El fin de la semana

We have had a fabulous weekend here in Zafra getting to know our town and each other.  Rebecca stayed at our flat this weekend.  We are very lucky that we can host guests; there is an extra trundle bed that stores underneath mine.  We stayed up soooo late last night, like 3:30 AM, just talking and sharing stories.  Rebecca is a hilarious story teller, very animated.  She also tells stories like my sister Katie (shout-out to you, Sister!), where the story starts about one thing, but then ends up about 50 other things before finally circling around to the original point.  We had our first home-cooked “family” dinner, cooked by yours truly!  We ate tortellini with marinara sauce and salad, served with tinto de verano, which is this cheap wine-like drink that is fizzy (sprite-like) and the alcohol-equivalent of a light beer.  One of the strange things about Spanish homes is that many of them do not have dining tables.  It is much more popular to sit around a table in the living room and eat, which is what we did.  I think I am going to be the flat chef, since I like to cook and Marissa prefers to clean.

 

 We went out and walked around the town, trying to find places where we can buy cell phones yesterday, but it is all very confusing.  I don’t want to get one and then realize that I could have gotten a cheaper phone and “plan” elsewhere.  I say “plan” because I will actually be getting a pay-as-you-go phone, but there are still a large variety of rates and types.  It is looking like we will be going with Vodafone, which is Spain’s equivalent of Verizon; I actually heard they are owned by the same company.  

I already think we have found one of “our places.”  It is around a block from our flat and has good food, relatively cheap food, and free Wifi.  Considering how Internet starved we are right now, that is pretty much the clincher right there.  We have already gone by twice, though today we had to find somewhere else because it was closed.  That is one of the things about Spain, nearly EVERYWHERE is closed on Sundays.  I was really thankful we found another place up the street because I had some homework to do.  If we don’t figure out Internet at the flat soon, I have a feeling we are going to become experts on all the places around town that you can get free Wifi at.  

School starts tomorrow, and I have no idea what to expect.  My mentor, Chus, is being very Spanish about the whole thing, so I feel a bit overwhelmed.  I am fairly sure that I am supposed to go to school and walk around meeting teachers and getting to know the place and that is it.  I also think that tomorrow may be the only day that I am expected to go to school this week.  My schedule is not set yet because they are supposed to meet on Wednesday to finalize it.  Zafra’s Feria starts on Thursday, so I won’t have lessons at least on Thursday, Friday, or Monday and possibly Tuesday as well.  I have no clue what I am going to do with myself if I have all this free time, but I guess I will get to see a lot of Feria and walk around town a ton.  I’ll let y’all know how it all pans out!

Orientation in Cáceres

Thursday and Friday of this week we headed off to Cáceres, the capital of the northern province of Extremadura which is also called Cáceres.  The whole thing took place at la Universidad Laboral, which is a trade school.  The dorms were very interesting, with five to a room.  Marissa and I were very excited about hot showers, but we didn’t realize that we needed to pack our own towels.  She showered without a towel, and I gave up my dream of hot water.  

The dorms and Marissa

Though we did get a bit of information about getting our NIE and TIE cards, which are necessary to set up bank accounts and to live here legally, most of orientation was boring and useless.  The one exception was the opportunity it provided to meet other auxiliaries.  We started meeting people even at the bus station before leaving Zafra. It is not difficult out and about to tell who we are, especially in groups, because they are the ones speaking English.  While eating lunch, un bocadillo (sandwich) of chorizo y pan, we met Wade and Rebecca.  On buses here, the seats ARE assigned, and we were sitting near Wade, so we chatted with him until we realized there was wi-fi on the bus, and then we were hooked.  Thus far, wi-fi here is like a drug that I am addicted to and can never get enough of. 

We got to orientation a few hours early, along with many other people, so we all started chatting and getting to know each other.  I talked to one girl Michelle, from New York city, for a while, and spent a long time getting to know Rebecca more, who is from Atlanta, Georgia and is stationed in a small pueblo relatively near Zafra.  I also got to meet this girl Élodie, who is from France.  Some of the auxiliares actually come to teach other languages, like French and Portuguese.  Marissa and I ended up sitting with Rebecca and Élodie at the first meeting, and then we all decided to room together. 

Dinner was…interesting.  The bread was super hard, and the jamón (ham) a little weird, but the chorizo was good (haha). We also had tortilla española, which is like a potato and egg combo fried up in a bunch of olive oil in a giant “cake.”  I already knew I liked it, and theirs was not bad. After dinner, we decided to hit the town.  We met this girl, Yael, from England and she came out with us.  Somehow we got on the bus and headed to city center.  

We ended up at this really cute bar/restaurant with a ton of other auxiliares.  We drank cervezas, Cruzcampo, and got to meet a bunch more people.  Two of the guys were from UK, Ollie from near Cambridge and Craig from Ireland.  Gotta say I still love accents.  I was surprisingly outgoing and talked to strangers (i.e. other auxiliares), so it was a ton of fun.  We had to be back by 1, so we found taxis and headed back.  Caceres is SUCH a pretty city, the streets are quaint and adorable, and I cannot wait to go back :)    
 

Yael, Marissa, Rebecca, Elodie

 

Flat & Roommate

On Tuesday, I met Marissa at the bus station and her mentor, Juan Carlos, took us to our new flat.  It was really convenient, seeing as he is also our landlord.  Marissa and I met online when she was looking for someone to come live with her in the flat; we started emailing back and forth and decided it would be a good fit.  She is from Indiana and went to school in Denver.  So far, she seems really nice, and we have been having a good time.  Tuesday night we went and got drinks with my mentor, Chus, at the Parador, which is an old castle that has been converted into a hotel. She seems like she will be really helpful, but she is also very busy as head of the bilingual section at school and a mom of three. I'm not going to lie, I got a little tipsy because,  being so overwhelmed with all the newness, I sort of only at two apples and a few granola bars for the first 36 hours in Spain.  Suffice it to say, I was definitely ready for Marissa's and my first dinner in Spain at Casa Venanzio. 
  

The flat is nice and cozy, though a bit cold seeing as we have yet to see the infamous Spanish sun due to all the rain we’ve been experiencing.  Someone told us it is the first rain here in nearly a year, which explains why I thought everything seemed drier than in the States.  When we first got to the flat, Juan Carlos was showing us how things work, and we realized that the gas wasn’t working, which meant no hot water and no stove top.  Seeing as how we don’t have an oven (crazy, right?!?), this was really limiting what we could buy to cook.  I have mostly been existing on chorizo (a Spanish sausage) and pan (bread) with cerveza (beer).  It seems that everyone here drinks cervezas like it is water, probably because it is cheaper than water.  Oh it is only 2 o’clock, perfect time for a beer! It is definitely always 5 o’clock somewhere here. 

The flat is furnished, but we have still managed to find a good list of things we need to buy to make it comfortable/livable.  I brought my own sheets, which was nice, and he gave us some blankets, but we will definitely need more for the winter.  The kitchen is also sparsely equipped, but I think I will need some more things to be able to really cook the way I want to.  Speaking of buying things, shopping with Euros has been one of the most interesting and different experiences.  With Euros, the smallest bills are fives, and so you have one and two Euro coins.  It is very weird having coins with actual value and that can be used to buy things. 

Here are some pictures of the flat! 

Spain: the beginning

First Impressions of Spain:  Traffic lights are at a minimum here and most of them seem to blink yellow all the time; instead they are big fans of traffic circles, which they often have where we would have traffic lights.  Riding the bus across southern Spain, I thought it was interesting how flat it seemed, but at the same time from almost anywhere you can see a mountain (or line of mountains) in the distance.  The trees and vegetation are definitely different.  I think I am going to miss my oaks and maples.  There also seems to be a lot of 'ruins.' Don't get me wrong, we have them in the U.S. too, but here they seem timeless, like they could just as easily be from 20 years ago as from before their Civil War.  The architecture is decidedly Mediterranean.  The town right near mine is all white, and when I say all, I mean all.  Every single building is painted that white Mediterranean color.  It is actually really pretty :)  Finally, though it is raining now, Spain seems drier than where I am from.  The grass is hardier, more like hay (I have yet to see green grass like the suburbs).

Despite all of that, there are also moments when you realize that people are the same everywhere and parts of America have definitely followed me to Spain.  For example, pants as leggings, totally okay here too.  Also, I was sitting on the Metro, pretty much convinced that there was no way I was ever going to reach my final destination and someone's phone starts ringing, "Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces past, and I'm home bound..." Yes, Vanessa Carlton is here in Spain, and I have to say it is nice to here a familiar voice.  Along with Katy Perry, who I realized was on the bus with me later.  Then, I was sitting in the bus station listening to some older, Spanish women's conversation, and they were talking about this girl with most of her hair shaved off and about how they couldn't understand young people these days.  Now, I couldn't understand why the girl would want to do that to her hair either, but it was definitely a universal conversation that I could appreciate (and one of the only ones I understood yesterday). 

I made it to my hotel safely and mostly in tact, with the help of my mentor, Chus.  The Hotel Cervantes is very typically Spanish.  I mean, there are hams hanging in the front lobby. There was a tricky moment there when we first got to my room.  You have to insert a card into this box to get power, but the lights in the hallway are on a sensor and went out before we figured out where the card went.  So we were standing there in absolute darkness trying to figure out what to do.  Chus saved the day and it has been all roses since then.   The hotel has free Wi-fi, and honestly I have not left my room since I entered it nearly 18 hours ago.  I have been too tired to move and now I am trying to get some homework done while I still have Internet access.  Today is mostly about waiting around until my roomie gets to town this evening.  I don't know when I'll be able to post again, since we are off to Caceres tomorrow for orientation, and I don't know when my apartment will have internet.  So until then, hasta luego!

Getting here

 I have never felt so many competing emotions on a journey.  It started with Dad and I going to the airport.  Dad came back to the gate with me, and we got some lunch before my plane left for New York.  We said good-bye, and we seemed to both make it through relatively intact.  The first plane ride was uneventful and extremely quick.  I barely had time to finish the Sudoku in the American Way magazine before we had started our decent.  I landed in New York with around 5 hours to spare before my flight for Madrid was supposed to leave.  I found this nifty Mastercard lounge, where I spent several hours using their free but terrible wi-fi, doing homework, and having a couple last minute conversations with friends.  I started getting nervous for my flight, so I went and grabbed a slice of Margherita pzza and headed over to my gate.  I was pretty sure that there was plenty of space on the flight, but with only one flight to Madrid a day, I was still freaked that something was going to go wrong.  When they finally called my name up, I was so relieved and ready that I would have ridden in the cargo hold, if they would have let me.  Instead, I got to ride in business class.  This is how I felt about it. 

I was pretty excited.  We got sparkling wine and a dinner that was AWESOME!  I ate a whole ice cream sundae with hot fudge and watched "What to expect when you're expecting," which was cute and funny.   Let me let you in on a little secret: as awesome as business class was, it was still like sleeping on a plane.  I still slept terribly and woke up feeling like I had been run over by a bus.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.   Once I made it to Madrid, I had to go through customs (which was laughably easy) and get all my luggage.  Then I had to find my way and pay for the Metro with two rolling suitcases, a backpack, and a small duffle.  It all weighs more than me, at least.  Somehow, I did make it, though I was sweating like a stuck pig and worried about making it in time.   This is what the Metro looked like before all the other people got on. 

About halfway through I had to switch from the pink line to the grey line, which unfortunately was like a half mile away through underground tunnels, at least that is what it felt like.  I've got calluses on my hands from pulling my bags, and it was not fun!  When I finally made it to the bus station, none of the buses appeared to be going to Zafra.  I managed to buy a ticket in broken Spanish and sat down to wait.  It was about time to leave, so I headed down to the "loading dock" and realized I didn't know what bus to get on (no labels!).  So I lugged everything back up to ask someone. 

 

When I finally got everything on the bus and sat down, I was exhausted.  Suddenly, I realized that other people on the bus seemed to be looking for a specific seat number.  So I looked at my ticket and found what I thought could have been a seat number, but maybe wasn't?  I moved to that seat and spent the 5 hour+ ride next to an older gentleman who I briefly fell asleep on and couldn't say anything to because I didn't understand a word he said to me.  I either was that creepy person who sat next to a stranger for no reason or I sat where I was supposed to.  I suppose I'll never know.  As we got closer to my destination, I started getting nervous (read: freaking out).  The bus driver wasn't really saying what stops we were at and many of them weren't clearly labeled.  Signs seemed to indicate we had reached my town, but then the bus driver blew through the station.  I thought all hell was breaking lose and I was going to overshoot it and never make it there and cry and talk to strangers and maybe have to walk all the way back...but then we pulled into the real Zafra station and all was well in the world again.  And that is the story of how I got to Zafra, Spain.

GO!!!

And I am off to adventures untold! The next time you see me, I will hopefully be in spain. Wish me luck because I am flying stand-by, so you never know what sort of unexpected challenges I will encounter. Vaya con Dios y hasta luego!!!

Take Your Mark...

Here I am the day before I leave for Spain...not sure how I got here so fast, but I am definitely here! It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks and this week has been especially busy, trying to fit everything possible into one last week. Most of the week was spent working on making Christmas presents.  I know that puts me months ahead of the majority of the population, but I can't bear the thought of going to Spain without making sure my family and friends have some awesome presents.  I wish I could post pictures of what I made, but that would totally ruin the surprise!

This weekend, we headed to Lynchburg for my cousin Lucy's wedding.  It was a beautiful ceremony and a super fun reception.  I am so glad that I got to spend some time with my Dad's side of the family before heading across the ocean.  We also got some really good pictures of the family all dressed up, like the one below of me and my sisters.

Katie, me, Maggie, and Jenny

Today is mostly a day for doing laundry, stuffing the last minute things in bags, finishing last minute projects, and saying good-bye to the fabulous fam.  I am going to miss everyone SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH, but I know that all of the experiences and memories are going to be more than worth it. 

Wall decorations

I've been working on getting a lot of little things that go into preparing to leave the country done. I had this really great calendar of inspirational quotes that I thought would be really nice on my wall in Spain when I'm sad and homesick, so I cut the pages up. Last night I laminated them all and now I have 12 inspiring messages to remind me to have faith in my journey! Can't wait to see them hanging on my wall in Spain :)