First Post!

Before I tell you anything remotely important!:

Today is the first day that I've had internet in the comfort of my own home for about a month. Since my arrival to Spain on September 7th I've been sitting in cafes and on street curbs talking to my parents and friends, telling them that the loud, strange sound in the background was a car driving too fast, someone steaming milk/ making an esspresso shot or a person talking after just having noticed a guy sitting on a stoop outside his old hostel, hiding from the hostel employees while attempting to steal their internet only until they eventually change their password, rendering his wifi capabilities completely USELESS (I'm not bitter). Some people don't know where their next meal is going to come from, meanwhile I'm complaining that I couldn't play Words With Friends (its a knockoff Scrabble) on my iTouch, but alas, it was tough living with such infrequent internet. Moral of the story: if you're obsessed with internet access, don't move to Spain.

Anyway, on to important things: I'm alive and living in Spain! The city I live in is called Segovia (in the region known also as Segovia). It's about an hour and 10 minutes north of Madrid by bus (Madrid is smack dab in the center of Spain if you don't see it in the first picture).

Segovia is known for pretty much one grand attraction: The Aqueduct. It is something like a thousand years old, built by the Romans and contains no cement (nothing holds the pieces together except gravity and perfect engineering!). Segovia has about 55,000 residents and it really swells to an annoying amount on the weekends because it is very easy to get here from Madrid. It's a tranquil city otherwise and I am glad to be living here.

What am I doing here? I'm working!...12 hours a week.... (that's what the Spanish call work haha). Yes, 12 hours a week is not a lot but I'm also getting paid for only 12 hours, (700E a month which is about $1000 dollars) so its a give and take. Considering though that it cost me more to live in Columbus (the rent and food here is cheaper and the public transportation is better), I think I've got a pretty good bargain.

Oh, did I mention I don't work on Fridays? And that I don't go into work until 1pm on Mondays, only to stay for 2 hours and then leave? This is pretty much standard of all of the language assistants (there are 2 French, 2 German, 1 Italian, and 7 English assistants in Segovia I believe). Some of them only work 3 days a week too, so that is an even more unbelievable schedule.

My school is located in a town called Cuellar, which is an hour north of Segovia. It is also an hour south of Valladolid, the only other city with a direct route to Cuellar (that's important in a second). Cuellar has less than 10,000 residents and is what we call a Pueblo. PWAY-BLOW. I was told by teachers and the government officials who assigned me to the Segovia region that it would be super boring and foolish to live in Cuellar, so I decided Segovia would be the calm/chill best bet. I have trouble finding things to do in Segovia, so imagine living in a town a 1/5 of the size. The other language assistant that I work with in Cuellar lives in Valladolid and says its too busy and not that great, so all in all Segovia is the wisest place to be at the moment.

Cuellar is interesting. It's bus station is strategically placed at the bottom of a huge hill that I have to walk up everyday to get to my school *grumble* (I take the bus, I think I forgot to mention). Small towns in Spain are just like small towns in the States:there are tiny Mom and Pop stores everywhere and usually a group of Townies smoking a cigar and drinking beers at the local pub at 10am on a Tuesday. The first time I came to Cuellar I got lost and eventually stumbled upon ---->>>>>>>>
Hogwarts is what I refer to it as in my mind. It's an old castle turned school that is visible from miles and miles away. I always know when I'm looking at Cuellar on the horizon (a lot of the pueblos look the exact same on my way to school fyi) because I can find Hogwarts. I was so excited and thought it was my school at first but haha NOPE it's just the school I enviously walk past everyday on the way to my tiny school I.E.S. Marques De Lozoya (no pic yet). I do have a random note to make about Cuellar: it smells strange and different almost every time I go there. One day it was cow manure, which okay yeah it's not that strange, but then another day it was straight up Onions. Onions, as in 'I might cry/who just plowed that acre of Onions'. I told my gym teacher that and he added that it kind of smelled like carrots too, haha. Today though had to be my most favorite smell to date lol: Elmer's Glue. I swear it was just 100% Kindergarten Classroom in Cuellar (which before anyone asks, no they do not use this glue in the school and no one teaches Kindergarten there either). The whole city just smelled of glue, Elmer's Glue I Tell YOU! I saw some kids covering their noses when the windows were open, so I definitely wasn't just imagining it.

I'm going to finish my first post with an explanation of why I've called my blog Where's The Peanut Butter? and not SpainyMcSpainersonBenIsInSpain. Firstly, Spanish people are not down with peanut butter at all. I don't think Europeans are in general. I, on the other hand, have lived off of peanut butter for many a day, month, year, decade, etc, so it's kind of an important food item to have stocked at home at all times. I was in the Eroski (think Kroger, Giant Eagle, Biggs, Walbarf) looking for things, running into pig legs and REAL Duff beer, when I just thought to myself "Where's the Peanut Butter?". It's never difficult to find in the US but seriously there are two jars to choose from: crunchy and crunchy, I believe, and it's under the foreign foods section, also known as the Unresourceful Americans Who Aren't Branching Out Enough...section.

I have much more to say but I'm tired (its past midnight here) and I need to think of so more things to write, so until later, adios!