Hi! My name is Ed and I’m a 3rd Year BA French and Spanish student. I’ve just finished my year abroad in Astorga, in the north of Spain as an English Assistant in a secondary school. It’s about an hour away from León; a beautiful city with great connections to the rest of Spain so it let me see a lot of this country that I had never even visited until my year abroad. For example, I made trips to Santander, Bilbao, San Sebastián and Salamanca, all amazing cities not too far from where I was. However, I would recommend spending more than a day in each city, not only because there is so much to see, but also they’re not close enough so that you can get there and back in a day with enough time to properly experience each city.
Now you may be asking, why Astorga? Why this small town that I hadn’t even heard of until I came here? Well, as I applied with the British Council program to be an English Assistant, the most you get to choose with regards to location is which region (Comunidad Autónoma) you would like to be in and what type of place you would like to be in (city, town, or village), and in the end I got Astorga which, while it is a little small and the people can be a little old-fashioned, the town has a lot of history (from it’s links to chocolate, to the town formerly being used as a roman fort) and a lot of amazing buildings (like the cathedral, the town-hall and so I would highly recommend visiting if you get the chance. Honestly, the same goes for any smaller city/town in Spain as that is where you will get the most authentic Spanish experience.
However, if you do decide that living in a smaller place isn’t for you, it is possible to live in the biggest city nearby and commute in every morning, just be prepared for early wake-ups and spending a little more on transport as working in a school does typically require early starts, but on some days you may be finished by 12pm so you can more than make the most of the traditional Spanish siesta.
Overall, I’d say the highlight of my time here was the community at the school I was at. The teachers in the English Department welcomed me with open arms and often asked me for advice about English and insights into British culture. I worked 4 days a week, 3 hours a day (not including time spent preparing classes), so I had a great work-life balance, but that can vary depending on where you are in Spain. If you are an aspiring teacher like me, I highly recommend becoming an English Assistant as it gives you a lot of experience working in a classroom with the support of fully qualified teachers around you. Although, some teachers will be thinking that once a week you take the entire lesson for them but that should not be the case, so make sure you confirm with your teachers from the start that you are only there to support and take a 15-20 minute part of the lesson and not the whole thing.
Another thing you might be worrying about is how to make friends in a new place (or at least I did as someone who is a little introverted), and there are a few ways to do that. Firstly, early on in your time in Spain, you will have a meeting with all of the other assistants (not just for English) in your local area and you might be working in a school with multiple assistants, so take the chance to get to know them as well and share ideas for classes. This is an opportunity to get to know some new people who are in the exact same situation as you, and some might have been assistants for a few years now so they are also great people for advice on the specifics of being an English Assistant. Also, you still have access to all the Erasmus extracurricular activities/trips even though you are not studying in Spain, so make the most of those as well. For example, in León there were trips to some of the bigger cities in the country, like Madrid, and also a skiing trip just after Christmas.
To finish, I would like to give some of my recommendations for coming to Spain:
1. Stay on top of all the necessary paperwork before arriving in Spain and once you arrive. The visa process can take a while and can cost a fair bit, so start it as soon as you can without being too early and stay on top of all the requirements as and when you complete them. Also, the most important thing you need once you arrive is your TIE (foreign identity card), as your visa only lasts for 3 months, while your TIE will allow you to stay until the end of your period of study/work. Getting an appointment can be the most difficult part of this in certain places, so make sure to check the website to get one as soon as possible.
2. Bring basic medications (painkillers, antihistamines, etc.) with you as they are far more expensive there than in the UK, with them being around €10 for a pack in Spanish pharmacies.
3. Take advantage of being in Spain as it has so much to offer and varies so much from region to region, and like I said, don’t limit yourself to just the big cities as the smaller towns also have a lot to offer. More specific to Castilla y León (the comunidad autónoma I was in), make the most of the tapas, as at most cafés and bars tapas come free with any drink that you order, which isn’t guaranteed in all of Spain. For example, you can get a coffee and a tapa for around €1.70 and the tapa can range from something sweet, like cake or other baked treats, to something savoury like a small slice of tortilla española.
4. Finally, talk as much Spanish as possible. My main problems with my Spanish when I arrived in Spain were my confidence while speaking and my vocabulary and I can absolutely say that both of those have improved just from being in the country, between using Spanish for basic day-to-day tasks and being exposed to authentic Spanish all around me, something I didn’t really get a choice in living in a small town.
In short: live the life, speak the language, and make the most of your time in this amazing country!