Need to keep up with this better

I´m getting lazy with this blog. I need to get better at it! This is my last week at school before Christmas and I´m looking forward to coming home for three weeks. I´ve been trying to tie up lose ends before I fly off to the U.S.´

Last night I got to see Cirque du Soleil and it was awesome! I went with Quique. Quique sprained his ankle last Thursday and he´s still hurting so he was limping all the way into the tents last night. It´s sad, but kinda funny at the same time. I looked like I was walking with an old man (he didn´t have any type of crutches so he just leaned on me and we walked REALLY slow). We had a blast though and I definitely want to go next year. The venue was so small and we had some great seats. It´s crazy how some of those people were flipping around and so flexible. We even watched someone fall. At least it lets you know that it´s really difficult and even the acrobats don´t do it perfectly every time!

Well lunch is starting at school now. I hope it´s good! Almost every day we have some kind of mystery meat...and in Spain you never know what you might get...

Happy Thanksgiving!

While it isn't Thanksgiving yet I have already celebrated with Quique's family. We drove down to El Puerto (7 hours south of Madrid) on Thursday and have been enjoying our stay by the beach. Quique's mom, Sue, made Thanksgiving dinner Saturday night and it was AWESOME!! She's a really good cook. We had the typical turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green been casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and pecan pie. I'm still missing the fried turkey we have every year though at home in Georgia! The weather here is great. El Puerto has been sunny every day and the highs are in the 70s. Waay warmer than Madrid. I finally got my huge box that my parents shipped from the U.S. It has all my winter clothes in it so I can finally start wearing some warm clothes instead of t-shirts with a coat!

We're headed back to Madrid tonight. I like the drive a lot. Road trips are fun. I don't even drive the car because I can't drive a stick shift! On the way down we stopped at a neat little rest stop that had a great little restaurant. I'm still salivating thinking about the sandwich that I got from there.

Just so everyone knows, I'm headed back to the U.S. on December 22nd and staying for about three weeks. I don't have my return flight yet because I'm still researching the prices. I'm really excited to celebrate Christmas in the U.S. because Spain doesn't do the whole decoration/Christmas music stuff which I love. Well, I better go spend some more time with Quique's family before I head out. I'll put more pictures up here in the coming weeks. Miss everyone!

Here are my pictures

Okay here it is: pictures of my apartment. My room is very orange, but I was at least able to rearrange the furniture and it looks a lot better. My bathroom is very Greek looking and I LOVE having my own bathroom. Also, you can see the hallway which all of the rooms come off of and my kitchen. There is a patio off of the kitchen and it goes out to the middle of the building. It's a typical Spanish thing, but hard to explain. The apartment has neat details too like the lights and stained glass windows. I like it a lot. Another picture is of one of my roommates David. He's really nice. My other roommate, Isis is always MIA. I've been at the apartment for almost a week and have never seen her. I still have to put up pictures of the pool and paddle courts outside and the area in general. The apartment is also right by the metro which is great in the mornings when I'm not running 15 minutes to catch the metro. All in all I like it!

2 words...

Food Poisoning.

Oh yes, I had the great pleasure of getting food poisoning last Thursday. Let´s start from the beginning...

Wednesday morning Quique went to El Puerto de Santa Maria (his home that´s about a 7-hour drive from Madrid). That night I went out with his roommate and some of our friends to a restaurant and had a delicious dinner of bacon, eggs, and croquetas (fried balls of cream and bacon...yum). The next morning I woke up excited to travel down to El Puerto also after I finished with work. Halfway on my way to work I started to feel sick and by the time I got to school I realized there was no way I could teach. I told the principal and the two teachers I worked with and set out on my way home. I take the metro to and from work and it´s about an hour commute. I got so sick I couldn´t even be on the metro anymore so I got out after about three stops and sat out on a bench at a big intersection. Because Quique wasn´t in Madrid I had to call him to call his roommate and see if his roommate could pick me up. I must´ve caused a scene sitting on the bench in the middle of the street and continuously walking towards the bushes. I´ll save you all the details, but it wasn´t pretty and I felt like everyone was staring at me. I´m pretty sure I must´ve ate some bad eggs or something because I´ve never felt so sick in my life. After an hour of gracing the bushes with my presence I was picked up by Angel, Quique´s roommate, and immediately taken home where I slept about 6 hours before catching the train to El Puerto. Needless to say that was one of my more interesting days here and one I hope I NEVER have to repeat! I feel better now, but I´ll never forget the experience haha.

Finally found an apartment!

Yes, I have finally found the coveted apartment! The apartment has 4 rooms and a kitchen. I´ll be living with 1 Brazilian girl and 2 Spanish guys. I originally had not wanted to live with any guys, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I´ll be getting my keys on the 31st and moving in the first! Woohoo! I´m excited because the apartment is pretty big for Spanish standards and the one person I met who´s living there already is nice. The apartment is also about a five minute walk from the metro and a fifteen minute walk from Quique. Since I´ve only rented the room if I don´t like the place or the people I can leave at the end of November. I´ll take pictures of the apartment when I move in and put them up!

By the way, Aunt Sally if you´d like to make a comment on how to post comments that would be awesome. I still can´t figure it out so I don´t know how to tell other people!

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!

Don't stop believin'

that I can find an apaaaartmeeent! That's become my new mantra. After being ditched a little less than a week ago I am slowly attempting to find rooms, instead of apartments, to rent. I know what areas I would like to live in, but sometimes it's a challenge to find a room that isn't being rented out by some 80 year old woman. I'd prefer to live with people my age so the search continues...

I started school on Wednesday and I like it a lot! I'll be teaching 3rd and 4th graders English and Science. I've got to keep looking for apartments but I'll write more details about my school day in the days to come.

I know some of you would like to write comments to the blog, but aren't sure how to do it. To be honest, I don't either, but I'll look into it and let you know.