My first two weeks in Valladolid

Hola a todos!

I've decided to use this blog to keep you all posted on my life in Spain :)

The first two weeks here have been pretty uneventful (save for my trip to Pamplona- more on that later) because I've just been focusing on getting settled in.

The trip over was good. I arrived to Madrid without a hitch. There were no bombs, so that was nice.(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Madrid_Barajas_International_Airport_bombing for the last time I went to Spain). There were no delays nor lost luggage either, and I especially enjoyed my layover in Frankfurt, where I was mistaken for a German several times. No, I do not "sprechen sie deutsch."

I spent the first night in Madrid, sleeping off my jet lag and semi-longing to stay-- the big city stirred up my nostalgia for Santiago. (How strange that when I arrived in Chile for study abroad I wished I had chosen Spain and now that I'm in Spain I miss my beloved Chile more than ever). In the morning I took the train (one of the things I love most about being here!) to Valladolid. I was so nervous to see the city that is now my home, but, I mean, it's Spain, it couldn't be that bad. And to my relief it is not, even though many have told me that Valladolid, capital of Castilla y León, is by far the ugliest city there--having nothing to compare to the aqueducts of Segovia, the mountains of León, or UNESCO World Heritage Site that is the city of Salamanca. I guess I will have to wait and make my own decision, once I have seen more of the provinces in my "comunidad autónoma."

As I said before, my time in Valladolid so far has mostly involved getting settled-- finding a place to live, sorting through all the bureaucratic non-sense that residing in a foreign countr

y involves, starting my job, and trying to find things to do with my excessive amount of free time. All of this has kept me pretty busy. I've been back and forth to the Office of Foreign Persons of the Subdelegation of the Government of Spain in the Junta of Castilla y León (yeah, nightmare) to register my visa in hopes of finally getting a Spanish resident card (I still have one month and about 3 more steps to go)! I officially opened a Spanish bank account and purchased a Spanish cell phone. My number is 697986518, if anyone wants to call me! Be sure to include the country code as well-- dial 34 first.

When I got here I was lucky enough to A) find an apartment and B) get cheap rent (in exchange for teaching my roommate English). However, I'm not entirely sold on living in this apartment and I am pretty sure I'm going to move in the next 2-3 weeks. I need to find a more comfortable living situation with more sociable people. It's hard to find anything that can even come close to living up to my year at 102 S. Orchard and before that with my 15 wonderful roommates in Santiago!

Last week I started my job as a language assistant at IES Ribera de Castilla. IES means Instituto de Educación Secundaria (Secondary Education Institute) which contains grades 7-10 (Educación Secundaria Obligartoria, or ESO) and grades 11 and 12, or "Bachillerato," which is when you have to choose a more specialized education track (i.e. Natural Science and Technology vs. Humanities and Social Science) and is much more difficult than being a junior or senior in high school in the US. I have had classes from each year, and I am surprised by how much I like teaching, even the little ones! You can check out my school at http://www.iesribera.es/.

Last weekend I went to Pamplona to see David and my other friends from study abroad, including two Chilean friends who are now foreign exchange students there!

It was so great to see everyone and I had a wonderful time. I went to the Osasuna v. Sevilla soccer game, which I

got in to for free because one of David's 27 uncles (I swear he has a HUGE family) works for Osasuna (Pamplona's soccer team) and he sneaked us into the stadium... hehe. Unfortunately Osasuna lost, but it was still fun. Pamplona (or Iruña in the Basque language-- which is really just gibberish if you ask me!) is completely beautiful, with the lovely juxtaposition of an ancient fortress containing a modern urban city. Most of the wall built around Pamplona in the middle ages is still standing today. I took some pictures, which I will try to put on Facebook later, then you can see what I mean!

I also took a lot of pictures today when I went out to explore downtown Valladolid.

I was very thankful to find the same charm here as I did in Pamplona. History is everywhere in Spain. You walk right through it as you stroll down the streets. It's truly amazing.

Well, that's all for now. I will try to update this as often as I have time!

Besos,

Katie