CÁCERES y CORIA

I left Madrid about two days ago and went on another adventure: Cáceres. Thursday morning I left on a bus to the city of Cáceres where the orientation for my region is held at. It was about a 5 hour bus trip, carving in and out the roads of west Spain, making multiple stops to pick up other heading to the city. The trip was ok for me since I have taken a couple of bus and train trips in my life (headed to the Spanish Consulate General in Houston by ways of the Megabus). There were many people heading there for the same orientation so that was real cool. I sat next to a girl from Arizona, a first year newbie just like me, and we talked for nearly the whole trip. It was good yet tiring (I wanted to sleep more!). Once we got to our destination, that was another adventure itself. The girl and I got on a bus to take us into the inner city in order to take another bus to go to the orientation, which was basically a boarding school building. We met a French girl on the way to the same place, speaking only Spanish, but I think she's actually teaching French to students here. We got a bit lost looking for the place itself, walking around for 20 minutes in the sun. I was fine, but the American girl from the long bus ride had a lot of baggage so it was hard for her to get around. But we finally made it!

There was so many people there, all waiting around for the meeting to start. Saw a guy with a Mastodon shirt on walking around (NICE SHIRT DUDE!). I met a bunch of people from all over the states, a handful of British people, and a couple of French and Portuguese. It was a real awesome and interesting. Everyone kinda becomes a kindred spirit. We are all thrown into an unknown situation, figuring out what to do the next day, where to live, what to eat. Its scary but I think being out of your comfort zone is the best way to learn about yourself. I learned that I'm too anxious and that I should be a bit more loose, not so uptight.

The orientation itself was actually pointless. The presenters of the program were somewhat repetitive, did not give us any new information, and wasted time. I met a couple of people that are working in Plasencia, another city that I have to teach at that is about 25 minutes away. They were both real cool (British girl and an American guy). The second day of orientation was actually the life saver. I met a girl that had a flat situated for her already that had 2 spare bedrooms in Coria! I jumped on the opportunity. 150EURO! Piss cheap! Too good to be true though. Only time will tell. It honestly was pure luck for me. I think there are still some people that are looking for a place to live. I'm so lucky and grateful to find a place so quick. I don't know what I would have done.