Home Time

So, I’m sitting in Barajas Airport finally flying home after 6 months in Madrid. At times it definitely dragged but the last few weeks have flown by, mainly due to the need to submit my year abroad essays before I start work in London on Monday. It has been a bit of a slog to say the least. 

My last night didn't end in the best way, although the company and copious amounts of pizza made up for it!

My time in Madrid has definitely had its ups and downs, but overall it's been a great experience; the total opposite of Brazil in so many ways but just as valuable, if maybe not as enjoyable. The first month was tough, I felt pretty miserable after having spent just a week at home and still missing my life in Brazil a lot. It didn't help not being able to find anywhere decent to live and then having 3 jobs fall through, but luckily things only got better thereafter. 

I was so lucky to have my best friends in Madrid with me too!!

The Spanish education system does not rank well and the schools at which I worked as a language assistant definitely reinforced this. One of them, in particular, did not have a good reputation; it was situated in one of the city's most deprived areas and had an exam pass rate of just 30% (almost 10% below the Madrid average). However it wasn't the children who ever caused me problems. Sure they were difficult sometimes, I had a few pens chucked at me (more to see how I would react than out of hatred I hope!) and a brawl did break out in one class a few weeks ago which was an interesting experience, but ultimately children are children, I loved being with them and found them extremely welcoming. I often found myself siding with them and not the teachers, probably because I was only 3 years older than the top year students.

I was so lucky to have the best housemates!

It was actually the teachers and the school itself that I found the hardest to deal with. The standard of teaching was worse than I could have possibly imagined and made me realise just how lucky I was with my education. The majority seemed to simply have given up and couldn’t care less about anything. The school itself was a dump, no money for anything, no electronic boards, internet that never worked, no decorations in the classrooms, rusty desks and graffiti everywhere. I could go on and on, it just annoyed me so much that the very children that need all the help they can get in life are being failed by the state.

Favourite brunch destination with Greta

Rozzy and Olivia 

Although I found the job tough, it did mean that I focused on finding things that I enjoyed doing in my spare time, especially as I didn't get to speak as much Spanish as I would have wanted to at work. I joined a running club, took Spanish classes three times a week, taught private english classes to little kids twice a week, joined a great gym and found a Brazilian exchange to keep up my Portuguese. Let's just say it took my mind of things and meant that I definitely never got bored! 

An early start for the Madrid 10K

It was so sad saying goodbye to my favourite private class

Anyway, after almost a year away I am definitely ready to come home, even if it's only for a day!

Seeing the benefits

As I said before I have found it more difficult than I thought it would be settling in here. My lifestyle in Brazil was some kind of dream and I definitely had to come down to earth with a bump. 

However little by little I am seeing more and more positives to living here in Madrid. These are just a few of them...

1. Transport. Public transport that actually works. I have quite a long commute to work each morning. In Brazil this would have been exceedingly unpleasant, the buses were useless and the metro was often so packed that you had to elbow people to get off. The buses here are on time, never full and even have wifi. I can read my book or check the news quite happily with a coffee in hand and before I know it I have arrived at work. 

2. The food. Supermarket food especially is so much cheaper than it was in SP and generally much better quality. I am enjoying being adventurous with my cooking again, something I definitely missed in Brazil. 

3. The shopping. One thing I missed a lot in Brazil was high street shopping. Mainly due to security, shopping takes place within the confines of the shopping centre. I am not a fan of shopping centres, they rarely have any personality and always have the same shops. I love visiting the small shops in my neighbourhood in Madrid and then stopping for a coffee before strolling back home.

4. Visitors. Lastly and most importantly, people can come and visit me!! In Brazil people obviously couldn't just come for a weekend. Here in Madrid I have already had visitors, including my sister last weekend. Door to door from her house at Bristol Uni it was just 5 hours. It really is so nice to be able to show people my life here. In just over 2 weeks, my mum and youngest sister are coming too, It's fun being able to plan where we're going to eat and what I am going to show them...

Olivia arrives in Madrid!!

After dinner fro-yo followed by a walk in the park, not the best idea on my part, I didn't realise it shut at 10pm and we got locked in with a few other dog walkers and had to be rescued!

One of the best things about being here is that my two best friends from school and uni are here too!!!

Olivia and Rozzy; brunch time at the amazing Carmencita's

Obviously I am still missing Brazil tonnes and that's going to take a long time to fade, but I can't complain, life really is pretty good here!

Salvador: Day 2

We found supper in the cutest little restaurant called Cafélier which looked more like someone's sitting room than a restaurant. It had an impressive collection of antiques and the most beautiful views over Salvador's port. My mum tried her first caipirinha, which was a big hit, after which the real gossiping began! I realised just how much I had missed it, Skype just isn't the same. 

After supper we listened to some Samba from our hotel balcony! 

The next day at breakfast my mum read the guidebook to me while I ate! These were just some of the things on offer:

We packed a lot into our day. The São Francisco convent, the Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim and chopp and coxinhas at Barra beach were some of the highlights. 

Convent of São Francisco

Convent of São Francisco

Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim 

Sunday at the beach...

Salvador: Day 1

Ok so I have had a lapse from writing here recently but I am jumping back on the bandwagon and am going to try very hard to stay on it! I have been super busy trying to catch up with English lessons and stuff that I missed during my week away, while trying to catch up with everyone and have also vaguely been starting to think about my year abroad essay, which is obviously not going well. How on earth do you find the motivation to write a boring essay when you're in a city with as much going on as São Paulo?!

Last Saturday I woke up at 4:30 to take the metro and then the bus to meet my mum at São Paulo airport. It felt like Christmas morning I was so excited and when my alarm went off I was already awake! However when I got up it was still dark...I still get confused by the seasons here! I looked online where it said that the sun wasn't due to rise until 5:30. Walking to the metro in the dark alone laden down with luggage is not the best idea in any big city in the world let alone São Paulo so I begrudgingly caught up on some TV for an hour! 

At 5:30 I took the metro across São Paulo to the largest bus terminal in Latin America, Rodoviária do Tietê. From their I took the outrageously priced executive coach to Guarulhos Airport. Even my thrifty tendencies thought better than taking the normal city bus at that time in the morning.

I was reunited with my mother in the glamourous location that is Sao Paulo international airport. They seriously need to invest in refurbishments, it looks like how I would imagine a prison in the sixties. I am working in the transport sector in the consulate so have become rather opinionated about these things!

We had 7 hours to wait in Guarulhos before our flight to Salvador, Bahia. After chatting about every possible topic and generally putting the world to rights we realised we still had 4 hours to wait. My mum then noticed there was an earlier flight and came up with the ingenious idea of trying to switch on to it. 

Within an hour we had taken off. We realised the reason why we had probably been able to get the last two seats on the plane; I was sat next to a man that took up more of my seat than I did. I had go on to my mum's seat to avoid being engulfed in his rolls of fat. Fortunately he moved into an empty row once we had taken off. After whispering that people like that really should pay for two seats we rather awfully realised that he was American when he answered his phone on the bus to the terminal. I guess you can never be too careful, he was probably the only other English speaker on the plane!

Flying over São Paulo state

Landing in Salvador

We paid our R$1,20 (33p) and boarded the bus along with what seemed like the rest of the city, it was heaving with people even climbing in through the windows in attempt to get a seat! After an hour of stopping every 500 metres and being offered every type of food under the sun (in Salvador food sellers come on to the bus!) we finally arrived at our stop and took a short taxi to the hotel.

The hotel was just as I had hoped, a beautiful colonia-style building, restored but not over-done, with a few necessary luxuries like air-con! After a much needed nap we headed out to explore and more importantly find dinner.

Home for the next three days

More to come soon...

Attempting to be a bit more cultured today...The plan is go to two of the most important museums in Brazil; the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and the Museu da Língua Portuguesa, which I am embarassed to say I still haven't visited after living here for over 2 months. Then later, I am going out for belated birthday celebrations with the guys from work, a much more important type of culture! Have a great weekend x