Are we in Spain, or Romania?

So far we have only met Romanians. Which is fine because we still speak in Spanish, which is the goal of living here, but sometimes we feel like we are in Romania and not Spain. It is very humorous. As I mentioned in the last blog, we were all looking very forward to going out with Pepe, our new Romanian friend. On Saturday the other CIEE girls arrived (they are great, by the way) and we prepared for the big night out with Pepe. We told him to come over with his Spanish friends for a drink and well, he brought Martin – our other 40-year-old Romanian friend. We enjoyed a few drinks with them and we went to a few other bars and eventually they asked if we wanted to go to a discoteca…we said sure! Where did we end up? Well, we still aren’t quite sure. At a Romanian discoteca in the woods of Calahonda (the town next door). It was fun, yes, but just very, very random and a bit crazy. We learned about dancing and music in Romania, which is very cool, but we are still anxious to make some Spanish friends and learn about the nightlife in Motril and with Spaniards. It was a night to remember, that’s for sure. (Oh, also, on Friday we went to a bar near our apartment and talked to the bartender – trying to make conversation and friends – and we found out is from, guess where? Romania!)

Tomorrow is the big day: I start school. I went there today to meet my “bilingual coordinator,” Antonio, and the whole experience made me so happy and excited for what’s to come. Antonio is so incredibly nice and helpful and he introduced me to almost all of the other teachers (a lot to remember) and showed me around the school. It is in a nice area with a nice view of the Sierra Nevadas. I saw some of the classrooms and all of the kids were excited to see me and said “Hello! Hello!” I also glanced at the map in the English room and Alaska and North Carolina were outlined…it was very cute. (There is another girl, Alisha, teaching there from North Carolina, so they are excited to have us). Tomorrow is our first official day but I think we are just going to talk about our schedule. I don’t know if I already mentioned this, but I am only working 12 hour days with Fridays off. Pretty nice huh? I am also going to put up signs for private classes tomorrow to make some extra money and have less free time.

Everything at the apartment is going well. I have discovered living with a guy is pretty nice but also very different seeing as he eats all the time. We are all getting along great and keeping a positive, lighthearted attitude about everything we have encountered so far.

I have been to a town called Almuñecar quite a bit this week trying to help Jessi (another CIEE girl who I immediately clicked with), find an apartment. It is a beautiful beach town that’s about 30 minutes from here. I would love to live there but Motril is growing on me more and more every day AND the good news is, it’s very close and I have people there to visit!

That’s all for now. Love to all and keep in touch.
Besos! (ps i finally put pictures on facebook...check them out!)

motril: my new home.

Im here! Im actually living in spain. Actually in my own apartment, in spain. WOW. Its all happened so fast. I feel like I have been here for weeks but it has only been 5 days. I will try to make this short – but so much has happened that its hard. I will go ahead and list the highlights of each day.

Day 1. The beautiful bus ride from Sevilla to Motril led to high expectations and being very let down. Motril is not that pretty, who knew? Meg and I walked through motril STARVING and no places to eat. Motril also completely shuts down from 2 – 4…no tourism, who knew? Oh, also we met up with Andrew – a fellow CIEE teacher who is great and now one of my roommates!

Day 2. Apartment searching begins. And more importantly, searching for the beach. On the way to the beach we met our Romanian friends who not only directed us to the beach but also ended up opening up their home to us, their homemade whiskey, and helping us search and call about apartments. It was a hilarious and great experience. One of them, Pepe, the closest to our age, plans to take us out on Saturday. We are all looking very forward to this and seeing what the nightlife of Motril has to offer.

Day 3. More apartment searching. We saw a place in the morning that we all felt very good about (now our apartment) but wanted to keep options open. We ventured to Salobrena which is a beach town ten minutes from Motril – it is beautiful. And not only a ten minute bus ride away but only 94 cents, to be exact. We all fell in love with Salobrena and plan to visit often. We saw more apartments and decided we would be stupid to pass the one from the morning up – we planned to meet Isabel (our new landlord) in the morning. The night ended by ordering WAY too much food at a bar – apparently waiters in Spain don’t feel the need to tell you when you order enough food for 9 and you only have 3 people. Live & learn.

Day 4. We signed a lease. In Spanish. In Spain. And handed over quite a bit of cash to our landlord. It was a very scary process but we made sure to look over everything in writing before. And here we are! In our apartment! It may look like an 80 year old lives here but in fact, Meg, Andrew and I live here! It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment in the center of Motril…very close to all of our schools. It was a very good price and although our landlord is a little crazy we think that she will be good to us. We got our keys, moved in, bought sheets, groceries, got situated, etc. A huge weight has been lifted and now we only have a few more things to go to become official residents.

Day 5. Things start breaking. So our perfect apartment is not so perfect. We are discovering the stove is very, very slow. The thing that makes hot water isn’t working. And one toilet flushes very, very slowly. Our landlord is already planning a visit to fix things. We are still loving our apartment but are realizing it’s definitely not perfect. Next up: La playa. Now that we have moved in we can relax a little and enjoy where we are before school starts!
I miss all of you and love you so much.
Keep in touch and send me emails!
Mil besos

Also, cell phone number: country code (34) 655 090 580
My address:
Calle Alonso Terron Nº 1
3º D
Motril (Granada) 18600
Spain

sevilla!

Por fin I made it to Sevilla after 13 hours on the night train and lugging my luggage across Madrid and another 2 hour train ride. I was expecting a “bed” on the paris - madrid train but instead I got a reclining chair. I was really upset but I didn’t say anything because well, you all know me. I had such a nice time in Paris and then getting on the train was scary because Spain became so real….

I was really nervous by the time I was in the cab getting to my hotel in Sevilla but once I arrived there and walked around I felt huge relief. I was so happy the orientation was in Sevilla because it was so familiar and felt so good to be back. I was roomed with Meg who is also placed in Motril so we walked around before we had to be back for a “cocktail hour.” It felt like CIEE orientation last year, or freshman orientation, all over again. It was fun but it can be exhausting talking to all of these people and trying to make relationships with them even though you are leaving in three days. Anyway, the next few days were packed full with sessions led by various CIEE staff about the upcoming year. A lot of the information was really good and but a lot of it was pretty useless. We learned about stuff ranging from the health care system in Spain (which is amazing by the way) to what our responsibilities are as a language and cultural assistant. Most of the information made me really excited and anxious to get to my school! I am really happy that I am teaching younger kids (ages 3-12) just based on the information we were getting. By the way, to clarify, it sounds like I definitely will be floating around the school. For example, Monday I could be with the 4^th grade math class and the 5^th grade history class, and Tuesday I will be with the first grade math class, etc. We are almost positive that we won’t be working on Fridays. WOOHOO! They also gave us a lot of information about how to find another job (giving private lessons, translating, bar tending, etc) so I will definitely be trying to do that because I am going to have a lot of free time with only being at the school for 12 hours a week.

They fed us really great food the whole time and took us to a flamenco show and a tour around the Alcazar. Of course I had already seen these many times but it was still great. It was frustrating at night for me because I was used to my routine with my Sevilla friends of going out to certain places but when there is a group of 30 people who don’t know where to go it became frustrating. My last day in Sevilla was the best. We woke up (after 4 hours of sleep) and had our last orientation sessions and a great lunch. I went to the Alcazar and got to see one of my favorite professors, Carlos, from last year. I love listening to him talk; he has so much to teach! Afterwards I ran over to Eva’s to see her. She is back together with her Moroccan boyfriend -- whom Emily and I really loved talking to so it was good to see him. Eva and I drank coffee and caught up – it was really nice. It was also good to talk to her because she is a teacher so it was good to get some insight from her. I was happy I saw her and she told me I am welcome to stay there any time I come through Sevilla, which was really nice. After Eva’s I went to the beautiful river to get a break from all of the Americans and orientation and read my book until sunset. It was very peaceful and brought back a lot of good memories. That night we went to our “farewell dinner” and afterwards Annie (a girl I studied in Sevilla with) and I hung out with a CIEE guide from when we were here. He helped out with the art group I was with in and he also did a lot of our tours around Andalucía -- he is great. We had a really good time drinking cerveza and catching up with him. I went to the hotel very, very happy about my great day in Sevilla. Meg and I packed up our stuff and prepared for our journey to Motril….

I’m here! But more later… (to keep you in suspense!)

paris!

Well, I made it to europe! It feels so good to be back in this beautiful city. The plane ride over was great and easy and luckily we made it on time to Frankfurt and with enough time to catch the train to Paris. I didn’t sleep at all so by the time I made it to Paris I was completely exhausted. But it was so good to see Lauren so I perked up quickly!

As most of you know this is my second time here – I am so lucky! It was pretty overwhelming (in a good way) the first time around but it has been very relaxing this time and I feel more apart of the every day life, which is wonderful. Lauren, my good friend from anchorage, has a beautiful apartment in an incredible area where we can walk to the Seine or the Latin Quarter very, very easily. She has a nice balcony and there are bakeries and markets across the street; it is beautiful!

A few highlights from the trip: the first night we ate dinner at a great Italian (ironic) restaurant down the street and we were joined by two old French men who had just finished at least three bottles of wine and could speak a little English and were very entertaining, to say the least. They gave us (well, Lauren) all of their information in case she needed anything at all. They also shared some very expensive wine with us! They were pretty hilarious. The next day we walked by the Seine, Notre Dame, Luxembourg gardens, through the Latin Quarter -- I was reminded of how much I love this city. We met up with some of Lauren’s Dartmouth friends that night so that was fun. On Tuesday we walked to get chocolate croissants and enjoyed the morning on the balcony and then spent the afternoon walking through Montmartre and by the Sacre Coeur, which is one of my favorite places. It was just as beautiful the second time around. That night we went to a fondue place for dinner that was full of mostly French people and other foreign visitors. There are two long tables that everyone shares together and you can either get cheese or meat (we got both) fondue and then they give you either “rouge” or “blanc” wine in baby bottles. Yes, baby bottles. It was quite strange but hilarious. We made friends with our Belgian and German neighbors and had a wonderful time. We took the short metro ride back to Lauren’s and had some delicious gelato on the walk home! Yum! Today Kime and I walked around Lauren's neighborhood and went to a few museums (the picasso museum was closed) and then we ate delicious sandwiches from a bakery when Lauren got home from her French class! We have just been relaxing and I have been getting my stuff ready to go...

Tonight I will take the night train (13 hours) to Madrid and then I will continue on to Sevilla and arrive in the afternoon. I am getting nervous but also SO excited to be back. I’m so glad orientation is in Sevilla, which you all know I love and am familiar with. I am hoping to meet up with Eva and maybe her parents, which would be nice! I don’t know when I will have internet access again but it should be soon. I hope all is well wherever you all are.

I miss you all and love you LOTS!
bisous (kisses!) from Paris!

FOR PHOTOS : please refer to my facebook because lauren's internet is not fast enough to put up pictures on here. merci!