The hunt for a piso

            Right after meeting the other auxiliares, I headed to meet Eva, a teacher at one of the Barbate schools, who has an extra bedroom I was considering renting.  Something you need to know about Barbate: it’s a beach town.  Many of the apartments available for rent are used predominantly as summer vacation rentals, and because Barbate doesn’t get as much tourism when it’s not summer, there are a lot of pisos available at really good prices. 

            Eva was perfectly lovely and her piso was nice, but she didn’t want to get wifi, which was a bit of a deal breaker for me (without it, how am I supposed to keep all you lovely people up to date?!).  Luckily, Charlotte had mentioned that she had an extra bedroom in her apartment and that I could swing by and check it out.  So I did, and I took it!  It just felt right.  It was a bit bizarre, I had met her three hours earlier and we were already roomies, but we’ve been getting along really well so far, and she’s awesome so I’m not worried.  So without further ado, introducing my new roommate, Charlotte!

First (of many, I'm sure) roomie pic!

Basic things you need to know about Charlotte:

•  She’s British.  I mentioned this in my last post but it’s so great it can’t be said enough.  We are learning so many new words from each other.  I have a list going of all the things we say differently in the States vs how they say it in England.  My favorite so far is that the brits call snapping (like with your fingers) ‘clicking.’ We’ve been joking that we’re going to end up learning two new languages this year instead of just one. 
•  She’s the only other person I’ve ever met that only eats half of a hamburger bun.  It must be fate.
• She thinks I am crazy for bringing my huge jar of peanut butter with me to Spain.  This just confirms that I was right in bringing it, because everyone else on the planet has yet to see PB for what it is: the best thing ever. 
• She's from Middlewich, which is in Cheshire.  It's halfway between Manchester and Liverpool.  My favorite tidbit about her hometown is that it's one town over from where Harry Styles of One Direction is from.  
•  She studies history and Spanish at uni.  Because it’s not called college.  It’s uni.  Duh.
•  Neither of us likes olives, and both of our dads are colorblind.  These aren’t really related to anything but clearly means that we will be perfect roommates. 

            As if it’s not great enough that I have a British roommate, our piso is literally ON THE BEACH.  If that doesn’t make you want to buy a plane ticket to España right now, I don’t know what will. 

I'm standing on the becah probably 20 or so feet from the water looking back at the town.   The red building (aka the one indicated by the convenient green circle) is where Charlotte and I live.

            We live on the first floor, which for those America-minded folks out there is what you would consider the second floor.  You enter on the ground floor, or zero floor, and walk up a flight of stairs to the first floor.  There’s also a comically small elevator (or lift, as Charlotte would call it), that was super convenient for getting my huge bags up here but probably won’t be used much besides that.  Because I know you’re at the edge of your seat, I’ll hold out no longer.  Here comes the photo tour of my piso. 

What you see when you walk in the door.  The first door on the right is a hallway that leads to the bedrooms and bathroom.  The second is the kitchen.

The kitchen is a leeeetle small, but it'll work.  We're pretty sure that large circle thing in the back corner is for paella.  We'll definitely be experimenting with that.

My room! Notice the sweet bunk beds.  I have a giant armoire and bookshelf that are just out of the shot as well.  

  

Our terrace! The tiles on the walls and floor are muy español

For this one I leaned our of the windows on our terrace and LOOK HOW CLOSE THAT OCEAN IS.

            One of my favorite things about our apartment is that we have roof access.  Our building has 4 stories so from up on the roof you get a great view of the entire beach on one side and the entire town on the other.  Also, when conditions are right (like in the photo below), YOU CAN SEE MOROCCO. 

Take that, Sarah Palin.

            I wasn’t able to get a picture of the bathroom so you’ll just have to take my word that it exists.  There are two exciting things about it, though.  At least I think they’re pretty cool.  It’s decorated with green accents (my fave color), like the shower curtain and soap dispenser.  It also has a bidet, which is just fun for the novelty of it.  We haven’t been brave enough to even turn it on yet.  We’ll get there. 

            I hope you’ve enjoyed the photo tour of mi piso!  Maybe if this whole engineering thing doesn’t work out I can have a future as a real estate agent?  It’s always good to have a plan B.

Watch for next: getting settled in my new home!