My time as Salvador Allende is one that I will never forget. I arrived at the school with open arms, open hearts, and open minds. When arriving in October I was excited to start my new journey as an assistant for the second year. Throughout the year, I was able to educate and celebrate with the whole school on various holidays and activities such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Dia de Andalucia, Easter, and much more.
Everyday I am welcomed by smiling faces and big hearts. The children have been a great pleasure to work with as they are hilarious, brillant, and kind. I enjoyed working with them in small groups to focus more on the areas that need focusing and giving them the attention needed to fully understand the concept we are studying.
The children were a great joy to be around but so were the staff and the other teachers I worked closely with. I appreciate their willingness to help in all areas of life, not just school related. They made my time in Malaga and at Salvador Allende easy. I found the teachers to be great collaborators as we would work well with each other to teach new material to the kids.
Overall, my time as an auxiliare in CEIP Salvador Allende was an incredible one that I will cherish for the rest of my life.
Gracias y nos vemos pronto.
Dear parents and neighbors of Puerto de La Torre,
I’ve spent the last two academic school years immersed in this wonderful community, and it’s with great sadness that my time has come to an end here. It’s such a bittersweet feeling because little by little, I fell in love with Puerto. It’s just the perfect mix of a small town mixed with the urban magic of Malaga. I never once had a bad experience here with anyone, and for that I’m forever grateful. Andalucia and Malaga are truly different. I wish I could stay, but the old saying goes “when one door closes, another one opens.” I will forever cherish my memories here in Puerto with the elders, youth, and middle-aged people whether it was at school, on the street, or at the “Sal-Marina,” “El Recreo,” or “El Ruiseñor.” Your children inspired me to be a better teacher, brother, and man. I hope they take away life lessons, inspiration, and of course, I hope that they improved their English skills.
As for my future, there’s a lot of uncertainty, but I’ll let you know some vague plans and dreams I have, and how it relates to our community. As some of you already know, in January of 2022, I created a Youtube Channel called “Aventurero Elliot en Español.” The channel shows my experience in Spain as a “guiri” and I’ve done everything from showing the “poor and dangerous” side of Spain to the immense and delightful history of the country. In fact, I’ve even made a few videos from right here in Puerto de la Torre - you can see the video links beneath. The underlying theme is that I ALWAYS include locals in the video, and without the people of the community, and without you all, my videos would be nothing. Long term, I believe these dreams and goals I have will allow me to find myself back here in Malaga in the future - where I’m truly that happiest I’ve ever been. Only time and faith will tell.
I will be in Malaga until August indefinitely and enjoy the guaranteed time I have left in this paradise on the Costa del Sol, and I will continue to focus on making content in Spain while I keep searching for a job that will allow me to continue to live in Malaga (legally), because contrary to popular belief, living in Spain as a non-European Union citizen is quite the tough task. If my situation here doesn’t work out, I will return to Wisconsin, United States to spend some time with family before hopefully starting a 6 month to 1 year tour of Latin America while documenting the reality of those countries and how they relate to Spain as part of the great Spanish-speaking world.
So, it’s been a pleasure and I hope our futures coincide.
Until the next time, El Guiri Malagueño says “hasta luego….”
