True life

This email was written by Jaymee Martin (a fellow Andorra Fulbright ETA this year and my closest friend here) to the ETA that will take her place next year. I share it with y'all on this blog because it is straight truth. I think this is why my blog has been so silent for the past few months. It's difficult to write hard truths without sounding negative and so instead of writing about this Andorran "adventure" which has felt at times like more of an Andorran aimless wander I was silent. Jaymee was able to perfectly articulate and sum-up the core of this Aventura en Andorra.

"Before anything else, here is the one thing that I really really want to emphasize. I have a theory that this is the single most important take-away lesson from the Fulbright. A couple of us have a sort-of inside joke wherein we refer to something called the "Fulbright Personality": slightly (or more than slightly) perfectionistic, typically "together" all the time and hesitant to lose control, highly organized, holds high standards for one's self, not accustomed to NOT excelling at something, etc. I mean, this is the reason you got this. (Side note- I think one reason I was an alternate is because I seem to be the LEAST like this of all the girls here, and my closest friend is the second least.) Here is the kicker of the Fulbright Andorra experience: it is impossible to not fail here somehow. Fulbright Personalities are not used to failure, and in fact, maybe we cannot even really handle it. But what I've learned is that you will fail here somehow: whether it be thinking you're a pro teacher and "got this" then going into the classroom and realizing that handling 10+ classes of a dozen or so Andorran teenagers for a year with no training and no accountability and no motivating factors and virtually no materials is impossible to pull off; or maybe you will realize that your language abilities aren't as good as you thought and that fulanito learned Catalan faster than you; or maybe you will feel constantly compared to the Lectora before you (I was called "Cathe" at least once a week for probably the first 7 months); maybe you'll have a great time here then get to the end of it and realize that you have no idea what you're doing with your life; or perhaps just that you'll be faced with the raw fact that the AMAZING EPIC FULBRIGHT ADVENTURE is actually no different from real life with hurdles and challenges and difficult parts and is not at all what you expected. I think that the more you become okay with the ways this failure manifests-- the more you learn how to handle it with self-acceptance and move through it and realize that you are still awesome and that it's okay to not be perfect all the time-- the more this experience will teach you. That is what I've been finding, anyway."

REWIND: December and January adventures

Wow, I can’t believe I haven’t written since Thanksgiving! And now I only have two weeks left in Andorra to summarize the last seven months. How about I do one month a day and then we'll be in good shape for the last week here :)

The basic summary of my time since Thanksgiving consists of...

-teaching

-eating Andburger with friends and new friends!

-freezing

-drinking coffee, reading, and laughing with people at Mon Bohemi

-traveling

-handball!

-animals

-more traveling! 

I'll give a few more details though :)

 

 DECEMBER:

I made it home for Christmas and New Years!

Andorra had the longest and harshest winter in 10 years...and it's still continuing. We had snows a week ago! IN MAY!     Unbelievable.

 

I taught and tutored like usual. These are two of my tutees when we made and decorated "Christmas cookies"! Fun times.

JANUARY :

James came to visit! And we spent a great weekend in Barcelona before coming to Andorra. ^DELICIOUS SEAFOOD PAELLA AT A RESTAURANT BY THE SEA^

James and I went to ski week at school! And I learned to ski for the first time ever! It was fun...and tiring...and terrifying :)

James got to meet CAGATIO!

If you don't know what (or who) "Cagatio" is, don't worry, it's very much a regional holiday tradition in Catalunya. I suggest you youtube it because you probably will neither believe nor think you understand correctly the tradition I'll briefly tell you about :) 

"Cagatio" literally translates as "shit-log." For the holidays, the children are told they must take great care of Cagatio (hence the blanket and usually they leave him food and water). Then on the 8th of December it is Cagatio's time. Here is the progression of Cagatio's holiday demise: 

The children come in with big sticks which they use to beat Cagatio as they sing him a song asking him to poop them good presents. The parents shuffle the kids out of the room as they sing more songs, then stuff gifts under Cagatio's blanket, bring the kids back into the room and say "Look! You beat all the gifts out of him!" 

Who doesn't like wood poop for Christmas?  

Well that's all for now! Tomorrow you'll get to hear all about Brugge and Holland! Hope everyone's doing well! Save some summer for me :)