Short Update

I don't have very much to post today. I met up with two people from PwC Madrid today to submit my paperwork for my residency permit. They had fog problems and were a few hours late, but other than that everything went very well. I should have my residency card in 30 days!

I went to the swim pool yesterday afternoon and it was absolutely packed! Well, let me rephrase - the pool DECK was packed with sunbathers. There were about 7 people actually swimming :) It was really nice to go and spend a few hours swimming laps. I even have tan/burn lines that I haven't seen in years (goggle and cap lines!) I am planning to go swim again today in just a little bit.

I had a successful visit to the market the other day. The women working in the booths all remembered me and had huge smiles on as I walked up. I had my orders written down and was able to get through them without a problem. They all asked about where my mother-in-law was - I think they all really liked talking to her. The women here can talk your ear off!

We're still waiting for phone, internet, and cable service. Life will be much easier once we get those installed. We think that the people who lived here before us left some unpaid bills. We've had to submit a bunch of paperwork showing that we are different people.

Oh! On Sunday morning there was supposedly an earthquake in La Coruña! I think it was like a 4.5 or something - not terribly strong, but I guess people still felt it. We were in Lugo Sunday, so we missed it. I didn't know they could have earthquakes here?!

That's about it! I'm working on planning out my Rome trip. If you have any suggestions, let me know.
Since Ringo keeps leaving comments for me, I thought I should post my favorite picture of him :) His grandparents are taking good care of him in Dallas while we're here. Don't spoil him too much!! I'll take pictures of the market tomorrow morning.

Pictures

I was having a lot of trouble putting pictures on my blog this morning. I was finally able to load some this afternoon though. So, read the blog about Lugo, etc... below and then come back and look at the pictures :) There are descriptions below each of these pictures, so you should be able to figure out what they are.

This picture is from the outside of the cathedral. It is stained glass - there is a picture of what it looks from the inside below.

This is Juan in front of the cathedral and Gaudi palace in Astorga. The cathedral is the darker color brown to the left and the palace is white on the right. It was neat having two totally different styles of building side-by-side!

This is the Gaudi palace entrance with the palace behind (obviously). Look how blue the sky was! We totally lucked out with the weather this weekend.

Yet another picture of Juan in front of the Gaudi palace. I think that I am going to have to give Juan the camera during our next trip so there will actually be some pictures of me :)

This is Juan sitting on the wall that goes around the town/city of Lugo. There are all of these little semi-circle outcrops on the wall where the soldiers once stood. You can see the wall stretching into the distance behind Juan.

5 points to whatever reader can identify this crop. Is it potato? There are just little brown stumps about 6-12" high with a few small branches. They are all over the hillsides on the road between La Coruña and Lugo!

León, Astorga, and Lugo

This weekend Juan and I took a trip to León, Astorga, and Lugo. We first drove to León, which is about three hours from La Coruña. On our way there we saw Astorga off the freeway. It looked like an interesting town, so we decided to put it on the agenda for the way home. We got to León just before lunchtime, so we walked along the Paseo de la Condesa, a riverside walkway on the bank of the River Bernesga, to the Hostal de San Marcos to have lunch. The hostal was built by the Knights of Santiago and has a very elaborate façade. The building was once a hospital, a hospice, and a prision - now it is the country's largest parador (a country owned hotel that is set within a national monument). We were able to explore inside the hotel and see some of the artefacts contained within the courtyard and hallways.

Juan and the Hostal de San Marcos

Lunch was good - after I ordered the waiter looks at me and says, "Ah! Coke con Merluza, debes ser Americana." (Ah! Coke with 'white-fish', you must be American.) Ha! I was very embarrassed. Yes, I could have ordered a white wine with my fish, but I wanted a coke. The waiter went on to tell us about a trip that he took several years ago to NYC and California, so I think he was happy to have some Americans there to tell his story to.

Kim and the Hostal de San Marcos

After lunch we walked around some more, stopping at the Basílica de San Isidoro (a church built in 1149), Casa de Botines (a building designed by Antoní Gaudí), and Palacio de los Guzmanes (a really nice mansion).

Cathedral de León

The highlight of the trip - by far - was the Catedral de León, built in the 13th century. I can not even describe how amazing this place is. If you're planning a trip to Spain, it is definitely a must-see. I completely agree that this is one of the "1000 Places to See Before You Die". The outside of the cathedral is beautiful. It is very gothic with flying buttresses and soaring towers. The inside is just breathtaking. You walk inside and all you can do is say "wow". There are stained glass windows everywhere - but very tastefully done. Some of the stained glass windows are over 110 feet high. All-in-all, stained glass covers over 18,000 square feet.

León is also a very fun place for nightlife! We had heard that one area of town was very popular in the evening for tapas and drinks. We decided to just hop from restaurant to restaurant and try out several different places. We spent a total of about €9 ($11) for the entire night!! That included drinks and tapas from four different restaurants. Very fun and wallet friendly - can't beat that!

Sunday morning we drove to Astorga. We were expecting it to be a very small town, but there was actually a lot to do there. They even have a chocolate museum! The big attractions for Astorga are the cathedral and the Gaudí palace. After seeing the cathedral in León, this one was a bit of a let-down, but it was still very nice.

The palace was commissioned by Bishop Grau in about 1887 after a fire destroyed his residence. It was completed in the early 1900's. It is now a museum, but the original Gaudí architecture remains.

We drove next to Lugo, a town about an hour from La Coruña. The interesting thing about Lugo is that it is still completely surrounded by its original 'walls' from medieval times. The walls are about 33ft high and are about 2 miles in circumference. You can walk along the top of the walls and just imagine the soldiers up there protecting the city with their bows & arrows! There is also a nice cathedral in Lugo (do you sense a theme with the cathedrals?) - it is modelled after the cathedral in Santiago de Compostella.

All-in-all it was a very cool trip. I would be happy to go with any visitors back to the cathedral in León. It is very much worth the drive.

We arrived back in La Coruña on Sunday evening and walked right over to the swimming pool! I was very excited to try it out. I was a little bit nervous because I didn't know the locker room procedures, but Juan decided to help me out by going into the men's locker room and telling me how things were done in there. It didn't really help much… I won't go into too many details, but it was very frustrating. It wasn’t even so much a language issue as a not having change for a €2 coin issue… I think I have it figured out enough to at least not look like a complete idiot next time I go.

Tomorrow I am going to go shopping. Juan needs some goggles - his were broken or something, so he didn't bring them from Cambridge. Swimming in a salt water pool is not good without goggles! We ended up sharing one pair - so that didn't make for a very good workout ;)

Another motivating factor for going to swim tonight were the showers at the club. We currently have no gas for the house, which means no hot water and no stove. As I was doing dishes before leaving for León I noticed that the water was getting colder and colder. I checked the little water heater flame and it was getting lower and lower. We were out of gas in the tank! There was a spare tank in the pantry, but when we hooked it up it was empty too! Ack. We have a call in to the gas guy to bring us some new tanks, but as of Sunday night we haven't heard from him. Hopefully he'll come by on Monday!

I am also going to be working this week to plan the Rome trip agenda. Juan's cousin was nice enough to let us stay at her house! They are going to be out of town for the weekend and offered their place to us so we could avoid expensive hotels. They live very close to several of the touristy sites, so it should be perfect! Hopefully we'll get to see them on Monday before we head back to Spain.

Rain and Laundry

This weekend we are going on our first Spanish overnight trip to León - refer to page 263 of 1000 Places to See Before You Die. León is about three hours from La Coruña by car. It should be pretty fun. I'll give you the details about the trip and will post some pictures when we get back on Sunday night. There are supposed to be some really amazing cathedrals (one with over 125 stained glass windows) and other interesting gothic architecture throughout the city.

There isn't really much else going on at the moment. It has been pretty rainy today, so I've stayed inside for most of the day. I reached my goal of winning two games of Spider Solitaire in one day. I don't know if I should feel happy about my accomplishment or sad that I'm in this great foreign country and I'm sitting inside playing cards on my computer. I am never playing that game again though. (Juan is sitting at the table playing intently as I type this…)

I had my first experience of my laundry getting rained on today. It was really frustrating. It had been hanging out there all day in the wind, dark clouds, and imminent rain. I was watching out the window and listening very closely for rain all day. I went to run some errands, but stayed within a few blocks of the apartment in case I needed to get home quickly. It seems that just as I let down my guard it started pouring (of course). As soon as I realized it I ran to the back windows and starting yanking everything inside. The damage had been done. Now I have everything on my make-shift clothesline in the guest room. Hopefully our bath towels will be dry enough to use by tomorrow morning!

Tomorrow (Friday) Juan and I are going to finish up the paperwork stuff for our La Coruña residency. My employer is having some issues with my work stuff since for some reason they had me planning to work in Madrid. Sheesh. They filed all my paperwork with the Spanish government as if I was going to become a Madrid resident, so I have a phone call with some people to get that straightened out on Friday. Wish me luck!

Oh, get this - Juan eats lunch in the cafeteria at work. He can get the 'menu of the day', a three course lunch with a soup/salad, main course, and dessert, for about $0.70. Can you believe that? I told him that he should just get two and bring one home for dinner. ;)

Erin - guess what t.v. show is on in the mornings here... BONANZA! (dubbed of course). I think of you whenever I flip by it. I can just hear you in the back of my mind making fun of the way I say 'bonanza'. Hehe.

Cars, Markets, and Solitaire

Monday, was a beautiful day in La Coruña - perfect for shopping. I walked around with Ana for much of the day. There are so many great stores here, it's a lot of fun to walk around and shop. The stores that are based in Spain (like Zara) have prices that are much more reasonable than the prices in the United States. I did, however, find out that my feet are freakishly huge for Spain… I don't know why, but a lot of the shoe stores don't carry anything over about a size 9.5. Too bad I'm a 10 in most shoes. I guess I have a good excuse to go look at more shoe stores ;)

We turned in our paperwork for our sports club membership yesterday. We can now use the pool and stuff whenever we want. They also offer all sorts of free classes. Mom, they have yoga classes! Maybe I'll learn how to do 'chataronga' in Spanish! I think I'm going to check out the pool on Wednesday - hopefully it'll be sunny outside!

Juan and I are now the proud renters of an Opel Corsa. It's a cute little, silver, 5-door, car. It will be very nice to have a car for weekend trips and picking up all of our visitors from the airport (hint hint). Juan is also very happy to not have to bum rides to work from co-workers who live nearby anymore. We have a spot in a very very small parking garage around the corner from our apartment. We share the garage with one other person who drives a Honda Accord - it made me feel a little closer to home seeing that little Accord parked in our garage. It's a very tight squeeze to get both cars in there side-by-side, but it's much better than trying to find a spot on the street.

The picture is obviously not me and Juan ;) I wanted to show you what the car looks like.

Today I went to the fish/meat/fruit market down the street from the apartment. Ana was an immense help! We went up to each of the little stands and she explained that I was American and was learning how to order from the market and asked what products were good. The shop owners were all so nice. They were very understanding and nice to talk to. I took a notebook and wrote down all sorts of good stuff that will help me on my future visits.

I learned how to ask for the fish cleaned (limpios), without skin (sin piel), and without bones (sin espinas). I still don't know what any of the fish are, but the shop owner just told me to ask "Que es?" and point to the fish. I learned that you could also ask for the fish chopped into round slices (with bones) by asking for "Rebanadas" or in filets by asking for "filetes".

I tried some great samples of 55€ / kilo jamón serrano (a type of cured ham). The woman at the stand even sold me some at a reduced price so Juan could try it. I've already told him that he's not allowed to get used to it - I'm going to be getting the regular stuff on my next visits. My notes are about 4 pages long - I'll spare you the rest of the details. If you ever plan on going to a Spanish market, give me a call and I'll share them with you.

I bought a fun little cookbook full of traditional Spanish recipes. The book is organized into menus. They have menus for parties, for friends, on a budget, and for quick meals. I'm going to sit down with my cookbook and my Spanish-English dictionary and try to put something together for later this week. It should be interesting - I'll let you know how it turns out. Maybe it will even be picture-worthy.

Tonight we had to say goodbye to Juan Sr., Ana, and Abuelo. They're heading back to Mexico City in the morning. It was great having them here for a few days. They are definitely exhausted from their long trip, but I think they had fun. Both Juan and I are also very happy that the Abuelo made the journey - it was great spending some time with him.

It is now 12:10 am on Wednesday. Juan and I are both addicted to Spider Solitaire on our computers. Since we don't have internet at the moment, we can't have our regular Sudoku races. I have told myself if I ever win two Spider Solitaire games in one day that I'll be finished - I'll never play again. I have only won twice in the last week…

Happy Easter!

Well, I've once again been without an internet connection for a few days. I think that our "Motorola Neighbor", as we now call him/her, has been out of town for Easter weekend. I'm hoping that he will get home tonight, Sunday, so I can post my latest adventures to kiminspain.

You might be thinking, "What does Kim do with no TV, no internet, no real commitments…" - see picture below. Juan and I had a house of cards building contest on Friday morning. When I moved up to working on the second floor we decided our contest was picture worthy. Juan would've been pictured as well, but after getting his first floor finished he let out a sigh of relief and blew it down. I'm not kidding - it was too funny. My house fell down soon after the picture was snapped.

Don't you just love the décor of the house? Not exactly my style, but it's okay.

Juan's parents, Juan & Ana, and Abuelo, Javier, made it into La Coruña on Friday morning. They have spent the last 10 days driving along the northern coast of Spain and finally made their way to us! We've had a very busy few days!! On Friday we ate lunch at one of the restaurants in Plaza de Maria Pita. We had a good assortment of local cuisine, including pulpo gallego - octopus cooked in olive oil and sprinkled with salt and paprika.

While visiting the Hotel Heperia Finesterre, where Ana, Juan Sr., and the Abuelo are staying, we stopped into the sports club, Metropolitan La Solana, to see about memberships. It is not very expensive at all, so Juan and I are going to be members! This means that I'm going to be able to swim in my pool by the ocean - yea!! I should be in really good shape after this summer since the club is about a 20 minute walk from the apartment. They have a gym, tennis courts, basketball, etc… it should be a lot of fun!

After lunch, as we were touring around La Coruña, we stumbled upon a holy week procession at one of the nearby churches. It was very interesting to see the various 'floats' depicting the events of holy week.

Saturday we decided to visit the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (page 269 of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die). Santiago de Compostela is one of Christendom's three principal pilgrimage destinations, located about 45 minutes south of La Coruña. Since the 9th century, millions have come from all over Europe and the British Isles to the cathedral, said to house the relics of Saint James (the Apostle), Jesus' cousin (St. John the Divine), and Santiago Matamoros (Slayer of the Moors).

As you enter the cathedral, there is a pillar where, supposedly, pilgrims from long long ago would lean and rest as soon as they made it to the cathedral. There are now indentations or 'handprints' (from all of the millions of hands that have rested there over the centuries) in the column where modern-day pilgrims press their hands, hit there head three times, and make a wish. It is a little strange to watch - see picture below.

Inside the cathedral is amazing, huge, and ornate. The walls are a gray stone with dark wood and gold figurines and detailing - lots of gold. There is one huge sanctuary with several small chapels off to the sides.

We had lunch at the Hotel Reyes Católico, allegedly the oldest hotel in the world. In 1499 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabela founded the Royal Hospice in Santiago for the pilgrims who were pouring in from all over Europe. It was much later remodelled and turned into a luxury hotel. Lunch was very good - I was brave (for me) and ordered the chipirones en su tinta (squid cooked in its ink)!! Ana and I were both afraid that our mouths were going to be stained black after eating it. They weren't.

We walked around Santiago for a little while before returning to La Coruña for some shopping at the Corte Ingles! This store is like Dillards / Foley's / Filene's / (insert name of major department store in your region here…) on major steroids! It has EVERYTHING you could imagine from haircuts to groceries and diamonds to houseplants (and everything in-between). We made an evening out of shopping. I got a new pasta spoon and a jogging suit (I know - jogging suits are kinda dorky - but everyone here wears them when they're walking around the ocean. I stick out in my Rice U t-shirt and windpants). Juan got a new sweater, a new knife for the kitchen, and he made an appointment for a much needed haircut. Ana found some ingredients for her cooking class in Mexico that they only sell in Spain! She's going to be very loved by her classmates when she gets back to Mexico since she bought enough to share! All-in-all it was a pretty successful shopping trip!

Today, Easter Sunday, we went to mass at the Iglesia de Santiago - one of the oldest churches in La Coruña. After church we changed clothes and drove to the westernmost point in Spain, Finesterre (also known as Cabo Fisterra). It was awesome being on the very tip of the country - absolutely surrounded by water as far as you could see in three directions. It was also cool knowing that the first land I would hit if I sailed due West would be (approximately) BOSTON!

On our way back from Finesterre we stopped by Juan's office at Inditex (parent company to Zara). They are located in a town called Arteixo, about 15 minutes south of La Coruña. The offices are located in a semi-industrial area so the modern building really sticks out!

Tomorrow morning we are going to do some administrative type things, like become residents of La Coruña and turning in our membership application to the sports club. Juan has to go into work tomorrow mid-day, so I am planning on dragging Ana to the big seafood/meat/vegetable market so she can teach me the names of some food in Spanish and teach me how to order things in grams/kilos. We will probably tour around the city some more and do some shopping!

I hope everyone had a happy Easter! Sorry today's update was kind of long. Hopefully they'll become shorter and more frequent as I get a regular internet connection! Congrats if you made it to the end.

April 12th Update

Hi! I'm posting both the April 12th and April 10th updates today (so scroll down). I've had some bad internet connection luck over the past few days...

We have our first and second European trips booked! We got a book for Christmas called "1000 Places to See before You Die" - we're hoping to cross a few more things off the list over the next several months. We are only allowing ourselves to cross something off if we've both done it - either together or separately. We have a very long way to go!

We're going to Rome the last weekend in April. May 1st is a holiday here, so we're taking advantage of the long weekend. Juan has a cousin who lives in Rome with her husband and baby, so hopefully we'll be able to meet up with them.

We're also going to Madrid for Juan's birthday weekend (May 7th). We're going to just go out and tour around. A friend from college, Rachel, is also going to be in Madrid that weekend. Hopefully we'll meet up with her!

There are several more places that we plan on visiting. Let me know if any of you are going to be over in Europe over the summer and maybe we can meet up. Any soccer fans want to go to Germany for the World Cup?? ;)

Juan has off work tomorrow and Friday. His parents and grandfather are coming to visit for a few days, so I'm sure we'll have some fun adventures! I also think that the PwC offices here are going to have a workspace for me after Easter. It will be nice to be around some other people during the day!

(Side note: I found an antenna for the TV in the house. I still only have like 3 channels. One of them is showing that early 90's show, Sweet Valley High - dubbed of course. I thought that was funny.)

Oh! One more funny thing about the apartment. Last night, we were getting ready to go to sleep and heard a faint noise. It got louder and louder… It was the guy in the apartment above us SNORING! Ha! Talk about thin walls/floors (or maybe he is just a really really loud snorer).


April 10th Update

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything for a few days. We just got moved in to our new apartment and do not have phone or internet connections yet. Luckily, someone nearby has a unprotected wireless network that we can jump on for a few minutes a night, when we're lucky! So, it's now 7pm and I'm staring at my wireless connection icon waiting for it to say that it has a signal - as I type my blog in Microsoft Word.

The move from the hotel to the apartment was pretty uneventful. It was, by far, the easiest move I've made over the past few years. The apartment is good, but there are several things that I am still adjusting to.

1) We have to dry our clothes on a clothes line that dangles outside my third floor kitchen window. Eek! Both the washer and the clothes line are big enough for about two days worth of clothes - and it takes most of a day for each load to dry! So, doing the math - that means you have to wash laundry at least every other day… I am also totally afraid that I'm going to drop the clothes into the courtyard as I'm leaning out the window trying to clip them onto the line. I have been trying to learn the correct technique by watching my neighbors (I'm sure they think I'm crazy… oh well).

2) Our bed is from about 1810 and was built to accommodate a people that are about 4'11" and 80 lbs. Although, by the size of the crater in the middle of the bed, I think an elephant has been sleeping in the bed for the last 200 years. Juan and I thought we had it rough when we were in Dallas and had to sleep in the full size bed - little did we know that the full sized bed was only the transition from our queen-sized pillow top to our tiny 19th century bed. Also, here most of the double beds (and I use "double" very loosely in my case) have only one long pillow that you both share! I like moving around and moving my pillow during the night. I can't exactly do that anymore.

3) Grocery shopping... There is a grocery store right across the street from our apartment. I'm just having a little trouble figuring out what to buy. I never had problems in the U.S. with just buying chicken, fish, ground beef, and vegetables. It's not so easy here. I'm sure I'll figure it out soon, but if anyone has any good Spanish food recipes please send them my way!

Other than those few things everything is great! Juan entrusted me to go to the bank to deposit money into our account today. He wrote me a script and made me practice with him last night. I also practiced the script on my walk to the bank. Again, people probably thought I was crazy as I walked down the street talking to myself about depositing money in my account…

I also walked to the big mega-department store, Corte Ingles, and bought a new hair dryer. I tried to use my American one with a power adapter, but it blew out the fuse in the adapter. I've had some really bad hair for the past 2 days.

Saturday we shopped all day for various things. We needed a bunch of odds and ends from the apartment. Juan also got a few suits and shirts from Zara (no, we don't get a discount :) ). The normal employees don't really even get much of a discount. Booooooo.

Juan and I went to the aquarium over the weekend. It was pretty fun. I'm usually not too terribly impressed by aquariums after going scuba diving - they make me a little sad for the fish, but this one was cool. It's right on the coast and there is one section where you walk downstairs and through some tunnels, it's like you're walking out under the ocean. At the end of the tunnels there is a dark room with windows all the way around and fish everywhere. It is still part of the aquarium (the fish are in a huge circular tank), but it totally feels like you're just out in the ocean.

We didn't do too much else yesterday. It was very cold and windy outside, so we kinda camped out inside. Juan and I have become totally addicted to the TV show "Lost" (on DVD, 1st season). Thank you to my Boston co-workers for their very nice "moving to a foreign country with no English on TV" present :)

Pictures from my walk

Today I walked and walked and walked. It was actually nice out for most of the walk, turning cloudy and cold towards the end. I think I actually got a few new freckles on my face. I wanted to post a few pictures that I thought were fun. I'm going to post these and more to Snapfish, so if you want to see them I'll send you the link!

This first picture is of a statue/fountain near the beach. You can see the soccer stadium in the distance between the two surfers. It's probably one of my favorites - I might put it as my computer wallpaper. I like how the water is actually splashing up from under the surfboards. Dad, I sent this to you in an email but I don't know if it went through. If it didn't, I think you can click on the picture to enlarge it and save it to your computer. I thought this was one you might like.

The La Coruña aquarium has this funny 'flying fish' outside. I didn't actually go into the aquarium today, but I'm going to soon. It is supposed to be amazing.

Right down the coast from the aquarium is the Torre de Hercules. I've posted a picture of it before, but it was one that I got off of the internet. Below is one that I took today. There were dozens of buses full of school kids and tourists going up to the tower. I think I might go back one evening when it isn't quite as busy.

I also found another cool little pool. This one has a little beach right next to it. The pool was closed - it was probably too early in the year and might not be heated... I'll check it out again soon. It looks less expensive than the other pool and is about the same distance from my apartment. The picture looks a little funny because I had to lean over the railing on the side of the boardwalk to take the picture - sorry.

(For some reason the picture won't load - I will try again later on!)

One quick side note. My normal background tv channel, CNN (in English), is not working right now. My backup is "Channel 8" which shows US tv shows dubbed in Spanish. I just think its so funny the selection of shows/movies that they pick! Right now there is some ex-Lifetime movie from about 1995 where Patty Duke is about 55 and having a baby... of all American shows they could choose from, they choose Lifetime movies. :) I can't really complain too much because I have probably actually seen this movie before in the US. hehe

Wednesday Update

We have an apartment! After we told the landlord that we wanted the apartment, she wanted to wait one hour to see if some people who looked at the apartment before us were going to call (since they would sign a year long lease and we're only signing a 5 month lease). We went to a little coffee shop on the corner with the real estate agent and talked about the neighborhood and La Coruña hot spots. It turns out that the real estate agent also works at a sports club - the sports club (http://www.clubmetropolitan.net/club_lasolana.html) - the home of my favorite pool. Maybe she can hook me up with a free pass or something. Anyhow, it was fun hearing about where to shop and eat - but waiting for the landlord to call made for a very long hour! She finally called at 8:05 saying that she was printing out the lease terms and would meet us back at the apartment to go over everything. What a huge relief! I think we're going to get the keys tonight and move in tomorrow (Thursday).

As we were leaving the apartment we noticed a cute little shop that teaches English. Juan and I stopped in to see if they also taught Spanish ;) I mean, if they're teaching English to Spanish speakers, they could probably teach Spanish to an English speaker - right? Well, the place is run by an American girl and an Irish guy - I didn't get the impression that either spoke Spanish all that well. The Irish guy is taking Spanish classes, so he's going to call me and give me the class details - yea!! The American girl said that she has a lot of friends that are native Spanish speakers who may be interested in some sort of tutoring arrangement, she was going to ask around.

More about the apartment - it is about 100 yards from the beach, down the street from the aquarium, the "Museo/Casa del hombre", and the Tower of Hercules. It's about a 15 minute walk to the PwC office. There is also a huge fish/meat/vegetable market down the street, much like the one I saw earlier yesterday! We have four bedrooms, although they are a bit more like big closets. There is one 'full' bed and three twins. The full bed really looks like a slightly bigger twin bed - we are considering pushing a few of the twin beds together... There is a living room, sitting room, kitchen, and bathroom. Nothing fancy, but it's within our limited budget and the location can't be beat! We have plenty of room for visitors - hint, hint. I'll put some pictures up soon.

Juan's internship advisors are in Spain this week. We went out to dinner with them last night to a little seafood restaurant. We had a few different types of octopus, which is very popular here. It was all very good! We also had some mussels, spider crab, scallops, calamari, and more... It was fun and definitely someplace that I would go again.

There isn't too much else going on today. I think I'm just going to do some work and walk around a bit. It's a little bit rainy outside right now - hopefully it will blow over soon.

Apartments, Phones, and Room Service

I really like the NH Hotel, don't get me wrong, we just need more space for our 200 lbs of luggage! Yesterday was a very very frustrating day. We looked at a few apartments that were okay, but they were pretty far away from everything that I want to be close to. Specifically, the PwC office, the beach, the outdoor pool (see my last post) and every single La Coruña tourist destination. Since I will most likely not have a car, I need to be able to walk everywhere I want to go during the day while Juan is at work. I was pretty bummed out that we weren't finding anything after being told that apartments are so easy to find.

Things started looking up today. After calling all of the agencias inmobiliarias in La Coruña and looking at about 100 websites (literally), we decided to just start walking in to every apartment locator office we stumbled upon. I am trying to be cautiously optimistic, but I think it might have worked! We have an appointment at 7:00 tonight to go and see another apartment. It is in the perfect location and the landlord has already agreed to a 5 month lease for just a little bit of extra money (which is okay because it was well below our limit to start with). This apartment is near the Tower of Hercules, pictured below. Also nearby are my dream swimming pool, the beaches, and the boardwalk! Keep your fingers crossed for us - it would be a huge load off to have a place to live.

While Juan and I were looking for apartment locators, we stumbled upon an awesome fruit, vegetable, fish & meat market. I didn't have my camera, but I'll go back and take pictures tomorrow! It inspired me to learn the names of fish Spanish. I actually found a little fold-out chart of fish names in Spanish/English/German/French at the La Coruña tourist information stand! What luck! Juan reminded me that even though I know the names of the fish, I still won't know what the fish look like... He had a point. I mean, really, does anyone know the difference between a Queen Scallop (Volandeira) and a Variegated Scallop (Zamburiña)? In English, you could get away with just saying Scallop and pointing - but in Spanish the two names are so completely different.

Not to brag, but I did order room service for lunch today and I think she actually thought I spoke Spanish ;) I prepared by writing down my order and my room number in Spanish (just in-case I panicked) and by looking up in my Spanish/English dictionary how to ask "I'd like to order room service" (thanks for the dictionary Manuel, we've used it a bunch!). The best part is that I actually received what I ordered.

In other news - Juan and I both got cell phones yesterday. You can call us now if you want :) We will send out the numbers to friends & family. We also opened a bank account without too many problems - even though, at the time, we didn't have an address or phone number... They put in the bank's address as our home address. I just sat there thinking about how many fraud red-flags were being raised as he submitted our form online.

I'll write tomorrow about the results of our apartment search!

We've finally made it to La Coruña!

After months and months of work permit delays we are finally in Spain! Juan and I spent most of our first day walking around the city.


There are several nice beaches in La Coruña. Here is Juan in front of the Playa del Orzan. There were actually decent surfers out in the ocean and even a few swimmers! burrrrr.

Right behind Juan's left ear is the Fútbol Stadium - the La Coruña team is pretty popular. Check out the website at http://www.deportivo-la-coruna.com/city.html.

There is a boardwalk that goes around much of the city, mainly along the beaches and the port. It was very full of people for a rainy Sunday morning! There were several people out with dogs - it made us miss our little Ringo!

Here is a picture near the Parque de Santa Margarita. The wall behind me is made up of all different sorts of materials - you can't really tell from the picture, but it's pretty cool ;) The park itself has shaded trails weaving through hills. In the center of the park is a planetarium. I'm sure that Juan and I will go back and see what the planetarium is like - we can put our Rice SPAC courses to use.


We ate lunch at a little restaurant in the Plaza de María Pita. We had some vino, salad, and fried seafood. This plaza has probably about 10 little restaurants that have most of the seating outside. Most people were camped out for a long lunch - enjoying their wine and the sunshine. This picture shows the main plaza along with several of the restaurants - each is under a little tent.


After lunch we walked over to the Hotel Finisterre, home of the swimming pool that I want to swim in. It is a heated, outdoor, salt water pool - right off of the ocean. I think there is some sort of sports club affiliated with the hotel. We're going to investigate this more in the coming days.
While we were at the Finisterre, we stumbled upon a dart throwing tournament! I didn't know such things existed.


There are several very very old churches around the city. This picture is of a relief above the door to one church - I thought it was pretty cool. It seems like we did a lot of exploring for the first day. La Coruña is a lot like Boston in that it looks very big on the map, but when you start walking around, it takes no time at all to get from one side of the city to the other. Tomorrow we're going to try to find an apartment, open a bank account, get cell phones, and visit the La Coruña police in order to become Spanish residents. It looks like it's going to be a very busy day!