The final week

So my extra-long summer in Seattle has come to a very quick end - in exactly a week, I should finally be settled in my new apartment after two very long days of travel. I'm haven't explained the whole apartment situation very well, so here it goes.  My roommates, Katrin and Ryan, got to Mazarrón about two weeks ago and offered to hunt for an inexpensive place to live.  Boy did they ever.  Since the tourists had recently vacated the town, in no time at all, they had narrowed down their search to a place up near where we are teaching and another in the port a few miles away.  After a quick series of emails (the time difference creates a small window in which we're all on our computers), we decided that the port apartment would be the best choice.  It's larger, steps away from the water, and should be an easy commute to work.  Oh, and it costs 350 euros per month.  For all of us.  According to my roommates, the area of Mazarrón is a very out of the way spot that really only attracts Spanish and European tourists during the summer.  The port (Puerto de Mazarrón) tends to get the majority of these tourists, but since the high-season has just ended, we had many apartments to chose from.  The owners of this unit have already invited us to dinner and have worked previously with language assistants, so I think that we're in good hands.

Nuestro comedor - our living room

I'm a little nervous about actually getting to Puerto de Mazarrón since I'll be flying into Madrid and then taking public transportation to the bus station so that I can buy a ticket for a bus that leaves about five hours after I land.  PANIC.  While I like to consider myself to be a fairly laid-back sort of girl, travel brings out the scheduling freak in me and I have spent hours looking over bus and metro routes to see what my best bet in. I might throw in the towel and just spend a small fortune on a taxi instead.

About a month ago, I received my visa (early!!!) and got to check one more item off of my list.  That also means I can legally live in Spain, get through customs, and cash my paycheck (hence, eat and live).  Now what remains is to figure out how to pack for year with as few suitcases as possible and to clean my room (that's been on my list for the entire summer).

Vista

Photos courtesy of Ryan.