I left Chicago on February 13 (Wednesday) around midnight, taking a direct flight to Incheon Airport in South Korea. I flew on Asiana Airlines, which, FYI, has great food. They served bibimbap for dinner and the meals came with little instructions on how to prepare it. 真可爱！So cute! Also super tasty.

After a 14-hour flight, during which I basically alternated sleeping and watching Netflix, we landed around 5am on Friday (Feb 15), so I pretty much lost all of Thursday (Valentine’s Day lol). Such a weird feeling to jump so far ahead in time without even really feeling like I lost any time at all. Then I had about an 8-hour layover in the airport, which normally would have been enough time to get out of the airport and see a bit of Seoul, but since we landed so early, hardly anything was even open inside the airport, let alone outside. On top of that, it was snowing and still dark out, so I elected to stay in and wander around for a while. I was also joined by my airplane seatmate, who was on her way to Thailand but wasn’t leaving until the evening. It was so nice having someone to chat with and explore the airport with.

Finally, following a slight delay, my plane to Nanjing took off a little after 1pm. By this point I was so ready to be done with plane rides that I had a bit of a hard time relaxing, but since we still had a 2.5-hour flight ahead of us, I tried to settle in and read my book nonetheless (The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, if you’re interested). There was another girl from the program on my flight, and we found each other by the baggage claim after going through security/customs. Speaking of security, I didn’t know that you had to get fingerprinted when you went through customs in China! So I guess the government has my prints on file now. The guard was also definitely suspicious of me and kept looking at my passport photo to confirm that it was actually me (I don’t know, I guess my hair looks different now or something?), and even asked for my admission papers from Nanjing University (which, fortunately, I had with me).

After all this, thankfully there were Chinese students from the program waiting at the airport to meet us and help us get to the dorm. We got in a taxi and then had about an hour-long ride to our dorm, during which I had the chance to just sit and absorb the fact that I was actually in China for the very first time! After so much planning and worrying and traveling, I was finally here. Exhausted and ready to sleep, but here. However, because it was only around 5 or 6pm when we arrived, I didn’t want to go to bed right away because I wanted my body to start adjusting to the time difference right away. Another girl from the program who had already been here for a week offered to go walk around the neighborhood with me so I could stretch my legs some and get a first glimpse of the city. It was chilly and drizzling (it’s been raining quite a bit here), but I didn’t mind because I was just so excited to be in Nanjing! It was cool to get to see some of the nightlife on the very first night and get a feel for the neighborhood. It’s definitely a very walkable city.

The organization that I’m studying abroad with is called CIEE, partnered with Nanjing University (one of China’s top universities), and our program is called Intensive Language and Culture in Nanjing. Because it’s really focused on increase our language ability, we signed a language contract on the first day of classes saying that we would aim to speak only Chinese from Sunday-Friday 8am-8pm. In our Chinese classes, we’re basically covering two semesters-worth of material in just one semester. If you choose to live in the dorms, you also get to room with a Chinese student, which I was definitely nervous about, but so far it’s been wonderful! My roommate’s name is 源苑 (Yuányuàn) and she’s a fourth-year majoring in teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages, with plans to go on to graduate school.

The dorm we’re staying in is Nanjing University’s international students' dorm, so it’s been really cool to see all of the other foreign students here and hear a number of different languages being spoken in the elevators and hallways. The CIEE offices and classrooms are also in this building, so going to class in the mornings is incredibly convenient. (I’ve definitely almost been late to class a few times because I don’t have to leave the building, so I’ve cut it pretty close with leaving my room, taking the elevator, and getting to class with about a minute to spare.) I had originally been thinking about doing a homestay, which is the other housing option offered with this program, but ultimately I decided that I wanted to have a bit more freedom in making spontaneous plans and to be able to live more like a real Nanjing University student (体验学生的生活 – learn through the experience of living like a student). Most of the homestays are also about 30-40 minutes away by train or bus, and I was definitely worried about being late for class in the mornings. The trains and buses don’t run 24/7 either so I wouldn’t be able to stay out late with friends if I wanted to be able to get home without paying a lot of money for a taxi. Homecooked meals and getting to experience Chinese family life would be nice, but I do love the convenience of our dorm and its proximity to lots of great restaurants, as well as getting to hang out with my friends from the program whenever I want. Our dorm rooms are definitely pretty bare, but we do have our own private bathrooms! We’re also on the 10th floor, so the view ain’t half bad.

On Saturday at 9am, the day after we arrived, we started orientation, where we got to learn about Nanjing, Nanjing University, and our program. We also had the chance to go downtown, to get our metro cards and new SIM cards, and to get to know each other a little better. There are 14 of us American students in the program, mostly all from different colleges and different states. Then on Sunday, our roommates moved in! I didn’t know who my roommate was going to be until she moved in, so like I said before, I was definitely nervous, but also like I said before, 源苑 is so great. She’s very easygoing and funny, and even though we’re both busy students, we still get meals together a lot and love to chat about random things! We’ve already had some great conversations about the differences between Chinese and American schooling, culture, etc.

Here are some of my favorite things about being here so far:

The convenience store that’s literally right around the corner from our dorm

It’s the perfect place for school supplies, snacks, and basic school supplies or bathroom items, and I probably go there about once a day to pick up a snack or a notebook or something.

Learning more conversational/colloquial words and phrases

In school, we always learned the formal ways of saying things, and while these are all technically correct, they’re not how most people talk in normal conversation!

For example, I grew up learning that 对不起 (duìbuqǐ) was the best way to say “I’m sorry.” While 对不起 is correct, my roommate told me that this is actually a very formal way of saying sorry, so most Chinese say 不好意思 (bù hǎoyìsi), which is more casual. (The appropriate response, then, is 没事 – meí shì, “it’s nothing.”)

How helpful the Chinese professors and roommates are

I’m going to talk more about classes in another post, but my professors are fantastic and I’ve already learned so much. 源苑 is also so good at explaining things to me, from words or phrases that I don’t understand to items on a menu. Everyone in this program is just so willing to help us out with our Chinese!

The food, obviously!!

I’ve had a number of people ask me about all the dishes I’ve eaten, and honestly I can’t even tell you the names of everything I’ve eaten so far, but I can tell you that I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. I’ve never been a picky eater and I’ve always been somewhat adventurous when it comes to food, so I’ve pretty much been trying everything people give me.

How many trees there are everywhere!

I honestly did not expect a big Chinese city like Nanjing to be so full of trees and plants and other greenery! I’m definitely excited for it to start getting warmer out so that plants will be able to start blooming again because right now most are pretty bare. But it’s so cool to see trees basically everywhere you look, even lining the main streets.

Here are some of my not-so-favorite things:

Waiting forever for my VPN to connect so I can use the internet

I use Express VPN pretty much all the time now and overall it’s great! So far I’ve mostly been connecting to US locations (although Hong Kong works great for Netflix) and it’s nice to be able to use social media to keep up-to-date with things happening back home. But at certain times during the day, especially in the evening, I have a hard time getting a quick connection, and then websites take a long time to load. I also sometimes have a problem where my VPN is working fine on my computer but not at all on my phone, or vice versa. And then sometimes the servers just won’t connect at all.

Not having a kitchen!!

I love making my own food, and last semester I went down to a very small meal plan so I could make a lot of my own food. Senior year I’m also planning on going off meal plan completely. Here though, I either have to go out for every meal or make instant food in the microwave/with hot water. This can be hard when it’s cold out, or when I’m busy with homework, or when I don’t feel like spending another 30-40元 on a meal. Fortunately, the cafeteria is now open (even though it’s about a 20-minute walk away), and supposedly it’s pretty cheap, so that’ll definitely help.

Having to wait nearly an hour for water to heat up enough to take a shower

In our dorm, we don’t have instantaneous hot water like we do back in the US, so if we want to take a hot shower, we have to turn on the water heater at least an hour before we want to shower in order for it to heat up sufficiently. I don’t like showering at night because going to sleep when my hair is still damp does not do good things for my hair (I showered in the evening last week and then woke up in the morning with all of my hair standing up). If I want to shower before class, I have to wake up at 6 to turn the water on so then I can shower a little after 7. And for someone who takes 5-minute showers, 这是很不方便 (this is not very convenient)!

Not being able to use an American credit card at most stores and restaurants

This one has been quite surprising. I got a travel credit card before I came here for the perk of not having transaction fees, and I assumed that I’d probably be able to use it at most stores and restaurants. However, every place that I’ve been to so far (from Walmart to the convenience store) has only taken Chinese cards. I’m going to delve into this issue in a later post, but it’s for sure not the most convenient to use cash everywhere I go.

However, while these things are inconvenient, I’ve always been one to go with the flow, so I’m making adjustments in my expectations/normal ways of living in accordance with these (mostly) minor hassles. This whole trip is supposed to be a learning experience after all!

In my next post, I’ll go into more detail about my weekly schedule and what my classes are like, and I’ll talk more about what it’s like to have to speak Chinese nearly all the time, so stay tuned!

xoxo 梅迪~

[una-vita-rocambolesca]

It's been almost 5 years since I last updated this blog but I'd like to try and revive it and pick up "where I left off" (not quite, because that's 5 years of content that would be impossible to sort chronologically, so I'll just be posting bits and pieces of my life in Italy over the last 5 years.

Life is crazy and works in very mysterious ways. Multiple occasions have brought me back to this place, and each time my love grows more and more. Most of the images below this post were from 2016, my Fall Semester abroad in Ferrara with the CIEE study abroad program (which unfortunately no longer exists :/ ) I was originally supposed to only study here for a semester (against my own will!!) but i loved it so much that i stayed another semester and completed an academic year. I learned so much that year, about myself, the language & culture of this place, as well as the wonderful people in all of these places.

Shortly after my study abroad experience, I was granted another year-long scholarship by the Lombardy region of Italy to teach English at an Italian high school in a small but wonderful city right outside of Milan. I spent the 2018-2019 academic year working as an English Language assistant where I was taken care of immensely by a wonderful staff and multiple lovely students. The absolute best experience of my life so far.

After two years of pandemic pause, I found my way back to the city of Rome in 2022 to work for an American Study Abroad program. Though it was not my cup of tea and I had to cut my experience short, I was able to return to the places I've loved the most to see the faces that make these places home.

La mia vita continua ad essere una vita rocambolesca 💚🤍♥️

[scu-broncos-in-france]

Why Summer in Paris?

Written by Rachel Chung, July 2022

As I was planning my study abroad experience, choosing a program that fit my own academic, professional, and personal goals was quite challenging. One huge deciding factor was program structure. 

Program Model

The CIEE Summer in Paris program is an island program, meaning that students are taking classes at an institution with other American students. Although it is the least immersive program structure in terms of not allowing us to take classes with host-country students, this program structure still offers many valuable opportunities. 

Academic Structure

In terms of academic structure, the program’s teaching style is very similar to classes at SCU. In addition to traditional assignments such as papers, exams, and group projects, there’s also a large emphasis on active participation. With such a familiar teaching approach, it is much easier to adapt to academics and thus allow for more time to focus on overcoming the many challenges that come with living in a new country. Additionally, this program’s course offering of Economics of Wine was extremely intriguing to me. As a Finance major and International Business minor, taking a course that would enhance my understanding of business management from an European perspective was very important. From covering different aspects of wine economics including trade, production, and marketing to further strengthening my cross-cultural communication skills, the Economics of Wine course was crucial in my decision to choose this program.

Cultural Activities & Excursions

Furthermore, while this program offers organized co-curricular activities such as wine tastings and extra-curricular trips such as to the Loire Valley, Jardin du Luxembourg, and the Latin Quarter, you also get the opportunity to independently veer out on your own. Take a risk and visit a cultural or historical destination or even go out and spontaneously discover the streets.  The apartment housing option really helped foster this sort of student independence. Without chaperones or other scheduled events besides classes and a few fun activities, it was up to ourselves to make the best memories and experiences we could. From using our French to order at local restaurants and boulangeries to buying groceries and cooking our own meals in our apartment, we really challenged ourselves by trying to live as authentically as possible to the Parisian lifestyle.  

An Important Note:

As much as the island program was great for me, it’s important to recognize that everyone is different. As you begin to choose a study abroad program that works best for you, make sure to explore the multiple program structures including direct enroll, hybrid program, island program, and virtual program, which all offer different levels of immersion and cultural experiences. 

[bisonabroad]

Gallaudet wins 2020 GoAbroad Innovation Award for Innovative New Program!

Gallaudet is the world’s only university dedicated to teaching, learning, and research in both English and American Sign Language and the university serves deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing students. Most study abroad programs are not accessible to deaf students since the ADA does not apply outside the United States. In response, the university sought to build their own program (in collaboration with CIEE and leading members of the Madrid Deaf community affiliated with Madrid's Complutense University's Centro Hervás y Panduro, the Centro Educativo Ponce de León, and the Madrid-based Deaf Theater company "El Grito").

The program included a weekend trip to a deaf film festival in Valencia where students connected with deaf individuals from all over Europe. CIEE also helped to include other activities such as cooking lessons and museum trips, all of which were made accessible to deaf students.

Learn more about this program on our website: https://abroad.gallaudet.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgramAngular&id=19464

[happyworthylife]

11 Ways to Live Traveling and Never Need Money

11 Ways to Live Traveling and Never Need Money

Almost everyone dreams of traveling and visiting every corner of the earth. But what stops us? That’s right – money. You can’t just quit the boring work, pack your suitcase and go to conquer the world. Or is it possible?

Happy Worthy Life will tell you about 11 reliable ways to help you ensure that you travel fully.

1. English teacher

© CIEE Teach Abroad   [ads1]

English…

[trustedteflreviews]

"I recommended this course to friends"

“I recommended this course to friends”

CIEE TEFL review, submitted by Drew.

This was a really great TEFL option for me. I didn’t have the money to travel overseas for an in-class TEFL course, and I didn’t really have the time for it either. Plus, the costs of taking the TEFL in-class are prohibitively expensive. I searched online for in-class courses and they want $2,000 just for the course. Then, there are the travel and…

[shitlinguistssay]

Getcha travel blog right here

I forgot to mention, but I’m doing a travel blog for the CIEE Teach Abroad Program, and I’m writing about living and teaching in Saint-Louis, Senegal, if anyone wants to swing by or subscribe to it. Hoping to put tips for studying/living abroad, teaching ESL, and mostly pictures, but check it out if you want to give my ego a boost.

[hlesliedesign]

Thank you to everyone who stopped by my table yesterday! @klplath was the lucky winner of the yoga mat raffle 🧘‍♀️ (at CIEE Teach Abroad) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxADGcvgq4X/?igshid=1lxv7ggbufcta

[poordesignchoice]

Rubielos de Mora, in Teruel, Spain.

Over my first puente (long weekend), I was lucky enough to be invited to a Casa Rural with my host family. A Casa Rural is a common type of accommodation in rural Spain, a rustic but well-maintained house in a small village; and well sometimes you can rent individual rooms or beds my family rented an entire house with a group of friends my host dad has had since college.

It was a great weekend with lovely people in a beautiful place, and I nearly missed all of it.

I’m really not good at talking to new people. In fact, I’m ‘I ordered delivery and told them to leave it outside’ levels of bad with new people.

I’m also borderline obsessed with travel shows. And there’s one scenario that appears in all of them: the spontaneous dinner/coffee/weekend with locals. While I know that in reality, these shows have people who make those ‘spontaneous’ encounters happen it’s still something I’ve always dreamed about. But you can’t meet the locals if you refuse to talk to people.

Agreeing to live with a host family was already a big deal for me, I’m still adjusting, but overall it’s been amazing. So, in the spirit of using this year to push myself out of my comfort zone, when they asked me if I wanted to go on vacation with them I said yes before giving myself time to overthink.

I’ve become comfortable with a lot in my travels, from squat toilets to chicken buses. But, spending a weekend with people I’d never met, many who have known each other since college, was incredibly uncomfortable. It was also awesome.

The trip started with a long and somewhat cramped drive, the last part of which was up a dirt road I sincerely doubted the cars ability to navigate. But we made it.

The house itself was amazing, the type of old that’s built like a maze. It made me feel like I should be on a guided tour, not sleeping there. It was a side of Spain I knew existed but had never managed to set foot in.

The stereotypical-ness was almost laughable. Our first dinner was tortilla de patatas and jamon and cured sausages. My host mom gave me a step-by-step explanation of how to assemble a proper pa amb tomáquet (for those curious it goes bread, tomato, salt, olive oil).

Our first full day there started with a casual trip to the supermarket. The supermarket happened to be in Rubielos de Mora, which was founded around the 12thcentury. It looked like it fell out of a storybook. The streets were also filled with people in traditional dress as festivities for El Pilar were in full swing. We got a massive amount of food and wandered the town. I discovered some of the decorative fountains in Spain pour clean drinking water, and then we headed back to the house.

Drinking from the fountain in Rubielos de Mora.

Our first lunch was paella prepared by my host dad and friends. I’ve wondered if the giant pans were actually used or if they were a cool decoration in eccentric kitchenware stores. It turns out they’re perfectly functional provided you want to feed an army.

My host-dad cooking Paella.

Our afternoon was slow; you can only do so much after eating your bodyweight in paella. And, because it was a Spanish vacation we spent hours after lunch at the table, enjoying a sobremesa.

Saturday started with a futile attempt to balance out the eating we’d done, and the eating planned for the rest of the trip. This took the form of a hike. We walked through the tiny town of Olba and followed a trail through the woods, over a small ridge, and to a lovely spot on the river. I need to learn to bring water when I hike but overall it was great.

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The morning’s healthy aspirations were immediately counteracted by lunch: an assortment of literally 8 different meats cooked on an old brick stove with an open wood fire.

In all it was an amazing weekend, I ate well, drank well, saw a brand new part of Spain, and learned more about what life is really like here then I did in months of study abroad. It wasn’t the crazy whirlwind tour I tend to use long weekends for. It was a family vacation, and because I managed to say yes I was lucky enough to be part of the family.

Another view from our hike.

A version of this post was originally published on CIEE’s teach abroad blog.

Learning to say ‘Yes’ Over my first puente (long weekend), I was lucky enough to be invited to a Casa Rural with my host family.

[youneedcriss]

Please help me not go totally broke

Guys, I was accepted into a Teach Abroad program in Spain next year and I have the opportunity to win a $500 grant towards this experience! Please vote for me! http://woobox.com/gvc72y/gallery/VvqfkVFVJAE

[sabrinaenespana]

I’m backkkkkk!

*record scratch* 

*freeze frame*

Yup, that’s me…you’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation…I mean, didn’t I literally just leave Spain and return to the U.S. after 7 months abroad???

*rewind*

Well I returned to the U.S., finished my degree at the University of Georgia, all the while wondering, “What is my post grad life gonna look like?”

Well it took lots (& LOTS) of effort, but I am now 100% prepared for my return to the country so dear to my heart, Spain! It has been a long, difficult year arranging this return, and, yes, it has been (more or less) in the works since the moment the wheels of my airplane hit the landing strip at Hartsfield-Jackson airport back in July of last year.

In an effort to revive this blog for my return, in this post, I will give a brief overview of what’s happened throughout my last year back home. Plus a timeline of sorts, detailing the things I’ve had to go through to get back to Spain.

August-November 2016: Return to school; senior year = YAY! but also mixed with horrible reverse culture shock and post-study/live abroad depression = BOO. Yearning to go back to Spain is on the rise.

December 2016: A thought pops into my head, courtesy of my study abroad group message, which was still going strong at the time. Someone asks if anyone is thinking about returning to Spain after the school year ends to teach English for the year, and I think, “Um…YES!”

January 2017: (1) Applications open for Auxiliares in Spain (a Spanish government-run program that doesn’t pay much, but it’s cheap to live in Spain, so it’ll be plenty). (2) Student teaching and EdTPA begin, severely limiting the time I can dedicate to preparing for Spain, but *~*priorities*~* (3) Convince one of my best friends, Justin (https://beyondbordersaaa.tumblr.com/) to come join me in Spain!

February 2017: Successfully finish the application process, which requires little more than filling out some paperwork, obtaining a letter of recommendation, and writing up why I’d like to do the program (easy enough).

March-April 2017: Wait to hear back from the program and focus on finishing EdTPA for school.

May 2017, a BIG month: (1) Mildly freak out as I finish up student teaching/EdTPA and have nothing to occupy my mind, as I anxiously await my regional placement; even consider switching to CIEE / any other teaching abroad program (even a teaching position in Thailand). (2) Find out I’m placed in Andalucía, and scream of joy!! I got my top choice!!! (3) Return to work after student teaching to start saving for Spain. (4) Schedule my visa appointment at the Spanish Consulate in Miami, the closest one to me and already booked for months. (5) GRADUATE SUMMA CUM LAUDE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA <3

June-July 2017: (1) Find out my city/school placement when I receive my carta one night at 4 in the morning; subsequently spend the rest of the night looking up everything there is to know about my small, seaside city, Motril in the province of Granada! (2) Have several mental breakdowns as I gather everything I need for my visa appointment. (Seriously, it’s insane how difficult and expensive this process is, but once you’re done, there’s an immense feeling of accomplishment! Although I could do without the whole spend-hundreds-and-hundreds-of-dollars part. For a list of everything required by my consulate at least, go to http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Consulados/MIAMI/en/InformacionParaExtranjeros/Pages/Visa%20Requirements/Student-Visa.aspx) (3) Check the visa website every ~0.00002 seconds for new appointment openings (since it was initially completely booked until September) until I finally settle for one in early August. (4) Move out of my apartment and onto my best friend Caroline’s couch fo’ freeeeee. (5) Continue working, as well as enjoying my last summer in Athens with all my friends!

August: (1) Turn my required visa trip down to Miami into a fun mini-vacation/road trip with Caroline and Justin; also take this opportunity to begin my travel vlog (https://youtu.be/B_ftY4178zA). (2) Take a few unexpected trips up to Boston, as my sweet abuela passes away </3. (3) Receive my visa through the mail two weeks later after a horrific scare that it had gotten lost in the mail. (4) Continue living on Caroline’s couch for the month, working, and living it up in Athens.

September, another HUGE month: (1) Quit my job of over 4 years (with several months’ notice of course) after saving a good bit of money. (2) Say goodbye to Athens and so many of my good friends. (3) Return to my mom’s apartment to spend my last week at home in the company of my family <3. (4) Unpack, pack, repeat. Seriously, I tried so hard to get my checked bag under the 50 lb limit, but packing for 8 months / 4 seasons made this impossible, and I ended up having to pay the $100 fee. (5) FLY TO SPAIN. This was a horrible, what was supposed to be 12-hour trip turned into 40 full hours of tears, sweat, and broken sleep. To be more specific: my first flight being delayed caused me to miss my connecting flight, have to sleep on the cold airport floor in a crowd of people in similar situations, add a connection in Madrid, and finally arrive in Motril after 4 airports, 3 flights, 2 train rides, and 1 bus ride. (6) Move into my apartment immediately upon arrival to my city and finally meet my roommate, Tori, in person after having met on the program’s Facebook group and only skyping once.

Present time (still September, but I figured I’d break it up anyway): It’s now September 25. I’ve been in Spain for several days now and have exactly one week before I begin teaching. I’ve completely unpacked, taken a couple relaxing trips to the beach, spent several hours out and about and exploring my new home-away-from-home, met some Spanish friends, bonded with my roommate, and even had a night out on the town! This city is small enough that everything is basically within walking distance, even the beach! Also, I’ve only once before been to a part of Spain where they still do the whole “order a drink and get a free tapa with it” thing, so that’s been really cool! I’ve also been able to go food shopping twice now, and it’s blown my mind both times how inexpensive it is to live here! My roommate also helped me open a bank account here, which was a BIG stress-reliever. The people here seem so nice, even though they still stare, but I knew that was going to be a thing coming in, being a foreigner in a small city. And the Spanish have NO shame whatsoever about staring, which is something I learned last year in Sant Cugat hahahaha. Anyways, a few other things I have on my plate for the next few weeks are obtain my TIE (basically the ID card I have to get that says I can legally live here), apply for income-based loans (definitely cannot swing $200/month in payments with the amount I’ll be getting paid through this program), meet the teachers at my school (which I’ll be doing this Thursday), plan my birthday trip to San Sebastian with Justin and my other friend here, Martha (I have lots of friends that decided to come back to Spain/Europe to teach English/study), and continuing exploring my new city. Welcome back to Spain @me! <333

P.S. I’m planning my next blog to take a deeper look into my city and apartment. I’m gonna try to keep up with this blog at least once or twice a week with updates on what I’m doing, as well as links to any travel vlogs I make! However, I have no idea what my workload will be / how many private classes I will take on to earn a lil’ extra money on the side, so let’s see how this goes!

[frommainetospain2020]

Will 2020 be the best year of my life?

To preface this first blog post, this has been gradually added to over the course of about 9 months. The beginning of this post predates the COVID pandemic, so keep that in mind.

If you’re reading this, you probably know at this point that I’m planning to participate in CIEE’s Teach in Spain program for the 2020-2021 school year. And if you’re reading this, I hope that something else has happened with 2020. I’ve planned to get bariatric surgery at some point between April-July 2020. I speak in the future tense because this is past Steven speaking to you now. December 29, 2019 past Steven to be exact.

I’ve been known to have an overly ambitious mind, and when something gets stuck in there, it doesn’t just “go away”. I’ve proven this time and time again with my first study abroad experience in Italy, my themed recital “The Tantalizing Tale of the Timid and Tactful Toreador”, among others.

I guess my discovery of the CIEE program is a twist of fate. In mid-November, I was researching ways of teaching abroad in Europe. I found CIEE and their Teach Abroad programs. The kicker was that the company was actually stationed in Portland, ME. I chose Spain because I wanted something similar to my first experience, but still different enough to challenge me.

The bariatric surgery was something different altogether. I’ve always been a fat guy. There’s really no beating around the bush, I’ve been fat since I was four years old. I’ve tried a number of fad diets, from a juice cleanse, to a potato diet, to a “Nutritarian diet” among others, but obviously nothing stuck. In the summer of 2019, I got into a binge of the show “My 600 LB Life” where extremely morbidly obese people, (like twice the size of me) get bariatric surgery. I began to look into the concept for myself.

Now, it’s gonna get a little bit sketchy for a second. I looked into two possible scenarios. The first one being that I get approved from my insurance company, and then I have the surgery performed at Northern Light Medical Center in Bangor. Ba da bing, problem solved. But I also had a backup plan. I was genuinely considering going the “travel tourism” route, and going to Tijuana, Mexico. I’ve watched a number of reviews, and honestly, if the insurance doesn’t go through, it’s not fully off the table. But you, reading this in the future, will know better than I would as to the outcome of this endeavor.

So, thus will begin the wonders of the roaring twenties. Will 2020 be the year of a new me? A thinner me? A trilingual me? I guess we’ll find out.

6/28/2020 update- So.... what can I say? This has been a hell of a year. Never in my life would I have predicted that a worldwide pandemic would basically shut everything down. Yes, as you probably know, whenever you get to reading this, COVID 19 basically made everybody need to shelter in place and made the end of the school year be virtual for basically everybody worldwide.

That being said, the weight loss surgery was also very much affected. I met with the psychologist, dietician, and my surgeon at the beginning of March. And yes, this is from a memory perspective, because it’s been a while since I wrote the first part of this blog post. Anyway, when I weighed in then, I weighed 370 lbs. For me at that point, it was pretty standard. I had been roughly that for a long time, and it was nothing shocking to me. After the visit with my surgeon, I was surprised to find out that they were scheduling my surgery date. I chose April 23, 2020 as the day my life would ultimately change. Buuuuuuuuut, because COVID shut everything down a few weeks after that, it didn’t quite work out that way. My date got pushed from 4/23 to 5/28. From 5/28 to 6/25, and then luckily got bumped up from 6/25 to 6/11.

I’m happy to say that the 6/11 date actually stuck. I had an endoscopy done and they found some acid inflammation in my stomach, so my surgeon recommended a bypass instead of a sleeve. My ultimate question was “Can it still happen at the time it’s currently scheduled?” to which she responded yes. I then basically said “You’re the doc, Doc...” and that’s how it ended up working.

For those of you that have never gone through the weight loss surgery process, there’s a liquid diet that you have to do for 2 weeks before surgery, and two weeks after it. And it is ROUGH! It was easily the hardest thing I think I’ve ever pushed myself to do in my life. But I didn’t cheat once, and I recently upgraded to soft foods.

When I ended up having my surgery, I was basically conked out most of surgery day. The anesthesia knocked me out and I could barely stay awake from when I was in recovery (around 10 o clock I think...) until about 6 PM. I was in and out of consciousness.

I was an ideal patient though, from what I could tell. I had very little pain. The only real pain I had was from the gas that they used to expand my abdomen. But I was used to this after having my appendix out. Apparently patients aren’t as keen to walk the halls as I was, seeing as I had about a dozen nurses comment on how frequently and how quickly I walked.

I was discharged at around 12:30 on the third day in the hospital. I was then dismayed to find that my parents proceeded to get themselves Wendys on the ride home, which smelled nauseating. I literally wore my COVID mask upside down the whole time so I didn’t have to smell it.

Recovery was normal for the most part, except it took me a bit to figure out the whole hydration thing. There was a point after a few days at home that I had worked all of the IV fluid out of me and my fluid/electrolytes were low. Because of this, I got extremely dizzy and lightheaded whenever I stood. I eventually figured it out by drinking more and incorporating Gatorade Zero with my liquid intake.

Like I said, I’ve recently gotten approved to move to soft foods, and can I just say, it’s heavenly. After 30 days of a full liquid diet, I was living for that first scrambled egg, and I gotta say, even though it was pretty mediocre because I suck at cooking eggs, it was still heaven.

So yeah, goal 1 of 2 checked off of the list. The second goal is obviously going to be increasingly difficult because of the current state of the world. The EU is threatening to not let any US citizens in because the US is full of idiots politicizing the coronavirus and refusing to wear masks, causing massive spikes and making the US’s number of cases ungodly high. So hopefully that will sort out in time for me to.... you know..... go...

I did attempt a few back up plans, but none of them came to fruition. I interviewed for music teacher positions in Hermon, Lisbon, and Winthrop. The latter being the furthest I got, since I was the runner up. One could assume that operating under the assumption of “everything happens for a reason” could come to mean that Spain will work out as initially intended, which I truly hope it does. But if it doesn’t, I’m gonna have to scramble to get a job, which is ultimately gonna suck, but it’s necessary.

Now, as I write this, CIEE seems to think it will work out as planned. They say that in the next two days, they’ll be sending out placements for where I’m slated to go. Most people opt for very urban areas close to the city center, but I wanted somewhere more quiet, so I’m assuming I was probably easy to place.

In the visa process, the consulates have been closed and not accepting visa appointments for a few months. Recently, the Boston consulate made an email that you’d have to email to get an appointment, which I emailed, but I haven’t gotten a response yet.

The hardest document to get in the process is a background check. I initially tried to get a Federal FBI background check, but I needed a physical fingerprint card, which was difficult to get. I attempted to get fingerprinted at the Millinocket Police Station, but the FBI rejected those fingerprints. I tried two different things to get a state background check instead, but the results of that remain to be seen.

So, ultimately, will I be able to go abroad again? Will COVID buzz off in time to not ruin the second half of 2020? The world may never know.... At least for a couple months... I’m writing this as a draft so by the time anyone other than me reads this, those months will have passed and the result will be abundantly clear, so you have that advantage over me. So... I guess we’ll see...

Since I have other topics to write about, I’m going to stop this first blog post here.