Day 1: Arrival in Spain!

Well, I made it!

Yes, after setting my alarm for a rather nightmarish 3:50am this morning (!), catching a ride with my bleary-eyed beloved to Luton airport, a 2.5hour flight to Malaga and a bus ride, I made it to Lucena! 

I arrived to a pristine blue sky and pleasantly warm January sun at 12:45 local time. I was met at the bus station by Alice and Hazel, two teachers from the school, whose flat I'm staying in and I'll be taking Alice's room (and teaching duties!) when she leaves next week. We wandered back to the flat (under 10 minutes' walk from the bus station - Lucena seems pleasantly compact!) and Alice showed me around. It's a typically Spanish flat - marble floors, juliet balcony and a little private terrace in the back - but is perfect for two of us, and I can't believe how cheap the rent is considering the great condition the place is in! Alice showed me my future bedroom - a lovely-sized double, with a door onto the roof terrace and its own en-suite bathroom! The highlight of the flat for me so far has to be the waterfall shower that my bathroom comes with - just what I needed to wash away the day's travelling! Photos to follow!

We then chilled out in the living room and got to know each other a bit. Alice loves her job here but has decided to leave to go travelling around South America with a friend - I'm not jealous at all! It was reassuring to hear that she had great things to say about the kids I'll be teaching. Apparently some of the 7-year-olds can be challenging (the range of ages I'll be teaching is apparently 5-11 years - more of a spectrum than I was expecting!), but she says that the lessons are always great fun and very enjoyable. Hazel (my flatmate-to-be) teaches very young kids - 4 to 5 years old - as well as an adult class, and says she enjoys teaching the children much more than the adults, as you don't have to explain grammar! I admitted that I am a bit of a grammar geek, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue for me! 

Alice was heading to the school to plan her afternoon's lessons, so I walked with her to get my bearings and check out the school. It's under a 10-minute walk away - there seems to be a theme emerging here! - and is on the first floor of a building in the middle of a central street, just opposite one of the town's main squares. I was greeted by Bridget and Bijan, two of the other teachers from the school - everyone is really nice! We chatted for a bit and got to know each other, and Alice showed me what will be my very own classroom (with the children's work on the walls and everything!) before I left Alice and the others to plan their lessons for this afternoon. Alice gave me a map and her keys to the flat and off I went!

....It was then that I realised that I hadn't actually checked the street number of the flat with Alice, and I don't yet have anyone's mobile numbers! Undeterred, I wandered back to the area she'd marked on the map, and casually walked up and down the street a few times, trying to spot a door I recognised...! I was about to head back to the school to sheepishly ask which number the flat was, when I checked the map again and realised that the 'X' was actually pointing to a side street, not the main road. So I tried the first door and, lo and behold, it was the one! Phew!!

I then went and found the local supermarket (Mercadona - I remember it fondly from my days in Barcelona!) and enjoyed browsing the Spanish toiletries and impressive selections of fruit, veg and chorizo! By this point I was ravenous, however, so I grabbed a few ingredients for a chorizo baguette and headed back to the flat. After scoffing my very late lunch, I treated myself to a glorious shower in an attempt to wake up! (I'm still avoiding taking a siesta as I'm not sure I'd wake up until the morning if I went to sleep now! Although the shops are all closed between 2 and 5pm, even at this time of year...) I then managed to connect my laptop to the flat's WiFi and here I am! 

The girls are both teaching until 9pm tonight, so I've been catching up with Quinny on Skype and relaxing a bit. I'm now going to meet Assieh, the director of the school (we haven't met yet - the closest we've got is a Skype video call so far!), and then the other teachers and I are going out to play bingo - apparently it's their standard Thursday night activity! Tomorrow I'll have some time to relax in the morning before observing Alice's classes in the afternoon/evening and possibly joining in! 

Lots of love to everyone - don't forget, my Skype username is nikkibix - feel free to give me a call on there or drop me an email! xxx