Auxiliar de Conversación Region Preferences

In filling out the application for the auxiliares de conversación (North American Language and Cultural Assistant in English) program, it’s required to select regional preferences. The regions are broken down into 3 grupos with 6 regions in each. The grupos are:

• Grupo A: Asturias, Cueta y Melilla, Extremadura, La Rioja, Navarra, aux
• Grupo B: Aragón, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Cataluña, Galicia, Islas Canarias
• Grupo C: Andalucía, Castilla y León, Islas Baleares, Madrid, Murcia, Valencia

They make you choose one region in each of the 3 grupos and then rank the grupos from 1 to 3, in order of your top preference.

When I was doing my application I was unaware that certain regions were most likely not participating. I later found out through Trevor Huxham’s blog that in the 2012-2013 school year, Castilla-La Mancha, Cataluña, and Valencia all cancelled their programs. Now, these regions could very well decide to participate in the program again; however, those chances are probably very slim. There has also never been anyone heard of who was placed in Ceuta y Melilla, Islas Canarias, or Navarra. Luckily, I did not choose either of these last three.

Alhambra

As I was furiously going through the application, trying desperately to get that elusive low inscrita number, I came to the regional preference part of the application and came to a sudden halt. I realized that I had not really thought too much about where in Spain I would prefer to go. I love Granada when I studied there in 2010, and it would be more then great to return. This time though I was just so excited to be going back to Spain in general and was excited to actually be living in another country, something I’ve always wanted to do.

Puente del Alamillo – Sevilla, Spain

I could have selected “no preference,” but I chose not to. Instead, I decided on País Vasco for Grupo A, Castilla-La Mancha for Grupo B, and Andalucía for Grupo C. Obviously I didn’t know that Castilla-La Mancha had cancelled their program the past year. Fortunately for me though, that was my third in my rankings of the grupos. I had Grupo C (Andalucía) number one and Grupo A (País Vasco) ranked number 2.

Toeldo

Honestly, I would be perfectly happy in any of my preferences and anywhere in Spain. I know that I could be put in a big city or a small pueblo, either of which I would be glad to be in. The charm and allure of southern Spain excites me and calls for me, especially after having lived there for 6 months. However, the more mysterious and undiscovered Basque Country beckons me too. In fact, Madrid, Extremadura, and everywhere else in between interests me as well. As I said before, I’m just excited to be returning to Spain and to be living in another country. It’s been one of my goals for as long as I remember, and what better time than now to do it.

If you could select a region of Spain to live where would it be? What were the preferences you selected, and where did you end up?