Lots of updates...

I haven't updated in awhile because the past week or so has been such a roller coaster. Basically all we did was search around the city for apartments which we discovered was much harder than we thought. First, it was hard to find many 3 bedroom apartments in neighborhoods we wanted to live in. Then, once we found something many landlords were unwilling to sign a 10 month lease instead of a year. Our work contracts only last until the end of June so we couldn't afford a whole year.

About a week ago we found a place we absolutely loved. It's in the city center, right next to the Plaza Mayor which is a big tourist site in Madrid. It's also close to a lot of nightlife which is good because we won't have to take as many taxis. It's also only a couple of minutes from a grocery store and the metro which is awesome. However, the landlord took awhile deciding if he wanted to lease it to us, but in the end he did and we're so excited to be here! I've been living out of suitcases in hostels for the past 12 days, so it's nice to have my own bed and to unpack everything.

Here are some pictures of the apartment before we moved in.

My 1/2 bath

Bathroom we all share

Corridor

My bedroom

Living room

Kitchen

Now we just have to get everything set up like internet, gas, electricity, etc. This has definitely been one of the harder things that we've had to do since we've been here, but it's been a learning experience and once we have everything figured out, we can relax.

Other than that, Jessica, Allison, Bethany and I have been having a lot of fun going out and getting to know Madrid. But we're all getting anxious to start working so we can start on some type of daily schedule.

Will have more soon!

La vida madrileña

I can't believe we've been here for 4 days now! Jessica and I have been keeping very busy waiting for Allison and Bethany to arrive. Yesterday we walked around some neighborhoods we're interested in living in and searched for "for rent" signs on apartment buildings to see if any fit our criteria. It can be difficult to find a 3 bedroom place here, so we didn't have too much luck and the one we saw wasn't a good fit. However, we met some really nice and helpful people in the process. I've definitely noticed that people in Madrid seem to be more friendly than in Sevilla. Not that they weren't nice in Sevilla, it's just that people here seem more open to foreigners and want to help us. Tomorrow we have 4 more places to see so I'm very excited about that. Spaniards don't really like to show their places on the weekend so we're having to wait till tomorrow to see the majority.

Last night Jessica and I enjoyed a night out in an area called La Latina which has a lot of bars and restaurants to just go sit and have a drink outside (I love that part of European culture). We finally got to sleep in today which was good because we had a very busy day visiting the schools we're going to be working in. Jessica's school is in a suburb south of the city and mine is far north. We took the commuter trains to our respective towns (each about 30 minutes from the Madrid center) and walked to our schools. My town is called Tres Cantos and is the newest municipality in Spain (according to wikipedia), incorporated in 1991, so it's very industrial and modern which is pretty uncommon here. It looks really nice though and my school looks huge! Hopefully I'll like it. I emailed the school and they told me I should be working with 6 to 8 year olds so that should be very interesting.

Tonight Jessica and I are going to go get some dinner with Elena and then we have a very busy day tomorrow between seeing apartments and picking up Bethany from the airport.

Hasta luego!

In the capital city

Welcome to my blog! This is my first time making one so hopefully I’ll be good at updating it on a regular basis, although no guarantees! I decided to create it so that I can stay in touch with friends and family back in the States while I am living and traveling around Europe for the next 9 months!

Although most people already know, I am going to be living and working in Madrid, Spain during the upcoming school year (school starts a little later here). My three friends and I were accepted into a program to become teaching assistants at elementary schools in the Madrid area. It’s sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Education, so we receive a monthly stipend and a work visa (something hard to come by as an American).

My friend Jessica and I arrived in Madrid yesterday. I had a nice flight from Philadelphia and my Spanish friend from UNC, Elena, and her mom picked me up from the airport which was so sweet of them and such a life saver. They took me to my hostel which is located right in the Times Square of Madrid, the Puerta del Sol. Unfortunately there is construction everywhere which Elena’s mom explained was due to la crisis as they call it here, and Spain’s high unemployment. Basically they’re starting tons of projects to create more jobs. Since all the construction made it impossible to drive up to my hostel, Elena and her mom helped me drag my HUGE suitcases from a parking deck and since I couldn’t check in immediately, we went to grab a breakfast of sorts called churros con chocolate which are like fried doughnuts dipped in chocolate. It was great seeing Elena again and getting to meet her mom who was so sweet and made me feel right at home in Madrid.

After a three hour nap, Jessica arrived. She had a long trip over but didn’t seem too tired so we went to go buy our cell phones which is a must when apartment hunting. We quickly found out we needed a passport to buy the phone (I don’t know why because we bought a prepaid phone) so we went back to the hostel to get ours and by the time we got back to the store it was closed so we went out for a tapas dinner instead.

Today basically consisted of calling and seeing apartments. This has been by far the most humbling experience. If I were at home it would be so easy to pick up the phone and call people to go check out their apartments, however it’s been super stressful here because I always find it harder to understand people over the phone in Spanish, especially since my ear isn’t quite used to it yet. However, we made it work and went to see three apartments today. We found two we liked but we have more appointments to go see others so I’ll post all that later.

Sorry for such a long post, but I’ll continue to update as I get settled in. Also, please keep in touch whether it’s via facebook or email tory.felle@gmail.com I love getting emails when I’m abroad so please send them my way! Also, if anyone is going to be in Europe in the next couple of months, please stop by and come visit. We’ll always have an open couch for anyone.