First few day in Andorra

Here’s another long post. Be warned.
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Today is day six in Andorra, but it doesn’t feel like it. Without a routine, it’s hard to judge how much time has actually gone by.
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Here’s a summary of what’s been going on:
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Saturday: Say goodbye to Cassie at airport, board bus to Andorra, get taxi to aparthotel, and unpack. The ride to Andorra was beautiful, but I slept for about half of it. I took the big bus and it was full of older ladies returning from shopping in Barcelona. The thing I was most worried about was getting to the aparthotel after getting off the bus, since I had no plan, but there were taxis waiting right outside the bus stop. I spent the rest of the day unpacking and sleeping.
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Sunday: So the day before when I had checked in, the lady told me that I would be rooming with somebody from Oxford, but that she would be arriving on Monday. (I had a feeling that this was wrong because of a previous e-mail, but I was so tired that I didn’t care.) I spent the morning checking e-mail and unpacking, and then my roommate Alex from Boston arrived. She unpacked a little and then the two of us and another Fulbrighter named Marc went out for lunch and explored for a bit. There’s a really weird mural on this one building with clothed animals climbing around a tree and some strange blue spirit, with stone carvings of a Santa Claus figure, two gnomes, and some snowflakes. On the corner of the building are some life-size robotic teddy bears welcoming (or scaring away) customers to their shop. On the road to the center of town there is a faucet that has hot water coming out of it from some sort of thermal spring. There are also a couple of rivers running through the valley. One of the best discoveries of the day: finding a grocery store.
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Monday: Originally I had it in my head that orientation started on Monday, but the first of September is Tuesday. I started realizing this when I figured out that I arrived on the 29th and that there are 31 days in August. Of course I felt a little silly that I hadn’t thought of that before. In a way I got an extra free day so I’m not complaining. Alex and I started the day by trying to find a tourist office to get a map. We got lost and decided to head back to the aparthotel, where we saw two lost looking Americans standing outside with all of their luggage. It must be the last two Fulbrighters, we thought to ourselves. And of course we were right. So the five of us went back down through the city and had lunch, went to the grocery store again, and found out where we had to meet on Tuesday. That night the girl from Oxford actually did arrive, much to our surprise, but it turns out that she wanted her own room so it all worked out. There are two other Oxford students teaching with us, but they are staying with families.
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All of the other Fulbright grantees and Oxford students are great. Everyone has completely different personalities but I think we are probably all nerds (at least the Fulbrighters). It has been pretty intimidating to hear all of their accomplishments. I mean, lots of people I know think it's cool that I can speak a little Spanish, but these other four Fulbright students are legit! Way out of my league. Most studied linguistics in college and have spent years abroad, one in Barcelona, one in Italy, another in Bulgaria, one a summer in Tunisia. They all speak more languages than me and better Catalan. Most have more teaching experience than me. Sometimes when they all start talking about differnet linguistic things I have no idea what they're talking about, so I just kind of sit there and listen. It is easy to see why I was the alternate. On the other hand, I knew that it was a long shot applying for this as a math major, but I feel qualified for the English teaching job, so I am not too worried... yet. I know that it will be hard (I’ve heard rumors about how bad the kids at my school are), but first teaching jobs are always difficult. I’m just amazed that I managed to squeak by and get the job in the first place!
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Tuesday: This was our first day of orientation. We met up with Jordi, our coordinator from the Ministry of Education in Andorra. The first part of the morning was spent filling out paperwork for immigration. Lots of signatures and lots of copies taken of our passports. We also went to the bank where they made more copies of our passports. Jordi took us all over Andorra la Vella, showing us places like the youth center, the phone company, the Plaç a del Poble (kind of the center of town), and pointing out restaurants. We ended up at the immigration office to turn in all of our paperwork, leaving with instructions to come back the next day to find out the time of our hospital appointments. There was lots of walking and we were all exhausted by 2:00. I had woken up with only a half hour to get ready in the morning because I couldn’t hear my alarm with earplugs in (there is no A.C. so we leave the windows open, but it gets noisy), so I hadn’t eaten at all that day besides a coffee around noon. We all had lunch and then went back home to rest. Later that evening we hung out a little in the apartment where we saw a car hit a motorcycle. It took awhile for the ambulance to come and it was raining, but hopefully the guy was all right.
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Wednesday: We all meet and walk down to the immigration office to get our hospital appointments. I tried to talk to the lady in Spanish but she spoke English to me. This seems like a common occurrence here, so I will just have to keep trying to communicate in Spanish. Later we meet Jordi and he shows us more of the city. We have a short tour of the parliament building, La Casa de la Vall, see some of the old section of town (very small section, but all made of stone), and we go to all of the places offering free language classes. All of us sign up for Catalan classes and Catalan language partners, some sign up for Portuguese classes, and we can sign up for French classes in two weeks. I am planning on taking Catalan and French, and I would like to take Portuguese but I have a feeling that it would get overwhelming. It is so neat that they all offer free classes. Andorra, as well as Catalunya in Spain, are all into supporting the Catalan language, so it’s no surprise that they offer the classes. I don’t know why the Portuguese and French embassies offer language lessons, but I’m glad they do. We also stop at the bank again and open our accounts. It’s kind of disconcerting signing all of these documents in Catalan with no idea what they say. For example, half of us end up signing a form to get insurance for 5 euro, but the other half don’t. We have no idea what it’s for, but it sounded like death insurance. Weird. We also end up trekking about 20 minutes to a sport center on the top of a hill on a road with very, very narrow sidewalks. At the top Jordi tells us that there are also sports centers in each parish... think that the Oxford girls were a little mad about walking all the way up there, but Andrew, the boy from Oxford, doesn’t mind because he bought a big thing of pasta and eats it on the way. That night some of us go shopping and the cooks in the group (not me) make a feast of pa amb tomaquet (baguette with tomato, olive oil, and garlic), pasta with mussels and tomatoes, and cheese with more bread. And some wine from the funny store down the street. After dinner we all talk about our teaching jobs and what we expect them to be like. I can barely stay awake.
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Thursday (today): Each morning we have to wake up an hour earlier. Tuesday we met Jordi at 9:00, Wednesday we went to immigration at 8:00, and today we go to the hospital at 7:00. Alex and I decided that it was TOO EARLY when we looked outside the window and could still see stars. During the summer Fulbright made us do a full medical test, but immigration wants us to do another one. Can’t I just show them the results from June? No. So we all have to line up and give a blood sample and get poked for the tuberculosis test. One of the Oxford students freaks out that she will have a positive (or negative?) test result because she has already had the vaccination. She also doesn’t like needles. She doesn’t faint, but we did have to wait a good 20 minutes longer for her to come out, and the nurse had to get Alex to help her walk. It’s funny because the nurse didn’t give Alex the ppd test because she’d had it in June and there might be a bad reaction, but when I tell her that I had one in June, she says that I will have to come back later and get it, but right after she says this she goes ahead and gives it to me. So far nothing bad has happened… Later those of us working in Santa Coloma meet Jordi and he drives us to our schools where we meet the English teachers. My school looks like a factory on the outside, and the playground looks like a prison yard. But the teachers are so nice! I spent about and hour and a half at the school learning about the lesson plans and how the schedule works, all the teachers go to a bar for some coffee, and then I leave while they go to a meeting. Even if the kids turn out to be awful, the faculty seems to be wonderful. Afterward I take the bus to Andorra la Vella (first time on the bus here: success). I feel like I know the main streets pretty well. I go to the bank and get my bank card (we’ve already been paid so that’s a relief), go to the bookstore for a pocket Catalan dictionary, go to a giant French department store to find a planner, and buy some lunch. It is such a small place that I am really feeling like I know where things are. With everything at the bank, the aparthotel, and the school all in order, now all I need is to get some phone service and my residence license figured out.
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It's been pretty hectic so far trying to get things all in order, so I am looking forward to the weekend. Some people talked about going on a hike and that sounds fun. We will be going to Madrid the 7th - 10th for the Spanish Fulbright orientation. It's hard to say how things will be during the year, but I'm hopeful. And a little tired.
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Random pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/kelsey.maass/ElConseller?feat=directlink