How To: Find a "Piso" (Huelva Edition)

CIEE graciously put us up in a 4-Star hotel (Tartessos) in the center of Huelva for our first five nights in the city so that we could have the time to comfortably find an apartment. How exactly does one do that in a foreign country?

Step 1: DECIDE: A. Do I want to live with Spanish/foreign people OR B. Do I have people I might want to live with?
Final Answer: B. Ale, Rachel & Alisha

Step 2: Wander around the barrio you want to live in (el Centro) to find pisos with "SE ALQUILA" signs AND look at flyers posted by the university

Step 3: Collect numbers and write down any memorable/defining characteristics

Step 4: Enter everything into a shared GoogleDoc

Step 5: Think of the essential things you need to find out from the propietarios (# de habitaciones/baños; amueblado?, equipado?, precio!, si el precio incluye la comunidad; si no: cuanto vale la comunidad?; cuando es la cita)

Step 6: Split the list, CALL EVERYONE!!!! and log the answers to those aforementioned questions!

Step 7: What already OCD GoogleDoc wouldn't be complete without COLOR-CODING your findings?!
Green: Saw the apartment and liked it/Made an appointment to see the apartment/would like to make an appointment
Yellow: Second-string apartments--we'll look here if we have to
Red: Not available/No interest/not worth it/NEVERGOINGTOHAPPEN, ETC
White: No answer

Step 8: DECIDE--Clearly, we chose the one we nicknamed "SUPERPISO"

Step 9: Share the list with your friends who are still scrambling to find a place

Alfalfa, Alameda, and the Birth of Marta

Last night in Sevilla meant, obviously, one thing: Going out Sevillana style...kind of...

The night started off with a farewell cocktail at Flaherty's: great choice because it's the only place in Spain that I've found decent buffalo sauce. Ignacio, my intercambio from when I studied abroad, was supposed to meet me there but because my American phone was not functional and my Spanish phone was nonexistent, we couldn't get in touch...needless to say the night did not work out in our favor.

SO, the Sevilla veterans (Shane and I) decided to take the group to Plaza Alfalfa for some drinks. I introduced some new friends to La Rebotica's massive 5 Euro mojitos and Shane introduced us to some of his Spanish friends. Ale and I were talking to some French men who had been living in Seville for a few years and I turn to my right and see Kerry standing two feet away from me. After trying to make plans to meet up all week and failing, we ended up bumping into each other completely by chance!

By the end of the night it was me, Ale, Shane and his friend Fernando. Shane decided he wanted a Spanish name; it was tough, but Fernando christened him Alvaro; me, Cristina; Ale, Marta; Me again, Estrella; and Ale, was still Marta despite her protests. (More on Marta later)

Thinking we were clever like the Sevillanos, we decided to make our way to Alameda to find a discoteca...stopped at a kebab stand on the way, lost Fernando and company, but bravely ventured forth.

FUN FACT: I have never successfully made it to or from the bars in Alameda without the help of a Spaniard…

We finally stumbled upon Alameda and failed to find a single open bar/disco...sooo we finished our kebabs and hopped in the first cab back to the hotel.

Mission "Go out in Alameda": Still Incomplete

Southern [Spain] Hospitality

Second flight (into Seville)?: Wildly uneventful...I was asleep before the plane finished boarding.

Had a luggage scare for a hot second at the airport. I was worried they'd lost my luggage Stephanie Carozza style...now that I have it, I kind of wish they had gone and lost it.

I CLEARLY overpacked...my taxi driver dropped me off with all my suitcases in the busiest little café-lined street he could find and everyone was talking about how much stuff I had and how I was ever going to get to where I needed to go. So laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, I piled my carry-on on top of the big suitcase and, after moving two feet, it fell off--typical.

All of a sudden I look up and see my taxi driver running towards me...he dropped me off at the wrong spot and ended up running back to give me proper directions (that was nice of him--he also didn't overcharge me on the taxi ride but it still would have been cool if he'd backed the car up and helped me with my stuff).

Seeing this whole interaction, a random guy comes over to help me with my suitcases. Turns out his name is Manuel and he works at a hotel nearby (I wish I could remember the name of it so I could thank him again) and he helped me lug my stuff to my hostel for the night. Gosh, it's great to be back!

(The person in my room at the hostel who was just screaming on his phone for 20 minutes and waking everyone up obviously didn't get the memo...)

Seatbelt Twins and Airplane Friends

And so the adventure begins!

I got to my seat on the plane and the woman next to me immediately asked if I could switch with her friend from whom she was separated. NBD, I'm traveling alone and it was a jam-packed flight--being moved to an aisle seat in the front of the plane would have been an upgrade from the middle of the middle. She didn't end up a hold of a flight attendant so she could find her friend and I could fight the flow of seat searchers. Needless to say, I stayed put.

Strapped myself in for the 6.5 hour flight, and it was clear I had made the right decision. The person who had sat in the seat previously was just my size (meaning there was no awkward seatbelt adjustment/elbowing of my neighbors to be had). THAT NEVER HAPPENS! (except on my later flight to Seville…my lucky day? YES)

I'm glad I didn't move because the man sitting on the other side of me was really nice and we talked for most of the trip. Really interesting guy; he's originally from Chile and has a job in the States that lets him travel all over the world. Finally found out his name at the end of the trip when he gave me his business card and told me to keep him posted on my teaching adventures. We parted and, luckily for him, he got to go catch up on his sleep in a hotel while I was condemned to attempt napping on a plastic airport bench with pointy armrests obstructing my ability to lay down (Tell me, who's the REAL winner here?--mine was free...?)

CRISIS: How did I want to spend my first Euro?

Simple: Helado y café from MickeyD's Euro Menu!! It would have been worth every centimo if it hadn't been removed from the menu...WHAT?! Coffee with a small cone's worth of soft serve ice cream filling the cup? Who WOULDN'T want to buy that?!

Note to Self: Must do more investigation on the matter in Seville...is it really a thing of the past? I sure hope not…