Year 2 -> Santander, España
And we're back for round two! After a wonderful, relaxing summer at home, I made my way back to Spain on Monday for another year of teaching and traveling. My new home base is Santander, a city on northern coast of the country between Portugal and France. It is the largest city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria.
This time around I will be working at a primary school in the center of Santander called CEIP Cisneros. In addition to teaching primary school aged students, I will be working with preschool aged children as well since Cisneros is a combination school. On Thursday, I met my coordinator, Belén, and a bunch of my new coworkers during my tour of the school. Everyone was very welcoming and I am excited to be introduced to my students this coming week!
I also signed lease for a room in an apartment that is just down the street from my school (maybe a 5 minute walk each way). I will be sharing a piso (apartment) with two Spanish women named Lucà and Hada and two furry friends: a beautiful black cat named Pitis and an energetic foster puppy named Pana. I have completely fallen in love with scrappy little Pana and selfishly hope he'll be staying with us for a bit. I have yet to fully move in, but I am really looking forward to spending the next eight months here!
One of my best friends from my time as a student in Granada, Elena, is also working as an English Language Assistant in Santander and the two of us have been inseparable since I arrived. We have been eating every meal together, sharing a double bed in an Airbnb together, running all of our errands together, running together as a means of exploring the city, and helping one another move into our respective new apartments.
We have kept quite busy this week with five apartment tours, lots of government paperwork, and some much needed exploratory walks around the city. Most recently, we signed up for the same gym and made friends with the owner Lorenzo! He is one of the kindest people we have met so far and I think we made the right choice with his gym.
Our Airbnb host, Begoña, has also made our transition to Santander easier by acting as our stand-in Spanish grandmother. She leaves us a lovely breakfast spread every morning (!) which we are going to miss dearly when we move out of here on Monday. To pull our weight around here, we did her English grammar homework for her...fair trade?
Elena and I have been checking out some great restaurants around the city and I cannot wait for us to find our go-to places. The culinary scene in Santander is worlds better than what Motril had to offer and I feel so lucky to live here. The city feels so alive especially on nice (aka rain free) nights when there are groups of people in the bars and cafes along the streets.
This weekend we got lucky with some super sunny afternoons and I took full advantage of the rays on Saturday with a run from the city center to some nature trails along the ocean. It was quite windy and there were SO many surfers in the water which was so cool to see. I had heard that Santander is known for water sports and they did not lie!
There is a peninsular golf course that you can walk/run around while keeping the sea in sight the entire time. I love that I can so easily escape city life for some much needed nature whenever I need to. Also, there is definitely a culture of outdoor activities here that is so inspiring and I am excited to meet some new friends through hiking, running, and maybe surfing.
Elena and I also went to the beach that is only a 10 minute walk from her new apartment today to enjoy some downtime. Sadly, I think I left my bikini in the states despite my detailed packing list and missed out on an ocean swim :( The water was definitely chilly (I had to test it) but it looked so refreshing and Elena attested that she had a lovely time in the water. We spent the rest of our beach time reading our books and I caught up with the Emma's and Skye on the phone which is always a joy.
We have a full week coming up with a meeting at town hall on Monday, the orientation for our program on Tuesday, the first day of work on Wednesday, an intercambio with some new friends on Thursday, and a 10K race on Saturday! So far we have yet to venture outside of Santander, but we might try taking the ferry across the bay to go surfing soon when the weather calls for good waves.
There is still so much to explore in the city and the area immediately surrounding it that I think I will be doing less long distance traveling than last year. Nevertheless, I will still be posting a blog update every week or so with all the latest on my life here. I am looking forward to making Santander my new home and to share it with those who come visit me!
