First Day of Internship

Just as a forewarning, sadly, this post will not have pictures. 

Today was my first day of internship. Technically, it’s community service for credit. I need to complete 75 hours of “internship” in order to receive 1 credit of upper division Spanish. Two weeks ago, everyone that was interested in an internship gathered in a room and chose their top 3 choices. Being interested in the medical field, I put working at a place that took care of those with Alzheimer’s as my first option, and I was lucky enough to get it. After a lot of “I don’t know what’s happening”, my “partner” and I coordinated with another pair the days we would go and we finally received the transportation we needed to get there.

Our driver drove us 10 minutes into the town of Sagunto. We pulled up to a very worn out building, and to be honest, it looked a bit scary. After meeting with the director Carmela, she gave us our name tags and briefly told us what we would be doing for the 2-3 hours we were there. So apparently my name “Lindsay” is a bit hard to pronounce, especially with the older people (probably because the Spanish pronounce every single letter in a word). So on my name tag, Carmela wrote “Lindsay/Lensy”, so people would have a easier time pronouncing it. This was extremely amusing to me for some reason.

Afterwards, we were put into a room with patients doing various puzzles. It was interesting to see that the puzzles they were working on were pretty much for 1 or 2 year olds, having 6-8 pieces each, and that they were struggling with it. We introduced ourselves and sat down next to people and helped them with the puzzles when the pieces didn’t fit right and praised them when they did. I felt a slightly larger language barrier with the patients just because some of them weren’t very coherent to begin with. The staff, however, were very nice and accommodating.

After about an hour of puzzling, a caretaker pulled us aside and told us we would be split up for the next hour. One of us would be with a group that was “less sick” and another would be with a group that was “more sick”, and we would alternate each time we came. I went into the room with the “more sick” patients, but in all honesty, I didn’t really notice any difference other than the fact that this group was a little less chatty than the other group. As soon as I walked in, women would say “!Qué guapa!” (how pretty), and it made me feel really special (teehee). We first played a matching game with cards in Spanish with simple words written on them such as “tomate” or “aceite de oliva”. Afterwards, we played another game where the caretaker held up a picture, such as someone mowing the lawn or a child riding a bike, and asked the patients to describe to her something about the picture. This game was actually helpful to me because there were some words that I didn’t know, so I learned a couple of new words.

Towards the end of our visit, we escorted all of the patients into a small dining room where they had a snack of yogurt and cookies. One lady that I had conversed with and had taken a particular liking to me kept on asking me if I had eaten, when I was going to eat, and if I wanted to eat something there. I had also commented that I liked her necklace, and much to my surprise, she said she would be willing to give it to me. She also asked me where I was staying, and if I wanted to come to her house. She was so precious! One thing I thought that was cute was they suddenly burst out into song. Even when I thought it was over, one lady would start singing again, and the whole song would start over with all the ladies joining in. Hopefully by the end of this internship, I’ll be able to sing along with them.

Overall, my first experience was very positive. For some reason, I love old people and it seems like they love me. Although I did feel frustrated sometimes that I couldn’t carry out a more elaborate conversation, I learned that a smile can go a long way (as cliché as it may be), and sometimes the chatty ones just want someone who will smile and nod and listen to what they have to say. Next time, (next, next week because of our Andalucía trip), I will come prepared with a more extensive vocabulary and my brightest smile.