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