Last Days of "Vacation" Before Working

Apartment searching in Spain was far less intimidating than I expected :) One of my biggest concerns before I got here was finding housing, but it turned out there were TONS of options, so I had nothing to worry about! You can use your other senses to find what you want, which you cannot do for things such as setting up internet or opening a bank account. I talked with a few other auxiliares about housing over the summer. One of them, Jessa, had contacted a realtor about 2 she saw online. I arrived a few days earlier than her, so I was able to look at them and send her pictures. This made things move a bit faster once she arrived. Our favorite had an extra room; shortly after arriving I met Mariana, an auxiliar from Puerto Rico, so she was able to join up with us. Jessa’s boyfriend Patrick is also in Spain this year, so there are 4 of us total. Our piso is in a great location & it’s a nice size. So far the landlord has been on top of taking care of things when we ask, which is a good sign incase other things come up.

This is the view from my bedroom window! 

What’s the next step after moving in to a new apartment in a foreign country? TAKE A VACATION!! Well, not always, but that’s what I did! I wanted to take advantage of having a few days off before work starts, so Mariana and I went to Lagos, Portugal. It was a great time to go to the beach, because it was still sunny everyday. Lagos has the prettiest beaches out of any I have visited, and we explored a new little beach near our hostel each day. We met a few others our age, mainly from Germany, so it was fun to hang out with them a bit too. Our bus ride was a bit long, but it was well worth the trip! On the way down we had to switch buses in Sevilla (there’s not a bus straight to Lagos from my city), and so we got the chance to walk around a bit and eat lunch in a cafe. Mariana and I had both been to Sevilla in the past, so it was fun to reminisce.

Mariana and I in Lagos

The past 2 days we had our orientation in Cáceres, an hour north of Mérida. Most of the information they gave us was pretty basic, but I enjoyed exploring a new city. Cáceres has an old section with lots of beautiful, medieval architecture. Their main plaza is huge and the city as a whole seems like it’d be a fun place to live. (Badajoz, Cáceres, and Mérida are the 3 largest cities in my region of Extremadura.) All of the auxiliares from Extremadura were there; I think there are about 100 of us. There are a lot more in Mérida than I realized: 2 from France, 1 from Puerto Rico, 1 from England, 1 from Canada, and 4 from the US. In addition to my roommates, I spent a lot of time with Fachon (French) and Jess (English), so we spoke in all Spanish because that was our common language. It was neat to use so much Spanish because I speak a lot of English with my roommates, and the 3 of us were at a similar level of Spanish.

I haven't uploaded any Cáceres pictures yet, so here's another picture from Portugal :)

Things here in Spain are moving along pretty smoothly so far. My main frustration has been that I wish my Spanish was better; however, I know that will improve with time. It can be easy to forget how much progress I’ve made with the language when I'm speaking with native speakers. The most beneficial thing I took away from orientation was realizing that my Spanish is decent.

Getting Started

I have only been here a week, but so much has already happened! Getting settled in has been far less overwhelming than I anticipated. Other than a few small rough spots, things are coming together great. Here’s an overview of my first week in Spain:

Traveling: It went well overall, but was a lot of waiting! My plane was delayed almost 5 hours. On the bright side, this allowed me to meet a fellow auxiliar of Extremadura (Anna, near Cáceres) & a girl (Rachel) who is doing a TESOL program in Barcelona. About 2 hrs before our 10:00 pm departure, I thought I overheard those 2 girls talking about teaching English, so I went over & talked with them. All afternoon I had been hoping I'd be able to find another auxiliar on my flight! Having them to hang out with made the time pass by more quickly. After we landed, Anna and I figured out the Aerocity shuttle together. We weren't on the same shuttle, and unfortunately I had to wait quite a bit for mine to arrive, but otherwise it was a pretty smooth process. I got to the bus station just in time for the 2:30 bus, except that it was sold out. And so was the 4:30 bus. BUT I got a ticket for the 6:30 one. This one happened to be an express bus, so it was faster- only 2 stops between Madrid & Badajoz!

Welcome: Two of the auxiliares I had met over the summer, Nikki & Elliot, let me stay with them in Badajoz when I first arrived. It was awesome to see them waiting at the bus station as I pulled in & to have others to show me around and hangout with during my first days back in a foreign county. I cannot imagine how lonely I might have felt if I was in Spain all by myself for those first few days. Their piso is really nice too- it has an awesome, large patio & plenty of space inside.

Mérida: On Saturday, the 3 of us took a day trip to Merida to explore. I though about checking out a piso or two, but most places are only shown on weekdays. It did help to get a feel for the city though. I really like Mérida so far. There are Roman ruins everywhere, which gives it a different feel and appearance than most cities.  There are also more than enough plazas and parks, as well as plenty of stores, cafes, and restaurants. It is a great size too- both in terms of physical size and amount of people (UNLESS it is during siesta). The city is very walkable, and overall you can walk from one place to another more quickly than I anticipated from looking over google maps. However, when you are crossing the river, those bridges are longer than they appear!

Badajoz: On Sunday Nikki and Elliot gave me a tour of Badajoz. We spent a good portion of the day exploring the Alcazaba (an old castle). It also has a larger business atmosphere than Mérida, but there are still several plazas, fountains, and walkways lined with trees. Their city is a little bigger than mine & it’s fun to compare the two. Despite a few differences, I would definitely consider both of our cities to be good placements for the auxiliar program. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, there were randomly fireworks one night, and we had a pretty good view from their terrace!

Settling in: Monday morning I took a bus over to Mérida. Unfortunately, by the time I checked into my hostel, it was already siesta so I was not able to purchase a phone from the store. I wandered around, jotting down numbers of pisos for rent and taking pictures of sites I’d missed on Saturday. In the afternoon I met up with one of the teachers I’ll be working with at the primary school. He told me about Mérida, the school, the students, and answered several questions I had. He spent a few years in London, so his English is very good- we probably spoke about 40% Spanish and 60% English. He showed me around the city a bit and went with me to get my phone. It was awesome that he was there because the particular store I went to wouldn’t accept just a passport & I didn’t have my letter from the Junta de Extremadura with me (that letter is almost as good as gold as I’m setting everything up as a foreigner!) 

As the week has progressed, other auxiliares have been showing up. So far I have met 4 others, some of whom will be my roommates! The past 2 days have been much more enjoyable since I have had fun people to explore the city with. Not that Monday and Tuesday were bad, but there's only so much you can do by yourself before you get bored. I am definitely happy to be back in Spain & I'm very excited about this upcoming year! I will miss everyone back home, but I’m sure the time will go by very fast.

[I wanted to write about the piso search process too, but I’ll save that for another day because this post is already very long. SPOILER ALERT: tomorrow is moving day :) ]

¿Hablas español?

My most recent Spanish course ended in May of 2009, so when I applied to the NALCA program 8 months ago, I knew that I had some catching up to do. As the year continued, I found several practical ways to improve my Spanish:

1. Spanish music- Listening to this is a fun, simple change to make. My drives are now about 90% en español, unless I have others in the car with me.
   
   
2. Spanish podcasts- My favorite series is called Nómadas in which the host spends 55 min. talking about a city somewhere in the world & interviews several people with connections to that place throughout the show. This is great b/c it exposes me to various accents & I love learning about the different destinations.
   
   
   
3. conjuguemos.com- I do not think I appreciated how helpful this site was for brushing up on verb forms when my high school Spanish teacher made us use it for hw assignments. I had forgotten so much, especially with irregular verbs, but this is a quick & easy way to bring that info back. ...verb conjugations (or lack thereof) were the main thing to slow me down at the beginning of my study abroad semester, so I'm NOT trying to have the same problem twice!
   
   
4. CanalExtremadura offers many media forms including radio, TV, and newspaper articles. My favorite part is watching the daily news segment (about 45 min.) from Extremadura. It is especially helpful b/c it covers a wide range of vocab, includes a variety of newscasters & exposes me to the local pronunciation/accent, although news anchors tend to enunciate better than the people you run into on a daily basis. During meals when I studied abroad, my Spanish host family usually had the news on (or the occasional telenovela or fútbol match), so this seems like a practical way to learn the language.
   
    
5. Reading children's novels in Spanish- I am currently on La Casa en Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros about a girl whose parents immigrated to the U.S. The most beneficial method I have found is to read for the general idea, while underlining unfamiliar vocab. At the end of the chapter, I will look up the words & write them in the margin. Later I can flip through past chapters & quiz myself on the vocab by covering up the margin. ...others I have read are La telearaña de Carlota (Charlotte's Web) & Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal. Reading books you have previously finished in English can be a good way to start. And again, I try to cover a variety of topics to better increase my vocab.
   
   
6. Reading out loud- This aids pronunciation & helps me to pick up new words more quickly.
   
   
7. quizlet.com- This is a site of electronic flashcards. What's neat is that you can make your own flashcard sets (I made one for piso searching terms) or use 1 of the 1,000s of sets made by other users (there's one of 250 Spanish verbs I really like- 501 is just too many at one time!) They also offer a couple vocab games in addition to straight-up flashcard review.
   
   
8.  livemocha.com- Essentially this is a Spanish textbook in Internet form, including video dialogs, vocab & grammar exercises, and quizzes, PLUS it lets you submit writing prompts & audio recordings to native speakers of Spanish for critiquing. (In return students learning English submit similar assignments to you for feedback.) Unfortunately this one isn't free, but I was able to get an extremely discounted 1 year subscription using a Groupon :) ...and a 1 week trial happens to be free!
   
   
9. Using old Spanish textbooks to review.
   
   
10. Speaking with the Ecuadorian exchange students at work. This is probably my favorite form of practice, though I sometimes don't take advantage of it since they all know/are studying English...but I have been making more of an effort here in the past few weeks!

All-in-all I have TONS of resources at my fingertips & I have actually made fairly good use of them, despite my lack of regular Internet access this summer. Now that lots of auxiliares are finding each other's blogs I thought it would be a good time to share my resources!

The Excitement Continues!

Several things came together this week to make me more prepared & even more excited to go to Spain this fall!

I finally met some of the participants in my program, who will also be in Extremadura next year :) Up until Thursday, I did not personally know anyone else who will be teaching in Spain. Granted, I still don't know them well, but sharing conversation over coffee, tapas, and sangria is a step up from briefly chatting online. Plans to meet up had been in the works for a few weeks. Due to work schedules, there ended up being 2 separate get-togethers.

I met a girl and her boyfriend who will both being teaching in Badajoz (largest city in our region, about an hour west of me) & a girl in Jerez de los Caballeros (1.5 hrs southwest of me) at Starbucks yesterday morning. I had not actually planned on making it to this one, because I was APPLYING FOR MY VISA that morning, but I finished up around the time they were meeting, so I was able to join :)

Dinner last night was with the same girl who will be in Jerez de los Caballeros & the other participant placed in her city. These girls have been talking a lot with others currently in Jerez & also about their living/travel plans since they're placed together. I think it is awesome that they are able to share info & go ahead and work out some of the details. I cannot wait to actually meet someone living/teaching in Mérida! (So far I know of 4 others who will be living there, and another who's returning to one of the nearby cities) ...We went to a delicious Spanish restaurant called La Tasca, I recommend going there if you are in the DC area! We sampled several tapas, and my favorite was Shrimp in a garlic butter sauce with red peppers.

One of the best things about meeting up with other participants was that we are in the same situation & able to relate to each other. Several of my friends who have lived or studied abroad are able to relate to certain aspects of what I am about to do, but their situations were still a bit different. Some of our popular topics of discussion were flights, orientation, living arrangements, our schools, expectations, things we have heard from past/current participants, what we have been doing since graduation, future plans, and traveling.

Mérida, my soon to be home!

Another town in the region

Extremadura countryside

...I briefly mentioned getting my visa, which was my major accomplishment for the week! I had just completed the last requirement the day before by getting an Apostille of the Hague (basically an internationally recognized version of a notarization) on one of my documents. I might post more details about the visa process later, but in summary it's a bit of a hassle to figure out what exactly is needed & waiting for each item to come back requires a bit of patience ;) So having this out of the way is a huge weight off my back! Now that most of the technical preparations are out of the way, I can focus my attention of the fun aspects of going abroad, as well as spending quality time with my friends and family here.

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!

Viviré en...

MÉRIDA para el año que viene!!

Mérida is a city in the region of Extremadura. It is
3 hrs. North of Sevilla,
4 hrs. Southwest of Madrid,
4 hrs. South of Salamanca, and
3 hrs. East of Lisbon, Portugal.
I think I see some exciting day/weekend trips in my future :-P

Here are a few reasons why I am excited about my city:

1. Since I already mentioned this, I'll start with central location. It is at the intersection of a North/South & an East/West highway, and public bus transportation is incredibly affordable in Spain/Europe. Additionally, it is along a train route.
2. Population is about 60,000. This should give me plenty of things to do & places to go, while still being very walkable. While I know it's not the biggest of cities, several participants in my program are placed in tiny pueblos of 10,000 people or less, and Mérida is one of the largest cities in my region of Extremadura. 
3. I love walking, and I'll be able to walk to school each day! I'm also glad I won't have to rely on rides from another teacher or public transportation on a daily basis. 
4. Río Guadiana- Cities on water are so pretty! 
5. Southern-ish Spain = warmer temperatures. While it won't be as warm as Sevilla, the low in Mérida rarely drops to freezing, and it also should not get as cold as Madrid or Salamanca.
6. Southern-ish Spain = less rain. I actually enjoy rain, but not all the time and not when my main means of transportation will be by foot. In Northern Spain it can rain nearly everyday during their rainy season.
7. Very low cost of living. (i.e. rent should be about 100-150 per month for a shared apartment)
8. My Spanish skills should improve greatly :)
9. Mérida was an important Roman city back in the day, so there is a lot of neat architecture and ruins throughout the city. 

Puente Romano sobre el Río Guadiana

Mérida's Plaza de España ...there seems to be one in every city! 

Plaza de Toros

Roman Amphitheater 

Check back soon for info about my teaching assignments! I am very pleased with those too :)

Photos & Intros

I found the pic below as I was browsing the internet. It was a causal, unofficial meet-up for new participants of a teach abroad program a couple years back. I love this about Spain (and Europe in general). Awesome things surround you everywhere you go. Just taking a walk around town can be a breath-taking experience.

...ok, now for a confession: Even though my blog title implies I'm currently in Spain, I will not be there until mid-September. I will be working in a Spanish public school as a Language & Culture Assistant!

I studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain for 4 months in 2009. I cannot believe I will be returning so soon! When I left, I promised myself I would go back and visit within 5-10 years but did not know how and when this would be possible... Less than 3 years later, this will be a reality. And not just for a vacation, but TO LIVE. For now, I'll leave you with a flashback to that semester...

I love living in cities on water! I crossed over this river nearly every day. Oh, the little 

tower on the right side of the photo is La Torre del Oro. My Art History class met 

right next to the torre for the lesson we studied it. nbd.

The architecture of La Catedral in Sevilla is absolutely gorgeous. It's the 3rd largest cathedral in Europe!

My classes were held in a portion of this building, which used to be a hotel.