In need of a good home

So I've checked into a pension for the time being. Mark and I found a lovely apartment right on the Alameda with a view of the palace, but are waiting to hear back about it. It's not quite finished, but it's lovely and would suit us well. So fingers crossed!

We finished the course Friday, and it's been since a crazy and busy month! We had a dinner party Wednesday night, and we lost electricity while cooking. Granted, this is not the first time this has happened, but it always came back on in an hour or so the last times it had happened. But not this time. We couldn't get it back on, couldn't get it fixed, and then people showed up for dinner! Only half the food was cooked. So we pulled out the silver candlebras and a friend brought candles and we had dinner and drinks by candle light. It was very nice. Other than giving people a flash light or candle to use the restroom by! Lol. The next morning I woke up to Mark knocking on my door and saying he had candles in me for the bathroom so I could shower. What a sweetheart! Sadly, we ended up having to throw a lot of our food out since our fridge was off for a day.

So over the past month we had a minor flood in the kitchen b/c the sink piping broke, three days sans hot water (and therefore icey showers) and two days without proper electricity. That's right, they spen the next two days trying to fix our electricity and tearing up the kitchen before we got it all working again. Then Saturday morning we had to hurry out of the apartment. We were supposed to leave by 12, but the cleaning ladies showed up at 9, so we dragged our exhausted bums out of bed and packed up and headed out.

I feel like I could sleep for a week!

Laura and I walked around the city today, enjoying a bit of a break and seeing some of the city. It was quite nice. And quite hot!

Pics are up on Facebook if anyone wants to see them. Lots of Seville.

Hopefully I'll have housing this week and can get myself sorted out to start having a semi-normal existence. Or at least a routine. :)

Hot water! Yay!

We have hot water again! I’m so glad. I was thinking I would have to go the dreds route and have dirty hair and that might not have been very professional. After three days our landlord came over and figured out the problem with the propane and we can shower properly again! How luxurious.
Emma and Chris were in Spain this week and Friday evening they came down to Seville. We went out and spent awhile chatting at the Alameda. Saturday we played a bit of tourist, and Emma really wanted to shop, so we did a ton of that. Her reasoning was that Spain has more colorful, fun clothes than Germany. Fair enough. And I got to see their wedding video! Lovely.
Sunday morning we were planning to go to Malaga nice and early. I left the house at 6:50 AM and thought I’d get a bike and cycle there (Seville has that rental bike thing where you can get them all over town). It should have only taken 10 minutes, so I’d be quite early. But the funny thing with the roads in Seville is that there are almost no straight roads, and they twist and turn and are small and windy and sometimes you get a bit lost. I rode and rode and rode that bike for over half an hour. I tried to ask directions a few times, but there are not many people out and about in Spain at 7 AM on a Sunday. I finally made it to the station, about five minutes after my train left. I ran inside, frantically asked the ticket lady when the next train was. Four hours later. Chris and Emma had a plane to catch in the afternoon (hence the early trip), so I texted Emma, very sad and a bit defeated. I should have taken a taxi. It just seemed so extravagant! I thought surely I could find my way to the train station. Apparently not. Lesson learned. Had trouble finding my way home as well. Oh dear. I hope they had fun in Malaga, and I’m really sorry I couldn’t spend the day with them.
It’s the last week of class. I only have one day of teaching. A few assignments to turn in. And then it’s done. Wow. This month has flown by! We have to be out of the apartment by Saturday. Mark and I are looking for a place to rent for a month.
That’s the update for now. I’ll put pics up in a bit as well. :)

Still no hot water

We couldn't get ahold of our landlord yesterday, so today was another morning of cold showers. I'll admit I didn't wash my hair. I feel so dirty. And European.

At some point during the day Mark asked the secretary if she could phone our landlord, and blamed US GIRLS on being babies about not having hot water. However, he was the only one screaming in the shower yesterday morning. LOL.

I also turned a lovely shade of red in class today when someone (Mark) brought it to everyone's attention that during word collocation, when I was supposed to write down the first word that came to my mind for "suit" I thought of "birthday". I turned BRIGHT red. In front of everyone. It was quite funny.

I only have one more lesson to give. I thought this morning's didn't go well, but apparently it went better than I thought. I am really excited to have my own classes! Except that well, um, yeah, I don't have a job yet. Details.

I am at an internet cafe, and my net is not working well. For instance, my blog will work but my email won't. Not entirely helpful.

We have a propane tank in our apartment (that we were just made aware of) that we can change out. However, I vote we let Mark do that, as playing with a big metal thing of gas makes me a tad uneasy.

Jobless in Seville

I love Seville. It's beautiful, great location, a slow pace of life, etc. However, my course is quite intense. 10-12 hour days at the school, especially with all the lesson planning and not having Internet at the apartment.

I've just realized I have 1 week (until next Thursday) left in my apartment. Then I have nowhere to live and no job. I really want to stay here, but it is more difficult to find work being American. I may have to suck it up and head north, though Madrid is much colder and farther inland than I would like. And a bit more hectic. But I do have friends there and there is a better chance for work. It feels all very last minute right now, and for a planner like myself, it makes me a bit worried.

On a lighter note, our propane tank that heats our water ran out this morning. I shower first, jumped in, waited, waited, waited, and the hot water never came. Our shower is usually slow and tempermental, but it usually works (somewhat). So I jumped back out, wrapped in my big yellow towel, and padded on in to Laura's room. She tested her water and no. Mark heard us from downstairs and yelled up, with a laugh in his voice, sorry girls, no hot water this morning! We exchanged frustrated looks, then I went back for a very cold and miserable shower. As I was downstairs eating breakfast, I heard the water turn on and several loud, manly screams. Mark was showering. I about choked on my toast.

It's finally rained here in Seville, after five months. Or so I'm told it's been five months. Summer is officially over, which means our apartment is no longer an oven. Yay!

Sunday I got a bit ill. Some kind of stomach bug. My roommates took care of me (they are AWESOME). Monday I was still feeling a bit under the weather, so a classmate took me to the Farmacia and asked for the right meds. Ahhhh. Lots of people in our course have been catching things. I just love being sick in a foreign country.

Emma and Chris are traveling around Spain at the moment and will be coming to Seville this weekend. I'm soooooooooo excited!!!!! I still have lots of work to do, but I plan to spend as much time as possible with them.

I'm off for the night. It's past my dinner time so I'd like to walk home now. :)

Weekend!

This week has been quite busy. Filled with lesson planning and assignments and several long nights of, oh yeah, more lesson planning. We switched from our intermediate class to an elementary level, and our available technology also changed. We went from having a smart/interactive board (highly unlikely in most schools) to having an overhead projector, whiteboard, and construction paper. I never thought it would take so long to plan a lesson!

Last night the school threw a party and it was on the roof of the other building. We had no idea there was a jacuzzi and games up there. It was quite nice. They had a flamenco guitarist playing on a stage, and a huge grill of paella. We also brought in a fair amount of lovely Spanish wine and tinto de verrano as well. Then we moved to another bar nearby.

The other night we played a fun game called "find the maggots". How does one play? Well, Laura and I were cooking some dinner and she opened one of our bags of rice and asked me to come over. I looked down and there was a maggot squirming near the top of the rice. So we threw that bag away. Then we grabbed another bag. We looked it in, and sure enough, maggots. So bag number two was tossed. We took out our last bag of rice, poured it into a bowl and checked it for bugs. Didn't see any, so she tossed it into the boiling water. A few minutes later I hear, "ummm, Kate?" She had looked into the bowl and saw something floating at the top. Any guesses what it was? Yeah, we threw that away, too.

Then this morning I was walking down the stairs to the kitchen when I saw a two-inch long cockroach flipped over on its back. I decided I would wait and get rid of it after I got some orange juice. Then I hear Laura go, "it's still alive!" And she picked it up and said she was getting rid of it. Before we left for school, she goes, "should we throw the trash out?" I was a bit confused and asked why, to which she replied, "well, the cockroach was still alive and I just threw it in the trash and I'm afraid it will crawl out". I laughed quite a lot, then said maybe she should have either thrown it outside or stepped on it before putting it in the trash, and in the future she's lost her cockroach disposing responsibilities.

I think we are going to Isla Magica (theme park in Seville) Saturday evening for Sonia's birthday. I am hoping to see a bit more of the city this weekend, but I still have a decent amount of work to do for lessons next week.

And I need a job! And an apartment, bank account, etc. Lol. I have just started looking. I've heard the black market (job wise) here is Spain is very much alive and well, possibly moreso than the regular one. They joke that the 500 Euro bill was made for Spain, and many purchases are made with boxes of 500 notes. Of course, I'm not saying I would be looking for anything like that...just an interesting thing I've heard.

Back to job hunting!

A broken sink and a new phone

Thursday we came home and our sink had broken a bit. The floor was started to get wet and we saw water slowly pouring out from the cabinet below the sink. We opened it and there was quite a bit of water sitting on the wooden shelf. I ran upstairs and got Mark and he determined some of the piping had been put together in a shoddy manner and he couldn´t fix it. We called the landlord, who said to put buckets underneath and he´d get a plumber for Saturday. Fun stuff.

Last night after a long week of school, we attempted to find this bar that has salsa dancing. We walked quite a bit and finally found it, but they were only playing some Reggaeton and some funny Spanish pop. And it was sort of an older person´s place...as in we were dancing next to a white-haired man on the dance floor who kept trying to join our group, and while trying to be polite and respectful, we slowly danced away. :)

This morning my lovely Spanish-speaking roomies helped me get a Spanish cell. If you need my number, it´s +34 689934973. It was 20 E, and is sooooooo cool. Has tons of cool features, etc. How is my cheap Spanish phone way cooler than my American one? AND, this country seems a bit more modern than Germany (I was shocked) when it comes to some conveniences (like goods you can purchase, choices, etc.). I would not have expected that. I was very pleasantly surprised.

We have lots of work to prepare for next week. So tomorrow it´s back to work. Less site-seeing that I´d expected for this weekend, but that´s ok.

A Crash Course in Teaching

Ok, so that´s not exactly true, but we did give our first lesson today to real students, with our fellow peers and tutor evaluating us as we taught. I got to go first. Lol. We will be told usually about 2 PM the day before what we´ll be teaching, then we have to prepare it that day. Including handouts, presentation, activities, etc. Therefore, a lot of us will probably be at the school until 7 or so most nights. It is definitely a bit intensive, but good.

The heat has been interesting. It feels like you´re in a sauna most of the day. You just keep sweating. I´ve not really slept much since I´ve been here. Last night my room was a chilly 87 F, and the night before it was honestly 95 F in my room. I just laid there, sweating. The Spaniards say in a week or so the heat should break (although today was cooler), and it will be nicer.

Our shower does this funny thing where it won´t stay hot or cold, but constantly switches from extremes. Almost like a game. Lol.

Both of my roommates speak Spanish and English, which is really useful, because not many people here speak Spanish. That does make everyday tasks just a wee bit harder. Unless I take Mark or Laura.

I really thought I had more to say, but right now my stomach is growling something fierce, so I think I´ll walk home and eat something. I´m so not on Spanish eating time. Although Laura and I did eat dinner at 10 PM last night, which is normal here. It just took forever to plan my lesson and buy groceries.

Bye for now!