Welcome!

And thank you for reading my blog. This is intended to be a record of my doings for the benefit of those who are interested. I have previously sent mass emails, but the stress of writing a long message, attaching photos, and waiting for it to send now seem too much of a hassle.

But enough of the reasons, what about the doings?

In a matter of weeks, I will be departing North America for the third time in four years to take up a position as an English teaching assistant in the town of Haro, La Rioja, Spain. I still have many questions to ask (most importantly - when will my visa arrive?), and I assume you probably have even more. Here are a few answers that I already know:

Where exactly will you be working?
Instead of states or provinces, as in the USA and Canada, Spain has autonomous communities. I'm not sure of the details, but each one has a fair amount of decision-making power, as the name hints. Some autonomous communities contain multiple provinces, but the one in which I will be working, La Rioja, does not. It is one of the smallest autonomous communities in the country. Its capital is Logroño, which is only a little bit larger than Kingston, ON, where I went to university (about 150,000 people). However, I will be working (and hopefully living) in the town of Haro, which is 40 km northwest of the capital and contains about 12,000 inhabitants.

What is it near that the average North American might have heard of?
Don't lie, this was the next question on your mind. La Rioja, being so tiny, is near plenty of places that are on the "tourist circuit," as travel books like to call it. To the north is País Vasco, which is Spanish for Basque Country. I'm already planning a blog post called "Noisy Neighbors," since the Basques are well-known for their unique identity and separatist movement. If you've never heard of them, the Basques are a group of people that has been living in northeastern Spain and southwestern France for longer than human records can tell. They have their own language, cuisine, laws, sports (you might have heard of jai alai), and now, autonomous community.
      To the west and south of La Rioja is Castilla y Léon, which I believe was one of the two kingdoms that were joined when Isabella and Ferdinand tied the knot in the 15th century. It is one of the larger autonomous communities.
      To the east is the autonomous community of Navarra, which is home to the city of Pamplona, famous for its festival of San Fermín. That's where they block off the streets to create a channel and run bulls through it for eight days in July. Sometimes people run in front of the bulls. I'm not planning to be one of them.

What is La Rioja known for?
One word: wine. La Rioja is home to red wines that are famous enough that I recognize the name from a few casual walks through the Spanish wine section at the LCBO (before rushing off to the cold beer section). Haro is the center of Riojan wine country, and every July sees the annual Batalla del Vino - the wine battle. There are pictures. Look it up. Not being a wine connoisseur, I plan to enjoy some of the area's less famous specialties, such as its natural surroundings - seven rivers run through La Rioja, all tributaries of the Ebro, which runs down to the Mediterranean. This seems to have created some fantastic hiking trails and decent fishing, both of which I plan to check out.

How did you get this position, Jody?
Every year, the Spanish government hires 1500-2000 native English speakers from North America to be English TAs in their public schools for 12-15 hours per week. They receive a stipend and the program is actually a continuing education grant rather than a job. Placement is based on preference by autonomous community, although I was put in La Rioja because I declared my willingness to work anywhere in Spain after my preferred regions filled their spots.

What exactly will you be doing?
I'm still asking myself this question. I do know that the school at which I will be teaching is a primary school, and I have a history of disliking young kids. The plus side is that if I can make this year a success, it sets a good precedent for a teaching career (gasp! don't say that word!).

That's what I know so far. For now, I'm waiting on my visa and making tentative plans to stop off at Oktoberfest in Munich before starting training in Madrid at the end of the month. Because, you know, Europe is basically one big country.

Now I'm off to hide, because every European I know is going to chase me down with pitchforks for that last remark.