The first few days!

Sooo this is what happened after the plane ride:

Got to the Madrid airport and took the metro from there across town to the train station. Took a train from Madrid to Sevilla. It was pretty, lots of olive trees and whatnot, but I slept most of the way. Also I didn’t wake up when it got to Sevilla. The poor boy next to me kind of poked me…I shot up from under my blanket, looked around, and blurted out “Thanks!” Then I waited around at the train station (and bought a phone there cuz my pink one wouldn’t work. Sad sad day!!) And this girl I’d coordinated with before I got there showed up a couple hours later. I found her on an apt rental site and her place was too far away from the bus station I’ll use to get to work, but she agreed to rent it out to me till I found a permanent apt because someone had done that for her when she studied abroad in Belgium. So we took a cab to her house and..actually that day was her birthday, bless her heart!!! That night her friends came over and we had pizza and tinto de verano (wine with lime…genius!) and desserts and hung out, though my little American ears understood about a third of what they said, maximum. (The Andalucian accent is really really really hard to understand). They were all so dear to me!!

I spent the next few days apartment hunting, which was pretty exhausting, what with going all around town only to be told that stuff is already rented out. There was one tease with a couple Canadian girls, and I was amped cuz I figured they’d be wanting to meet people too and whatnot, but there were 2 rooms and 3 of us showed up at the same time to see it (though I’d gotten lost and was the third. Boo.) So I went back home and picked the search back up. A couple hours later I went to go visit another one…and moved in that night! It’s in a really good spot (near the bus station that’ll take me to Aznalcóllar) for a really good price and with really good roommates (at least one’s awesome, the other’s been out of town for a while so I haven't met her.) That night, Thursday, Chani (the roommate—compañera de piso, NOT roomie) made me a fabulous welcome dinner and I got some sleep in my very own bed, though I was antsy because I was going to work the next day.

So Friday I woke up early and went out for breakfast at a little cafe downstairs. I did NOT understand the server at all so I ended up ordering the only thing I understand in his list of what they had: an adorably tiny glass of coffee and some bread with butter and honey. Then I walked leisurely to the bus station (maybe a 15 minute walk?), took a bus to Aznalcóllar (which I still can’t say right…every single time I attempt it people ask me to repeat myself), and got there early, so I tried to go chill in the church, but it’s closed for construction so some old men who I’m not sure if they were hitting on me or not redirected me to the convent. So I went there and explained myself to this adorable Chilean nun who was awesome and who ended up sitting me down to chat. So I went and sat in the chapel and then she served me breakfast number 2! So we're like BFFs now.

Then I walked to the school and talked with the director guy about how stuff is going to be, but again, I understood like half of what he said (are you seeing the pattern yet?) so I guess I’ll learn as I go. It’ll be from Monday through Thursday, 12 hours a week, in their SCIENCE classes! Bad move, IES Aznalcóllar. Supposedly all the material’s prepared and I just have to read from the textbook and prepare the occasional lesson. I’ll be the helper alongside two teachers, Jaime and Aurora. I met the latter and we didn’t really talk but she seemed nice. There’s another guy there, from Winston-Salem, I think, but I haven’t met him yet. I think we’ll be carpooling together because there’s a teacher that’s gonna give him rides to and from Sevilla, so I guess I’ll get to know him then.

So Chani invited me to Barbate, the town where she’s from in Cádiz, cuz she felt sorry for me being all alone on the weekend (finde, not fin) and we went Friday evening. We kind of chilled at her house that night and went for a walk on the boardwalk. And met her fam including her adorable 7 month old niece. The next day I slept in super late (oops) and in the afternoon we went to a barbecue with a bunch of her friends. It was gonna be a paella but those plans changed and a chef friend made amazing hamburgers and some sort of kabob type things (pinchitos..haha) and beer and fun were had by all.

Today we came back and have been sort of laying around all day..it’s been nice. And it’s been good to finally get my internet fix. I forgot one component of my plug/voltage conversion shenanigans so I hadn’t been able to charge my computer but Chani’s lent me part of her cable to charge it. I think tomorrow Ima go buy my own and all will be right in the world.

Time for more random observations I wrote on the way to school the other day:
-It’s funny how everyone thinks Aznalcóllar is lightyears away when 45 minutes is a normal bus ride in GDL.
-Sevillanos do NOT know how to fill a bus. Once the seats are filled and there’s a few people standing they like freak out.
-The cups are so cute! For coffee or beer or whatever. Less cute is the cost:size ratio.
-There are approximately 1 million bars that turn into cafes in the morning.
-Andalucian Spanish is NUTS. Just throwing that out there. They pronounce about half of each word. S’s are either pronounced like an h, th, or not at all, depending on the location in the sentence. Also there are tons of words that are different in Spain Spanish and Latin American Spanish that I had no idea about. Like here earrings are pendientes instead of aretes?? Also people love to laugh at me for saying “ahorita” but, for a success story, I’ve about gotten in the habit of saying como instead of mande.
-It’s kind of fun not sticking out like a sore thumb. Like I guess people think I’m from here. Until I open my mouth.
-Pedestrians actually have the right of way. In theory and practice. Like people actually stop to let you cross the street.
-Practically no one jaywalks. Very different from sprinting across the street at first chance like in Mexicoland.
-The buses to Aznalcóllar run on biodiesel. Cool. Also the seats are super cushy and there’s A/C.
-I decided I like olives now.
-The neat tiles and Moorish arches are sweet. Is the architecture part of why Andalucía seemed so appealing? Maybe.
-It’s super fun living in an apartment building with a buzzer. I feel like I’m on TV and living in New York.
-A couple months ago God made it painfully clear that this is where I’m supposed to be. And knowing that is super comforting.
-The palm trees (and cockroaches outside) make me feel at home.
-OMG all the streets are lined with (orange?) trees. It’s really really cute.
-This bus has the top 40 station on and Gypsy is playing. Not Gitana. Discuss.