My Czech Students

My students are all adults working professionals and cover a wide age range.  I have some students in the 20's, 30's 40's and 50's.  They all have allowed me to gain insight into the Czech culture.  
One of my students is a director at the airport. He is a geophysicist with a law degree. Highly intelligent! We often have conversations about communism. 20 years ago Prague was still communist. not that long ago. So Richard and I were talking about travel during communism. It was easy to get permission from the government to travel, but because of his profession he was able to travel from time to time. He said that one of the things that bothers him about travel nowadays is the queues. He said there is a queue for everything and everyone and all this does is delay travel times. He said during communism there was ONE line and you got in it and waited your turn.
He said nowadays there is plenty of discussion about what travelers want to go through the x-rays regardless of the posted policy, he says I respect the rights of others but now these rights impede my right for speedy travel. He said that during communism that if you disputed the posted sign you were taken out of the line and put at the end...if you still had something to say you were escorted out of the airport and you were not allowed to travel that day! HAHAHA! I nearly peed my pants when he was telling me this story. He said when you got on the plane there was NO discussion about window, middle or aisle seat...you walked on to the plane in a single file line and sat at the seat that you came to in line! Can you imagine that happening in the US? Not likely. Maybe I am a socialist at heart because I kind of like that idea!

Finding a Routine

So I have been in Prague for a little over a month and it has been really interesting.  I have some great students but I think I shocked them upon first meeting.  I don't think a single one of them expected a black woman!  HA!  Classic!  One of my students actually got up the nerve to say that when she first saw me waiting in the lobby for she paused.  She said her first reaction was OMG...she is BLACK...and then she said her 2nd thought was but I asked for an American...and then her third thought was...wait a minute...she could be black AND American...hahahaha...what a laugh we had over that little conumdrm:-)
Bu let me back up a bit.  First my schedule.  I am booked pretty solid.  The school came through for me.  I am teaching about 31 hours a week.  An British teacher told me he only has about 25 hours a week and he struggled to get that, so I fell really lucky to have a full schedule and did not have to put up much of a fight to get them.  Monday is a pretty full day.  I have four 1.5 hour lesson.  I leave around 7:45 in the morning and don't get back home until 6:30.  I have about an hour and half break in between each class that I spend on public transportation getting from one location to another.  Public transportation in Prague is superb; much like Barcelona.  I get around pretty easily without too much confusion.
On Tuesday the day is a little easier, I begin a little later but end around the same time.  A public class or students that are taking have enrolled through the language school to learn English.  Most of my students are Corporate Students.  But I have two classes a week that are public classes.  The one on Tuesday last THREE HOURS!!!  I must be getting old because at around the 2nd hour...this group has annoyed me and I have a secret desire for them to just disappear! Just kidding...but this group does have some sterotypical Czech ladies...their faces are hard, cold and unsmiling.  They aren't really that way personally but sometimes I get a little tired of looking at their sour puss faces...hahaha!  It is as if smiling is a unpardonable offense for them.  I can imagine their faces would crack if they just lightened up and smile a bit.
Wednesday is a combination of my favorite day and my most hated day.  My class at L'Oreal starts at 8am in the morning and last for two hours.  I only have two students so sometimes it feels like this class never ends.  I only have three lesson on Wed and I have a 4 hour break in the middle of the day!  I love it!
Thursday is another one of my favorite days.  I have two lesson. One public and one Corporate.  My public lesson begins at 10:35 and ends at 12:15 and THEN a 4.5 hour break!!!  I have ruined this perfect day beginning next month because I have accepted a new student.  My new class begins at 7:30 in the morning and ends at 9:35.  This means I gotta get up so fricken early now. Oh well, I want the extra income so it is a small concession when I look at the bigger picture.

Friday is a mix.  One the one hand I spend time with one of my favorite students Martin, but his lesson starts at 8am.  Which means I have to leave really early to arrive on time to his office near the airport.  Things are a little crunched on Friday because I have only a 45 min break between my three students on Friday.  I have to travel in between student 1 and 2 and then back to the airport for student number three.  So far it has worked out okay because student number two cancels a lot...hahahaha,  I should laugh because when she cancels within policy I DO NOT GET PAID.  So far she is batting about 50/50.  Best thing about Friday is that my day ends at 1pm BABY!  Half a day Friday's wooohooo!  Now if I could just find some friends to enjoy my being off half day on Friday's with or at least some fun activity!
It is still early on so I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself; things will fall into place soon.  It's all about finding a routine.

My first goal is to get a routine regarding creating lesson plans.  Right now I am doing everything on Sunday, so now Sunday feels like a work day instead of the weekend.  I don't really like that idea.  So my goal is to create my new lessons on my breaks during the week.  I finally got the laptop situation resolved so I can carry my smaller laptop with me instead of the really heavy one.  One really great thing about Prague is that finding a wifi spot is soooo easy.  So I can make it to my favorite break spot and start to work on my lesson plans while on my breaks.  This will free up my weekend time for enjoyment.

It's a Wrap!

Okay where to begin!  It has been quite some time since I sat and blogged about stuff.  Lots of things have changed, new ideas have formed, new experiences have been had, said some good byes, said some hellos..yadda yadda yadda:-)  So here I am sitting in a lovely flat in Prague, my new home for a least the next year looking back on how I arrived here.  I've been here for about 3 day and have just come back back from my first real outing into my new Czech world.  One word sums it up...SCARY!  I don't understand a WORD of Czech and to be perfectly frank...there are NO BROWN FACES here!!!  This is the land of VANILLA...seriously!  Ok I won't digress cuz a sista needs to cover the past 10 weeks of her life...hehehe.  Funny...being around all this whiteness is making the black come out in me.   Anywho...so I left Spain:-(  Total sadness!!!  But it had to be done.  No jobs...no prospects and quickly about to have no more MONEY!

Oh how I miss my life in Spain! (sigh)  My lovely, lovely friends, the Barcelona vibe and he food!  Oh well...I will be back but I've got to put in the work first.  My last few weeks in Barcelona were INSANE!!  The CELTA certification program should be renamed to CONCENTRATION camp!  HA!  I would say "just kidding" but I think I'm kind of serious about that.  On some days it felt like torture.  In the end I survived and graduated but it wasn't without bumps, scars, tears and finally triumph!!!  However it felt almost bittersweet because so much of what went on there was so unnecessary...but I don't want to dwell on the negative because so much positive was achieved.  I now am formally on the road of my new career, I loved, LOVED my students and I met some AMAZING new friends there.  So all is well...except I'm still waiting on my actually Certificate from Cambridge!

Soooo...leaving Spain was kind of scary.  I had stayed past my VISA departure date so I was anticipating some type of drama at the airport.  My experiences travel internationally have all been incident prone so it was not out of the realm of possibility that I would encounter some issue upon leaving Barcelona.  Surprisingly enough things went really well leaving Spain.  No problems at all.  However I did have a bit of a scare at Heathrow. Because my passport was a replacement I guess I wasn't in the "system".  The gate agent tried swiping my passport several times without success and finally grunted...looked closely at my passport and then squinted her eyes at me.  I stood there quickly thinking of my story and then getting a bit peeved.  What the hell...I made it out of Spain and if anyone had the right to have a PROBLEM it would be Spain and not the UK...I was just passing through there and not trying to stay.  But before I spouted off I reminded myself to just "SHUT IT".  Finally the Gate Agent manually entered my number with out issue and I was able to proceed on.  PHEW!!!
After a small delay in Heathrow and 9 hours it is "Welcome to America"  Ah!  back on  US soil and my girls are there to pick me up!  Angie and Tina...woohoo...but wait Angie is holding up a sign with my last name...oh shit!  Have I done something wrong...lost another passport...but no!  Just Angie being Angie.  Man I have missed those girls.  They look wonderful.  After lots of hugs, tears it is on to La Taqueria and margarita's baby!  First night back and it is pure heaven.  Thanks Angie and Tina!

Time keeps on slipping...slipping...slipping

Man, I can not believe that I am three weeks away from going back to the US.  I've been in Spain for nearly 5 months and it has been amazing.  It's been a couple of weeks since I've blogged so I will do a quick catch up.

World Cup Fever:
I caught World Cup fever when I watched the United States play England with my mate Gary!  Here we were; a Brit and an American...friends...with our two countries competing for position in the World Cup games.  We were in George Payne with a bunch of other Americans and Brits all routing for their respective teams.  When it came time for the national anthems to be sung I found myself belting out my own!  Crazy...there was something about singing my national anthem in a bar in a foreign country that made me feel extremely patriotic.  I can say that that I've never really thought about nationalistic pride but at that moment I was hit with a bolt of "GOD Bless America!"  I got a little teary eyed at that moment.  The game was awesome.  The US put on a good showing and tied England. So Gary and I got to remain friends:-)

World Cup Fever Continued:
Following my tendency to become a little OCD I threw myself whole-heartedly into the whole World Cup frenzy.  I cheered for England against Germany.  Germany killed them.  I cheered for Brazil against Chile...(although I did chant with the Chileans because their chants were better than the Brazilians), I cheered for Paraguay against The Netherlands, I cheered for Spain against Germany and finally I cheered for Spain against the Netherlands!  It was AMAZING to be in Spain when they won the 2010 World Cup championship!  Barcelona was alive with the fever and I was caught up in it!  Amazing

So World Cup started early and ended late.  In between life continued to provide rich experiences.  In June I was up for a teaching job in South Korea and disqualified for the teaching job in South Korea.  Also in June I interviewed for a post in Prague and was offered my first EU job teaching in Prague starting in August.  So my adventure continues on. 

Career Moves:
The day I received the email regarding the position in Prague was indescribable.  I'd kind of resolved that I was going to go home for a couple of weeks and then head down to Panama for six months.  Why Panama...well it was cheap, easy to get to, close to South America and did I say CHEAP to live.  The offer from Prague wasn't perfect but it did allow me to stay in Europe with a work contract in a city much cheaper than Barcelona AND get the experience I needed AND possibly meet the residency requirements for the EU if I choose to stay AND teach business English and NOT young learners AND did I mention stay in Europe...yes!  So, the only catch was that I had to have my CELTA completed in order to accept the position.  As luck would have it I enrolled myself in a CELTA course and started my certification in July.  So there was no reason why Prague would not work.
I can say that I did and do have some concerns about Prague but I am hoping that it is just the jitters one gets from the unknown.  I really want to have a good time there.  It is a beautiful city so that is a plus but Eastern Europeans are a cold lot...maybe that is a little unfair but the time I went to Prague was met with a frosty reception.  And although I don't always gauge my decisions on "how many other black people are doing this".  It is very obvious that Prague does not have a huge black population.  I'm a little worried about reception...but I hope that I can make good expat connections and then build on meeting Czechs as I learn a little bit of the Czech language.



 

Has it been so long

Man...I knew that I'd lost my desire to write combined with my new facination with facebook but it has been awhile since I have blogged here. Too much has gone on to attempt to go back in my tracks to fill in the blanks so I am going to do a quick recap:

March

Started taking spanish classes at a school called speak easy. The class was crap or maybe I was a crappy student. Probably a little of both. However I spent most of my two weeks time and nearly 200 euro not understanding anything that was being said to me. My goal in taking the class was comprehension and sad to say I comprehended almost nothing. One bright side of the class are the people I met. Latvian girl name Lleva. Incredibly beautiful and could speak spanish the at the best level of anyone in the class. She could speak English, Polish and Russian with equal fluency. The kicker is that she did not speak spanish before the class. You almost wanted to hate her for the ease that she seemed to pick up languages or because she was so pretty. I finally find a flaw in her that stopped me from hating her completely...she wore fake eyelashes! Hahaha. She has the bluest eyes, super fair skin and jet black hair. Her eyes were so compelling. I kept saying to myself no one has eyelashes that long. Finally one day I noticed that she applied them a little off kilter...ahhh finally a flaw...now she was totally likeable despite her uncanny language abilities. We did not remain in contact with eachother directly after I stopped going to class but I think we both thought of eachother kindly. The other surprise friendship from the class was a young man from the UK. Gary.

What a surprise. I have to admit that I ignored Gary for a bit. He is really young and also in my opinion had pretty good spanish skills. However I ignored most everyone because of my discomfort level in the class. Lleva was a little harder to ignore because of her looks and really superb languages skills. One could not help but hating and liking her all at the same time. She was nice and helpful along with the other issues...lol Anyway Gary... One of the instructors seem to focus in on Gary a lot. I could not tell if it was because she was attracted to him or just liked to hear his very british accent. Because of her focus I also began to focus on him. The more and more I observed him the funnier and likable he became. One day I kind of walked in on a conversation he was having with these two Dutch girls in class about a walking tour that he had information about. He looked over at me and extended the invitation for the walk. With that opening I told him that I noticed his profile on one of my meetup groups and he agreed to send me the information via that format. When I got home I had an email from him and the information for the walk for Sunday. I told him to count me in for the walk. It seemed that along with me and him, Lleva would also being going on the walk. Sunday morning rolled around and I went to the bus station where we were going to catch the bus to the country to begin the walk. I was the first to arrive and was a litle nervous that no one else would show. I stood for about 5 minutes before I saw Gary walking toward me. He was as relieved to see me as I was to see him. Apparently Lleva had cancelled due to an emergency and he was afraid that he would be stuck with a group of strangers. He and I did not know eachother that well but at least we had the bond from class. Anyway we found the coordinator and as luck would have it Gary ended up being the only guy in the group with three other women. Of course the women gravitated to me and so on the bus ride he was kind of excluded. Once we arrived to the town where we would begin the walk we all kind of became more intergrated. The intent of the walk was for language exchange. As we began to walk Gary and I naturally drifted toward eachother and began to tallk more but in English! As it turned out I had more in common with this 20 something Brit than I would have dreamed. I found him extremely humorous and with deep thoughts. I found out that he had just graduated from law school and because of the financial crisis his firm had no work for him and suggested a year sabbatical. He had a two year commitment with them because they paid for school and needed to return to the UK in the fall. The more and more we talked and walked the more and more I found myself just liking him as a person. We were so absorbed with eachother that we were reminded by the other ladies in the group that one this was an intercambio walk and secondly there were other people present!!!

By the end of the four five walked Gary and I had forged a solid friendship! Out of the friendship I have formed more friendships. There are the Venezualans and Dutch people that played a role in April being an amazing month of fun and laughter. So although March was a bit patchy it did bring to me a friend that I think I will have for the rest of my life.

April

April was my half way mark. Highlights for April were meeting Maureen and the Venezulan constituency through Gary. I saw my first futbol game at a real Irish Pub and now understand the magic. Real Madrid versus Barcelona. AMAZING! Went to another house party. Went to my first european disco! Started a new tradition with Gary with more intercambios. Got introduced to the Dutch duo...Symon and Danny. Got robbed for the second time:-). Meet the most intertesting women through Irene and Danny. Manuela! Found my favorite place to eat in Barcelona! And had one of the best weekends of my life with Gary and his cousin Tom from the UK. Went to Lord Byrons for the first time being back in BCN! Discovered "The Black Sheep". Also April was the month the hunt for a new job began in earnest. I got to thinking about what I really wanted to do. Staying indefinately in Spain was looking more and more doubtful. Job opportunities and economy were making the timin of my permanant transition more unlikely. And I was also bitten by the bug to explore the world a bit more before settling down to job and routine. So I started posting for teaching jobs ALL over. I got my response for a post in South Korea and then a second. In April I particiapted in two interveiws for teaching jobs and things were starting to look promising.

May

May was awesome! Beautiful weather, more fun with friends and I registered for the CELTA and I shopped for the first time! Money concerns were resolved and I felt a bit more comfortable indulging in a little retail therapy. Gary had another friend visit from the UK and we had an awesome time.

Now it is June....

Writer's Block Lifted

It's been a while since I blogged. I've been really stressed out about a whole bunch of crap that I should just let go! The process has been so painful that I have not had the desire or the energy to write. There have been bright spots along the way during this kind of dark period in the form of new friendships formed. So I'll start with that. Gary is a super guy from my Spanish class. He is really young but has such a quirky sense of humor and an maturity about him that I find hanging out with him really comfortable and a lot of fun. In the month that we have known each other we done a lot of activities together. I think because we are both foreigners and share the same sarcastic sense of humor has laid down the foundation of our bond of friendship. We've hung out quite a lot doing different stuff and this weekend was kind of a marathon for our friendship. Gary joined three other friends for my first get together at my flat. Anna, B and Marc along with Gary all came over for a bottle of wine before we met up with some other friends for a night of live music. As the night wore on Irene, Manuela, Maruxa and Pau all joined us to party and enjoy eachother's company. It was so cool to see all of our different backgrounds merging together. The weekend was pretty amazing! Had tons of fun!


Friday and Saturday night with Gary and his two dutch friends Simon and Danny. (or Thing One and Thing Two as I refer to them in my mind) Gary describes them as socially awkward but they actually did very well saturday night; almost scored with a passel of american girls. We started out at a party for Gary's friend from South America, Maureen. We were the first to arrive for about an hour....can you say awkward? Finally more people showed including a nice little bunch of french boys...ohhh la la! (i love the french) There was this one that was soooooooo cute...I refer to him as Swivel Hips. We spent about 3 hours eating, dancing and drinking at Maureen's. I actually wanted to leave early but Gary was begging me to stay and I'm glad I did, the night turned out to be pretty amazing. Maureen had plans to go to a night club after her get together and you know how I feel about nightclubs, but again i let Gary's sad face talk me into it. It was really awesome. The club was actually at the crime scene of our first bcn robbery. Right near the bronze fish tail. It was very euro chic. I kept having images of movies like La Femme Nikta or Frantic in my mind...LOL it was funny. Anyway Maureen had a guest list so we did not have to wait in line or PAY...(yes my friend...I was let in by the lifting of the red velvet rope). While we were outside the club, Thing One and Thing Two actually meet the group of american girls and they were all studying between Spain and Italy. Gary somehow got Maureen to get the FIVE extra girls into Shouko! Gary is quite the persuader when he puts his mind to it!

Anyway friend...a lot of other funny shit happened along the way before the night ended at 4:30am! All in all I had a blast. Discovered that Gary can DANCE for a white guy and he told me that I was fast becoming his best friend in BCN (awwww...i almost teared up when he said that) He is sooo sweet.

Oh...also had a coffee date with a guy...could not tell if he was interested. We talked over coffee for about 2 hours. He had to work and took a break for us to meet. I liked what i got to know and he asked me a ton of questions...but i just dont know...i hate this part!
Meet a girl from the US (LA) who told me I should advertise in Loquo right now for business. she does not have a tefl and is teaching freelance. She has been in spain 3 years without papers and she said she is making ends meet with the freelancing. Downside is that she is afraid to leave the country because she probably wont be able to return for awhile. She is trying to wait out immigration. Funny thing about her is that she did not try nor is she trying to straighten out her immigration status.

9.5 hours later...

I was invited by Maruxa to a party hosted by her closest friend last Saturday. It was a cookout. I was very excited to have my first experience of socializing with regular locals in a regular environment. I was a little aprehensive because Maru mentioned that there would be a lot of Spanish speakers there but I was totally game for the opportunity to meet more people. As it turned out there were several English speakers there and I also met two teachers. I met Maru at Diagonal where we caught the train to Horta...last stop. Id never been to Horta so I wasnt sure what to expect. When we arrived i found the neighborhood really something special. I could really feel the difference between the crazy hustle and bustle of the city center to this area...if felt more like a neighborhood should feel. There were shops yes, but more working class shops and apartment buildings but they had a feeling of being lived in by real families not just people making a temporary stop in Barcelona for a holiday. Overall I was really pleased by what I saw. I wasn't so pleased to discover that we had to walk up a very steep hill to get to the address we were looking for!

Cautionary Tale

I started my classes in Monday and it has so far been a really good idea. What works for me is that I am listening to Spanish with knowledge if what the conversation is all about. The format if the class is there are two instructors. For the first two hours Catalina speaks much slower and does a lot of descriptive gestures. We are allowed to speak English so the slower pace if helpful. The second two hours us spent with Veronica and she speaks rapid quick fire Spanish! First day I understood about 20% of what she said...the rest of the tine I was a deer in headlights...lol! It's gotten better and today I'd say that I comprehend about 70% of what she is saying. The class is an interesting mix. Two americans, one Indian, a Brit, two girls from holland and a girl from lithovania. During my second day in class during the break we started sharing about our experinces to date in Barcelona. The Indian guy had been mugged by 5 guys, the Brit was stuck living in an apartment with no lights, hot water and shower curtin. He said taking a "cold" shower included a mop up afterwards...lol! I shared about my Harper drama and lost passport. As I listened to them I started wondering why we all came and were attempting our level best to learn the language so we could remain and interact with our new friends and neighbors. Farah (the Indian guy) was retelling about an article he read that said that barcelona was the city you were most likely to get robbed in...lol! I watched his face as he told the story and you couldn't miss the hopeful light that still showed bright in his eyes. He obviously was still enthralled with the city. My thoughts wandered to all the stupid things I'd done in the 17 days since arriving that could have sent someone packing for home? The first and most obvious is the missing paper work for Harper. I can admit that there were moments that I did not think he was going to be able to enter Spain. Those are really big events but I´ve also done some smaller actions that can make you scratch her your head with wonder. I had been doing my shopping at a grocery store on the Ramblas which is too far from the temporary flat, probably and 15 minute walk. But imagine carrying groceries...UGHHH! Well for the first week here I pretty much only traveled in a straight line around my neighborhood. I did not venture down to many of the calles because honestly they just looked scary. Well one day I got up the nerve to do it...I was with Harper and he doesn´t let anyone get to close to me without them earning a growl or a bark (I love that dog!), anyway the calle that I could see from the balcony of my flat actually led to another grocery store! Yes there was another larger mercado less than 100 yards from where I was staying!!! If I´d just walked side to side I would have discovered. I felt pretty stupid about that one. Another situation was buying Harper´s dog food. One of the shops down from my flat was a small pet shop and I walked in to buy dog food. The brands sold in the US really aren´t offered here so Harper was going to have to change. I did not want to buy a huge bag of dog food just in case he did not like it. Well I got something that looked okay but when I got the counter to pay the women pulled open a notebook. I felt a bit of dread. She ran her finger down the column, looked up and smiled at me. I´m not sure what the smile really meant but I´m interepting it as¨SUCKER!!¨ She rings me up and the dog food is 18euro...which translates to about $25.00 US Dollars for a small bag of dog food!!!! Before I left the states my friend John told me that dog food in Europe was very expensive but crap!!!...my groceries for the week had only been 24 euros...at this rate Harper had better food than me. I was thinking this dog is going to eat me out of house and home...luckily I found another store that sells less expensive dog food and Harper likes it! So what have I learned from my not so pretty situations in Spain...well one is a walking a straight line limits your experience and narrows your view! Anyway...I feel a bit like my friend from class...the city still enthralls me despite the momentary setbacks:-)

My new neighbors

I meet one of my new neighbors. He is an older Spanish man who lives in the attic apartment. Sarita mentioned that he had dogs that might be great play mates for Harper. I've lived here for a week and I've heard the man on the stairs with his digs a couple if times. Honestly they sound like aan angry wild pack of wolves....lol I hear him trying to control them as he is going up the stairs. Their nails clawing into the contrete stairs. Harper has gone nearly insane when they've passed our door! I've actually been a little frightened by the noise of the dogs...they sound like they might attack for no reason. Well yesterday morning after returning from our walk I heard them coming down the stairs...snarling and clawing their way. I could hear the old man tell them to esperete (wait in Spanish) I'm sad to say that I was gripped by fear by the sounds they were making. It's really hard to see up my stairwelll, it's dark and has four levels to each flight, so all I could do was hear their approach. I looked down at Harper and nearly psnicked he was getting all amped up anticipating the encounter. Harper isn't one to back down from a confrontation. Sometimes I sm appalled by harpers readiness to jump into s fray. It is totally the terrier in him. He's pulling at the leash so I start backing back down the stairs, thinking I'd just wait in the vestibule until tje old man comes down the stairs. I DID NOT want to try and pass him in the narrow stairwell. Harper is getting more and more excited so I think maybe I should just go back outside the entry door from the calle and wait. I'm really in a quandry because the snarling, growling and clawing is getting louder and closer! I make the decision to just leave and I'm trying to yank Harper out the door when i look up and finally got a look at the motely crew of demon dogs...OMG!!! They are three chihauhaus! I couldn't believe it!! All that noise and struggle coming from three dogs that probably weigh 7-8 pounds each!

Milestones

Today is interesting for many reasons.  One I´ve been in Spain for about 17 days and if I were really on vacation it would be around this time that I would have boarded a plane to return home.  So this is the end of my tourist mode.  As of today I move into resident mode.  And how appropriate that TODAY I move into my new flat!  It was not supposed to move until tomorrow, but Sarita called and said that I could move in tonight!  Awesome!  So I have been here over two weeks and some say that many things have happened pretty easily for me; such as finding an apartment so quickly and according to Anna easily.  I agree that this process has gone much smoother than I thought and I can say that I am deeply appreciative.  I was really nervous about wiring such a large sum of money to a virtual stranger in a foreign country but I am sure Sarita feels the same about renting her appartment.  The process was basically I met with her mother, Donnatella (beautiful Italiana) on Monday evening and fell in love with the flat.  It is large (relatively speaking) and reasonable for the neighborhood.  I will be living in Barrio Gotic which is in the city center near almost everything.  I guess a good place to start for someone still learning the city and barri´s.  Anna lives in Mont Juic and she thought I should look there.  We did see a great flat owned by her boss but it wasnt furnished.  Since I dont want to commit to buying furniture here it did not work. Mont Juic is less touristic so it is a good place to keep in mind once at the end of my lease if I decide to move.  I am happy to be out of my small studio.  I find that I stay in more there...odd but it makes me want to hybernate.  There are probably other factors.  I think also because I have been living out of a suitcase for the last six month; knowing that the studio is temporary has maintained the feeling of not being settled within me.  I cant wait to upack my suitcase...starting TONIGHT!  Tomorrow is a big day.  I begin my Spanish language classess. Four hours a day of speaking Spanish!  Very exciting!  Speaking of exciting...it has been a very exciting week.  I am still processing some of what has happened so right now I¨m not writing about it.  It¨s nothing horrible, just unexpected encounters:-)  Sounds cryptic!  LOL. 
So let me recap my milestones:
1.  Secured a permanent flat
2.  Surpassed the number of days that I´ve ever stayed in Europe
3.  Managing to comprehend more and more Spanish that is spoken around
4.  Have stopped mumbling in Spanish when I speak with people
5.  Enrolled myself in Spanish language classes
6.  Have spent time with two women that I can see a deep friendship developing
7.  Some of the fear that had gripped me each morning has lessened

Regarding the last point.  I acknowledged to Maru that each day I woke up gripped with fear of failure and uncertainty.  Those feeling were in mortal combat with hopefulness and excitement.  On some days fear and uncertainty won out and I did not leave my flat.  On others I was able to venture out and navigate the city with some success.  On Tueseday night I met Maru for a movie.  I travelled by train to a new neighborhood and arrived at the meeting spot a little early.  It gave me time to people watch.  I watched people waiting and meeting eachother at the metro stop.  I was struck at the joy the expressed at seeing eachother.  Real joy!  I didnt know if they had just seen eachother at work or had just had lunch with each other earlier that day...but at the moment they saw eachother I could have sworn that they greeted eachtohter with the joy one experiences from not having seen a friend in a long period of time.  I sat there smiling as lovers, friends, husbands and wives embraced.  At that moment I realized one of the reasons I came to Barcelona...the people here have a boundless joy about life.  They share it, arent stingy with the love and affection.  Just then Maru walks from the metro and comes over to me...two kisses to the checks...HOLA Guapa! she says...I am happy because I am apart of this joy!