So after saying goodbye to my blog for my time in Spain last
June, today I’m officially reopening this metaphoric and literal “chapter” of
my life. In other words, I’M BACK.
When I got home to Virginia in June, I was so happy to see
my family and friends and to eat all of the American food I had missed. The goodbyes in Navalmoral were hard (just go
back a few entries), but I thought I had made peace with them. Wrong. Though it was nice to be back home, I
couldn’t stand being away from Spain. I
missed everyone and everything there. I was again (like after study abroad)
that annoying girl who started every sentence with, “Well in Spain…” I needed to go back.
I spent basically my entire summer staying up all hours of
the night researching how I could possibly go back to Navalmoral. An English academy in the town eventually
wanted to hire me and after what seems like hundreds of hours of work, figuring
out how I could get a visa, I got all of my paperwork together and headed to
the embassy. The academy wanted me to
start work October 1st. I
applied for my visa September 10th. They say it takes between 4-6
weeks to process. Things did not look promising.
I spent the next 14 days constantly looking up the USPS
tracking number on the prepaid envelope I had turned in with the visa. At exactly 12.01am on the 15th
day, the USPS website told me the envelope was “in transit.” That next day, at 12.30 in the afternoon, the
postman rang my doorbell. My visa had
arrived after only about 2 weeks! By 1.00pm, I had bought my plane ticket for
the next day. After all, I was going to
start work in less than one week.
My last 24 hours stateside were spent eating my final sushi
meal, packing, freaking out, packing more, freaking out some more, and cramming
in as many goodbyes as I could. At 11.00am the next day, I was in the car with
my dad to the airport. We grabbed some
lunch and a pre-flight beer, then I was on my own.
The journey was uneventful.
I flew through JFK to Barajas and while I didn’t sleep much, when we
landed, I couldn’t have been more awake.
If walking through the Madrid airport and collecting my luggage wasn’t
surreal enough, taking the CercanÃas to the bus station and getting on a bus to
Navalmoral seemed almost impossible. I did sleep a little on the bus ride, but
woke up with plenty of time to anticipate my big return “home.”
At the station, Mamen (roommate last year) and a mother of
kids I used to teach both met me. After
some huge hugs and besos, the mother took my bags and me to my new apartment
(she’s also the relator). Whitney, my
roommate this year (an American who taught in Navalmoral two years ago and
became a great friend last year during her visits back), was away until the
next day at an orientation for the official program (that I’m not a part of
this year), so I had time to settle in by myself. After a nice hot shower, I ate lunch with the
relator lady and her kids, visited with Mamen in my former apartment (weird),
and took an amazing siesta before meeting up with some of the old gang for
dinner at my favorite restaurant. It was as if I had never left. The next day,
I made my first Mercadona visit of the year, used a friend’s internet to
reconnect to the world (until we get our own in the apartment), unpacked a lot,
then took a (yes, another) siesta.
I was awoken from my sleep when my phone rang. It was Whitney, asking me where I was. I said, “Um, in the apartment.” She said,
“What??” and hung up. Then I heard her…she was there too! I guess I had been in
some deep REM. We had a great reunion,
caught up on each others’ lives, then later, I went to the academy I’ll be
working at so I could get familiar with it and some of the people there (I also
went there the next day to meet the directors). I’m really excited about it and
think I’ll really like working there.
After I got back from the academy, it was time to get ready
for the evening, as it was the start of SAN MIGUEL 2012!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment