spain...at last

I finally made it here after a good 28 hour trip, plus a 9 hour jump ahead in time. Getting sleep was limited on the plane, kinda hard to do when you’re sitting up, but I managed a few hours here and there. My first flight to LA was on a tiny plane that I couldn’t even stand up without hitting my head. Guess my nickname Treetops (courtesy of my brother) is pretty accurate eh? Yeah, I know you’re all laughing at me, but there was another lady that was at least like 7 feet, no joke. So we were in it together! I then flew to Atlanta and then to Dublin.

So I decided to double check my weight limit for RyanAir (my plane from Dublin to Almería) one last time and realized that it wasn’t just 15 kg, but 15 total!! For both bags! That is only about 33 pounds. So I only ended up taking one bag, which I had to repack at midnight the night before I left. Good thing I realized that beforehand though, otherwise I would have had to pay like $450 for being over weight. I still had to pay a little and my dad will send me me other bag. Looks like I'll be without for a couple of weeks though.

I had about a 7 hour delay in Dublin and wanted to go out and see the city, but I ended up not doing so (sorry Jessica and Jimmer) for three reasons: 1) the airport was a zoo, 2) I’m cheap and didn’t want to spend the money (expensive to leave luggage), and 3) I had already seen most of the city before. So I took the opportunity to work on my Anatomy labs. Then, I met this guy, Bart, from Poland and we talked on and off for a while. He didn’t know too much English, but we got by. It was nice to have someone to wait with for a couple hours though. I don’t think that he understood my reason for leaving when I finally had to go check in. He was like, “Wait, what is happening?” I felt bad to leave him, my new friend!

After my many hours of traveling and sitting for so long, my ankles don’t exist anymore. Aaah! It looks like I have elephant feet, but the swelling should go down within a couple of days. Then my back feels broken from lugging my backpack all over, but no worries! The joys of traveling!

I took a taxi from the airport in Almería to my apartment, but when I got there, no one was there! My roommate, Mercedes, came just after a few minutes of waiting outside. The apartment is really nice! The city is really old and therefore many of the apartments are old, but mine is fairly new. I actually live on the outskirts of the city, closer to Nueva Almería. I think I really lucked out with my apt. with just randomly picking it. Plus, the neighborhood I live in is really good, compared to the others. Here is some pictures of the kitchen and living room to give you an idea. My other roommate is Yoli, who is 18 (young enough to be my student), but I really like her too! I have no complaints about the apartment except one – my bed is super squeaky!!! Maybe I’ll have to bounce all the squeaks out! haha! The best part is that I can get wireless Internet from my room! This is the outside of my apartment building. I live on the third floor, which many of you know is actually the fourth since Spain counts the second floor as the first.

Today I got all settled in with the few things I have (bummer) and then took a walking tour of the city. Mercedes drove me around this morning and showed me the grocery store, my school, the mall (H & M!!), the beach, and the university. So the beach isn’t that great, in fact it’s dirty in places, but hey, I’m not complaining. A beach is a beach! All I want is the sun and water and I’m happy! It's also a very short beach, from the walkway to the water. The beach is about 10 minutes walking from my apartment and then I walked all along the beach to the other end of the city and then back. The city is really old and most of the streets downtown are little one-way narrow streets. In fact, many of the cars have to park on the sidewalk! All of the sidewalks are tiled, literally (no stamping). And for those of you who don’t know much about Spain, all the stores are along the bottom of apartment buildings. There are no houses like in the U.S., but the closest you will find is like a bunch of duplexes hooked to each other such as these.

I also walked past the ferry to Morocco. I’m actually planning on going sometime this week. Ok, not really. It’s a joke Mom and Dad!! I do want to go though. It was interesting because everything on that side of the fence was in French: exit – sortie and bathrooms – toilette. I tried to get a good view of the Castle there at the other end of the city, but only got pieces of it such as these. It’s supposed to be the second biggest in Andalucía, next to the Alhambra in Granada. Close to the ferry dock is a port with lots of boats. There is a long, narrow park along the beach that runs the length of the main part of the city and I saw this building along side of it with lots of palm trees. It's my first new favorite building - I love architecture and the outside appearance of buildings!! It reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean, I'm not sure why.

Tomorrow I will call my school about working and hopefully start soon. Until then, I plan to go to the beach a couple of times! The weather is really nice – upper seventies I would guess, but there’s always wind since it’s right on the coast. I’m not too fond of it, but I’ll get used to it. Everything is really close and I can walk just about everywhere. I was even thinking that I wouldn’t have to get a bus pass, but church is the farthest away so I’ll get one anyway. Oh, I also love the fact that there are mountains around. Couldn't do without that...

Hope you enjoy the pictures!! If you have any questions, please ask – I never know what to write…

I almost forgot the BEST part...I found a couple of döner kebab places! Now I know for sure that I'm in the right place! Can't wait to sink my teeth into one those delicious things! Viva kebabs!