A Few Hours of Studying

I started meeting with my Spanish tutor on Monday.  For now, we're going to meet three times a week.  Yesterday, after another "eventful" trip to IKEA (it's a long and kind of frustrating story), I sat down and did my homework. 

studying during siesta

studying at dusk
chapter one only required one Kit Kat bar

Technically, I suppose I'm almost always studying.  When I count something, I try to count in Spanish.  When I spell something, I try and do it in Spanish.  When I'm assembling cheap furniture from IKEA, I'm memorizing vocabulary.  When I'm riding the metro, I'm working on vocab or listening to Spanish study cd's on my iPod.  When I'm grocery shopping, you get the idea :).

I'm pretty excited for the day when I can chat with people.  I didn't realize how many random conversations I had in the states with people while standing in line, store clerks, postal workers, or whoever until I realized that I can't do that as easily here.  Much less have a deep conversation.

It'll come.  And you can feel free to pray for us, if you would :).

Residency = Successfully Applied For

This week the four of us girls moved into our for real apartment at 7:30 pm-ish on Tuesday night.

Bright and early the next morning Nikki, Blake, Nick and I were headed to the airport to fly to Malaga and apply for residency.  Everything went really well throughout the application process, and we managed to have quite a few laughs in our sleep deprived state.

There may have even been some poetry about toast recited!  Too bad I don't remember how it went - sorry :).

Regardless, I thought you would like to see a little of what southern Spain looks like.

Snow capped mountains on the horizon

Turn around to see the Mediterranean on the horizon

Steep hike

Fat churros are a-stinkin'-mazing!

Fishing

And now I need to head to IKEA.  Hoping to get settled into my room before starting language study on Monday!

Pounding the Pavement/Stone = Sore Foot

Turns out I'm not quite used to walking everywhere yet, and I've been covering some ground over the course of the last three weeks.  Sadly enough, it aggravated the ankle I twisted last fall, so I'd appreciate some prayer for that.

Yesterday, I ventured into southwestern Malasaña to explore a bit.  Thought you would enjoy seeing the area also :).

Someone had painted this statue's face, which I found interesting.

I found a Mexican restaurant near this street.  Perhaps they have jalapeños?

Today it was obvious the foot could use some rest.  So after spending the morning at the apartment, I crossed the street and went to a cafe nearby.  Café Comercial was founded in 1887 and is full of charm.  We walk by it every time we venture into Malasaña and notice that it's usually pretty busy.  Ashley and Nikki spent some time there the other day, so I knew it was a good place to do some reading, studying, and journaling.

After selecting a spot, I ordered some water and a little jamón treat before getting out my journal.  Turns out that I was either given free chips, or they came with my snack.  I don't know, but they were a nice surprise :).

afternoon snack in a 124 year old restaurant

jamón and tomato on toast

journaling on a rainy Sunday in Madrid

As I was finishing up, Nikki and Erin joined me for some café con leche (coffee with milk).  We had a lovely chat, then walked back to the apartment.  All in all, it was a refreshing way to spend a Sunday afternoon :).

Sometimes You Just Need Some Heat

I think other than when I was an infant, this is the longest consecutive period of time that I've gone without eating something spicy.  Oh my goodness - I LOVE spicy food!  And I'm forcing myself to wait patiently until we move into our apartment to unpack my hot sauces from their protective bubble wrap and ziplock bags.

Sooo, tonight we had to go to Taco Bell!  Also, do you know how hard it is to find a jar of jalapeños in Madrid???

jalapeños!!!

Then we had to go get dessert.  I'm glad we're walking a lot or I'd be gaining some weight because the pastries here are a-mazing and pretty stinkin' cheap.  It's kind of a great way to get rid of the heavy change in one's purse, and is therefore good for my back :).  Anyways, enjoy the pics!

Makes you want to come visit doesn't it?

Calle de Espíritu Santo & Beyond

After meeting our landlord (who is a great guy) for coffee/tea, the four of us girls walked down to Calle de Espíritu Santo, which is really close to the apartment we'll hopefully be moving into on Sunday.  I've walked down this street a few times and am really excited to be living nearby!

Allow me to show you around :).

Calle de Espíritu Santo

I think I'll buy meat from this guy!

And chicken parts from this guy :)

Totally a great place to buy herb plants and flowers for our balcony.

Art in Malasaña

Look!  A pot for herbs!  For on our balcony!!  Yessss!!!

hardware/electronic/kitchen/clothing/everything else store

Might have to get this coffee cup for Ash.

Sarah!!  Look!  This is where you got the eclair on USB!  :)

Exercise equipment in Plaza de Dos de Mayo

And this is where I will buy Spanish books!
Um, when I can actually read Spanish books...

And there's tons of other stuff in this area too!  I've become a little bit footsore exploring around Malasaña, but it's so nice to have things start to look familiar.  There's really nothing like the realization of "Hey!!  I know this area!!" after turning lots of random corners and walking down (or up) lots of random streets.  It's pretty neat :).

Luggage Train

The Spain team guys helped us move, and we really appreciated it.  I think we owe them cookies or something once we move into a place with an oven.

I didn't get any pictures of our first trip because I was pretty focused on managing the luggage I was toting.  I only had one suitcase the second trip, so I managed to click the shutter a few more times.

Ash moving the groceries, her pillow, and Betsy through the city center.

Moving is exhausting :).

Waiting in the metro, tp secured.

Luggage train on the move.

And all that's left is the trip up the elevator!

So, thanks again to the guys for helping us and to Ryan and Jenee for storing our luggage for a few hours!

After everyone left, it was time to figure out how to start the hot water heater, get the router working so we'd have internet, and locate a grocery store.  Another hilarious, exhausting day on the books :).

Temporary Apartment # 2

Well, we got successfully moved!  What a day.  We had to be out of our last apartment by 11 am and check in for our new place wasn't (technically) until 3 pm.  So, we moved everything from our place to Ryan & Jenee's.

Once the first move was done, the four of us girls headed to the office of our second place to try and check in.  This was our first extended expedition into the Chueca neighborhood.  They did let us check in and gave us directions to the apartment.  So, we hiked up there.  We got into the building (Sagasta 7) and were promptly shooed away the the lady at the front desk.  She sent us to Sagasta 11.

The gentleman at the desk there promptly sent us up to the 7th floor, where we discovered our keys didn't work.  And we scared the lady living in the apartment we were trying to get into!  We tried the floor we thought we were supposed to be on, but then decided to call the rental office for help.

Where do we live??  We don't know!!

They told us to go back to the first place, and gave us some more specific instructions.

This time the lady let us in and we were able to get to the apartment!  We had some trouble with the lock, but our nice neighbor guy helped us.

In the elevator of our new apartment building!

tricky lock

Yay!  Shortly after exploring, an elderly lady knocked on our door.  She walked in and started chatting with us (in Spanish).  She walked through the living room and out on the patio, telling us all about it :).  I thought Nikki and Ashley handled this odd occurrence quite well.  I was just confused the whole time - is this typical?  After she left, we decided she probably just wanted some company :).

Ash and my room is just big enough for these two beds.

As Nikki is demonstrating, the kitchen is huge!

Our lovely animal skin rug.

living room

After touring the apartment and saying adios to our visitor, we grabbed some lunch and went to collect our bags.