Send me mail!

We have wireless in our apartment now yay! If you want to send me snail mail I would love you forever! Here's my address:
Jessica Alcorn
Calle de la Concepcion Jeronima 10
Madrid, Madrid 28012

Updates, orientation, and first day of school oh my!

Right now we do not have wifi in our apartment and we are working on getting it installed. Needlessy to say, I haven´t been able to update the blog recently. However, a lot has been happening here! This weekend I went to the Prado which was amazing because I took an art history class last semester. I did my final project on the works of Goya, a very famous Spanish painter, so it was fantastic to see the real thing. I also went to the festival for Madrid´s candidacy in the 2016 Olympics which was really cool. Every side of the festival had a different color piece of paper to hold up either blue, green, yellow, or red (we were in the green section). I saw in the paper yesterday the arial view and it was awesome so I decided to put it on my blog for you lovely readers. In other news I went to the orientation for my program on Monday and Tuesday of this week which was really helpful. They told us what our typical day would look like as a auxiliar de conversacion and some ideas of ways we can help the teachers. On Thursday it was my first day of school! Our coordinator Vanesa picked me and the 3 other auxiliares working at my school up from the train station. We then got a tour of the school and met each class so they would know who we are. Their faces when we walked in were priceless, they were all so excited to see Americans and native English speakers. We also go our schedules and I will be working with primarily 4th grade, some 3rd grade, and some with 5 year olds. I work Tuesday to Friday from 9:30 to 4:30 and I have Mondays off which is fabulous. Now 9:30 to 4:30 may seem like a long day but the Spanish loooooove their breaks. At 11:30 we get a half hour break for coffee and snacks with the other teachers. I think all schools should operate like this. Then from 1 to 3 we have a lunch break. They serve lunch at school and it is SO good. So far I have had the 5 year olds and 3rd grade and they were both really good. Spanish schools are a lot different from American schools in that the kids are really loud but I´m getting used to it. All the kids are super excited to have someone from a different county to be in class with them. The only hard part is that all the auxiliares have to pretend that we don´t speak any Spanish so the kids have to speak in English to us. It is hard to not let Spanish slip when I can understand everything they say. But they are convinced I don´t speak a lick of Spanish and that they are going to teach me some hahaha. I will update more after I have my first whole week of school next week. Hasta luego!

We have the piso...por fin!

Sooooooooo after about 4 days of stress and waiting to see if Tory, Allison and I got the apartment that we wanted or not....WE GOT IT!!! (I'm sure I will look back on the whole experience and laugh for days but right now I'm glad its over). I cannot tell you how relieved I finally have somewhere to call home here in Madrid. We signed the contract today and got the keys and moved it! So now if you ever come to Madrid you won't see me on the side of the street with all my bags haha. But without further ado...pics of the apartment!! Woooooooohooooo!


The living room.

The kitchen.

The bathroom.


Hallway to our bedrooms.



My room! Its not decorated right now but I will be hittin up the Ikea asap.

One bad thing about living in Spain

Is that I can't wear heels. I am already tall and Spaniards are generally really short. I brought some of my fave heels but I can't really wear any of them unless I want to tower over everyone here. Which really isn't that bad because I get the awesome opportunity to live in a foreign country for a year! In other news I think we finally have an apartment (the one I wrote about)! I don't want to get totally settled on the fact that we will be done with apartment hunting until we sign the contract but I am really hoping all goes as planned! Tonight in Madrid there is a big city celebration called La Noche en Blanco and there will be live performances all over the city. We are all going out tonight for the first time so I think we are going to try and catch some of the shows. I also got a babysitting job where I will be watching a 2 year old girl twice a week. Her mom wants me to take her to the park and play with her but to also speak English while I'm there so she will get used to it. I met with her mom and dad today just to talk about what the job entails but I get to meet Isabel (the girl I'm watching) next Tuesday! Her dad showed me pictures of her and she is super cute so I'm really excited! We are supposed to move into the new apartment on Monday hooray! It will be nice to be settled and not living out of a suitcase.

In piso heaven

So after looking and calling what seems like every apartment in Madrid, well really about 12 or 13, I think we may have found the perfect match. We just saw an apartment in the city center that has been recently refurbished and looks brand new! The only problem is that many apartment owners want you to commit to a year contract and I am only working for 10 months. The guy that showed us the apartment said he would ask his Dad who owns the apartment. I am crossing my fingers that we are still able to rent it because I am in love! I'll let you know what happens...

To quote Andy Bernard- Its on like a prawn on the lawn at dawn

Apartment hunting that is. After resting up from the long flight here my friend Tory and I got our cell phones and started calling about apartments, or pisos, that we liked on the internet. Finding an apartment was one of the things I had been dreading about moving here to Madrid. Usually I can understand everything a Spaniard says when I talk to them in person but on the phone is a whole new ballgame. I definitely felt like I had no idea 80% of what people were saying on the phone, so trying to make an appointment to see the apartments we liked has been an experience. However, after spending most of yesterday calling people and seeing apartments talking on the phone has gotten a lot easier. We went to see 3 pisos yesterday and 2 of them I really liked. They are both in the area we are interested in (Retiro) which is near Parque de Buen Retiro which is really nice and tranquil. The landladies were so nice and the apartments were really cute. Both of them already come completely furnished which is fantastic. It seems like most apartments here are. We are going to keep looking for more around the area and I'm sure we'll find a great apartment. Tory and I's third room mate Allison is coming on Tuesday so hopefully we will have narrowed down our options to our favorites by then. Once we decide on one I'll definitely put up lots of pics.

K pasa Madrid?

I've made it!!! I just got into my hostel in Madrid which is really nice. The flights were all really good but it was a really long day. I went from RDU to Detroit then from Detroit to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Madrid. The flight to Amsterdam was about 8 hours but we had our own person TV screens to choose movies from which was awesome. I got to watch the Hangover again which was my fave movie this summer. Enough about how long and boring my flight was, its awesome to finally be here. I am trying to hold out til later tonight to go to sleep so my sleep schedule won't be totally down the tubes. Anyway off to shower and find some food...jamon anyone?