Week One

Tuesday.

Disclaimer: I had some time to kill and a lot to reflect on, so this is kind of a long one.

Exactly one week ago today I sat in Boston Logan International Airport, eager and ready to board a plane to Spain and start this incredible journey. In fact, it is around this time (EST that is) that I sat down to publish my very first blog post (see The Journey Begins…). Bright eyed, optimistic and yearning for adventure, I felt like nothing could get in my way. As I currently lay in my comfortable bed (fresh sheets from IKEA!), in my spacious room, in my most perfect apartment, in the quaint town of Ubrique, nestled at the bottom of the Sierra de Cádiz in the gorgeous region of Andalucía, I can’t help but ponder all it took just to get to this point. I won’t deny that at times it was trying - a test of strength mentally, emotionally and physically.

Let’s back up about one year. I believe it was around September or October 2010 that I first decided to apply for this program on a whim after reading about it in a passing e-mail from the head of the FL department at Geneseo. The initial online résumé submission was a fairly easy process and I obtained a very good application number. Next, I had to gather some materials such as a health certificate, letter of recommendation, essay submission, etc just to send in the hard copy of my application. It was time consuming, but not so bad. After being accepted (and jumping for joy and possibly crying, happiest day ever), the visa process began. For those of you that have studied abroad or traveled for lengthy periods of time, you know this is a pain in the culo and in your wallet, too! Having only a temporary passport since mine was lost (or stolen?) last summer, step one was to renew that. The following months were a blur, but they involved getting fingerprints from the local PD, sending them to DC, receiving the cleared background check, sending that back to DC to obtain an Apostille of the Hague, getting a NEW medical clearance since the first one is apparently expired after 3 months, lots of waiting and lots of other stuff I can’t remember off the top of my head, then personally driving all necessary documents 7 hours to NYC to wait in line to drop it off at the Consulado General de España, then wait some more to have my passport mailed back with visa attached (second happiest day ever). Phew.

Oh, and if I thought that process was trying, I can’t wait to do it all over again in a few days to obtain my NIE. Spain is considerably less organized and an even bigger pain in the culo. I best prepare myself well, because I imagine it will go something like this:

Anyways, I mentioned it was tough to get to this point mentally, emotionally and physically. That process to get to Spain was the part that hurt my brain. The part that hurt my heart was having to say goodbye to my friends and family and my cozy life in North Tonawanda, which I was just getting used to, having graduated and come home from school in May. I am 110% convinced that my big, crazy family is the most loving and supportive in the entire world, and that my friends are the truest, most fun and most hilarious people on Earth. I feel so blessed to have so many people in my life that I can count on and I know I will miss them terribly while I’m away this year. However, the time will pass and in the meantime we’ll be in touch; technology is an amazing thing these days (Skype anyone?) And while I hope I can make a temporary home, family and friends for myself here in Ubrique, I know my people will be there when I get back to my real home. :)

Continuing on… the part of the getting-here process that hurt my body? Well, traveling for days, (for details please see That’s Part of It as well as Getting There is Half the Fun,) lugging 3 dead-body-like bags through unknown streets and up and down lots of stairs, living out of those 3 bags, standing or sitting in uncomfortable seats for long periods of time, and suffering from jetlag, an irregular eating/sleeping schedule and lack of sleep altogether. These things not only fall under a test of physical strength, but mental and emotional as well.

The first day I made it to Ubrique, I remember having a small breakdown in my hotel room. It had sunk in that I was finally here, and while I was excited to see what was to come, the events of the past few days had caught up with me. I was tired, hungry, thirsty, and alone in a foreign land where nobody spoke my language and everybody looked at me funny. The kitchen downstairs was closed, my brain was tired from trying to process Spanish for the first time in a long time, and I felt a little scared and lonely. Though I've traveled before, I think this was the first time I felt a real dose of culture shock.

After a hot shower and about 10 minutes of feeling sorry for myself, I sucked it up, decided to turn my attitude around and venture out in search of food. It’s a good thing I did, because not only did I get myself a tasty, cheap meal and a cerveza just up the road, but upon returning to the hotel lobby I also ran into Deborah (she would become roomie #1). It was at this point that Pepe said “ahhh, mejorará!” as if he had known that I was uneasy before, and that things were now looking up. The next morning I also met Shannon (roomie #2) and Clint (roomie #3). After a brief piso hunt and a little help from Pepe, we are now a Tennessean, a Texan, a Californian and a New Yorker living together in Spain.

In the end, siempre vale la pena (it’s always worth the pain). Though the process seemed to drag on and at times it felt like I’d never make it to this point, I never let myself lose site of the big picture: I’m going back to this beautiful country I seriously fell in love with, to learn more about the people here, to assimilate myself with them, to learn to live as they do and hopefully weave a bit of their culture into my own… all the while sharing with the youth here what my awesome life is like back home, the traditions I have with my big, wonderful family, the things I do with my crazy friends to have fun (though I suppose I will have to leave out some details about our inappropriate games of Things and late night PJ Hooligan’s escapades). If I continue to look at it the right way, no matter what hardships I come across these next months, only good can come out of this experience.

So far, everything is lining up perfectly, though there is still much to be done in order to feel settled (apply for my NIE, set up a Spanish bank account, get a phone line/internet for the apartment, etc). I’m also very excited to start working at the school! Once I have a structured schedule, I think I will be more comfortable, too. I got to meet with the bilingual coordinator, Trini, again the other day, this time at the school I will be working at. She gave me a brief tour and an outline of my job expectations. We then sat down to breakfast with some of the other teachers, including those I will be working with in the bilingual department. It seems I will be working with the teachers of math, science, English and visual arts. I had already met the VA teacher, Irene (Maribel insisted on introducing us as she lives right below Jesús). She and all of the other professors as well as the staff seem very kind and welcoming! They were also surprised that I could speak or at least understand Spanish quite well. The cocinera (cook) Charro even said I look Spanish (Thanks Dad for passing on the dark hair and eyes!) Perhaps assimilating won’t be so hard after all?

In addition to working at the school during the week, my town offers much to do to keep me busy. There is a municipal pool/gym/rec center right in the town that offers dance lessons – I could use some of those. My school also offers music lessons (Maybe I’ll impress you all with some Spanish guitar?) Not to mention, we are in the mountains. There are biking and horse riding and hiking trails galore (a couple of geocaches perhaps??) With so much to see and do, every day is bound to be a new adventure!

Today’s adventures included: lots of sleeping and siesta-ing (still catching up on that 6 hour time difference!) buying a pay-as-you-go phone, unpacking some more things, having another great meal at El Laurel restaurant, stealing unripe oranges off of public trees (still unsure if that’s legal)* and catching up back home using the internet at the Occuris café once again (gracias a Pepe). Oh, and also hunting for ghosts. Ok, there are really most likely no ghosts, but the apartment does make weird noises at night. Tonight there was a slamming noise that Shannon and I could not figure out even after shutting all of the doors and windows. Finally a neighbor came and told us we had left the laundry room door upstairs unlocked and that it was slamming open and shut (duh, the one place no one looked). Way to look like a fool AND upset the neighbors (oops). Speaking of which, I haven’t actually met those neighbors yet, so that wasn’t exactly a good first impression. Maybe it would be a good idea to bring them a plate of cookies and introduce ourselves. I wonder if that’s a normal thing to do here, everybody likes cookies, right? Anyway, the wind is still noisy but at least I can be reassured there are no ghosts. Just in case, I have my little wooden elephant on the nightstand facing the door to keep out intruders (shout out to Dave for that idea!)

*Update, today is Wednesday, and we have figured out that what we thought were limes are actually unripe oranges. We still used them to make unripe-orange-pineapple-mojitos today and they were still delicious.

Clint and Shannon picking what we thought were limes, but would turn out to be unripe oranges. Makes much more sense, since we are in Andalusia.

Unripe-orange-pineapple-mojito. Mmm!

Moral of the story: keep on keepin’ on. Or in the words of Pepe, mejorará (it will get better). And while I’m sure there will be plenty of roller coaster moments along the way, I’m already certain this experience is going to have a profound impact on my life.

Nevertheless, I will still miss you folks back home (1 week in and I’m missing you all already!) Now that I have a phone and a roof over my head, here’s my info, so don’t be a stranger! Unless of course, if you’re reading this and you’re actually a stranger, in which case please don’t creep on me.

E-mail: sarahcastig@gmail.com
Skype: sarahann45
Skype phone number*: +1 716 406 88 35
Cell phone number: 34 682 55 07 14
Address:              Sarah Castiglione
                                C/ Fernan Caballero, 10. Piso 2
                                11600 Ubrique (Cádiz) España

*FYI You can call my skype number from any landline or cell phone! It is routed to my computer, so I can answer it on skype when I have my computer on. If I’m not at my computer, you can actually leave me a voicemail- just listen to the foreign lady do her thing, wait for the beep, and then leave me a message! The Cell phone number works for calls and texts if you have long distance!

I also check my facebook quite often so you can always leave me a mensaje there (oh, the joys of technology). With so many options you have no excuse not to keep in touch!

Don’t forget to join and “follow me” if you enjoy reading my blogs :) Feel free to also leave a comment (I believe you have to click on “see comments” first in order to leave one.) Take care all, talk soon!

Abrazos <3