La Papelera

Is a trashcan.... (literal translation is "wastebasket") you know...like this:

Nothing really exciting.  Nothing like, say, this one:

This was Sunday morning, after Murcia's roughest night of the week.  On Sunday at about 5am the city is A WRECK.  But this has to be exceptionally bad.  It was pretty funny to be walking by and stop and go, "Wait, what was that??"

My theory: cigarette.  Someone wasn't thinking and probably put a lit cigarette in the trash.  That is actually illegal here.  They prefer you to throw them on the ground.  Welcome to Spain. :D

¡Avanzada!

Well ladies and gentleman, it has been a little over 6 months now and I think I feel comfortable saying that I have advanced past intermediate and into Advanced with my level of Spanish.

I have spent the last 3 days with a friend of mine, named Elise.

She's a French auxiliar that works in the Canary Islands.  We met in Madrid at the orientation 5 to 6 months ago.  For Semana Santa (which I'll talk more about later) we traveled to Málaga and Sevilla to check out all the action.  But what's truly awesome about this friendship, is that I don't know any French and she doesn't know much English.  We have to speak Spanish to communicate.

Noooo problem. :)  This American has got Spanish in the bag!  Okay, okay, not quite.  I do not know every word but I can communicate without a problem.  I'm no longer scared to talk to just anyone, I don't stumble and get nervous over my words and when I don't know the word, I use circumlocution.

Now all I need to do is get Couchsurfing to add the level "Advanced" in between Intermediate and Expert.

Pan tostado con tomate

I don't know about other Americans, but when I think of toast, I think of putting jelly or garlic and butter on top.  It's not to say that Spaniards don't put jelly on their toast too sometimes, they just prefer tomato.  I would never think to put tomato.  But, when in Spain, do what the Spanish do.  So I tried it.

Definitely was not impressed.  Of course, I'm pretty difficult to impress when it comes to bread anyways.  I pretty much won't touch Bimbo style bread.  Over processed, bleached white bread.  No way man.

But, I also don't like my good bread too toasted, or too dry or too soggy.  Haha!!  How do you please someone like me in a place like Spain where all of those (in my humble opinion) nasty bread conditions are all too easy to encounter?

The trick:  Watch someone else.  I was sitting in my favorite cafe, sipping on my coffee and thinking about what risky bread selection I was going to make when I saw a lady out of the corner of my eye preparing her toast.

"Whoa," I thought, "that was much more complicated than I was expecting."  So I gave pan tostado con tomate another chance.  Her way.

So here it is ladies and gentlemen.  My new favorite breakfast if you can believe it.  

My order is: Cafe con leche y pan tostado, integral, entera con tomate.  An espresso with milk and an entire toasted wheat bread with tomato.

Everyone does this a little differently, but here is everything I've learned about this breakfast.

First, the proper order is very important.  If the tomato doesn't come on the side, ask for it on the side.  "con el tomate al lado."  Because the first thing on your bread should be olive oil.  A lot of it.  I think I put more olive oil every time.  I even learned from a friend to poke holes in the bread with the spoon so that  the oil could really get down in the bread.  

Then comes the tomato.  It's just grated tomato.  Maybe some oil and salt mixed in, but not much and at this cafe, I don't think they add any.  If you're like me and eat a lot, make sure you wait to put tomato on the other slice, don't want it getting soggy. :P  Then just a sprinkle of salt.  (Through trial and error I learned that salt is best last, before I was putting it with the oil like the lady.)

So simple, so delicious.  The flavor of the bread soaked in oil is unbelievably delicious.  The salt is essential.  Don't put too much, but I at least must have it.  Did I mention that this is almost always less than 2 euros.  <3 Spain.

Cafetería

Coffee is a big part of Spanish life.   Almost all adults have a coffee at least once per day and usually more.  But what happens when you're stuck at work and you need your mid-morning pick up?

Why, this, claro....

50 euro cents and it's not bad.  To me, it's sort of incredible that they have it.  But let me tell you what, it's awesome too. :)  You should read Kaley's great post on Spanish coffee. 

Que estaba haciendo en vez de escribir

What I was doing instead of writing.....Bordar.

buy these fantastic patterns at Sublime Stitching.  I know she's a bit risque, but that's what makes it fun, right?  Her hair is like cotton candy after all.

El Mercado

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a foodie.  No, I'm lying, I'm a serious foodie.  When I think about going to a new place, I think A LOT about food.  Mm mmm.

I'm not really a snob about food, I'll eat almost anything.  Every Tuesday I eat lunch at a teacher's house and they always ask me if there's anything I don't like, or is bacalao ok?  My response is always "Me encanta comida, no hay mucho que no me gusta comer.  No preocupes." (I love food, there's not much that I don't like to eat.  Don't worry) Always with a huge grin.  Because it's true, I love to try new food, I love to eat and I'm lucky enough to have a body that goes through it quickly and without a problem.

But let me step onto my soapbox for a minute.  I do what I call "eating consciously".  I keep track of what I'm eating and I don't sweat it when I eat an ice cream or drink a soda, but I make sure not to do it a lot.  I try to load my body with good, clean healthy fuel from fresh fruits, vegetables, juices and water.  How this works out in Spain is that I eat extremely healthy when I'm at home and I don't really sweat it when I go to someone else's house and load up on carbs and protein.   (Did you know that meat takes at least 3 days to break down in your stomach?  Eww. nAnd when I was in the states I ate meat probably twice a day.  That's way too much.)

But it's easy to be healthier in Spain, despite the huge quantity of bread, meat, cheese, potatoes and salt.  The vegetables here are outstanding.  The flavor bursts from them like the finale at a fireworks show.  And they're CHEAP.  Really cheap.  I bought this entire load of verduras (vegetables), un pañuelo (a scarf), zapatillas (house shoes), una camisa (a shirt) and medias (tights) for 21 euros.  *Bows enthusiastically*  Now that is shopping. :D

Those are cherries people.  1/2 kilo for 2 euros!  That monstrous cauliflower you see cost me 1 euro.  The celery and parsley was given to me.   I also bought an orange and 2 plums in that budget, but they were my breakfast.  And every single one of them tastes better than anything I've ever eaten in the states.  The reason that the produce tastes so good is because it's local.  They didn't have to pick it while it was green just for it to arrive without rotting.  They pick them fresh, you buy them quickly, and not only do you get a great tasting veggie but so many more vitamins. 

During Christmas I talked to a New Yorker that was working here in Spain (for 18 years now) as a nutrition researcher.  He said that people are suffering from mal-nutrition and they don't even know it.  Let's think about a potato.  A potato doesn't have very many vitamins and something like 90% of them are in the skin.  The vitamins first start to leave the potato when we pick it, and we pick them early, so they haven't even reached  their peak.  This is why they don't have as much flavor.  We buy them 4 days later and they've been losing vitamins the entire time.  Then they sit in our pantry for a while.  Then we finally decide to cook it and we first peel it, then fry it.  What's left?  A bunch of fat and carbs that didn't do anything for your health.  Vitamins, people!!  You have to get your vitamins!  

Spanish people are the worst too.  I've only very rarely seen an american peel their apple but I see it all the time in Spain.  Their pears, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, even squash they'll peel.  The vitamins are where the color is.  The more intense the color, the more vitamins.  That's almost always the peel.

And they can't imagine eating most vegetables crudas.  My favorite snack here is vegetables with hummus.  It's quick, easy, delicious, healthy.  When Spanish people come over here and see me eating that they think I'm really strange.  But don't worry, I've got Lucía hooked, she loves it. :)

I will say that they almost religiously eat a piece of fruit after lunch (la comida) which I actually struggle to do.  I just never feel like fruit after a heavy meal.  

So how shall we conclude this conversation?  How about this:

Have I lost weight?  Hell yes.  Bring on the Bikini, Spain, I'm ready. :D

Buscando comida americana

I'm always looking for American food that I really like.  My roommate asked me one time if I just couldn't live without it and the truth is that I can most definitely live without almost everything that I'm looking for.    The difference is that it's fun.  It's interesting to see what I have to do to get something that in the states would have been really simple to find.  I would probably have walked into the grocery store and bought it without even thinking about it.

So let's talk food:

Olive Oil - Is SOOOO much cheaper here!  I've seen 6 liter bottles for less than 3 euros.  Incredible.  I think I buy the cheapest one in the states and it's still $7!

Cereal - In Texas we have an entire aisle filled top to bottom with a ton of different cereals, but here you get to choose between 10 boxes if you're lucky.  I just found an off brand of what looks like Cinnamon Toast Crunch (My favorite!).  I haven't tried it yet. :)

Soda - Their selection of soda consists of 5 flavors and then they have those flavors in diet and that's it.  Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta Orange, Fanta Limon, and Schwepps.  But.....if you go to Carrefour, a big international supermarket, you can find some things that are slightly more adventurous.  Like....

...the best soda ever!!!  I knew that this little Texan delicacy could be found because one time I saw someone walking with a can in his hand.  I almost went and asked him where he got it, but now I know.  

I think that picture is awesome by the way.  My very Texan Dr. Pepper with my very Spanish Empanadilla. You eat it cold.  It has tomato and boiled egg and who knows what else in it.  It's...it's....different.  lol.  I don't really like it, but I can eat it and the truth is, it was about the size of a pizza and I ate half.  Maybe it's not that bad.  Maybe there's coke in it.  

But by far the most challenging and exciting thing I've looked for were jalapeños.  

http://www.freshplaza.es/images/2010/1101/exporta_jalapenos_peruanos.JPG

Come to Mama my sweet little babies!!  There are a lot of people that are under the mistaken impression that food in Spain is spicy.  But the spicy part of Mexican food doesn't come from the Spanish.  Spanish people like thyme, tomatoes, tuna, olives, fish, potatoes, etc.  For 5 months I casually made inquiries in grocery stores, the open street markets, mexican restaurants, etc.  You can buy them jarred but fresh is the only way to eat them.  But when it comes to fresh food, this is Spain not the United States.  The US imports a huge percent of their produce.  Spanish people do not.  They eat what's in season and they grow, buy and eat locally (for the most part).  And especially here in Murcia, which is apparently la huerta de España.  Jalapeños are relatively simple to grow and the climate is perfect for them here, but Spanish people don't like spicy, so what's the point?

I had just about given up hope when someone told me to look in Corte Inglés.  Corte Inglés is like the Wal-mart of Spain but for the upper class.  It's where you go when you can't find it anywhere else or you don't want to bother with searching.  It's expensive.  Spanish people love Corte Inglés because it has what every other store in Spain lacks: variety.  You can buy almost anything in Corte Inglés: electronics, clothes, sheets, food, speciality food, make-up, bags, etc.  It's normally arranged by brand just to give you an idea.

So I went to Corte Inglés and they didn't have them, but I went ahead and asked the guy working in produce and he said they have them de vez en cuando, once in a while.  So I gave him my number and name and asked him if he would call me if they ever had them.  Only a week later I got the call.  They are the most beautiful things I have seen in a while.  :)  So perfectly plump and green. :)  By the way - they were 12 euros a kilo.  In the states they're 50¢ per pound.  Almost 12 times the price and that's without doing the conversion.  Geez.  I paid 4 euros for 6 jalapeños, it's a good thing that it only takes 1 jalapeño for each dish...

In Texas my spice tolerance runs at about a 3, 10 being the hottest.  I'm a wimp by pretty much anyone's standards, except Spaniards.  Spaniards will call it spicy if there's a sprinkle of black pepper. In Spain my spice tolerance is an 8 at least.  But what's a girl with a spice level of 3 want with Jalapeños?  Veggie Chili, Enchiladas, homemade salsa.  I'm so excited!!

"No dejes el bolso en el suelo porque pierdes dinero."

The secretary at my colegio and a friend of mine, Noemi, told me this on my first day in Archena.  I had entered the office that Monday, found the chair in front of the computer, and sat down next to Noemi; promptly and purposefully letting my bag slip to the ground beside me.  But then, I'm American.  When I take my clothes off after a long day, they may or may not make it into the hamper, depending on how much I'm rushing.  But a Spanish person would never drop their clothes to the floor like me.

The floor in Spain is untouchable.  The ground is where you drop your napkin, empty chip bag, cigarette butt, receipt, empty glass, broken umbrella, etc.  The ground is where people walk and spit and pee.  And not just people, but dogs and cats too.  You never, ever, ever touch the ground in Spain.  Even in your own home you wear zapatillas or house shoes.  I hate house shoes.  In the summer I did without and had to wash my feet every night before getting into bed.  When winter came I started to wear fuzzy socks like I wear in the states.  That lasted about a week.  In the states we have carpet.  The floors are for sure dirtier because they´re carpet, but they feel cleaner and they're certainly warmer.  Here the floors are tile or wood or something along those lines.  Without a proper sole on your shoe, your feet are going to freeze.  I live in my zapatillas.  I won't go to the restroom in the middle of the night without first slipping into my house shoes.  I love them.  When my sister came to visit I was almost overwhelmed by the temptation to buy her a pair.

Things like this, like the untouchable Spanish floor, are really subtle.  I adapted to this Spanish habit without thinking too much of it, but as time goes by, I see that it's a mentality.  Every day Spanish people throw their little bits of trash in the street and every night a whole crew of people clean the streets.  To me, this seems abominal.  There are plenty of trashcans.  We don't really have street cleaners in Texas.  We do, but infrequently.  Maybe twice a year outside of the city.  I will stick trash in my purse just to not throw it on the ground because I don't like the way it looks, with the city always so dirty.  For Spanish people, the trash and the floor are the same exact thing.

I was with some friends and one of them asked me to put two packets of sugar in my purse.  This sort of frugality is ridiculous to me and knowing that he wouldn't be mad at me (just exasperated), I looked him right in the eye and dropped his sugar packets on the ground.  In Texas, the person would have picked them up.  In Spain, the moment they hit the ground they were trash.

(I apologize for no picture, I am once again experiencing camera problems.  FML)

A True Expat

I remember when I was first considering doing this program.  I started to read a lot of blogs and was trying to gather information on what I was going to be facing if I did this.  Expat was a word that I came across a lot but didn’t really know what it meant.  An expat is a person who has been banished or has withdrawn themselves or their allegiance from their country.  It’s pretty interesting how it works because while living abroad I’ve felt more patriotic than I ever had at home.  Especially on Thanksgiving.  I started to realize how much I appreciated 24 hour restaurants, peanut butter, jalapeños and the mental simplicity of speaking my native tongue.

In between Christmas and New Year’s Eve Tiffani and I went to Scotland, both Glasgow and Edinburg.  It was a very eye opening experience for me.

When people would ask me where I was from I would say, “Texas, but I live in Spain..”  And while I was eating haggis and trying various types of Whiskey, I wasn’t missing peanut butter.  I missed Spain.  I missed the sun and the olives.  I missed the jamón, café and tapas.  I missed wearing tights and cute scarves.  I missed most of all speaking Spanish.  I have become so accustomed to speaking Spanish to any stranger (and most friends) that when I met someone in Scotland I had to remind myself that they spoke English.

I learned a lot more too.  I learned that Texas isn’t my only home, that Spain has wiggled itself into my heart as well, despite its faults.  I learned that I don’t like Scotland nearly as much as I thought I would.  It’s too damn cold.

I belong in Spain, I belong in Texas.  I belong somewhere warm, somewhere I can go to the beach, somewhere that I can float the river.  Somewhere that the sun makes an appearance and actually sticks around past 4pm.  Last summer I would start floating at 4pm!!  (That’s right Scotland, your days are short, SHORT, SHORT!)  But as a wise man once told me:

“Learn by going where to go.”

So thank you Andres, for sharing that bit of wisdom, I’m working on it.

Oh yea, and always verify the dates on your plane ticket carefully. ;)

¿Qué hacemos en la clase de ingles?

What do we do in my classes?

This!

Photo courtesy of Lola Alejandra.

¡Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias!

I must have been extremely sad yesterday.  I felt fine and then when I was in my first class of the day we showed a video that I had made.  It was nothing special, "My name is Richelle, I come from the United States, etc." You can see it at the school's blog if you're really curious.

When the picture of my state came up and I saw that skinny little arrow pointing to Austin...I don't know what happened, my eyes started leaking.  I didn't feel especially sad but three or four times the exact same thing happened.

One of them was when some of the students at school showed me these as a surprise:

I was balling.  I had to explain to them in Spanish that I was crying because it was beautiful and because today was a day for family and that I missed mine.  I think the real reason that I've been so weepy is because I'm really far.  Even if I didn't go to Thanksgiving every year or every holiday every year, I could have if I wanted to.  Not the case this year.

But don't worry.  Friday I went to a Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of other auxiliars and no offense to any of my family, but it was one of the best spreads I've seen in a while.  I was very impressed by all of our cooking skills.  Especially in another country where you can't always obtain the ingredients that you want.

Huelga desconvocado!

Ahhh, such good news!!  On Mondays one of my teachers, Lola, drives me and another teacher (also named Lola) to school.  After teaching with Lola (the first one) for my first hour between 9 and 10, I usually go and sit in the office for the gap between my two classes.  I do things like check my email, etc.  Last Monday though, I had to go to Molina de Segura, a neighboring town, to pick up my NIE, or Número de Identificación de Extranjeros.  It's not too difficult, the bus that I ride every morning passes through that town.  It comes by my stop a few minutes after every hour.  So I could ride the 10 o'clock bus to Molina and take the 11 o'clock bus back to school.  Simple.  So I left my class a few minutes early and ran down to the bus stop.  I arrived in plenty of time and so I sat down on the bench and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  After 40 minutes I walked back up the hill to my school.  I have to say, I was pretty much in a state of shock.  That bus is sometimes late, but it always comes.

So I went into the office and asked two teachers there, "Qué pasó?  Estaba esperando por 40 minutas y el autobús nunca vino."  (What happened?  I was waiting for 40 minutes and the bus never came!)  So they discussed in for a few minutes saying things like:  I'm not really sure, maybe it's at another time, maybe...etc.  You get the idea.  Then one of them says, "Ah!  Hay una huelga!"

"Qué es una huelga??"  Let me get to the point already, a "huelga" is a strike.  So, the bus drivers were on strike.  Now I'm really panicking here.  I was driven to school but I usually take a bus home.  How was I going to get home?  I have absolutely no experience with strikes at all.  So maybe it's common knowledge that strikes don't completely stop production or maybe that's something specific to government jobs, or  transportation jobs, or maybe it's just a Spain thing, but the strike was only on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays and the buses still ran, but less frequently.  More like a bus every 2 hours instead of every hour.

Today though, is the last day of the strike.  Huelga Desconvocada.  I had to look up that last word, but it means: called off.  Yay!  Now I don't have to worry about how I'm going to get home tomorrow.  Last week a teacher drove me so I didn't wait for an hour.

And I did get my card.  Isn't it pretty?

Madroño

I'm finally alone!  Now, don't get me wrong, having a constant visitor for the first 2 months was great, but certainly not for my "followers" because I have been very neglectful.  

But have no fear!  I'm here with plenty of news for you!  But, we'll start small and maybe write more frequently.  Yesterday I got to try a madroño for the first time.  What is a madroño you ask?  Well, it's a fruit that looks like....

this!

It's a small piece of fruit that comes from this tree:

Whhaaaaat????  ¡Que guay!  (How cool!)

Here's a picture of the actual tree.  It's just coincidence that I have these two last pictures.  They were taken in Madrid during a tour that we took and they told us how this is the tree of madrid.  El oso y madroño are the symbols of Madrid, though the tree is not native to Madrid, this one was planted there along with a few others:

These fruits aren't ripe yet.  I read online that the fruits aren't very good raw but make a great jam.  I have to disagree.  The fruit was very good, nice and sweet.  It was soft on the inside but the outside is sort of crunchy.  To me the crunch of the outside was similar to eating blackberries which have little seeds.  One of the teachers brought the madroños to school from her garden. 

Somos el 99%!

On the 15th of October (sorry it's so late!) I went to a protest in Spain and it was my first protest ever.  They called themselves 15-M because their first protest, which was only in Spain, was on the 15th of May.  They're also known as the "indignados" the indignants.  So a week or so ago, on 15-O, they did another protest except that this one was joined by more than 650 cities worldwide.  They protested the corruption and misallocation of funds today.  They want a democracy that is more focused on the citizens and less on the businesses.
For me, it was awesome to be there because I've been reading posts on facebook and hearing from my friends that there are protests going on in the states as well and that there is a lot of discontent with the 1%.  I'm sure you've heard of Occupy Wallstreet. To see so many people gathered in Murcia, walking peacefully to a plaza and  then sitting and listening and supporting and making their voices heard was absolutely fantastic for me.  To feel like just because I wasn't at home didn't mean that I had to sacrifice my voice.

Here are some of the things that they said or had written:

Somos el 99%  ---   We are the 99%!
Que no, que no, que no nos representan!  ---  That no, that no, that they don't represent us!
Luego diréis que somos 5 o 6!  ---  Later y'all will say that we were only 5 or 6!
La salud no es un negocio, es un derecho!  ---  The health isn't a business, it's a right!

And....

This isn't the original, I'm so sorry, I'll probably have a camera in November....

Organize yourself!  And be inspired by the 500,000 in Madrid....

Chirimoya

(not my photo, sorry, still without a camera)

This is a Chirimoya.  I had my first one last night.  For those of you who know me, you know that I love food.  I mean I love food.  I also like to try new things.  I'm usually a little cautious, but very curious.  When it comes to tropical fruit, most of the time I'm not all that impressed.  I'm not sure why, I guess I just prefer the fruit that I'm accustomed to.  But this, this is amazing.  It's very soft and squishy and kind of has a flavor that hints of kiwi without so much tartness.  I cut it in half and dug out all the seeds with my spoon before really digging in.  It was fantastic.

Déjame en paz!

It's possible that you've heard me say this expression before.  I actually learned it in my first day of college Spanish.  One of the students didn't know the answer to the question and he told the teacher "leave me alone."  She immediately responded with, "Déjame en paz!" and said that if you were going to say it, you'd better say it in Spanish.

I've actually found myself extremely busy this week, what with trying to get settled into my apartment and learning the bus system and getting familiar enough with the town to get around without my map and so on and so on.  All of these extra chores on top of the fact that I've received so much correspondence and have obligated myself to so much return correspondence that I'm kind of drowning in it.  I haven't even written here because of it.  It makes me wonder how all of you other bloggers find the time.

So I'm here to tell you, that I love you all, that I'm definitely thinking about you and talking about you to my new friends, but that I'm just not ready nor do I really have the time to do more than read my email.  I think I might even start avoiding facebook to a degree.  I have a million things that I want to talk about on this blog, but instead I feel like I'm just responding to emails and giving tidbits to individual people and then everyone else misses out on those things.

So please don't be offended, but I would need a clone to sit at home all day and respond to emails.  Thanks for thinking of me, and hopefully I'll do another post quite soon, now that I'm liberating myself from the emails. :P

A place to live!!

On Monday we went to Archena to try and find a place to live.  I have received several emails and posts from people in the program looking for a roommate but I wanted to at least attempt to find some local roomies.  So Andres, his mother Sylvana and I all went to Murcia and we parked our rental car and started to walk towards the Cathedral because I had been told it was a nicer neighborhood than what I would find closer to the bus station that I would be utilizing to get to Archena in the mornings. 

A phone is essential to an apartment search so that was the first step.   We went to Movistar which is a name I have seen constantly since arriving in Spain and while in there I decided that this was sort of like the Time Warner Cable of Spain.  Widely available, completely overpriced.  Don’t worry, those of you who knew me in San Marcos know that I prefer companies like Grande. :D  So we went to the Phone House which has a nice conglomerate of companies and I got a cheapie little phone on a prepay plan with YoiGo.   Not bad, but don’t be surprised when all of the plans are more expensive than the states. 

Now, phone in hand, we start walking the walk and calling places to find out what’s available.  It was so frustrating!  My Spanish isn’t that great, I can understand a lot but not everything and being able to spit out what I’m trying to say is really difficult, especially when the person on the other line is losing patience.  Then you add a cheap phone as the medium and I just wanted to throw my hands up and cry.  I could have used a locator, but my good friend Cassie, who lived here last year, told me that it costs 100-200 euros!!  No way José, I’m way too frugal for that.  Besides, I should be practicing my Spanish shouldn’t I?  But after several calls to “se alquila” signs hanging on balconies I realized I had a problem.  Most of these people wanted to rent out the entire floor or “el piso” not just one room.   So we decided to try plan B.  We went to the very close by campus and started looking for roommate signs.  We had much more luck here, though I was still battling the language barrier.  After looking at a couple of places that were do-able but not really what I wanted for some reason we were standing in front of a sign and we had a little godsend. 

We had just called this number and I hung up and told Andres and Sylvana that it was a no go and this older woman with for rent notices in her hand stopped and asked us if we were looking for a room.  Well, yes, as a matter of fact we are!  In the states I might have hesitated to follow someone right then and there but after the last 5 hours that I’d spent struggling there wasn’t even a seconds hesitation.  This was obviously going to be a blessing in disguise.  Andres even called it.  So we’re walking with this lady and she’s asking about us and telling me about the rooms that she has and how much they are and what’s included.  She shows us her posts and I’m listening to her and I’ve never felt so religious as I did in that moment.  This lady was very sweet, friendly, and she was speaking at a pace that I could truly understand!  YES!!!!!!  She has a piso that she rents out and then she also is trying to rent out 2 rooms at her own place and so we looked at hers first and I started to have my doubts.  I really, really wanted to live with people my own age.  She seemed exceptionally easy to live with, it just wasn’t the environment that I wanted.  I think I’ve lived too long without parents (since I was 18) to start again.  But then we went to her other piso. 

And now I have a place to live!  (Pictures later, I'm having camera issues)

Pilar, the sweet older lady who found us is my new landlord.  I’ve met one of my roommates, Jake, who is from England (don’t worry, he avoided speaking to me in English even when I tried to speak to him in English) and the other is from the states and her name is Emily, but I have yet to meet her, she’s out of town right now.  The rent for the room is a little steep and more than I originally wanted to pay.  We tried to talk Pilar down a bit but she felt that it would be unfair when the other two roomies were paying that amount already.  I felt some real sympathy here because I agree that equality is essential but we got creative.  I will now be giving English lessons to Pilar and possibly spending some time with her adorable little dog Tobi who I’m already completely pulled in by (Don’t worry Zinc, you’ll always be the love of my life!). 

There are 3 things that make this room worth the extra buck: 

1.     Pilar doesn’t mind if Andres stays for the next month!  (This was a deal breaker at other places we looked at)

2.     It’s bigger than most rooms we looked at.

3.     I have two twin size beds!!!!!!!!!  So come on ladies and gentlemen, take advantage of me and come see me!   Oh, and they’re pretty comfortable which seems to be a rare and beautiful thing around here.  J

Toledo y el Metro

We went to Toledo for a day and when you go to Toledo you can either take the AVE for 18 euros round trip, or you can take the metro and then the bus.  We decided that we wanted to save a little money and to learn the Metro system.  It's confusing. :P  I live in Texas so a metro system is completely foreign to me, especially underground, but I used to go to San Diego all the time and I've ridden the tram and buses in Puerto Rico so public transportation isn't really scary for me anymore, I know that there's a learning curve, but I can usually figure it out.  

There are different levels.  This is the key to the entire idea.  Unfortunately for us, no one felt the need to explain that.  So after a lot of confusion and a lot of asking, we finally discovered this important bit of information.  So the way it works is that you go underground, you buy your ticket, and then you go to the train.  The first level is one train.  If that's the line that you're looking for then all you have to do is make sure that you're on the right side.  Being on the correct side is easier than it seems.  The lines are labeled according to the last stops and on all the walls are the all the stops that the line is going to make, so on one side they have all the stops that the line is going to hit in that direction and on the other side there are the stops in that direction.  Are you still with me?  Now, if that's not the line that you wanted, or like us, you have to go from line 3 to line 6, you have to go further underground.  That idea might be common sense for people who grew up around a subway, but for me, a little texas girl, this was quite the lightbulb.  

http://www.viajesok.com/conoce-la-ruta-de-los-museos-gracias-al-metro-de-madrid.html

But alas, it was most definitely worth it.  When I can get some pictures for you I'll tell you all about Toledo, the most breathtakingly awesome town ever!  The cathedral, the walls, the views, the roads, all of it, absolutely mind-blowing if like me, you are fascinated by old things. 

Estamos aquí!

Well, here we are, in Madrid.  There's so much to tell you that I hardly know where to start.  My general impression is that 3 days is most definitely not enough time to explore Madrid, I feel like we only really got a taste of all that it can be.

I will say that it's pretty expensive here, but one should keep in mind that I'm extremely frugal, not to mention on a tight budget.  What everyone says about people looking nice is so true.  I have a huge weakness for shoes, I love to look at them, wear them, buy them; they're my accessory of choice.  Apparently, they are for the Spanish as well, because the majority of people have cute looking shoes.  I've mostly seen flats and sandals, but I almost feel grungy in my brand new Vans which lack the detail that theirs have.

Their excellent taste doesn't stop at their feet either.  In fact, everyone seems to just be generally attractive.  An overweight person is pretty rare and the ones that I do see look like tourists.  I'm wondering how different my perspective will be once I get out of Madrid.  It's very difficult to know who's a tourist and who's a local and I'm willing to bet that what I think that ratio is and what it actually is are pretty different.

The second day that we were here we went on a free walking tour and there were people from Italy, Argentina, Brazil, the United Kingdom and then of course us, the Americans.  What a variety!  We saw so many amazing things too.  They have huge, beautiful parks, the majority of the building are old and remodeled, and the amount of people on feet warms my heart.

This is the symbol of Madrid, a bear eating a rare tree called "Madroño".  We saw a live one too, it has little berries on it that our tour guide said are edible once they turn red.  

We have also gone to the Museo del Prado.  We went during the hours when admission was free and therefore didn't have a lot of time, but we were able to see some pretty amazing pieces and realize that we didn't even come close to seeing the entire collection. (you're not allowed to take pictures, sorry!)

I just got here and I'm already behind on blogging, but I don't have time to finish.  Next time I'll tell you about Toledo, the Metro and maybe even the flamenco that we're going to go see....right now. :P

Hasta luego....

Menos de 24 horas!

Less than 24 hours now.  I've been doing last minute clerical issues all day, changing addresses, paying last minute bills, trying to collect my mail from the post office (unsuccessful), switching around some cash and getting last minute purchases.

I packed yesterday and was struggling to downsize my wardrobe at all.  It takes up the bulk of my bags, but I worked so hard to build a nice, warm and professional selection in the spring that I just can't justify abandoning a lot of it.

My biggest bag actually has a lot of space but is already dangerously close to the overweight mark.  I'm bringing 4 bags.  2 checked bags, one of which I have to pay a $50 fee for, 1 carry-on and 1 "personal item".  I'm wearing my long, winter wool coat to preserve space.  It'll make a good blanket on the plane, but it's going to be miserable carrying it around, especially as we leave the 100 degree weather in San Antonio, TX.

Remember that I'm flying out over 2 weeks early so that my boyfriend Andres, his mother Sylvana and I may explore before I get down to business and so that I have enough time to find a place to live.

I just received an email from one of the teachers that I will be working with.  Her name is Loli and she told me that my first day would be October 3rd at 9am.

So, goodbye, until soon.  The nerves haven't really hit me yet, but I'll let you know once I'm there.