Mis primeras dias en Valencia.

Hola!

Ahora vivo en Espana por 4 meses...y voy a escribir sobre mi vida aqui. My Spanish is NOT that good, and that has been ridiculously obvious as I stand blank faced in front of soooo many shopkeepers here. I keep telling myself that I won't always sound like such an idiot...

So, yes I am in Valencia for 4 months to intern as an English Teacher. I'm pretty stoked about the whole thing, and after today I feel a bit more relaxed about my "housing situation" (lol). Before arriving, I tried to find a homestay or something like that...and basically found nothing that worked, until I found a family on a homestay website (www.bedycasa.com) which worked well for me. The family actually existed, and they don't appear to be robbers or anything. :) Although the home is fine, and the family is nice, I don't feel super comfortable, so I actually went searching for apartments today....lol (lol because try looking for apartments when your Spanish is barely “fair”.

The Search: Randomly this girl at a hostel told me the website called www.valencia.loquo.com, and basically it is the Craig's list of Valencia. So, literally I emailed random people, and tried to call them from my skype number to arrange a time to see the different apartments. Today, I went to see one where I would be living with una chica colombiana y otras chicas...their apartment is located in the "foreign area" of Valencia. I found this area to be fascinating. Chinese, Arab, Colombians ect. live there and it seems cool...it ended up being a little far from the school I will be working at, and I wasn't sure about the safety of the area...so, I ended up finding another apartment. I called this guy up, and pieced together my words so I could ask him about the place, he ended up texting me (on my new phone!!! #622437592, but you have to dial (011) + 34 first.) Call anytime, cuz incoming calls are free :)Anyway, so I ended up really liking this place and I will be moving in next week when the time with the family is finished. I will be living with MILLIONS of people (not millions, but literally 10!), but it seems like loads of fun, and the people are from all over PLUS the rent is only 370 a month-everything included...for those of you who know how much I have been worrying about housing, you will know, this is a great find! (hopefully anyway :)

So, the last few days since my arrival on Thursday have been filled with orientations, amazing coffee and apartment hunting...I am glad to relax a little now, and maybe spend some time with the family that I am staying with.

I hope you all are doing well, and I will try to update this thing as much as I can :) Keep in touch as much as you can. Love you all.

-Vicki