A Day In A Life Of A Placement Student

The word "placement" may seem daunting to some yet exciting to others. What's great is that Undergraduate students are offered two opportunities in which you have to fight for (just like you would when you apply for a job) - a study and/or a work placement. The beauty of having choices and options is that you get to find something that is suitable to you, something that you enjoy doing and perhaps wish to pursue as your future job. Some students prefer to work, some prefer to study, some want to do both.

And me? I chose to work. 

I've been working as a Grade 1 Primary (5-6 y/o) TA (teaching assistant) for over three months now here in Madrid and I'd like to give a closer insight on A Day In A Life of a Placement Student! 

08:30am-09:10am

Wake up call and get ready for work. 

09:15-11:am ; first period

I arrive at work for 09:15am and begin working. 

After greeting other teachers and my students, I assign a 'captain of the books'. The students read English books every morning, either individually or in pairs and I sit with as many of them as I can to listen to them read and to offer support. From the first day I started, I've been able to see each student's capability in reading, writing, speaking in English. To this day, three months on, I can see much improvement by majority of my students. Hearing my students speak, read and write more and more English to me everyday is beyond rewarding. 

11:00am-11:30am ; break time

Break time is when I get to grab a snack and drink from the staffroom and hangout with the other GAP students here. Sometimes I work my break and carry on with any videos or worksheets I have to work on. 

Every Wednesday, I have duty. I am on playground duty during break time and second break too. I watch over the students along with another teacher and deal with any problems or conflicts that occur on the playground - which is usually the case of one student not wanting to play with the other. 

11:30am-12:30pm ; second period

12:30pm-14:00pm ; lunch break 

Usually, at 12:30pm, I take the class over to the dining hall and make sure they all sit down and eat their lunch. 

From 12:30-13:00pm, I pour the students' drinks, I make sure they are eating their lunch (some kids are very picky) and I help them with their change over. Honestly, it is a little tiring running up and down the tables making sure everyone is OK and hearing my name get called constantly gives me a headache (the students have to get permission to change their dish). 

13:00pm-14:00pm is my lunch. I eat at 13:00pm and I usually go back to my room after I've eaten to relax. Living just 5 minutes away from your workplace is very convenient. 

Every Thursday, I teach English to two primary students during my lunch break - one aged 8 and one aged 11.
14:00pm-16:00pm ; third period

In this period, the students sometimes have other subjects such as music, art, swimming.  

16:00pm-16:30pm ; final break 

The students get a further half an hour break at 4pm because their school day begins at 09:15am and ends at 5:15pm. This is quite an unusual time period for a normal school day but I guess it's because SEK is a private school! The students get a snack which is normally a sandwich, chocolate or fruit. 

16:30pm-17:00pm ; last period 

The last half hour is normally tidy up time where the class ends and there's a small re-cap on what has been learnt throughout the day. The students take quite a while to tidy up after themselves so that pretty much takes up the entire half hour! 

17:00pm-17:30pm ; bus route 

On Mondays, I finish work at 5:30pm because I take the kids to ruta (bus route) after school ends and my job is to keep an eye out on them whilst they get picked up by their specific teachers. The system is strange but it works. 

20:00pm ; dinner 

I have dinner with my colleagues (other GAP students) at the school dining hall everyday. All meals are provided - breakfast, lunch, dinner. This gets a little repetitive so sometimes I go out to the city or a nearby town to eat. 

Most days I finish at 16:00/16:30pm but on Mondays I finish at 17:30pm. To keep myself occupied, I have taken up tennis lessons at the University next door to work. I go to tennis class every Tuesday and Thursday at 18:30pm-19:30pm. On the weekends, I travel out to Madrid or try and make a day trip to another city. 

Any type of placement is not a restriction - especially if you are doing it abroad. It's really important to do as much as you can whilst you're out there; meet new people and travel to new places. 

- Tiffany 

Doing a placement abroad or any placement is a huge challenge. You must be brave and have a lot of courage to complete it. It's a new and different experience that takes time getting used to. Yes, it is tons of fun and offers you so much...but there are also minor struggles such as being homesick. Living in another country and getting used to its culture plays a big part. You must be open to trying new things. 

Next stop; Cuenca!

Good evening all, this particular blogpost will mainly consist of just photos. (Sorry that it's super boring! T__T)

On 06.12, I went to Cuenca with my roommates. Cuenca is a small city on the outskirts of Madrid (half way between Madrid and Valencia). The views were amazing and were definitely worth the short-lasting trip there. It's great that Spain has so many different historical cities/towns to offer... makes a difference to Madrid!

Please enjoy the photos! -

There were lots of different coloured buildings ^___^ 

Cuenca is known for its 'hanging houses'. Here is a picture of a house hanging off the edge... 

I have a huge fear of bridges...and this one really high! Not ashamed of holding Sam's hand throughout the entire walk over! ^^' 

One of my favourite photos from the trip! If I can say so myself... (photographer Tiff) 

Lessons of the trip: 

To not book late train journeys home as our day trips always end earlier than intended. 

Always check train times for the journey home in case we get bored. 

Research the town/city before going. 

Nevertheless, I had an enjoyable day in Cuenca :) Another memory made with my chicas! 

- Tiffany

¡Feliz cumpleaños a mi! | Turning 22 In Madrid !

...I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22! 

My first birthday away from home and to tell you the truth, I was really dreading it. My twenty second birthday went from a strong 0 to a solid 10 within the space of three days.

I had the worst start to the week last Monday or Tuesday because I was feeling very homesick - I felt emotionally weak. I was missing home so much; my family, friends, home comforts and on top of that, I knew my birthday was creeping up. I just wanted it to pass by in a flash, I didn't want it to happen. I'm not a massive birthday person in general but spending my birthday away from home automatically put a downer on me. To cut to the chase, I 'broke down' at work. Embarrassing, I know. Throughout the morning, I was feeling down and upset. Questions and feelings such as "why am I here?", "what am I doing here?", "I just want to go home" were going through my mind. My mood was foul. I wasn't really talking to anyone, wasn't interacting with many students - every negative feeling was growing bigger and bigger. And what's worse is that it was all being bottled up inside my brain. After lunch, I cracked. I cried on a friend (literally) as soon as I saw her. I had never felt so low before and I know I just needed to let it out before I drove myself crazy. Although I was able to let some my emotions out, at the same time I felt embarrassed for crying in front of many colleagues. To be honest, I felt stupid.

Within the next two days, I began to feel better; slowly but surely. After speaking to a few close friends and family members, I started to feel slightly happier and managed to convince myself that everything is going to fine. Friends were reminding me that I will be going home for Christmas soon and to stay strong. These positive messages made me feel warm inside. I told myself to get over this little bump and to strive on. My amazing mother told me to "treat everyday positively, to enjoy going to work as much as possible because time flies when you're having fun and before you know it, you'll be home". These wise words really helped me and on top of that, they came from the person I miss the most. So, thank you mum - you truly are the best.

But enough of the negativity, I'm here to tell you all about how my birthday went from bad to good! ^^... So, here's how it began:

On Friday 27th - I walked into work as normal and class began as normal. The students were reading well and everything seemed fine... Up until class 1B (from next door) all gathered into my classroom with 1A. Before I could even question it, the word "surprise!" was whispered to me by my tutor, Mako. 5 seconds later, all 40 students or however many were present at the time started singing "happy birthday" to me. I stood there in shock, happiness and awe - I felt touched. My tutor then handed me many homemade birthday cards made by my students as a surprise to me. At the same time, I was being attacked by all of them giving me a birthday hug and kiss ^^'... I honestly will never ever forget this moment. It was so so sweet.

Thank you to Mako for planning this surprise for me and thank you for the present :) This moment had put a smile on my face the entire day. After work, myself and Esther went to Gran Plaza 2 to do some 'Black Friday' shopping. I really wanted to have some retail therapy because it seemed like we hadn't done so in such a long time! I ended up not buying much... but it was still nice to go there! We ended our night in an Indian restaurant that was nicer than the first one we tried for sure. The only downside to that day was the fact that our food took so long to come out that we missed our last bus home and had to taxi it home. But as S.M says, "It's all part of the experience" :)

I decided to go bowling with a few of my work colleagues during the day at Majadahonda on my birthday (Saturday 28th) because I am quite a fan of bowling ^^' and I didn't want to let the day go to waste by sitting at home doing nothing! Bowling was good fun; one big laugh! Guess who came first? ...birthday girl! ^___^ we paid 8euros 45 for one game and a drink which I thought was quite decent for Spain.

For dinner, I picked out an Italian restaurant called 'Reginella' located in Nuevos Misterios. I've walked past the restaurant numerous times when en route to the Korean restaurant that I've been to a few times and it caught my eye instantly. The restaurant is dimly lit, not too big and just looked pretty. The atmosphere was nice and the food was good too! Many thanks to my roommates for the little surprise! Here are some photos of our delicious food and my companions :) 

The night ended with a nice, hot original bubble tea from the hidden gem we had discovered recently. 

Thank you girls for taking the time to come out for dinner with me. 

...my birthday lasted the entire weekend (thanks to Esther and Samra) so on Sunday 29th, we went to the sports café which is about 5 minute walk from where we live, to have brunch. The weather was lovely; sun was out and we were able to sit outside on the terrace, in the sun. Only in Spain is the weather like this at the end of November! You'd never be able to do such thing back home in England. It was really nice to relax in the sun with good grub and good company :). After relaxing for a few hours, we headed home to begin our Harry Potter movie marathon! What more could you ask for?

I would like to note down that my 22nd birthday was overwhelming. I didn't go into too much detail for a reason... because everything that happened; every happy moment will be stored in my heart for as long as I live. I'm so lucky to have such kind, loving friends around me. Although I felt so crappy at the beginning of the week, all my worries had disappeared by Friday and that's mainly down to my roommates. I can't thank them enough for all the things they did for me. I am really thankful to them and I don't know how I can repay them. Friends like these are hard to find nowadays...and I hope our friendship will continue to grow, even after we part ways when our time on this placement comes to an end. Not only did my friends 'make' my week/birthday, my teachers did too. So for that, I thank them too but being so good to me. I may not show my gratitude openly but I appreciate every effort made to put a smile on my face this birthday.

Thank you all for a fantastic 22nd birthday.

- Tiffany

Special thank you to these to nutters. So much love for you guys! 

Long Weekend To B a r c e l o n a !

Good afternoon, readers! Before I begin this blogpost, I just want to give you a heads up that this post will be longer than normal as it will be a documentation of my 4 day trip to Barcelona during my long weekend last weekend! I'll try my best to keep it as short as I can but if you get bored along the way, feel free to just have a look at the many pictures I took :)

Long story short; Esther's sister, brother in law and cousin booked a holiday to Barcelona for the beginning of November which fell on the same weekend we had a long weekend so we decided to join them for a few days. We're always up for getting out of Madrid and exploring new areas of Spain and Barcelona was one of the top places we wanted to visit for definite - now ticked off out list!

Friday, 06th November 2015
We left for Barcelona on Friday 6th November after work to catch the Renfe train at 5pm. The train journey was 2.5 hours long (not too bad) and I have to comment on the train itself. It was definitely the nicest train I have ever been on - this is not an exaggeration! There were leather seats with foot rests and you could also move the seat back like you can on an aeroplane. The seats were spacious and there was even a small tv at the front for people to watch. Pretty fancy hey! Unfortunately, I can't back my words up with any picture evidence ^^'

After what felt like a 'short-ish' journey, we arrived in Barcelona around 19:30pm and took the metro to the apartment we were staying in (all 6 of us). The metro station looked very old and run-down compared to Madrid! It took us no longer than 15 minutes to get to the station where our apartment was and there we waited for Esther's family members to come and get us. After being picked up, we walked to the apartment to drop off our bags and to quickly freshen up before we headed out for dinner. The apartment was very cute...consisting of two bedrooms, a living room, bathroom and a kitchen. It was actually my very first time staying in an apartment before - it reminded me a lot of Hong Kong! Small and compact space. After a quick freshen up, we all walked around the area in search for a restaurant to have dinner at. We ended up in a typical Spanish restaurant that offered standard dishes such as Tapas. Dinner was nice but we were just so tired so after dinner that we walked home and had an 'early' night. I couldn't sleep until around 3am the first night because I felt very uncomfortable and for some reason struggled to catch some z's. And to top it off, the neighbours were blasting music in the morning as early as 8:30am! That was definitely a successful wake-up call...

Saturday, 07th November 2015
Rise and shine! After a rubbish night's sleep we started the day early to go and get some nice grub! We walked to a breakfast place called Picnic which was about 15 minutes walk away - a nice morning/noon stroll. We ordered eggs Benedict and pancakes which were delicious! Perfect way to start the day :) it was lovely to sit outside and have breakfast with the morning fresh air accompanied with a nice hot cup of water. I hope to find a breakfast place like this here in Madrid!

After breakfast, we walked to the infamous Parc de la Ciutadella where the sun began to shine and brightened up our morning. The park is very pretty like Retiro Park in Madrid. We walked through the park where people were riding bikes, doing yoga and we eventually reached the fountain! I really love parks and nature surrounded areas...so this was a pretty special sight for me. 

Introducing; Florence (Esther's cousin), Jess (Esther's big sister), Carl (Esther's brother in law)

When and if I visit Barcelona again, I will definitely spend more time exploring the entire park! I reckon it would be beautiful during summer. After visiting the park, we walked to Las Ramblas which is basically a long strip of little market stalls with quite a few restaurants around it. 

Whilst walking through Las Ramblas, we made our way to the market. The market was huge; offering lots of different kinds of food from fruit&veg to freshly cooked seafood to different types of hams. It was very very busy and I noticed there were many American and British tourists there. Never have I heard so many people speaking English yet so far in Spain! ^__^' the market is great for people who really enjoy their seafood! They also had fresh fruit juice which I really really wanted to have (similar to ones in Hong Kong) but unfortunately, I still had quite a bad cough so I chose to be sensible enough to not trigger it with a mouth-watering watermelon juice! 

Following the market, we went to check out the Marina which was just round the corner (everything was within walking distance, so good!) It was strange to see the weather so smoggy... we actually couldn't see much in the distance - it was that bad. Nevertheless, the Marina was beautiful as expected. There were lots of boats parked up and the pier was pretty cool too. 

We took some time to appreciate the cool surroundings for a while and then decided to find a nearby café to sit and chill in. By this time, everyone was quite tired and just wanted to relax. Again, we walked back up towards Las Ramblas and managed to find a very cute/cool café on the corner that seemed appealing. The decor was lovely and they even had English Breakfast Tea! ^^ It was possibly one of the nicest café's I've ever been to. It was really nice to just sit and talk whilst sipping on a delicious cup of tea - I would definitely go back there :) The staff were friendly and there was even a little shop downstairs that sold merchandise such as cocoa etc. The stairwells were ever so pretty! 

Relaxing made everyone sleepy...^^' so we chose to head back to our apartment to have a rest/siesta! To be honest, I think it did us good...a bit of time to rest and to catch up on a bit of sleep before we headed out for dinner. So in Barcelona, I think it's quite popular to have 'stick' food for dinner... which is basically tapas on a stick (i think)! Since there were so many food on a stick restaurants literally just around the corner from our apartment, we decided to enter one! These 'restaurants' are very small and cramped with little spaces to sit. They have a bar full of different types of food on a stick and the majority of them are just 1 euro each unless specified differently. The most you had to pay was 1 euro 80, I think! It was a cool thing to try :) and I'd definitely do it again. Unfortunately, I don't have any images to show you what it looked like! We managed to finish dinner fairly quickly and the night was still early so we went to a bar for some drinks. The bar was a little on the mature side so we went to another one near our apartment that was a lot more lively and sold more drinks that were to our taste. It was a very funny night consisting of lots of cocktails! ^___^ it was nice to sit and drink with good company. I finally tried Sangria! which to me, was not the greatest drink. The taste was too similar to red wine... I can't remember what time we arrived home but I know it was a late night! ^^' 

Sunday, 08th November 2015

After a night of drinking, we woke up late (oops) and went straight for brunch at a nearby modern café that offered perky dishes - stuff like bagels and fancy toasts. 

Flo, Samra, Esther and I went our separate ways to Jess and Carl as we wanted to different things. We went to visit Camp Nou (Barcelona's football stadium) which was only about 15-20 minutes from where we were. It was so so cool seeing the stadium with my own eyes and not just on tv! There was a match on later that evening so the stadium was very busy...full of tourists and football hooligans. It would have been amazing to watch a football match but sadly we weren't able to get hold of tickets and it we weren't in Barcelona long enough to waste half a day on football ^^'. The big official store was amazing... football shirts with a name on the back were 100 euros and plain shirts were 80 euros. 

The weather was superb, really hot! It would've been bad for us to not visit the beach! And everyone knows that I love beaches... it didn't take us long to head back to the pier and from there we walked towards the beach. It felt like we were walking for ages and the beach was nowhere to be seen ^^'. Along the way were people selling cheap/fake goods...just like they do in Madrid. By the time we reached the beach, it was getting quite chilly and the sun was beginning to set. It was still a beautiful view but I could imagine it to be even more beautiful during the summer...

It was really lovely to walk along the beach during the sunset as you can see in the pictures, the sky was beautiful. I will most definitely come back to Barcelona when the weather is hotter to embrace this beach! I actually think it was nicer than Valencia's... :O 

For dinner, we chose to go to a Chinese seafood buffet that was supposedly really good...and a place to try out whilst there. I haven't had Chinese food in two and a half months so this made me slightly happy. There were tons of different seafoods, sushi, rice...ah. The first few bites felt like home! I also had some snails too... xP the night ended with some ice cream from a nearby shop near our apartment and we decided to have a early night in preparation for our last day (sob). 

Monday, 9th November 2015

Our last day in Barcelona... T__T we wanted to be as productive as possible during our last few hours left in Barca so we took the metro to where Segrada Familia was. I don't really know the history behind this building but you can Google it if you want to know more about it. It was quite breath-taking to be honest... there wasn't much to do there, but look at it. We wanted to go inside, but the tickets were all sold out. 

After taking several photos of Segrada Familia, we had some lunch in the park next door to it which was nice. A warm picnic in November... strange eh? Only in Spain! There were lots of souvenir shops around the area which I was able to barter with the owners to buy what I needed! The salesman was very annoying - kept following me round the shop and telling me to buy this and that. But now I know that as soon as you head for the door, they will chase after you and give you as much discount as you want! A great tip for bartering abroad! ^^ 

Our next destination was Montjuïc. We walked up many hills to get to the top of the hill that greeted with an amazing view of Barcelona - made the walk so much more worth it! There was quite a bit to see at Montjuïc...but our main purpose was to see the 'magical' fountain... to which we found was not even working that day! Massive fail... but the museum behind the fountain made up for it :) we didn't enter the museum, just admired it from the outside! 

Our last hours in Barcelona were coming to an end sadly and it was time for us to head back to grab our bags and leave for the train station. But before we did that, we went back to the same café we had bagels at for some drinks. The weather was so good on our last day...and I was wearing skinny jeans >__< 

My trip to Barcelona (first time) was one to remember. I thoroughly enjoyed all four days spent there and that was all down to the great company. It was a pleasure to meet Esther's family who were very nice and welcoming. I hope they had lots of fun too! 

Barcelona has a completely different feel to Madrid...it feels more of a holiday destination whereas Madrid is just all about the city life - similar to London. I would like to visit again sometime in the future with my family or friends! 

I hope the post wasn't too long! I have already cut it down a lot shorter than I planned to make it ^^'... I decided to include more photos so hopefully it didn't bore you too much. 

Thank you for reading! ^___^ 

-Tiffany