Dogsitting

So, I now seem to be looking after a dog as well as two little girls, not something I expected to be doing! She belongs to the girls' uncle's family (mum's brother) but she's going to be with us until Friday. Her name's India and she's a brown and white Spaniel. She arrived last night but as I was out with friends I didn't see her until this morning. I soon found out that she's scared of pretty much everything, she stared at me and ran away when she first saw me! Carlota explained that her previous owner was a hunter who mistreated her which is why she's now scared of all people she doesn't know and loud noises. 

As this was my last free morning while the girls are at school, my plan had been to go into the city centre and make the most of it. However, India had other ideas! She refused to go anywhere near the kitchen where she has to stay when alone in the flat and the girls begged me to bring her with us on the school run so, in the end, that's what happened. The suburb where we live, Montecarmelo, is quite a long way out so by the time I get into the city centre I don't have much time there as it is and India seemed to be full of energy, so I decided to change my plans for the morning and go for a walk with her instead. 

The only place you can really go with a dog here is the bike track so that's where we went. India seemed to enjoy exploring somewhere new and we got lots of comments from passers-by. We stopped to talk to a couple of gentlemen who were trying to be friendly to her, but of course she was scared of them too! We walked for about an hour an a half before returning home where she drank a full bowl of water. The walk seems to have worked as she's warmed to me now and allowed me to stroke her! She also let me shut her in the kitchen for a bit so that I could go to the post office to send some cards.

It seems that Mónica madre is more worried about the dog than her two girls. She left me a note with a load of instructions and rang me to confirm this morning. She's also been texting me to check up on us! This is the first time the family have looked after the dog for more than a day so she's quite nervous about it as they've never owned a dog themselves.

The only worrying thing right now is that I have either developed a cold or am allergic to her... 

India

A well-behaved dog!

The bike trail - it would be quite nice without the motorway and pylons spoiling the view!

Not entirely sure how far it goes as we stopped when we hit a motorway

Peacocks, black swans, ducklings, results and new Spanish friends

The girls finish school tomorrow so I now only have one free morning left! This morning I went to the Jardines del Moro (royal gardens behind the royal palace) as Mónica madre recommended. I got the metro to Principe Pio and managed to leave from the wrong exit and wander around a little before going back into the station and leaving from the right one. Mónica had told me to go left out of the station but I soon found out it was more of a straight-on left than directly left as I found myself at the wrong gate to the gardens (there is only one gate through which visitors are allowed to enter and leave). I got there in the end though and it was definitely worth it. As you enter the main gate you get a view of the palace on the other side of green lawns and a fountain.

 It was a weekday morning so there were not many people around. The gardeners were busy at work and there were sprinklers watering the plants everywhere. I had to run at times to avoid getting wet! I'm sure in the UK gardens don't need these as we get enough rain. Some of the grass still looked dry despite the sprinklers.

Back to the title of this post. There were so many birds in the gardens! I was just reading the information about the gardens when a group of four peacocks casually walked towards me - an adult male, an adult female and two peachicks (thanks Google for that one!). I continued walking around for a bit and came across a pond with lots of ducks and, more interesting, two black swans. I don't think I'd ever seen a black swan before! I'm not even sure I new they existed before the film. Walking around the gardens a bit more, I saw a bunch of ducklings with their mother. I hadn't planned on bird-watching this morning but it seems that that became my morning activity!

I had planned to post this much earlier but got distracted by results which came out early today. I got an average of 65% for the year, a 2:1, so was pretty happy although slightly annoyed that I didn't get a first like last year when it didn't count! My worst mark was in Spanish (57%) so it's probably a good idea that I'm here practising now. 

I then went out to meet some Spanish friends who I met at intercambio last week. The idea was to go to an Irish pub for another intercambio but the reality was that I don't think you could really call it an intercambio at all. It was much more formal than the other gatherings I'd been to. Everyone was sitting at tables in a circle facing the founder, an Irish man who founded the group 30 years ago. Although they called it an intercambio, a better name would be "English debating society" as everyone there, apart from the leader, was Spanish wanting to practise English. There were about 30 people and the way it worked was for each person to introduce themselves - name, what they do, their hobbies etc. - before the Irish guy announced a topic for debate and everyone had 30 seconds to voice their opinion on the subject. There seemed to be a number of rules for the group:

 1. Don't be late, be there at 8.30pm sharp - he was annoyed with us for turning up late but we'd been sitting at the other end of the pub, oblivious to the fact that they were in a separate room, before asking the barman if there really was an intercambio tonight.
2. Only one person can talk at a time - for Spanish people this is very difficult. In most Spanish conversations you need to fight to be heard, everyone talks over each other. It was particularly strange as we were debating and you could only express your views within your 30 second slot meaning that no one really got very long to speak.
3. You are not allowed to talk about politics, religion or sex - at first when he said this, I thought "fair enough, they're controversial topics", but the first topic for debate was "should the government give students a one-way ticket abroad". Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the government is to do with politics?

We got to a break and the four of us told him that we were off to pay for our drinks and food at the bar before slipping out of the pub completely, really not what we were expecting! Instead, we went to another place where we could have our own intercambio, talking in both languages, talking about topics we were interested in and having more than 30 seconds at a time to talk! It ended up being a really nice evening and we've agreed to meet again soon sometime in the near future. Yay, I have Spanish friends!

Back to school!

Yesterday was not only back to school for Carlota after being ill, but I went to school too. Mónica had told her English teachers about me and they had invited me into class to talk to the children. The girls' school is now bilingual and has been for a few years. As Carlota was there before the change, she doesn't have anywhere near as many English lessons as her sister (2 a week compared with Mónica sometimes having 2 a day). I had met the auxiliar de ingles (English teaching assistant)  for Mónica's class last week - Tessa, a girl from South Carolina - so she met me at the main entrance and walked with me up to the classroom. Once I got there I met the another auxiliar, Ronan from Northern Ireland, and the children's English teacher, Elena, who had spent some time in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA.

I had two classes with Elena and two classes with another teacher, Sara, after the break. Each lesson started off with the children asking me questions. Elena also showed them where Manchester is on a map in relation to Spain, Northern Ireland and the USA. These are the questions I was most often asked:

"What is your name?" "Imogen... but call me Imi" (Spanish people really struggle with my name, some Americans I've met here have struggled too!)

"Where are you from?" "Manchester in England."
This was sometimes followed by "Manchester United or Manchester City?" Neither, I don't really like football.

"What are you doing in Spain?" In the first lesson, this was answered by Mónica very very quietly. She's like a completely different girl in class, so quiet and shy! The auxiliars  didn't believe me when I said she was the opposite at home. In the other classes I had to explain that I was an au pair living with Mónica and Carlota. Many of them knew the girls and a few told me things or asked questions about them.

"Do you like Spain?" "Yes"

"Have you been to Spain before?" "Yes. I have been to Barcelona twice and Segovia once but this is my first time in Madrid"

"How long will you be here?" "Until August, two months"

"Can you speak Spanish?" "Yes, I study Spanish, French and Chinese at university"

"Can you speak Spanish now?" "No, this is an English lesson"

"Ooo, Chinese. How do you say house? Can you write it?" (They sometimes wanted to know hello and goodbye as well and I ended up writing Chinese characters on the board!)

"What's your favourite colour?" "Purple"

"What is your favourite sport?" "Swimming, I am a swimming teacher"

"Do you like football?" "No"

"Do you like basketball?" "No really"

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" "I have two brothers"

Followed by "What are their names?" "Fraser and Ethan"
"How old are they?" "18 and 13"

There were plenty of other questions but you get the idea! After question time was story time. In the first class, one of the mums had come into to read to them. She had lived in the US between the ages of 5 and 10 and now works as a translator, translating Disney films amongst other things. Elena decided that as we had three English speakers (Tessa didn't count as she had a sore throat and barely any voice), we could tell the story together reading a page each. At the end of the story, she asked the kids whose accent was easiest to understand and they said Tessa's (even though she didn't speak) followed by Ronan's Northern Irish accent (really?!). This same lesson format was repeated for the next three classes, minus Nora's mum. I think I read "How to catch a star" three times! The children were really sweet though and fairly well behaved given that they were aged 7-8.

At break time I went to the staffroom and was treated to cake and coffee along with all the teachers and auxiliars. I got to speak Spanish with some of them so it wasn't a completely English morning.

If the children continue learning English at that rate, they will be so good! I was surprised that the whole lesson was conducted in English seeing as I don't think I had a lesson completely in a foreign language until at least AS level!

Funky nails and beautiful sunshine

I've had a day in today as Carlota's not very well so didn't go into school. I force feed her her medicine, she abolutely hates it. This morning we tried mixing it with fruit juice but yoghurt seemed to work better this afternoon! We spent a bit of time together watching TV, reading a bilingual story book and, most exciting of all, painting our nails. We went out to one of the local Chinese shops and bought four new colours before getting back to the flat and having our own nail salon! The girls are really into a nail salon game on the family tablet, always playing it and making new designs, so they loved doing it in real life! Carlota wanted to paint mine first so she lined up all the nail varnishes we had (about 13 in the end as I'd brought five with me and they already had some at home. As she hasn't been very well, I allowed her to do exactly what she wanted with my nails so of course I now have multicoloured nails! She decided on something a bit less crazy for herself, opting for the green and purple I'd brought from home. They must have been the smallest nails I've ever painted as she has a nasty habit of biting them! I then went to pick Mónica up from school and she got very excited when she saw what our morning activity had been. I painted hers when we got back in - also multicoloured like mine but with white dots done with a toothpick. We had a lot of fun with it but I think it's safe to say that none of us will ever work in a real nail salon!

What happens when you let a 10-year-old paint your nails. My toes are done the same!

Yesterday I went back to Retiro park in the centre, don't think I can ever get bored of that place! The weather was amazing, really sunny and almost unbearably hot (unlike today when we've had a cloudy sky and cooler weather). The park was bustling with people with it being a Sunday and also the last day of the book fair. Jose gave me a lift there as he planned to go and get some books. I've never seen anything like the Madrid book fair before. A long line of stalls selling all kinds of books and, at times, their authors/illustrators were there to sign them. We'd all gone the weekend before but the weather hadn't been as kind to us so it was good to go back. After that I spent a while wandering around the park, still discovering new things even after walking around it for almost two hours last Monday. It was great to see so many people out enjoying the sunshine and the street performers were out in force! I'm just glad I didn't burn given the weather. 

Madrid Book Fair

There were even people doing a bit of Taichi! Was quite tempted to join in.

Slanted tree

Beautiful sunshine

The boating lake

Making friends!

After a week here, I only really had one problem. The family are lovely, the weather's been good and my job's pretty simple but I had started to feel a bit lonely. I hadn't really met anyone my own age, just children and parents, so needed to go out and make some friends. I'd heard about these intercambio de idiomas (language exchange) nights in bars so decided to try some out. The one I chose to go to was at J & J Books and Coffee near Noviciado metro station. There are intercambio nights there on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays starting at 8pm. Through my online research, I found that many of these other intercambio nights started later during the week, 9:30/10pm, which didn't suit me as well as I didn't want to go out so late at night.

I went for the first time on Wednesday and found my way there without any problems.  When I arrived, there were two guys standing outside speaking English so I knew I'd found the right place! Everyone there was very friendly and happy to talk. The way the intercambio works is that you stand around  with a couple of drinks in small groups of English and Spanish speakers and have a chat in both languages so that people can practise the one that they are learning at the same time as meeting new people and socialising. By the end of the night, I'd spoken to a mixture of Spanish, American and English people and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Unfortunately, I ended up speaking far more English than Spanish but I couldn't wait to return the next night to meet some more people!

Last night I returned to the bar where there was a slightly different crowd than the previous night. There were a couple of faces from the night before but the majority were new people to me. This time I spoke quite a bit more Spanish as I got chatting to a Colombian guy who seemed happy to talk in Spanish rather than English. The rest of our little group comprised of two German guys practising Spanish and the guy I'd met on the plane, the first time I'd seen him since arriving in Madrid! After the two evenings, I've gained a few phone numbers so maybe those will develop into friendships, although I will definitely continue going along to intercambio nights regardless. 

I would highly recommend them to anyone learning Spanish who happens to be in Madrid (they probably have them in other cities too). Even if you can't speak Spanish, it's a good place to meet other English speakers and help Spanish people out with learning English.

The pool's now open! (and it's very cold) + more sightseeing

A new activity has been added to our daily routine, we now go swimming straight after school. The communal outdoor pool for the appartment complex, or urbanización, opened on Saturday but over the weekend we experienced some quite British weather here (rain, sun, rain, clouds, rain, sun) so we didn't go until Monday. The opening hours are from 11.30am until 9pm but it closes in the rain, you can only go when there is a lifeguard on duty. I thought they were exaggerating when they told me it would be cold. Here they walk around in jeans and jackets when, if we were fortunate enough to get the same weather in the UK, you'd see men walking around in just shorts. However, they were most definitely telling the truth. When we went down to the pool yesterday after school, the people sitting around outside stared at us in horror "You're going swimming? But it's so cold!".Unphased, we carried on to the empty pool. The lifeguard was sitting there looking bored out of his mind. I gradually went down the steps before taking the plunge and swimming a couple of lengths while the girls splashed around a bit before having enough of the freezing cold water.

Thankfully, since then, we've had some great sunny, hot weather which has begun to heat it up slightly. It's still cold but not as unbearably so. The parents have asked that I give the girls some lessons in July when they don't have school, the pool's warmer and we've got more time. Time to start learning swimming vocab! (as the children could potentially drown, I'm supposed to speak Spanish with them in the pool). The girls seem to enjoy watching me swim more than anything else. Yesterday they threw all of their diving sticks and got me to collect them in one go and today they just wanted to see me do lots and lots of butterfly! The girls themselves don't seem to be able to swim that well so I'm hoping that I can help them in July. Mónica doesn't seem to mind the cold water as much as Carlota so stays in longer but is much happier when in the shallow end. From what I've seen of Carlota's swimming (not much as she doesn't stay in that long), she seems to know some of the basics but there's room for lots of improvement! It's not really surprising though seeing as they only get to go swimming in the summers as they didn't enjoy their swimming lessons. 

UPDATE: The pool in the morning before it's open

I've been trying to get out a bit more in the mornings now that I'm more used to everything here so went back to Retiro park Monday morning and went to the rooftop terrace of Circulo de Bellas Artes this morning to get some great views of the city in the sunshine!              

Retiro park on Monday

                

Inside the Palacio de Cristal in Retiro Park

 

Retiro park on Monday

     
                             

Stunning views of the city - well worth the 3 euros!

The rooftop terrace

I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but I think I'm actually starting to change colour!

My daily routine

I haven't written a post in a while so be prepared for a long one!

I've survived my first week here now and I think everything's gone pretty well so far. You might have seen a bit of what I've been up to on my other posts but I've been doing so much that I haven't had time to write about! 

I completed my first "working week" on Friday which seemed to go ok, could have been better, could have been worse. It's been a bit hard to know exactly what's expected of me with regards to house rules, speaking English/speaking Spanish etc. The girls are still at school until the end of June but finish at 1 rather than 4. In previous years the girls have had to stay in school until 3pm when their mum could pick them up after work so this year it's all a bit of a new routine for them as well as for me.

I set my alarm for 7/7.30am (depending on whether I'm planning a shower or not) and get up, get dressed, make coffee and get the breakfast ready. At 8am I go into the girls' room to wake them up, open the blinds and say "Good morning! Wakey, wakey!". This has worked to various degrees throughout the week as the girls have got more tired. We then have breakfast together. After breakfast, Carlota has to have some medicine for fatigue which comes in little glass vials. I learnt the hard way that to open these you need to snap both ends off before pouring it into a glass - I cut my thumb on the first day! I've learnt that it's best to use a tea towel to avoid this... The girls get dressed, brush their teeth, get their bags ready and off we go to school.

The walk to school takes about 10 mins and once we get there, we say our goodbyes and the girls go in with their friends. I then have the morning free to do whatever I fancy. As it was the first week, I haven't been particularly adventurous. My aim has been to go out somewhere every day so if I know that Mónica's got something planned for the afternoon, I've stayed in in the mornings. I've had to send various emails to do with China and have been learning more Spanish vocab so I've kept myself busy. On Tuesday I did go into the centre though, something I should do more often. The problem is that by the time I've got there, I've only got about 2 hours before I have to go back!

I pick the girls up from school at 1pm and we walk back to the flat. I try to make light conversation with them in English but there are times that they are more willing to talk than others. It tends to be Carlota who's more keen to talk in English, being the eldest. We play "I spy" or "Yesterday, I went to the supermarket and I bought... ". Hopefully Mónica will join in with us soon! Mónica madre tends to prepare our meals for lunch the night before and all I have to do is heat it up. So far we've had lentils twice, pasta with tomatoes, tuna and olives twice and puré (a thick soup) with hake (this last one has to be my least favourite!). The problem is that the girls constantly want to watch the tele while they're eating. On the first day we ate in the kitchen but on the second, they rang their mum and asked if they could eat in front of the TV. She said that they could so then I was a bit confused as to where exactly they were supposed to eat. I'd never been allowed to eat in from of the TV as a child! Yesterday I spoke to José and found out that this is not allowed. Seems I may have to argue with the girls a little bit next week... 

The girls then have homework to do before we play together. 

There's a little Mónica somewhere beneath all those teddies!

The girls love arts and crafts. Carlota had a friend round the other day, as Mónica was at a friend's house, so we went out and bought some coloured foamy/plasticy stuff to make things out of from one of the "Chinese shops". The top two are Carlota's bird and Chinese girl, the bottom left one is Carlota's "here's one I made earlier" and the bottom right one is my fish!

Mónica madre gets back from work at about 3/3.30pm so then I'm free again unless we go out somewhere together like we did on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. On Thursday evening I went into the centre to the Reina Sofia art gallery as it's free between 7 and 9pm. I went in a little bit early so that I could have a look around the area. The queue was massive so I only really had time to see the temporary Dalí exhibition which was well worth the wait. Mónica and José told me afterwards that they'd been wanting to go so I may go back to see it again with them! As well as the famous paintings of melted clocks were many other paintings throughout his career, two films, poems and some 3D art. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed.

Reina Sofia art gallery

One of Madrid's older streets near the gallery

Old vs. New

The Ministry of Agriculture

Atocha Train Station

Yesterday I sat down and had a chat with José about how we thought things were going. He asked me if I was happy with how everything had gone or if I needed anything to which I told him that everything was fine. He said that his main concern was that he wanted me to talk to the girls in English a bit more, that I could practise my Spanish the rest of the time with him and Mónica madre. He's also trying to improve his English by going to evening classes so wants to sit down with me for an hour a week to talk English/Spanish so that we can help each other improve, at the moment though, he seems a bit shy to talk to me in my native language!

After the chat he gave me my pocket money for the week and we went out to the Retiro park before going to the grandparents' (Mónica's parents) appartment for lunch where I met not only the grandparents, but also two uncles and the wife of one of them. Unfortunately, it was raining that day so I didn't take many photos! I will definitely go back to Retiro park though as it's massive and I'm sure there's plenty to see.

Hasta luego!

Being a tourist

So... back to Spain after my last post. Those of you who have me on Facebook will be able to see that I have put a few photos on there from the last couple of days but am yet to write about them/put some on here.

Me in front of the Palacio Real in the Sabatini gardens

On Tuesday I went into the city centre in the morning between dropping the girls off and picking them up from school. It was nice to go in on my own and take my time. I had to be wary of how much time I had though as it takes about 40 mins on the metro and I didn't want to be late getting the girls from school! I had a bit of a wander around the streets, something I enjoy doing, as away from the tourist hotspots you can really see what a city's like and get to know it. I got the metro to Plaza de España so had a bit of a walk around that area and the square itself with the monument to Cervantes. From there I followed signs to the Royal Palace to get a better look at it. This time I went to the other section of Sabatini's gardens and had a look round. Two ladies asked me to take a photo of them and one of them took a couple of me in return which was nice. 

Plaza de España with monument to Cervantes

Yesterday afternoon Mónica, the girls and I went to visit another of the royal palaces. This one was in El Pardo, about a 10 minute drive away from the appartment. The palace started off as a hunting lodge for the royal family but developed over time. Hunting still takes place in that area today and the local restaurant serve up meat that has been killed there. Apparently it's very popular to go to these restaurants for special occasions such as weddings and first communions. The first thing we did was go to see the animals to keep the girls happy. We parked right by the hunting ground and saw a couple of wild boar who will undoubtedly be killed soon for their meat. Apparently there are deer there as well. We went to see the goats in their pen and the girls enjoyed feeding them spaghetti that they found on the ground.

Boar behind the fence of the hunting ground

After the civil war, Franco, the Spanish dictator, lived there. We were able to have a walk around the gardens and go into the palace for free as we were there late in the day (6.30pm). The royal family still use the palace for some events so I got shouted at for trying to take photos inside! There was a security check on the way in and we had to go on a group tour around the palace with a security guard following us as we went round, turning the lights off. Was quite a strange experience! The palace was a funny mix of old, colourful tapestries with religious images/hunting scenes, elegant furniture and rugs and Franco's possessions including his bedroom as it would have been when he lived there. It was a funny juxtapostition of royal elegance and more modern inventions like Franco's giant globe in his office and his radio and television set in another room. We also got to see a very modern looking sitting room complete with modern sofas and flatscreen TV which is clearly used by the royal family when they visit. The three courtyards now have glass rooves and are used for various social events.

Palacio Real de El Pardo

Huge trees in the palace gardens

 Hasta luego!

Am I actually going to China?

Although it says in my first post on here that I'm going to Xiamen University in China this September for my year abroad, this is still not certain. I sincerely hope I am as I have been looking forward to it so long, but at the moment the subject is quite frustrating. There has been a bit of a lack of organisation throughout the year abroad preparation which means that I still do not have a confirmed place there. I've put this down to this being a new exchange programme and the university not being used to sending people to China, but it is still annoying. We got an email on Thursday saying "Oh, btw, you need to apply and the deadline's on Saturday", brilliant.

Bearing in mind, I was at home in Manchester and left the UK for Madrid on Saturday, I had limited time to acquire an academic transcript, fill in my application form, get a recommendation letter, write a study plan (thankfully I'd already written one for my scholarship application), get a photocopy of my passport and send all this off in the post to China. I somehow managed to get this all done on Friday and felt relieved at getting it out of the way. I emailed the contact in China with the postal receipt and explained that I'd done everything to the best of my ability. I've received emails from her since asking me to complete everything I've already done and send it all to her (which I've already done). The last one was this morning. Hopefully this will all sort itself out but at the moment it's a source of stress that I could do without. I'll write an update when I know more. Rant over.

TL;DR Everything to do with my year abroad is disorganised and it's stressing me out. Hopefully I'll still get to go to China.

Sorry for all that, I'll write some lighter posts about Spanish life soon!

Reliving childhood

Today was my first real test as an au pair, the first day that I had to look after the girls on my own. Jose stayed later than normal in the morning to see that everything went smoothly before I walked the girls to school (10 mins away). I then had the morning to myself to catch up on iplayer before picking the girls up at 1, reheating the lentils with chorizo, potato, carrot and leak for lunch, playing with the girls and making sure they got their homework done. 

I forgot how much I love Duplo! Yesterday we went to a shopping centre to get a Spanish SIM card for me and shoes for the girls before heading to a science museum later on. It is just like being a child again! I get money for this?

Duplo contructions. The one on the left with the stairs in Mónica's and the one next to it (not quite sure what it's meant to be) is mine

When Mónica snr came back from work we went into the centre of Madrid so that I could be a tourist seeing the sights. Mónica prooved to be a good guide although we couldn't really stay anywhere that long as the girls would get bored. We still managed to see the Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, the cathedral and the Royal Palace.

Puerta del Sol, the centre of the Spanish road network

As you can see from the above photo, the weather's amazing at the moment, really sunny and warm. I've already managed to burn a little bit... I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to explore the city on my own and the parents have given me a metro ticket and map so that I can do it. Don't think there's any way I can get bored of this place!

¡Bienvenida a España!

I'm writing this from my new room in the family's appartment in a modern suburb of Madrid. The eldest daughter, Carlota, who's 10 has kindly given the room up for me and is sleeping in the same room as her sister, Mónica, 7.

My dad drove me to Liverpool John Lennon Airport this morning as, after much deliberation, I decided it was worth it for the cheap EasyJet flight! It was online check-in so all I had to was drop my bag off and sit in Starbucks for a bit with my dad before going through security and into Duty-Free. I decided I'd get the girls something touristy so went for tins of fudge and jelly babies shaped as a red phone box and a red London bus with slots in the top so they can be used to keep coins in once the sweets are gone. A little bit naff but the girls seemed to like them!

The flight was fine. Ended up talking to the people I was sitting with - a lady from Catalunya who now lives in Cumbria and a guy teaching History (in English) at a school in Madrid. It made the journey go quickly and we had interesting conversations about travelling, languages etc. The lady was able to provide us an insight into growing up speaking Catalan when Spain was under Franco. The guy was quite a lot closer to my age and was able to give me useful advice for things to do in Madrid. Afterwards, he gave me his number so that we can meet up and he can introduce me to friends. Yay, one friend already!

The whole family were there waiting at the airport to meet me and off we went in the car. I chatted quite a bit with the parents, Mónica and José but the girls are a little bit shy for the moment. I've been assured that they will get louder the longer I know them though! Once we got to the appartment I got given a mini tour before the parents went off food shopping and let me get settled in my new room with the girls. They then showed me the swimming pool (which opens next Saturday as it's empty at the moment) and the communal outside area for the appartments, full of children playing. We then met with some friends of the family for a walk around the area before going to a café for very cheap yet tasty sandwiches, crisps and chips. (I later found out that it was called 100 Montaditos which is a chain and seems to be everywhere in Madrid! The other big chain is La Sureña where you can get a bucket of 5 beers for three euros.)

They've let me get to bed early now as I'm tired after my journey and packing late last night. Tomorrow they're going to show me the girls' school as I will be taking them and picking them up from there at 9am and 1pm for the next few weeks. I think they're then going to show me the metro station and, if we have time, go into Madrid. So far so good!

My new room! (Or Carlota's room)

Carlota's left me little notes to protect her things. Don't think she trusts me!

Another note from Carlota

A balloon brooch made for me by Carlota