Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Daily travel routes!

My morning train! Alcala de Henares/ Guadaljara bound I take this train for about 30-35 min then once in Alcala I take a bus another 20-25 min to my school!:)


Train station in Alcala de Henares


Not everyday but the commonly traveled metro!
had to sneak a pic of this turquoise turban man bahahahahaha



This is the closest metro stop to my house


Going through the metro



 On my street




Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Weekend trip...Lisbon, Portugal!!


Lisbon, Portugal!
It was such a neat, old, cultured city. Near the ocean, it had a more laid back feel. It was so refreshing to see the ocean. I really miss the water. We went on a tour where they said world wide surf competitions are held. The harbor where were staying did not look clean enough for me to jump in..:( but if I had gotten off the tour bus I maybe could've had my ocean fix.

...Still don't have internet in my apartment..:( I finally opened a bank account with our identification number that we finally received through the government. The internet company said they will come to install internet in our place within the next 20 days.... hahaha so doubtful that we will even have internet before November!,,, haha But our nieghbors aka our family upstairs 3 floors will have internet tomorrow so praise the Lord I can use that. I have been having to pay for food or drinks every time I wanna use the internet off my computer. 

Learning to appreciate the little things.haha

on the bus tour

in the streets in Lisbon

about 55 of us on the European Vibe group trip

hilarious group- lots of people from tons of different countries



catching up....
from the past few weeks



Went and did Zumba a few weeks ago in a park next to our place!:)
This is Grace our upstairs neighbor! She is zumba certified!:)

GRace, me and Karyn (karyn is one of my roomies!)

upstairs neighbors
Grace, me and Jony
They are both from California-Grace from San Diego and Jony from Sacremento

love this chica! She loves Jesus and she loves dance!:))




my other roomie Brittney was sooooo nice to hang up my laundry for me when I got home!
SOO nice!

They don't believe in dryers here so this is how we do!
They are super energy conscience which is really cool and water conscience as well. I'm glad I already learned how to take short showers.

maybe not when I was a kid and dad would literally cut out paper fish and shove them under the bathroom door with 
"save me" 

written on them..haha love ya dad.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Trains, buses, metros..week 2 Assisting!

Hola Hola Hola.
So recently I was in the shock phase of being in a foreign country and feeling overwhelmed with all of the bureaucratic hoops that we like monkeys must swing through...
In the moment we are in the process of obtaining our NIE..which means that we can stay past the normal 90day traveler visa and allows us to be here for 9 months. Spanish government is a bit slow and our appointments for the NIE will not be until November. Which we've heard is incredible fortunate! The language and culture assistants from last year came and left without ever getting their appointments. 

So..we have others ways of leaving the country if we don't get our NIE in time. One must posess a "regresso" every time one desires to re-enter Spain.
There was a one day orientation that was exhausting..(mostly because it was in Spanish and in a hot, muggy tiny pit of a room).

Anywhoooo...FUNNIES of last week:

The kids in my first class which will probably be my favorite because I have them 3 times a week and they are 13years old...asked

"teacher, what is swag?"...."do you have swag?"

bahahahahahahaha. i love them already. I mumbled something about being cool and said its something you can't explain and that of course I have swag. 


{So we have an apartment that is an exterior and interior..my room faces the interior of the building complex. Out my window I see into other people's lovely houses and drying laundry. I also get to hear everyones noise pollution..:) I mean at least I have a window.}

When trying to sleep i hear the following:

someone attempting to learn the piano

man next to my head (paper thin walls) SNORING- SAWING LOGS

baby crying...( i may never want children...)

spanish tv shows...( i imagine a man topless leaned back on his couch with beer in hand)

..............................

pics of my beautiful school town.
It's worth the hour/hour & a half commute!!

Festival Medival--celebrating Cervantes in Alcalá de Henares..his home town!





The entrance to my apartment:)
double door security


Tuesday, October 1, 2013

First day of SCHOOL!:)

...Began my day at 7 got ready and walked to the train station about 5 minutes away. I took the train for 40 minutes and walked another 30 minutes to the highschool in Alcala de Henares from the train stop.
My first class started at 10 and I was there a little early to have a little tour of all the different classes that I will be assisting in. I will be helping with 4 different teachers in 15 different classes..

The school I am at is called IES Antenea and the highschools here are from ages 12-17. I have the first 3 grades 1*-3* which means most of my kids are 12-15. This is a bilingual school and the classes that I will be assisting are taught in Enlgish. I will be helping with Enlgish and Science classes. All of the classes are at different levels of english. Today in the first class the professor introduced me and had the class take notes about everything I said. haha Then they asked questions about my life..for the entire class period. 

Long story short they had homework about rewriting my personal info from their notes and to look up John Mayer "Vultures" song. haha

They asked my soccer team which is a very loaded question..haha so I didn´t answer. Also they were fascinated that I can surf or have ever been in my life. My mistake I said I love to go to the beach and "there are a lot of beaches in California.." To them..I just said there are a lot of BITCHES...to a bunch of 14 year olds..with the different vowel sounds I have to be careful.hahhahahahaha

I finished the train ride around 4, one of the head supervisors was nice enough to drive me to the train stop!:)

I don´t have my keys to my place yet and my roomies weren´t back yet...so I went back on the train then metro to my friend Annie´s house. Took a siesta, went on a run and made dinner with friends at her place..Nothing more American then Mac and Cheese and garlic bread..haha carbs on carbs..plus chicken. 

I was super stressed about today and I just had in my mind that these kids would eat me alive. Turns out they were all really excited to have a real live English speaker helping out in their classes! Well for the first day!
haha I just am expecting the worst but hoping for the best. 

ahhh soooo tired. 

Ciao! besitos!!!