Sala de Emergencias

I just want to start this post off by saying that I am FINE. For those of you who understand the title, I am perfectly ok. For those who don't speak Español, the title translates to "emergency room." Which yes, I had to visit this weekend. But once again, I am totally fine. I'll elaborate...

So I ended up going to Ikea the day after my last post. It was hugely successful. I spent about 100 euros, but got SO much stuff for my room. It now looks a little nicer, but I am not going to post pictures yet cause there is still a lot to do.

The rest of the week was pretty much just a lot of presentations and stuff like that. I honestly can't remember most of it, it was such a whirlwind. Orientation stuff during the day, going out at night. The highlight of the week was that for most of it we got free breakfast, lunch and dinner. I also met a lot of really awesome people that whole week. Hopefully I will be able to keep in touch with and hang out with most of them throughout the year.

Since I really can't remember much details, I'll do a photo essay of sorts...

Went back to Parque del Oeste at sunset for some incredible views

That's actually an Egyptian temple Spain bought...crazy

Also made some new friends in the park...this dog just came right up to my friend and I and started jumping all over us.

Café, por supuesto.

More of the park (I'm telling you, its my favorite place).

Overall, a pretty great week! Lots of sightseeing, meeting new people and enjoying the city. Now, getting to the part I know y'all are probably wondering about...

On Friday night, a group of us from the program all decided to go to this club in Madrid called Kapital. Now this club is pretty famous. It is 7 stories and super popular in Madrid. We were incredibly excited. So that night, we go to this club, pay the 15 euro (!!!) cover charge, and head on in. It was really a cool place.

The place was hugeeeee. We headed straight to the main dance floor and spent a good hour and a half just dancing and jumping around, in general just having a fantastic time. And then....

So what happened is that, for some reason, there was a broken glass bottle on the dance floor. Somehow, when I was dancing, I kind of hit my left foot against the jagged edge, essentially stabbing the side of my foot. Now I know this seems like it would hurt a lot, but it actually just felt like a big pinch or something. I looked down, saw the bottle and thought "oh, I guess I just grazed my foot on that." It was pretty dark, so I couldn't see much. Because of this, it wasn't until I started to feel my foot get super wet and sticky that I walked to the side of the dance floor to check it out. Upon sitting down at the bar, I discovered that my foot was COVERED in blood. Still, I didn't think much of it, just that it was bleeding. No big deal. So I grabbed a few napkins from the bar and started to wipe it off. However, doing this I started to see that it was quite a bit of blood. So, still fairly calm, I went upstairs to the bathroom to rinse it off. Once there, I went in a stall and starting pressing the cut with tissue paper to stop it from bleeding. At this point I was starting to realize that it was bleeding pretty badly, because it just kept bleeding through every time I put toilet paper on it. So, STILL surprisingly unalarmed, I went downstairs and told a bouncer I needed first aid. He took me in the back office, cleaned the cut with hydrogen peroxide and put a bandage on it. At this point it seemed like the bleeding had stopped, so I thought "cool, back to the dance floor!" I headed back upstairs to where my friends were. I was standing with two of the guys from my program for a little while, just talking, when one of them looked down and said, "oh shit." I looked down and saw a literal puddle of blood around my foot. At THIS point I finally started to think "hmm, maybe this is actually kind of serious." I hobbled back downstairs, one of the guys trailing behind me, and told the bouncer I needed medical attention. He told me to take a taxi to the nearest hospital, so I jumped in a cab with this same guy friend and we took off.

Now, I want to explain that I had decided not to take a purse to the club that night, and had just given my money and copy of my passport (ID) to my friend to hold in her purse. In the rush to get to the hospital, I didn't have time to get anything from her. Luckily, the guy paid for the cab. But I basically arrived at the hospital with no ID, no money, and an almost dead phone. Thankfully, I knew my passport number by heart, so the admitting nurse just took that and my contact info, and then lead me to the clinic to treat me. Everyone was super helpful and calm, which was good because I was starting to feel a bit light-headed at this point. Also, my guy friend was being incredibly helpful as well. Anyways, this story is getting long. They took me into the exam room, checked out the wound and pronounced I needed stitches. So they numbed me up (which HURT), stitched me up (which didn't) and then gave me a tetanus shot (in my butt, btw...). It took a total of 30 minutes. They gave me a prescription for antibiotics and told me to go back to any clinic in 5 days to have the stitches taken out. Which I am doing tomorrow.

SO YEAH. Pretty crazy story. I obviously wasn't super concerned with taking pictures at the time, but I do have a couple ...

My hospital bracelet...note the time - 4:19 AM. Not the kind of late night I was expecting.

My guy friend snapped a sneaky pic of the doctor...who was actually really cute.

And my lovely stitches. Aren't they so pretty?

I don't think it comes as any surprise that I spent most of the next day sleeping, seeing as how we didn't get back to the hotel until six in the AM. It was quite the crazy night. However, I think I did a pretty god job in staying calm and doing what I needed to do. I probably could have been a little quicker in realizing how bad the cut was, but it honestly did not hurt that bad! And I know what you're thinking, but I hadn't had that much to drink :) It really is a small cut size-wise. I think it was just really deep. Anyways, moral of the story is that I am totally wearing closed toed shoes out from now on. 

So yeah, the rest of the weekend was dedicated to resting, taking antibiotics every eight hours and enjoying free breakfast at the hotel. Sunday night I moved back to my apartment and went out with my roommate for her birthday. I don't know if I have elaborated much on my roommates, but they are SUPER awesome. They are just so welcoming and friendly, and always ask me about my day and my life.

So there you have it. My first real crisis in Spain...and I survived! As I said, tomorrow I am going to get the stitches out and then I will be back to my normal self hopefully. I am also going to meet my school again tomorrow, to get my schedule and meet the other guy I will be working with. So maybe I'll write another post then. I know I keep saying this, but I REALLY need to update more. 

To end on a good note, I booked a trip to Sevilla today! My two friends and I are going the second weekend in October, we actually ended up renting a whole apartment right in the city center through Air BnB, which is an awesome website where you can rent out rooms/apartments for super cheap. So I am really, really excited for that. I love Madrid, but Sevilla will always be so special to me. 

Hasta pronto!

Settling in...sorta.

Hello! So I definitely meant to write and post this earlier, but it has just been a crazy week so far. I seriously had almost zero free time, and the free time I did have I spent taking a much-needed siesta. :)

I think when I last posted I had just found my new apartment and was planning on moving in soon. Well I moved in! I actually ended up doing it the day after I paid and signed the lease. I didn't see any point in just hanging around the hostel. So I packed up my things and moved in to my new room! It took me all of 30 minutes to unpack (a sign that I definitely packed too light). However, I am far settled. There is still a lot to do/buy/arrange for my room, cause as of right now it is just a bed, dresser and BARE walls. 

Anyways, I also ended up going by my school, which was cool. I met all the English teachers, who were super nice, and just kinda toured the school a bit. I still don' know my exact schedule, cause the lady in charge didn't have it ready yet, but I am going to go back next week to find out. I DO know that I will have either every Monday or Friday off, probably Friday. That's right - 3 day weekend EVERY WEEKEND. It's totally fine to be jealous. :)

Anyways, that was all on Thursday, and the rest of the week/weekend after that went by pretty fast. I went out every night with two other girls in my program who are really cool. We had a blast, drank wine, met tons of new people and even went salsa dancing. Well, at least I ATTEMPTED to salsa dance. One day we went to this HUGE park in the Northeast of the city called El Parque de Buen Retiro, which literally means "The Park of Good Rest". Totally lived up to its name. The weather was beautiful and the two girls and I just lounged in the grass for hours, talking and people watching. It was kind of one of those "I can't believe this is my life" moments.

Spectacular.

The weekend was also filled with cervesas,

...sangria,

...and muchas tapas!

Croquetas, I really, really missed you.

So that was my weekend in a nutshell. I know I keep saying this, but I really think I will have to start posting more frequently so I can be more detailed. I just didn't expect to have so much going on right away!

Anyways, Sunday was the day my orientation officially started. Now, most of the kids in the program were arriving that day because that was when were SUPPOSED to arrive. I came early, because I thought it would take me a long time to find an apartment and I wanted to get a head start. Little did I know how easy it would be and that I would find it in a day, but hey. At least I got it done early and could relax a little. Anyways, I decided to still go and stay in the hotel, just to meet the other auxiliars and kind of be with the group. So on Sunday I packed a bag and went to the hotel. I checked in, dropped my stuff off in my room and then headed up to the rooftop terrace, where the group was meeting. The hotel is in an area called Moncloa, which is near the university, and the roof has a pretty sweet view.

This picture doesn't do it justice at all.

After meeting on the roof, we went to a tapas bar for a kind of cocktail party/mixer. I met SOOO many people. It was pretty cool, because everyone was from all over the US. After that, we went back to the hotel and hit the sack because the next morning we started all our orientation stuff bright and early. We were up by 8 am, had breakfast at the hotel, then went to this auditorium in the city for a bunch of presentations. They were pretty boring, just like how to find an apartment and how to stay safe, all stuff I already knew. We had lunch, then went back to the hotel for free time/siesta. I took a quick nap, then went with my friend Melisa to explore one of the other big parks in Madrid called Parque del Oeste (Park of the West), because it was literally right across the street from the hotel. Now I loved Retiro Park, but Oeste was REALLY cool. It was a bit more secluded and didn't have as many tourists, so it was quieter and more peaceful. It was also SUPER hilly and forested, which almost made me feel like I wasn't even in the city anymore (and also gave my legs a killer workout). Melisa and I wandered around for almost an hour.

I think it is going to be my favorite park in Madrid. It is seriously like you are in the woods in North Carolina or something.

Anyways, after that we met up with the group in the lobby and went on a walking tour of Madrid, which ended with a dinner of paella. I didn't take a picture cause I was too busy inhaling it. Then we went back to the hotel, ridiculously exhausted from all the walking (I'm telling you, you don't realize how tiring it is till you can barely stand up at the end of the night).

So that brings me to today, which was kind of more of the same. Another early wake up call, breakfast, then presentations, lunch, and now siesta time, which I am totally going to take advantage of as soon as I finish this post. Tonight we are going out to dinner again, then maybe going out? 

My plans for this weekend are pretty full. My main goal is to go to Ikea (yes, there is one here!) to get some stuff for my apartment. Like I said, I need to start making it home-y. Other than that I will probably be going out a lot (again) and hanging out with all the new people I have met.

I realize these posts have been mostly just recaps of day to day life, so I guess I should talk a little bit about my state of mind and emotions and whatnot. As far as culture shock/homesickness goes, I haven't really experienced any! Don't get me wrong, I miss my family and there are moments when I feel a little sad and far away, but for the most part, I have really been enjoying myself here. And more than that, I feel like I have very naturally adapted to the Spanish way of life. Almost immediately I started to eat, sleep and go out with the same schedule the Spaniards do. My Spanish has also come back a lot more than I expected it to. Maybe this is all because I have lived in Spain before, but I definitely am not experiencing any frustration or annoyance with the different way of life over here, which is something a lot of the other auxiliaries ARE struggling with. 

Also, I am surprised at how quickly I have fallen in love with the city. I will be honest, when I applied to this program my hopes were that I would get to go back to Sevilla, and when I got placed in Madrid, I was excited, but also partly disappointed. But every day I am more and more thankful that it turned out the way it did. I will always love to Sevilla, but Madrid is so wonderfully different. It is alive and bustling in a way that Sevilla was not. I love my neighborhood, with its thrift shops, record stores and countless amount of bars. I love that there is always something going on. I love the people, which is so great, because I really expected them to be mean and gruff city folk, but everyone I have met so far has been so incredibly helpful and open. Most of all, I love that there is always something new to explore in this city, and that there is literally something for everyone. 

So there you have it. Things are for the most part muy bien. I am excited and looking forward to settling in and kind of getting in my groove here. But right now it's time for that siesta. Hasta luego!

Hola a todos! Welcome to my blog :)

So, even though I'm pretty sure the only people who are going to be reading this is my family, just wanted to give a bit of background info in case someone I don't know personally happens across this. :)

My name is Kaley (obviously) and for the next 9 months I am going to be living and working in Madrid, Spain as an auxiliar de conversacion, or "language assistant." This is a program run by the Spanish government where they bring native English speakers over from the US, UK, Australia, etc to assist the English teachers in schools all over Spain. It is a pretty neat program because it is one of the few where you DON'T need any kind of English teaching certification, just a degree from a university (in any area). I first heard about it when I studied abroad in Sevilla last fall, and after falling in love with Spain, decided it was my best bet to come back. So, waiting just about a year, I actually made it back to Spain and I couldn't be happier.


Now, most people who write these kind of blogs to document their experience as an auxiliar usually start before they leave for Spain and write about the application process, visa experience, packing, etc. However, since I started a bit late, I figured I would just jump right in. Maybe I'll go back and talk about that stuff reflectively in another post (or I might forget and just not).

I left Miami on Monday evening, at around 6 o'clock. My mom and younger sister Kourtney dropped me off at the airport. As far as luggage, I was actually able to fit everything in to one suitcase and one carryon, which surprised me...until I found out my suitcase was 15 lbs over the weight limit. Thankfully my mom is awesome and just paid the "heavy baggage" fee. We exchanged about a million hugs and before I knew it I was off through security.

Me looking super thrilled to wait in the TSA line

Bye mom!

As far as flights go, mine was pretty uneventful. I had originally planned to sleep as much as possible, but the idea went straight to hell once the two-year old behind me started screeching in hour one and didn't stop the whole way there. The seat was also pretty uncomfortable and I just couldn't settle in. So I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't getting more than an hour of shut-eye, did a million crossword puzzles and watched the inflight movie (42 if you're interested, it was actually good). Despite the lack of sleep, the flight went by pretty fast and sooner than I thought we were in Madrid! I got off the plane, went through customs and then headed out of the airport. At this point I wasn't sure what to do. I knew how to get to my hostel by metro from the airport, but I could also have taken a cab...for way more money. I decided to be brave and take the metro, even though I was pretty sure the station I had to get off at didn't have an elevator or escalator...remember my overweight suitcase?

Yeah, not one of my most graceful moments.

Anyways, I somehow summoned some superhuman strength, made it up the stairs and to my hostel. Now the program I am in puts you up in a hotel for orientation week, which is Sept. 15-20, but I had wanted to come a week early to get a jumpstart on apartment hunting. So I booked 5 nights at a hostel before orientation, figuring it would also be a cool place to meet people. The hostel is nice, nothing fancy but not too dirty or rundown. And I have met many people here, most of whom are also going to be auxiliares. Anyways, my first day here in Spain was dedicated to one thing: getting a Spanish phone. Since that was the main way to communicate with landlords and find apartments, I had to get that before anything else. My plan all along had been to unlock my iPhone 4S from the States, which would mean that when I got to Spain I could simply go by a Spanish SIM card, slip it in there and be able to use all my wonderful iPhone amenities in Spain. However, upon arriving here my first day, jetlagged and overwhelmed, the last thing I could fathom doing was going and speaking Spanish cell phone lingo with a phone company. Thankfully, one of the other girls in my program, who I had talked to on Facebook a couple times, was already in Madrid, already had a phone plan, and was more than happy to help me out. I met her at this HUGE mall called La Vaguada, a few metro stops outside of the city center, where we went to a phone company called Orange. 

My phone plan is awesome, because it is sin permanancia, meaning its just a pre-paid, month by month type deal - 15 euro a month for 1GB (I think) of data and 1,000 free texts. Calls are 1 cent a minute and I just have to add extra saldo, or credit, to my account if I want to make them, but so few people use phones for actually making calls over here, I didn't think it was worth it. If I ever do need to make a call, I can go to any tobacco stand on the street, add however much credit I want and boom - done. Most people here use a program called Whatsapp. It's like texting, but it's done through the 3G network, so its essentially free as long as you have a data plan. And its international so you can text anyone anywhere all through your phone's internet. Pretty neat :)

Download it!

Anyways, that first day was pretty much spent on getting all that set up. That night I went out to dinner with a few friends from my program, but I was exhausted (i.e. jet lagged) so I stayed a bit and then called it a night. The next morning, Wednesday, I woke up with a new mission: find a piso (apartment). Now, this process was pretty lengthy, as far as the search part goes, but just to sum it up, I looked online through a bunch of websites that were advertising rooms for rent in a shared apartment. I knew the area I wanted to live in, so that helped to narrow it down. I basically just Whatsapped every landlord that had a room fitting my criteria. At first I felt like I wasn't having any luck cause the first responses were mostly that the rooms were already rented, but then I started getting replies saying that I could come by and see the rooms. Within an hour I had 3 appointments set up for that evening to see different rooms. Before that I grabbed some coffee with a girl I met at my hostel and her friends, and then we went on our first Spanish grocery run, which was quite an experience (more on that later). Then I went to see the apartments. In a nutshell: first apartment - huge room, but too far and not the most welcoming roommates, second apartment - nice roommates, good location, but TINY room (with no bed...???), third apartment - awesome roommates, decent sized room, GREAT location, amazing landlord...in case you haven't guessed, I took the third apartment. Meaning in total it took me ONE DAY to find an apartment. And here I was thinking it would take weeks. So yeah, I am officially renting in Madrid. I will move in today and get settled. My roommates are two really nice German girls, who speak amazing Spanish, so I can practice. And the apartment is so close to the elementary school where I will be teaching.

Point A is where I live, Point B is where I teach. Literally .1 of a mile.

As yet, I don't have any pictures of my new place, but I will be sure to upload them as soon as I do. So that's what's going on now! Today my plan is to move in to the new place, go by my elementary school to meet the teachers and hopefully go for a run in the park. :) From now on I'll try to update sooner so these posts aren't so long. Until next time!