Journal: Part III

Day 3: 15/2/09 11:55 p.m.

Stacy woke me up after she showered this morning, by knocking on the door to the rom I shared with Lindsay, and in the dark I struggled a LOT with the key, but I got out and showered. It was like, 7:15 a.m. Stacy told me the shower leaked all over the bathroom and into the hallway when she was showering, and I figured out it was because the shower head was one of those connected to a hose that you can take down and hand-hold, and it swiveled out to aim at the shower curtain when you turned it on, so I ghetto rigged it to stay still aiming forward by putting a packet of shower gel around it's base, and squishing it all into it's holder. The shower was just a nice as our room! So, after that, I woke up Lindsay and when we were ready we knocked on Kate and Stacy's door.

They were almost ready, and I woke up Leslie, who was still sick, and needed food. So Lindsay and I went to find somewhere to get bread and soda. We wandered by a park and found a bakery, after asking people in about three different stores where a market was. We got bread and water, and went back. Everything we saw was super pretty, but I was afraid to wander too far and get lost. We gave Leslie the food, and the rest of us set out to get phones and then see the apartments Kate had lined up to see.

The first one we went to was Teresa Arroyo, at Iturrama 72, but we didn't have the room number, and after walking and finding it successfully, we realized we had to be buzzed in, and didn't know who to call. Luckily, somebody came out and we caught the door, and - being early - waited in the lobbly hoping she would come to get us. When she didn't, we read all the mailboxes and couldn't find her name, so...we went up (Kate, Stacy, and I, while Lindsay waited to see if Teresa would come down in the lobby) and started knocking on every door. It was hilarious - we felt so dumb, and got so turned around that the only times the doors were answered were by 2 older ladies (one of them we accidentally knocked at twice) and once by some college age girls who were not Teresa. Finally, before we were about to give up, Kate rang 4B and it was her!

She was so super cute, in a little black dress with black stockings on, and she was really friendly. She and Kate had been talking on Facebook for awhile, so they were excited to meet one another. The apartment was very nice - basically a long hallway, with bedrooms off to either side, two bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen. We all really liked it, but Kate found out that the girls there smoked inside, and because she has bad allergies, she was upset because she'd probably get sick living there. Either way, we thanked Teresa and said we'd let her know, and moved on. That day we had atleast two more incidents of not knowing what apartment number we were actually going to, one where the guy just didn't answer the door, and plenty of walking.

Inbetween apartments, we found a cell phone store, and - the first time we went - found phones we could get for 19 euro. We ended up going back twice more that day, once around midday, so Stacy and I could get ours, but I didn't have my passport on me, so I couldn't get it then, and then again after siesta, when Kate and I both got one. They're very tiny, and plastic, and super lightweight, but they work. Our little Movistar LG phones : ) I'm pretty sure the lady at the store got really tired of us, but - despite being the least pleasant person I've met here - she was still fairly nice and helpful.

By the end of the day, we had seen about seven apartments and there were five of us girls - and Leslie had gone on her own to see two more, and Lindsay had been to one of her own - so we felt pretty okay about having places to live. The idea was to let Kate pick which one she wanted, and then we would go from there. The last one we went to were these older girls - about 28 or so - one of whom was named Victoria, and I really really liked them, and once Kate picked the apartment she's at now, I called them to see if I could live there. They remembered me and said they'd love to have me, but they had to check with their landlord first, and that they would call back in the morning. Lindsay called Teresa and was told that another girl had been looking at it, and they would let her know the next day, too. Leslie picked one up on Sancho El Fuerte, so she was settled, and Stacy picked one that she had to hear back from. OH! And Linsday called this one lady about her apartment, Adela, who was really...intense. She called on Skype, and so when Adela asked for her cell phone number, she flipped on us when we said we didn't have cell phones yet -- "IN SPAIN YOU HAVE TO HAVE A MOVIL!!". Like I said, intense.

We went to the ferreteria, or hardware store, that day to buy converter plugs for our computers, and the man there was really nice. The converters were only 2 euro, and Stacy and I ended up going back there later to buy umbrellas (seeing as it rained for three days straight once we arrived), a corkscrew and cups, so that we could have some wine. It had been a super long day. We also discovered fruterias, fruit shops, which Kate was REALLY excited about. Apparently she loves fruit more than most things in this world, so we went into one, and I got a few oranges, and we each got a few other things, and Kate loaded up on tiny bananas, apples, etc. That is where we discovered that you could get a bottle of wine for 1,40 euro or so. Stacy and I went to a different fruteria later to purchase a bottle of wine each, to surprise the other girls when we got back to the hostel. Funny how it worked out, but Lindsay showed up with a bottle of wine and a corkscrew, too! So we ended up finishing two of them between us five, and then going out to find food.

Food was actually hard to do - we expected everything to be open super late because it's Spain, right? Nope. Apparently not on Wednesday nights, atleast. We ended up going into two bars that had food and being told they were about to close, and finally being directed to a restaurant/bar that stayed open until one or so. It was named something that had to do with the Danube river, I believe, and we asked the waiter was was good and ended up with a huge plate of indiscernible fried foods. Kate and I each got salads, and we were all very brave and tried just about everything on the plate. Meanwhile, at some point mid-meal, two very old men who were drunk watching the soccer game on t.v. started singing I believe the French national anthem, at which point Lindsay decided to take a picture, and we ended up gettng serenaded, and then talking with these men for like fifteen minutes. It was really entertaining. So, after being brave with our food, and drunkenly serenaded by men old enough to be our grandfathers, we walked back to the hostel and went to bed.

Day 4: 12/2/09; Stress, stress, stress.

Apparently, last night Stacy's person called back and told her she wasn't going to be able to move in to their apartment, at which point Stacy got online to the University's site for housing and emailed about 15 people about coming to see their apartments the next day. This morning, I got a call from Victoria during which she explained that she liked me very much, but their landlord had also been looking for somebody to move in, and had found (and chosen) a different girl. So I started to freak out. Lindsay got a call from Teresa saying she hadn't decided who would be living in her apartment, and that she would call back that night...anyways basically we were all strung out about housing, and Stacy and I opted to rent a room in the hostel for another night, while Lindsay would stay with Leslie, whose apartment-mates were going out of town that day, for the weekend.

So, in melt-down mode, I started calling every phone number I could find on the University housing website, and lost track of who I talked to - half of whom said they had already got somebody to rent their room, or that they were no longer renting, the other half saying that I could come see it, but at the beginning of next week. So finally, Stacy got me off the phone, we went and checked in for another night with the hostel people, and got breakfast at the hotel restaurant that was across the street. When we got back to the hostel, Kate and Leslie had called taxis and were getting their stuff together to go move in, and Lindsay and I moved our stuff into the room Stacy and I would stay in. I ended up getting calls back from a lot of people whose names I didn't remember, and had to navigate through that awkwardness in Spanish. Super fun.

So finally, I called this one number - Jaime something - not even caring if it was a guy or a girl anymore, because I just needed someplace to live and didn't want to stay in a hostel for the rest of my life, and it ended up being this girl's father, who was acting as landlord for her apartment, and said he could call her to make sure she'd be home and that I could go see it that day, about thirty minutes after I called. I was ecstatic!! The apartment was on the complete opposite side of the neighborhood from our hostel, but Stacy decided to go with me, and we hiked over there. The girls there were Rocio and Marta, the other roommate is Evia who is from Holland, but she wasn't home. They were really really nice, and the apartment is great, and the living room has this awesome view of the mountians (the Pyrenees) and I said I would call back that same day and let them know, because I had one more apartment set up to go see, which Stacy and I went to next.

The apartment next was being rented out by a woman, and it was currently occupied by four guys in college, who were all moving out for various reasons, so it would be four rooms to us, which was a great back-up if the three of us found nothing, and it really came down to it. It was nice - when we walked in there were like, seven guys there eating and playing video games, which was kind of intimidating, but Esteban, the one who showed us around, was very nice and spoke to us in English for practice, which was fun. After we left, we went to see one Stacy had lined up, which was so cute and they girls there were so nice and it seemed like a great place, so she said right away she'd like to live there, and we kind of talked through how she'd need to move in the next day because we didn't want to pay for another night at the hostel. Once we left, I called Rocio's dad and told him the same thing, and then I got ahold of her and explained that I'd need to move my things in the next afternoon. All was totally great, and we had places to live!!

Linsday still hadn't heard back from Teresa, but she was okay with Leslie for a bit, so while she was still stressed, we were feeling a bit better. We ended up going to Pizza Hut for lunch, which was somewhat hilarious, but at the same time extremely delicious. I think at that point Stacy was saying she was tired of eating things that she didn't know what they were, so Pizza Hut was a nice change from that for a bit.

That night, there was an international student party at a 'discoteque', or a club, call Bye-Bye Disco, which was actually on the street my apartment is on, just up a ways. We decided to go and got ready, and ended up walking over there around 12:30 or so. We know now that that's really early to go out , here, and so when we got there it was basically empty. We stayed until about 3 a.m. or so, and it filled up a little, but we had orientation the next day, so we left. It was fun, despite the lack of people, though. It was nice to go out and do someting other than try to figure out the necessities.

Leslie and Lindsay went back to Leslie's place, and Stacy headed back to the hostel, but I walked with Kate because she'd been having trouble getting her locks open, and her place wasn't far from the hostel, so why not? I helped her in, used the bathroom, and walked back by myself. I had no reason to be nervous - everything in Pamplona has been contrary to all the shady stuff you expected, no purse stealing, no cat-calling, everything is well lit - but I dunno, I walked quickly. I ended up getting noticed by a group of guys, but I was a ways off, and they were pretty drunk so I probably seemed farther, and one of them said something, and I ignored it, and then he said something else, and I just said 'Adios!' and kept walking, at which point his friends all laughed, and they all went on their way. It's funny now, but then it was kind of like 'Well, shit,' y'know? Haha, an adventure, either way.

I got back to the hostel, and Stacy was on skype with her boy, so I changed and started to skype people, and the whole world was over at Matt's place, so I got to talk to a lot of friends, which was great. The only downside is that I was up til like, 5 a.m. and around 5:30 our doorbell rang, and this angry Spanish guy - about our age - was at the door, and politely told me that he couldn't sleep because I was so loud. I felt really bad about it, apologized, and went to bed.

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Mkay, I think that's it for today - I'm trying to catch up, so we're at Thursday of last week, now, which puts me at a week behind. I'll probably have a ton of time to catch up this weekend, but for now a few of us girls are heading over to a friends to hang out for the evening, so I'll leave you with this so that I can get ready : )

Hasta luego!
Alex