Introducing my apartment

Here it is! This is where I'll be leaving here in Jaén.

My room (before I added my own special touch)...

It's in my contract that I'm not supposed to move furniture around...but look at this layout! I decided to change it so I could have more space (you'll see when you scroll down). If the landlord gets mad I'll move it back.

My room after making it mine...

Everything is moved around so I have more space and don't run ito my desk everytime I enter or exit the room.

Bed with new blanket...my photos on the walls...I used these things called photo clips that you can find here...http://usd.shop.lomography.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=photo+clips

This way I could put a bunch of my photos up so it felt like my own space and not have to use a bunch of push pins.

I don't have a window unfortunately, but I do have this back door that leads to the kitchen and back patio.

My drawers and wardrobe

The rest of the house...

Entryway

Down the hall and to the right is my room

Continue to the weird extra space with stuff our landlord left here

Head to the right for the kitchen, bathroom, closet and Ana's room.

The kitchen

The bathroom

The closet hiding 2 extra beds, but no mattresses unfortunately.

From the weird extra space to the left is another bedroom and the living room.

The living room

Off of the kitchen is the back patio/terrace/sunroom where the washing machine is, as well as our tanks of gas to heat water, and clotheslines to dry clothes.

Looking back the other way you can see how it connects to my room.

Drying clothes outside!

We can at least close the area off if it's raining.

The "second bathroom." Haha, no the landlord did not actually say it has a second bathroom, and he didn't even show me this. I just happened to open up a weird back door from the patio and found this. Too bad it's not actually functional and decent looking!

The park outside our apartment building that has a nice park for kids, plaza and fountain...

Our street with a couple shops and a couple restaurants...

Our door! Looks fancy from the outside. haha

Getting situated

Today I slept until 3:30. It’s so nice not to be rushed to get up and find a place to live (and to finally catch up on some sleep)! I got up and did my dishes and got ready and then tried to use the internet. One of the things I absolutely wanted when looking for an apartment was internet, but sadly, my apartment doesn’t have internet installed. If I sit in the living room next to the window sometimes I can catch the public WiFi connection from the park by our house. However, this weird connection opens most webpages but won’t open Gmail. Gmail is one of the most important ones for me so I tried to actually go sit in the park and see if a stronger connection would help. No such luck. Still no Gmail. So I got ice cream instead. Mmm. I got Laura’s favorite (Kinder Bueno ice cream) at a little heladería maybe 2 minutes from my house.

After that I went to the internet café, got a little work done and went exploring. I went past the cathedral and actually went all the way around it. Last year I had only seen one side of the cathedral, and by far the more impressive side is the side I hadn't seen. Even though I didn't have my big camera with me I managed to get some good shots.

One of the government buildings that I pass all the time.

I think this building looks really cool.

 The cathedral

 Reflection of the cathedral in the water from the little fountains of the cathedral plaza

 Relaxing and reading by the cathedral

Meeting point for friends and families to relax and enjoy the afternoon

And of course, waiting right outside the city, are the olive fields.

I wanted to get a kebab for dinner but it was still a little early. When I got home I got to meet my last roommate (although she’s leaving in a week). We chatted for a while. She was super nice and offered to help me with whatever I needed. I thought she was like 22 but later she told me she’s only 17.

I did a little laundry and found a glorious surprise waiting for me on our back “terrace.” We have a view of the castle. I didn’t see it when Jesus was showing me the apartment, but in the dusk light the castle was all lit up and caught my attention. I wish we had space to actually sit out there. Our “terrace” (I don’t really know what to call this weird outdoor-ish space…a sunroom?) basically just has the washing machine and clotheslines to dry our clothes.

After getting my clothes in the wash I watched TV for a bit, prepped some photos to put on my wall in my bedroom, blogged, read my bible a bit and headed to bed.

I feel like there are still so many things I have to do trying to get settled. I feel like I haven’t had much time to just sit and relax yet. I really want to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible this year, since it’s my last planned stay in Spain. I need to figure out the classes I’m going to take, the possibility of a Portugal trip, see if we can get internet set up, and tomorrow I start teaching my classes. It’s definitely not the super relaxed, too-much-spare-time, not-much-to-do experience I had last year.

Moving in and getting settled

I received a message from landlord that I originally thought said he would be ready after 10:30, then around 10:10 I realized it said he would only be ready before 10:30. Quickly I texted him back and asked if he could still meet me. He said yes, but right now. I met him downstairs and he was flabbergasted by how big my suitcase was and said it was the biggest suitcase he’s ever seen in his life. He drove me to the apartment but I said I could take care of my bags by myself since he said he needed to be somewhere…then began the task of dragging 3 enormous suitcases and a backpack up 3 flights of stairs. We don’t have an elevator. This will be good for exercise, but awful for carrying suitcases. I finally made it up to the third floor and the door was locked with a chain from the inside. I rang the bell twice but no one answered, then I tried (unsuccessfully) to unchain it from the outside. Finally Luisa woke up and let me in. She is my German roommate that I hadn’t met the day before.

I started to unpack, then I realized I didn’t feel like it so I laid down for a bit…only to realize that although I have a blanket and pillow there was no sheet or pillow case. Off I went to Corte Ingles to get those things, and they were way more expensive than they should have been. I debated looking elsewhere or going to the mall but really just didn’t feel like a scavenger hunt so I forked out the money. I thought about going to the mall to get a couple other things but decided I needed food instead.

I decided to go test out Chippies, the restaurant that is basically my neighbor…just next door to our apartment building. I had chicken breast with almond sauce and fries. It was good, exactly what I needed. They seemed to have things that were a mixture of Spanish food and more standard international stuff.

My neighboor...Chippies restaurant and bar. How convenient!

The menu of this restaurant with more delicious food options.

Chicken with an almond sauce and french fries. They don't serve ketchup with your fries here, although you can ask for it...it's just not as normal as in the US.

I didn't know what an 'alpargata' was. Later I found out they are basically open faced sandwiches. I saw one at a different restaurant that looked like a loaf of french bread with ham and cheese and other stuff on top. Apparently 'alpargatas' are also a specific kind of shoe (see below).

I went back to apartment and actually got to talk to Ana and Luisa. Ana is from a town called Villanueva de la Reina, a town about half an hour away from here. Luisa is German and here studying economics. There is another girl, Antonia, that is living in the apartment as well, but she wasn't there and is apparently moving out in a few days.

I headed back to my room to start putting stuff together and ended up taking a nap. I woke up in time to realize it was Saturday, and that nothing would be open tomorrow so I ran to the store to get a few food items. After that I went to the bakery, came home, showered and did my hair in case someone called me to go out. I made tortellini for dinner while the girls got ready to go out. I thought I would stay in even though it was a Saturday. I hadn’t made plans with Kristin and Chris and didn’t really know anyone else. I relaxed on the couch and watched CSI while putting together some photo decorations for my room. Around 12:30 Kristin called inviting me to go out with them. I put my photo project away, did my makeup, threw on a dress and headed out. We went to one place that I don’t remember the name of, then to Tijuana. One by one people in our group ended up heading out, but Kristin and I were there until 7am. We were the only ones there by the end of the night and mutually decided maybe we shouldn’t stay *so* long next time. Haha.

 Anna (Chicago), Kristin (Texas), Kerri (Scotland), Minti (Chicago)

This is what happens when you make friends with the bartender...your drinks grow!