Ode to la siesta, kittens and cañas

This past week has been full of rainy days that have invoked the need to not play outside a lot. That's right, I have done nothing too thrilling since the last update (hence the lack of updates). The rainy days have, however, inspired me to master the art of siestas. And trust me, I've mastered it.  I have caught up on all the sleep I lost during the first couple of weeks in Spain, and have stocked up on a little extra, just to be safe. This Monday I begin my job and will be siesta-less most days of the week, not all good things can last forever...at the same time some good things come in small packages.

Meet Toxo (toe-show), the newest and cutest addition to out flat. Andrea has always wanted a kitten and Angel, Pedro and I are used to having pets, so she adopted this little ball of adorable. Toxo arrived earlier this week and has been getting a little more feisty each day. I am convinced he is the smartest kitten on this side of the Atlantic, he understands four languages after-all. We are all loving the heck out of this fella.
Friday evening I went out to explore SC with Angel. We began at Parque Alameda to enjoy views it has to offer of the cathedral and to dar un paseo, the park has so many beautiful views and offers access to all areas of the city. So far I haven't found a place I enjoy more, though the Praza do Obradoiro is giving the park a run for its money. Here is link to the history of the park, it's fascinating, and the link is a quick read. Go ahead, give it a click, then you may scroll.

 

View from park (I know I've shared a similar photo, but this one is on a cloudy day, very different)

Getting fresh with a famous dead Galician (validated, remember this is Friday night)

Angel took a different approach to bonding

Oak tree walkway 

Looking out from the park, opposite direction of the cathedral

After the park walk, Angel and I went to the cathedral to see what it was like inside. To be perfectly honest, it was a disappointment. The true beauty of the building is truly the outside. We do plan to attend a service at the cathedral one day to see the botafumeiro, the famous thurible of Santiago de Compostela (though it is only done on special days of the year, so we have to wait awhile). Housed inside the cathedral are the Codex Calixtinus. We were able to see the Codex, and I must admit that there is nothing as powerful as a really old book. It was fascinating to see the documentation of the history of the pilgrims, from an era that is so far past it is a history forgotten in and of itself.

Wikipedia has better photos, I bet they were allowed to use flash

A traditional peregrino 

Following our visit to the cathedral, Angel and I felt inspired to partake in an act that is just as Spanish as old catholic churches and coffee breaks. It was time for a caña. I may also take a moment to mention this is one of the best things Spain has to offer. A light beer, served in a wine style glass, with a small dish of melt-in-your-mouth olives. This particular caña break took place in the Praza do Obradoiro, in the shadow of the cathedral. 

Best view in town.

 

After our caña break we went to one more park and arrived just in time to see a breath taking view of the sunset. From on top of an old above ground, stacked cemetery (we assume this is what it was, but there were no clear signs) we watched the sun set over our new city. I am loving SC, and so excited to start my new job in a couple of days.

Some Spanish Suerte

The past few days have brought me a little bit of Spanish suerte, por fin. I went to see the apartment that Isabel had recommended to me and I loved it and signed. I live with three people, two guys, one from Portugal (Pedro) and one from the state of Alicante (Angel), the girl is from Galicia. I live close to the Plaza Roja, in downtown. The location is great, I have stores right by the flat and bars and coffee shops all around. Last night I went with the guys to a jazz bar, decorated with photos of the Bronx, Obama and MLK, to listen to Andrea (she sings in a jazz band and is absolutely wonderful). I have a good feeling about this place, if I can make it at four nights here then it will be the longest I've lived in a place since I arrived (I don't anticipate problems). Hopefully this link works and you can see where my apartment is in Santiago de Compostela (use the street view to see my street) Location of flat
Yesterday I went to my school to meet some of the teachers, but en route Isabel and I had some bad luck.
Isabel was driving me to school on a country road and some old man was on his scooter looking at his watch and swerving. She stopped, about 50 feet from where we saw him (stick shift so it stops on a dime), she honked honked honked, nothing. He ran right into the car, flipped on the hood. Like a movie. The old man was obviously in shock, I had no idea what to do. Some local guy came out and called the cops and an ambulance, the ambulance took forever. Meanwhile the guy's daughter showed up, I guess she was going to visit her dad and see how he was doing. She saw his scooter in the road and starting yelling at him for being riding the scooter when he knows he can´t be driving anymore. He was planning on going to Santiago, about 20 minutes on a highway, on his scooter. Long story short we had to go to the police department and give a testimony and arrived 2 hours late to school. What a pain, and what are the chances. I have now had a variety of unlucky experiences in Spain, but my goodness they make for good stories.

 

Igrexa (the old church in Rois)

Once we arrived at the school all was well, I met the teachers and some of the students. I am so excited to start work and feel so lucky that I have been assigned to this school. It is in the middle of nowhere. I will have to take a bus to a different town and from there get a ride to the school from a teacher. But the area is beautiful.

Rois (a block from Main Street, across from the church)

 

Main Street (there are few cafes and a pharmacy as well)

 

View from the school (no picture of the school yet, there were kids playing out front and I wasn't sure if it was ok to take a picture, most likely it's fine because hey, this is Spain)

 

Tonight is the inauguration party of our flat and we doing it in typical Mexican style, fajitas and tequila. I am looking forward to my year in Spain and getting to know Santiago better.

 

My new address is:

Tiffany Hippe

Rúa de Alfredo Brañas No 27, 2B

Santiago de Compostela

A Coruña 15701

España

 

And there is still more than enough room for visitors here, our new couch folds out into a bed. 

Besos.

La crisis: Robbed Spanish Style

I wanted to take a moment to update everyone on my current situation, though do not worry as you read this because I am fine now. My first flat was a fail. As it turns out the guy who I rented from had no right to rent out the room. I found this out on the third day in the flat. Alex, the other guy who moved in the day after me, and I got a visit from the landlady. A very angry visit. She showed up at the door spouting off angry Spanish looking for Adrian, the guy who we rented from. She said she had been calling trying to reach him as he had been avoiding her, I assume he never paid his rent, and that she wanted to see him right away. Alex said that Adrian had left and that we were living there now. This did not help matters. She informed us that Adrian had no right to allow us to live there and that everything had to go through her, and that she had never received our money that we were told she had received. She said we could stay if we signed the lease with her and etc. After she left Alex and I talked, mainly about how stupid we felt for not having doubted that Adrian was anything less than honest. I saw no difference in the way he rented his room than how I rented rooms in Boise, my roommates almost never met their landlords, I was the middle man and took their money, gave them leases to sign and that was that. Alex said the same thing, there was nothing that made him feel like Adrian was going to be robbing us.
This brings us to Diego. Diego already lived in the flat and was roommates with Adrian. He was there when I went to look at the flat and knew that I was going to move in. On my second day he asked me for my deposit and half the month´s rent. I told him Adrian had it (Diego was gone over the weekend and I just assumed him and Adrian hadn´t met up yet) Diego said no problem, he went to call Adrian.
This problem would not be a real issue if I had decided that I wanted to stay in the flat. The landlady had said that I could and she knew Alex and I had been robbed equally as her. Not our fault. The problem is this, the flat turns out to be infested with fleas. Yeah. I don´t think I itched this much when I had the chicken pox. I thought that I got them from the hostel as that can easily happen, but when I woke up to new bites on my face yesterday I knew it was from my lovely new flat. Damn. I was lucky though, I also woke up to an email from Isabel.
Isabel is my new boss. She was welcoming me to Santiago and said she wanted to do whatever she could to help make my time in Spain perfect. I am sure she did not expect the email she got back. Last night she came and got me from my flat. She spoke to Diego and it went more or less like this:
-Hey, you rented this room illegally to Tiffany didn´t you?
-Excuse me? No...I mean we are going to do a lease switch with the landlady...
-The landlady came last night and was furious with you and Adrian, she didn´t know that you were doing this. How is that legal?
-Bueno...pues...nada....she needs to be smarter and realize that she was getting robbed by Adrian, I´m an honest guy and had nothing to do with it, Adrian robbed me too. He won´t answer his phone and I can´t the money from him.
It went like this for awhile, Diego was hurt that I was leaving and said that the reason I didn´t feel comfortable there was because I didn´t even try to be his friend and spent too much time in my room (I lived there 3 days and he was gone 2 of these days, the 3rd day I moved out...) I can´t know for sure whether or not Diego had anything to with this, but I am obviously not the only who needs to ´be smarter' as Diego said he was robbed too. And Alex was robbed. And the landlady. Adrian fooled us all and that´s that. Isabel said that situations like this have become more common since the crisis. People can´t pay thier rent and they do illegal transactions and disappear. She brought me to her home and I am staying here until I find a different place, tonight I am going to a flat of a girl that she knows.
Overall I am lucky that I have spent this much time abroad in my life, studying, traveling, living, and I have never been robbed. It was bound to happen eventually. And it definately could´ve been worse. I consider this a lesson learned. And I fully appreciate the miracle of hydrocortisone cream and a well timed email.
I will get this Spanish lifestyle down sooner or later. 

Moving: The final step

Welcome to Santiago de Compostela! Where did you start the camino? Santiago de Compostela, from here on out to be referred to as SC, is a city constructed around the cathedral that was in turn constructed to house the remains of Saint James, one of the apostle's of Jesus. I arrived here on Wednesday morning after taking the night train out of El Escorial and checked into my hostel. From that point on I began looking at apartments. Apartment hunting in Spain is without a doubt the oddest experience ever. Every place I checked offered to let me stay the night to test drive it, or asked if I wanted to move in that night. I only met one landlord. After visiting about 10 apartments I picked one. I moved in last night, Saturday night, and spent the night and this morning cleaning. I will be living with two people, maybe both guys, maybe one guy and one girl. I am not sure as I met with so many people that I can't remember which apartment said which. I do know that one of my roommates is new here too, he just showed up, and the other will be here tomorrow or maybe tonight (this is a college city and most of the students go home to their families for the weekends). The lack of knowledge that I have about my new apartment is equal to the lack of information I have about my new job. It's exhausting to not really know anything about my next year here, but it's also pretty typical for Spain to so laid back. Needless to say it will take me a little bit of time to readjust to having no really solid set of directions.

Entry way

Kitchen

 

Living Room, complete with Rock Band, hey 2007...

 My room is on the left, it's too messy for a picture right now, the stores are closed so I don't have hangers, just a mess.

 

Clothes lines in between the buildings, lots of failed hangings. This is my lovely view, it will be yours too if you come to visit.

 Bathroom and in typical European fashion, a bidet is including for my hygienic convenience.

View from the living room, this is a 'busy' street, but there are tress lining it so you can't really see it.

Overall I am pleased with my living situation, but it has only been a day and have said hi to one roommate. On the plus side I am on a month to month lease so if things are not ideal I have the option to leave at any time. If you want to see the area or send a postcard (which I love) my address is:

Avenida de Lugo No 265, 2i

Santiago de Compostela, La Coruna 15703

Spain

Tomorrow I have t go back to the police station for part two of getting my NIE, my national identification number that will allow me to stay for a year in Spain. The city is absolutely beautiful and I look forward to getting to know it better over the next couple of weeks before work starts. 

P.S. My room is large and I have an extra mattress. I expect visitors year round.

Round Two

 

So here I go, Spain: Round Two. After a summer full of all things Boise I am back in Spain and it almost feels like I never left. I flew out of Boise on Saturday, then to Minneapolis, on to Amsterdam (where they sell cheese wheels, giant bags of chocolate and tulip bulbs in the airport) and finally to Madrid. I was very lucky in Madrid, Esther was already at the airport picking up their new Au Pair who arrived an hour before me, so I got a lift into San Lorenzo de El Escorial. The town is exactly as I remember it, and after an evening spent at Esther's house I stand by my decision to go for the summer. I have been staying at Susana's house for the past couple of days and couldn't be more happy. This family is fabulous, they go out of their way to make me feel welcome in their home even though I am only passing through. Monday was spent in Segovia blackberry picking. The scenery was beautiful, the company was ideal and the berries were delicious. Jara and Ana grew so much over the summer, as did Susana who is expecting their third child in November. I am convinced that it would be hard to come by a welcoming family in all of Spain.

This morning Felipe took me to the train station and helped me get my train tickets to Santiago de Compostela, and tonight after they feed me dinner they are taking me to the station. I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to get to know this family and look forward to returning to visit and meet the new baby. This afternoon I am meeting with Dario to catch up for a bit before I leave. I am anxious to get to Santiago de Compostela and see my new home. I do not have a place to live but hope to have an apartment by next week, then I can simply settle in and explore the city before work starts. I would love to update everyone on my job, but I have no new details. Typical.