And so it begins...

And all of the sudden, I’m in Spain sitting on my bed and reflecting on my first 24 hours in my newest home away from home.  The past two days have passed like a maelstrom.  I’m surprised to find myself in still in one piece.  After having lunch with Mom outside of SFO, I boarded the plane to LAX.  Although I have become used to being away from San Jose, it was still hard to say goodbye to family and friends knowing that I will so far away from home for such a long period of time.  From LAX I took the direct, 12 hour flight, to Madrid.  All I will tell you about that flight is that I survived it.  Instead of taking the taxi to the bus station, I decided to save 20 euros and take the metro.  After a couple embarrassing moments, like trying to insert cash into the machine that only took ATM cards and almost getting stuck in the entrance to metro because I had some much luggage, I arrived at the bus station without further incident.  I then boarded the next bus to Cuenca, which is where I will be living.  Cuenca is a city of 50,000, which may seem small but it is large for this part of Spain.  The city is known for its historic neighborhood, where ancient buildings hang off the edge of a cliff.  Unfortunately I have not had time to explore this part of town yet, but I will be doing so in the very near future.  After arriving in Cuenca, I was met by one of the teachers from the school I will be working at, Rafa.  He has graciously let me stay in his apartment, while I look for a flat of my own.  On the night that arrived, Rafa happened to be entertaining a couple of friends from out of town.  With them, I was thrown directly into Spanish cuisine and culture.  At Rafa’s, we ate a delicious meal of tomatoes, some sort teriyaki stir-fry and Galician octopus.  And of course, we had plenty of wine to go with it all.  I was able keep up with most of the conversation, but when it transgressed into a discussion about Spanish poetry and poets I must admit I became quite lost.  After a three hour meal and a tremendously long day, I finally went to bed.  The next day, I traveled to Motilla del Palancar with Rafa and some of the other teachers to the school where I’ll be working this year.  Motilla del Palancar is a very small town of about 7,000 inhabitants.  The town is so small that many of the teachers live in Cuenca, which is nice because I’ll be able to carpool to and from the school with the others to and from Cuenca.  While at the school, IES Jorge Manrique, I met many of the teachers that I will be working with this year.  They all seemed extremely nice and excited to be able to work with me, which was very reassuring.  I also got to sit in on a few classes, where I introduced myself to the students.  If anybody needs to boost their self-esteem, I would recommend working with high school students abroad.  Apparently my arrival was highly anticipated by the students.  I felt almost like a celebrity.  Many times in the hallway, students came up to me and asked “Are you Tyler!?”  After returning to Cuenca, I went with Rafa to a restaurant and had another delicious Spanish meal.  Now I’m sitting on my bed exhausted by the last couple days.  I hope to write more soon but I think I’ll get some more sleep first.