Arrived in Andorra

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021

FIRST WEEK IN SCHOOL

Today marks the first week of school I have attended, and two weeks in Andorra. So far, I have mostly presented about me in order to introduce myself to the students and to ask why they find it useful to learn English. Many of the responses acknowledged the importance of English as a lingua franca for traveling or work reasons. Others view it only as a requirement. A few see it as important for understanding American movies, TV shows and music.

I only had a few hiccups the first week. I missed my very first class because the bus was incredibly difficult to figure out here. The teacher said she expected that because it happens to the Fulbright every year! I didn’t know I would miss how simple public transportation was to figure out in Chile by comparison!

After the presentation about myself, I gave students the opportunity to ask me any questions. When they asked why in the world would I come to the tiny country of Andorra, I replied that since I spoke both French and Spanish, I couldn’t decide between France or Spain, so I decided to go in the middle. This response received a lot of laughs in the first year class but mixed responses in the others.

I am also getting accustomed to the layout of the school. Because of COVID restrictions, the school building is divided into 3 different sectors that you are not supposed to travel between. This means a classroom could be right down the hallway from another on the same floor, but technically you are supposed to go down that sector’s staircase, exit the building, and go up the other staircase. This is not strictly enforced from what I can tell, especially because they don’t have a passing period! That means if a class ends at 8:45, the next one begins at 8:45, giving them no time to get to class. And they take being on time very seriously, as there was an incident last week (in a class I didn’t attend) where a student wasn’t allowed into class when he was late.

School looks a lot different than usual because of COVID. Classes have been shortened to 45 minutes, allowing for a shorter day in school. The main purpose of this is so that 2nd year students can leave early and eat lunch at home, so less people are eating in the cafeteria. Masks are of course required. Normally the Fulbright ETA would host language tables and speak with groups of 2nd year students at lunch, but that isn’t possible this year. The school is doing an excellent job with COVID testing. Antigen tests are voluntary and are available at any time during the week.

My school, “Batxillerat” is an upper-secondary school, the equivalent of Junior and Senior year of high school. School is mandatory until the age of 16, so attending the school is optional. It is part of the Andorran school system, which is relatively new. In Andorra, there is a French school system, Spanish school system, and of course the Andorran school system.

So far, I’m loving my job in Andorra. I was a little disappointed at first to not be a full teacher like some of my fellow Fulbrighters in Andorra. However, I must admit this takes a lot of pressure off because I don’t have the burden of lesson planning, grading, or dealing with discipline without another teacher in the room. I still get to do occasional presentations. Today I am introducing the context behind the legendary “Born of Fire” Chrysler commercial from the 2011 Super Bowl. Unfortunately they cut my favorite slide about the nicknames of American cities.

In the courses where I’m not presenting, I lead a “conversation corner”. So far I have had some very interesting conversations about culture and identity. Today we roasted the United States’ military industrial complex.

Everyone at the school has been super friendly. People always introduce themselves in the teacher’s lounge and make an effort to practice their English. It’s hard to remember everyone’s names and faces, especially because everyone is wearing a mask, but I have gotten to know most of the people in the English department. Except for Wednesday when I am done at 9:30am, I have gotten a ride home from an English teacher which has been awesome, so I can get to know them and avoid having to take the bus!

Some cultural and ‘logistical’ differences I have noticed:

Many of the cultural differences are the same cultural differences you would experience in a European country like France or Spain
Stores and banks are open much fewer hours. For example, the bank is only open 9am-2pm, so I might need to wait until next week to get my bank card since I’ll be at school most of the time.
No water fountains in the school!!! And people don’t carry around water bottles as much.
Everyone always says hello. It’s normal to say hello to everyone when you walk in the room

View from my school

Batxillerat is located in La Margineda, a hillside community located south of Andorra La Vella’s center.

LANGUAGE

I definitely knew before coming that the official language was Catalan. However, I don’t know why I was still so surprised about everyone speaking Catalan!!! I hadn’t thought about it before that everyone who came up to speak with me, before knowing where I’m from, would do so in Catalan. And all the signs and forms are in Catalan. I think the reason I was most surprised by this is because I expected them to be in multiple languages. For example, when I visited Israel, signs were in Arabic, English and Hebrew. Or in Canada, official documents are in French and English. So I expected multilingual signs and forms, but that is not the case. With my Spanish skills, I have still been able to navigate fairly well because most people speak Spanish. I have only spoken French briefly a couple times, usually after I tell people I speak French. Catalan is very similar to French and Spanish, so I understand most of it and should have little problem picking up the basics. I start classes next week!

MY LIFE IN ANDORRA

Apartment: Studio. Love it. Looking for a shared apartment to save money, but wouldn’t mind staying in the studio.

Food: delicious and pretty affordable.

Altitude: the school is at 3,345 feet. I’m pretty out of breath walking up the hill to get there.

Transportation: a nightmare.

ACTIVITIES

Last Friday, we (the 4 Fulbrighters) attended a vertical wall dancing performance in the village of Sant Julia. It consisted of a dude hanging from a harness on the outside of a building with some projections. We explored Sant Julia afterwards.

On Sunday, for my birthday, we went mushing!! This was so fun and should definitely be on everyone’s bucket list. The dogs were so cute and friendly. Chloe and I were cracking up the entire 5km ride. It was pretty expensive for how short it was, but still worth it to do once. To get there, we took the bus. It didn’t take us all the way to the Grau Roig lodge, so we had to walk about 40 minutes up the mountain. It was a little fun dangerous, but fun! I tried to hitchhike but no one took us up on that. We got there right on time, had some delicious empanadas afterwards, and took a taxi home.

LIFE IN A PANDEMIC

It’s a little crazy to move to another country during a global pandemic, but so far I am so glad I did! Though there are rising COVID cases in Andorra, they are still doing a great job with testing, especially in the schools. Most of the cases seem to be in the villages and not in the city center where I live. I feel like I am able to do more here than I was when I was in Portland.

I feel like the pandemic has taken a lot of the pressure off usually associated in living in Europe for a year. For instance, if it weren’t a pandemic, I would feel pressure to try different restaurants. Instead, I save money by eating at home. Usually, I would love to take weekend trips to other cities or even other European countries but with the travel restrictions, it’s not as feasible to do so. This takes a lot of pressure off of having to plan those trips, and gives me a better opportunity to get to know Andorra. I will hopefully get to do lots of skiing and experience the beautiful nature Andorra offers. In general, the benefit of being in such a small country is that it is much easier to see it all!