Moving in

Well I'm finally settled in my Puerto de Mazarron apartment, but it was definitely a long trip that I got through (surprisingly) without a hitch.  It began Wednesday afternoon when I took of from SeaTac around 1:30.  From there, I flew to Amsterdam (sitting next to a smelly European man that just had to take video of our takeoff - and here I am, vying for the title of Most Paranoid Flier), jogged to my connection to Madrid, and then once in the Madrid airport, had about five hours to figure out exactly how one could get to the bus station with multiple bags and jump on the only bus to Puerto.  It turned out to be far easier than my internet searches had led me to believe since I could take the highly efficient Madrid metro right to the bus station and could actually buy a ticket in the airport.  The one snag that really stressed me out was that my old Spanish cellphone no longer worked (the prepaid minutes probably expired last year) and I had to find a payphone so that I could call my roommates and pay for internet so that my mom wouldn't freak out.
The bus station was a whole different adventure.  As I told my mom in an email, " maybe it was the lack of sleep, but I thought it was a really good idea to latch my suitcases together with my belt."  By the time that I finally reached the buses, I had been awake for about 24 hours (planes are not good for me...something about neurosis...) and could barely keep my eyes open.  The station is packed with people, some travelers and merchants and who knows what else, and since I had four bags, I just didn't have enough limbs to secure them all.  In the end, I wandered into a cafeteria where I could be away from  99% of the crowd and eat a sandwich.  After a seemingly endless wait, it was finally time to board the large bus (which had internet, trays, mostly comfy seats, and only about 15 passengers) where I could finally sleep.
Six hours later (around 11:30 pm), the bus pulled into Puerto de Mazarron.  The town seemed to be almost empty, and luckily my roommates came to meet me because the center of town is a tangle of streets that is difficult to navigate in the dark (especially the first time and without a map).  When I got home, I discovered that we had two German house-guests in our spare bedroom, Chris and Jacob.  They had meet my roommates in Granada and were taking an extended tour of Europe before heading back to Berlin.  Anyway, they greeted me with salmon pasta and good conversation, so adjusting the first night really wasn't too difficult.

Puerto de Mazarron at night

Now for those of you that don't know (most of you, I suppose), this region of Spain is very dry.  When I visited my school on Friday morning, my boss told me that there hadn't been any real rain in 10 months.  He and some other teachers actually laughed when I told them that Seattle's month and a half without rain was nearing a record.  Apparently, my presence was enough to cause a shift in the weather.  Starting Thursday night and lasting until Friday afternoon, the entire region of Murcia (and much of southern Spain) was pounded by rains that led to flooding rivers, flooding streets, flooding houses, and several deaths.  Mazarron wasn't too affected by the weather (I suffered a bad case of soaked shoes and there were some serious leaks at my school), but it was a sobering first day back in Spain.

Typical weather

Since Friday, I haven't done much besides the few necessary tasks (get shampoo, a cellphone, and reorganize my room to my liking), but Mazarron and Puerto seem to have lots of exploring potential.  Our apartment is in the center of town near the water and seems to boast a population all year round (some of the outside resort communities are deserted).  Today we went to the weekly market and stocked up on fruits and vegetables, a haul of three large bags that cost each of us about seven euros.
I haven't had much of a chance to take pictures of the towns where I work and live, but that will be my assignment for this week.  What I do have are some of the views from my apartment which I'll share for now, hoping that they'll give everyone a good idea of what a "tough" (sarcasm included in bulk) life I'm leading.

The street outside my room's balcony

My room's huge windows and door

My newly organized room (awaiting some personal touches and the removal of photos of the owners' kids)