The Best Trip of my Life!!!

I've just returned from the best trip of my life... filled with beautiful cities, good food, great beer, and awesome friends.  As described in my previous post, I went to Dusseldorf & Aachen, Germany; Maastricht, Holland; Bruges, Belgium; and Paris, France.  It was absolutely wonderful and eye-opening.  I met some incredibly friendly, intelligent, and well-traveled friends, tried life changing beer, saw some famous sites, and realized German and Dutch peoples' language skills are far faar superior to mine.  While I could write a book on all of my experiences, I'm going to write the abridged version.  The following are the descriptions of the cities, as written on a coaster over a beer in Bruges.

• Dusseldorf - Modern, multicultural city along the Rhine river.  There are still very traditional structures, (for example a bar with a window facing the street, from when passerby's could grab a shot without having to get off their horses) the local beer is delicious, there is a huge rivalry between them and Cologne.    Very huge city, although there are no skyscrapers, the buildings tend to be quite tall compared to the rest of Europe.    
• Aachen - The perfect mix of traditional and modern Germany.  It's a very small, quaint, relaxed town with the best Christmas market we've seen.  
• Maastricht - It's a trendy, hip, commercial town with still a touch of traditional architecture.  The Dutch are incredibly intelligent and open.  The city is both modern and upscale, but has a very cozy feel.  
• Bruges - A medieval town filled with canals, fountains, and statues.  Each corner you turn is more beautiful than the last.  Meant to be experienced during Christmas time.  Extremely quiet and quaint.
• Paris - Well, what can be said about Paris that hasn't already been said a thousand times?  Beautiful, historical, stylish, and full of famous sites.  You need days and days to see everything.  

I started my trip in Dusseldorf.  We spent our first night couch surfing, and ended up becoming friends with our host, who joined us the next day in Aachen.  We spent most of our time in Germany walking through the Christmas markets and just exploring the city.  In Aachen we warmed up by spending some time in a bar from the 1500's, and met some great people from Holland and London.  The next day we went to Maastricht.  Wow, everyone in Holland speaks PERFECT English.. from shop keepers to homeless people.  We basically did the same thing there - wandered around the city and visited the Christmas market.  I had enough bratwurst and gluwein (warm spiced wine) to last me a lifetime.  We stayed in the most awesome hotel in Maastricht!!  Next city was Bruges.  Like I said above, it was a medieval town filled with really old buildings and beautiful canals.  We couldn't spend much time there because we had a 6AM train to Paris the next morning.  What can I say about Paris?  We saw it all... the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc d' Triomphe, University of Paris, Sacre Coure, Montemartre, Moulin Rouge, and probably a number of other famous sites that I didn't even realize I was seeing (or that I can't remember).   And that was my trip... the very abridged version.  It was absolutely amazing, probably one of my favorite trips of all time!!  Here are some photo highlights:

Christmas Market in Aachen, Germany

                                           

Us under the Eiffel Tower, Paris

                                       

Notre Dame, Paris

                                                         

Main Square in Bruges, Belgium

Canal in Bruges, Belgium

                                                 

Awesome hotel in Maastricht, Holland

November Updates

Wow, I just realized my last post was a month ago!  I guess this was a pretty uneventful month.  Work has been going well.  I keep myself busy during the week with work in the morning and private lessons in the afternoon.  I'm now teaching almost as many private lessons as regular school classes!  It's been a great experience so far, and it teaches me a good amount of Spanish.  Although, I catch myself using weird expressions, or saying things in a weird way.  I think because I spent the majority of my days speaking with people who speak English as a 2nd language, I've started saying things in English in a way that can be directly translated into Spanish.  Of course I can't think of an example at the moment.  Last weekend some of the Americans here got together and made Thanksgiving dinner.. it was really nice, although it can't replace spending the day with my family!

The only other (quite) exciting thing going on is my big trip that I'm leaving for in a few days.  Before I describe the trip, I want to describe my accommodations, because I'm equally as excited about them.  We joined CouchSurfing.  For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's an online community where you meet people from all over the globe, meet up with them traveling, and even stay on their couch if they're willing to host you.  I know - you're thinking this sounds sketchy.  Before you jump to conclusions, just know that there are all these verification processes, vouching, references, etc... that paired with simple common sense should keep you safe should you embark on the adventure that is Couch Surfing.  Last weekend Elliot and I hosted our first surfers, quite a nice experience.

Anyway, we will be surfing couches in Germany and Paris.  Three nights in hotels/hostels, 3 nights on "couches".  Not only does it save a traveler money, but you get to meet awesome, open-minded people along the way.. and they usually show you around their city!.. which is perfect for people like me, who can't speak a word of French yet travel to Paris.

So, the secret is out.. I'll be in Germany and France... and also Belgium and Holland!!!  So, the trip begins with one night in Sevilla.  Then, it's off to Dusseldorf, Germany.  Then Aachen, Germany.  Then Maastricht, Netherlands.  Then Bruges, Belgium.  Finally ending in Paris, France.  Can't wait!!! Although I hope I don't freeze to death in northern Europe in December lol.  So obviously there will be more to follow in the upcoming weeks :)  You'll be hearing from me soon... in the meantime get yourself pumped by checking out my travel path:

Trip to Northern Spain: Oviedo, Gijón, & Santander

So as the title implies, I took a long-weekend trip to the north of Spain.  While there, I visited Oviedo, Gijón, and Santander.  The abridged version:  I'm in love.  Northern Spain is absolutely beautiful, lying on the Atlantic coast and filled with green lush mountains - and vegetation!.. something I've come to miss since moving down to the desert.    Every city I visited I loved more than the last.  I also had the opportunity to learn about a new culture.  Similar to the US, the north and south of Spain are very different in almost every way - climate, food, traditions, attitude, pace, and even language.  The differences between the north and south almost mimic those in the US (or should I say, the differences in the US mimic those of Spain).  The south has a much warmer climate, more laid back people, a twangy accent, and a very distinctive way of life.  The north is much cooler, has less friendly people, and moves at a faster pace.  The flora also has a bit of a New England touch, which made me feel right at home.  I think I subconsciously feel more at home in the north.. I inherently feel more comfortable being impatient and in a rush!.. although this is in relevant terms, the "rush" here is nothing like the rush you find in New York.  But it's certainly more "homey" than the slow pace of the south.

 I'll describe my trip by breaking it down by city.

1st stop: Oviedo
Elliot and I took an overnight bus to Oviedo.  We left Badajoz around 10:30 PM.  Thanks to a combination of having an exhausting day of work + nyquil, I was able to channel out the smell of B.O. and the piercing voice of crazy talkative old ladies, and pass out for the majority of the lovely 9.5 hours that I spent on the bus.    I awoke at 7:30 the next morning feeling refreshed and ready for the day.  We were met at the Oviedo bus station by a friend that we had studied abroad with in Sevilla.  I must say he was a tour guide extraordinaire.  We started off the day with a nice breakfast, then it was off to explore the city.  We made a stop at the Museo de Bellas Artes to marvel at local art, and then continued through the cities main attractions - the cathedral, the government buildings, and parks.  Although it had been rainy and cool during the previous weeks, we apparently had brought the sun and warmth up from the south, because we had a beautiful day.  After a quick coffee, we decided to hike up a mountain that overlooks all of Oviedo.  At the top were some quaint old churches.

                                                  View of Oviedo from the mountain
After descending the mountain, it was time to experience a main Asturian tradition - Asturian cider (or "sidra").  Lucky for us, our friend lives just around the corner from the main street with all of the "sidrerías".  Before trying our first taste, we had to learn proper cider etiquette.  The cider is fermented with apples and yeast- no added sugar or carbonation.  The cider is to be poured from over the bartender or waiter's head into a glass.  Pouring from this height adds carbonation.  It then has to be drank immediately before it loses the carbonation.  Although the cider is tasty, I didn't much care for this.  I prefer to slowly sip on a drink to enjoy the taste rather than chugging it down then sitting there with an empty cup.  But you can't argue with tradition!

                                           *note the pour, and also how quickly you must drink

2nd stop: Gijón
Gijón is just about a half hour north of Oviedo, so it made for a perfect day trip.  Again, the amazing weather stuck with us, so we were able to walk around and experience the sun and beautiful ocean views.  We pretty much spent the day walking around a huge peninsula at the tip of the city to get panoramic 360 views of the ocean, coast line, and mountains that border the city.  After exploring the main part of the city, coast line, and beaches, we enjoyed a nice bottle of cider in the perfect afternoon sun.  Nothing too crazy or touristy, the best part of learning a new city is just walking around to see the sights.  After a few hours, we headed back to Oviedo to get a good night's sleep before heading over to Santander.

                                             view of city's main beach from peninsula
Last stop: Santander
Santander is about 2.5 hours east of Oviedo, and on the coast.  It's a fairly big city, although the sites worth seeing are in a pretty concentrated area.  We opted to take a less expensive bus, but it took about 3.5 hours to get to there.  It was quite an interesting ride.  First of all, (as expected) we were winding through very narrow roads, through picturesque mountain valleys.  It gave many photo ops, although unfortunately we were too slow to catch most of them.  Within the first half hour, a lady got locked in the bus's bathroom for a good half hour.  The lock on the door broke, and she couldn't get out until we had to stop the bus and break the door open.  It was pretty comical, but I felt terrible for her.  I probably would have broken down the door myself if it were me inside there.  Then within the next hour, the girl behind me was throwing up.  For anyone who knows me well, you know this was a very not OK situation for me.  I handled it like a champ, and soon enough we were in Santander.  We stayed in a pension that was within 10 minutes walking to the center.  It wasn't a normal hostel.  This older couple pretty much dumped us off in a room that was part of an apartment, and we never saw them again.  It was cheap and easy, though.  We pretty much did the same walking around thing here.  We saw cathedrals, the government buildings, parks, and beaches.  Similar to Gijon, Santader has a huge park that's on a peninsula.  There's also a huge castle on top of a hill in the park.  The park offered panoramic views of the mountains, bay in Santander, beaches, and city.  After a million photos, we snaked our way down to a tiny beach where we opened a bottle of wine and watched the sunset.  It was here that I went photo crazy with my obsession of sunsets.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The mountains in the background are like nothing I've seen before, and their silhouette over pink, purple, orange skies was breathtaking.

                                                           My favorite part of the trip
The next morning we woke up early to explore a bit more of the city before catching our flight back.  This was one of my favorite trips and I was very sad to have to leave the north.  My only regret is that I didn't have the time to see Bilbao and San Sebastian, but I guess can't see everything.  Now I'm back in Badajoz, contemplating what my next trip will be :)

October Updates

I realized that I haven't posted in a long time, so here goes.  Last weekend I took a trip to Sevilla for Elliot's birthday.  We had a really really great time.  I didn't realize how much I missed living there.  It's so much bigger and prettier than Badajoz.  The architecture and views are amazing almost everywhere you look.  We went to all of the old spots that we used to love, like the park, the rio, the city center, plaza de espana, the stadium, etc etc.  We even went to visit our host Mamas.  We got some desert and coffee with my host Mom which was so much fun.  It was great to see her, and made me miss living there.  I wanted to go back home with her instead of going to my hostel.  The weather was perfect as always.  We stayed in an awesome hostel in the center, right near where we used to go out.  The hostel is an old mansion, so the architecture inside was incredible.  It was also the cleanest and nicest hostel I've ever seen, so that was a definite plus.  It was a nice little getaway.  This week I'm working at the elementary school.  It's going well, except every time I'm here I have to fight off some kind of sickness that I feel coming on.  Sleep and OJ has seemed to do the trick so far though.

This weekend (well, actually starting today) we are going to the North of Spain.  Besides Barcelona, northern Spain is one of the few places that neither Elliot nor I have traveled to.  It'll be a bit of a hassle getting there, but I suspect it'll be worth it.  Tonight (Thursday) we're taking a 10:30 bus up north, so we'll arrive in the city of Oviedo at 8AM tomorrow.  We'll stay in Oviedo for a few days, then move on to Gijon.  After that, we'll travel to Santander.  From there we'll fly back to Sevilla, then bus back to Badajoz (gotta love living out in the sticks).  So this trip will introduce me to three new cities: Oviedo, Gijon, and Santander.  Pictures and updates to come.

That's about it on the updates.  I've pretty much settled into my work schedule.  Classes in schools are going pretty well.  I picked up about 8 private classes, which go very well for the most part, (excluding occasionally wanting to slam my head into the wall).  I'm happy here.  Although I do miss home and wish someone would come visit!!!!

The End of My First Week

Well, I have officially completed my first week as an English Teaching Assistant!  Overall, I had a very positive experience.  I spent this week working at a high school in Badajoz.  Unlike the US, the kids range from 12-18 years old.  My classes are as small as 6 kids to as large as about 30.  I also teach every single level, from 1st years to 4th, to special education, to 1st and 2nd bachillerato.  Also different from the US, high school can potentially last 6 years.  Not all high schools have "bachillerato" levels, as these 2 levels are for students preparing for university.  One challenge for me is adjusting my speaking to the different levels.  Sometimes the teacher doesn't speak at all, so I can't hear how he/she addresses the class in English, so I kind of have to guess how fast to speak.  Overall the kids are interested and like asking me questions.  Some of my classes are really talkative while in others I have to extract info from them, like pulling teeth.  However almost every single student has been attentive and respectful, they are a nice group of kids.  Two girls even drew me a picture!!

I know the level of responsibility of the teaching assistants varies depending on the schools/teachers.  Most of the teachers I work with allow me to just take over the class, while they just jump in for complicated questions or discipline.  This can be good or bad, depending on how interested the kids are in talking.  If there's nothing to talk about sometimes the class feels like it's dragging.  But for the most part I enjoy taking over the class!  Unfortunately it seems like this also maybe students' first time hearing a foreign accent, especially an American accent.  Their teachers are all Spanish, so I think a lot of students have a hard time with my accent.  They also learn British English, so some of my words/pronunciations are nothing like what they are used to hearing.  But there will be a learning curve on both ends!

Unfortunately I have no idea what next week is looking like for me.  I just found out 2 days ago that I was reassigned to a different elementary school because there was a problem with the first one I was assigned to (the one I never heard from).  I'm slightly annoyed because the first elementary school is literally one block away from my house, and the new one is almost an hour walk away (so I have to take a bus).  I was also assured that someone from the school would contact me, but I haven't heard anything yet.  I suppose if I don't hear from them, I have Monday off??? Like everything else, I'm sure in time everything will work out.

Well, that's the abridged version of  my first week!  I already love having Fridays off, especially because Thursday is a big party night!  Elliot and I have some weekend plans with Spaniards, so it's my turn to be the student.

Happy October!

I hope everyone back home is enjoying one of my favorite months!  It certainly doesn't feel like fall here... still 90 degrees and sunny all week - not complaining!  Yesterday I walked past a party store and noticed tons of Halloween decorations/costumes... so there is still hope for celebrating my favorite holiday of the year :)

I suppose my biggest update is that, after all the debate, I was able to go on a vacation.  We went to Malta for an entire week.  For those of you that don't know, Malta is a tiny country made up of small islands and located in the Mediterranean off the coast of Sicily and directly north of Libya.  We booked our flights 4 days in advanced, and our hostel 2 days in advance.  I have to love living in Europe/the availability of Ryanair flights to allow me to plan a trip with such spontaneity.  I highly recommend traveling to Malta, especially if you're already in Europe, as it's very close and inexpensive.  For the amount of tourists in the area, I would have expected this to be a much more pricey vacation.  This destination fits multiple preferences, from quiet lazy days on the Mediterranean beaches to wild partying at night.  Although extremely touristy, with a little travel savvy you can travel throughout the entire island to very "authentic" areas. Elliot and I were able to see most of the main island of Malta.  An added bonus is that we flew over Africa on our way to/from Malta.  I have aerial pictures of Algeria for sure, and I'm assuming Tunisia, and possibly some of Morocco.. depending on when the plane cut back north to go to Spain.

One day after returning from Malta we had to go to orientation in Cáceres, a city in Extremadura about an hour away from Badajoz.  There I met most of the other people in my program.  It wasn't the most helpful orientation because I had already taken care of most of the topics on the agenda.  Oh well, it was a chance to see a new city.  Unfortunately I didn't have time to explore the city until it was dark.  It's a beautiful city, awesome architecture, a pretty good nightlife.  I didn't post my pictures to Facebook because they were all a little dark and don't do the city justice.

Today was also my first day of work.  I didn't actually teach today, but I will be teaching tomorrow. Today Elliot began teaching, and it seems like everything went really well for him.. but kids always naturally love him.  I'm feeling hopeful that tomorrow will go well for me too.  I met 3 (out of hundreds) of my students today and they seemed like really nice kids.  More to come as my work week progresses...

Day Trip to Mérida

Today I got 2 things accomplished... I went on a day trip to Mérida and the internet guy came to set up my line.

First, I received a phone call at 10 AM from the internet guy who I´ve been so patiently waiting for.  I´m VERY glad I decided to not postpone my trip to Malta because I basically had to pay this man to come over and tell me that some cable box that was already in the wall was better than the one he was coming to install, so he left without doing anything and told me they were still going to send the modem and router, and that I had to hook them up myself.  Wow, gotta love the business here...

Anyway, after that I was off to Mérida.  We have a fellow American auxiliar staying at our piso for a few days.  She´ll be working in Mérida so we decided to all take a trip out and explore the city.  Mérida is the capital of Extremadura, but it´s part of the province of Badajoz.  It´s actually smaller than Badajoz, but a much larger tourist destination because of its Ancient Roman ruins.  In fact, I had already been to Mérida with API to see the ruins, although we hadn´t seen much else of the city.  It was so much fun to go back to a place that I had seen before, it brought back a lot of fond memories.  We were able to walk around the whole city in just a few hours.  It has so much history, with a lot of beautiful architecture and random excavations all over the place.  You can tell that many of the structures have been there since ancient times.  It also seems to have not been hit as hard by the ´crisis´as other cities in Spain, especially Badajoz.  For the most part it was a very pretty, clean city and we never saw any areas that didn´t look safe.  The pictures below show the route that we walked as well as a picture of the Plaza de España in the downtown area.

Hotter than the sun in the south of Spain

I hear that it's starting to get chilly back home.. I wish I could send some of this heat there!  It's 90 degrees and sunny all week long...  I'm certainly not complaining!  But the song is right, when the sun comes out here it's brutal!

This post is a random montage of updates.. enjoy :)

So we continue learning new things everyday here.  I absolutely love our apartment but, as all apartments have their issues, we have such quirky ones.  For example, our hot water works when it feels like it.  In order to shower we first run the kitchen sink, then the bathroom sink, then finally the shower and HOPE that eventually some hot water comes out.  Or, sometimes it works right away.  Just the fun of moving into a new apartment I suppose.

So updates to the travel agenda... we may be doing a trip to Malta.  We've set up an internet contract but have to wait for a man to come make the installation in our apartment.  They won't make an appointment and only call to give 1 day's notice, just slightly inconvenient. The flights we found to Malta leave Tuesday and we still haven't heard from the internet man.  The contract was completed Monday and it's now Friday.  We're thinking of just blowing off the call and taking care of it when we get back.. I mean, how often can I go to Malta??  I'm pretty sick of dealing with setting up utilities anyway, it's scary.  I don't know what people are saying to me.  Between having to do a verbal internet contract on the phone and signing 40 pages of bank account papers, I could literally have just sold my soul and have no idea.

I also met one of the teachers that I will be working with.  I have to admit, though, it's a little scary that I haven't met or even heard from any teacher from the second school I'll be working at yet.  Worse, the teachers from the first school still haven't filled me in on what my schedule is going to be, what kind of classes I'll be teaching, how well my students will know English, or how old they are (the range is 12-18 in high school here).  I have little idea what my responsibilities will be.  I wonder if my other school even knows I'm in Spain.  It's a little scary, seeing as I will be starting in 2 weeks.  We have an orientation coming up, so I'm hoping some things will be clarified then.  Other than that, I just have to go with it..

Aside from meeting a Spanish couple last weekend, we just met our neighbor who is a little younger than us and super nice!  He has a terrace that is just above ours so we can sit outside and talk.  He's a great guy and very intelligent.  Last night he brought us out to a botellón with him and a bunch of his friends.  We were a little nervous because some of the kids there were as young as 18, and we definitely did not want to run into future students.  We met a few former students of our schools, but I think we managed to not meet current ones.  They were a very cool and open group of people.  A bunch swarmed around us when we first arrived because they were so eager to learn about us and practice their English.  Spaniards know a lot about the US, more than Americans know about other countries.  The funniest thing was that they wanted to know why we were HERE of all places.  It's a small city, and most of them grew up here so they're really bored with it.  They say we'll be bored of it too if we give it another week.  I hope they're wrong!!

Those are pretty much all of my current updates.  We had a few more small successes today.  Our Tarjetas are finally being processed and will be ready to pick up in a few weeks.  We've successfully opened a bank account and received a visa card today, AND made our first deposit to the new accounts.. exciting stuff.  We also bought some soil/flower seeds and hope to give our terrace a little sprucing up.  We also found a new great part of town yesterday.  We haven't been there at night yet, but it seems like they have some nice bars and restaurants.  We found a pretty cheap chinese restaurant, too.  Surprisingly, legit restaurants are hard to come by here, as people mostly prefer to grab a beer and pick at some tapas.  I miss going out to eat though!  That's about all for now.  Missing all of my family and friends back home.  I strongly urge you to come visit :)

Yesterday we finally asked for a bit of help getting everything arranged.  We've decided to put off our trip until all of the important details are taken care of.  It's unfortunate because putting off the trip means we probably don't have time to do our nice long path through the north.  We may have to just settle for a trip to the coast of Portugal or the Costal del Sol (poor us).  So within the next few days/ week we should have our Tarjetas almost set, cell phones, internet (fingers crossed!), and a bank account set up.. now all I need is some income and things will be perfect.

Last night we finally found some nightlife in the Centro, and a couple people who had the patience to be friends with us for the night, which was pretty exciting.  Oh how I've missed going out in Spain.  We went to this cool little club where the bartender just passed out free shots/took them all night.  It's funny how Americans stick out like a sore thumb.  As soon as I open my mouth the first response is, "where are you from?".  And I was shocked to learn last night that I was the first American most of the group had ever met.  I'm not in Sevilla anymore, duh.

Adjusting to the Spanish Lifestyle

"Culture Shock": What I didn't think existed because I didn't experience it in Sevilla.  I guess it's much different when you go in a group of 60 Americans, have all of your accomodations taken care of, food on the table, a piso waiting for you, school already arranged, and a cell phone already in your pocket. Not to metion you're in one of the biggest cities in Spain with millions of things going on.

It's not so easy here.  Not saying I don't like the adventure or that I wasn't expecting it, but I think I've redefined Culture Shock.  Between catching every other word people say to me, and them catching 1/3 of mine.. getting around here is a bit more difficult.  Last night we tried to order 2 Desperados and ended up with 2 sprites.  Como?  After getting help finding the apartment, we've been trying to be a bit more independent, but there are so many limitations.  Today we weren't even able to buy a cell phone because we don't have our Tarjetas de Identidad de Extranjeros (basically a temporary residence card).  But in order to get those cards we need to get another certification from the Spanish government, but in order to get that certification we need to file ourselves in some other archive, and in order to do that we need to contact our landlord, and in order to that we need cell phones, which we're unable to buy because we don't have the Tarjeta that we need in the first place.. and so on and so forth.  It's getting pretty frustrating, and throw in a language barrier on top of that and it's near impossible.  Along with no cell phones we don't have internet, and have little hope of getting a contract, being illegal aliens and all.  Try booking a trip only using some rinky-dink wifi at a coffee shop!  And not being able to Skype with my family and friends back home only adds fuel to the culture shock fire.  So I think finally we have to break down and ask our guardian angel for a bit more help.  Despite the rant, it isn't so bad, and will definitely get better.  We're also having problems finding the nightlife!  Finally last night we came across several really fun looking clubs in the center of the city... but they were still dead at almost 1 AM.  I know nightlife starts really late here, but come on!

So hopefully we will be leaving for a beach trip soon to unwind and escape this heat... 41 degrees at 7:30 last night!!

Bienvenidos a Badajoz

After getting one last fill of chowder, clam cakes and bakes, and Dunkin Donuts, we’re
finally off to Europe. First stop is Lisbon, Portugal. After hours of painstaking packing,
weighing, repacking, reweighing, and finally sneaking into Long Island’s local airport
to get a final weight on the bags, everything is finally in order and here we are sitting
in Newark’s airport. It dawned on me today that I’m flying into Portugal and the only
word I know in Portuguese is “obrigado”. So, as we were running out the door I had to
frantically look up phrases like, “take us to the bus station please” and “we need 2 tickets
to Spain”. It’ll be fine, though, I think Elliot and I are professionals at winging it.  The only bad thing so far is that I lost all of my music and brought the wrong charger for my brand new camera.  At least I remembered my passport...

......

The flight from Newark to Lisbon was great.  The challenge of locating and buying bus tickets in Portuguese was not so great, but luckily I have outgoing Elliot with me or I'd be done for.  In a haze I almost forgot to get off the bus at Badajoz, but alas here I am.  One of Elliot's coworkers is an angel sent straight from heaven.  She's letting us stay at her apartment, and to top it off agreed to let us trek her around town being our translator while apartment searching.  But it paid off... in one day we found an absolutely AMAZING piso in one of the nicest areas in town.  It has an extra bedroom for whoever comes to stay (hint hint) as well as a huge patio on the 6th floor with one of the prettiest views I've ever seen in a city.  It's perfect.   I've officially been awake for 32 hours and counting.  It's about 10 pm, so I figure it's time to rally and just adapt to the time change.. Update: We ended up at 100 Montaditos, which I'm sure my Sevilla friends fondly remember :)
 Next day..
After 14 hours of sleep, we were ready to go.  I spent 5 hours walking through the city.  Despite having everything you could want in a city, it's pretty small.  After getting completely lost we walked OUT of the city and nearly walked into Portugal (that's how close we are).  My question is:  Did Spain get Americanized while we were gone???  While packing I made sure to include conservative clothes and only 1 pair of sandals, and exclude flip flops and short shorts.  But while walking around the city I see short shorts, dresses with butts hanging out, and.. flipflops?? What? I can remember being gawked at for wearing flip flops.  So much so that I didn't even pack them, despite this temperature.  Times have definitely changed, but I like it.  Tonight is a city-wide event called "La Noche en Blanco", which I just learned basically means to not sleep all night. When we slept til 2:30 this afternood I feared we had missed it, but silly me I haven't quite adjusted to the Spanish lifestyle... it didn't start until 10pm.  La Noche en Blanco is an event with different shows and exhibitions throughout the major sites of the city, along with free entrance to monuments and museums.  Pictures to come..

3 Weeks Away...

So, as most people know, I'm moving back to Spain in about 3 weeks.  I've decided to create a blog to post about my adventures so I can remember them, so my friends can follow my trips, and most importantly so I don't have to repeat stories over and over again.

Elliot and I are moving to a city called Badajoz.  Although it's very small (probably about the size of Providence, RI) it is the largest city in the region of Extremadura.  There's not much else in the region besides farms and tiny pueblos, so we were very fortunate to be placed there.  It's about 2 hours east of Lisbon, Portugal, 5 hours west of Madrid, and 2 hours north of Sevilla, which is where I lived the first time I was in Spain.  It's also right on the border of Portugal, which means frequent trips into an entirely different country.  Hopefully I'll have time to brush up on my Portuguese while I'm in Tiverton for a few weeks.  Surprisingly I'm not feeling extremely excited or nervous, mostly because it hasn't had a chance to sink in as I've been so busy bouncing up and down the east coast. 

A lot of people are asking what's bringing me back to Spain.  The biggest reason is to go on an adventure/escape real life (which I didn't much care for this past year).  As for a job, Elliot and I will both be teaching English.  He was assigned to 2 high schools and I was assigned to a high school and an elementary school.  Yes, we're getting paid... no, it's not a lot of money.  But rent is so incredibly cheap there, at least compared to DC, that the money we make will be more than sufficient to live and travel.  Anyway, we leave on September 1st.  The plan is to find an apartment within our first week then take an impromtu 2-week trip through northern Spain before orientation/the beginning of the school year on October 1st.  I'll try my best to keep the blog updated.  Wish me Buena Suerte!