Lisboa

It has been a whole month since the last entry! We have been living well. I was sick for the last two weeks and have passed it on to paul but it is just a mild cold. This past weekend we had an extra long weekend thanks to the Spanish Constitution day. We took advantage of it along with thousands of other spaniards and went away for the weekend to Lisboa! Paul and I had not visited Portugal before and so we did not know exactly what to expect. We loved it. Our hostal room was in the center of the city. The owners of the hostal were an old portuguese couple. The man was a bit grouchy which led to some discomfort but the place was charming and comfortable. The city had all of its christmas lights up and it was beautiful. Lisbon has a lot of pedestrian-only avenues in the downtown area so it is a great walking city. If we had known more about geography, then we would not have been disappointed when we learned that Lisbon is not on the Atlantic coast but rather on the bank of a river. We were a little bummed but there were nice views of the river from some hills in Lisbon. We had fun learning some survival phrases in Portuguese but were surprised that we could not understand anything at all when we would listen to a real life colloquial conversations in restaurants and on the street. All in all, it was a great trip. the weather was very pleasant and it was fun to visit a new country. Thanks for reading!

Andalucia

Hey we did something exciting and different! This weekend we went down to Andalucia to a small fishing town 25km away from Portugal to visit our friend Chelsea. The name of the town is Cartaya. All of the buildings in Cartaya are painted white and the city is surrounded by agriculture. On our nature walk one day we saw almond, olive, lemon, and clemintine trees. Cartaya also is a 20min bus ride away from the Costa de la Luz so on our first day we went down to the beach to sleep off the rocky night bus ride.

I knew this would get more boring...

Welp, we are fitted snugly in our routine here and we are feeling more at ease. We are both working with adorable 2nd graders and it just happens that in the Alcalá de Henares primary school system, the school days start at 9am and end at 2pm so we have a lot of free time on our hands. The schedule also forces us to eat the Spanish way. We eat breakfast before we leave for school, coffee/fruit/cookies at 12, and then an actual meal at 2:30, and then we dont get hungry again until 9 or 10pm. The schedule also forces us to get some extra-curricular activities. I am going to be teaching 4 private english classes a week at 15€ a pop and I have a painting class that meets 4 hours a week. Paul has signed up for not one, not two, but three bookclubs and he is still working for ENH 10-25 hours a week, though his workload should be lighter soon. I might have already said this but Alcalá is also filled with cultural events that we have been frequenting movies, adult (adult: over 18 not adult: xxx) storytelling, and book fairs. We are fitting in just fine but we are still struggling to make friends. The program that we are in does not have a social aspect to it but its ok friends will come with time. Speaking of friends, two friends of ours came to visit us this weekend. Chelsea, a friend of mine who I studied with in Barcelona is doing the same program as us in a small fishing town in the south 25km from Portugal named Cartaya and Paul´s step sister Katie who had just finished an awesome Eurotour. Katie only stayed for a night but with Chelsea we were able to show her the town, take her to Madrid, and go for a nature walk. It was so nice to see familiar faces.

one week down, 40 more to go....

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So the school start wasn´t the best but now things are falling into place. We love it here. The town is so small that we walk everywhere (except paul has to take the bus to his school). Alcalá is also filled with cultural events free to the public just about everyday of the week! Paul has been making a big effort to us out there and to make sure we are making the most of everyday and I really appreciate it. This week is Cervantes week so they have been holding a midevil fair ever since Saturday. The fair has taken over the central part of the city and has everything from delicious sweets to hawks and owls. Alcalá´s streets have been filled every night since then until 11 o´clock at night, even later.
School is getting better each day for the both of us. Soon enough Paul´s unorganized school will have a schedule made out for him. The teacher that I work primarily with is still out but she has finally been replaced by an actually substitute and not just randomly being covered by the teachers anymore. Other teaching English opportunities have been literally falling from the sky into our laps with out even searching for them. I have 3 tutoring jobs lined up and Paul has one with an English Institute in town. Paul does not want to overwhelm himself since he is still doing work for ENH and a lot of it. Hasta la proxima!

Yay obligatory drawing!

MOVIN ON UP!

Hello queridos. Hooray! We have our own space, own schedules, own roommates, own kitchen, own students, own everything! As you might be able to tell, we were getting tired of living in other people´s spaces but now we have no reason to complain! We moved in on Sunday afternoon and met our first roommate, Estefan. Estafan is Czech and an Erasmus student (Euro equivelant to study abroad program). Surprisingly, he went to a Czech/Spanish biligual high school and speaks Spanish as well as he speaks English (his mom is an English teacher and they learn English in school). He is very nice, clean, and funny. He was surprised to see us cooking because he told us he thought Americans cook everything in the microwave. We met our other roommate, Constancia, on Monday. She is from Germany and is also an Erasmus studet. She learned some Spanish in school but speaks English better. We told her about the American stereotypes/knowledge of Germans, funfun, bratwurst, being strict and orderly, etc. She was surprised we weren´t fat. Our room is very big and our closet is a monster which is nice. We still do not have a very good internet connection so ichatting and skyping isn´t working so far.
Alcalá de Henares is such a nice town! It has a beautiful Plaza and very old main street. Our place is right out side of the center of the city and still has all of life´s necessities including a library down the street where Paul signed up for one of his book clubs.
We have been trying our best to intergrate ourselves here, Paul signed up for two book clubs in the library and I am taking a painting class in the community center for young people. Paul has really enjoyed the last two sessions that he attended even though he was not able to read the book on time of course. He said that the people were very friendly and he loved listening and learning from the conversation. I am really enjoying the painting class. The fellow painters are very nice and the teacher has been helpful and supportive.
And what better way to intergrate your self than becoming a teacher! We started classes Wednesday! Paul´s first day was almost a joke. He met the school principal, the director of the program, and the other young teacher helpers and then pretty much sat around until school got out because the school had not yet organized their schedules.
My day was almost a nightmare. The way my school works is that you are scheduled with 1 or 2 teachers and help them teach English and Science which is taught in English. 1 of my 2 teachers, who I have the majority of my classes with is out because her mother is ill and they do not know when she will return. They still have not gotten a sub for my teacher which means that the other teachers from the school are scrambling around the school in order to cover all of her classes. Every period my second graders get a new teacher who most likely does not know what they are studying and may or may not speak English. As you can tell my school is also disorganized. So, on the first day, during my first period a teacher came in to teach the English lesson but she did not teach English so...i had to teach the lesson plan for the day, control the kids and most importantly improvise. It was awful, the kids didnt listen to me, they were chatting, throwing things, not paying attention, hitting, etc. I need a lesson in discipline because I have know idea how to control 7 year olds. But wait, that is not my job. So I was very discouraged and annoyed the rest of the day. Lucky for me today was better and we have Fridays off so I am feeling all right.

Barcelona!

We had a full 8 days in Barcelona this past week! It was so nice for me to get back to familiar territory and a second home. We were lucky enough to not pay for lodging at all and stay with my two previous roommates Eva and Reyes. They moved out of the out of this world 16th floor apartment into a more modest apartment in my favorite neighborhood, Gracia. They live off of the street Verdi which has lots of shopping, indie movies, international restaurantes, best gelato, and a bohemian atmosphere.
Barcelona also gave us familiar feelings because we saw Paul´s cousin Annie again and my Aunt Amparo who lives in Barca!
I left a message for my aunt the night before to let her know that we were going to be in Barcelona and we arranged to meet that day. Keep in mind that I have not seen this aunt for 13 years (ever since I went to Ecuador with my family) so I was nervous that maybe I would not recognize her or that things may have changed and other things. But there was no way I could have missed her from the crowd, she still stunningly looks like a younger version of my mom! It was very nice catching up with her and feeling the security of having family in Spain.

We gave Annie and her friend Corrine an all day walking tour of the city and of Gaudi´s masterpieces. It was nice to have an excuse to run around all of my favorite spots of the city and to be able to share it with family.

View from Sagrada Familia

Us with my aunt Amparo in Parque Guell

View from Parque Guell.
The night before Annie and Corrine left my Aunt invited us to come to the restaurant that she works at which specializes in Spanish cuisine "a la brasa" or grilled which means meat meat meat. We got a full deliscious meal and then Amparo told us it was all on the house! So we went upstairs to thank the manager and left the waiters a generous tip.
The weekend we were there we spent in Eva and Reyes´home town so that we were able to see my 3rd ex-roommate, Pili who got married last year and now owns a home out there. In Tamarite we were treated very well! We did nothing but sleep, eat, and drink with an occasional walk around the tiny pueblo. Here are pictures of the over the top paella we ate.





It was excellent. After this gluttonous weekend we were ready to be useful to society, start working and form a routine.
When we got back we stayed with Amparo. We were able to spend a day with her on her day off and walked around the center of Barcelona and on the next day we ventured off to Tibidabo. Tibidabo is on the mountain range surrounding Barcelona. We ended up taking the "highway route" which is really just for people with motors but it ended up being a very pretty route but it just took a very long time because of the constant winding. But we got there!




The top had some impressive views of Barcelona and the parts over the mountain.





Today we went back to Alcalá de Henares to sign the contract for our apartment. We found out that we will be living with a Czech male student and a German female student. They aren´t the spanairds we were wishing for but we are excited to get to know them and get moved in tomorrow.

Lunch with Annie and her companion/Retiro Again

We were able to meet up with Anne and her friend for lunch today. They told us that they were out until 5am the night before dancing with Austrailians and getting to know a Peruvian who spoke some english. I was happy to hear that they had a full night and that they were able to take advantage of all that Madrid has to offer. You haven´t really seen Madrid until you have seen it a 5am. We meet them outside of the Reina Sofia (home of Guernica) and we had a long lazy lunch outside on this sunny day. They went back into the museum and we went to Parque Retiro again. The park is massive and right in the middle of the center of the city. You would have to walk through it for days to experience it all. This time we walked through a rose garden. We were thinking about how lucky we are right now because the only big decision we have to make now is whether to go the beach town Sitges or San Sebastian. I am voting for San Sebastian we just need to get the timing right. We are feeling more and more at home and will feel even more so once we are living in our new apartment and start working. We are nervious about what it will be like working with the children and teachers especially since we are not depending on the program to tell us much more in the orientation since they have barely told us anything up until now!

Mountain High

Yesterday we took of to the sierra.
Paul found this great path for us to take that was 18km total and we went with it. We got to the pueblo Cercedilla which is at the base of the mountains and started walking up a path that was actually part of the Camino de Santiago from Madrid. We followed that path to various other paths and started our journey. It was so nice to breathe fresh air as opposed to the city air with all those smokers. Well, we took a wrong turn and started heading up and up and up. IMG_4934.jpg">
It was tiring but it was beatiful.IMG_4939.jpg">
But our hike got cut short when a we saw what we thought were bulls on the path! We heard cow bells while we were walking but figured that the animals would be in a controlled farm somewhere off the path, we were wrong. So we climbed up out of the path into the blackberry bushes and ferns to wait see if the bulls would move out of the way. We were very scared and one of the bulls kept looking at us and eating up our fear. Finally we realized that this guy was going nowhere and we started our descent way out of his way and went to the information that was at the bottom of the path. We asked the helpful woman about our scary bull experience and she told us that they were cows! The farmer farmed them for their meat and that they usually do not harm anyone and that you can go around them. Either way they had horns and Paul and I were not in the mood to risk it. Especially since here in Spain you get around the clock news about the latest bullfighter injuries.

After we had made our way back home at around 6 we saw an email from Annie Cella! Her friend´s flight was delayed for 24 hours and Annie was wondering Madrid on her own! We got in contact with her and met for a light dinner. She was happy to be with people who spoke her language. She learned quickely that Spaniards do not speak english and that her four years of Latin in highschool were not helping either, especially with the menus. We had a really nice visit with Annie, who was doing a good job of staying awake. We have plans to visit with her again on Monday.

Today is Sunday and we are going to do as the Spaniards do which is not leave the home.

Truckin

Today we relaxed with a super long walk all around Madrid from José´s house to Parque Retiro.
It was nice to have our minds at ease after a stressful and tiring day of apartment searching yesterday. We found out quickly that apartment searching comes with a lot of heartache. Here in Spain they have caught on that girls are better than boys and about 60-70% of the adds placed for apartments are aimed at girl tenants only. The other 20% are for people living alone so our options were pretty slim. Paul and I have always relied on our gut feeling and after seeing 3 apartments yesterday and calling at least 15 places, we decided on the first place. Not only in desperation but also because it truely was the best. The place is rather big and we will have 2 other roommates but the downside is that we still do not know who they will be. We hope with all our heart that they are native spanish speakers and that we will be able to practice everyday but only time will tell. Our room in the place has its own terraza that over looks the large garden in the middle of the complex. There is also a supermarket at the end of the street, a fruit market below us, and all of lifes necessities in our reach. The apartment is about a 20 min walk from the city center and a 30 min walk to my school. Paul would have had to catch the bus wherever we had gone since his school is so far away. We found out from the guy at the tourist information place that Paul is going to be working with the upperclass of Alcalá. Tomorrow we sign the contract with Edwardo our landlord and we move in at the end of the month. Now that we have a place we can concentrate on more important things like the beach. After our trip to Barcelona with Annie (Paul´s cousin), we hope to go straight to the beach Sitges to do some more relaxing and I especially want to catch up with all these tan Spainards I see all over the place.

Alcala de Henares

Today we went to the town we will be teaching in. It is very simular to Madrid just smaller with less Starbucks and McDonalds. We did some apartment searching but we got there at 3 so it was a ghost town until 5pm until the tourist center reopened and everyone woke up from their nap. We got really good vibs from the town and we are excited to move there eventually. I was able to take some pictures too.