...And the lies begin...

This morning Pilar picked me up to take me to Cristóbal Cólon, my school. I met all of the staff and we talked about my schedule. With my program, I’m required to only work 12 hours, Monday-Wednesday but they offered me Thursdays too, so I’m taking those hours. I got a tour of the classrooms and was introduced to each class. I’ve heard sooo many names, but luckily that was the only overwhelming part of my day. I stayed in 2 English classes with Piedad. She had them ask me questions about who I am and such. It was cute to hear them use their basic English. The first class (I think 3rd grade) won me over because 2 girls came and gave me hugs as soon as I walked in, and then gave me kisses on the cheek before I left and most of the class was cutely shy. The second class (4th grade) was hilarious because all they wanted was to ask me a million of questions, for example if I like sausage or the Jonas Brothers. But this position is going to be hard in the way that I have to pretend that I don’t speak any Spanish. I told the kids today that I can only say “hola, sí, no, y adios.” Oof. Today wasn’t too hard there, but I can imagine it getting tricky. But isn’t it kinda ironic that in essence, I’m getting paid to lie? It’ll be interesting for sure.

Later I went to the market with Manuel’s 15 year old daughter Alejandra. She didn’t have school because there’s a country-wide strike of some sort. It was apparently pretty crazy in other parts of the country, but not really evident in Quintanar. But this market is an outdoor one, a smaller version then the one I fell in love with in Sevilla. But I got some churros (what else would you expect from my first full day in Spain?) and those of Quintanar totally pass my test :) We walked around the city a bit and stopped at a little bar thing for tapas. Oh, Spanish food, how I’ve missed you. It’s great to have you back in my life.

Back at the school, I sat and talked with Arturo, the school’s secretary, while the other teachers had a meeting of some sort. He’s in his last year of an English program and wants to practice the language as much as possible and as he said “I’m going to take advantage of you” haha. He’s really funny and his English is great. My favorite part of the conversation was when he was teaching me a word that kinda means “jerk” but depending on how it’s used, it’s really harsh, another teacher passed by and cracked up laughing as I was repeating it a few times over. But I love how the Spanish use normal words as swear words and swear words as terms of endearment.

After that, I went to Manuel’s house to have lunch with him and his family. They’re great people- really funny and super friendly. And their 6 year old daughter is one of the cutest children I’ve ever seen. I love that after the main course we went outside and sat in their perfectly gorgeous patio to sip some café (or rather, straight expresso). It was fantastic. Soon after, we all piled in their car and headed to Alcazar de San Juan, a town about half an hour away. On this ride I couldn’t help but to think that the region of La Mancha, is in some ways like living in Spain’s version of Berks County, due to the vast amounts of fields and tractors we passed. San Juan is a cute city, a little bigger than Quintanar and it was fun exploring while getting to know Manuel’s family.

But all is going well here. I think I’m going to really enjoy the next 8 month.

here's a link if you want to read a little more about the strike: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/09/29/espana/1285763230.html

The journey and first impressions

So I made it. After the longest trip of my life. We left the house at 4.30 am and I flew from Harrisburg to Chicago, where I hung out for about 4 hours, luckily there were plenty of interesting people to observe. We boarded the plane and then had to sit for an hour and then some, due to the weather in NYC, our next stop. Because of this, I was going to miss my connecting flight, but I wasn’t freaking out about it like half of the plane was. My flight to Madrid was also delayed, so I didn’t miss that. We boarded an hour and a half late and then sat on the plane for over an hour. Apparently someone checked their bags and then didn’t take the flight so it looked all suspect. But after an hour of these unclaimed bags sitting below us, they had to go and remove all of the luggage. It felt like forever before we finally took off. And then the flight was another 6 & a half hours or so. Let’s just say I’m not meant to sit in one place for that long. Especially when personal space is limited. And it didn’t help that my stomach wasn’t feeling the best for the last 2 flights.

On the last flight I found another girl from my program so we stuck together in the airport. Neither of my bags were where they should have been. One ended up in the special baggage bin and the other showed up randomly on another belt 30 minutes into me waiting in line to figure out where it went. Once we had everything we caught a cab together to the bus station & then split up cuz we got her on a bus that left right away. Then I got to wait another hour and a half for my bus. I found 2 other kids from the program on my bus. The girl is in a town that’s apparently 6km from mine so that’s cool. We’re gonna seek each other out at orientation. The bus ride was about an hour and a half (seems to be my time frame). I dozed off and on so it passed quickly. And then, I was finally here in Quintanar de la Orden, at about 2.30 pm local time, 8.30am back home. So yeah, a looong day.

At Quintanar, I waited at the bus stop for like 5 minutes and then Pilar and Manuel, 2 of the English teachers at my school came and picked me up. But while I waited, one of the first townies I see is this man who is obviously a dedicated runner, and it was a good first sign that I’m going to like this place : ) Anyways we did lunch, and like a typical Spanish meal, there was way too much food. I ate fish, since I’ve been deprived for a little while now and I liked my squid a lot more than I remembered. But it was good talking to Pilar and Manuel, they’re both super nice people and very easy to understand which is encouraging. After lunch, they helped me carry all of my stuff to my room upstairs of the restaurant. It’s a cute little room. The view to the left outside looks like Bernville. All I see are fields and trucks driving by (I’m right at the edge of town). Too tired to do much else, I took like a 2 hour nap, waking up to watch the Madrid game. So I apologize for any typos of this post, cuz I started typing most of it during the half-time but I was still distracted.

But yeah, that was my trip and my first impression. Sorry it’s a long post. Tomorrow I will go to the school and then hopefully do some exploring.

and FYI, Madrid won :)

The Prelude

So tomorrow's the big day.  In about 13 hours from now a plane should be leaving from Harrisburg to Chicago with me on it.  Kinda crazy to think about. I'm reallllly excited but rather nervous at the same time. This is kind of a big deal. I've never traveled like this alone before, which is why I am a little nervous, but I am not too worried. I am sure that everything will go just fine. But this shall be my blog thing where I share some of my adventures in La Mancha, Spain. Hopefully there will be many typical Shannon stories for your entertainment :)

Also, the title of my blog comes from a quote from St. Augustine. “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

But that is all for now. There is some bacon calling my name from the kitchen :)