I write this while sitting down on my couch, about halfway done with my packing in preparation for a year in Spain, with just a few days more to go — and not much else to do other than wait. Alas, it has taken a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of patience to get me to this point.

If you’re interested at all in the Spanish government’s program for allowing Americans to enter their country and do some teaching of English, or you think you may ever be, then you’ll probably find this post interesting. Myself, I’m writing it down just so I have a record of just how crazy it was to jump through all the hoops of the Spanish and American governments (but for which I am very thankful to have the opportunity to do so, of course).

When I first firmly decided to do this program, I realized that there weren’t that many application materials for it. Just one letter of rec, a statement of purpose that allegedly never gets read by anyone, no knowledge of Spanish required (I mean to them, if you speak not a lick of Spanish that’s a-ok, because then you’ll be doing nothing except speaking English — which is your job). The main thing that stood out to me is that this program is strictly first-come, first-served: The sooner you submit your application, the more likely you are to be accepted into the program and the more likely it is that you’ll be in the location you want.

They didn’t release the date of the app’s opening until just a few weeks prior (typs of the spanish government, always keepin ya hangin), but as soon as it was official I honed in on the date and made sure I had my materials ready. I unfortunately was working the evening the app opened up (opened at midnight spanish time = 6pm in SC), but as soon as I got home I sped through the application. I was […]