Making Progress

This is a program to test your patience.

I applied in early November. I waited through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day in silence. April came, with rumors that first-year applicants would be receiving placements. Instead, we were told that Cataluña, Castilla la Mancha, and Valencia would be cancelling the program altogether, while Andalucía would reduce the number of acceptances by half. Amid this troubling news, coupled with Spain's banking crisis, I wondered if the whole auxiliares program would collapse altogether, leaving all my best laid plans for naught.

Thankfully, May brought good news. I had been accepted to the Comunidad de Madrid. For those unaware, the program assigns hopeful language assistants to an autonomous community, at which point we can choose to accept or decline said placement. At this point, we don't know what city they will send us to.

I'll be somewhere in that red squiggly line

As a future madrileña, this generally means that I will live in the city of Madrid and likely commute to my assigned school. Madrid's central location and well-connected public transit network makes it ideal for travel.

In comparison, those placed in Andalucía would be much more uncertain regarding their future living situation.

So many options!

Nevertheless, as a planner by nature, I like to do my research. After a year of planning and waiting and hoping, I am eager to start looking at apartments and figuring out what neighborhoods would best suit my commute.

Finally, on Wednesday, I received my carta de nombramiento, stating my school name and location. I now have a physical address and a website to confirm that this is really happening and a position in Spain exists for me. Even better, I'm located in the actual city of Madrid.



View Calle de Adanero, 3 in a larger map
The school's website

Admittedly, things are still moving slower than I'd like. My visa appointment is not until July 27 (there were no earlier openings), and I am advised against purchasing plane tickets until the visa has been approved. With three months until my intended departure, I had hoped to have a more finalized itinerary. Nevertheless, I'm slowly making progress.