Entre las Olas

Hola mis amores from my new white balcony overlooking the Mediterranean. So, as you can imagine, I love my new apartment. I was lucky enough to simply take a taxi from the Málaga bus station with my new taxi friend Mohammed (who told me I was the first person to spell his name correctly) to my new apartment. Mohammed and I had a grand conversation about his Muslim heritage and how he doesn't drink, as well his people's history in Andalucia (which I've already taken a class on). However, it was great to hear it form the horse's mouth I guess and that meant I only had to listen, which honestly sounded appealing in the traveling delirium I was still feeling on Tuesday. He also told me he doesn't like to have a lot of friends, although he gave me his phone number to call when I come into the city so he could help me around. Sorry Mohammed, I might not be hanging out with 5o year old men during my time in Spain, but it was a nice offer.

I arrived in Rincón de la Victoria, a small beach town just 10 minutes up the coast from Málaga, to the open arms of Liz Fischbach at our new place right on the sea. I can't explain to you how amazing it is. Right when I walk in the building the worn smell of an ocean resort greets me. It smells like Mexico to me actually. Crazy nights in Puerto Vallarta. Tile buildings with open-air doors and windows beckoning the ocean breeze all hours of the day. We have a perfect little balcony overlooking the sea that among many other things, is amazing to people watch from at this time of night, around 9, when all of the Spaniards are out and about at the seaside restaurants with their families. If you don't know, the Spanish clock functions differently than the American clock. Dinner is around 9 or 10 for these Mediterraneans, and it works perfectly with my schedule.

It has always been my dream to live on the ocean. I know that it is for a lot of people, but I'm just so naturally drawn to any form of water. It's amazing to wake up every morning to fresh ocean breeze (screw the Yankee Candle Co. "ocean breeze" candles) and look out our windows to the water as well as watch the amazing sunsets every night over the city of Málaga as the locals pass below us on the boardwalk with their families and lovers. I find myself smiling, a lot. I know, how horrible. It's just so nice enjoying the moment and being thankful for what I have and the opportunity that I've been given, and I really am thankful right now.

However, living on the beach has its drawbacks. Only one so far that is pretty powerful; laziness. It's hard to wake up in the morning and have things that you want to accomplish with the beach and the sea calling your name. I have found myself losing to them. I take a run in the morning down the coast to get my excercise in for the day, and then I'll jump in to cool off. I forgot how much I loved the taste of salt water on my lips. Later I find myself joining the other Spaniards I see from our windows and I lay on the beach for hours, accomplishing nothing aside from reading books and having good conversations. I can't complain. It's the Mediterranean, I swear. It has this power over you. I walk extremely slow, find myself saying we should take a break and tomar algo (literally "take something" that in Spain means to sit down and have a beer, glass of wine or coffee), and I swear I am craving olive oil like a pregnant woman craves ice cream and pickles. Then, of course, after the long hard day at the beach, I usually cook food for Liz and I (she does the dishes because we have an agreement) and we both find away to our beds for a siesta.

Basically, I'm in love with a body of water. I'll take the Mediterranean on La Costa del Sol. I just don't know how I'm ever going to live away from the sound of waves and the smell of fresh air from the sea throughout my day. I'm not going to worry about that right now though, it's not the Spanish way. Well, I'm off for tapas.

Until next time amigos,

Kenz

Adult Orientation

Hola a todos!

I am now safely at my apartment. I know, kind of sudden to be safe at home. So much has happened in the last two days through my delirium of travel and orientation, it literally boggles my mind. Not in an overwhelming way, just in a I can't believe it way. I'll start in chronological order from when I didn't know how I was going to get to my hotel from the airport...

Our organization had a bus waiting for us and I found out several people the program were on my same flight from Chicago to Madrid. Sadur helped me on my way and I even did a little running (I hate doing the "American I'm in a hurry run") to passport control. I had to go through security again but I was lucky enough to meet fellow teachers at my gate to Sevilla.

I arrived at our hotel in Sevilla to no room because, of course, I was the only person to have been not organized in the correct orientation group. No worries, story of my life. But I ended up getting a room after some confusing Spanish conversations with the front desk, and got an awesome roommate from Philadelphia named Carolyn. I took a shower that was

one of those out of body, sensual showers that changes your outlook on life. I swear, showers are powerful things. In this instance, after traveling for a full day, a shower and brushing my teeth changed my attitude and outlook. After cleaning myself up from looking like a traveling, cracked-out gypsy, I went down to orientation to the program with a short info session followed by a "cocktail hour" with Andalucian tapas and of course, plenty of wine.

The experience of "cocktail hour" to meet the fellow teachers throughout this region was extremely different from one that would have been at a study abroad initial fiesta. All of us in my practically one day orientation were required to have lived in Spain at one point through a past study abroad experience, and because of this, the awkward phase of people not wanting to introduce themselves or holding back was non-existent. It was so refreshing. Everyone was throwing themselves out there, really exchanging ideas and making themselves vulnerable. We all knew we would only have one or two nights to meet fellow Americans to connect with before all of us were shipped off to our respective cities to find housing and teach. It's amazing, as you grow older, you meet people and you know if you click with them or not instantaneously. Anyone who was super uptight about directions to locations in the city for info sessions or not genuinely interested in what I was saying may not be the best people for me attempt to form a close friendship with. Instead, I could spend time with the people that I felt that positive, trusting connection with. Don't get me wrong, I like talking to people who have different opinions and ideas, but I would rather attempt to really get to know a few real, genuine people I have similar interests and outlooks with than an entire room full of people.

After our 1.5 day orientation I navigated the the bus station from Sevilla to Málaga with Carolyn and another new friend, Karen. The bus ride to the city center of Málaga was awesome because I was laughing so hard with Carolyn and Karen that I was crying. I was so relieved that I had already met people I got along with and meshed with so well. Living in another country makes people form friendships and get close quickly because as much as I may see myself as a Spaniard, I'm not, I'm a foreigner. Foreigners need to stick together and lean on each other to get through cultural differences and feel at home sometimes. It's just amazing sometimes how fast you form those connections.

For the sake of organization for this blog, I'll cover the new place in the next blog, but I'll give you a little taste of our view from our balcony overlooking the Mediterranean tonight. Adios mis amores : ) Hasta luego...

Sudar from Milwaukee

I am posting my flight adventure below about the last 24 hours from my hotel room in Sevilla that I wrote on numerous buses and airplanes. I've included a picture of myself cracked out from no sleep in the last day. Enjoy. I don't know why I share this blackmail...

Well, all of the goodbyes have been said and endured. Saying goodbye is part of traveling and living abroad that is easily forgotten. Why NOT move across the world for a year to experience life and grow as an individual while drinking wine by the Mediterranean with one of your best friends every day? Well, because it's possible to sometimes miss people you care for. However, I can't help but feel like this is exactly where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing right now in my life.

Oh ya, I'm flying over the Atlantic Ocean right now. Can't sleep, despite the 3 small bottles of wine I have now consumed. The crappy "Prince of Persia" movie is finally over and I've switched my audio entertainment over to some techno music to psych myself up for the next 9 European months. It's kind of miraculous how gorgeous the stars up are up here at night. Sometimes I can see how being a pilot would be appealing. Flying through the clouds almost as close to the heavens as you humanly can get and being paid for it would be an amazing job. But if you know me, turbulence isn't my thing. So scratch that career path. However, the angry woman (I think because I reclined my seat, sorry, it's a nine hour flight) behind me keeps on turning on her light to read. I'm sorry lady, my long legs don't fit into the space designed for a Keebler Elf. Now, I'm a fan of literacy, but not when it ruins my view of the stars.

I had an interesting time with my seat assignments for each of my flights. I was lucky enough to convince the Iberian Airlines woman at my Chicago gate that I needed to be moved forward from row 50 on my flight (the last row). I only have an hour layover in Madrid in which I have to go through passport control and get to my gate before my next flight takes off. We'll see how that one goes. But I can't tell you how excited I was to arrive at my gate in Chicago with the buzz of Spanish all around me combined with the faces and presence of hundreds of Spaniards. I don't understand why I feel so comfortable around them but it felt like i reconnected with something that has been missing since I left Barcelona 2 years ago.

After the fiasco with getting a seat assigned farther up in the plane, the Iberian gatekeeper was nice enough to put me in row 28 with a nice window seat next to my new buddy, Sadur. I figured I might as well just break the ice in the first 10 minutes and get his story for a comfortable 9 hour flight. I'm actually pretty lucky. He's very kind, about 28, originally from India, and he studied to become an engineer at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He lives in a suburb outside of Milwaukee now and says he misses the city, but that he's lucky because his job allows him to stop in India to visit his parents every couple of months for a few days. We had a nice long talk about his culture withdrawals from his home country and the culture contrast with America and he introduced me to some new Indian music and instruments with songs on his Ipod. I'm a fan, he got me a bottle of red wine from the stewardess' without me asking when he went to the bathroom. I can't argue with that.

Sadur made me think, remember and become excited for the best part of traveling; random travel buddies. Nothing is better than meeting people from other places in the world and exchanging ideas on life while both of you are in transit to a new life destination. I can't imagine what all of my past travel and cultural experiences would have been like if I wouldn't have met all of the amazing people that have struggled with me to catch trains or picked up my passport when I dropped it and then bought me lunch (still thankful for that older German couple in Munich).

I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to get from the airport in Sevilla to my hotel for my 2 day orientation. I am supposed to have transportation from my program but I haven't really received any further information. Guess I should have checked that out. Oh well, it will all work out.

So, what are you doing with your degree?

Conversations with friends' parents, acquaintances, colleagues and the random people I interview people for stories always make their way towards the obvious question everyone wants to know the answer to. What am I going to do with my degree?

Well, I will tell you exactly what I'm going to do with my degree in broadcast journalism and Spanish from the University of Minnesota: I'm going to teach English in Málaga, Spain for the next school year. Yup.

Armed with my cap and gown this past May I knew exactly where I was going to be going this September, and it wasn't to a newsroom (and I LOVE newsrooms). However, I couldn't be more happy with my decision. Picking up life and moving across the world to teach, something that I have no professional training in, is an idea that I have been in love with. If I wouldn't have attempted it, I know it would have been something I wished I had went for; a dream I never followed.

The idea all started when I lived in Barcelona, Spain as a student in spring of 2009. I vividly remember my cab pulling away from Eva, my 46 year-old Señora and Spanish speaking woman I lived with, after we had just lugged my suitcases down God knows how many flights of Barcelona stairs. The sun was rising over the Mediterranean as I left this amazing woman who had taken me in as her own for the last 5 months, and who had given me love and kindness past what she was paid and expected to. Being the horrible person that I am with goodbyes, I of course had tears running down my cheeks as the Spanish cab driver pulled away. The cab driver tried to give me my space and still make me smile in what I knew would be one of my last authentic Spanish conversations in a long time. But I turned and looked out the back window at Eva, and saw the Mediterranean to my left out of the cab window, and I knew that I wasn't done with Spain. I knew I would come back to live. I had no idea what I would be doing, but I knew I would be coming back, and the gut-wrenching feeling I may never come back to this culture I had fallen in love with went away.

So here I am, 5 days away from when I leave for my next adventure with España. I may not be headed to a newsroom where I hoped I might be at this point, but I'm following another dream I've had now for 2 years, and I couldn't feel more emocionada about it!

I can't forget to mention that one of my most amazing friends since fourth grade, Liz Fischbach, will be joining me in this journey we are sure to never forget.

Feel free to follow my adventure arriving with a one-way ticket, only 2 suitcases and no apartment as I attempt to navigate Andalucian culture, teach my own language I struggle with on a daily basis and enjoy each and every moment, sunrise and glass of wine for what they bring. I'll be posting photos and written content regularly, and if this poor post graduate can save up for some video equipment, I might just throw that in too! Besitos.