It’s been a minute since I wrote anything on this blog, and what better time to catch my readers up to speed than right before the new year?

All the way back in September, I was convinced that schools would be forced to shut down entirely due to Coronavirus cases. To my great surprise, and relief, this has not happened, and there have been very few cases in my high-school. When a student does test positive for Covid, the entire class no longer needs to be quarantined; this rule doesn’t apply to primary schools, where the classes are forced to quarantine. The windows are kept wide open throughout the school, and hand sanitizer stations are everywhere. Most of my students are pretty good about following the necessary protocols, but there are a few that I have to constantly remind to pull up their masks.

Despite not being able to travel outside of Madrid, I’ve kept myself much busier than last year. Most days, I’m at school from 8:30-2:30, and anywhere between 5:00 and 7:00, depending on the day, I have private tutoring classes. This has severely interfered with my siesta schedule. Additionally, because I didn’t have enough going on, I took Spanish classes every Saturday for the past month. I’m planning on reverting to online classes in the new year.

It’s imperative that I improve my Spanish to an intermediate level by September, as there is a strong possibility that I will be getting a Masters in Global Higher Education here, and some of the classes are in Spanish; I’m sure I can reach this goal, but it’s proving itself to be a lot of work. If I had one year to do nothing but dedicate myself to learning the language, I would be much further along than I am now–working as much as I am means mindfully forcing myself to make the time for studying. It’s a misconception to think that by simply living in a country you will learn the language. Undoubtedly, I know and understand much more Spanish than I did when I first came here, simply by being around it: To truly learn the language, you have to study/take classes, the latter costing both money and time. But, I’ll do just about anything to keep myself in Spain.

I spent Christmas here, in Madrid, my first Christmas away from my family. I had planned on this since last summer, for a number of reasons. I originally thought that I would be spending it with my roommates, but these plans quickly unravelled in November, as two of them were going back to their homes, and one was invited to spend it with her Spanish boyfriend’s family (lucky bitch). As Christmas day drew nearer, I began to feel some apprehension, and second guessed myself if I had made the right decision. I was thinking, in these moments of course, of the Christmas memories that I always look back on fondly; of Christmas Eve at the Chinese restaurant (explaining this tradition to Spanish kids took forever, btw), opening stockings on Christmas morning, drinking our bodyweight in cozy alcoholic beverages. Then I would think about the general stressful environment, the fights, the snide comments, and I felt assured in my decision.

I had been avoiding listening to Christmas music because I thought that it would make me sad and miss home, but on Christmas Eve, I blasted my favorite Christmas songs, my friend came over and made her family’s traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner, we feasted on cheese and Fuet (Catalan sausage), threw back three bottles of ‘expensive’ wine (the first time I’ve gone over €4 for a bottle–wow!!), and we watched The Santa Clause. On Christmas Day, we went to a friend’s apartment for lunch, and proceeded to a bar for 2×1 drinks. I concluded the night with some Bailey’s, and video chatted for a long while with my family. All in all, it was one of the best Christmases that I can remember.

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I was fortunate to have several wonderful experiences in 2020, some of which I had forgotten happened this year; my trip to Morocco, getting three more tattoos, tanning on the beaches of Malaga, eating the best seafood of my life in Galicia, and seeing my family and friends after seven months away from each other. But I’m looking forward to 2021 and the exciting new experiences ahead!

Till next year…