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!