Day in the Life of an Aux in Spain

I moved from Raleigh, North Carolina to Cantabria, Spain in September of 2023 and have been living and working as an auxiliare de conversacion through the program NALCAP.

I live in the capital of Cantabria, Santander, but I commute to work in San Vicente de la Barquera. There I teach part time at a secondary school (ages 12-18) and work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It is certainly not a typical work week but I also tutor four different students throughout the week in Santander to make extra money so I still find myself plenty busy!

I enjoy lesson planning for my students because there is a lot of creative freedom in curating something both interactive, engaging, and enjoyable to get kids more interested in speaking and learning English. Sometimes I make interactive presentations related to the curriculum they’re learning, or we play a fun vocabulary building game, in the older classes we organize debates so they can practice expressing opinions or articulating thought, or other times I am sharing traditions and culture from the U.S. Most of my time at work in San Vicente is spent chatting with the students, other teachers, or walking around the pueblo and enjoying its tranquility. 

I live with three other Americans and also the majority of my friend group here is English-speaking, so we have all found that outside of working at our spanish-speaking schools, we have to make that extra push if we want to fully immerse ourselves in the language. Every week in San Vicente I meet with a friend named Tamara and we chat over coffee and switch between English and spanish so we can practice our second languages and do a beautiful little exchange. Some of my friends here have signed up for language schools in the city to improve and practice their spanish.

This video didn’t highlight all the fun that Santander has, but if I manage to stay away from the airport for my long weekends, I either go one of the beaches here, walk by the seaside and watch the sailboats, take the ferry to Somo beach, go to a futbol game, go on a hike around the rigid Cantabrian coastline, or explore a different town nearby. Santander is a smaller city but still I never find myself running out of things to do and see.

For example, this past weekend I went to an improv theater class at Cafe de las Artes Teatros, went to a free bachata and salsa class, took the rental bikes up to the coastline to watch the sunset, and watched a crew tournament outside of the art museum, Centro Botin, situated right on top of the water.

Santander airport is also tiny, having only about three gates inside, but this year I have managed to get direct flights to Scotland, Morocco, southern Spain, Austria, and Italy from it. The Bilbao airport is a little over an hour away from Santander and there you can find loads more destinations. ALSA buses run frequently and you can find yourself in Madrid in just 5 hours, southern France in about the same, and just about anywhere else in Spain for an agreeable price. In Cantabria, about every five weeks, we have a week-long break, so other auxes and I have a lot of opportunities to explore more of Spain and adventure around Europe (or northern Africa!). 

I’m really grateful for this experience I’m having and the people I am meeting. Each day, I am learning a bit more about different cultures, languages, and the country of Spain. Be sure to subscribe for more content along this unique journey!