Moving Out & Moving Up
Mirador Roc Del Quer, Canillo
NEW APARTMENT
This past week has brought equal parts excitement and frustration. On the first of March, we moved from our lovely studios at Apartaments Maragall (which I will recommend to future visitors of Andorra) to a new 4-bedroom apartment previously inhabited by former Fulbrighters.
Part of the frustration is that when we decided to move, the other place we were looking at lowered their price, and the managers of our current apartment also offered a better deal which diminished the total amount we would be saving by moving to a place that is objectively not as comfortable nor as centrally located. A greater frustration has been the unexpected costs: over a thousand euro in agency fees, the two month deposit, utility charges we were initially told would be included in the rental price, key copies, and pricier Wi-Fi than anticipated.
Ultimately, we decided that no matter the cost and frustrations of this new way of living, the four of us wanted to spend more time together in the remaining four months in Andorra. So far, it has paid off. Hours have gone by without us even noticing as we talk about our day, the public education system in Andorra, and future travel plans. The apartment is also equipped with books left by previous Fulbrighters and games to pass the time. I am looking forward to spending more time on the balcony. You can´t put a price on all the fun and the lessons learned!
My new bedroom
The room with the lofted beds is probably better suited for children, but at least I have better storage!
ACTIVITIES
Naturlandia. For the last day of the Carnaval Break, Amanda and I went to Naturlandia. 30 minutes up the hill from the village of Sant Julia is a beautiful resort that boasts an animal park with animals typical of the Pyrenees, cross country and nordic skiing paths, snowshoeing, the world’s longest alpine slide, and more! Naturlandia is definitely worth it for the alpine slide. If you ever get the chance to visit, you can take the Spanish Quart Bus from Sant Julia.
Riding the tobotronc at Naturlandia
Caldea. Caldea is the popular tourist destination with thermal baths and a spa. What many visitors probably don´t know is that they also have a gym! With the money I would be saving from the new apartment, I decided to join the luxurious gym that offers unlimited access to the thermal baths. It´s actually a pretty good deal because for the price of two visits to Inúu, you can have unlimited access to the gym, fitness classes, and the baths. My favorite part is that I can watch sheep graze in their pastures from the treadmill.
Caldea
My gym is cooler than yours :)
Camí de Santa Coloma. Last week there was finally a beautiful day to walk the trail from La Margineda where my school is to Santa Coloma.
Camí de Santa Coloma
Chocolatería Valor. Spain is known for its delicious churros and chocolate. Fortunately for us, we also have access to this delicacy and got to enjoy it one lovely afternoon!
Chocolate & Churros
Meeting with Fulbright. We had a meeting at the Ministry of Education to update the Fulbright post on our experiences. They expect us to participate in weekly community engagement, but that it has been difficult to find opportunities since many activities are via word of mouth, many things aren´t happening due to Covid, and volunteering/volunteer organizations are not as much as part of the culture here in Andorra and in Spain (perhaps because their are fewer social problems that need addressing here than elsewhere).
SECOND MONTH IN SCHOOL
Cats on my walk to school
After Carnaval break, I began a new schedule at school, co-teaching with only one professor from February 23 to March 26. Going from working with three professors to one has made it a little more monotonous at school. I´m currently with three first year classes that do the same activities and one second year class. After I did my presentation on introducing myself and my presentation on art, all later sessions were devoted to independent work in preparation for written and oral productions. As a result, I am not quite teaching the class but rather helping individual students with vocabulary or grammar questions.
My experience has been much different from those of my Fulbright colleagues because I am with four classes for all of their three sessions in a week, and I change schedules about every month. The other teaching assistants are in 12 different classes for one session a week, all semester.
At Batxillerat, there are some discipline problems I have witnessed in class. Part of this is ubiquitous in the Andorran public school system: The students´ grades are based on one evaluation at the end of each unit. This means that participation in class and assignments don´t really matter, and students are less motivated to do their best and behave. Another issue a teacher pointed out is that the upper-secondary school has no “filter” meaning there are no minimum entry requirements or grades to attend, leading to some students to be unprepared for Batxillerat. Even the country´s technical/vocational school has some minimum requirements for admittance.
One of my reasons for applying to Fulbright in Andorra, specifically, was to learn about the multilingual school system. I have found how they go about that to be very interesting. These may be a little mixed up, but a teacher was telling me about how they might start learning French at 6 in school, English at 8, then Spanish formally at 10 since they already typically have a competence due to the cultural and geographical proximity to Spain. Another thing we have noted about language courses is that students and teachers tend to underestimate their level of English or the quality of English teaching in the Andorran school system. My colleagues have said that teachers tend to warn them of the level, or students ask, “se enseña mal?” (is English taught poorly?). The other Fulbrighters have been pleasantly surprised by the level of English. I find that within Batxillerat, the levels differ greatly between students so it is difficult to generalize about their competency. In the IB track (International Baccalaureate, which we also have in the U.S.), their skills and ability to talk about difficult topics and social issues were especially impressive.
LIFE IN A PANDEMIC
There is much hope for adults to be vaccinated for Covid-19 in the coming months. So far, there are plans to acquire about 25,000 vaccines. This may not seem like a lot, but that can make a big dent in the co-principality´s population of approximately 90,000. As of today, Friday, March 3rd we have just received 3,000 doses of the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine, to be distributed to healthcare workers and residents over the age of 70. I have pre-registered for the vaccine as an essential worker so I should hopefully be getting an SMS or phone call when there is one ready for us. Shoutout to Clare for keeping us updated on Covid.
It seems like it´s still impossible to travel to Spain at the moment; however, travel is possible to France with a negative TMA test for visits longer than 24 hours. Hopefully we will be able to go to France for the next break then!
