Arriving in Spain

I can’t believe I’m in Spain! The flight to Madrid was fine, there was lots of turbulence and lots of tv shows, movies, and educational programs to watch while flying. I sat by a nice older woman who showed me a nifty way to put my purse so it wouldn’t move around too much. The taxi ride from the airport to the bus station was more expensive than my bus ticket from Madrid to Cáceres. I was glad I made the 9:00 bus so I didn’t have to wait another 2 hours for the next one. While looking for the bus I heard some people who looked about my age talking in English, one of them was on my bus. I said something in English to the guy on my bus and he said “Oh man, is it that obvious I speak English?” We sat by each other and found out we have a mutual friend who went to Beloit. Small world, huh? We also had a similar experience getting ready for this job. We both found out we were accepted to the program in early September and got our visas right before we left.

It felt like we were on the bus for so long, because we had only one 15 min break during the almost 5 hour trip, at least the scenery was nice. We got to Cáceres close to 2 and made our way to the hostel we were staying at for orientation. There were so many people there who were all excited and a bit nervous about being an English Language and Culture Assistant. There were about 5 people who had done the program the year before and loved it so much, they were back for another year.

I met two British girls who wanted to wander around the city and invited me to go with them. They were in Cáceres the day before and saw all the madness that took place during the huelga general. I saw the aftermath: broken eggshells, trash, and other evidence of what took place. Cáceres is so gorgeous and the weather was so nice for walking. At orientation, I found out I only work 12 hours a week and never work on Fridays. How nice is that? And there is a holiday on the 12^th, so I have a 5 day weekend.

The next day we had to be ready to go by 8:45, so the bus could leave at 9:30 to take us to a school where we would meet our tutors. Mar is my tutor. She’s from Madrid but has been teaching in Badajoz for a while. It was nice to be in a car instead of a bus for the trip to Badajoz. There were so many olive trees and vineyards along the highway. We stopped halfway between Caceres and Badajoz for lunch; it was so good. Lunch is the big meal here and you can find restaurants that have a Menú del día, which includes two courses, dessert, and a drink. I had a soup with garbanzos, onion and pork, grilled fish with lettuce and tomato and flan for dessert.

That night I went out with friends and we had a typical Spanish night were we stayed out until 5am. The way to get rid of jet-lag is to jump right into their schedule, right? It kind of worked.

Zafra

Saturday night I went to a festival in Zafra with some friends. The buses ran all night and left every hour from the bus station in Badajoz and in Zafra.

There were so many people at the festival and it was funny to see children out so late. Well, for the Spaniards it wasn’t late, 10 o’clock is a fine hour to be awake for a child. There were so many bounce castles and go-carts for the children to enjoy. There were also many tents with different vendors selling purses, clothing, umbrellas, Scarface posters, etc. We met up with Ariela’s flatmate Félix, who is from a pueblo near Badajoz, who was there was some of his friends.