Piso Hunting

I cannot find a place to live. This is fine, I'm great with the plan i have. I would like to have the details hammered out, but that's not how spain works. My one lead is from my "mentor." I asked her about housing and she said there is an apartment she'll visit me with that is normally rented to maestros. Good. A guide, and a possible apartment close to the school so in a somewhat central location. This is good, however...

I would really really like to live with some spaniards. Maybe 2 or 3. I want to have a group of spanish speaking close friends to hang out with. Last time i did not take full advantage of the time i was in spain. I don't want to rent an apartment by myself. I want to rent a room. This is very common in Spain. Un habitación is a room rented out in an apartment if someone needs a roommate. Or sometimes the landlord rents out all rooms individually. I'am a fan. Everything is furnished and all you have to do is hang your hat.

Two girls from finland during study abroad lived with 3 spanish guys. I visited their flat a few times and had the best time. The finnish girls knew english and were learning spanish as their 3rd language and were teaching the spanish boys english. It was a great mixing of cultures in that apartment. I would like to have an environment like that were everyone does things differently, but everyone is cool.

But these are only my plans. And normally what happens to me is when i get to an anticipated situation, nothing happens the way i thought it would. But that's how we learn and it's how you meet cool people.

Preparations

I am trying to wait patiently for my departure date. I am becoming more excited and less nervous, because all the hard stuff and long waiting is over is over.There are 3 weeks más o menos and i'm excited. I've been working on this for 8 months.

1. Application and very, VERY long wait to hear about whether I was accepted and what province i would be in.

2. Another wait, although not as long, but still long, to hear the town I would live.

3. Lots of Confusing paper work and 2 trips to Chicago to drop off and pick up my brand spankin' new visa.

4. Plane ticket. So many different schedules, so many different sites.

5. Money in the bank and bills paid off. 30-40 hours a week doing something i've been doing for 5 years and am tired of. blah. bored.

6. Backpack. I found the perfect one!

7. A place to live. not....really.


Here's my plan. I'm taking a plane from KC to Dallas to Madrid to Malaga. whew. staying in a hostel until I can find an apartment. I don't even know what town i want to live in. I need to scout it out. I haven't found a ton of information on the town i'm living in so i'm just going to have it figure it out for myself. I'll stay in a larger city and figure out the transportation system and what town i'll live in. I'm going to see if i can meet some fellow travelers in the hostel that may want to visit a random town that day. They could give me perspective and go to look at apartments (if they were cool and we became friends). They may also know other people...enchufe. Then i will have a home before school starts and maybe a friend or two. And maybe i'll have some free time for the beach.

5 weeks, 5 days

So here i am...5 weeks and 5 days until i pack my bags to move to Spain for 9 months. September 19th is d-day. I have a one way ticket to Malaga, Spain. From there I'll take a bus to Alhaurin el Grande at the foot of the Mijas Mountains to teach English to 5 and 6 year olds. I've never taught before. In school I always told myself I didn't want to be a teacher. Here I am teaching English. It's funny how things work out.

Feelings: anxious, excited, jittery strangely calm

I have been trying to ease my anxiety by preparing. I've bought the necessary items, worked on paperwork, saved money, and the week after next I'll go pick up my visa, then wait. I've wanted to live in Spain for as long as i remember, but with time ticking by i feel an unbearable helpless need to slow it down. There's not enough time left! Too many people to see and things to do.

I've been preparing for months for this trip and I'm finally on the countdown. People ask me daily: "When are you leaving?" "Are you ready yet?" The truth is, I won't be ready. I won't be ready until I get there...until I have no choice. The hard thing is that everything is so uncertain. Where will I live? What does my school look like? the weather? the town? nothing. I am one that likes to be overprepared for everything, so this uncertainty is killing me. I'm just taking it one step at a time. It will be here before I know it.

The Beginning

Alas, the day has come! I have been wanting/trying/looking for an excuse to write a blog. This is the perfect time and something (hopefully) that someone will want to read about.

Close to graduation, my parents were visiting me at school. My dad asked me what I was planning on doing when I graduated. When I replied that I wanted to go to Europe my dad just said "See ya!" It was my blessing.

My whole life I have been on the track to work. I've wanted to have a big kid job since I was in high school. During the Fall semester of 2008 I studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain for 4 months. I never thought I'd want to be in a place so badly. When I returned in December I wanted to, but I soon realized that life in another country was something that I wanted to experience.

Upon graduation I had several teachers email about a teaching position in Spain. With a lot of hope and some optimism I got the papers together that were needed to apply. I did research on how long it would take for me to hear and anxiously awaited a (VERY) long 4 months to find out that I would be teaching 5 and 6 year olds in Alhaurin el Grande in the province of Malaga.

After visiting with family and friends I feel as if it is necessary to create some sort of mass information system to allow them to access information about my life and what I'm doing. So here it is...a blog. A look into my life as I hop the pond (as my dad would say) to go on a European lifestyle adventure!