Making Progress

This is a program to test your patience.

I applied in early November. I waited through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day in silence. April came, with rumors that first-year applicants would be receiving placements. Instead, we were told that Cataluña, Castilla la Mancha, and Valencia would be cancelling the program altogether, while Andalucía would reduce the number of acceptances by half. Amid this troubling news, coupled with Spain's banking crisis, I wondered if the whole auxiliares program would collapse altogether, leaving all my best laid plans for naught.

Thankfully, May brought good news. I had been accepted to the Comunidad de Madrid. For those unaware, the program assigns hopeful language assistants to an autonomous community, at which point we can choose to accept or decline said placement. At this point, we don't know what city they will send us to.

I'll be somewhere in that red squiggly line

As a future madrileña, this generally means that I will live in the city of Madrid and likely commute to my assigned school. Madrid's central location and well-connected public transit network makes it ideal for travel.

In comparison, those placed in Andalucía would be much more uncertain regarding their future living situation.

So many options!

Nevertheless, as a planner by nature, I like to do my research. After a year of planning and waiting and hoping, I am eager to start looking at apartments and figuring out what neighborhoods would best suit my commute.

Finally, on Wednesday, I received my carta de nombramiento, stating my school name and location. I now have a physical address and a website to confirm that this is really happening and a position in Spain exists for me. Even better, I'm located in the actual city of Madrid.



View Calle de Adanero, 3 in a larger map
The school's website

Admittedly, things are still moving slower than I'd like. My visa appointment is not until July 27 (there were no earlier openings), and I am advised against purchasing plane tickets until the visa has been approved. With three months until my intended departure, I had hoped to have a more finalized itinerary. Nevertheless, I'm slowly making progress.

To whet your appetite

I'll spare the long-winded introduction. From Made in Spain, highlighting Madrid's cultural and culinary achievements. I watched both episodes before my first trip to Madrid in January 2011. ¡Que aproveche!

Watch A Cultural and Culinary Capital on PBS. See more from Made in Spain.

Watch The Sweet Spanish Center on PBS. See more from Made in Spain.

Adventures at Home

A travel blog without the travel is admittedly not the most interesting. Some days I think, "It's been a week, I should probably post something to get into the habit of this 'blog' nonsense." Then I remember that all I've done thus far is sit around the house watching TV and playing with my cat.

To be fair, he's a really cute cat

At the moment, I'm stuck in limbo. For the past year, I've been planning for a life that has yet to come to fruition. I have been slowly gathering documents and making appointments and checking off boxes in preparation for the big move to Madrid. I am waiting for the next step, for the next stage of my life to begin. Come September I will be heading across the Atlantic, moving in with my boyfriend after a year of long-distance, and starting a new job. It's no small feat. But it in the meantime, I am living with my parents, with no job and no social life.

With an abundance of free time and an absence of money, I started running. Perhaps running isn't the right word. I lumbered along in some imitation of a jog. Nevertheless, it was the easiest way of getting out of the house without a specific destination, and only required a pair of shoes. I followed the Couch to 5k program, and eventually improved to the point where I could run 30 minutes non-stop. I decided to reward myself by signing up for an actual 5k race.

It's worth noting, for those unaware of my personality, that sports and I mix like oil and water. I avoided organized physical activity as a child and throughout my teenage years, opting instead for the drama club and academic decathlon. Running so much as a mile resulted in side-stitches and shame.

But for some reason my twenty-three year old self thought that willingly waking up at 5:00 am on a Saturday to run 3.1 miles sounds like a grand ol' time. 

Look at all that fun

What does this all have to do with Spain? I could draw a parallel and write about perseverance, and the rewards of stepping out of your comfort zone. While this is all true, I mostly just want to brag about running five kilometers and not dying.

Whoo!