the beginning

After months of waiting...I'm finally in España! I've already met people at every location I’ve stopped in (both plane rides, the airport, the hostel and both cities) and had some great conversations. I met a girl from the same program as me as well so I'm planning on visiting her when I start traveling! I'm off to a good start.

Last night was my first night in Spain. I arrived around 9 or 10pm and I had just spent about 12 hours flying + a few hours of layover time so I was a little bit out of it. After getting off the plane in Malaga I had to take a bus to the hostel. Finding the bus station and getting on the bus was easy, the difficult part was trying to figure out which stop to get off at and where to go after. There were a couple guys on the bus (one from the states and the other from Denmark) who were also looking for a hostel so we all walked in circles together trying to find the one I had reservations at. I was lucky they were there because one of them helped me with my bags (which totaled at least 70lbs!). To say the least, it took a little while and definitely looked like typically dumb Americans. Once we finally found the hostel it was booked so the guys had to find another one so I'm so glad I booked mine the day before.
I got to meet my roommates and hang out for a little bit but I was tired and went to bed around midnight. My roommates were French (2 girls) and Australian (1 girl). It was really interesting trying to communicate with the French girls because one spoke some English and they both spoke a little Spanish- Spanglish was definitely involved every time we spoke. My other roommate from Australia had been traveling for a while and still has a few more months left so we’ll see if we meet up again. Before I left Malaga this morning my Australian roommate and I walked through the market briefly to grab a few things but I do plan to go back and explore more thoroughly when I’m not carrying 70lbs of stuff! Lol

This morning I took a bus from a stop near the hostel to the bus/train station. From there it was only another bus ride (similar buses to Greyhound) for about 1.5 hrs to Lucena. I ditched my other plans and decided I would just go to Lucena find a hostel. Luckily the town is small and I found a hostel no problem. This place is really nice too since it costs the same as the last one I stayed in except I have a room to myself, a TV, my own bathroom & shower and AC- which is MUCH needed here, at least until I acclimate from the cold Seattle weather ;) It’s been a busy day every after I arrived…I’ve already looked at 2 apartments, ate a bocadillo (sandwich) and purchases Spanish toiletries. Tomorrow won’t disappoint either since I have a few errands to run including extending my VISA and maybe looking at another apartment. Keep checking me out here & I will make sure to keep you updated.

Birthdays and unpacked bags

There is officially less than 2 weeks until I leave for Spain. So far I, with the help of my mom, have figured out where I will stay when I get there. My travel in Spain will start in Malaga (where my flight lands), then bus it to Cordoba, after I have to find another bus to Lucena. Then I will be trying to figure out where to live- that should be fun haha. I'm basically ready for anything to happen at this point so I will just have to go with the flow and start living like a true Spaniard.

Well, while I'm still in the states I will update you on that. Life has been a little busy in Seattle getting ready to leave and still celebrating events. I'm currently focused on a friend's birthday coming up in a few days so still haven't made a packing list yet...I'm hoping to get that done before I leave however ;) In addition to the birthday planning I have been distracted by the BEST music festival in the Northwest- Bumbershoot. All the films, comedy shows and music we saw was great. The list of people we saw perform includes: Jay Electronica, Fresh Espresso, LMFAO, Greta Matassa Quartet, Vienna Teng Trio, Hole, Weezer; stunt show by Circus Una; comedians Chris Hardwick, Morgan Murphy and Jamie Kilstein (who also ended up passing us later in the evening and giving us some food vouchers). We also viewed the arts, including Counterculture Comix, Portrait Challenge, Seattle Street Biennale 2010 (amazing graffiti art), The Bumbershoot piece, Sounds Human and saw the best of the Northwest High School film festival, which actually really impressed me, and some other short films. We also ate some good good food (I love the piroshkis) I can definitely say we had a FULL day. This week is going to be just as full trying to get everything done- I love being busy.

Lucena in a nutshell

So I wanted to post this website for anyone who wants to learn more about Lucena, Spain:

http://www.spainonline.com/en/lucena.htm 

This website has some great info the the small city that I will be living in until June 2011 so check it out!

2 months!

Only 2 months until I leave for Spain! This is too exciting. I finally got all my paperwork for my passport sent out...hopefully I will get my VISA before I leave ;) By the way if you EVER have to apply for a VISA make sure to take about a week off of work- I swear I spent about 40 hours just getting all the paperwork ready and trying to figure out what paperwork was needed (I was getting instructions from two different sources). Being that I'm a first child, type A and German (what a combo lol) only caused a lot of stress trying to figure out what it means to legalize a document (not notarizing but legalizing- very confusing and I still have no answer). Anyhow I feel that I am now an expert so if you plan on getting a student VISA feel free to ask me questions!

Now that I have put all the paperwork in the mail (and hopefully it reaches its destination ASAP...don't you just love USPS) I am now looking into a place to stay in Spain. The best website I've found so far is cordoba.loquo.com/es_us . That particular link brings you to the English page for Cordoba so if you're looking for a different city you just have to look for it on the left hand side of the page. It is all in Spanish as soon as you get into the website (the first main page you can display in English) but even if you can't read Spanish just use Google translate- they do a decent job. Anyways...is just like Craigslist but all in Spanish and actually lists Cordoba, which is the closest "large" city from where I'm staying. I'm guessing I will be having to live in a hostel for the first week of so after arriving to Spain so if you have any tips about staying in a hostel please let me know. I will let you know more as it comes!