Elli's birthday dinner
My room!!
My cute bed!
My own bathroom. Amazing.
Huge closet with full length mirrors. Yay!
Teresa's birthday dinner in our living room
Beginning of the year party at Elli's apartment
So I guess I will just start off from when I got home from Sevilla.... the Saturday I got home from Sevilla, I had already moved my bags to my piso (apartment) but had not really met any of my roommates. When I toured the apartment, Cynthia was there but I didn't really get to talk to her because I was talking to Javier (my landlord). So Saturday night, I met Teresa, Elina, and Cynthia. I have to tell you, I love my apartment and the area I live in. Elli originally saw this place and told me about it when she found out I was looking for apartments in the Chamberí neighborhood. The landlords (Javier & Isabel) are Spaniards and they are new owners (and they are SO nice and so excited about being landlords) - so my roommates and I are the first people to live in my apartment. Everything is brand new - which is amazing. It is a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom apartment which is unheard of in Spain and it's pretty spacious. My room in Sevilla and a lot of the apartments that I saw when I was apartment hunting were just a bed in a room with maybe a desk, and maybe a dresser. Usually in most Spanish apartments you can lay on the bed and touch at least 2-3 walls when you reach your arms out. So I just got super lucky because I love where I live. My roommates are fun too - Elina is from Teluz, France and she is learning to speak Spanish and has a little English, haha so it's funny watching us communicate. Teresa is from Portugal and she speaks Portugese, Spanish, and English. Cynthia is from Portugal as well and she speaks fluent Spanish and English really well because her family spoke both at home. I practice speaking Spanish with Cynthia but when I'm tired it's nice because she can speak English too. I have lunch with Elina most of the time because our schedules have us home for lunch - and its funny because she uses a mix of Spanish, English, and French. Sometimes we sit at lunch and I will look up words on google translate as we are talking because I have no idea what she is saying. The other day I was making lunch and she came in the kitchen and she was like, "Donde buy a dossier?" I was like, "Really?!" (Where do I buy a folder?)
The start of school has been really good. I really like my school and the teachers I work with. We go on coffee break at recess and I get to practice my Spanish with them 4 days a week during this break. On Fridays, I have yard duty so I am on the playground with the kids (which is not a playground but a rooftop with rubber on it and plastic baby sets). September is really relaxed in Spain because all of August most everyone in Spain goes on vacation for the month and so during September they are just trying to get back in their routines. Also because there is no AC at school - it's too hot to have school all day, so we have half days for the entire month of September and June, which has been so nice. I'm bummed it's gonna be October on Tuesday. So at school, I have been doing maybe 2 English lessons a day with the 4 and 5 year olds, this involves a semi-circle time and maybe a vocabulary activity or movement game. So it's been really easy going and I'm really just getting to know the kids and their routines. Our unit for the next 6 weeks is back to school, classroom supplies (which is really boring and non-motivating for 4-5 year olds). I just got my new schedule for October through May and I will be teaching 5-7 English lessons a day for 45mins each to the 3, 4, and 5 yr old classes. So school goes from 9am-12:15, 2:30-5 but on Fridays I get out early. I'm still trying to figure out working with the extra curricular program and private lessons for a little extra money, so my schedule is still up in the air at this point.
I was a little annoyed that I have a 2.5 hour break for lunch and siesta in the middle of the day. But it's so Spanish. So I'm just gonna go with it and learn to embrace it because there is really nothing I can do about it. And I can't be a brat because I have a school in the city center, so I have the luxury of going home during my break if I want to. Other people who have an hour commute each way, have no choice but to stay at school and just not get paid for that time. And I do realize that I can't get everything I want.
When I would go to Fox every summer, at cabin time each night, we would do highs & lows (or pits & peaks - whatever you want to call it) so I decided for this blog update I would do first month highs & lows...
5 Highs
5. Siesta!! - I'm actually not having as hard of a time taking siesta and resting as I did when I got to Sevilla. When I was abroad in Sevilla, it took me months to actually rest. Maybe it's because I'm older and less anxious to do everything right now, but it's nice to be able to slow down for a part of the day and just take time for me. I literally sleep during siesta every day when I'm done with school and lunch. It will be interesting to see how I'm gonna work in a long siesta (2-3hr siesta) when I have full school days and such. But for right now, it's great because I am well rested and enjoying the time I have.
4. Our ikea trip - HA! So last weekend I was not feeling very well on Saturday but Sunday I felt better so Elli, Maury, and I went to Ikea. First of of all, it takes an hour to get there on the metro each way because it is very far away. So our 6 hour trip resulted in a lot of things we all needed to get: I got towels and sheets for my room, a bathmat, an extra pillow, and random other things. AND ikea has plastic baggies. If you have been to Europe you know: ziploc plastic bags are like gold. People aren't wasteful so they just don't use ziploc plastic bags. It is just not something that exists. Usually I bring a ton but this time, I ran out of weight room for my luggage and I felt clothes/shoes and meds were more important than plastic bags so you should have seen my excitement. But we also had a whole ordeal at ikea that was not funny at the time but its funny now. So basically it's a huge pain because if you want to use your credit card in europe you need to show your passport as ID and even so sometimes your CC won't work because it doesn't have a "chip" in it. But none of us are stupid enough to carry around our passports to use our credit cards, because it's just not safe. Elli actually carries around a color copy of her passport page and it works pretty much everywhere. And we were at ikea so we knew we would be spending a good amount of money. And everything was fine up until we went to pay... So Maury went first to pay and the teller was that the end of her shift and kinda made a stink about her just having her driver's license but then Maury offered up different credit cards and the checker finally just let it go so we thought we were in the clear. BUT it was the end of her shift so they switched tellers (and let me mention both tellers were girls) and Elli was next so she showed her driver's license and passport photo copy and then this teller chick was just being mean and difficult and made a huge stink about not taking the copy of her passport unless it had an official stamp. So we were arguing with the lady and Elli said she had a pin on her credit card and asked if she would be able to use that. So the girl ran her credit card through but the pin number didn't come up, and but the signature box did. Then this teller girl was still yelling and being difficult about not having our passports but the signature box was just sitting there begging to be signed. -So Elli whispered to me and was like, "Should I just sign it?" And I was like, "Yes." So she did and then the teller got all mad and was like "I told you not to sign it. I told you not to do it!!" Then she called her supervisor over and her supervisor gives us this lecture on how we have to have a passport as ID and it's the law in Spain and when she goes to America she has to follow US laws. So she entered item by item to return Elli's stuff. They were just mad and they could have let it go but didn't. And this story makes us sound like a pain and a little ignorant but its stupid to carry around your passport or 100 euros in cash, you are begging to be robbed. Anyways so we had to scrounge up enough money between all of us to buy mine and Elli's stuff with cash, thank goodness I brought a few extra euro bills. What a mess. But it was funny afterwards because the lady was dumb and mad. I'm glad we went though because I've been wanting a bathmat and towels so bad!!
3. Birthdays and celebrations - It's always fun to celebrate anything so it was Elli's birthday 2 weeks ago and Teresa's birthday was this past week. About 5 of the BEDA girls went out to dinner for Elli's birthday at this place near the Noviciado metro stop called Con 2 Fogones. It was low key but super fun because when we sang happy birthday the whole restaurant sang with us. And it was nice to compare stories about our first few days of school. This past week it was Teresa's birthday (my portugese roommate) and so we made dinner at our house and she invited a few of her friends from school over. It was awesome because Elina doesn't have class in the morning and so we all got home from school/work and there were like 7-8 dishes all over the kitchen counter of cut up vegetables. She cut them up so that we could make Ratatouille for that night because she was getting home later. It turned out to be really good and Teresa made rice (but it was a little mushy, which was funny) to go with the Ratatouille. Elli also had a beginning of the year party with her roommates at their piso on Friday night - which was fun because we got to meet Elli's spanish roommates and their friends and they were all super fun. I left my house and drank coffee at midnight and got home at 7am. So Spanish.
2. Getting my NIE & bank account - An NIE stands for Número de Identidad de Extranjero - basically it's a tax identification number. Why do you ask am I happy about Spain taking taxes from me? An NIE number & card is basically like a ID card/driver's license too without the license to drive part. So I can carry around my NIE and use my credit card and not need to carry around my passport (which is a lot safer, but it is a pain if I lose my NIE too). But getting an NIE and bank account means that I am really living here and I'm really getting to do this (pinch myself!). Not that it doesn't feel real without those things but I think because I have traveled to Europe on vacation and because it's still so new (I've been here almost a month now), it still isn't as real yet. My NIE and bank account just make me feel like I am actually a resident of Spain and that I'm living everything that I wished for.
1. Fresh air - I get to walk to school as the sun comes up, how many of you can say that? It's pretty awesome and I love being able to walk or take the metro any where. Have I mentioned, I don't miss sitting in LA traffic especially downtown on a Friday afternoon. I think walking and fresh air is good for my soul because I feel a thousand times less stressed and less intense. Also, I have this huge window in my room that lets a ton of light and fresh air in so it's awesome. And the weather has been great so I haven't even noticed that we have no air conditioning (which is pretty standard in all of europe - when I need air conditioning, I hang out in corte ingles, zara, and carrefour).
5 Lows
5. American Airlines - Originally, the program coordinator of BEDA, Samantha, sent us an email saying that our winter break would end around/on December 24th but it differs for all over our schools. So when I bought my round trip ticket to come home at Christmas, I still didn't have my school calendar dates and just booked it for the 24th of December. I should have just booked it for the weekend before because the 24th is a Tuesday and it doesn't really make sense to come to school just for that Monday but whatever. So I called American Airlines trying to change my flight to go home a few days earlier and it's $275 minimum to change a flight. AND THAT IS HIGHWAY ROBBERY. And once again I hate American Airlines. They have such poor customer service but they are super cheap and I flew them all through college so we have miles with them. Remind me that I hate them next time I want to buy a cheap flight. So I won't be home until Christmas Eve, but I have a week for break so I will get to be home a little bit.
3. Laundry - There are really simple things that I realize, I don't know how to do in Europe. And while Manoli and Mary Alice took such good care of me in Sevilla - there are things that I just never had to do or learn to do because I was so well taken care of. Things like doing my own laundry. I don't know how to do this because every two weeks Manoli would give us a baby trash bag to put our clothes in and she would do it for us. Learning how to use a european washing machine is a whole different ball game. First of all laundry machines are baby small and I'm always afraid that I'm gonna overstuff it. Second of all, they are pretty finicky. My washing machine is so finicky and you choose the number of spin cycles (I think 400-1000), and then the temperature in celsius, and the the amount of time. My roommates have been helpful with this but even on the same settings my washing machine will constantly flash and not start and its brand new. And thirdly, I didn't even know how to buy/what to buy for detergent and softener. Elli's solution to everything is just put a lot of softener in the washing machine and everything will fine.
My CRAZY washing mashing just flashing and not wanting to start.
2. Feeding myself and going to the market. Another thing I never learned how to do in Europe because Manoli always cooked for us and fed us so well. With homestay, we got 3 meals a day/everyday and Manoli always made so much food and made me fish, or salad, or tortilla, or paella, and it was really well balanced. She always used to say, "It's not good for your body if you eat the same thing all the time." So she would make a variety of veggie friendly food for me. I also have never been much of a cook. At home, I can make pasta and eggs, and hashbrown casserole, and veggie chili and canned soup, and caprese, tacos/mexican food, and I pretty much eat a lot of frozen food too. But going to the market is such a chore here!! I literally drag my carry-on rolly bag to the market (Día or Lidl or Carrefour) and only can buy what fits in it. Then I have to walk home for a few blocks, its annoying dragging all that stuff home, so you have to make multiple trips. I feel like I go to the market daily because its cheaper to eat at home too. This is tedious and bothersome because in the US, I like to shop at Ralphs or Vons like once every month and then I am there for like 3 hours but I only have to do it once. The things I have made myself to eat so far: fried eggs, tuna sandwiches, pasta with grated cheese on it, cheese sandwiches, pasta with corn and peas and balsamic vinegar in it (questionable), soup with chicken broth and pasta noodles (semi-chicken noodle), brie with crackers. I need to work on this because I feel like eating 1-2 eggs a day is bad for my cholesterol and I need to eat more/different things. I looked up a lentil soup recipe because you can buy lentils here. I might attempt that. Fish is also questionable when it is frozen but I just might have to get over that and when you buy it fresh it sometimes has espinas (spines) and you have to de-bone it yourself. I'm working on it though. If you have ideas of what to make, tell me!!!
1. Simple cultural things - There are incredibly simple cultural differences that are actually not so simple that kind of just drive you crazy and make you have culture shock. And I'm sure these things will get easier over time, because eventually I didn't notice them or let them bother me anymore when I was in Sevilla, but some of them I never will understand. First, opening doors - I never have had such a hard time with this in Spain. Not in Sevilla, not in Barcelona, not anywhere in Andalusia. The doors in Madrid are the opposite from the US, you push away from you to go in and pull towards you to get out. Whatever it is, its the opposite from what I'm used to and my motor plan is all wrong and it drives me nuts because I always look dumb and stuck and look like I'm fighting with the door. Second is not refrigerating things. The other day I can home and Teresa & Elina had made chicken and left it out on the pan on the stove WITHOUT A COVER AND WITHOUT REFRIGERATING IT. It sat there all night and I was expecting it to be in the trash that evening. BUT NO. Teresa put it with vegetables and ate it for dinner the next day. I about died sitting next to her. My roommates don't understand how I want to just refrigerate everything too. I don't think I will every get used to that. And I'm a germaphob so things can't get moldy (my biggest fear) or flies (I don't mess with flies since I got salmonella in Honduras) and so everything is covered and goes in the fridge.
Yuck!!!
Also Elina does not understand why I buy bottled water. I just don't trust the tap. It's safe and people drink it but not like America safe and purified, but I will drink it from time to time when I'm out a restaurant, or someone's house, or really thirsty but I don't prefer it. Third - paper products, things like toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, and tissue are available but they cost more and they are just not widely used. When you go to restaurants they give you these flimsy half paper half I don't know what plasticky type napkins that are super thin and smaller than the size of a baby cell phone. And these Spanish napkins, they are not useful and you end up using like 10 to wipe your hands so it would just be way more efficient to give you 1 regular soft, square, paper napkin. 4th - watery lotion/bath soap, again I didn't have to encounter this last time because I brought industrial size shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and body soap from costco in my bags but yet again I ran out of weight in my luggage so that just wasn't possible. But body soap and lotion in Spain is super watery. I don't understand why and it doesn't really make you feel clean. You need to buy "body milk" if you want regular thickness of lotion consistency. And I just splurged and bought Nivea body wash which is a german brand but the consistency is better.
Don't buy this watery stuff from carrefour
Elina hanging up clothes out on the clothes/hanging line
Things have been really good, and I can't wait to update next on new adventures, my Madrid bucketlist, and how my school schedule and really getting to teach is. I'm sorry these past 2 blog posts were so long and it has been a while since I've written. So if you read until the end and are reading this now, I apologize and I will really try to keep up better. Miss & love you all!!
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