week two

today is my two week anniversary in zaragoza. it seems like i've been in spain for so much longer than that, but that's the reality. so far, things are going well. i have three students and i'm slowly, but surely picking up more as i go along. all the universities are in the middle of exams, so i don't expect to pick up more students for a few weeks, but i'll keep searching. i'm doing my best to take things day by day.

so far i've spent a great deal of time with my roommates (rober and eva) and the mazas (a family that my HS spanish teacher knows and connected me with). josé, gloria, carmen, alejandro and jorge have been awesome and taken me in as one of the family. i've spent the last two sundays at soccer games with josé and over at their place for lunch. they have been incredible in helping me look for students as well and gloria is helping me find volunteer work as well. she has a friend that works for an NGO that works with special needs kids that i may try and get involved in. as i said before, day by day.

everyone has been great thus far at helping me get settled and used to the differences here in spain. so far the greatest struggle (if you can call it that) has been adjusting to the Spanish accent and vocabulary. but like anything, that will come as well.

zaragoza itself is a pretty amazing city. there are a lot of immigrants here (mostly from africa and latin america), so there's an added level of diversity. for example, last weekend i met a woman from ghana and another from the dominican republic. the city is also very european in the sense that it's compact and public transportation and/or walking are the norm. besides the bus system, i discovered yesterday there is a bike system here. there are bike racks all over the city stocked with bikes. sign up for an annual or temporary membership and you can grab a bike at anytime, ride it to where you need to go, and take it to a station near that location. it's genius. in short, no more horrific rush hour traffic for me! there's also a lot of history to the city that i've yet to explore. there is a castle, original roman roads & bridges and huge catherdrals. i'm planning on taking some time this weekend to go around the city, explore and take some photos.

for now, that's all i've got. thanks to everyone for the updates on life in the states (brett favre--you got you had coming to you). it's greatly appreciated.