UN PISO!

So I will begin my story with a mini story from last night... I have been getting tired of Spanish food a little bit already, what with the crazy meats and ways of preparing them, so as I was complaining to a friend about this from back in the US, he said, "Why don't you look for a pizza place? I bet they have one, and the pizza in Europe is really good!" So with this advice in mind, I said to Will, "WILL. We are going to eat PIZZA tonight. Something I'm FAMILIAR with." And he said, "That sounds good. Let's look at the map." Will is a pretty chill guy. He is basically along for the ride, and that's nice because it forces me to actually make some decisions every now and then.

So we get to pizza, where we meet up with James who is from the UK, a Brett, who is from Iowa. They are both very skinny and they make me a tiny bit edgy... I'm not used to them, I like having Will around. So Will and I order good old Pepperoni Pizza... and I am not disappointed!!! The pizza was AMAZING, I could NOT stop ranting about it and how delicious it was and how this place will be my new go-to restaurant (they had at least 30different types of pizza, a ton of pasta, lasagna, and salads... perfect!). Basically, it made my entire day. We ended the day by drinking copious amounts of wine, to which I can only say, I salute my Senior Year roommates.

Then today I woke up and usually I knock on Will's door so we can start our random adventures of the day, but this morning he wasn't there. So I continued on my way and did a little walk around the town, visiting my favorite spots (El fuente del Rey, the Barrio de la Villa, El Adarve). I walked past the towns castle and was surprised to see that it was actually open! So I went in and paid the 2 euro and did some exploring by myself. I was able to walk along the top of it and see all of Priego de Cordoba, as well as the places where archers stood to shoot at enemies and other sorts of castle repitoire. I also went into the tower, which was pretty exhillerating as well. All I kept thinking was, "I'm in a castle... I'm in a freaking castle!" I touched the walls like they were made of gold, and I continually shook my head... I'm sure that after awhile in Europe castles get old, but this was my FIRST castle. Pretty awesome.

Later today I met up with my program director to look at the house his sister-in-law owned. With him came a Spanish woman, probably in her late 20's or early 30's, named Maria who is a temporary teacher at my school (until January). I immediately liked her. She was friendly and though she spoke rapid Spanish, I could understand her about 3/4ths of the time, and I felt comfortable speaking Spanish to her. I swear, in 3 hours I spoke more Spanish than all my time in Spain so far. But anyways, we went and looked at the house together, and though we both liked it, we decided it was too far away from our school to rent. So we walked with my program director, Fran, back to his car, at which point he asked me if I would like to go with him to meet up with the other guy who will be a Language and Culture Assistant at my school, James the British Guy, and I said no, I'd rather stay with Maria and look for apartments. So it was decided that we would live together.

For the next 3 hours, we walked EVERYWHERE in Priego, looking for a place to live. They have "Se alquila" (For Rent) signs all over, hanging on the balconies of the places that were for rent, or they had advertisements just posted on windows or lamp posts (which were totally legitimate ways to advertise this). So we walked around, looking up at the balconies, and if we found something she would call them and speak to them in Spanish for awhile... or she would ask people if they knew of anyone near that location that was renting a "piso" (apartment). Honestly, she was a gift from God. There is NO WAY I could have done ANYTHING without her. So after about 2 and a half hours, she gets a call from one of the teachers we had met and passed on our adventure. Suddenly she is ecstatic, speaking in rapid Spanish, saying things that I don't understand at all, and just generally hopping up and down... I thought she was going to pee her pants. We walk to the library, which is a sort of monument and easily spotted building in the town, and suddenly our teacher friend is there, with another man and some girls about my age. The man turns out to be the director of one of the schools, and one of the girls with him is his daughter, and another is one of his daughters friends, Magda, from Poland. Apparently Magda has rented a vacant apartment that the director owns, and she was looking for roommates. She has 2 rooms left. So we bounce off to look at her apartment with the director in tow. When we get there, we look around and decide that yes, we like it! We THEN find out that he is only going to charge us 100 EURO EACH for the apartment, and will set up the internet for us, for which we will have to split 40 Euro 3 ways... It's a STEAL and Maria and I high-five each other. The girl from Poland doesn't speak any Spanish but she is taking a class, and her English is rather broken. Maria speaks a little bit of English, but not much. So our roommate communication will be rather interesting, but I'm extremely excited! Tomorrow I have to go pick up the key from the director around 1:00, and I can't move in until Magda gets back to the apartment at 2:30, but I'm SO HAPPY! My wishes have come true... I'm living with a Spaniard AND it's extremely inexpensive!

So now I'm off to celebrate with Will... he also found an apartment today, and just in time, because tonight is our last pre-paid night at Hostal Rafi. We are going to go drink a bottle of wine and perhaps watch a Spanish soap opera. BUENAS NOCHES!!