Mi barrio!

Hola!

So I have been here for a little over a week now, and although I still don’t have Internet in my apartment, I am finally starting to feel quite a bit settled in. This is only the second weekend that I am here, but already it is striking how quiet weekend mornings are. Considering how hard Spaniards party (relative to us conservative, Puritan Americans, anyway) I don’t blame everyone for sleeping in so late. I wanted to wake up early this morning to drink my coffee and enjoy the peace while I could J

My neighborhood is never really to crazy, anyway. Yesterday was one week since I had moved into my apartment, and since then I have had enough time to realize that the only people who live in my ’hood are really old people and families with little kids. It’s a quiet and peaceful area to live, and I already love it very much. The best things about living in the part of town is that: a) if I want to go out and be around people my own age, like I did Thursday night, the plaza is only a 20 minute walk from my house; and b) there are absolutely no Americans in my area, so I am forced to speak Spanish all the time here.

Also, I have started meeting my neighbors! Juancal is the older woman who lives next door. She teaches flamenco on guitar and flamenco dance, and she told me anytime if I were interested in learning she would teach me. She also told me if I needed anything at all that I could come knock on her door, because we are, after all, neighbors aren’t we? I have probably said this before and I will probably say it again, but no matter how blunt the people can be here, they are truly wonderful and caring as a whole.

There is a bocci ball court that is literally in front of my apartment. I don’t really know the rules for it or anything, but I think it is some kind of Italian ball game. Either way, the old men in my neighborhood LOVE it. I swear to you that they are out there on the court playing from 12pm through 6 or 7pm every single day. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, the weather is pretty perfect so I don’t blame them for playing so much, but it just cracks me up to see these little hunched over, silver-haired men with canes playing this game for HOURS. I couldn’t help myself and I had to take a picture of them to share with y’all.

There were also some people sitting right outside of my window with their guitars playing and singing flamenco, so while I made myself dinner I opened my windows and shut off my own music so I could take theirs in.

After dinner I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood and take some pictures so that all of you could take a peek at the lovely place that I will be calling “home” for the next nine months.

My front door!

Side view of my apartment where the windows are.

The picadillo I made myself for dinner last night :)

The bar next door to my apartment where all the old men go to watch fútbol.

The medical office where I can go if I get sick. Good news is that it is only a 5 second walk from my apartment.

The road on the way to my favorite grocery store.

Aaaand on the way back (My apartment is on the top of a hill. It is very hilly here).

Panoramic view of my street. On the very right is where Juancal lives.

More updates to come! And as a side note, I have been dying to skype with many of you who are reading this right now. I promise, promise this is going to happen as soon as I get Internet in my apartment. It is really hard to skype from McDonalds, and it is hard to be more flexible in when I can skype. I have to have my residency card before any company will give me any kind of Internet service contract, and also I will know my teaching schedule on Monday! All this to say, I haven’t forgotten about any of you! I miss you all and think about y’all daily.

xoxoxo