Adventuras con el teléfono.

So, us americans being addicted to our cell phones, of course I had to have one immediately when I got to Spain so we could coordinate things with our host family and each other. We embarked on our journey the first day we were here. Despite the jet lag, and the fact that the elections were going on (most of the stores were closed) we trekked all over town looking for the name of a store where Nacho said we could buy phones. It's a huge chain called Movistar. They look like this-->

We managed to stumble across one or two on our own but they were each already closed! Determined, we kept walking towards the city center to try and find one that was open. (Because of the elections, many stores had really strange hours, so it was definitely a hit or miss game). Asking a group of local girls "Donde está una lugar que vender los teléfonos celulares?" They were able to use some half-english, half spanish, and lots of hand gestures to motion us in the right direction.

A few blocks down, we saw a white display with cell phones gleaming in the window--it was like finding the pot of gold. We were all so excited and proud of ourselves for finding a phone store on the first day. However, as soon as we walked inside, each phone was over 40 Euros wayyyy too expensive.

We had been told by our program co-ordinator that you could buy a phone with prepaid minutes, no contract for around 20 or 30 Euros so  we left that store in disappointment that it didn't have what we were looking for. Having our heads down, we almost failed to notice the Movistar that was right across the street! After walking almost completely by it, Kyle (one of my roommates) suddenly stopped in her tracks and said, "Look! More phones!" Excited, we walked in and perused the prices where we saw a few phones that looked in the right price range.

Timid, we asked the two women working if they spoke any English. "No, nada. Lo siento" they replied. Wonderful. First day in Spain, guess I need to just dive in! Consulting my itouch dictionary I tried my best to explain we were students here for a month and we needed a phone with a prepaid plan. She seemed to understand that we were students and here "por solo un mes" but the prepaid part was really confusing. She kept pointing at the sheet and saying "Ocho centavos por minuto." Kyle and Lindsay were both looking back and forth from me to Ana (the woman with enough patience to put up with us American tourists making a super cheap purchase) as we struggled to understand each other.

Reading the plan over and over, I still didn't understand how it worked. Ana tried her hardest to speak as slowly as possible and use the simplest spanish words and eventually I learned enough to know it wasn't a contract, it was a one time purchase and we just went with my gut instinct and purchased 3 phones.

We paid in cash, and then had our new devices in hand! ....with no clue how to use them. The menus were all in spanish (duh), and we had no idea where our phone number was or how the plan even worked. Spanish phone numbers have 9 digits, and any international phone has to dial a 0034 number first to then get the spanish number. We ran home to our host family brother to ask him if we made a good purchase. He looked over it and said "it's less than I pay for phone, looks good."

With a bit more confidence, we went to bed exhausted. Luckily we had internet up and running the next day so I took out the manual to try and decipher how it all worked.

Laying out all of the instructions, and with the help of google translator, I was able to learn a few things. Apparently, the phone we bought was only 7 Euros, because 12 Euros came on the sim card that is in the phone (for our total purchase of 19 Euros). The sim card has 12 Euros that can be used for texting or calling. The first 350 text messages are free, and then are ,15 cents each after that. It is ,08 per minute of calling time. This phone is only for use within Spain though, unless you have a prepaid international calling card or are prepared to call me and pay for it yourself haha. (Muy caro--expensive!)

If you want to add more Euros (there is a minimum of 8) you can go online and purchase more with your credit card and your pin number that is given with the phone. It was a small victory for us (las tres chicas americanas) and we went out for ice cream to celebrate at a local Heladora (Ice Cream shop).

Yummy! The flavor was called "azul cielo" (blue sky) and was so delicious! It's similar in flavor to american ice cream, but is less creamy and a different kind of sweetness. It was some sort of vanilla mixture. But tan bonita, si?

And below here is the picture of success! Mi movil!

First day of school was today, and I have lots to say about that. Our teachers are fantastico! Hasta mañana a todos!

Tour de the Spanish Apartment de los tres chicas americanas!

Just finished another fantastic dinner. Our host mother has been keeping it pretty simple with salads and fruit and bread, which my stomach greatly appreciates. As promised, here are a few pictures of mi casa nueva!

This is our bathroom, it’s gorgeous! And my favorite color! The bathtub is so old, our host mother was telling us about it but I couldn’t understand it all or I would have more to say about it……

 This is the breakfast room. We have yet to eat breakfast here, but since the only modern outlet is right next to the bathroom (the only one where my converter’s work—never believe the rack room self-proclaimed experts that they work in all Spanish outlets!!!!) we have designated it the electronics table. Or at least I have. It has a window overlooking the courtyard but we keep the blinds closed on that side of the house because we have no air conditioning and so that side gets lots of sunlight.

 This is the kitchen! Our host mother stocked us with so much food! We have 2 kinds of juice in the fridge, bottled water, and yogurt. In addition to all that she made sure we had a coffee pot and a coffee machine, and lots of snacks like fresh fruit and croissants and muffins.

 This is the view from the kitchen! It overlooks the patio out back that has lots of little plants in beautiful ceramic pots. It was built by our host mother's father. He owns the whole apartment building where we are staying, and most of their family lives in each of the apartments. Nacho said his aunt lives upstairs and his grandparents on the first floor. 

 Mi dormitorio! One bed is for me, and another for my luggage. There is no dresser in the room, just a rack, but it only had 5 hangars so I just laid out all of my things in a semi-organized fashion on the bed.

 This is the formal dining table, we have yet to use it also, but as you can see there is artwork everywhere! I love it, it’s all hanging from the ceiling from plastic strings. I asked our host mother where she got all the art, if someone in the family did it, and she said that she collected them when she went on holiday. She must have gone on lots of holidays!

This is the foyer. The floors are all tiled throughout with some type of colorful honeycomb mosaic pattern. 

So todo es esto! That’s the apartment! School starts tomorrow at 9am, so we have to be up early to master our maps and the metro system. Then we take a spanish placement test, and start the first day of classes! I'm hoping to go to the beach for the first time, but I'm not planning on taking my camera (eesh--sand). We told our host mother our plans and she packed us an almuerzo (lunch for a picnic on the beach).  However, I do have a lunchtime adventure from today I'm planning on uploading as a visual in addition to writing a little story about how I managed to buy a phone from a local store where no one spoke english.....adventuras.

 

Mi casa nueva!

It's currently siesta here, but we are all leaving with Nacho to head to orientation at la Universidad de Valencia in about an hour. In the meantime, I thought I would upload a few photos of my new home here in Valencia!

The exciting news is, that after all of our journeying and luggage fiasco, Nacho informed us that we would all get our own apartment! Que lujo! (what a luxury!) Nacho, his sister and our host mother live in the apartment directly below us. We each have our own bedroom and so much space. It really is unbelievable. There are fantastic views outside each window. See for yourself-->

A little canted, but I'll get more photos later of our apartamento uploaded and explain about our afternoon adventure.

Hasta luego!

Dia uno: Los Aviones y Aueropuertos

Here are a few visuals that I collected from my long wait in the Madrid airport. It was a pretty neat place, I just wish I hadn't been there waiting from 7:30am til 2:00pm. Enjoy!

 One of the signs, we kept discussing how cool it would look at night.

Unfortunately, we spent much of our time in these seats. Staring at the planes in the background hoping they would be ours. 

They painted the columns from a red-orange to blue-violet gradation, it was really neat! 

That's it for today I think, pretty much covers the majority. I'll have more pictures tomorrow of what the apartment actually looks like, buenos noches a todos! 

The Luggage Chronicles....

Ah, the joys of traveling. I have no idea how many hours have condensed and shifted into each other but in España it is currently 10:50pm. My host family has the internet! Small pleasures. So lucky you, I have time to update this blog in more detail and provide some visual aids. Let's start with the luggage.

This is my main suitcase, which has wheels but itself weighs a whopping 13.4 lbs. My limit is 50lbs per suitcase. Naturally, all of my items would not fit in one suitcase so I had to concede the $50 extra baggage fee and take two. Both were around 43 lbs, and this was with only 7 days of clothes! (I took quite a few american food comforts and some heavy bottled water). I also had a very stylish carry-on bag which just happened to be a bit big. Lessons for next time, lessons for next time. Take a very small carry on! Duly noted, trying to stuff a bag into an overhead compartment with lots of glaring beady eyes synced to your every move is not so enjoyable. Neither is then having to maneuver with said bag to exit the aircraft and valet check it in defeat. Luckily that only happened on two out of my three flights.

The second chuckle of a story about my luggage is the fact that when you arrive at the Valencia airport, they give you handy little carts to help you carry your luggage. So I was able to swiftly grab my two 43lb bags and place them on the cart next to my large carry on bag and purse.

Wheeling this cart out with a smile on my face, I was so excited my travels were over and I was going to be able to settle down somewhere! Think again. After being greeted by Nacho, (short for Fernando) my 25 year old host family member, we had to exit the airport with our luggage and take an escalator down to the metro. Oh dear. I tried my hardest to get every possible combination of weight and luggage and waddle towards the escalator starting it down as if we were about to do battle.

The escalator won. I ended up yelling down to the rest of my roommates and Nacho "neccessito ayuda con mi equipaje por favor! Lo siento soy un americana loca que tiene mas equipaje!!!"  Luckily, my host "brother" was kind enough to come back up and relieve me of my 43lb duffle bag. Little did I know, once we were safely at the bottom of the escalator my journey was only just about to begin.

We hop on the metro, I surrounded myself in my fortress of luggage as my roommates and I all tried to communicate as best we could with little snippets of conversation here and there with Nacho.  His mother is a small family practice doctor, his 21 year old sister is studying to be a doctor. After somehow shuffling all my luggage off the metro when our stop came up, we came to see our first nemesis of the journey to our apartment. Stairs. Not even an escalator. Hot concrete stairs.

Sweating we somehow all manage to work our way to the top with our luggage and then begin the trek. "Es una caminata larga?" I puffed as I kept shuffling my hand position to carry the luggage. "Erm, about 8 blocks, a five minute walk" Nacho replied as he grimaced repositioning my heavy duffle bag over his shoulder.

In the hot heat of the city, we got our first true glimpse of the city of Valencia. Gorgeous! I still think it hasn't sunk in completely. But this epic was not over yet. After arriving at the apartment, we had to somehow go one at a time with our luggage up the tiny elevator. I went first with my large bag with wheels and carry on. Getting to our floor, I step off and wait. And wait. And wait. Nothing. I yell down the stairs, and Nacho comes charging up to see if I did something silly like forget to close the gate.

Somehow I just managed to make the elevator inexplicably dysfunctional. Go figure. So we all continue the trek of our luggage up 3 flights of narrow steep stairways. Sweating, out of breath, and embarrassed at my excess luggage I was introduced to our host mother. Maria speaks no english, and I expressed as delicately as I could muster what a pleasure it was to meet her and thanks for having us.

As soon as we charged into our upstairs private guest apartment (yes! best surprise of the trip yet! --pictures will follow shortly) we each chose our OWN bedroom. (I know! que suerte!) And I unpacked those suckas lickety split.

All of my luggage bags are now hiding in my room corner in shame. Sheesh. I need a better plan for the ride home, suggestions welcome, but at least, I hope it was amusing for now.

Arrived in Madrid!

Hola a todos!
    
      I'm currently in a little cafe in the Madrid Airport. I had to pay to use the internet here unfortunately, so I probably won't have a good update with photos until after I get settled in with my host family later today. It's currently 9am here and our next flight to Valencia is 12pm, then I'll get settled in there and hopefully find a coffee shop or find my host family to have the internet.

My first international flight is complete! I was luckily able to sleep quite a bit on the way over, so hopefully things are smooth sailing. I saw a glimpse of the gorgeous sunrise over Spain as we flew in, and it was so exciting to really make the realization I'm off for new adventures! More updates soon, keep me in your thoughts for safe travel and settling in.

Im off!

Hello Everyone!
    I thought I would have a fun picture of myself with a Lonely Planet Travel book or something like that, but of course I packed everything before I did this post. Oops.

My flight departs at 12:46pm, and then I'm in the Atlanta airport until 4:40.  I'll have my phone on until then, if anyone wants to send me a text message. After that, my phone number won't be good until I fly back into the US on the 19th of June. I should be arriving in Madrid around 7:30am on the 21st their time, and they are six hours ahead of us, but don't look for another post until well after that once I have time to settle in.  Thanks for all the emails and well wishes, and I'm looking forward to updating you again soon!

Adios!