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 :)

Let the packing commence!

Yes, I did start packing today, nearly a month before I leave for Spain. What can I say, I'm excited! And I wanted to try out my new space bags to see how much clothes could fit. If I want to fit everything, I have to start playing suitcase tetris ASAP.

Get ready

Got my luggage last week! I've been trying to decide whether I should pay to check a second bag. I think it will be around $50, which is definitely cheaper than shipping. I guess I'll probably wait to see how much stuff I'm trying to pack.

I also got my student visa back last week in the mail, about four weeks after I submitted, so that is set. I'm going to start looking at flights soon. Hopefully things will be looking clear, and I'll be able to fly on American.

Yesterday I received my first contact from the head bilingual teacher at my school. His name is Jesus :) Oh, I forgot to mention that I am now only working at one school now, IES Cristo de Rosario. I think that will be better because I won't have the commute and can save the money. Jesus told me that the school has around 800 students, and they take English as a foreign language as well as 2 content classes in English each year. Pretty intense. I kind of hope that I get to help in some of the content classes; might learn something myself.

Also, I got accepted to a MA program in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness at Virginia Commonwealth University. It is a really interesting program and will let me start work on a Master's degree while in Spain, since it is all online. I have orientation this week and then start classes next week. I am planning on taking 2 in the fall and 2 in the spring, so hopefully they aren't too taxing. Gotta leave some time for Spanish siestas and lounging at the tapas bar ;)

It's amazing how quickly time is flying; less than 6 weeks until I leave!