All three of my long-term experiences abroad have begun with a stage that I have named information overload, although it is far more than that. Because so much essential information is being thrown at you simultaneously, the hours go by like days and the days seem endless. That I have barely been here two days is astonishing from my point of view. Here's an explanation of why it feels that way.
Yesterday I rode to Haro in the morning with Ana and Begoña, the music teacher. I was introduced to many of the teachers and staff as Beatriz showed me around the school, which took some time, as it has 700 students and the facilities to match. As a point of reference, I went to high school in Northampton with around 800 students. After spending the first hour of school on my tour, I helped out in a class taught by Begoña - another English teacher, not the music teacher from the morning's ride. Soon after, I found that the school had gotten a call from Pilar, the woman in Logroño who coordinates my program. Apparently, another participant had decided not to come, and there is an English woman in the program who lives in Haro with her Spanish husband. Pilar was wondering if I would mind very much switching to two schools in two small towns nearer to Logroño so this English woman could work and live in the same town. Cue the sound of a record being stopped suddenly.
Obviously, there wasn't much I could do to hold my spot in Haro. All I had in my favor was the friends I had made in the less than 24-hour period I had been here. The other ambassador had the fact that she lived in the town, and in the context, it made absolutely no sense for her to commute past Logroño every day while I searched for a place to live in Haro (Logroño has a far more active rental market, as it has a university). But roots grow quickly during the information overload stage.
I spent the rest of the school day in Haro, helping out in one of Ana's classes and one of Begoña's. Beatriz made arrangements for me to go to Alberite tomorrow, which is the first of the two towns in which I will be working. I then caught a ride back to Logroño with Beatriz and two other teachers before coming back to my hotel room and collapsing for a long nap.
So today, the whole introductory process began anew. I caught a ride with Susana, the lone English teacher at the school in Alberite and Laura, one of the school's special education teachers. After helping out in one of Susana's classes, I was handed over to José Luis, the school's Jefe de Estudios (side note: I don't think we have this position in North American schools - it's the person who coordinates all the academics). He and Susana worked out my schedule - looks as though I'll have some late starts and Fridays off, so good news there.
José Luis then "took me under his wing," so to speak, giving me a tour and making some suggestions about housing and transport, as well as arranging my transport for tomorrow to Albelda de Iregua, the other town in which I'll be working. As it turns out, José Luis is something of an American sports fanatic, even interested in our form of football. Fortunately, he likes the Patriots, so we had plenty to talk about after last night's win against the Dolphins.
The really frustrating thing is that I now have to repeat this process tomorrow in Albelda. I will be alternating weeks between the two towns, and I have yet to even visit one of them. Establishing a routine here is going to be a routine breaker in itself. But again, that's a statement made after 48 hours here. The information overload stage is characterized by the necessity of establishing a routine from almost nothing. It feels as though every new piece of information completely changes your life, when in fact it is actually helping to establish your life in a new place. My key to survival? Latching-on points, or arrangements with other people to ensure I always have someone to lead me around. Meanwhile, I need to pursue a place to live and a bank account independently (and have already begun to do so, albeit somewhat timidly).
As I said, this is far more than information overload - it's also responsibility overload. And that is why the first 48 hours felt like a year here (and in Maastricht, and at the ISC).
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