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Published: October 2nd 2007
My ten month adventure is on a roll,a giant, speed gathering roll. I arrived to Madrid Tuesday the 25th to perfect weather and an optimistic outlook. I flew quite lovely on British Airways with my own tv screen & surprisingly good meals. However it was bloody cold leaving the plane in Gatwick. My hostal was perfectly located in the center of downtown, seconds away from 100s of tapas bars and the awaiting sangria ... of which come to think of it I've had none, shame. Saving that for later I suppose. I arrived to an Australian opening the door to the building who somehow automatically knew I spoke English and began conversing w/ me completely throwing me off and not letting me check exactly what floor my hostal was on....Needless to say, many ups & downs on the elevator later, Mr. Not So Much Matthew McCaughnehay (as he called himself, i kid you not) offered to carry my bags, to which my response was, umm neither of us know where we're going and we're on the third floor, that's just not going to work. Needless to say I found my place. My room was quite small and my bathroom the size of a shoebox, but all very accomodating...minus the rush I was in to clean up after 24 hours of travel and almost falling into the tub only large enough to stand in...let's put it this way, I sat sideways to use to toilet...haha. I later met up with a large group of Auxiliars in Plaza Mayor so as to make some friends and get some of my questions somewhat answered or cleared. There are some interesting characters to say the least, but relatively all very nice people. I joined a group for tapas & canias(properly spelled w/ an ~n..haven't figured that out yet on my computer) and learned a little more about people. That's when the jet lag started to hit in. Another girl (from Knoxville) was feeling the same way so we went phone hunting together. After walking around more than necessary we got a deal on the last two smallest phones possible. Connection to people and rest of the world, check. Rachel (girl from knoxville) showed me her hostal which I had previously considered and though more dormlike it wasn't bad w/ breakfast included, free interent, laundry options, and a great location. We split and I meandered. I found a locutorio close by and began my search. It's a lot different here. I am using two sites where I can search price, neighborhood, and pictures. Everyone is mostly looking for people a tad older, with solid jobs, and a mature composure...I thought I could pull that off...the spanish are smart. I chose not to eat alone, so I chose not to eat ... however when I got back to my hostal, I met two Dutch girls and hit some luck, I had dinner companions. We grabbed some tapas and had great conversation. I spent most of my second day calling people and having very little luck. I ran out of minutes on my phone which was annoying and eventually just decided it would be best to try and find my school. Done deal....an hour on the metro later I was walking through Coslada. I am quite lucky, my school is pretty big and the bilingual teachers are all very nice and very excited about English. I was a bit distraught however that they were expecting girl from Britain as there was already a girl from California working there. Ooopps, my bad. Maybe i'll just fake an accent? I will be assisting first and second grades from Monday til Thursday each week and teaching the teachers with Nikki (fulbright scholar from Cali) on Mondays. Adrienne came to visit and spend Thursday with me which was fantastic as she answered many of my questions. It's so nice to have a friend here who can relate and help. We walked around a lot and she visited a piso with me. I met her adorable room mate who works at this swanky store i'll have to save up some money for. We later met up with Dr. Friis who's here with the Spain group and had some tapas and ca~nas. It was really nice to catch up and hear about what's going on here with the group and talk about Chile. Very comforting to know an established adult that's around too....We were pooped so we stayed in that night and just laughed and reminisced about Chile, oh man those two months were fenomenal...Friday consisted of more piso hunting and thankfully, Nikki from my school had offered to let me come stay with her until I find a place, so I moved out of my hostal and into a temporary piso spot. She and her room mate are super and I've had a great time getting to know them. Nikki took me out with her friends to a very popular area and we had a good time. Her friends were great and very helpful with advice for piso hunting. Saturday was a lot easier as everyone was actually at their piso and allowing people to come during the day as opposed to night. It was also more viscious as more people were out hunting. I saw some nice places and some not so nice places. The difficult part about all of this is that they kind of feel your vibe and then decide later if they'll call you or not. urg. I had an interview with a family who want an auxiliar to live with them for free in exchange that they must teach their children English at least 10 hours a week. It was a really nice place, sort of far from the center though and quite strict so I didn't feel too bad turning it down. I met Adrienne in Mostoles (where she lives) for dinner that night w/ her and her adorable room mate. It was a very entertaining evening as they taught me Spanish slang and I wanted to practice it all by shouting it very loudly. We laughed a lot. I spent Sunday with Nikki's room mate Txe (pronounced Che, like the revolutionary). We had a delicious lunch of things I'd never had before and then she came with me to visit a rather scary piso. I had a lot set up for that day but many people did not answer their phones to confirm or give me directions, so I only ended up seeing a few. I did find the piso of my dreams with some really great room mates who would like to practice and learn English, but they're waiting til Tuesday to make a decision...talk about irritating, but I hope they remember me. I went out for tapas & ca~nas with Txe and we met all sorts of interesting people and had many a laughs about the most random ridiculous things. She's a character, i've enjoyed meeting her. Monday was quite long and tiring, piso hunting can really take it out of a person. I've seen so many different things in so many different areas that it's all running together....I am still quite tired and running low on patience for this piso to turn up, but am very thankful for having a place to stay until a piso comes about. I'm hoping tonight! Veremos. Today we had our orientation which was for everyone. Seeing that many people was kind of overwhelming but realizing that we're from all over the world was pretty neat. I met some cool cats but ended up getting cranky b/c i hadn't eaten anything before arriving and grew very hungry through out the whole thing. We got a lot of things cleared up and taken care of and now I know if I happen to break a bone or obtain some nasty virus I am fully covered with my medical insurance. Priceless. Some of us went to grab lunch and another kid and I split off afterwards to continue our hunt. It's all kinda sticky but I'm looking for things to smooth out soon. If it comes down to it I might get desperate and plead with the landlady of the place I'm staying to allow me to move in.... It's all up in the air for now. Hopefully the following entries will be more vibrant and exciting as I will begin teaching the kiddies tomorrow.....Things are about to pick up and I am looking very forward to it. Vamanos...
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Your Big Sis
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Oh Yeah! Blue eyed girl has a BLOG!
So happy to read all about your adventures. Blaine-O and I are getting ready to make the trek back home. Don't worry I didn't start a Bermuda blog on this journey. How did your first day at school go? Can you post photos on this blog? Hope so! Thanks for all the laughs in your first posting. The Lord has blessed you with a great sense of humor. Please make sure to get enough rest and food so that you can keep up the great attitude and writing such entertaining postings! I look forward to the next one. We all miss and love you so much!