Useless Spanish consulate!

I have to say, the consulate in Toronto has so far been absolutely, completely useless! This visa application is yet another series of jumping through hoops, trying to find out what I need and how to apply. It's been very frustrating so far. And their website doesn't even work, no matter how many times they e-mail me the link to it!

Luckily I did get a hold of a nice guy at the consulate in Winnipeg. He went over everything I needed to apply and patiently answered most of my millions of questions. It doesn't help that the application itself is very confusing though. I think I'm almost ready to mail it in, and I'd better do it soon or I'm not going to get my passport back in time, since I need to mail it with the application! Good thing I had my passport extended a few months ago, and didn't have to wait too long for it in the mail, or I would have been in some serious trouble trying to apply for my student visa!

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???

More information, finally!

Today I got another email! A lot of the visa information seems to be for the US people only, since I know that I can mail in my application, while this email says you have to make an appointment at a consulate. It's hard to get any info on applying for a visa in Canada though, because I think the Toronto Consulate's website is down. Or at the very least I am not looking at the right site! It's a little bit frustrating so far... The most useful thing I found out from this email is that the orientation for Andalucia will be October 1 and 2, which is great because it gives me a little bit more travelling time beforehand. I am planning on leaving at the beginning of September so that I can go to London, Krakow (Poland), Prague, Switzerland, and Germany. Might as well take advantage of the fact that I'm paying so much money to fly to Europe, right?

My flight is booked!

As of today, I am officially booked to fly to London on August 30th. From there I will do some backpacking for about a month, and then I will be off for a day of orientation in Spain, and 8 months of teaching! I ended up booking the flight through AeroPlan airmiles, and I kind of had to hurry up and book it because flights were filling up fast. So I booked it even though MEC says to wait until you get your visa to book anything. Hopefully it all works out!

New email from MEC

I just got an email from MEC clarifying a few things about the program. I guess they are getting sick of being bombarded by applicants with questions so they sent out a big mass email with frequently asked questions. The only thing that really helped me was the fact that the "provisional" status of the first e-mail only applies to the people they have contacted about missing something from their application. So I guess I'm safe! Still no news about where or when orientation will be though. All I know is that the Andalucia orientation is different from everyone else's.