Labor Day again

This weekend marks the second time I've got to have a long weekend for Labor Day in four months. Why would Spain feel the need to observe this holiday in May, while America in September? Either way I am not complaining. I have been immensely enjoying three days off of my ridiculous summer job. Nights out, shopping in Portland, floating the river in the hot sun, and more... life is good.


Oh yeah, I got a job at a frozen vegetable factory. I work 7-4 most days of the week boxing corn cobs, sorting packages, throwing bad vegetables, and meeting all kinds of new characters. When all is said and done, I'll definitely put working this job as a 'good life experience that I do not desire to repeat'. It has its positives though: I have good hours, get paid to exercise, make decent money, practice Spanish most days, and have met some bizarre people I may never forget.


But work is only so many hours of the week and there has been so many more to fill up with adventures, embracing America, and quality time with the family.There's been spontaneous road trips, baseball games, bbqs, lazy days at the lake, fireworks, bonfires, hiking, beaching, nights in, nights out at the dirty, small-town bars, the culinary amazing-ness of American pizza, Mexican food, and Chinese, fun dates, speaking English, listenin' to country, waking up at 6am to run because that's what we do in America, reuniting with old friends to find nothing has changed, seeing my family every day and knowing I will miss them so much when I leave for Spain again. You get the picture.. in spite of having all my plans for summer in Spain thrown out the window, everything has fallen together oh so nicely and maybe there is a reason I had to go home for awhile.

 

This year I did NOT miss out on the annual family pig roast. 

My visa paperwork has been all done and sent out to my consulate so now I'm just playing the waiting game. I am set to take off in a short three weeks for Spain again.. I'll admit it's almost bittersweet to see this summer come to an end, but I'm excited for one more year of international adventures.

Wouldn't it be nice...

If the extranjería called me saying the they made a mistake and I didnt have to get a new visa, and I didn't have to waste several hundred dollars and hours and hours of time on beaurocratic nonsense? I can dream...

I've been in America for 6 weeks already. 6 weeks. Half of the summer is over. With the rainy weather and whatnot, I am longing for the land of siestas, fiestas, Spanish speakin', and sunshine.

What I've been missing:
1. My amigos
2. My awesome job
3. The weather
4. La playa
5. Speaking Spanish everyday
6. Tapas y cañas
7. People looking good.
8. Meeting interesting internationals
9. Fresh markets
10. The liveliness...
11. White-washed pueblos
12. Sevilla
13. And I could keep going on...

Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful to be spending time with my family (I've barely spent more than a few days with the fam in the past years), so it's been great getting to see my cousins, aunt and uncles, and spry 84 year-old grandma everyday. I'm staying with my cousin and her husband outside of Chehalis, Washington, so far up in the woods I don't even have cell service at home. I love it.

The visa paperwork has been a challenge (mostly to my patience and creative loophole finding), but the paperwork is doing its processing thing and I'm just doing what I can in the meantime. It's really proven how much Spain means to me and I feel like it'll all be worth it once my passport with fresh visa is back in hand and I'm on my red-eye flight filled with the anticipation of seeing my friends and livin la vida española all over again.

to be continued with fotos ... I'm off to the washington coast for the afternoon, the sun is trying to come out!!

América in a new light

Last week in a matter of a few days, everything I had planned out for the summer- work, travels, etc was all thrown out the window. After various phone calls, emails, and visits with the extranjería, delagación, bilingual coordinator, embassies, and consulates, I found out Spain wasn't going to accept my application to renew my residency for next year even though I already have a work or 'study' contract. I was told I had to go home to get a new visa 5 days before my 2010-2011 residency expired.


It was Friday when I got the news, so I did what any good Americana in Spain would do and went up to Sevilla for a despedida o, es decir, hasta luego fest. I returned home Sunday morning and packed, cleaned my apartment, met with the landlady, got my deposit, and headed to Lagos, Portugal with a good friend who was visiting me at the time. I bought a ticket to fly home Wednesday and tried my best not to think about how everything I had spent months planning out was taken away. Might as well try and enjoy my sudden last few days of vacation.



Jackie in Lagos, Portugal.


I left Tuesday at midnight for the 30 hour trip. Passing through customs in NYC, the only questions asked in my half-asleep, drained of everything state: are you ok? do you speak english? STAMP-STAMP. 'Welcome home.' Got to love America.


I landed in Seattle feeling alive again and more than thrilled to see my family. During my 30 hours in transit I realized, maybe this is a good thing. I've been hit a little by reverse culture-shock, but for the most part it just feels good to be home surrounded by my family here in Washington.


Some observations after a year away:
-There's a lot of English spoken here, and I cannot speak Spanglish. I'm trying hard to speak like a normal American.
-It's freaking cold.
-Wal-mart is simply too much to handle.
-There is an entire aisle of cereal, an entire aisle of bread, an entire aisle of pickles, etc., etc.
-Coffee is weak. So. Weak.
-FRIENDLY waiters/waitresses/customer service (maybe too friendly)
-Driving takes a lot more thinking than it used to.
-And it's pretty much impossible to do anything without a car.
-There's fast food everywhere.
-People are a lot bigger.
-are the past two points linked?
-Houses are big and carpeted and COZY.
-Everyone has a smart phone now.
-Living in the woods without street noise/drunken idiots in streets at night is simply wonderful.
-The fridge is huge and has automatic ice and water. ¡de lujo!
-I thought I was cool because I didn't have 'jet lag' in spite of the nine-hour time change. 3 days later, and 2 days full of naps, I found out that is impossible.


So here I am, without a plan, fighting jet lag, working on visa paperwork, family and friends all trying to convince me to stay with them for the summer and I feel the love. But for now, I'm off to fill out more applications!

Going home?

This email could mean I'll be home this month to get a new visa. Hasta pronto America? Nothing else to say. Only in Spain.


Subject: Renovaciones de auxiliares
>
> Por fin puedo escribiros para deciros algo definitivo de esto y no son
> buenas noticias.
> Se han recibido en las Subdelegaciones del Gobierno de las diferentes
> provincias de toda Andalucía, instrucciones precisas desde el Ministerio
> para que NO SE HAGAN RENOVACIONES DE TARJETA A LOS EXTRANJEROS, en
> general, que no puedan demostrar la justificación de su permanencia por
> motivos de estudios o trabajo. Incluso en las provincias donde ya se
> habían empezado a tramitar, han sido paralizadas y denegadas.
> Nuestros auxiliares que tienen la confirmación de la renovación de su
> puesto para el curso próximo, al no tener estudios o trabajo demostrado
> desde mayo hasta octubre en nuestro país, no podrán renovar sus tarjetas.
> Es decir, se tienen marchar a EEUU y empezar a tramitar otro visado,
> porque sino, no llegarán a tiempo para Octubre. Aún así, será complicado.
> Se que ellos no lo comprenden, pero es lo que hay. Se ha intentado desde
> diferentes organismos y personas apelar a la compresnión del ministerio
> y ha sido en vano.
> Así pues, os lo digo para que lo sepáis y para que podáis decírselo
> también a ellos.
> Ana
>
> --
> Ana Mª Calatayud Tenas
> Responsable Provincial de Plurilingüismo
> Servicio de Ordenación Educativa

Las montañas

Aracena. The mountains in the far-off corner of Huelva, and unsuspecting land of the infamous Pata Negra, some of the best jamón in the world.

Tapita de jamón. Riquisimo.

View from the Castillo.

Pedro.

A wonderful excursion to kick off my one month vacation with a friend is headed back to the States way too soon.

Itinerary for the month:

Sevilla

Playas de Huelva

Portugal

Galicia

Camino de Santiago (starting in Asturias)

Soria's San Juan festival

Madrid

¡A currar! in Castilla la Mancha

Coming soon: a blog about how to become a legal immigrant.. I'm a little scared to fly seeing my tarjeta de residencia expires in 10 days and the extranjería fails at communication. I'm headed back there Monday morning to try and resolve this mess.

I hate despedidas.

This week is full of goodbyes as the year wraps up for us auxiliares de conversación, and it's left me feeling rather bittersweet. Last night was a goodbye dinner in Sevilla with friends, and today the only reason I went to work was for the 'despedida' of my lovely co-assistant and myself (even though I'll be back to Cartaya for round two in the fall). I'm looking forward to some summer adventures with my new job, travels, América, and the Camino de Santiago, but I sure am going to miss some of the great people I got to meet this year. Living abroad is such a wonderful experience, but the coming and going of people makes it so much harder.

A little gift from Rafael Reyes high school--- Cartaya city, hand-crafted by 'Rafael' himself.



I'm so glad today was just an hasta luego and not a real adiós.

Fall into place

After a long time of pondering if I'd go home or stay in the new country I call home for the summer and a good amount of worrying and debating both options, everything just sort of fell into place. During Semana Santa I found out I got a job teaching at a summer camp outside of Madrid and it was then that I realized that was what I wanted all along. I will be living and working in the monastery of Uclés teaching English to a group of Spanish niños. (And of course spending a lot of time at the pool...).



Uclés summer home(pic from Forenex)