New words, new school, new friends!

Now... what can I blog about from the millions of "cambios en mi vida" in the last month and a half? I think I'll come back speaking Spanglish all the time much to the dismay of those who know nothing about Spanish. I'm just learning so many new words. I love to shock people by using a new idiomatic expression they wouldn’t expect a foreigner to know! I'm learning words I've never heard before and I'm learning the new meanings of words that I thought I fully understood the meaning of. It's so interesting how often you start to hear the new word once you've committed it to memory. I wonder how I could have missed hearing it so many times before I learned it. It's just so difficult sometimes to distinguish individual words in a fluent conversation when 1 word may seem like 3 or 3 words like 1. I often find myself completely lost in translation and, as a result, completely zoning out when attempting to enter the middle of a conversation between two or more Spaniards. Many times I may understand each individual word in a phrase but all together it has no meaning? I also find that I'll accidentally talk about myself in the third person or someone else in the first person! Or I'll completely misuse similar sounding words. The other day I was exchanging contact information with a friend of mine and I was trying to explain to her that I didn't know my cell number because it's new and I don't ever call myself. Instead of saying "numero" I was saying "nombre" so I was telling her that "I don't know my name"! She looked a little confused so I continued to repeat that "I don't know my name" until I finally realized what I was saying! These are 2 very easy words that I know, but, occasionally, the most peculiar things just pop out of my mouth! I can only imagine the images that pop into people's heads when I'm trying to express myself sometimes! It's just all part of the slow and humiliating, though humorous, process of acquiring a new language.

One of the most important "changes" that has occurred is a change in schools. I'm no longer working at Arroyo Hondo but have been transferred to Castillo de Luna. It's a bigger high school and there are 30 kids in my class but they are a good group of students -most days! Above is a picture of some of the students I took pictures of on Halloween. They love to learn about American holidays. They were fascinated by my authentically carved American pumpkin! There’s also a fun group of faculty there I’ve enjoyed getting to know through my conversational English classes for teachers.

I've met more people in Rota as well. My roommate introduced me to a really sweet girl she takes French classes with, Johanna, and her husband whom I've enjoyed getting to know. We decided to try out some self-defense classes at the local sports center and it was a lot of fun! I've also gotten to know some people through a church I visited several times. There is a really sweet lady from Colombia, Pilar, who has been very friendly and I've enjoyed spending time with. I've also become good friends with another language assistant, Melissa, who I met at the general orientation back in October. We will actually be traveling around Spain along with another language assistant, Kristin, over Christmas! That's a very short summary of all that's happened since my last blog! I'll try to keep you more consistently updated.

Getting settled in!

Hola a todos! I haven’t blogged in a while because I don’t have easy access to internet here. There are some cafes that I can go to and buy a drink or eat something in exchange for using their internet, but there’s not always good connection. Also, it’s my only chance to call people over Skype and for some reason a lot of people stare at me when I am laughing and talking to my computer in public in another language. It’s kind of awkward. I have an apartment now, but I probably won’t have internet for a week or two because there are so many holidays and fiestas and siestas here that sometimes it takes a while for things to get done. The very relaxed daily routine here is definitely something to get used to. I have an apartment and a Spanish roommate until December or January. Her name is Beatriz and she is substituting for a teacher at the high school who is on sick leave. She doesn’t speak any English, only French and Spanish, so sometimes it’s a little challenging to understand each other perfectly but she is very nice and I can improve my Spanish much faster this way. My brain is so fried every night from trying to take in all of the unfamiliar Spanish that I didn’t learn in the classroom. For example, it was extremely challenging to try and understand my landlord’s descriptions of how to use the system of gas to get hot water. Needless to say, I had a couple of cold showers before I figured that one out! There are some many tasks that are seemingly simple that have initially been quite a challenge for me. Laundry is one of them. First of all, my washer doesn’t have instructions and there are a lot of symbols that I don’t understand. The first time I washed my clothes, the water didn’t completely drain from the machine and so everything was soaking wet. As there are no dryers here, it only took about two days for them to dry! But now that I have a Spanish roommate, hopefully I’ll get some good tips on how to overcome challenges such as this. It’s also nice to be able to split the cost of rent and utilities and internet! She’s also very helpful in trying to understand one of the many things that perplex me here, like, Spanish television. For example, a lot of times I don’t understand the comedy because of slang or Spanish inside jokes, and when she is laughing at something and I just look confused, she likes to explain why it’s funny. Besides getting an apartment, I also managed to open a checking account and cell phone. I’m so glad I took the Spanish business class; it has helped a lot with situations like this. I have also done a little traveling! Last weekend I went to the city of Cadiz. I can take a ferry for 4 euro to this beautiful city right next to Rota. I think it’s actually the oldest city in Spain. It’s also where they filmed one of the James Bond movies. Above is a picture of the high school I will be teaching at, IES Arroyo Hondo. Finally, I met the kids that I will be working with in the bilingual program. I basically introduced myself and explained to them where I was from and certain phrases we would say down south like “hey ya’ll” or the courtesy of saying “yes ma’am/yes sir” etc. It was interesting that they wanted to know what “Pell” means when I told them that I was from “Pell City.” I have no idea what “Pell” means. They also wanted to know things like “Have ju got a boyfriend,” “Do ju know any famous person,” “What is jour animal favorite?” They were very curious about all kinds of things. It’s going to be a very interesting 8 months! I’m excited though. Below are a couple of pictures that I have taken so far. Enjoy and I’ll update you more later on!

Jennifer has made it to her destination, alive but exhausted!

I'm finally here! To the left is a picture of the view from my hotel in Rota! It's so surreal when I realize that this is where I will be living for 8 months! Everything went fairly smoothly too. The most stressful occurrence, believe it or not, was getting through the Atlanta airport. Lufthansa is a nice airline. The flight attendants come by about every 20 minutes with water, wine, and scalding hot toilettes to wipe your hands! But I was very cramped in my seat and I couldn't sleep for the duration of a 14 hour flight due to a crying baby ALL night. But I finally made it to the Madrid airport and waited in intense anticipation for my luggage. The airline mixed it with about three other flights so, of course, my luggage would be the last of them all! I then went to try and exchange my USD for euro, but as it was siesta, the whole airport was completely dead, so I just went to the ATM. I called out for a taxi to get to my hostel and I nice little old man pulled up. Unfortunately, he had never heard of this hostel and couldn’t find it on his map. On top of Friday afternoon traffic, he had to stop and read the map again for about 10 minutes, which ended up costing me 38 euro total! But, my hostel, Residencia La Luna was very pleasant and comfortable. Finally, I took a train, which was really nice, to Seville and a bus to Rota. When we pulled up, my very sweet and welcoming supervisor, Maria, and her daughter recognized me from my photo and introduced themselves to me with the typical Spanish cheek to cheek kisses! She was so helpful. She had already booked a place for me to stay right on the coast of Rota. It's so beautiful here. She also has some apartments available for me to look at tomorrow. I also met my American coworker, Jerry, who did this program last year and had a lot of helpful information. Well, that's the most exciting news for now, I will try to post some pictures I have taken so far and I will update you later!

Thanks for reading my blog!

Thanks, for all those who left comments and are actually reading my blog! I feel so important and welcomed into the blogging circle! I probably won't blog for a while as I am leaving for Madrid tomorrow from Atlanta at 6:00 PM. Yeah, a late flight! I should arrive in Madrid at 2:00 PM Friday. I'll spend one night there and then take a train to Seville. Finally, I will take a bus from Seville to Rota where I will meet the supervisor of my school that I will be teaching at this year. I will then go to my quaint little hostel by the seaside and sleep for a very long time. I will then start looking for an apartment the next day and will start school on October 1st. Therefore, in the midst of my challenging but exciting first couple of days, I probably won't have much time to ramble on about my daily routine in my blog. I will try to keep you updated, however, on the interesting occurrences as often as possible. Until next time!

Packing for 8 months in 3 little bags....

...is impossible. Even with space bags and eliminating ALL of the fun things I want to take it's going to be difficult to pack it all in! However, it's just stuff and it's really not that important and it's really amazing what you can live without and still have a good time. Just ask my friend and former roommate Nicole, we basically lived an entire year off of nothing. To survive, it took many packages of ramen noodles and cereal, choosing to check out the small selection of LIBRARY movies instead of spending money at a real video store, helpful and loving parents, and convincing ourselves that the thrift store clothes were just as good as the new ones except they were subjected to charity because of annoying reasons such as a severely scratchy material, an unexpected stain, or the instructions: DRY CLEAN or HAND WASH ONLY or LAY FLAT TO DRY. Ugh, three of the most annoying laundry instructions ever! Anyway, we still had a wonderful time on our limited budget as I'm sure I will in my 8 months in Spain as a "North American Language and Culture Assistant." I will be assisting English teachers at a high school in the small city of Rota, Spain until next May and I am so excited. I'm leaving this Thursday and I will try to keep everyone updated about my experiences and adventures traveling and teaching!