Not all who wander are lost... but some are.

So last Wednesday we didn't have school because of a holiday, so I went with two other auxiliares to a town called Segovia. (Sidenote: Mark Zuckerburg is a genius. I posted in the auxiliares facebook group, "Hey, does anyone want to go anywhere tomorrow?" and literally within an hour I had made plans. So thanks MZuck!) We met at the bus station around 11am and took the 1.5hr ride north to Segovia for about $10. Segovia is a town most famous for its Roman aqueduct...

...because the thing is huge! Down at the bottom you can see the military ceremony that was going on (I'm assuming that has to do with the holiday). From the aqueduct we wandered around the whole town. I had heard before that Segovia is home to the castle that inspired the castle from Beauty and the Beast, so I knew I wanted to see that. But before we found the castle, we found a cathedral that looks like a castle!

Pretty! But not a castle. So we kept wandering. All the little streets reminded me a lot of the ones in Assisi - just so little and cute! We eventually found the castle (which is actually a reconstruction because the first one burned down) but it cost money to get inside, so we just sat outside and looked at it for a while. 

Time well spent, I say. We wandered back another way by taking a road we hadn't taken yet, and found a little cafe to eat tapas at -- pan, chorizo, and tortilla de patatas. Lovely! After lunch we went back to the aqueduct and followed that up the other hill until it ended. It's amazing how humongous this thing is! From there we wandered around until we stumbled upon the bus station and figured it must be time to go back. Perfect! I got back home around 6:30 (I think) so it was a short little daytrip, but super cool!

Now, all this wandering nonsense I'm throwing at you. ¿Por qué? Well, they say, "Not all who wander are lost", yes? So, using my mathematical logic (thanks UofM), that must mean that there is at least one who wanders that is indeed lost. Yes?

Yes. And that one happened to be me last Thursday. It was my first day babysitting for a family who lives about a 10-minute walk from my piso. (Another sidenote: Why are all 6- and 7-year-olds so insanely good at Memory??) It's basically a straight shot down a main road. Super easy. Why bring a map with me? That would be silly and would unnecessarily take up space! So I left their piso (sans map), and began walking. I had my FBHW podcast going and was giggling (not discreetly, no doubt) to myself when I saw a Gucci store. A Gucci store? There is not a Gucci store by my piso. That's when I looked at the time and realized I had been walking for a good 20 minutes. Hmm. But in what direction? Lots of things passed through my mind: Did I pass my street? WTH, I'm not even on the right street! Baaahhh! Where am I??? Well, at least I'm by a Gucci and not some crackhouse. I usually feel like I have a generally good sense of direction, so this was a completely new emotion. Utter panic set in. I really had no idea where I was. And it was dark out. But, again, I wasn't by a crackhouse (I think), so it's all good.

If you don't know anything about Madrid, at least know that the metro system is super well-connected. Sometimes you'll find different metro stations with 3-4 blocks of each other. I, in fact have 2 stations both within 3 blocks of my piso. So. What's the obvious thing to do? Ask someone where the closest metro station is, of course! The first THREE people I asked were like, "I don't know, I never use the metro." Seriously??? Gaahh!! Gucci shoppers!!! Too fancy shmancy for the metro!! I finally found a guy who told me I was basically nowhere near any metro station at all, but he was kind enough to point me in the right direction. Annnnd I finally made it home, an hour later than I was shooting for. Oh well! But at least I wasn't abducted by those crazy Gucci shoppers.

Piso, Strikes, and Museums, oh my!

So I've been meaning to write for a while, really! Like, I'll be walking down the street thinking "I should blog about what just happened today!" and then I'll tell my parents on skype or I'll write a facebook message to mis amigas, and I forget all about blogging it. Womp womp!

But anyways, here's what's been going on en mi vida!

I moved into my piso! Woo! I was camping out in a teeny room in the back for 5 nights until I could move into my real room on October 1. It is not an exaggeration to say that this room is literally smaller than the bathroom...

because the bathroom is huge! This is just a small taste of it.

Well I've finally moved into my new room and it's nice to have officially unpacked! I have two huge closets, lots of shelf space, a desk, and a bed! Yay!

It is now "slightly" messier than this, but you get the general idea. I also bought a cheap poster frame from the corner store so I have lots of pictures up on the wall above my bed. So I get to see all of your smiling faces every day!

In my piso I live with four other girls who are studying in Madrid: two other American girls, a Spanish girl, and an Italian girl. I've expressed this many times before, but I forget to whom I've expressed it, so I shall repeat it. Whenever I'm talking to the Italian girl and I don't understand her, I never know if it's because it's the Spanish I don't get or if she's just talking in Italian. The other day she asked me a question and I had no clue what she said, and after my quizzical look, she said "Oh!! Perdón, perdón!! Mio italiano!!!" So she is speaking in Italian!!! It is fun though because there are always people of different nationalities visiting so I've met tons of people I probably wouldn't have otherwise! Yay!

Let's seeeee. I was supposed to start working on Monday this week, but I had my NIE appointment (the appointment to get my residency card here, thus making me legal) on Monday and couldn't go. So then I was going to start Tuesday, and even though the coordinator at the school said there was a teacher strike on Tuesday, at orientation they told us all to still go unless you have direct permission from the headmaster. I woke up at 6:45 (by far the earliest I have woken up here) to take a metro and two trains to San Martín de la Vega (where one of my schools is located), and when I got there the headmaster was like, "There's a strike. Didn't you know?" So they told me to go home. Womp womp. The trains only leave every hour or so, so I had some time to kill on the platform.

The teacher strike continued through Wednesday and I finally went to school yesterday... but there was a student strike. So one class had 11 students, the next had 1, and the next had 0 so then they sent me home! The school I went to yesterday is a bilingual institute so many of the students have been taught in English for years, and even though many of them had pretty thick accents, I was still really impressed by their English. In the first class, all the students were 11-12 years old and they just asked me basic questions about who I am, where I'm from, do I have any pets, what sports do I like, yadda yadda. I asked them questions too, and got quite the variety of answers when I asked about the music they like. For example, one teeny little 11 year old girl answered, "I like Shakira. And Slipnot." Whhaaaa??

I have met TONS of other auxiliares (that's our official title) thanks to facebook. There are literally over 1400 of us in the greater Madrid area, so people are always posting things like "Hey, I'm going over to the park if anyone wants to join." or "Hey, there's a band playing at this bar tonight. Everyone should come." Someone posted about going to El Museo de Reina Sofía on Wednesday, and I'll be honest, I was a bit skeptical. I'm not the biggest art fan in the world, and after drudging through El Prado (sorry, portraits of old people I don't know is not fun to me) I wasn't sure if I wanted to go. But it was lots more interesting! Yay! Annnnd I got to see art by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. Not just like one painting here and there, but they had whole rooms dedicated to each of them. Awesome! The only thing that would have made the trip better would be complementary wine to sip on while perusing.

Speaking of wine, there is a bebida here called Tinto de Verano, which is basically sangria with lemon Fanta. BEST. THING. EVER.

And it comes in two-liter bottles!!! Shweet!!

I'm hoping to take some day trips out of Madrid in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned!! And if you have any suggestions of where to go, I'm all ears because I really have no clue and I'm relying on information from everyone else/facebook/spanish tourist websites.

P.S. Yesterday I learned the phrase for "I'm awkward": "soy patoso/a". Not like that would be a phrase that would come in handy or anything.