Expatiperro

Since November and the start of my teaching career, I've been teaching English classes for two different agencies. Most of my classes are with one agency- seven classes a week, for a total of about 15 hours- while I only have two hours of work a week with the other. Now I like each job very much (they both put food on the table), but as time as passed, I've come to enjoy my main job much more than my other one. The pay is better, I have a better relationship with my boss, and most importantly (at least to me), it doesn't require me to teach at 8 AM Mondays and Fridays.

The past few weeks, I had been strongly considering leaving my minor job, in order to focus more on my primary job, as well as my private classes. Now, I'd never quit an job before, but I assumed that there were certain actions that one had to take to formally cut off ties: resignation letters, a talk with the boss, emotional goodbyes to your co-workers and students. And I assumed that these actions would be in play even in the world of Barcelona English teaching, with its emphasis on temporary employment and job-hopping.

So I drafted up a resignation letter, prepared my goodbye speech, and summoned the courage to call my boss. And what response did I get? (A paraphrase follows)

"Matt, things aren't this formal here. No need to give me two week. Come in at the month and collect your paycheck. See you then."

The lesson from this experience? That teaching English in Barcelona is a temporal, causal profession; that being unprofessional is accepted, if not expected; and that I shouldn't feel like I have to make every exit a graceful one.

I can't embed the video into this blog post, so you'll just have to follow this link to see my appearance on the Catalan state news. No, I wasn't involved in a crime or catastrophe- the segment is on cooking classes in Barcelona, or as the title translates to, "The attraction of cooking." Not quite as exciting as having my mug shot put up on screen, but still, pretty cool. And story behind it is as follows.

Last month, I accepted an invitation extended to me by two of my students and enrolled in a month-long, once a week cooking class. Over the 4 class sessions, we learned how to make "cuina de mercat," or "market food"- meals that we could make easily, with vegetables and meat that was easily gotten at the farmer's market or grocery store. Cod with mustard sauce, vegetarian paella, tradiational Catalan beef stew, tiramisu- all of it tasty, quick, and easy to make. Though not idiot-proof - I'm still capable of messing up almost anything that touches my hands in the ktichen, so don't expect perfection if I ever try to cook one of these dishes for you. But all in all, it was a great cultural, linguistic, and delicious experience.

The segment is 2 minutes long, but I only appear in the last 30 seconds. And no, I'm not falling asleep during my close-up; that's just my intense concentration/intense hunger combination face. Enjoy!

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UPDATE, 2/11: The video was finally uploaded to YouTube! Enjoy the embedded, condensed version.

No. 355: In order to correctly play bingo, the cards that you give out to your students must be different from each other. If the cards are the same, everyone gets the same result.

No. 356: If your students are 7 and 9 years old, aren't experienced bingo players, don't have a firm grasp on English, and are slightly gullible, you can pretend that that's how the game is supposed to be played. And since there are no losers, there are no tears at the end of the game. Everyone wins, including the teacher.