It has officially been one week! And wow, the time has flown!
Monday: On Monday, Manny and I took the subway two stops down to where I’ve been attending new staff orientation at Brewster Madrid. The campus is currently under construction, so we’re at the nearby office building that they recently opened for additional classroom space and for admin/college counseling offices. It’s a really nice space! The surrounding area is beautiful with lots of scattered parks and shops. The first morning at work we played some “name games,” introduced ourselves, and had a nice introduction to the history of Brewster Academy. I met Manny for lunch after he spent the morning exploring the neighborhood and getting some SAT work done. After lunch, he headed to a paella cooking class and I finished the afternoon with a few more sessions. My colleagues have all been incredibly nice. They range from my age to ~40 years of teaching experience, and there are 36 of us new faculty. This is a major expansion year for the school with the opening of its second Madrid campus. After the day of work, I headed back to the apartment, where Manny met me shortly after. We relaxed and then headed back out to meet my new colleagues for drinks at a Tap Room. It was nice to meet everyone in a less formal setting as well as some of the other teachers’ spouses. And they were excited to meet Manny! After that, Manny and I walked over to an Argentinian steak house and had awesome steak, as well as our first green salad of the trip! Veggies have been hard to come by.
Tuesday: On Tuesday, Manny slept in and I tiptoed out to work in the morning. He spent the morning at the Thyssen museum and met me again for lunch. After that, he headed off on his own for a few hours and met me back at the apartment after I finished up. Our second day was more in depth about the academic program as well as all of the HR business we have to complete. I have a bunch of appointments all over Madrid in the next few weeks to formally establish residency. But I have my metro card, so I think I’m a resident already. That night, Manny and I did some roof restaurant hopping. We went to get drinks on one roof overlooking the large rotary. Then we walked a bit down the road and had dinner on top of a very nice hotel. We ate well and walked a bit before heading home to sleep.
Wednesday: Manny and I started the day early so we could have breakfast out for his last morning. After breakfast, he headed off to the airport and I went to work. It was a lot of fun to have him here in Madrid and I miss him already! I spent the rest of the day at work and headed home for a quick stop before going back out for Karaoke with the whole group. We went to a really fun private karaoke room and sang our hearts out (there are some singers in the group!!). After karaoke, most of us went to tacos nearby before heading home.
Thursday: Thursday was a half day of orientation before we headed to the Thyssen museum in groups. Brewster calls these excursions “Learning Expeditions” and we were participants in the learning expedition to better understand how they work. We stopped at a few specific pieces and participated in a few different activities with one of the Brewster facult members. It was really interesting and I’m excited to go back to the museum for more when I have time! After that, I had dinner with my friend Sofia from Yale who has been in town for some of the summer. We had a very American timed dinner at 7:30!
Tomorrow we have a staff bonding trip with a hike and a day at the pool which I’m excited for!
Abe Tolkoff 