Almendralejo, Appetition & Agendas

I am nearing the end of another great weekend! It is hard to believe how quickly time is going by- I have already been here for 5 weeks. I took a trip to Almendralejo with Angela for Friday and Saturday. We took a train after finishing up our clases particulares (private English lessons/tutoring). It was my first train ride in Spain! The train station in Mérida is less than 5 minutes from my piso and the prices are comparable to taking a bus, so I am sure it will not be my last! One surprising thing I found out is that the trains almost always run late, which is the complete opposite of buses here- running a couple minutes behind often means the bus will be long gone when you walk up.

Most of our group from Friday night :)

We stayed with Sophie, an auxiliar from England, for the weekend. I had met her at orientation, so it was fun to catch up again. On Friday night she organized a get-together with the other auxiliares in town. We went for drinks and tapas at 2 different places then headed out to a bar. On Saturday a few of us girls went shopping. I found a jacket that will be perfect for in-between weather (too chilly for just a light cardigan, but not cold enough for a wool coat). I also bought a few scarves for 2€ each! ...speaking of these things, it is starting to cool down here. Considering summer stuck around until Oct 20th I know I cannot complain that it is over, but I will say that it still took me by surprise. It almost seemed like summer would last forever!

Exploring Almendralejo

This afternoon Angela's host family had me over for lunch. A few others from our church were there as well, so it was a pretty large group. The meal consisted of a Columbian salad, the Spanish equivalent of pork chops, 2 kinds of potatoes (some with herbs in a buttery garlic sauce & the others with ham in a creamier sauce), fresh bread, a rich raspberry custard (that's probably not the right word, but I'm not sure how else to describe it), assorted fresh fruit, and coffee. Everything was so good, and needless to say I was very full when I left. They slowed down their Spanish so we could understand them better, which was very nice. As long as I remained focused, I could understand a lot, but when my concentration slipped, I had to have Angela fill me in. I actually understood more towards the end of the lunch because during the beginning I kept forgetting to concentrate on the Spanish instead of just relax. ...Angela and I are planning to cook them a Thanksgiving meal, which I am really looking forward to doing. It probably will not be on Thanksgiving Day, but sometime that week. If anyone has Spanish-ingredient-friendly holiday recipes, please share!

I did not take a picture of our meal, but here's a similar version of our main dishes.

Since I have only posted about the primary school, you are probably wondering how the secondary is going, but to be honest, I am still figuring that out! Here's a breakdown of how my first week at the secondary school went:
Day 1- Met my tutor, the principal, and a few other teachers.
Day 2- Attended an English department meeting. This was when & where my schedule was made. I do not have any Tuesday afternoon classes, so I was able to go home after the meeting. I will be working with 4 different English teachers, and I will only be seeing each class one time per week.
Day 3- School holiday, no classes.
Day 4- This would have been my first and only real day at the school. However, I ended up being pretty sick so I was not there for very long.
Day 5- I have Fridays off every week, so this does not really count towards my work-week.
Tomorrow starts week 2 there, so I will be getting a better feel for it soon.

My secondary school

I only ended up being at the school for an hour the entire week, and I only met once class of students. Students were allowed to ask me questions about myself, but they had to do it in English. They were a bit shy to use their English in front of me, so they only came up with 3 questions:

1- What part of the U.S. are you from?

2- Do you like Spain?

3- Do you like Spanish boys? (haha, I guess that student wasn't so shy...)

I actually came close to having a 4 day weekend, but ended up with a 3 day weekend plus Tuesdays off. Definitely a good schedule, even though I cannot use the extra free day towards traveling :/ For both of my schools, I will start late on Monday & end early on Thursday, so I really can’t complain! Here is a breakdown of things worked out:

	Primary	Secondary
Mon	11:00-2:00	10:20-2:20
Tues	10:00-2:00	---
Wed	11:00-1:15	8:30-2:20
Thurs	9:00-1:15	8:30-12:40

My plans for the upcoming break have changed! Guess where I'll be going for my 5 day weekend?? Other auxiliares, how will you be spending our first long break?

Airline Tickets: Check.

My plans were already official, but now, it seems even more real- I bought my one-way ticket for Sept. 15th!! I've checked on flight prices a few times, and although they haven't changed much, something else caught my attention- one of the many available flights for under 500 was a DIRECT FLIGHT :) Just one. I previously planned to keep an eye on prices for a few wks, but I know I'd regret saving the small bit of money if a direct flight was no longer available (last time I flew to Spain, I had TWO layovers ...no gracias).

Typically, one-way tickets are not much cheaper than round-trip. I recently found out about 2 discount websites for "Youth" (ages 16-26) airline tickets: Student Universe & STA Travel. Both are similar to Expedia or Travelocity type sites. There may be more out there, but these are the 2 I know of... I'll describe my experience with each company incase anyone reading is looking to travel soon.

Student Universe I learned about because other participants in my program purchased their tickets here. It seemed like a great place to find cheap flights from the U.S. to Europe. This is where I first found my flight, but had to get my age verified as under 26 before being allowed to purchase the ticket. I was only put on hold when I tried calling, and I also emailed them 2 days ago, around 1pm. They responded tonight with an email including "It looks like you were looking for a ticket to Madrid but didn't end up finalizing your order. Would $15 off your ticket change anything?" ...Two full days seems a bit long for a booking agency, but maybe your prices improve as you wait it out? 


STA Travel had the same flight for essentially the same price. I found out about the site Thurs. night as I was waiting to hear back from Student Universe. I contacted them Fri. morning, and they were very prompt, organized and helpful. There was a $7 booking fee, but that's not a big deal. (I do not know if Student Universe has a booking fee). ...This company also sells International Student Identity Cards (ISIC) & International Youth Travel Cards (IYTC, under 26), which provide some additional discounts while traveling.

As a recent grad who doesn't have a ton of money, I will continue to search both sites for future travel. A good price is my biggest concern. If I can find a much better deal on Student Universe, I would not be against booking with them in the future; however, I do plan to start with STA Travel next time.


Here are the prices of my flight (including taxes & fees), if you'd like a reference point:
STA Travel: $439
Student Universe: $443 
Travelocity: $728
Expedia: $728
Orbitz: $728
Aer Lingus: $728
United: $2,692 
...on all of the flight search type sites, this flight shows up as a United flight, operated by Aer Lingus, which is why I added those two. (A round-trip flight returning on a random day is $750 on United (unless you want a refundable ticket ...making it 3,300?), but I plan to return in June, which is too far in advance for a RT ticket) ...basically, I'm very excited I qualify for "youth" status :) 


Once I get to Madrid I plan to take a train to Mérida (or possibly a bus). It will take about 5 hrs, due to several stops along the way, and cost about $30. 

Gold lines are regular train routes, Purple lines also offer the high-speed trains

My flight will arrive early on a Friday morning, which should make me available for whatever the train schedule happens to be. I've already been narrowing down my list of hotels/hostals for my first few days, so I may book that soon too. I'll probably take a couple days to explore the area while I get a feel for where I'd like to live!