final destination: HUELVA.. i mean Valverde del Camino

I have arrived in the city of Huelva in the province of Huelva in the region of Andalucia in the country of Spain. A lot to comprehend I know. Me and twelve other people from my program arrived in Huelva to start THE ADVENTURE! Its officially go time. We are all alone and have exactly five days to do the following:

1. Apply for a residency card. This is an extremely important process. We need this card in order to open a bank account (see number 2), in order to get our VISA extended six more months, and in order to not be illegal in this country. Oh and if I get arrested I won't be deported. This process is very difficult. They will not speak an ounce of English, they are under paid, very busy, very tired workers that are cranky, mean, and don't have the patience to deal with silly American students. Every office in every city is different so you never know exactly what they will ask of you so our program coordinated told us to make 3 copies of everything. 3 copies of our Junta papers (that's the name of the government that has employed us to work in Andalucia), our passport picture page, Visa page, and stamp pages, as well as 3 passport photos. They say it will take all day to get an appointment and we are suppose to be patient, polite, and courteous. All of us want to go together because we are afraid of not understanding what they will say or of doing something wrong. I'm petrified of doing this but I have to face the music like everyone else this Monday. eeeeeekkkkkkk

2. Open a bank account. We have to decide what bank we want to open an account with because this is the bank we will get a debit card with to get money out all over the world that we want to visit to. Almost every bank has the same account for students under 26 with limited to no fees, its just a matter of finding a prevalent bank close to your school, home, city, ect that will get you the best deal. The guy who told us about banking told us that its all about who you know. Some people pay lots of fees, some pay none. Its all about saying, "oh hey i'm friends with Maria", oh she's my BFF, you don't have to pay this fee. One guy told us his sister works at the bank so he pays nada (nothing). Lucky!

3. Find an apartment. This is the hardest and most time consuming of anything. There is so much you have to take into account and ask about and doing it in another language in another country without your parents to reassure you is terrifying. You might have to sign a contract, you need to check if there is hot water, sit on the bed and see if you find it comfortable, does it get enough light so you don't have to pay much for electricity (which is super expensive). Does it have internet, if not you have to call the company up and get it installed (SOOOOOO CONFUSING!!!!). Do you like the roommate? She might be a smoker, is that okay...and so, so, so much more. Finding an apartment is twice, no three times as hard in a small town that doesn't really use the internet to post renting signs. You have to go by word of mouth or signs posted up in town. This requires going to the small town and walking around the entire day and making appointments to see the room. Well when your Spanish is still a work in progress it becomes a bigger challenge. I was all alone making calls on a phone that dies after two calls, I could barely understand them, they could barely understand me. It was embarrassing and extremely frustrating. I wanted to cry, stomp on my phone, and cuss out the person on the other line, but I didn't. I had to get over the fear of feeling like an idiot and just do it. aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4. Go to my school. Since I chose to have my hotel in Huelva City for these five days I had to go to the city that I will be teaching in on my own via bus. It is only 30 minutes away by car but since the bus stops at multiple cities on the way to Valverde del Camino it takes an hour. Also their are a minimum number of buses that travel from Valverde to Huelva each day. If you miss the four o clock but you have to wait until 8:45pm for the next one. Yes, i had to do that. It was not fun. I met my bilingual coordinator and a few of the other English teachers as well as my director (principle). They were all very nice and helpful. They made phone calls for me about seeing apartments and they seemed very excited to have me start school on October 1st. One lady already gave me an extra job to give her two children more English lessons after school. Saweeeeet. The name of my escuela es: C.E.I.P Menedez y Pelayo

5. Repack. OMG living out of a suitcase for these past two weeks have been a nightmare. I thought I knew where all of my things were but now i have no clue. I've been wearing the same shoe everyday. My feet are black from all the dirt. I am running out of underwear, and my dirty clothes are starting to merge with my clean clothes. Ayudame por favor. I cannot wait to unpack tomorrow. I think i will devote an entire post to the joys of unpacking. Touch base with the blog on Sunday. Once i unpack I PROMISE to post pictures. I've taken quite a few so I'm excited to show everyone visuals. The only thing I ask is that after seeing where I live you still promise to try and visit :) :) :) :) lovessssss

Sevilla culture according to me

So I got to spend about approximately 5 days in the capital of Andalucia (anda-lu-see-a). The city is massive and full of beautiful, well-put-together people, a crazy night life, and the bright sun. All the women, young and old, always look stunning and wear some form of heels or wedges. I feel slightly self conscious but i know that all the girls from my program feel the same way. One of the first things I noticed upon arriving in the city was a green two lane bike path painted into the side walk. I made the mistake of trying to walk on it and I nearly got clipped from the bicycles whizzing by. Now you are warned, stay off the bike path. Another aspect of Sevilla I noticed is their accent. They have a slight lisp to their spanish so the sound of some letters like P sound like B's and J's sound like Ll's. Over time you get use to the difference just like in Argentina, but the first few conversations i had with the hotel staff was somewhat difficult.

At night Sevillanos hang out at the outdoor cafe's all night long. They spend hours drinking, people watching, and talking. They don't worry about time or where they need to be. Don't bother making arrangements with someone for after dinner, the odds of meeting that person at the correct time is slim to none. Its best to just see where the night takes you and go with it. This is a new concept for me. It will take me awhile to get use to that. One night we were taken to this outdoor bar. People just drink outdoors and mingle. It reminded me of New Orleans where you can drink in the streets. I asked our guide if that is the norm everywhere and she said no. Actually its against the law but nobody enforces it and unless they get a complaint no one really gives a hoot. It makes America seem so uptight, but I guess America really is uptight.

One night our program offered us the chance to go to a free Flamenco Show. Everyone was really excited for it. We were told to get tapas on our own and meet our guide at 9:45pm for the show at the Catedral. Well half of our group was a good half hour to an hour late because their dinner took to long. They all said they didn't think tapas would take two hours. I did, that's why i ate groceries for dinner. The show was pretty cool. There was one guy playing the guitar, one lady singing, one extra person to help clap, and then either a man or a woman dancing on a small platform. The speed of their legs is incredible. When i watched the man start throwing in a few kicks here and there i had a flashback of that Friends episode where Chandler's biggest fear is revealed: Michael Flatly's Lord of the Dance. "The way is legs move it looks like they are detached from his body!!"---I thought the same thing!!! haha

A word of advice to all the vegetarians. Don't bother in Spain. Everything has seafood in it of jamon (ham). Our farewell dinner consisted all high class tapas that contained shrimp in every dish. The only thing the vegetarians of our group could eat was the dessert. The only standard dish that I have come across as completely vegetarian is "Espinache y Garbanzos"--Spinach and garbanzo beans. I tried it, its not bad but i would get very tired of it very quickly. Also you will find huevos (eggs) in most dishes as well so what I like to do is ask if there are any eggs and say none for me. Can't be too careful. For those of you who like to party you will be happy to know that vino y cerveza is muy barrato! Wine and beer is extremely cheap, maybe 2 Euros for a glass of wine or a cup of beer. I found good wine at the supermercado for 71 cents (in Euros)! Increible!

I was completely unaware of the store called Corte Ingles until I arrived in Sevilla. This is the equivalent of Harrods in England except not quite as big and its a department type store that you can find all over the place. They actually have everything you could ever need. Seriously. I don't know how i didn't know about this store but everyone in my program seemed to be quite familiar with it. Its relatively cheap so its a great place to go if you have a shopping list of several things that you would think require several different stores. Nope, Corte Ingles has it all. Most stores have four or five floors of stuff. So if you plan on visiting me and you end up forgetting something, don't worry about it, Corte Ingles has got you covered.

One thing one of our teachers pointed out to us is about American's usage of "I'm sorry". We say I'm sorry to EVERYTHING. I knock your pencil off your desk, I'M SORRY. I step on your foot in the elevator, I'M SORRY. NO NO NO!!! In Spain it's "perdon". No big deal. They might not even say anything because its really not a big deal and definitively not worth an "I'm sorry". They reserve the "Lo siento" for the death of a loved one, spilling coffee on your shirt, losing your luggage after promising you would get it after one day and you need to leave to go to another town for nine months (happened to a friend). When our teacher explained it like that to us it really did seem kind of silly how we use I'm sorry ALL of the time. I'm happy to report that I have reduced my "I'm sorries" to one a day. :)

On a more serious note, one thing I learned about the Spanish school system is that they don't really address the needs of gifted students or students with special needs. Instead of creating a separate environment for these students or taking the time to teach the material to them one on one or addressing them individually, they are just ignored. Teachers don't treat these students differently and if they have ADD or autism and need special attention they don't get it. Teachers put them in the corner or just tune them out. That was probably the most disheartening thing i learned thus far in Spain. I believe that ADD and to an extent Autism is over diagnosed in America, but some kids really have disabilities and can learn if given the time and energy and I commend our school systems for developing programs where these kids can thrive. Now for the best thing about the Spanish school system, every school has its own individual schedule. Every town or city has a fair and its own annual date for the fair, so when its your towns fair you get a three or four day weekend. We were told that there is a fair every weekend of the calendar year in Spain, so if you are so inclined you could see one every weekend. It would be a difficult challenge but not impossible. Along with the fairs, every school has a certain number of "Puentes" (bridge). A "puente" is a holiday but if you decide to put a puente on a Wednesday, you would get Thursday and Friday off because a puente is a "bridge to the weekend". Again, every school decides when they want their puentes so my schedule of days off will differ from someone in Cordoba or someone in Valverde (my town). Its kind of awesome, especially if you get Monday's off. That's a good one day work week :) Also we were told that Spain has WAY more national holidays than the states. They have at least ONE holiday a month and get everything from flag day to Semana Santa (equivalent to our Easter break) off. I think I'm REALLLLLY going to like my job :D

The last thing about Sevilla culture that i learned was about their national sport. And no its not futbol (Shocked??!?!), its arguing. My favorite..... Yeah, so Spaniards in general love to argue. Anything you say they have an opinion about, a long opinion about. The thing that gets me is that lets so you say tea is healthier than coffee, they respond: "NO,NO,no, no....NO!" "blah blah BLAH BLAH!!!" they get very loud and passionate and they sound very authoritative as if, NO, TEA CANNOT POSSIBLY BE HEALTHIER AND YOU ARE AN IDIOT FOR SAYING THAT." But we were told that as if maybe come across like that, they are just expressing their opinion and it is not the law. If you engage them for a little they start to settle down and then their argument becomes, "Okay, maybe tea is better but to me I prefer coffee." For me this is hard because if someone starts out with NO NO NO, I'm like okay, im sorry I'm wrong, i won't drink tea anymore. So i guess my challenge is to not take their words so seriously, instead just listen, nod, and say "okay, but i don't agree". Its a work in progress. I think that's it for culture at the moment.

3 flights, 4 bags, 24 hr of travel but i MADE It!!!

Hola! I have survived my first week in SPAIN. These last few days have been a whirlwind of information, people, and spanish. I successfully made each of my connecting flights to Spain and was fortunate enough to have my bags arrive with me. I met a few people from my program on my plane rides so that was a plus. Me and two other girls split two cabs with parts of my luggage in each taxi. Once we checked in, showered, and got our selfs oriented we decided to go out to dinner. We ate outside at an outdoor cafe and enjoyed the beautiful night. Choosing what to eat was a challenge because nothing on the menu looked familiar. Being that it was the first night i stuck to what i knew and got pork. We ordered a bottle of wine and toasted to our new adventure in Spain. We were all apprehensive about finding an apartment, applying for a residency card, opening up a bank account, and actually teaching kids or adults English. It was nice to know that everyone felt the same way and we all had our doubts about these things regardless of our Spanish abilities.

We were all pretty zonked out so we called it an early night and headed in. It didn't really hit me that I was in Spain until I walked out on my balcony and saw two giant soccer fields across the street full with little kids playing. Yup, I'm really here.

The next day was a big crazy mess. Everyone from all over the USA was arriving and checking in. I took advantage of my free time while I could and explored the city. I found the Sevilla F.C stadium a block away from the hotel as well as this beautiful church that i distinctly remember taking a picture of in the eight grade when I came to Spain on a class trip for the first time. When I returned I discovered my two roommates had moved into my room. The one was from MN and the other from WI. We decided to go out to lunch together with one other girl to get better acquainted since these were the girls I am planning on living with. Lunch was just a whole mess of awkward conversation. Me and this girl who is living in Granada were the only ones talking, or attempting to talk. The other two were mutes with one word answers. I understand being shy and quiet, trust me I'm an expert at it but this was painful. Not even the usual "where you from", "how was your flight", "have you been to spain" ice breakers. Just silence. It got better, we decided, check that I decided since no one would make a decision, to run some errands (adaptor, shampoo) and they walked BEHIND me the whole time. ?????? I slowed down and tried to walk in step with them but it was painfully slow and didn't really help since no one wanted to initiate leading the way. Sigh it wasn't a good start.

Later on we had to meet everyone for a cocktail reception and introduction meeting. I would estimate that their were about 80 of us in the hotel for orientation. That amounts to repeating and hearing the same information 79 times over the course of five days. I could count on my hand the number of people's names and information i retained from orientation. It was intense.

My goal for orientation was to make at least one friend in each of the major cities (Sevilla, Huelva, Granada, and Cordoba). I think i succeeded but I won't know until i end up contacting them again to arrange lodging logistics for when I visit :)

Everyday of orientation was scheduled to the T with 4 hour + long meetings on topics such as Banking, Housing, Tutoring one on one, Teaching Grammar, ect... as well as group lunches, outings, and siestas. Basically it was 24/7 quality group time. People who know me well know that I need my alone time and I definitively didn't get that. The only way i could get some alone time was by waking up a good hour before everyone. So i did. I ate breakfast at 7am after going to bed at 1am. Yes i was sleep deprived but i got to eat in peace. What made it worse was that one of the girls snores at night and leaves lights on. Who doesn't know to turn off ALL the lights before going to bed? I just couldn't understand that. The first two nights i woke up @ 3am (prob b/c of the time difference) and couldn't go back to bed (b/c of the snoring). The joys of roommates.

The informational sections were extremely important. The information we learned really helped me understand my job position and my duties as a Language and Cultural Assistant as well as get me super excited to work with kids. This one girl told us how the little kids will just come up to you and constantly hug and kiss you. They are very affectionate and will look up to you since you prob the first American they have ever met. Learning about what it would be like to teach made me so excited to teach kids. they are really receptive to pictures, maps, books, food, movies, and so forth. I consider myself a pretty creative person so I think I really enjoy my job. Everything that comes before the start of school is what freaks me out.