Hemingway and Me: My time at Instituto Hemingway <

Hemingway and Me: My time at Instituto Hemingway

My name is Leila Santoni and studying at the University of Surrey in England I came to Bilbao and Insittuto Hemingway as part of my year abroad.

I started off in Valdegovia, working at the summer camps organized by the Instituto, where I spent five weeks teaching English and living at a camp site with the children. The summer camps were a lot of fun and before I knew it I was on my way back to the city to start working at Instituto Hemingway’s offices. After getting the weekend to relax and re-group, on Monday I headed to the offices for my first day of work. It was a nice day, however kind of muggy, I was pretty nervous about starting an office job, my first one, as well as meeting new people with whom I would be working for the next month.

My first impressions of the school were great, it seemed like such a nice work environment and the people were friendly from the outset. I met another English girl, Rachel, who explained the ins and outs of the school to me, and was kind enough to pass her wisdom down to me. Once I got to the school I felt silly for having worried, everyone was lovely, and I got the hang of things pretty quickly, and before long I was out taking students on excursions myself. Taking the students on the excursions was a great test of my map reading skills, as it was also the first time I had been myself, but the map porvided by the school was great, and street signs were very clear and helpful so we made it there and back with plenty of time to spare! During my time at the school I got to meet so many interesting students from all over the world, and taking them on the excursions gave me the chance to get to know them all a bit better. The wonderful thing about working at Hemingway was that there was always someone aroudn to talk to, or just go grab a bite with, friendships weren’t just limited to the office and it was a lovely feeling.
I am leaving Instituto Hemingway with so many wonderful memories, from the weekly pintxo tours in and around the Casco VIejo, the day trip we took to San Sebastian with the students, all the wonderful museums we got to see, as well as the crazy and wonderful ‘Semana Grande’, it has been an unforgettable summer. I have nothing but great things to say about Instituto Hemingway, my colleagues and friends but I am so glad I came to work here as part of my placement year and needless to say it has surpassed any expectactions, and was the best start to my placement year, and I hope to be back soon!