It’s just like home, but with a fork

Even though I’ve only spent a few days in Valverde I already feel like I know a lot about the place. For starters, I stumbled upon the local hot spot, and by hot spot I mean it’s the place to be if you are over 75 years old. There is this fountain with two statues of men making leather boots (I’ll get there) right across the street from my school. It’s the center of a three street intersection and there are a couple of benches. Kate and I sat there for a while and over time all of these elder people came from all corners of town to sit and chat. We got the vibe that we weren’t wanted/we were taking someone’s seat, so we left. It was pretty cool but it felt like a legit elderly clique.

Next, I’ve discovered that all of the trees that line the sidewalks up and down Valverde are lime trees. I picked a few to juggle with (like the circus not like soccer juggle though I’m sure they would work). How cute is that? One less item on my shopping list. Speaking of shopping, in the grocery stores whenever you buy any kind of produce, vegetables, or anything that requires a plastic bag you need to individually weigh the item and then remember the individual code number, type it in, and place a sticker on your bag. Nobody told us this until we were checking out. It took us awhile to figure out what they were asking us to do and how we were suppose to it, but eventually we figured it out. It makes sense if you think about it, its one less thing the checkout person has to do at the register and it saves time.

Another thing I stumbled upon on Saturday was the soccer stadium in town. The field is named after the barrio in which it was built in, Triana. I couldn’t get a sense of whether the teams getting ready to play a game where two high school teams or just club teams in the town. I wanted to stay and watch because I was pretty sure it was free but once again I got weird looks for being the only girl interested in soccer who wasn’t a girlfriend or mother. After I settle in and learn about what that league is exactly I’ll go back and watch a match or two. I need my futbol fix. Also in Triana barrio is a night club called Club Blue. It is the only nightclub we have found in town yet we were told that Valverde has a great nightlife from Kate’s teachers who were referring to the old Language assistants from last year. The only warning they gave us is that you see all of your students there so it can be a little uncomfortable at times. That won’t be a problem for me J

The last thing I found in town reminded me of home. It was this bar (restaurant) called Boston Burger! The majority of the menu was burger, fries, and a drink combo named after American cities (New York, Miami—that’s what I got, Chicago…). The place also had pasta, sandwiches, and more food that I was familiar with. FINALLY A MENU I CAN READ! I was overjoyed with the place even before I got my food. I was so excited that I asked for a carry out menu and I wrote there number in my phone :P The best part about the meal was that it only cost 2.50 or 3 Euros…muy barrato!!! We really got a kick out of the fact that they served us French fries in a square basket with a fork. If it comes with a fork I’ll use a fork.

For those of you that don’t know, which is probably all of you, Valverde is know for its fine quality of leather, specifically leather boots. I guess you all know what your birthday/Hanukkah presents are going be for the next year now. Anyways, all the stores carry boots and at a really cheap price. If anyone is looking for something in particular let me know. Wallet, boots, hat, purse, whatever…. I’ll snap a picture of it, email it to you, and then proceed from there.

The last thing that I’ve discovered in Valverde is another Language and Cultural Assistant from England. Her name is Corrie and she works at Kate’s high school. We met her on Sunday. She and her mom (lucky duck!!!) came together and are staying in a small hotel in another small town near by. They rented a car and were nice enough to give us a lift back to Huelva instead of us having to take the bus. Corrie is only 20 and is from Chester, England it’s a pretty big city very close to Manchester. Unfortunately she is a ManU fan but I won’t hold it against her. She is taking a year off from St. Andrew’s in Scotland (I have two friends at the school from the US) to teach in Spain. She spent 6 weeks in Punta Umbria (the beach close to Huelva) this summer as an au pair. She said it really helped her understand the Andalucía accent better but she still has a tough time with it. I really like her and I can’t wait to get to know her better. The best part is she said we could travel to Manchester together and her family could pick me up from the airport. This is going to be marvelous!!!! She was truly a breath of fresh air. Meeting her made me feel better about being stuck here in Valverde. Most of the good friends I made during orientation are in Sevilla or in Huelva so now I feel like I’ll finally have a good friend here.

I guess I’ll end this post with my experience applying for the Permiso de Residencia (residency card). So Kate and I spent the night over at our friend Claire’s place in Huelva the night before because no bus leaves Valverde in time the next morning. The Oficina de Extranjeros doesn’t open until 9am but we were advised by our program coordinator that we should get there super early. I originally wanted to get there by 7:30am but Claire and Lawrence (another guy from the group) thought we’d be okay if we got there by 8am. Well we woke up at 6:45am, left at 7:20am and walked a good 45 minutes to the Oficina. When we got there around either there was already a long line going both ways from the main doors. One line said “Con Cita” while the other said “Sin Cita”; obviously we had no idea what a cita was so we got in the line with “sin cita”. Sat on the ground and waited until the doors finally opened at 9:15am. Once the doors opened some policemen came out and started going down the line and asking questions. Suddenly we noticed a lot of people in our line getting out of line and heading to the end of the line. We were a little scared that they would do that to us but they asked what country we were from and after we said USA they left us alone. We went from a good 30 people in front of us to 7. The only catch was the “con cita” line was people who had appointments made and that line was allowed to go in while our line didn’t move for another thirty minutes. The never-ending cita line was starting to get to us but finally the policeman started letting people from our line through. Once we were inside we had to go through a security check just like in airports. After that we were in another line where a lady asked why we were here. After she saw our passports we told to go through the other entrance. We made our way through the other door and talked with another man. He looked at our papers and gave us our very own “cita” with a date to come back. Sigh, all the waiting and we had to come back another day (October 8^th specifically) to have them look at our papers, give us a receipt that we can then present to the banks, and come back another day to physically pick up our residency card. Wowy, it’s a long process. We were happy that it only really took us an hour or so to go through the line once the doors opened, but next time it should go quicker since we have the much-needed cita. I mean it could have been a lot worse and we were just happy to get it over with. The other ten people in our group have to discover this process tomorrow. I know they won’t be happy but there isn’t much they can do about. All right my landlord is coming to mi casa at 4pm to fix mi televisor so yo tengo correr. Adios mi gente!