Déjame en paz!

Well last night I didn’t end up going to bed right away. I stayed up late trying to prepare for my lessons and in the morning I woke up late. I was supposed to have a lesson with Isabel before school but I called and asked to reschedule. It was just going to make my morning so stressful. I headed to the ATM, the panadería (oh you tempting chocolate Napolitanas) and then to school. I sat in the teacher’s lounge and tried to update my agenda and relax a few minutes before class. There is snow at the altitudes just above us. Snow is coming!


After that I headed up to the English room and talked to Sebas about mixing up our routine. Usually he gives me 4-6 kids and we read something from their book, and then do some exercises in their accompanying activity book. I proposed that with the eldest kids we make Christmas cards and send them to Steph’s students (My friend Steph works in a Spanish immersion school in Vancouver). That way they could interact with students from the US and use their English in a fun way. It would also give me us a chance to teach them some Christmas vocabulary. He loved the idea. After that I had class with the 5th graders and then had a break to work on stuff for my private lessons, as well as get things prepared for Thursdays Christmas card making/lesson extravaganza. I printed out a bunch of Christmas drawing pages I had found so the kids could color them, cut them out and include them on their Christmas cards. I also helped Antonio and Silvia put up the backdrop for our “Charity Christmas Tree.” The kids are painting egg cartons green and we are putting them up in the form of a Christmas tree. I’ll try to put up a picture later when it’s done. We are putting boxes under our “Christmas tree” and collecting donations for people that don’t have enough for the holidays. After that I was supposed to work with the 1st graders. Inés is usually with me during this time, and we had planned on having the 1st graders make the typical Thanksgiving hand-turkeys so we could put it on our mural. I think I forgot to mention this mural before. Hehe. This is another thing I will need to get a picture of. I drew a basic, cartoon-ish turkey that says “I am thankful for…” The kids traced their hands and made turkeys out of them, then we cut the hands out and pasted them onto the mural as the feathers of the turkey on my poster. With just the second graders we didn’t have enough hands/turkeys so we were going to do the exercise with the first graders too. Well, Inés wasn’t at school on Monday and the normal 1st grade teacher was frazzled because the kids were being crazy. She asked if I could wait until 1pm to try and do the lesson…that’s only 45 minutes later so I said sure. I hung out until 1 but then the teacher asked if we could just do it the next week. I felt bad for her. She seemed exhausted and overwhelmed. Sure…one less lesson I have to plan I guess! I went to the small market/grocery store next to my house (Juani’s) and picked up some cream cheese, lasagna and chocolate. Quite the shopping trip, right? Haha. After that I went home, did laundry, had lunch, consolidated by clothes on the ‘tendedero’ (my new clothes rack) so they didn’t take over the entire apartment, chatted with Maria and then took a short nap.

I woke up and received a text message that I should come to her apartment right away so we can meet and go somewhere to watch the futbol (soccer) game. Barcelona and Madrid were playing so it was a big game. I met Almudena at her apartment and she was juggling dinner and laundry and cleaning the apartment. We headed off to Mezquita, had a mosto and watched the beginning of the game but there weren’t any seats. We got their too late. Almudena is a Barcelona fan but Rulo and Maria and a bunch of others are Madrid fans. I lean towards Madrid although I haven’t fully formed an alliance yet. Most of the people in Mezquita were Madrid fans. Shortly after we headed over to Nicols. Nicols was filled with all the Barcelona fans. Almudena’s parents were there as well as a couple other friends of hers. There were still no seats but the environment in Nicols was better…mostly because it was filled with Barcelona fans and Madrid was getting their butt kicked. The final score was 5-0. Yikes. It was really funny to see Almudena’s dad. He comes off as being SO serious all the time, but every time Barcelona scored he was up dancing and cheering. Luis showed up sometime in the second half and hung out with us. Also the group of teachers I’ve been going out were there too. When the game ended Almudena headed home but I stuck around with Luis and the other teachers. I had planned on going right home after the game…it was a Monday after all and I needed to teach in the morning. Haaaaaaaha. Foolish me. Going home after a big game, even if it is a Monday? Noooooo. Not until 2:30am.

A guy Luis knew (as well as a bunch of others throughout the night) came over and was trying to convince me to root for Barcelona. I mentioned that my dad had a Barcelona jersey and he got really happy and Luis buried his face in his hands. Haha. I told them I would watch the rematch in May and then decide who “my” team would be.

We were at Nicols for quite awhile. Initially I had fun there but there was a group of guys there that I’ve had a hard time with since the beginning of my stay here. I don’t understand them and I know they are saying suggestive things. I always get really uncomfortable and although I know good things to say/do in English, Spanish leaves me at a loss. It’s more upsetting and frustrating that my Spanish isn’t good enough to defend myself than the actual things they are saying. They say “Oh, I’m just joking” but then they continue. They’ll say something, and even though I don’t understand the words, the fact that the other guys around him start cracking up put up a large red flag. Luis was close by and keeping an eye on the situation, but also told me that he wanted me to learn how to defend myself. When I shoved a guys arm off from around my shoulders Luis stepped in. I’m sure I was visibly frazzled and Luis talked to them. We stayed for a little while longer but not long. We headed over to Pub JJ. Luis could tell I was upset, and he thought I was mad at him for not knocking their lights out. No…starting or dealing with a bar brawl really wouldn’t have made me feel any better. I explained my language frustrations and he started trying to teach me phrases for situations like that. At Pub JJ we ran into another guy we knew, and another guy that had studied English awhile back. The guy we knew started teaching me Spanish tongue twisters. I didn’t stay too long. I had a Coke, chatted it up with our little group long enough to relax and feel better, then headed home. 2:30am. Goodness. On a Monday!

My Thanksgiving

Ahhh, Sunday…my day of rest.

Now to catch you all up on the last few days.

Thursday was “Real Thanksgiving.” It was at least half way through the day before I even realized it was Thanksgiving. I woke up, got ready and headed off to work. After work I ran errands, went home, ate…normal, day-day stuff. I bought a new pair of boots. I still absolutely love the ones I bought in Murcia, but now that I’ve worn them religiously for 2 years they are pretty worn out, plus the small heal really hurts my feet when walking up and down all these Siles hills. About 3:15 I went back to school to meet Antonio and Inés. Inés had a physical therapy appointment in La Puerta and asked Antonio to come along and watch her son. I tagged along as something to do. Antonio, me and Inés son (who is about 16 months old) walked from one end of La Puerta to the other looking for a place to sit and eat, or at least get a cup of coffee. Everything, except the hair salon, and two cafes were closed (you could die of hunger but at least your hair would look nice!). La Puerta isn’t that big but my feet were so tired by the time we settled at one of the cafes for a coffee. Antonio “invited me” to a coffee and when Inés was done with her appointment she met us there. Here, “to invite” someone doesn’t just mean they can come along with you…it means they pay for you. I learned this during my stay in Murcia. I never really thought about it but when I mentioned the different between the word in Spanish and English one of my Spanish friends was surprised…”so you invite someone to come with you, then make them pay?” Haha…ummm…yes?

I think we must have been quite a site as we were walking around town. Walking with Antonio and a Spanish-looking little kid I feel like more people overlooked the fact that I was blond and blue-eyed and gave me the benefit of the doubt that I probably spoke Spanish...or that I was Antonio’s wife and Inés son was my own. Haha. Inés son had fallen asleep during our walk and woke up just before we left the café. Poor kid…he seemed so confused to wake up in an unfamiliar place and he cried basically all the way back to Siles.

Anyways, after Inés appointment and our coffee we went back to Siles. Inés dropped me off at my apartment.

People don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here so there was no time off from work, no turkeys cooking, and no big dinners being prepared all day long. I was doing totally fine not being home for Thanksgiving until late afternoon/evening. Things kind of started to go downhill from there a little. I was in my apartment by myself. None of my friends were available to get together and “Happy Thanksgiving” status updates started taking over Facebook. I got to talk to my family a bit which was really nice, but then I debated just going to bed early. I was feeling a little sad and trying just to remind myself that “My Thanksgiving” was tomorrow. That thought reassured me a little, but I was still afraid that everyone was going to bail on our dinner plans. So many people had given me wishy-washy confirmations, or jumped back and forth about whether or not they were coming. I eventually just watched a little bit of the movie “Elf” online, had a good chuckle and hit the hay.

I’m a little nervous that I reacted this way for Thanksgiving. I really was totally fine with it until the very last minute. I don’t think it will be the same for Christmas though. I think part of the issue was that no one here was doing anything. A holiday that’s normally pretty important went completely unrecognized by everyone except me. At least everyone here celebrates Christmas, so even though I’ll be without my family there will still be celebrating and I’ve been invited to spend the day with Almudena’s family.

Friday was “My Thanksgiving” and it was a total 180 from the night before. Friday was absolutely fantastic. I slept in a bit and then got to work. I needed to clean my apartment, try to bake my pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin, get the food for dinner and do some laundry. I had dressed up a little for the day, just for the heck of it, so I felt like Suzy Homemaker all dolled up, making pie, doing chores and getting ready to play hostess all at the same time. I talked to Ben and Eve (the 2 auxiliares from La Puerta) and they said that they were going to come for dinner. The bus schedule is really irregular around here so I wasn’t sure if they were going to get here at 4, 7, 10 or God knows when. Also Luis was coming over to start preparing the food. I decided to cancel my Friday evening private lesson so I could have enough time to get stuff done.

Of course, Thanksgiving wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a few hiccups. My main hiccup was the fact that in the middle of cooking and doing laundry I lost power in my apartment for two hours. Initially I wasn’t concerned. There was still light outside and I figured as soon as my landlady got home she would switch the power back on like normal. I actually loose power on a fairly regular basis, but usually Ma Cele is home and can fix it (the breaker box is in her apartment). So I waited…and I waited…and I waited…and got more and more anxious that maybe we wouldn’t have power for our Thanksgiving dinner. Then the sun started to go down and I realized I had no candles, lanterns, etc so I called Ma Cele.

“Hey Ma Cele…it’s Erica. When are you coming home?”
“Sunday, why?”
“Oh. Hmmm, well we lost power again.”
“Hmmm…Are you home?”
“Yes.”
“Ok, I’ll call my brother and have him come fix it.”
“Awesome. Thank you!”

So her brother Pedro (who is one of the police officers in town) came to the apartment and got the power back on. The minute he left the power went off again. I called him and he came back. He flipped it on again and then waited. I didn’t have very many things turned on, so we turned on almost everything in the apartment to see if we were going to loose power again as soon as he left. Everything seemed ok so he headed out and said to just call him again if the problem persists.

I finished up cleaning, but knew I wasn’t going to have enough time to bake the pie now. About the time that my private lesson would have been my doorbell rang. “Gosh dang it!” I figured it was the private lesson family in yet another scheduling communication mishap. I went upstairs and luckily it was just Almudena and Maria. They had been going back and forth with me all week about whether or not they were coming. They kept coming up with lame excuses not to come. They had stopped by to talk to me about the dinner. I explained who was coming, who wasn’t, and that Ben and Eve were coming now too. The latest excuse,

“Well maybe there are too many people now and we should just get a coffee or something with you later.”
“It’s up to you but for Thanksgiving the more the merrier and we really only have 2 or 3 more than originally planned.”

So they caved.
“Ok. We’ll be back about 9.”

Luis showed up about 10 minutes later and we headed to the store. He brought me some homemade tomato/pizza/pasta sauce and jam from his mom and the mixer that I needed for my pie. We picked up everything we needed and went back to prep…well…for him to start prepping and for me to drink wine and find music for us to listen to. Haha! Thanksgiving at my house without having to make anything? Lucky me!

By some miracle almost everyone showed up right about nine. We still had a couple no-shows but since Ben and Eve decided to come it worked out evenly. We had 7 people total for dinner and 3 more joined us a little later.

The food was awesome. We had Spanish tapas and Luis even used some of my pumpkin on one of them. There was no turkey, and the only potatoes we had were in the form of our Spanish tortilla, but it was really good. The portion sizes were good too, so none of us fell into the normal American-Thanksgiving-induced coma after dinner. Quite the opposite in fact. Fun fact...the two most requested songs of the night from the Spanish guys..."Empire State of Mind" by Alicia Keys and "Love the Way You Lie" by Eminem and Rihanna. We all hung out, ate, chatted and drank wine and after dinner we headed out for our “First Annual Thanksgiving Spanish Bar Crawl.” We started off at Menphys, then off to Nicols, then over to 1900. Our last stop was supposed to be Pub JJ but it was closed so we went back to Menphys. At 4am they flipped the lights on and it was time to go home. Ben and Eve decided to wait at Menphys because one of the bartenders lives in La Puerta and offered them a ride home. They ended up staying there until 7am. I went home and crashed.



Saturday I spent most of the day in bed nursing my first Spanish hangover. I eventually got up to get some water, some food and a shower and then felt much better. At 5 I had plans to go over to Almudena’s house. They were having dessert and coffee with friends to celebrate Almudena’s daughter’s 2nd birthday before the family came over for dinner. After this mini-celebration Maria and a few others left but Almudena invited me to stay for the main party. A bunch of family showed up, blew up balloons, put up decorations, brought food, etc. etc. Adriana had been in her room playing so the living went from normal to party central without her evening knowing it. When they finally brought her out she was visibly went through a series of emotions…especially ‘frightened’ at all the people shouting “Feliz Cumple” and then quickly to crazy 2-year old excitement. It didn’t take her long to find and open the confetti filled piñata that popped and spread confetti-happiness all over the living room. The rest of the night was spent listening to music, eating, watching Adriana open her presents, Adriana giving people makeovers with her new Barbie make-up set and more eating. All in all there were 3 cakes/desserts in addition to the pizza, sandwiches, chips, tapas and drinks.





Just before 10pm I headed out. Luis had called to see if I wanted to do something. Obviously after Friday night neither of us was totally thrilled about the idea of going out. We decided on a movie at my place.

Ok…I didn’t really think about what a challenge that was going to be. You would think, yes, for a nice, relaxing evening at home, a movie is just the thing…wrong. First problem…I don’t have a DVD player attached to my TV and DVDs in this region are different from the US (so I can’t play them on my computer). Luckily Luis brought over a DVD player. Ok, problem number one fixed. Problem number 2…Luis’ Castellano (what we know as Spanish) is basically flawless, but he is from Catalonia, where they speak Catalan. I never notice any errors in his Castellano but every now and then, especially with things like movies, he’ll comment on how fast they speak. I speak English, and although my Castellano is good, watching movies in Spanish is still taxing. I have to really concentrate, which makes the purpose of watching a movie to relax basically impossible. Then began the debate over what language we watch the movie in, do we have subtitles, what language should the subtitles be in, which movies do we have that fit all those requirements, etc, etc. Goodness gracious. We ended up watching “Noise” which I think is a totally weird idea for a movie. It was in Castellano but we didn’t have subtitles, so I listened and followed along with the general idea.

Today, Sunday, was a totally lazy day. I did a load of laundry and tried to get caught up on the dishes from Friday’s dinner. I also made a pizza. It certainly wasn’t hard because I used a pre-made crust, and I definitely used too much tomato sauce but it was still good. I wish I could have been a little more productive, but oh well. I’m heading to bed so I can try to be up early in the morning to make up for not doing anything today.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

Relationships make the world go round

Tuesday was my first stressful day with the little kids. I actually work at two schools here in Siles. My normal school (that I spend the most time at) is with the 1st-6th graders. The other school has the kids 3-5 years old and is a little farther up the hill. I arrived in Siles on a Tuesday 2 weeks ago, then last week I had to go to Jaén on Tuesday. This week Sebas wasn’t here and the teachers apparently didn’t know I was coming. They turned their classrooms over to me and I had nothing prepared. Usually I’ll just follow Sebas’ lead or incorporate myself into the lessons they are normally working on. It’s also so difficult to understand little kids. Little kids are often hard to understand in your native language, nonetheless a second language. I actually had one little 5 year old girl tell me “We have no idea what you are saying.” Great. Well I don’t know what you’re saying either, so this is going to be fun. Next week I have to go to Jaén again on Tuesday for more paperwork, so it’s going to be hard to get into any sort of routine with the little kids for another couple weeks.

I went to the school with the older kids during my lunch break and after my classes to try and talk with Inés or the other teachers and get a plan for this week. Inés was in a doctor’s appointment and I didn’t have that much luck with the other teachers.

I generally felt like a clueless idiot trying to wrangle and teach these little kids with no plan in place. Part of me just wanted to cry.

After school I went to Correos (the post office) to mail some postcards to my grandparents. After that I went home, had some lunch and took my first successful Spanish siesta. I slept for an hour and then woke up feeling better. I tried to go buy some school supplies that I could use to prep my class lessons but I didn’t know the word for markers and was not successful in describing what I want. I eventually had to leave and just say I would look up what I wanted and come back. I tried to go to the Bazar store and had a little better luck, but still couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. I tried to take some money out of the ATM to pay for rent but it didn’t work. Thank you Bank of America for screwing me over again. Every time that I go abroad, even if I tell the bank ahead of time that I’m leaving, they always shut down my account. This time I was amazed by how prompt they were. That was the first time I had tried to use my debit card in Spain and it was already turned off. I went home, dealt with the oh-so-pleasant customer support system and then went back to the ATM again. The bank says I need to contact them every 90 days to tell them that I’m still abroad. Grrr. To further complicate things, at the ATM you have 3 options for withdrawals “Current account,” “Savings account,” and “Credit Account.”

Current account=what we know as a savings account
Savings account=what we know as a checking account
Credit account=what we know as a credit card

Well, know I know. So much for selecting “English” at the ATM.

I bought a snack, went home and made dinner and then worked on lesson planning. I’m slowly getting a better idea of what vocabulary I should be using and how I should approach lessons, but it’s definitely still a challenge.

Next I got a Tuenti invitation from Gloria. Tuenti is the Spanish version of Facebook and is invitation-only. I got my account set up and then got to look at all the photos and comments from this last weekend. I also got to chat with Maria for awhile. Her cousin was in one of the pictures I took at the school Halloween party and she pointed her out for me. She offered to help me out with whatever she could help with. I need to actually try out my coffee maker because Maria wants to come over and hang out. By the end of the day, even though I’d encountered so many difficulties, I felt like I was on cloud 9. I feel like I actually have friends here and am making progress at school. Having those relationships makes a world of difference.

Daylight savings time is just an excuse to party an hour more

Happy Halloween everyone!

Yesterday I slept in until 12:30. Considering I didn’t go to bed until 3:30 I think that’s just fine. Heck, it was a Saturday on a holiday weekend. The day before I had successfully done one load of laundry of laundry (the little pictures/symbols on the washing machine are not really bilingual) so yesterday I needed to do the rest of my laundry. I don’t have a dryer here. In Murcia I could understand that…I didn’t necessary like it, but I understood it. It doesn’t rain a lot there and the temperature is pretty decent year-round. Here, it was raining yesterday. It started raining Friday night and has been drizzly and very Washington-like ever since. You can’t really put clothes outside on the line to dry if it’s raining. And later this winter when it starts to snow? I REALLY don’t think my clothes are going to dry then. So, this is what life looks like without a dryer…







I do love my towel warmer. I put my jeans on that, and it still took a long time, but I got them dry in one day instead of three. I have clothes on my tables, clothes on the chairs, clothes on the banister and clothes on desk…it’s beginning to sound like a Dr. Seuss story.

I also spent some time doing dishes and sweeping. Dust tends to gather really quickly here so I feel like I need to sweep every couple days.

I showered and got ready, and then got to talk with Brittany a little bit. We didn’t get to chat long because I ran out of money on my phone, but it was still good to talk to her. My plan was to go to Murcia tomorrow (Pepe is going to Murcia to look at a new car and said he could take me) and have coffee with Brittany.

After all that I headed out to do my errands. I went to Pepe’s house to drop off the phone he lent me and confirm tomorrow’s plan. Pepe wasn’t at the house but Rocio was. She said her dad was at Mezquita…of course he was…I think he is there, or in the area 90% of the time. Rocio was prepping her Halloween costume with a friend. Then I headed to Dia. I wasn’t sure what their hours were going to be, or which days they would be open because of the holiday weekend. I stocked up on food and jotted down their normal hours so I would know when to go in the future. I stopped in at Mezquita for coffee but it was really busy and I had my bags of groceries anyways. Pepe was there, and the group from the night before. Pepe said that they decided to go to Murcia next week instead. I was disappointed. I’m not sure when Pepe is actually going to go. He said he was going to go last week, and then moved it to this week, and now its next week. These trips to Murcia are way more complicated than they should be. It’s only a little over 2 hours away but there is only one or two buses that go that route each day, so if I go to Murcia I have to stay overnight at least one night. Brittany doesn’t have an apartment yet and I’m hesitant to shell out the money for a hostel until I start getting paid. Blah. I’m sure I’ll figure something out eventually.

I went back to the house, put my groceries away, send some e-mails, worked on my blog and dried off a little (stupid rain).

I was planning on going out again but wasn’t totally sure what time. This would be my first night here that I had plans to meet people and go out, instead of going by myself. QUITE exciting! The party at Mezquita was suppose to start at 1am and my group said they were going to go at 2am. They also said they were going to go out before the party, so I wasn’t sure what time they were going to call. I decided if they didn’t end up calling I would head to Menphys at 12:30 or 1 and see if they are there.

Later I received a text from Maribel saying they were planning on getting together at Menphys at 11:30. I took my time getting there, knowing it wasn’t likely they would actually be there right at 11:30. Menphys was so crowded. I definitely have to get used to that environment again because I was totally overwhelmed. It was really difficult to hear people, and basically impossible unless they were talking directly to me. I was underdressed too. I went in jeans and a fun shirt but all the girls were in heels and dresses. Part of me wanted to go home and change but I didn't. I should have saved my little black dress for this night instead of Friday. We had a couple drinks they headed to the discoteca at 2am. Cover was 6 euro, but it included a drink, so it wasn’t too bad. The bartender at the discoteca couldn’t understand me, and asked Almudena to clarify for him. It’s so frustrating…I know I’ve only been here a week and I’m not a native Spanish speaker, but I can hold such good conversations with some people and I’ve had many people tell me that I speak Spanish well. But then there are still people I can’t understand, who can’t understand me. Grrr.

It took me awhile to get adjusted to the discoteca. I was even more overwhelmed here. At times I just wanted to head out, or at least go outside for a minute, but I stuck it out. The concept of personal space is completely different here. Luckily the group I was with was really good to me. They kept checking in to make sure I was doing alright and having fun.

They had a special guest at the discoteca last night…Jenny from the show Mujeres y Hombres y Viceversa on Telecinco. I of course had no idea who she was prior to last night, but it was fun. We got a picture taken with her, which hopefully I’ll track down from Maribel at some point.

Gloria is freaking amazing. My night turned around and I had a lot of fun, mostly because of her. I really just can’t even express how grateful I am for her, for taking me under her wing, introducing me to people right and left, and breaking me out of my shell. She also took me up into the DJ area because her boyfriend is the DJ and he did a shout out to us over the PA system. We danced the night away, and I got to chat with quite a few people. I think a lot of the people were pleased to see that I wasn’t super uptight, because up until last night they had only seen me at Menphys trying to maintain conversation with them. I’m very sad that Gloria is only here for the weekend. I told her that I may try to take Laura and Chelsea to Granada, and if we do go, I’ll meet up with her. She is also going to be in town for Christmas break.

When I was in Murcia a lot of American music was played in the bars. I was pleasantly surprised that majority of the music played at the discoteca last night was Spanish. Gloria said yes, things are different in Andalucía.
Last night/this morning was daylight savings time here. I asked around 4am when the discoteca closes and Gloria said 6am because it’s a holiday weekend…and with daylight savings time…it feels like 7am. I think if I can survive last night, I’ll be set for the rest of my time here.













I went to bed at 7am (6am with the daylight savings time adjustment). Holy guacamole. I can’t believe that’s possible in a town this small. My ears were ringing so bad at the end of the night.

I woke up once at 11:30 and was shocked. I didn’t expect to be up until the day was mostly over. I closed my eyes again and didn’t wake up until 3. I tried to make potato wedges but burned them really badly. I think I have a high power oven. It said to cook them 15-20 minutes and by 15 minutes they were totally burnt. It’s a good thing apartments don’t have smoke detectors here because I definitely would have set them all off. And now I’m sitting in bed, enjoying patatas alioli and updating this blog. My only two goals today were to update the blog and finish my conversation cards for my adult English language class. Quite the life I have! And I don’t even have to work tomorrow!

Tonight is Halloween. I’m curious to see how many kids will actually end up going trick or treating since it is raining. I don’t have any candy to give out. Sad. I think there’s a store in town where you can buy it, but I don’t know where it is and it’s probably closed today. It’s definitely not like the bags of candy you buy in the states for Halloween. Who knows, if I end up going trick or treating with my students I won’t need candy anyways.

Random side note...I took this picture of the Siles directory sign. Notice that *the* gas station (gasolinera), *the* pharmacy (farmacia), *the* bus stop (parada bus) and public parking (parking público) are all destination points. Welcome to Siles!

Now I feel like a real teacher

Ok, I felt like today was really my first day of teaching. I got to the school a little before 10. At 10 I worked with Sebas teaching the 3rd graders. I just took a small group of them (5 students…Rafa, Rafa, Carlos, Marta and Marta) and we did some reading and listening activities. One of the Rafas is deaf. That was a challenge I hadn’t prepared myself for at all. Luckily Sebas had some different material planned for Rafa…he just wanted to be apart of my group to feel included.

After the 3rd grade class Sebas and I went to the 6th grade class. I spent the beginning of class fielding questions about me, the US, and Selena Gomez. Sebas then picked 5 people to go with me but all of them wanted to go with me. Sebas joked around that he was going to go home and take a nap because they all wanted to go with me. So, I took the selected 5 students to the English classroom and we talked about parts of the face. One of the girls told me she liked my eyes. Good use of the vocabulary we were studying. :) Rocio (Pepe’s daughter) was also excited to be apart of this group with me.

After the 6th grade class there was recess. I chatted with Antonio (one of the teachers) while we hung out with the 3rd and 4th graders. After recess I went to Antonio’s 4th grade classroom to help teach science in English. We mostly talked about me and where I was from and a lot of geography. Their concept of world geography was awful. Antonio said they used to spend a lot more time on it but don’t anymore. When asked what states the kids knew of I got answers ranging from London to South Africa, France and Italy. It’s a good thing I brought a map of the U.S. I had a couple other kids point to a map of England in the hallway the other day and ask where the U.S. was.

I had a 15 minute break before I needed to go with Inés and her 2nd graders. Inés seemed very stressed out today. Her kids were pretty rowdy and she must have been tired. After she took us to Jaén yesterday she had to come back to school and work until 8pm (Tuesdays are meeting and training days). We taught seasons, colors and clothing to the 2nd graders. One of her second graders (Rocio…different from Pepe’s Rocio) drew me a picture. Stefi’s kids had drawn me pictures when I was at their house but they got tucked away when we were cleaning. This is the first drawing I can put up in my apartment.

School was done at 2. I stuck around a little bit longer to talk with Antonio. His science class is the first one I actually have to prepare lessons for. I have no idea what I’m doing in that regard. His English speaking science class is two days a week. It makes so much more sense for me to be apart of both days if I have to lesson plan. If I only do one of the days it’s hard to know what they covered, what they still need to do, etc, etc. The only problem is that part two of his science class is supposed to meet on Fridays and I don’t work on Fridays. He is going to talk to Inés and see if he can switch his Spanish speaking science class and English speaking science class so I can be at both the English speaking classes. It will put me over 12 hours a week, but I think in the long run it will simplify my life. Inés has been really hesitant to put me over 12 hours but I hope she approves this.

I went home, threw some potatoes in the oven and had patatas alioli for lunch. At 4:15 I walked back to school for the adult English classes. I was under the impression that it was one class but it is actually two. I met with the teachers Marta and Fernando (neither of whom knew I was going to be around to help with the classes). I stayed in Fernando’s class for two hours. In the coming weeks I will only be spending one hour a week with each class, but since it’s still unsure what my schedule will be like with them I wanted to be present. I am going back to their classes tomorrow to finalize a schedule and work with Marta’s class. It’s quite interesting to listen to how they teach English. There are a lot of grammar rules I wouldn’t have really thought about otherwise.

Fernando is very nice and he has a Scottish accent. I figured he must have studied there but he said he’s only been abroad 4 days in his life. I was shocked. He seemed flattered to know that he has a non-Spanish accent when speaking English. He is not from Siles but is living here now and adjusting to small town life and lack of nightlife like I am. We swapped numbers so I have another café con leche buddy. I thank God for every new person I meet here. I realize you can’t befriend everyone in a week but today has been the first evening that I felt lonely (with the exception of my very first night here in the hostel). Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad I’m here. I just wish I had some good go-to friends here my age. I know it will come…it’s just the hardest adjustment.

After class I ran into another one of Juan’s friends that lives “in the stone house next to the school.” I chatted with him briefly then headed back to my apartment. When I was almost there I realized I had forgotten my wallet and keys in the classroom. I hurried back but wasn’t too concerned because even though Fernando’s class was finished, Marta had still been teaching. Wrong. They also left early and by the time I got back to school the gate was padlocked. Insert swear words here. Thank goodness I had just purchased a Spanish phone yesterday and that Fernando had given me his number. I called him up and he called Marta. Marta drove back to the school (I was afraid she lived far away but she was pretty close) and let me in. I grabbed my stuff, thanked her profusely, chatted about our plans for English class tomorrow and headed back to my apartment AGAIN.

While I had been sitting outside the school waiting for Marta a group of my students came down the street and they all waved at me. They are so cute. I like that they feel comfortable approaching me and talking to me.

My plan was to be productive and that didn’t happen at all. I spent the evening catching up on Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice and How I Met Your Mother episodes. This was a challenge because ABC doesn't stream their shows internationally. I found a site that would let me watch for an hour, then require I take an hour break. Lame. After I’m done with this blog entry I plan on going back to my lesson planning and then going to bed but I may end up going straight to bed and just waking up early. In addition to the stuff for Antonio's class I also need to make a poster for the other science teacher, a recycling poster for Sebas and come up with a list of English conversation topics for the adults. Ay, ay, ay. I don't feel like doing any of that. Hopefully I can get in a rhythm now that I know what types of activities I will be doing and plan ahead during the weekends. Trying to do these types of activities (lesson planning and poster making) the night before kind of sucks.

Tomorrow is my other long day, but at least then the bulk of my work week will be done and I can relax a little more.

I also need to ask the landlady how to use the washing machine. I’m almost out of clothes and afraid of flooding or over-suding my apartment. You would think descriptive pictures on a washing machine would work across any language but that isn't really true. I also need to go to the post office and the bank. Hopefully I’m not too tired tomorrow, because it’s probably going to be a busy day.

Wish me luck for my second full day of teaching tomorrow!

My first day as a teacher!

I went to bed super early last night…6:30pm…then slept for 13 hours. Needless to say I feel more rested today. However, I really wish my bed was more comfortable. I wonder if I could find some sort of mattress topper or something. I’ll have to do some creative thinking so my back doesn’t break in half by the time June comes around. I got up, got ready and headed to my first day of teaching. My first lesson was with the 5th graders. Sebas is the English teacher, and he explained to me what we were going to be doing. He does the main lessons, and then gives me smaller groups of kids to really work on listening and speaking. He was joking around about the fact that from now on he is going to be the last pick English teacher because all of them want to go with me instead. Sebas took most of the class to the English classroom, and left me with 4 kids in their normal classroom…Vincente, Miguel Jose, Estrella and Mari Angel. We listened to a CD clip of an English person talking about school uniforms, and then I read the same clip. Next I had each of the kids read a section. After that there was a workbook we went through. Finally we listened one more time. It was hard to get the kids to sit and focus, but they had warned me that the group of 5th graders this year has been a challenge. They don’t tend to behave very well. For me it was mostly hard to get them to focus on what we needed to do, because they just wanted to learn about me and ask me questions. We didn’t end up going through the powerpoint I created because we needed to do other things, but based on how my time with the kids went I think it would have been worth our while to do a Q and A session with me instead. An hour actually went by very quickly. In the future I think we’re hoping to get 2 groups in with me every class, but we’ll see. It’s a learning experience for us all.

After that first class I had a break. I went home to tweak my powerpoint since I now had a better idea of where the kids’ vocabulary was at.

At noon I went back to school to work with Inés and the 1st graders. 25 of them. Crazy. I realize that’s a pretty normal number of students in a classroom in the U.S., but after working with 4 kids, 25 was insane. Luckily I didn’t have them all to myself. Inés and I co-taught. They are up and down and screaming and just generally insane. Haha. Inés says it’s like that a lot. I have a feeling that student/teacher interactions and ideas about discipline in the classroom are very different between Spain and the U.S. I know there were times my classes growing up would get rowdy, but never on a consistent basis like it was today. With Inés we sang songs, danced and colored pictures of bats for Halloween. I went around and chatted a little bit with each of the kids about colors. They knew all the basic colors from last year, but today we taught them the word for “black” since most of them were coloring their bats black or brown.

At 2pm Victor (the person in charge of the auxiliares in this region) stopped by the school to talk to me about the NIE appointment in Jaén. Instead of Wednesday I’m going to go tomorrow because the other 2 assistants (Ben and Eva) from Puerta are going tomorrow. This way we can all get it done together and I can meet them.

This turned into a bit of a confusing situation. Ben and Eva are going to Jaén tonight and staying with another auxiliar that they met during orientation (Orientation was October 6th and I missed it). Victor and Inés were hoping that I could go with them, stay in the same house, then ride the bus back to Siles tomorrow but they didn’t know if there would be enough room in the house for me. I’m not sure if Ben and Ava were as confused about the situation as me, or if they had already left, but when they called they said they just were going to meet me at the extranjería in Jaén the next day and ride back with me. So now Inés is going to personally drive me to Jaén in the morning, then bring all of us back, then do her teaching in the afternoon. It is a 2 hour drive to Jaén. Whoa. Long day for her. Have I mentioned how amazing she is? Anyways, I’m hoping that all will go well with the paperwork in the morning and I’ll have my NIE so I can open a bank account and get paid.

Javi (the school director) and Inés said that the Auxiliares program has already given the school money for me for the year and that Javi will pay me each month. They still want me to be paid for all of this month even though I arrived late so I will help make class materials and such to make up for the hours that I didn’t work. I’m so glad that they are still going to give me the whole amount. I am very thankful for that.

Later I need to go grocery shopping. I forgot that the grocery stores are not open on Sundays so yesterday my food options were lacking. Good thing I ended up sleeping the day away anyways.

Erica Nesbitt: official guíscano gatherer

Well I sense there was a breakdown in communication. I went to La Mezquita at 4 to meet Maria but didn’t see her. However, I saw Pepe (the older gentleman who I’ve mentioned before is excited that I will be teaching English…yes, I finally got his name). Instead of Maria, Pepe treated me to a café con leche. I also saw Diego and Jose Manuel there. After coffee Pepe took me to the store a block away and showed me how to use the cafetera (coffee maker that I have in my house).



I think one of Pepe’s favorite phrases is “I’ll teach you.” So far Pepe has told me that he is going to teach me to use the coffee maker, cook, pick guíscanos, play the guitar and speak Spanish like an espanola…and it’s only my 4th day here. Haha.

After he showed me how to use the cafetera he showed me the birds he had in his car. He was taking them out of the house so they could get some sun. Haha. He has a ton of these tiny little birds and loves them.

After all that Pepe decided we needed to go gather guíscanos. Guíscanos are another word for níscalos. I’m not quite sure what the difference is between guíscano and níscalo but basically it all boils down to one thing…mushrooms. Now let me tell you. I have never put so much effort into, or been so tired from pursuing a food I don’t even like. We spent a good two hours in the national park picking mushrooms…hiking up and down hills trying to find them. For two hours I heard “Ven…pa’ alla…mala, no, mala.” I know these phrases very well now. “Come…go there…bad, no, bad,” bad referring to the mushrooms, not me of course. :) Eventually our basket was full and I figured we would go back home. Noooo, how foolish am I to think that! Pepe would then just add sticks to the side of the basket creating a fence so it could hold more. Then finally we were loosing light. We started to head back but every time we started to head back we would see another mushroom and then we would have to scour that area. Haha. Oh Pepe and his mushrooms. I don’t think I’ll ever have the heart to tell him I don’t really like mushrooms. I think I’m doomed to be eating them for the next 8 months.








(No, I wasn't dressed for mushroom picking or hiking, but I didn't expect to be walking around the woods when I got dressed that morning. I was expecting to get coffee and then go out later that evening. Pepe tied my hair back with some long grass so it wouldn't be in my face when looking for mushrooms. He definitely is my Spanish grandfather-figure.)











We stopped and got a drink and tapas (him a version of chocolate milk, me a type of grape juice), then we went back to his house and we had dinner with his daughter (whom I will be teaching). On the dinner menu? Bread, ham, grapes and of course, mushrooms. He also gave me a phone to use until I can buy my own in two weeks (the store is waiting to get more of the cheap ones in stock). He then took me home, with a large container of already cooked mushrooms in hand and told me when I run out, I need to go back to his house and he’ll give me more. Like I said…8 months of a diet consisting mostly of mushrooms…that’s how I foresee my future.

Now my plan was to check out the discoteca. I was a bit tired from trekking in the mountains, but I decided I still needed to go for at least a little while. I chatted with my parents online, then took a quick shower, then took my time getting ready. I knew that people don’t really go to discotecas until late, and I didn’t want to be there too early. I finally left my house about midnight. I only had a general idea about where the discoteca was located but I figured I would just follow the masses and end up where I wanted to be. Two problems with that plan…number one…really, how large do you think “the masses” are in a town of 2800? Answer: not big enough. Problem number two: I didn’t know that people don’t go to the discoteca until at least 1:30am. So, I wandered around a bit looking like an idiot, debating whether I should just go home or if I should go to Menphy’s (the Egyptian bar from last night). I decided on Menphys hoping that someone from my group last night would be there. I didn’t have any luck with that, but thank God for the bartender, Maria Jose. Maria Jose is there every night and she is my night-life angel. She looks after me and says, “Here, talk to these people here…oh, this person knows some English” or “this person wants to learn English.” Usually it’s only half true, and most anyone I talk to denies knowing or speaking any English at all. However it’s a conversation starter and I love her for it. I started off chatting with one group of guys, but it was really awkward. Later, Maria (from last night, that I thought I was supposed to have coffee with) and her boyfriend and 2 other friends showed up. Maria came over and said hello, but then went back to her friends. Then a few others showed up that I didn’t know and Maria Jose (the bartender) excitedly told me to go talk to them. This was the best advice I could have possibly received. The group she sent me over to consisted of Stefi, Eduardo and Luis.

Stefi is from Holland. She is married to Eduardo from Siles and she has lived in Siles for 11 years. She has three children, all of whom I will be teaching. She speaks English, and until this year has helped give English lessons in the town. She has done it hesitantly, because English is not her first language and she doesn’t want to teach it incorrectly, but she speaks it very well. Eduardo works in a grocery store here with his brother (that is much better and cheaper than Dia, according to all 3 of them). Luis is from Barcelona. They were there at Menphys celebrating Luis’ birthday, which was last week. The guys speak some English, but not a lot. I absolutely loved spending time with these three and I could go on and on about the topics we covered but I’ll just touch on a couple.

-Background: In Barcelona they speak Catalan. It is a version of Castellano (Spanish as the Americans know it) and French. When talking about Catalan and Barcelona, I referred to Catalan as a mixture of Spanish and French. He was kind enough to point out, that if I used that description in Catalonia (where Barcelona is), people there would likely take offense. Catalan and Castellano are both “Spanish” just different varieties. I was so thankful for the respectful way he went about correcting me without taking offense.

-Stefi has done quite a bit of traveling for work. In the past she had a very negative view of the U.S. so when she was being placed in New York for work she was less than thrilled. However, she said she was very surprised at how nice everyone was and her views on the US were quickly changed. When she first arrived she was afraid to go out in the city in the morning, fearing muggings and shootings at all hours of the day, but then realized she could go read a book in Central Park and people would greet her and it was “just like in any other village.”

We headed to the discoteca a little after 3:30am. On the way out Maria Jose told me Stefi, Eduardo and Luis were good people, that if I needed anything she was going to go to the discoteca when she closed up, and she is at Menphys every night…if I needed anything, just tell her. Such a saint! She makes my solo nights out so much more comfortable.

We didn’t get to go into the discoteca after all. They were discouraging more people from coming in, since they were trying to close at 4. We started walking back to our apartments. They showed me Mercado Gerardo (where Eduardo works) and then our paths were supposed to split. Hoooooowever, being the Spanish gentlemen they are, I was not going to be allowed to walk home alone, even in a village like Siles. We were all very close to their apartments, and mine was up the big hill. Luis offered to escort me home, but Stefi and Eduardo offered up an extra bed in their apartment and churros in the morning for breakfast. I was torn. It seemed so ridiculous to stay at someone else’s apartment when mine was maybe five minutes away walking, but I could also tell the guys weren’t totally thrilled about making the trek up the hill. So, I decided to stay with Stefi and Eduardo. Their kids were at grandma’s house until the morning, and Stefi warned me that I might be woken up by them around 9am.

Their cat Bo slept by my side/under my arm/on top of my back all night. It made me happy to have him there…most of the time. In the morning I woke up and then Stefi and I went to her mother-in-law’s house to get the kids. Her kids are Jade (7 years old), Noah (5 years old) and Luna (almost 3 years old) and are some of the cutest kids I’ve ever seen. It’s Sunday so we had a special breakfast of homemade biszcocho, chocolate, churros and coffee. I hadn’t planned on staying. I didn’t sleep very well and was cold most of the night so I was going to go home and nap. However, the kids brought me stories, drawings, games, told me jokes, put makeup on me, etc, etc. I was surprised at much I was able to understand them, because I think children are hard to understand in English, none the less in Spanish. Jade speaks really quickly when she is excited, but most of the time I can understand her. Noah likes to sing and dance everywhere. Luna is the most reserved but has taken a liking to my name. She was playing by herself but kept saying my name over and over. Laura, I told the kids that we were going to learn English, so when you come into town all of us can play games together….so you have that to look forward to. I eventually took off around 1pm because they had some friends from Madrid coming into town for lunch and the kids needed to get ready. They opened their house up to me and said whenever I needed someone, or was bored/frustrated/happy/whatever I could stop by. Stefi sent me off with a big hug and I was so happy.

















The rest of today I plan on resting, cleaning house a little (dust seems to gather really quickly here), and looking over my powerpoint to see if I think it’s ready enough to present to the kids tomorrow.

Tomorrow is my first day of teaching. Wish me luck!!

Where's my wing-woman?

Yesterday I didn’t take a nap so I could try and go to bed at a normal Spanish time but it didn’t seem to work. I went to bed a little after 1am and didn't wake up until just now (12:30). Yikes.

Last night I went out to the bar…by myself. Now, in the U.S. I consider myself fairly independent and don’t have a problem going and getting something to eat by myself or going to a movie solo…but going to a bar has usually been where I drew the line. It was so nerve wracking. I grabbed a beer and tried to work up the courage to approach the group of people my age. I knew if I gave up it would set the tone for the rest of my trip. I would feel uncomfortable, and they would know that I was here and didn’t approach them, so they probably wouldn’t approach me. It totally reminded me of going up to someone you don't know at a bar and trying to get them to dance with you, or asking them out on a date, except I was just trying to find friends. Finally, I went for it. Antonio and Jose Manuel were right next to me, so I just told them I was new in town and needed suggestions about what to do here. They laughed, and I assured them I knew it was a small town. Apparently La Mezquita (the bar/restaurant where I was at) is the best place for a Friday night. I slowly got introduced to a few more of their friends (Ramona and Diego), and we shared good laughs over certain occasions when I didn’t have the slightest idea what they were saying. At one point I just said, “Ask me again in 8 months. I’ll understand by then.” Luckily they were very nice. It was awkward, but they took me in. They invited me to come with them to the next bar, Menphys. It was an Egyptian style bar. We chilled on bar stools, played darts and attempted conversation (which was more difficult here because of the loud music). Maria and Jose Miguel joined us there. Maria is 18 and still at ‘el instituto” (the high school) but she seemed the most concerned about making me feel comfortable. She seemed to understand most that I was there alone and needed friends. She also offered me a ride at the end of the night so I wouldn’t have to walk alone. It’s really not far of a walk from my point of view, but I accepted anyways. She said we could get coffee the next day at 4. I excitedly agreed. I feel like that made the night a success. There’s hope that tonight’s slightly awkward interaction will lead to more hang-out times and friends. Oh, and they also told me that not so many people go out on Friday nights. Saturday night is the best night and the only night that the discoteca is open. They are going tonight and I plan on going as well.

Are there any scanners in Siles?

After my post this morning I managed to get a few more hours of sleep. I woke up at a normal hour so hopefully that will put me on a normal sleep schedule. I got ready, made some eggs for breakfast and headed off to school.

At school I met with Inés to try and get a schedule set-up. Inés is trying so hard to incorporate all the school’s needs with the Cultural Ambassadors program standards, with me having Fridays off and also not putting a bunch of breaks in between my classes (so I’m not there all day just to teach an hour or two and have the ability to travel on weekends.). It’s proving to be quite the challenge. My schedule is not ‘set in stone’ (a phrase I taught Inés today) but hopefully Javier (the “head teacher” aka principal) will ok it this afternoon. I will be working mostly with Sebas, Inés and the preschool teachers. Sebas is the main English teacher (and also the one who gave me directions to buy towels yesterday) and Inés fills in the blocks that Sebas can’t get to. I will also be working with an adult group from the EOI (the local language school) once a week for an hour in the afternoon. My task for this weekend is to create a powerpoint of my life/country/city that the kids can see on Monday. At this point it is hard to know what level of vocabulary to use, but as time goes by I will have a better idea of where the kids are at. When Inés was talking to me there were 4 of her second grade students in the room helping her get papers organized. Pedro, Rocio, Antonio, and the 4th who hide from me under the desk (Hey, at least 3 of the 4 kids liked me…and realistically the 4th was just playing with me.). Inés frequently switches between English and Spanish when talking to me. Pedro and Rocio giggled when she spoke in English. They think she sounds funny in another language. I can only imagine what that means for me! The kids were super cute though.

My next task for the day was to find a place I could get my passport scanned. The Cultural Ambassadors program needed me to send them an electronic copy of my passport via e-mail so I can get paid. In Siles, a town where it’s hard to find towels and the internet access leaves something to be desired…how many scanners do you think there are? Answer: One. When I was at school I asked Inés where I could scan something and she didn’t know. She suggested I go to Correos, the post office. So I headed in the general direction of Correos and got lost. Instead I found the other side of El Cubo.



I also met an old man who tried to sell me socks. Haha. Not sure what it is about me that said “Hey, she needs socks!” I continued on and managed to find Correos, but they didn’t have a scanner. I got a hard copy instead thinking maybe I would just have to mail it somewhere. On my way home I saw the bookstore that Silvia and I went to earlier this week. I stopped in and asked her where I could find a scanner. She pointed me in the direction of Casa Gregorio, one street up. On my way I remembered that there is a locutorio (a place to use computers) close by on El Paseo. I stopped there first but they couldn’t scan things either. The man there also pointed me towards Casa Gregorio. He gave me specific directions and sent me on my way. I got there and sure enough, he could scan it for me. He also had phones there. I asked about getting my old Spanish phone fixed. He said I would have to go to a Movistar and buy a new number because I hadn’t added “saldo” (money to use on a prepaid phone) in more than 6 months. Well the nearest Movistar is 20km away so I asked him about getting a new Spanish phone. (He sells Vodaphone phones). In 2 weeks he is getting more in, so I’ll probably buy a new phone then. Only $19 euro. It will be worth it to have a way people can get in touch with me, and that I can call others with and not have to use my expensive American phone. After that I stopped in at one more store to get some Siles postcards and a snack and then finally headed home.

It’s Friday. I wonder what people do on Friday. I think I’ll at least go to the restaurant by the discoteca for dinner so I can check it out. I need to figure out how I can meet people my age. I’m hoping once I actually start teaching classes I will connect better with the teachers and be able to go out with them. Right now I only stop in during their recess and don’t really get to talk to them much. I’m hoping Sebas and I will get along well since I will be spending so much time in his classes.

So far a successful day. It’s funny…success in the US is trying to get my to-do list of 50 things done that day, and success here is finding a scanner. I could get used to this…

My first full day in Siles

I slept pretty well. I woke up a couple times during the night but basically slept about 11 hours…exactly what I needed to recover from my travels. I got up, showered in the smallest shower I think I’ve ever seen (yes Furbs, even smaller than ours at the Yellow Sub) and tried to organize my things a little in case housekeeping came in. My suitcases basically spit everything out when I arrived yesterday.

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!