Getting to the school was even easier today than yesterday because I could follow all the families walking small children with backpacks. I met with Inés and she is officially my angel here on earth. She had several ideas for housing for me. There was a posting for someone looking for a roommate, and she had the contact information for another lady wanting to rent out an apartment that one of the teachers recommended. She called the lady for me, made sure of the price and arranged a time for us to meet.
Silvia is another one of my angels today. She is the school secretary and the one who took me around the village today to help run my errands. First she took me to my potential apartment to meet with the landlady and see if I like the place. It’s not too far away from school, but realistically nothing is too far away from anything else in the village. The apartment was fantastic. Just perfect. It’s small, but I don’t need a big place. It looks nice and new on the inside and has everything I will need. I had been preparing myself to live in an older, run down apartment with potentially no furniture. Definitely not the case. It even has a fantastic view. Words can’t describe how happy I am. It’s great. The landlady is also a lot younger and more relaxed than my landlady in Murcia was. She gave me the keys on the spot and said she could come down to the hostel to pick me and my things up. I can’t believe I have an apartment already and only had to stay at the hostel one night!
I then continued on my trek through town with Silvia. She ran into people right and left that knew her and stopped to say hi. Unlike some of the other teachers Silvia actually lives here in the village. She said that people here know basically everyone and that within about 48 hours of me arriving everyone would know that I was here.
Our next stop was the police station. I needed to fill out some residency paperwork. There is a grand total of 3 police officers in Siles. Haha. Then on top of that, the police station was closed! Not only that, but when we called the police (yes, we called them to do paperwork), they didn’t answer! When I got back to the school I was joking around with one of the teachers that not much must happen here if you can’t get a hold of the police. She laughed and joked that nothing exciting ever happens in this town. I’ll have to try to get a hold of the police again tomorrow.
We also went to the post office, the bookstore, the bank, and a convenience store. She showed me where the market is, and told me that the grocery store I had visited the night before (Called ‘Dia’) is the largest they have in town. It’s so different from grocery stores in the US, and even in Murcia. In Murcia they had Mercadona which was a pretty decent sized grocery store. It’s blatantly clear that I need to learn how to cook unless I want to starve here. She also showed me the shoe store, the restaurant area (which is on El Paseo) and the discoteca. Yes, small little Siles has a discoteca. I am so curious about. How many people really go on any given night? How happenin’ can it really be? I’ll be sure to let you know when I check it out.
We also went to the doctor’s office. I have health insurance through the program I’m working with. I already received my insurance card, but I needed to go and have a doctor assigned to me. That was fairly uneventful, but another thing marked off the to-do list.
After all that we went back to school, I arranged a time to meet with Inés the next day and headed back to the hostel to pack my things. I took my backpack and camera bag and walked to my apartment to let Ma. Cele (my landlady) know that I was ready when she was. Me, the hostel owner and Ma. Cele got a good laugh at how ridiculous my bags are. Ma. Cele drove me back up to the apartment and helped me lug all my bags downstairs, even though I insisted she didn’t need to. Then on top of all her help, she only made me pay 50 euros to live in the apartment for the rest of October. It’s just crazy how lucky I got!!! She didn’t ask for any cleaning deposits, or last months rest, or move-in fees. 50 euro to live in the apartment from October 20-October 31st. Score! She also has so many nice little touches in the apartment. There is a full set of cups, dishes, pots, pans, silverware, cleaning supplies, an iron and ironing board (which is crucial since I don’t have a dryer), stocked paper towels and toilet paper and a toilet bowl freshener in the toilet. My apartment costs 280 euros (approx. $393) a month and includes everything (heat, water, electricity). Inés says that’s a fantastic deal, especially with heat included since it gets so cold in the winter and heating bills usually get expensive.
I unpacked, tried to get caught up on some messages, listened to Napster (Last time Napster didn’t work when I was here but I guess they’ve finally got international. Yay!), took some pictures and relaxed a bit…just trying to get settled. When it was dinner time I headed back to Dia.
On El Paseo I ran into the older gentleman that stopped me yesterday and was thrilled that I was going to teach his little girl. He seemed excited to see me again. I would say overall, at least so far, the older men tend to be friendlier, and the women tend to appear more suspicious of me. It’s so weird walking down the street though. I definitely feel like there’s a spotlight on me. People’s heads turn, I’m sure wondering who the heck I am and why I’m there. I also feel really tall, and I’ve already had comments about my long blond-ish hair. Anyways, I can’t remember this guy’s name and need to ask again when I see him. He was sitting with his friend Juan and once again stopped me to chat. He’s so great and full of personality. Juan and his friend asked me about the US, like population, how long it took me to get here and how far it is to Seattle. Juan was a truck driver so he’s been all over Europe, but never to the US. I chatted with them for quite some time, and several other people joined in our conversation as time flew by.
Juan said that in 2 months I’ll be speaking like an Espanola. I hope he’s right! They also want me to teach them English. “Definitely! I’ll teach you English and you help me with my Spanish, ok?” He proceeded to ask me what “beautiful” and “ugly” were in English. The way he pronounced “ugly” was something along the lines of “wugly,” and priceless, especially when he burst into laughter at the sound.
They were also giving me a hard time about finding a novio. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have at least half of the older men around her trying to set me up with their sons. Juan’s friend also asked me if I knew how to cook. I informed him sadly that I don’t really, but that I want to learn. Then he asked me if I knew how to cook an egg. Haha. Well…yes…I do know how to do that. Then I received my first (physical) gift upon arriving in Siles…niscalos and some fruit from Juan’s friend.
Let me introduce you to los niscalos…
…yep…a type of mushroom. Haha. Mushrooms are not exactly my favorite food, but for the sake of community, I’ll give it a shot. This is supposed to be a time of self-growth after all. Plus, their scientific name is Lactarius deliciosus. If ‘delicious’ is in their scientific name it must be true, right? They told me that I needed to wash the niscalos very well. They repeated this to me at least 50 times. Haha. It’s nice they are looking out for me and making sure the language barrier doesn’t cause me to eat dirt. Then they said I needed to fry them in olive oil and add salt. I promised them I would. I don't know what they type of fruit was that they had me try. It seemed like a combination of a plum and a pomegranate and I actually really liked it. There was a miscommunication because I thought 'niscalo' was the name of the fruit, not the mushroom.
When Juan and his friends realized that I was heading towards Dia they sent me off with the typical Spanish kisses on the cheek and pushed me on my way because it was about to close. They told me that I should go there and get a snack, but that the restaurant was open late and a good place for dinner. At the grocery store I picked up some eggs, cheese, pasta, Spanish tortilla, water, a bottle of wine, and a bottle of tinto verano to celebrate the first night in my new apartment. I was on cloud nine, especially because of my interactions with the locals. I really hope that I can meet and growth with the people here.
I went home, heated up the tortilla (Tortilla is like an egg, potato and onion omelet.) and settled in to enjoy the fact that I have internet in my apartment. That isn’t very common here, and it is such a blessing. I was afraid I wasn’t going to have much phone or internet access based on my adventures yesterday. The only bad thing about the evening…the giant beetle that hopped into bed with me. Bleeeech. Yuck. He was quick too. Sadly for him, my shoe spread his guts onto the floor. Gave me the heebie jeebies. I was afraid to pull up the covers to see if there was more but thank goodness there weren’t.
On a totally different note, $5 says I land on my face at least once this winter climbing the hills in the snow. This entire town is hills except for El Paseo, and when it gets icy…oh dear…I can only imagine the embarrassing moments yet to come!
2 comments:
Hey, I'm in here!! Yellow Sub Shower - woot woot!!
Haha, yep. Only you would know my pains when it comes to tiny showers. :)
Post a Comment