Week one of Málaga

Lugging around luggage. Yes, those words are supposed to be similar. Having one large suitcase, one small suitcase, and an over the shoulder bag is way too much when you keep switching living situations without any form of transportation besides walking.

We arrived in Velez-Málaga on Friday afternoon after a long day of traveling.  Once we get settled into the hotel, Robby and I decide to go find a place for lunch. We end up wandering around this little city without a map and with no clue where we're going. It's a very cute little town and it seems like there are very friendly people here. They definitely observe siesta though, because upon walking back from lunch (around 3:30/4ish) there was hardly a single store open. Which was fine by me. After such a long day of traveling, I welcomed it.

Then began our apartment hunt. We decided that we wanted to definitely live in Torre del Mar instead of Velez-Málaga after the first night here. We went out for tapas/drinks and there was hardly a soul on the street. It becomes a ghost town here on the weekends since everyone goes to Torre then. So starting Saturday, a bunch of us just go around Torre del Mar, walking down every street and calling the number on every "se alquila" sign hanging from balconies. Frustrating but necessary. We probably got an answer 1 out of every 10 numbers we called.  Turns out that there is pretty much a monopoly of real estate angencies on the market so half of the ones we get an answer from are one of these companies.

Sunday we go to one agency and we get to look at a few places. One of them, a house (not a stand alone house, but a house nonetheless)! The price had just been lowered substantially, so it was finally in our price range.  Pictures to come soon. Oh, and did I mention that it's probably about 50 meters or less to the beach?

View from our top terrace

Our living room with our very own fireplace

In our down time, between looking for an apartment, looking for phones, etc. we had some amazing relaxing time on the beach! Is this real life? The water is so clear here. The sand is a little less fine and it's a little more black than the sand from home, but it's still beautiful hot sand.  Of course, I burned a little. But not too much. Hopefully that's a sign that no bad burns will be in my future.

The rest of this week will be moving into our new home and relaxing on the beach. Interspersed with getting ready for my first day of school which will be Monday!

(Photos coming soon. I won't have internet for a couple of days, so I just wanted to get this posted for all of you who read this.)

Orientation: Sevilla

Last week was orientation in Sevilla. Wow, what a whirlwind. Breakfast was super early, then we had seminars all morning until a typical late Spanish lunch. On Tuesday, after the seminars we had a quick tour around the city and saw the Alcazar of Sevilla. (An Alcazar is pretty much the royal hotel for the region). It was absolutely beautiful and reminded me how much I loved the Mudejar style of the Moorish culture that can be found everywhere in Andalucía.

In this particular Alcazar, the Catholic King (I don't remember which one), was so fascinated by the Mudejar style that he had this part of the Alcazar modeled completely after the Moorish style.

After the Alcazar visit, we had a quick tour around the city, seeing the main sights. And by quick, I mean real quick like. We pretty much just passed all the main sights, hardly stopping to even take a picture. I feel like everything orientation week was done in this fashion. But it is still a beautiful city.





Wednesday was full of more classes. Good seminars on how to incorporate our culture into the classroom, what was expected of us in our jobs, and a quick Spanish review. Then we had a meeting with a couple of people who did this program last year and we got some good tips from them. Then in the evening we saw a Flamenco show! I love Flamenco. The guitarist was so great and the dancer danced with such emotion and power (not to mention lightning fast footwork).

Thursday after our seminar classes, we finally had free time. But of course, this free time was not used to catch up on sleep or slow down the pace. Instead, we went to the Cathedral for a tour. Luckily, since we have student ID cards from the University of Sevilla (through CIEE), it was free for us. We headed up to the tower of the cathedral and had a beautiful 360 degree view of the city. After the cathedral visit, we kept going and saw the Plaza de España which was gorgeous!

There was absolutely no down time this week. Even in our "down time" we didn't use it as such. What a whirlwind. Even though I did so much in the city, I feel like I hardly saw it. I'll probably end up going back at some point. But for now, I'm glad orientation is over and that I can start to get to know Málaga.

Bienvenidos a Madrid!

Flight out of JFK: 10:05pm
Arrival in Madrid: 11:10am

Where did all the time go? Yay for time change and jet jag.

Anyway, my flight here was smooth and without any problems. I even slept on the plane, which for me is a pretty big deal. Upon arriving however, I had no clue where I was staying and did not have any phone or Internet service. Back up a week or so: my friend Robby has a good friend who lives in Madrid and said we could stay with her. Both Robby and I tried to contact her about details of meeting her and where she lived. No response. I kept my fingers crossed that she would get back to me before arriving, but no such luck. So I buy a phone card and call the parents. My mom braves facebook for me (she did a great job with it surprisingly) and finds a hostel for me. Quite a stressful time, but I finally made it to a hostel and settled in (and took a nap).

That evening I had the pleasure of meeting up with Teresa and her boyfriend and they took me around the city for some tapas and cañas. It felt so good to be back here. I missed it so much and it just felt so natural and comfortable.

This morning I woke up at 8am (2am EST) to meet Robby at the airport so he didn't have to go through what I went through. It is so good to have someone going on this adventure by my side. It makes it a lot less scary. We walked around the city today. No maps needed. This was our home for 4 months. It's still surreal to be here. It's almost as if we never left (minus the lack of some important people- Trinity, Laura, David...). Anyway, like I mentioned before, it's so comfortable and natural to be here.

     Last time in Spain                       This time in Spain        

This evening, Robby and I met up with Robby's friend, Kaeli. She apparently didn't get any of our messages since she can only access the internet through her phone. We walked around the city some more and she took us to La Tabacalera. This place had once been an old tobacco factory in the Lavapies district, but for a long time it was just an abandoned old building. The government then gave the building to the community so now you can go there and take free classes such as yoga or art, etc. and some nights (like tonight) they had a free concert that was very interesting and fun techno music. I can't believe I didn't know about this place when I was here before. I would have loved it. Oh well, I loved being there tonight, if only for a few minutes.

Tomorrow we head off to something new, Sevilla! Exciting times ahead!

Two years later...

I remember 2 years ago sitting at the Philly airport waiting for my plane to take me to Spain.  This would be my first time so far away from home, but I was ready for it. And scared for it. Sitting alone in the waiting room, I listened to the conversations around me. Some people were on their phone for business, some people looked just as scared as I did (or maybe they were just bored). But in particular, there was this one loud family sitting right next to me. Although they most definitely were not speaking English.  I listened in, trying to figure out what they were saying. After all, I was going to Spain and going to be surrounded by this foreign language for months, why not start now? However, my nerves rose to a whole new level when I had a close to impossible time figuring out what they were saying. I was starting to freak out. Maybe I wasn't ready for this. Maybe I couldn't make my way through Spain for 4 months. After I got ahold of my nerves though, I realized that they were speaking Italian, which made me feel a whole lot better. I could understand a word here and there, but I wasn't expected to understand a whole other foreign language that I had never learned. And so that adventure commenced. On the flight I sat next to a Spaniard who had done his studies in Chicago and was on his way home. He encouraged me to practice my Spanish and was so helpful with just getting my confidence up. "Okay, I can actually do this." I thought. That was what I needed, the encouragement and confidence to take this huge step into the unknown.

That was two years ago.

The title of this blog is an excerpt from my favorite spanish poem by Mother Teresa, La Vida Es.  As I begin this new adventure, there are things that I could be terrified about. "Will I be able to understand people?" "Will I be able to connect with others even with the language barrier?" "Will I miss home too much?" and the most pressing concern at the moment, "Will I be able to pack everything within the 50lb limit?" There are plenty more concerns about the future, too many to put words to. But it's worth it. I'm about to start this great new chapter in my life. I will change, I will grow, I will learn; all because of this wonderful adventurous risk.