Travel While You're Young
Monday, September 30, 2013
Someone shared this article on Facebook today and commented about how it pertained those of us here in Spain living the life we're living. I thought I would share it with you guys. It's very true what the guys says in the article. There are very good answer to the excuses people pose as to why they don't travel. There is always a way to make it possible, even with student loans and a small budget and savings account....all of us here are doing it. If my generation can do it, with all the debt and governmental economical problems we have, then anyone can do.
Travel While You're Young
Travel While You're Young
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Discovering Huelva
So my first full week in Huelva hasn’t been that exciting. Sorry folks. It mostly consisted of house hunting, moving in and exploring a little bit. And spiced in there has been some shopping, job interviewing, relaxing, and more exploring. So is the Spanish life, poor ol’ me. But basically, there really hasn’t been much going on. This week I finally found an apartment to live in, complete with 2 Spanish roommates and a German. I got really lucky and am living in what once was a family home, so it’s fully equipped, has a washing machine, dish washer, all utensils and plates and stuff, and 3 bathrooms. One is in the master suite, which is where the landlords daughter lives, and there are two in the hallway where my room is. Unfortunately, I have to share a bathroom with a boy!! (cue Monica’s voice Friends when she moves in with Chandler). Ah well, I suppose it’s not the worst thing in the world. So, here’s some photos of my new diggs.
So that’s pretty much where I’m living. My bedroom is decent sized, and the rest of the apartment is really nice and big. And, bonus, it has an oven!! Yea, you’d think that that was weird that it’s a bonus, but seriously, people don’t use ovens here, they just use the stove top and the microwave for everything…so an oven is pretty awesome. So i’ve been bumming around, and getting my stuff together. I bought some new sheets for the bedroom and a pillow too, because I really like pillows, so I needed not a small tiny one (although I have no idea what I’m going to do with it once I leave….) and then got a few other things to help get myself in order. The apartment also has a tiny terrace, which is nice.
So since moving in I’ve been able to get to know my roommates a little bit more. I really only knew Laura, the landlords daughter, when I moved in because the German boy was never here both times I came, and the Spanish boy hadn’t moved in yet, he is moving in now as I’m writing, so I’ve learned a couple interesting things while living with Europeans.
1. Pants are totally optional, for both genders. When the girl woke up when I was here signing my contract, she wasn’t wearing pants….it was strange. And tops are also optional if you’re a man, with your pants hanging down low to show your boxers.
2. They are quite direct when talking to you. I’ve already had multiple conversations with people involving very direct questions about my personal life. Woah buddy, back off, I’m not sharing too much with you right now.
3. Boys are quite stupid, no matter how old they are, and apparently asking questions is not on their radar when it comes to some things. Like, the German boy, he didn’t bother asking where the cloths line clips are, so he just put his clothes on the line and then proceeded to lose two shirts when it got windy
Other than those revelations, right now everything has been going pretty well. I am finally saving money and cooking meals at home, although I’m probably just spending as much with my horrendous shopping habit here. (All the clothes are so pretty!!) Also, my friend from Windsor got here on Thursday, so I’ve been hanging out with her a lot while she looks for an apartment. And today we walked around the city a little bit to explore and found the library!!! I had a hard time remembering where it was and resisted the urge to ask someone “Donde esta la biblioteca!?” (the one questions everyone in the world knows how to ask), but we found it. It’s a bit hidden, but magnificent!
So me and Sarah walked around and explored all parts of the library and found the hidden gem of Huelva. Figures that I’d find the library and then be fascinated and feel so at home. Granted, everything is in Spanish, but hey, when it Spain…The library has 6 floors, and each floor has different things. There’s a floor dedicated to the adult novels (just regular books), children’s books, movies and CD’s, for studying and then for various other things. We walked up and down the whole thing and were so engaged. The minute I have my NIE I’m so going to the library to get my library card. They have a cooking section so I can learn how to cook, and I can use their languages section for tutoring or for learning Spanish, and I can watch terribly depressing awesome Spanish movies as well. I can’t wait to get my library card. And the best part, it’s only 5 minutes from me. Eeeee!
Oh! I’m also pretty sure that I just scored a second job. Yay me! The Spanish are very informal when it comes to job interviews of auxiliaries and stuff, so my coordinator brought me to meet an auxiliary from a couple of years ago that now works at a private language academy. So I went on Thursday, and little did I know that it was a job interview, good thing I always make sure to dress to impress when I walk out the door now that I’m in Spain. Anyways, they just asked me about my knowledge and experience, and BOOM, I got a job. I went over yesterday with a couple other auxiliary friends and introduced them as well, pretty sure we all got jobs. Basically, we’ll be working 4-6 hrs extra a week for this company called Covet Gardens. They have a couple different classes that they need covered, ranging from elementary to companies who need to teach their employees English. But the pay is decent, about 12.50 euro an hour, so it will cover my rent for the month for sure, and then the rest that I’m earning can go towards other things, such as food, shopping and traveling!
That’s really all I’ve been doing. I had a bad cold yesterday so I stayed in, but now I’m ready to rumble and stay out tonight!
Until next post, toodles. <3
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
I have an apartment!
Thanks to my amazingly helpful coordinator at my school I have finally scored an incredible apartment, right in the center of the city, right near the Mercadona, Corte Ingles, Hipercor, bus station, train station, the beautiful church I want to make my new home, and anything else I could possible imagine. I’m right down the street from where my coordinator lives, so we can walk together to school, and she can show me all the best places to go for anything I could want. And the best part is, she’s driving me from my hotel to my apartment with my big suitcase, and giving me sheets and a duvet that she has from the girl before me. :) The contract is signed, the keys are in my hand and I am ready to move in whenever I want. I feel so incredibly blessed right now. More updates to come as I settle in. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me.
Monday, September 23, 2013
The wonders of Huelva
So I made it to Huelva! And I love it. I’m so pleased with my location. I was a little afraid because I read a blog of a girl that was placed here a year ago and she made it sound very not fun. Her first impressions were not good and thought it was a bit more industrial than she wanted. But it turns out the city is quiet cute, and the population is younger, they have a lot of bars to hang out at, and they have some pretty good shopping too.
We arrived yesterday (Friday) morning into Huelva at the train station and took all our luggage to our cute little hotel. It’s small and right near the city center, which is nice because we are able to explore the city around here and get to places to eat easily. When we arrived we were all so tired that we just found some energy to get something to eat and then all passed out and went to sleep for a good long siesta. After being out until about 3 A.M on Thursday night and catching an 8:30 shuttle bus to the train 
Not much has happened since I’ve arrived, but the city is so cute. I’m really happy that I didn’t put a preference for a town/city in my application so God was able to choose where I needed to be. The town is like the perfect size for me, I just need to find the park so I can get fix of fresh air and trees every now and then. Every time I move to a city I remember why I like living in the suburbs back at home. I like the space, and the green grass and being able to drive a car. Even though I love that I get to walk every where it’s starting to kill my feet and my calves. They hurt SO much! I need to adjust, and it will happen, but for now it kind of sucks. The city center is more towns one end of the city, rather than in the center, but it’s adorable, just like you would expect. With walk ways only for pedestrians, restaurants with patios to eat outside at all the time and plazas all over.
I also went to look at an apartment on my first day here, I’ve been kind of freaking out about snatching an apartment I want to live with Spaniards or someone I want to live with. The hardest part will be to find one near the center so it’s safer for me, and finding one with people that I like. So I’m moving quickly because I know that those will fill up quickly. Luckily, I met with my director the day I got here to just meet her and chat. It’s worked out really well because I was able to meet with my bilingual director and one of the history teachers in the bilingual program that I’ll be working with. She said that the school has been doing a bilingual program for almost 10 years, so they are really well developed, their teachers speak pretty good English and they have a lot of classes to offer. Belen is awesome, she took me out to a cute area to sit outside and have a drink (mostly coffee and water) and we met with the other teacher, Reyes, to talk about ourselves, and get to know each other. They gave me great advice and Belen made so many phone calls to try to contact people who were renting out habitaciones (bedrooms) for extranjeros (foreigners, mostly erasmus students). She is going to help set up appointments for me to go look at apartments and has been so nice. She asked about my wants and some of my must haves, and I’ve been trying to be really open about some of my must haves, they really only include that I have a room to myself and they have internet (although apparently having internet is hard, so I might have to buy that one on my own). I also would like to have an apartment near the city center, but don’t care too much if it’s a bit further away. 
The one I saw yesterday was nice, but small and with two British girls. It was very close to the city center and in a safe area, but a bit pricy too. I saw another one today and it was very nice, a bit seedy on the outside but altogether very nice. It’s a bit more spacious than the first one I saw, and much more comfortable. It’s a bit farther from the center than I’d like, but in a nice quiet area, which is nice, and it’s also very close to my school. The plus side, is that it’s already got a girl who is studying at the university and is from the Canary Islands! How cool1? I have a few more places I will look at on Monday and Tuesday probably but am worried that it will get snatched up because it’s pretty nice. It would be for 3 people, but is also a bit more than I’d like to spend. I really need to figure out what my budget is going to look like because living on a small budget ($900) a month is going to be pretty tough. I also wasn’t able to meet the girl who lives there because she was out of the apartment while I was there. I’ll probably message her to set up a meeting to get to know her.
The picture above is a picture of one of the houses in the British quarter. There is a section in Huelva that has houses that look like the cute British houses because the Brits built them a long time ago for the miners that worked in the mines here. They have the andalucian colors but are built in a British grid. Also, they were real innovative and named the streests Calle A, B, C, D, E and F. So original, right?
Other than that stress my days have been pretty relaxing. There’s not much you can do on the weekends, people are around but I’m waiting to hear from my director about places. And we’re going to the beach tomorrow, so I’m sure I’ll have great pictures and have a great time. Yea, by the way, it’s 90 degrees here, almost every day, and the low during the winter is between 30-40 degrees :) I’m in paraiso (paradise).
Thursday, September 19, 2013
I made it to Spain!
That’s right, I made it!! So the internet has been pretty spotty since we got here, but I guess I’m not really sure what else you can expect when you’re in Spain. Apparently the internet has just gone down at some point today (Tuesday) and they don’t know when it will work again. ( I’m pretty sure it’s because there are 80 some odd Americans trying to connect to talk to their parents right now) So I’ll post when I can, and until I get to an actual location with dependable internet it will all depend on how often I have internet and when I have time. I’m currently working on my computer just writing a draft so when I get internet I can post. But we’ll see.
SO it’s Tuesday, although I’m not really sure how I know what day it is because every day just seems to flow right now. Sunday and Monday were not too separate days, they were just one really long day. I hardly slept on the plane and opted out of siesta time to explore more of Sevilla so by 9:30 I was ready to pass out! And boy did I, I was in bed by 10 and asleep by 10:01! Talk about a long day….I left Newark at 6P.M, got to Lisbon at 6 A.M and got to Sevilla by 11:30. So yea, it was a long day. On the plus side, I realized after a 6 1/2 hour flight that the girl sitting next to me was with CIEE and on the next flight with me, so I got to have a friendly face while waiting around and trying to figure out where to go and when our plane would board. Oh, also, my plane from Lisbon to Sevilla was tiny, and by tiny I mean THIS tiny!
Yea….I flew on that for an hr, I could see the pilot the whole time, it was so fun terrifying. Needless to say, that didn’t help me fall asleep. It was quiet loud (we were actually provided ear plugs in our lunch boxes), and there was no space for our carry on luggage. They checked all of it at the gate, and when all of the luggage didn’t fit on the plane, they just left some of it at the airport and flew the rest of it to Sevilla later. I’m not kidding, Carolyn had her luggage left there and it finally reached Sevilla today. So yea, it was a bit stressful. Not to mention that no one even told us we were boarding, we just followed the other cute old Spanish ladies when they walked up and asked someone about checking in. So they just kind of started throwing stickers on our luggage and told us to go down to grab the bus that brings us out to the plane on the tarcmac, yea….that happened.
Needless to say, I made it and so far I couldn’t be happier. Most of the day has been pretty boring. Yesterday we had a welcome meeting and dinner at 7 & 8, but a
a walking tour wandered around Sevilla guided by Javi, one of the CIEE staff members. Most of the day was spent in Spanish, we talked among ourselves in English, but the majority of our presentations were in Spanish, with the exception of the ones given by Brittney, an American now working in Sevilla for CIEE about internet and cell phones here. We also had the opportunity to do tours in Spanish or English. Well, really we pretty much had to, there was one tour guide that did a tour in English and three that did it in Spanish, so choose wisely people. I decided to do my tours in Spanish, partly because since I’ve already been to the Alcazar that I’d already kind of know some of the things, and partly because I wanted to challenge myself. It’s always easier to challenge yourself in the beginning when you’re all gung ho about doing things, so I took the tour of the Alcazar in Spanish, which was very interesting. I think I only got about 50% of what the guide was saying because I was either taking pictures or the terms he was using were unfamiliar to me, so I zoned out and then got lost. BUT, it was still a lot of fun and I got to meet a lot of cool people on the tour. One guy here is pretty much already using mostly Spanish, even with us! It’s nice to see some people with initiative though, it gives me the power and desire to do that. (Some of it makes me think they are too much, but mostly I respect them, I just don’t have the brain power to do that all the time). Either way, it was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon, not to mention it’s still bright out until almost 8:30, wohoo!! Oh, and did I mention it’s been in the 90’s the past two days? :) We got some delicious tapas at around 9 and ate till our bodies were stuffed then walked to another bar to grab one more drink before bed.
We also saw some really cute kids playing around a structure called the mushroom (see pictures below) and there was a small area that was slanted. So of course what the kids do, they go sledding in cardboard! So we saw kids in boxes and on pieces of cardboard sledding. It was hilarious. We all looked over, snapped a picture and then talked about how that would never ever let that happen in the U.S. First of all, security would never allow it because it was there was metal all around them. Second of all, all the parents would be having heart attacks about their child being hurt. And where were the parents? No where to be seen!! Haha, so that was a fun and interesting thing to see as well. Slowly we are seeing some of the discrete differences. Seriously, Spain is the land of “no pasa nada”.
I’m definitely glad that I didn’t take a nap yesterday though, because I was able to walk around Sevilla with a good group of people and just explore. We walked over to the Plaza de España and walked around the park. We were definitely all very tired by the end of the night, but it was well worth it because we really only have 3 days here before we head out to our placements, and it also helped me get past some jet lag. I’ve never been that tired and fell asleep so quickly, but it was very nice.
That’s really all I have to say about the past couple of days. It’s just been some mundane things, I’ve had a couple of leads on apartments, but nothing concrete and neither are with Spaniards, which is my ultimate goal. I may just end up paying for the site that I’m using so I can contact a few people. I’d really like to live with university students so hopefully something will turn up, we’ll have to see.
I’m trying this thing on my computer that’s a photo album, I’m hoping it works. Theoretically you guys should be able to click on the link to look at the whole photo album so you don’t have to scroll through tons and tons of pictures, but I’m not sure if it’s going to work properly. Enjoy the photos!
Much love!! Besos! <3
Monday, September 2, 2013
T-Minus 13 days…
Oh my gosh, the countdown to when I leave is getting smaller and in the teens. After a weekend in Worcester seeing the best of the best friends from college I finally had to deal with the realization of me leaving. I just moved my sister into college for her second year and upon my last night at home with her it all finally hit me. I’m leaving the country….again. Of course I was then hit by a train with a range of emotions and have been trying to push them away for as long as possible. I guess I’ve just been pretending like it’s not happening, and when I say goodbye to my friends for the last time I tried not to think about it. Instead, I’m just pretending that it’ll all be okay and that I won’t miss the great Halloween party they’ll have without me, or the nights up late drinking wine, or the quick drive to Worcester to casually meet for dinner.
Then, more importantly, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to spend these last two weeks with my sister, one whom I’ve grown very close to, especially since we went to the same college for a year. It all hit me and I finally broke down, and said to myself, “What are you doing?” and “Is this worth it"?”. Luckily, the answer is yes. Yes, this is absolutely worth it. I know I’ll be super homesick, I know I’ll miss my family, and my friends, and some pretty wild times. But I also know that this is not only something I want to do, but something I have to do. I’m starting to get ready to go and accepting the challenges that I will face. Bring it on Spain, I’m ready. Only two more weeks and then I’m Spain bound and on my own.
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