The work week is almost over with, it is Wednesday!
Monday I was supposed to meet the girl that is teaching with me at my school in Cartaya. I was running behind with my roommate Jen to the bus station and arrived just in time for the 12 o’clock bus… as it pulled away. Next to the empty space of where the bus used to be was another with a sign that said Cartaya, too. The driver told us that the other bus was going straight there and that his had a lot of stops before getting to Cartaya. We of course, didn’t really understand what he said until we were on the bus and realizing we were headed for the beach. Instead of a 25 min bus ride it took us almost an hour to get to our town. I called the girl was I supposed to meet, Sara, and she said she was still stuck in the office trying to get her NIE, the ID that allows you to get a bank account to get paid over here. That was terrible news because she had been there since 7:30AM and it was now past 12PM. I was dreading going to get mine the next day.
Anywho, the bus driver hollered back to us to get off the bus after over 50 mins of the stop and go. We walked on to the sidewalk of a very small, one street town. Welcome to the pueblo. We quickly realized after pulling up Google maps, thank goodness for iPhones, that our schools were in opposite directions. Instead of breaking off we decided to venture together for our first days. After getting a little lost we found my school.
The 800 students of my school were out for a fiesta, of course, so it was basically a teacher work day. I met with my coordinator who turned out to be one of the nicest people I have ever met. I am just blown away by her generosity and kindness. She taught at Michigan State for a year and knew what it was like to be displaced and far from home. She said living with other Americans was good for the heart, but not good for learning Spanish. I completely agreed, happily. We discussed what I would like to teach and what I feel comfortable with, and we chose for me to teach older students in the elementary school. I met the headmaster who was a funny guy that could not for the life of him pronounce my name! Oh here we go, no one will be able to. After our brief meeting, Maria, my coordinator, volunteered to drive us to Jen’s school and introduce her to the faculty. How nice! After hanging out at her school for a while Maria even drove us to the bus station. Jen and I waited an hour for the bus and finally made our way home.
On Tuesday Sarah, Jen, and I woke up super early and went to the office in town to get our NIE’s. at 7:30 we were at the door waiting and by 10 we were done. It was such a quick an easy process. Nothing like all the horror stories we had heard. The man who processed my paperwork was so funny and friendly. When he saw the horrible and silly face I had made for my identification card, he had a good laugh. Thank goodness I got someone with a sense of humor or else I might have been forced to go take another picture.
When we finished getting our temporary cards we tried to go get a bank account. Two banks told us that we couldn’t get an account without having the official card, which would take 45 days to get. So you are telling me that I can’t get paid for another 45 days? I can’t afford that! We were hoping that the orientation that night would have answers.
They did. Execpt all of their answers were in Spanish. The whole thing was in Spanish. For 4 hours we sat through an entire discussion that I could not catch half of. We got the necessary papers and bolted to go grab some Cruzcampo, the local beer, and dinner. We went to our usual café right next to the hotel we stayed at so we could once again mooch off their wifi. We have become regulars. We stayed out pretty late and headed home for our official first day of school in the morning.
And today, Wednesday, was a transportation nightmare. Sarah had to take a taxi out to her school because no buses were scheduled to leave Huelva at the time she needed to. I arrived at the bus station to take the 12 o’clock bus but behold, there was no bus. The screen did not show a bus going to Cartaya until 2! I went to the window and asked the woman for the bus schedule for Cartaya. And there in print it said 12…. So where is it? I called my coordinator in a panic and of course the sweet woman said that hard times will be like this in the beginning but it will work itself out. Looks like I got the day off, bummer.
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