Tengo un apartamento (I have an apartment)

I am very proud to say that after hours of blood sweat and tears, a lot of headaches, and spending more money than I care to remember I finally have an APARTMENT!

Starting the day after my last entry on Tuesday I have been to Valencia (an hour trip one-way by train) 6...yes 6 .....days in a row. Everyday was another headache, miles of walking, spending money on the train to get to Valencia, and the local metro as well (thats where most of the money went) I searched with my roomate Martin from Germany.......

**As I said last time there are many Germans here...so as you can imagine I tend to hear a lot of German and English. I try to pretty much only talk in Spanish (I don't remember enough German anyway). There are also just a lot of foreigners in general....because of this program called Erasmus in Europe that allows students from different countries to go to other countries in the program. I think each country has a different stipend amount that is afforded to their students and each student is allowed to do it once in their college career. I have met people from Italy, France, Switzerland, Holland, Austria, and a few others I cant remember. I am not sure if Australia is part f this group or not, bu there are a handful of them as well.***

....and it seemed like we were the only ones worried about it. Now we both have apartments and everyone else is scrambling to find a place. I really like the apartment I found, it is located in an area called Palmaret. My roomates are Daniella (German, 26 years old, beginner level of Spanish) and Juan (Spanish, 18). They both seem very nice, now I bridge the gap between them because Juan speaks very little English.

The location is about 10 minutes from the university and about 15 min from "El Centro" (The center of the city) I live right next to the Metro (the bus and rail system), so it is easy travel. The neighborhood is quiet and there are not too many people .And I pay less than 300 a month, so not too bad.

And my language course....its going alright. Not to say that I haven't learned anything but if I could do it ll over (to me) it was not worth the cost. I have met some cool people and it is good that I was here early but I feel that if I had bought a book on Spanish grammar (my Achilles heel---English grammar too) and just arrived early and stayed at a hotel I would have been just as well. We take a final exam tomorrow to pass or fail but the exam for me is only a personal thing. I am in a level too low to apply to my degree(because of my great grammar skills) and since I pay for it myself my HOPE is unaffected.

Now that I have an apartment I can focus on other things. For instance, I have recently come to the conclusion that I am out of shape...so now it is time to find somewhere where I can row and a gym to go to to start exercising again. I have been able to go to the beach and it is really a very beautiful sight and all those surfers out there would love it because it has very nice waves (true I have been to the beach very few times and don't know a lot about waves but they seem nice).

I am going to admit I have no taken very many pictures at all so far...between searching for a room and class, I just have simply forgotten most times. I will try to remember in the future but now I still do not have much to show. Also I do not have internet in my room , I have to use the wireless at my university so oftentimes I forget my camera in my room. And since I do not want to walk the two blocks from my room to the school (I told you I was out of shape) I still have no pictures posted. So if none are posted very soon feel free to leave me a reminder.

The next important task: register at the school and, oh yeah ,I might want to find out what classes I am taking....(stay tuned)