Yes!

No, I did not find an apartment yet, but I did open a Spanish bank account! I braved the freezing cold to walk up the street to the bank and open my account and I am quite proud. I was all worried. I've never even opened up an American bank account before so I was nervous about doing it in a different language. It only took me 20 minutes and I understood everything the lady was saying and now I have a bank account and an ATM card on the way!

Madrid is pretty cold. I think it's on, about, or around the same latitude as New York. My computer says it's about 57 degrees today, but with all the wind it feels a lot colder. My sweaters are making their way to Spain at the moment so I've just got a fleece and a little jacket for now. I stuck it out in South Bend for four years so I think I can survive Madrid. It doesn't snow that much here anyway.

School...oh where to start. School has been a lot of fun. I just finished my first full week. I am teaching 3rd and 4th graders English and Science. I'm still learning all their names, but in Spain almost everybody is Maria or Jose anyway. haha! I am never the actual teacher of a class. I'm more like a helper. I walk around and discipline the kids and then read stories or ask them questions sometimes. I've learned that if I walk up to a kid and tell them to be quiet all I have to do the next time is give them the evil eye and they stop. I love the power! All the kids go on their siesta at 12:30 and don't start back up until 3. So I teach 2 classes from 9-11 then we go on our breakfast half hour break then we teach one more class, then we have a 2 1/2 hour lunch break, then we teach two more 45 minute classes in the afternoon. It's complicated. I have Fridays free so that is nice.

I'm going to start doing private tutoring classes soon. You can make 20 euros an hour with one kid and that will be helpful. It's technically illegal because you get paid under the table, but I'm willing to take a risk. No one's ever been arrested or deported for teaching English, haha. I might go later to open up a libray account. I'm going to check out some basic spanish books so I can read in Spanish and learn more.

More to come!