Whirlwind Travel

Changing time zones really messes with your system. By the time I fell into bed my first night in Madrid, I felt like I could sleep forever. Unfortunately, sleeping in a mixed dorm room at a hostel really doesn't lend itself to a good night's sleep. But gradually I'm getting used to Spanish time and the fact that they don't eat lunch until 2, right before siesta, and then dinner happens after 8 o'clock pm. Last night, we didn't finish dinner until 10:30. Crazy, eh?


This picture is from our teeny tiny balcony at the hostel. Anyway, I'm going to backtrack to Madrid. I flew into Barajas airport and met up with Lucia, another girl in my program who is living in Baeza, where we're both teaching. We made our way to our hostel via the metro, which I now think of as dangerous ground since I got all my Euros stolen while we were en route to our stop. The hostel was really nice, although my interesting luck continued when I, mind fuzzy from traveling and looking desperately for a bathroom, barged into the first one I found, not knowing it was the guy's bathroom, walked in on a guy who had just come out of the shower. Needless to say, we were both surprised, but luckily I didn't see anything that would embarrass either one of us, but it was close.


So after getting settled into our hostel, Lucia and I went for a walk through Madrid, which she says is like a Spanish New York City. It's certainly a bustling city center and really walkable. We saw the Plaza Mayor, which is the picture directly to your right. Then we wandered until we came across the Palacio Real which is literally so big everyone from Hope College could live there and still more people could fit in it. The picture below is the Palacio.





So Monday, Lucia and I barely made it to the bus from Madrid to Baeza at 9 in the morning. Riding to Baeza, it was really neat to see the countryside. We went through the mountains and as we went, we saw field after field from horizon to horizon filled with olive trees. If you didn't know, olive oil is one of Jaen's (the province where I live) biggest products. So we saw thousands of olive trees with a few scattered houses and the odd crumbling ruin sprinkled amongst them.



Ellen, one of my apartment mates met us at the bus station and we met Dan, my other apartment mate at our piso (apartment). I must say, it's a whole lot bigger than I thought it would be and by some twist of fate, I ended up with the biggest bedroom which has a armoire that could easily fit the entire contents of my closet at home inside it. It's a bit of an overkill since I came to Spain with one suitcase and a backpack.



We went grocery shopping today at Maxi Dia, about a 10-15 minute walk from our piso. It was a challenge to bargain shop in Euros for four people but we managed. The thing I forgot about while shopping was the fact that we didn't have a car as we do in the States where you can conveniently stow all your groceries as you drive home. Oh no, all four of us were loaded down with 3 to 4 bags filled with milk, juice, laundry detergent, water, and all the other necessities. So from now on, I think we're going to subscribe to the European way of shopping and only get a little at a time. It will be a whole lot easier on our arms.

Tomorrow I start teaching at my school, San Juan de la Cruz, a preschool and primary school. We passed it on our way home from the grocery store and I saw all the little 5 year olds coming out of the gates. They look so cute. Anyway, I'll let everyone know how it goes tomorrow. I haven't heard anything from my supervisor there so I'm just going to show up at 9 am and see what happens. I'm going on faith, something I've been doing a lot of since coming to Spain three days ago. Tune in next time for the ongoing misadventures of yours truly...