I’ve thought it out long and hard. I’ve never felt so conflicted about a decision in my life – to request a new placement or stay where I am? Thoughts to consider about participating in this program in the Basque Country:

-Payment comes once every three months. This is also true for many government employees. I was prepared for this, but at the end of January before my second payment, I was still stressing about money and not wanting to dig into my savings.

-Most schools will be bilingual (Basque/Spanish) or trilingual (Basque/Spanish/English). This is not a big deal, but that communication barrier has been present for me at my school, as Basque is deeply embraced and is the primary (and most times the only) language used for teacher announcements. The teachers at my school joke (seriously) with me that I should learn Basque. And many of them talk to each other in Basque. (Oh, and there was the one time I was in conversation with one teacher, and another teacher joined us and they started talking in Basque. Really?) This isn’t the end of the world, but I’ve realized that I don’t want to spend my free time learning yet another language that isn’t going to be useful later in life.

Those two issues were the biggest deciding factors for me, big enough to convince me to switch to a new city for next year. I’m awaiting my placement and will announce it as soon as I know!