Trevor Huxham

Teaching English in Spain, speaking Spanish, and traveling across Spain and Europe made up my day-to-day life for three years after I graduated college in 2012. June 2015 saw me go on a “farewell tour” of Spain before moving back to Texas at the end of the month, and it wasn’t until May of this year—almost two years to the day—that I would return to the country I called home for three school years. I had the opportunity to co-lead a small group of ten public radio listeners on a cooking tour of Spain, making stops in Barcelona, Sevilla, and Madrid for cooking classes, tapas-themed guided walks , and winery visits. It was a lot of work planning the trip, photographing events, translating questions, and leading these adventurous, inquisitive travelers, but it was so, so worth it to share one of my favorite places in the world with this great group of people. Streets of Reus A question I was asked quite frequently while chopping potatoes or hurrying to a Metro stop was, “Would yo...

Putting on my threadbare IKEA slippers, I shuffle into my apartment’s kitchen to figure out what I might have for breakfast. I open a cabinet and find no eggs left in the cardboard container, and it looks like the only tea I have is caffeine-free chamomile. Ugg.  The kitchen window that looks out into the light well is ajar, and from it I can hear pigeons softly cooing, almost in derision that I have no food. I make a mental note of the things I need to go to the grocery store for and hop in the shower. Waiting on the train 🚊 // #latergram #santiago #santiagodecompostela #fog #galicia #spain #travel #visitspain #vsco #vscocam A photo posted by Trevor Huxham (@trevorhuxham) on May 11, 2015 at 10:01am PDT My hair still drying, I pull the house door shut behind me, in accordance with the handwritten “ Mantén a porta pechada—Grazas ” sign I see every day on the way out, and I quickly zip up my hoodie: it’s a little chillier out here than I was expecting. Four faint, a...

Now that I’m back home with my parents in Texas this summer, I’ve recently been leafing through all the old travel journals that I kept when I moved to Spain and traveled around Europe. They’ve put me in a real emotional mood remembering how excited I felt to be moving to a foreign country. At the same time, all my old anxieties came flooding back: what city would I live in, what apartment would I choose, how would I get to work, would I make any friends, and what the heck comes next after all of this is over. View this post on Instagram It's always sunny in Santiago...at least this month ☀️😏☀️ // #sun #santiago #santiagodecompostela #baroque #church #cathedral #galicia #spain #visitspain #whitagram #snapseed #latergram A post shared by Trevor Huxham (@trevorhuxham) on May 23, 2015 at 1:55pm PDT It’s now been three years  since I landed on the tarmac at the Barajas airport in Madrid , giddy and jetlagged a...

This past Thursday, people on the Facebook groups for language assistants in Spain began posting elatedly that they had heard back from the Spanish government about getting placed in a region for the 2015-2016 school year. The placements started rolling in: Andalucía, Madrid, Castilla y León, and even an odd first-year getting placed alongside the priority renewals . I always enjoy the exciting atmosphere in the groups during this time of the year, as everyone is either simply euphoric at the opportunity to work in Spain or thrilled that they finally got assigned in their dream region. View this post on Instagram Blooming magnolias are pretty much my favorite thing of all time. 😍🌷 // #flowers #magnolias #spring #santiago #santiagodecompostela #galicia #spain #vsco #vscocam A post shared by Trevor Huxham (@trevorhuxham) on Mar 11, 2015 at 12:27pm PDT This begs the question: are you renewing for another year, T...

Whenever you move to another country, you’ll inevitably experience  culture shock,  a roller-coaster of emotions that you experience while dealing with the obvious (speaking a foreign language, listening to weird accents) to the benign (nothing open on Sundays) to the problematic (Epiphany parade-goers in blackface). I’ve talked about culture shock before on this blog, from the differences I’ve noticed in Spanish elementary schools and Spanish apartments to saying  “see you later”  in the street when you mean “hi!” or wishing  “enjoy your meal!”  to complete strangers. View this post on Instagram de volta na miña galicia A post shared by Trevor Huxham (@trevorhuxham) on Sep 28, 2014 at 2:05pm PDT Although some people might complain about how everything here in Spain is sOoOoOo different from cultures in the U.S., the UK, etc., I don’t believe there are that many huge cultural hurdl...

Another school year in Spain has come and gone. I’m back home in Texas right now with my family and working to save money while I get ready to return again this fall. Last summer, I wrote  what I thought about the North American Language & Culture Assistant program , which allows recent college graduates like myself to teach English in Spain. That review was based on my experience working in an elementary school in rural Andalucía and living in an off-the-beaten-track, mid-sized town called Úbeda . Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, during a night rain Having worked at another elementary school in coastal Galicia and lived in the regional capital of Santiago de Compostela this year, my opinions of the program have become more nuanced, although they are still generally positive. Since I’m going back to the same school in the fall, I find myself at the midpoint of my time in Galicia (northwest Spain): a perfect time to reflect on my experience in this program. A qu...

Last year on the blog, I wrote a post about what a typical day in Spain looked like for me. Of course, my life this year has looked a little different now that I’m living in a completely different part of the country (Santiago de Compostela in the northwest). I’ve put together below something to give y’all an idea of what life as an auxiliar de conversación  is like—but reader beware: this is only my individual experience, and even people living in the same city can have wildly varying times in this program. Hope you find this interesting! In the morning My street My morning schedule is surprisingly similar to the one I had my first year: I get up around 7am (sometimes later…), have breakfast, shower, pack a lunch, and dash out the door not long after the nearby monastery’s bells chime out eight-o’-clock. I always enjoy walking the quarter of an hour it takes to get from my apartment across town to the carpool pickup spot, as Santiago is calm and doesn’t have much car or ...

Since October 2013, I’ve been teaching English at a rural elementary school on the western coast of Galicia, northwest Spain. Although I’m writing this back home in Texas right now, I’ll be heading back in the fall to renew at the same school for another year, so I thought this summer intermission would be the best time to share with y’all a little bit about the whole reason I’ve been able to live and travel abroad for this past school year. Blue house The surrounding region Gratuitous photo of stray kitties Abanqueiro (pronounced “ah-vahn-KAY-EE-roe” [ˌa.βanˈkej.ɾo]) is a small farming parish that belongs to the broader municipality of Boiro , a city of about 20,000 people in one of the  Rías Baixas or “Lower Inlets” of the Atlantic Ocean that flow into the region’s western coasts. Like most of Galicia, Abanqueiro is green and lush, receiving a lot of rain in winter. But because the village is situated on a flat peninsula close to sea level, the weather here is gen...

Back in November, I wrote a little blog post about some significant differences between American and Spanish supermarkets —culture shock at the supermercado  is a frequent occurrence for foreigners living in Spain. But there’s an even more important place you might experience culture shock after setting foot in the country: the home. Doors Let’s start outside. One major difference that can be a little disorienting is the fact that the handle on the main door to an apartment or house is often in the middle of the door, rather than on the right-hand side where the keyholes are. Most locks in Spain completely open the door rather than leaving another lock in the handle for you to turn; i.e., when you unlock the door, the door swings open, so the handle is there for you to push or pull, not to turn. Even though intercoms might seem like a fancy feature for American residences, they’re standard on virtually all Spanish ones, from homes to apartments. To one side of the door, there...

It’s that stressful time of year again: the Spanish Ministry of Education has now begun assigning native English speakers from North America to work in public elementary and high schools across the country. First-timers anxiously (and impatiently) wait to hear back from the government to see where they will be spending the next eight months of their lives, and veteran language assistants have their fingers crossed, hoping to get placed in their preferred region. Placements are already rolling out this early in the spring, which inevitably means fellow teachers, expat friends, and family are asking, are you going to renew? View this post on Instagram The green Galician countryside, somewhere between Santiago de Compostela and Ourense. I'm off to León province to the east this weekend & looking forward to a change of pace (and weather!) // #green #galicia #spain #travel #vsco #vscocam A post shared by Trevor Hux...

Like any responsible society, Spain has a well-developed system of recycling used materials like paper, plastic, or soda cans. You can find recycling bins, receptacles, and containers all over the country, from the biggest metropolises to the tiniest villages. However, these bins usually come in multicolored troupes of four, and unless you know the specific vocabulary surrounding, uh, waste, it can be a little confusing the first couple times you have to throw stuff away. Recycling bins in Madrid Green: trash ( residuos ) (Source: Wikipedia ) Okay, I know this isn’t really recycling, but you always find green-colored bins for all your trash alongside the other recycling containers. Throw your trash bags in here. Often they’re labeled with residuos orgánicos (organic waste), but it means the same thing as basura  (trash). Blue: paper ( papel ) (Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Throw your loose paper, cardboard ( cartón ), newspapers, and magazines in here. ...

Alright y’all, it’s time to take off the rose-colored glasses that too often get put on when I talk about traveling or how amazing Spanish food is, and time for some #RealTalk. As an American living in Spain, trying to speak Spanish, and living to tell the tale about it on this blog, I’ve got some thoughts and reflections that I’d like to share in a confessional-style post, touching on the subjects of life, travel, language, and blogging. Life View this post on Instagram Okay, but really, y'all, where are the fairies??? This place has got some serious magic about it... // #flowers #spring #park #santiago #santiagodecompostela #galicia #spain #vsco #vscocam A post shared by Trevor Huxham (@trevorhuxham) on Mar 13, 2014 at 1:29pm PDT Almost two years since graduating college, I’m still not sure what comes next in terms of a career or job. This point is a major source of anxiety for me: do I sell out for t...

When I first came to Spain in September of last year, culture shock really wasn’t that big of a problem for me, thanks in no small part to the plethora of resources available online—expat and auxiliar blogs, for example—and in print—books like Culture Shock: Spain , and even the back matter of  Lonely Planet Spain . Reading about little (and big) cultural differences beforehand prepared me well for my initial few weeks in the country, from giving kisses when meeting women to eating dinner at nine in the evening instead of five- or six-o’-clock. Calle Obispo Cobos, Úbeda Moving to Úbeda , in the northeast corner of the southern Andalucía region, I expected the local accent to be rapid, consonant-dropping, and generally different from textbook or news reporter Spanish. I had studied what made the andaluz  accent different from “standard” Castilian, and was ready to interpret what I heard as comotá to mean  ¿Cómo estás? —“How are you?” But already in that first w...

If you’re going to be spending any amount of time in Spain, chances are you’ll end up at a supermarket, whether for a late-afternoon snack or ingredients for dinner if you’re cooking for yourself. And when you do end up going to one, you’ll inevitably experience culture shock, since some customs in Spanish supermarkets are a bit different from those you may be used to. You won’t be falling on the floor in shock over them, but if you’re aware of these small but significant differences in the way you go about doing things, your shopping trip will go much more smoothly. (Source: Nacho Pintos ) 1) Putting your bag in a locker before entering At the entrance to most supermarkets, there are always a couple dozen cubbie-hole-sized lockers for you to stow your backpack/heavy belongings/shopping bag from another store in. This is nice, because you don’t have to lug your crap around with you all over the store, but the lockers are actually there to prevent shoplifting, so make sure to l...

It’s taken me about a year to pick up on this little cultural idiosyncrasy of Spain, but after consulting with some fellow expats who have also noticed it, I’ve decided to talk about this fun part of Spanish culture. I’m talking about complete strangers telling you they hope you “enjoy your meal!” as they walk by. Yeah, it sounds kind of weird, but it is A Thing here in Spain that everyone from your server to your housemate to casual acquaintances will wish you as you’re chowing down on dinner. Let me give a few examples: My daily bocadillo  from the school I was at last year I’m munching on my chorizo-and-olive oil sandwich during recess/morning break in the teacher’s lounge at my school in Andalucía last year, minding my own business and just chilling out at the table. A teacher pops in, looks around for something, sees me with a foil-wrapped bocadillo , and offers a ¡qué aproveche! before dashing back out. I’m having dinner in the living room at my apartment one e...