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).
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