One Month In!

Yesterday officially marked the one month point of when I arrived to Spain. Exciting, right? I'm really starting to get situated here and am enjoying myself a whole lot. It's going to be a great experience, and the past week and a half are testament to that fact.

Where to start? Well, I guess I'll begin with last weekend. A group of 5 of us went to San Sebastian, a coastal city in Basque Country, for the weekend. We met up with Laura, a Fulbright researcher in Pamplona, and her boyfriend, as well as the Santander people. My review of the weekend: thumbs up. The city was great, the food was great, and the people were great.

We got there on Friday afternoon, walked around seeing the sights, enjoyed some great pintxos (pronounced pinchos, the typical dish of the area that is basically a small tapa on bread), and had a fun night out in the city.

The next morning I woke up early for a run on the path along the beach. It was great to see the city as the sun was rising. Later in the day we soaked up some sun on the beach, followed by some great paella and some more sightseeing. As it got to sunset, we hiked up to the top of the "mountain" (more like a hill) with a giant Jesus statue on it. The view from up there was great, especially with the sun setting. We then had another night of pintxos and fun out on the town.

Sunday morning I woke up and ran again along the beach, taking a break along the way to sit at this little point where there are "sea comb" steel art pieces in the water and just sit. It was so peaceful and relaxing, and a great start to the day.

We then did some more touristy stuff, including a funicular up to the top of another mountain to see another great view at this little amusement park. At the top they had this ridiculous Cosmicar ride. It was a haunted house, but with the most random images of red light districts, safaris, and draculas that flew right into your face and hit you in the face. Something you definitely would not see in America, but completely worth the 2 euros we paid for it. After that, we were all tired and enjoyed a nice nap on the 5-hour bus ride home.

The group (Me, Angie, Jonathan, Gladys, Baird, Laura, and Ed) by the Amusement Park.

A nice jumping picture up the mountain at sunset with part of the city in the background.

A great picture of me looking off into the bay and the sunset.

Where I ran and sat to watch the sea both mornings.

This past week was my first week of school. I worked 3 days and had one day of training with the other teaching assistants here through the Spanish government (a repititious session from what we learned at the Fulbright orientation). My school is great! I really like my coordinator, the other teachers, and most of the students. I am working with 2 classes of primeros (7th graders) and 2 classes of terceros (9th graders). One class of each grade is extremely loud and full of some hellians, but I love the other classes. The kids are pretty good at English, and many of them really want to learn the language. All I did this week was basically observe, but next week I should start teaching some lessons.

Friday was my day off, so I was able to sleep in and then make my second trip to my favorite store in Madrid: Alcampo! It's basically like Spain's version of Target. There are 1 euro aisles, and they have pretty much everything you need for reasonable prices. It's a little far north, but was well worth the trek up there on the metro. I went with Becca and Vicki, two other Fulbrighters.

From there, we made our way to the Olympic announcement rally outside the Royal Palace. Madrid was one of the 4 finalist cities to host the 2016 Olympics, along with Tokyo, Chicago, and Rio de Janeiro. It was pretty packed with people awaiting the announcement. They handed out free giant hands, along with free T-shirts and free hats. Of course I got as much free stuff as I could, even though it took a good 45 minutes of waiting in line. Madrid ended up being one of the final 2 cities, but lost to Rio de Janeiro. I would have loved for the games to be here, as that would give me a one-up if I wanted to work in the 2016 Olympics. But it is good for South America that Rio won. When the announcement was made, people were pretty disappointed, but seemed to know it was going to happen. Everyone just kind of filed off and went on with life.

Becca and I with our Madrid 2016 giant hands!

On Saturday, we woke up early to head by bus to Segovia, a small city about an hour outside of Madrid. The city is known for its Roman aqueducts, Cathedral, and castle called the Alcazar. The weather was perfect and we were able to see all 3, along with many other churches. Five of us went: Miguel (my roommate), Vicki, Becca, Linnette, and me. First we went to the aqueduct, which is this massive structure built out of granite with absolutely no cement or adhesive holding the bricks in place. We walked the entire length of it, which is a little over half a mile. We then moved on through the city to see the amazing cathedral and the Alcazar. The Alcazar is a castle that was used by Isabelle and Ferdinand and was Walt Disney's inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty castle in Disneyland. It was an amazing building. We walked all through the castle, the later in the day sat in a field below the castle and just relaxed on the grass while looking at it. We also had an awesome picnic in the park.

By 7 pm, we were all exhausted and headed back to Madrid for the night. The trip was a great success.

The group (Miguel, Becca, Me, Vicki, and Linnette) in front of the aqueduct.

Me up at the top of the aqueduct!

The Alcazar. Can you see the resemblance to the Disneyland castle?

Where we layed down to relax and look up at the Alcazar. So relaxing.

Both of my past 2 weekends have been full of adventures with beaches, castles, picnics, and crazy Spanish kids trying to learn English. If the rest of the 9 months here goes the same way, I think I'm really going to like Spain!