Nomad no more

Well it is official, after 2 week of living out of a suit case  I have an apartment (actually here they call them pisos, so I will from now on be refering to my place as a piso, its easier to spell.)  Funny how things work out, all of us from my program coming in wanted to live with Spanish roommates and now I dont think any of us are.  Me and a couple other girls went around and looked at about 8 pisos and none of them were with spanish roommates.  Other nationalities yes, french, italian, dutch, you name it, but spanish, nope.  Go figure.  I dont know if because of the economy more young people are living with their parents but spanish roommates were none to be found.  I ended up waiting with 2 pisos that I liked.  Both the girls who already lived there told me they would get back to me after they showed their places to one more person.  Well within an hour of each other they both let me know that they were going with a different roommate and they were really sorry.  I guess I didnt make too good of an impression, or these other people were the queen or something because I was left homeless with 12 hours until we had to check out of the hotel.  Well my hotel roommate Rebekah (yes the one I met at the Chicago Consulate this summer)  Had already rented a piso with two rooms and was going to just look for a roommated when she got there.  So she said it was alright, I and decided to move in with her.  It all worked out, now im not homeless and she doesnt have to go through the trouble of finding a roommate.

So there is the story of how I ended up where I am.  We are in a very residential part of the city, but no in sense of a suburb.  There are many pisos packed into this section of town, with small streets separating them.  I guess I will have to get use to the sound of cars, motorcycles, dogs, and all other city noises swirling around me.  Not to mention we are on the 1st floor and I swear the lady who lives above us walks around in high heels.  The first thing I did was go out and buy a fan ( Em you dont know how much I wish I had the big box fan in your room, that would be so clutch at my piso.)  Anyways we thought getting the piso would be the easy part, but we would be wrong.  Now we have to get everything we need to make it a place where we want to live.  We have gone to the grocery store like 5 times in 2 days.  We needed sheets and blankets and a few more dishes, and soap and hangers. . . the list could go on for days.  I never realized how much stuff I would need to live on my own.  I feel like im constantly spending money, which sucks because we dont get paid for the first time till the end of October.  But we are moved in and Wednesday night I made my first meal on my own and it was. . .  A sandwhich! Ta Da!!!!  It had been a rough day and we were both tired.  Dont worry, last night we made this really good chicken pasta salad with veggies.  Im lucky because Rebekah loves to cook and is really good at it, so hopefully she can teach me a thing or so I dont live off of spaghetti this year (although they dont have prego so im a little nervous about that.) 

Now we also had to get a cell phone, open a bank account and get internet in our piso.  None of them easy tasks to accomplish in Spanish.  The phone I got, and the bank account is open.  Dad you would be proud of me, I opened it all by myself and im pretty sure I know how it all works. My spanish debit card is in the mail (to arrive in ten days)  and then when I use that to get money I wont have any atm fees.  The internet on the other hand has been a frustrating process.  Our piso didnt have internet, so we have to get it on our own.  We went to the phone store to inquire and the cheapest way they told us was to buy this plug in internet if you will.  It goes into your USB and you have internet,  you can take your computer anywhere and be online, pretty handy.  But they guy tells us it wont work very well for skype.  Well is is not even an option for either of us, so the other choice is getting wifi through our phone line which takes 2 weeks to process and install, aaaand we have to have a bank account to get it started.  Well this was before I had a bank account.  So we decided to go with the instant interent for the first month, and then when we opened our bank accounts to come back and start the process of getting wifi.  So we get it all set up to our computers and later that night we try to go on the internet and it doenst work. Great.  No interent.  So the next day we go back and they tell us basically that the company is having techinical difficulties at the moment and it should be fixed that day.  Well a day goes by and still no interenet.  So we go back this morning and the guy tells us that the company told him they will have the problem fixed in 24 to 48 hours.  Awesome.  No internet for 2 days after already paying to have it for 4.  So looks like anywhere you go in the world interent is a stressful thing. 

Anyways to lack of internet is why I havnt posted in a while.  I decided to come to the public library and see if they had computers to use, and as you can tell, they did.  So for the time being Ill make a trip to the library until we get our internet working.  Oh and the spanish key board is very different from the ones im use to and I cant figure out how to use an apostrophe, so I apologize for anything that is unclear.  I hope you can decipher it.  I cant remember is it said the library was open on weekens.  Around here, most things are only open 5 days a week and on sunday just about everything is closed.  But the library might be different, im not sure.  Its nice to have somewhere to go though, now that im in the piso and I dont start teaching for a week, im not really sure what to do.  Its hard to run around here since I have to stop about every 2 minutes for a stop light.  But we walk everywhere so dont worry mom I am getting some sort of exersize in.  I feel like there is much more I could say about how different everything is, but this post is alreay a short novel, so ill wrap it up.  Im in a piso and beginning to create a life here, its a slow difficult process, but we are up and running. 

Goodbye for now
Katie

Orientation? No. Spain boot camp

Well today we left our orientation in Sevilla for lovely Huelva.  It was nice to finally be getting to my destination city.  This last 5 days in Sevilla have been INTENSE!!  People keep asking me if i'm enjoying Spain. So here is the thing,  I would probably love it here if our orientation hadn't been like a literal boot camp.  We were up at 7 for breakfast and class started at 9.  We would be going constantly with speakers and classes and activities usually until around 11 or midnight.  Now not everything was just sitting at lectures, we got to go out and have tapas, go on walking tours of the city and see a flamenco show.  Most people would enjoy that, and normally I would have if I wasn't so exhausted.  We have had no time to adjust to the time or rest in any sort of way.  The most free time we had was no more than 45 minutes.  It was very tiring!  All the information was very helpful and I know it will be useful in the next few months but it was very much an overload and a lot to absorb in a short period of time.

On a happier note we made it to Huelva today!  Myself and 4 other girls took the train and hour and 20 minutes down to Huelva.  We had our 2 suit cases and back packs with us and it is not customary here for employees to offer to help you.  So had a nice chain going, passing our heavy luggage up the stairs onto the train.  Then when we got to Huelva a taxi driver at the train station said our luggage wouldn't fit in his taxi and that our hotel was really close and we could just walk.  So not really knowing how to disagree we started off to the hotel.  It was only about a 10 minute walk, which in any other situation would be NBD  but with all our luggage it was awful!  The side walks are about 3 inches wide so we had to walk single file and ask 2 different people how to get there because we didn't know exactly where we were.  So we finally make it there and the receptionist tells us that only 2 of us are in that hotel and the other 2 of us are in a different hotel!  Why o why we aren't all staying together is beyond me.  Se myself and my roommate had to trekk another like 10 minutes to our hotel.  We get there and are just dripping sweat and have blisters all on our hands from lugging around suit cases that are literally bigger than me.  Needless to say if we ever see that taxi driver again Minnesota nice might be forgotten.

But our first day in Huelva has been great.  We walked around a bit, got some lunch, met with some contacts that the other girls know.  We had a lovely dinner of a great bottle of wine, tapas and dessert.  It was such a great way to spend our first night.  The other girls from my program in Huelva are so great and we are all getting along really well.  Although we probably won't live together I hope we still hang out.  We are all looking desperately for places to live, so I will have to keep you updated on that.  For now i'm safely in Huelva and ready to stop living out of a suit case.  My brothers skyped me tonight and was a high light.  I'm missing everyone at home and hope you are all enjoying fall. Still summer weather here.  I'm hoping to go to the beach soon.

Besos
Katie

New names and faces.

Well I made it to Spain in one piece!  My flights went so smooth I almost can't believe it.  Everything was on time and everything.  On my flight to Madrid I connected with a couple of students also teaching with CIEE who were also from Minnesota.  That initial feeling of being completely alone vanished when I met them, and we braved the rest of the journey together, although there was not much to endure.  We were a little nervous that we wouldn't make our connecting flight to Sevilla after landing in Madrid.  It was 7:45, we weren't even off the plane yet and our flight left at 8:45.  We got off the plane and the sign to our next gate read 28 minutes away.  Madrid is by far the largest airport i've ever been in!  We were literally running through the airport to get to our gate.  We breezed through customs and cleared security with no problem.  We arrived at the gate just in time to catch our flight.  It was a big relief when I sat in that seat.  Good thing too because we later found out that a few people missed their flight in Madrid and had to wait there for 11 hours!

Orientation has started and I've met everyone who will be teaching in Huelva. There are 54 people in my orientation and remembering names is just always a struggle.  So I am really just focusing on remembering those of my fellow Huelva teachers. They all seem very nice, but I guess you can never tell the first day.  The first night we had a welcome cocktail where they had tons of food and kept the wine flowing,  I could get use to it.  Also the first song I heard while in Spain, on the bus to orientation was Kesha (tic tock).  Maybe Spain won't be so different after all :)  Now if only they have ranch dressing and Macaroni and Cheese.  The next 3 days are just going to be packed with orientation lecture stuff.  How to find places to live, how to get our ID, how to... everything we need for our 8 months here.  Now I feel like I can't complain because several people I know are in crazy Africa and basically on the Equator, but it is really hot in Sevilla!  101 degrees in the sun this afternoon.  And it is just not very pleasant to walk around a bustling city in that heat.  I can't wait to get to Huelva and hit the beach, which i've heard are amazing.  Well thats it for now, I leave Friday for Huelva where hopefully in that week i'll find my own place to live!  And I mean I have to in that week or i'll be living under a bridge.  I'm very excited to get that taken care of and get settled.

Besos
Katie

Huelva: The H is silent.

Well it is just 2 days before I make the hop across the pond to Spain.  I figure I better write a practice entry to make sure I know how to do this.  I've never had a blog before and honestly when I was in Chile I would sometimes go weeks without writing in my journal, so I can't make any promises but I will try to keep you all updated as much as possible.  I will living and teaching in Huelva.  It's a city in south western Spain, close to Portugal.  In Spanish the H is silent, so all you non Spanish speakers don't pronounce that H.  The map shows that it is also close to Sevilla, so hopefully a short bus ride will bring me that hot spot of Andalucia for a long weekend or something.

Yesterday I woke up with butterflies in my stomach, which either means I'm starting to get really nervous or really excited.  I have been planning, preparing and anticipating this day for so long I can't believe it is almost here.  Although I am far from being ready, my cloths are still all just sitting on my bed.

This summer had been an interesting one.  I've learned that even what you thought would be consistent changes with time.  It has made me really appreciate the time I have gotten to spend with my family and close friends.  All of your support and love has made this so much easier on me.  I'm blessed to have such a  great support system.  Thanks you all and see you in a year!  Unless you feel the urge to come visit in Spain, I'll have a couch ready for you to crash on.

Hasta luego
Katie