Why did you choose this program?
I chose the CIEE 3-Month Volunteer program in Spain for a number of reasons, but mainly because I wanted to try an opportunity that I felt would be more fulfilling.
I have come across too many people who regret not taking advantage of opportunities during their younger years; people who waited until "retirement" to do begin pursuing their greatest desires and dreams, but are now too old and in poor health to do so. It is these such people and their stories that inspired me to pursue an opportunity to live and work in Europe. I didn't want to fall into the same category so I began searching for opportunities to live and work abroad.
CIEE's 3-6 month volunteer program seemed a perfect amount of time to be able to gauge if living in another country was truly right for me. I also had another friend who went through CIEE and assured me that they were a legitimate company and that the opportunity would be well worth it - she couldn't have been more correct.
What did your program provider assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?
The program provider essentially assisted me with answering questions I had about the program, health insurance, the country, the host families, past participant's experiences, etc., coordinating the required paper work/documentation between the participants, the Spanish government, and the Spanish Ministry of Education, and ensuring that each participant was assigned a host family.
However, aside from the 2-day orientation, participants were solely responsible for coordinating their flights and other travel arrangements and also checking to ensure they had the correct medical coverage during their time overseas.
What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?
The most important piece of advice I can give is for you to TRY it!
Experience is the best way to gain knowledge and insight. You can read books, listen to news stories, or look at pictures until your heart contends, but until YOU travel somewhere for yourself, you are only ever living someone else's story and perspective. Each person's experience will be different.
My experiences abroad will be different from yours and yours will be different from mine. Of course, there will be many similarities but there will also be many differences, but it is critical that you form your own opinion.
Really, what do you have to lose and what are your biggest fears? The world is not as scary (most parts at least) as most of us are lead to believe and there is certainly no shortage of testimonies on Google to further attest to that statement.
I quit my job to volunteer abroad and still, as of this writing, do not have a stable source of income but I'm surviving. Also, I strongly encourage everyone to make a concerted effort in attempting to learn and speak the language and don't be afraid or embarrassed to make mistakes - the native people will truly and genuinely appreciate your efforts to speak their language.
Is there anything you would have done differently?
My only regrets are:
1) Not knowing Spanish or any other language for that matter, prior to arriving in Spain. I knew all but two words prior to arriving in Spain. While I was able to quickly learn some key words and phrases, having a minor foundation would have enhanced my experience.
2) I wish I would have known more about the history of the country. Spain, like all of Europe, is a wealth of history and architecture and I was embarrassed to know so little.
3) I wished I could have stayed longer. We'll see what the future holds.
What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?
An average week/day was more or less the same and could vary if you so desired. I was an assistant English teacher and assisted with conversational English lessons. I worked Monday-Thursday between 12-16 hours per week and had Fridays off. My weekday-routine was more or less the same for the duration I was in Spain.
I usually started class around 9am and finished with the school day around 2:30-3:00pm. I would then return to my host-family's house for lunch and had the rest of the evening to do as I wished. I lived in a small agricultural village but there was a public bus system which I was able to take into the larger city of Guadalajara or to the Renfe train station that ran to Madrid.
After lunch, I would meet-up with some of my students for further English lessons, jog around the village to take in the sights and learn my way around, grab a beer or something to eat, and try interact with the locals, and I would practice Spanish with my host family. I did several long weekend trips since I had Friday off and my school was extremely accommodating if I need to switch my class schedule around - they wanted and encouraged me to experience as much of their country as possible.
Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it and/or how did your views on the issue change?
My biggest fear was not knowing the language. I feared that not having a solid foundation in the Spanish language would hinder me in truly immersing myself in the culture and preventing me from being an effective teacher.
I am a social person and typically fearless when it comes to striking-up conversations with random strangers, but Spain was an entirely new country and language for me so I knew it would be more difficult. However, once I arrived in Spain, made a few friends, and met my host family, these fears quickly dissipated.
My first task was to ask for directions and recommendations for food and that was after getting lost and trying to figure it out myself. The first person I stopped to ask knew zero English but was extremely patient and kind. Since many words are similar to English and body language goes a long way, we were able to more or less understand each other and I successfully found my way.
When it came to teaching, I had never formally taught a day in my life and I knew that many of my students would not be bilingual. I had to be creative and came up with ways to communicate with them and the iTranslate app that I downloaded helped out tremendously. Again, body language played a large role in effectively communicating what I wanted to say. Sometimes, I would even draw sketches on the chalk board or a piece of paper, even though I'm a terrible drawer.
It is true what they say (even for slow learners such as myself) that when something becomes a "must," you retain the lesson much better. I was able to learn enough vocabulary and some basic phrases to survive in the matter of a few weeks.