Rota, Cadiz (Andalucia)

Rota is a city on the coast of southwestern Spain. It is very close to Jerez de la Frontera (about 1/2 hour away), Seville, Cadiz the city, Gibraltar, and lots of other cool looking places. There also happens to be a U.S. Naval Base in Rota. See below for a quote from their "Welcome to Rota" site:

"Rota, a town of 25,000... is one of many small whitewashed villages, or Pueblos blancos, directly on the Atlantic coast. In the summer, Rota swells to about 100,000 - most of them vacationing Europeans. The same is true for other Andalucia towns, where the main industry is largely related to tourism. Andalucia's tourism industry has exploded in recent years, turning one of Spain's poorest regions into the holiday choice for Europeans. Construction of "unifamiliaries" residences, or seaside condominiums in the traditional curvy stucco, can be seen everywhere, as the tourist boom grows.

One of the best ways to get to know Andalucia is at one of more than 3,000 fiestas celebrated each year, including fairs ("ferias"), pilgrimages, carnivals, mock battles between Moors and Christians and religious processions, throughout the 800 communities of the region.

Expect mild, breezy weather similar to southern California, with temperatures ranging from 75 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and 40 to 70 degrees in the winter. Vegetation is colorful, plentiful and year-round, with an abundance of olive and cork trees, vineyards and sunflowers."

Click map to see larger version.

Not going to the desert after all!

I can't believe it, but the Junta has agreed to let me switch schools and cities!! They just emailed me with the option of transferring to a school in Rota (Cadiz) and it sounds perfect. Now I'm feeling the excitement I thought I would feel with the first placement letter. This is so great!

Change of location?

Today I emailed the Junta de Andalucia at the e-mail address in my placement letter. I'm hoping they will take pity on me and give me the option of another location. I'm trying not to get my hopes up though, since there are so many people on Facebook and in the many e-mails trying to move to a different city. But it doesn't hurt to try...

Albox, Almeria

I finally got my placement letter - I will be in Albox, Almeria. Unfortunately, on Google Maps, it looks to be in the middle of nowhere! Actually, in the middle of a desert... that's even worse. There are no big cities and no other language assistants very close to me, from what I can tell. Not to mention there are only about 11,000 people in the town. This is quite a let-down, since I was so excited to get my letter. Now all I can do is worry about transportation, living accommodations, etc.

Albox, Almeria

Where am I going to live for 8 months????

This wait is getting to be very frustrating... everyone has formed Facebook groups now, so that we can all communicate, but it just makes me realize how many people have already gotten their placement letters and I haven't! It's just not fair that I live all the way on the western side of the country. Mail just takes longer to get here from Spain I guess!!!

And I still can't believe how many e-mails per day I'm getting. A lot of them now are from people who want to change places, now that they know where they're going. It's nice to hear from everyone though, so by the time I get to Spain, maybe I will recognize some of the names from the e-mails.

Too many e-mails!

Yesterday began the arrival of mass amounts of e-mails from other auxiliares. Mostly because some genius figured out that a list of all of our addresses was on the last e-mail sent by MEC, and they decided to e-mail everyone! It's not so bad though... so far I've already gotten 8 emails in only 2 days, and I'm sure there are a lot more to come! Basically other auxiliares are e-mailing us just to introduce themselves. So far, it's just people from the Andalucia region.

And I'm still dying to know where in Andalucia I've been placed! What's taking so long???