Update!

I was looking at a calendar yesterday and to my honest surprise, I realized that I have only been in Spain for 12 (okay now when I’m writing this 13) days… not even two weeks yet! I’m not going to lie, I had to double check this fact two or three times before I even started to try and wrap my mind around it. So many events have been crammed into this tiny timeframe that it seems like much longer! Two major events that occurred this week include me moving into an apartment and starting my job!

I’ll start with a little bit about my piso. First of all, it is located in the newer part of town rather than the old casco historico. While I initially wanted to live in this older section because it is so charming, I am actually glad things worked out the way they did. My apartment is on the long straightaway of land that connects the casco historico with the mainland. It is about a 15 minute walk from my school, a 5 minute walk to the beach, and a 3-5 minute walk to the football (read: soccer) stadium (sidenote: Cadiz has its own team, but I haven’t heard much about them or seen any games yet). I am sharing the apartment with two Spanish girls who are studying at the University of Cadiz. Their names are Vicky and Rosa, and seem like a lot of fun so far. They have invited me to hang out with them on a couple different occasions and also taught me important skills such as lighting the bon-bona (the gas water heaters that everyone has here that must be lit if one wants to do such things as take a hot shower or wash dishes properly). I hate lighting the bon bona with a deep, indescribable passion... I swear I am going to end up making our apartment burst into a massive sea of flames or something equally horrendous.

The apartment itself is small-ish, especially my room, but quite adequate. Upon entering the piso, there is an open front room that has a couple of couches, the tv, a coffee table and small dining room table. To the left is a short hall that leads to the bathroom, kitchen/washing machine nook, and our three bedrooms. I have a window looking out onto the street, so I get to look down 4 floors and get to see what’s going on down there at any given point in the day. It’s actually quite a good indicator to look at what everyone else is wearing to determine whether or not I need to bring a jacket with me before going out.

The other big thing that happened this week is that I started working! Well, sort of. Two of the days were orientation – getting to know the school building, some of the teachers we (Libby, the school’s other auxiliar and I) will be working with, and introducing ourselves to the adorable, terrifyingly hyperactive hordes of children that tended to swarm around us if we stay in one place on the play patio too long. Then of course, one of the days was a holiday celebrating the city of Cadiz’s protector, the Virgen de Rosario, so no school, and then as an auxiliar (whose hours don’t even come close to the equivalent of a full time job), I have Fridays off. The first week has already gone by and I feel like I’ve done nothing! I want to work!!! I think part of the problem has been also that my work schedule wasn’t finalized until yesterday afternoon. The problem was that the Junta de Andalucia informed our school that while one auxiliar could teach full time at La Inmaculada (primary school), the other auxiliar would have to split time between there and the Instituto, the secondary school that is literally right next door. Long story short, I will be working at both schools part of the time. Since each school has distinct daily school schedules, it was very challenging to arrange time periods that would allow me to work at both schools equally. Hopefully when I start work next week on Tuesday (Monday is ANOTHER holiday, I don’t even know what they're celebrating this time), I’ll feel a little more useful…