# 6 weeks to go till I set off for Spain...



## RagsToRich (Feb 9, 2010)

I've got about 1/4 of the physical posessions I had back in Janurary when I decided to do this. It's pretty liberating actually - what does one need all that crap for anyway?

Main points about this which come to mind:

1. It's made me more organised than I've ever been
2. It's taken up a ridiculous ammount of time - but almost all of that has felt in someway beneficial (learning Spanish, studying a TEFL, getting more organised, etc.) Honestly it's no exageration to say that THIS YEAR has flew by.

Our plans are well-researched but quite open to changes/options at the moment.

We're going to drive through France, Belguim, Germany, and back through France to Spain deliberately hitting all the cities with hostels or hotels for less than 15 euros a night. (I havn't bought my warning triangles and beam converters yet  )That doesn't necessarily mean small or crappy places by the way. Valencia itself has one of the cheapest hostels.

When we hit northern Spain one plan is to try and arrange a few weeks volunteering via Help Exchange: free volunteer work exchange abroad Australia New Zealand Canada Europe. That's volunteering in exchange for food/accommadation. 

You know what that says to me? A chance to get Spanish up to speed without having to worry about where I'm living or working. So if we get to do that and if it works out, then could possibly do that for a few months and use it as intensive learning Spanish time. Plus I wouldn't mind getting a little bohemian for a while and I dropped karate in order to concentrate on learning Spanish so I could do with a bit of a physical challenge.

When we hit Valencia we'll be spending the first week or so in the hostel and priority one becomes finding decent reasonably priced accomadation.

One awesome idea I've had - stick up a notice in the student unions looking for two spare rooms in a post-graduate shared house.

1. Cheaper
2. Learn Spanish
3. Get introduced to the city
4. Spanish students will be keen to do it because they get to learn English
5. Students have more fun!

Everyone's a winner! 

Once we've got accomadation sorted out it'll be all hands on deck job searching. I've got my TEFL now and I'm very confident I could teach kids (which basically means losing your ego and making a tit out of yourself) or adults (which basically means the same thing but with less throwing a cuddly toy around the room saying MY Name Is...) - I'm even considering small private classes and having students come over in sets of three. I'm sure the Spanish tax-man would let that one slide as long as it's just enough to get by and it's all cash in hand.

When my Spanish is good enough (which could be sooner rather than later) I'll be planning to go straight back into I.T. I'm also considering setting up my own computer repair business because I've just found out how much people charge to clean someone's PC of spyware. I've worked in I.T support for a corporation for the last two years plus I've always been good anyway... so I'll sniff out the market and if there's customers there then it's definately worth a go.

I'm probably going to sell/scrap my car - which is a shame because it's a good car. I might matriculate if I have more cash than I planned for... (ya... right...)

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a Spanish girl who has come to Sheffield for 5 weeks just to improve her English. Judging from her writing her English is about the same level as my Spanish but her Spanish is excellent - which is ideal.

Let me know if there's anything I might not have thought about.

REALLY excited 

Cheers,
Rich


----------



## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

well you seem to have got it all sussed!!! Well done. My one top tip would be "expect the unexpected"

Keep us posted, its nice to see organisation in action!! LOL

Jo xxx


----------



## stew (Nov 17, 2009)

I really do wish you the best of luck and that it doesn't disappoint you (I'm kind of stuck in the pipedream stage).
RE work how about hanging around local meetups of chambers of commerce and similar to let people know you're available and your skills?
Please do say how you're getting on whilst there!

Stewart


----------



## Guest (Jul 20, 2010)

RagsToRich said:


> I'm sure the Spanish tax-man would let that one slide as long as it's just enough to get by and it's all cash in hand.


Good luck with that one!!

Plenty of people out their offering IT support but very few people actually know what they´re doing. I probably get more work sorting out other so called "experts" cock ups than new work - which suits me!!

Based on The Sur last week it seems that there is a tiny bit more work about, the job adverts outweighed the Adult Relaxation section which is a first!


----------



## Guest (Jul 20, 2010)

Wow, Rich, sure seems like you've got it all planned quite well! However, take what Jo said to heart. Spain is different  

Instead of, or in addition to, the ads in the students union you can start your shared apartment search at Alquiler Habitaciones, Piso Compartido, Compartir Piso . I've had good luck with them in the past! Also, on idealista.com &#151 casas y pisos, alquiler y venta. anuncios gratis you can choose "habitación" to find just a room wherever you want. 

Best of luck!


----------



## RagsToRich (Feb 9, 2010)

Thanks everyone for comments. I met up with the Spanish girl yesterday. That was enlightening. Luckily her English is not too much better than my Spanish so she's a great person to practice with. She's here for another 5 weeks (she's studying education at university and it's currently summer holidays) and we're both very keen to meet up again so could turn into a very regular thing over the next few weeks.

She also tells me the language business is BOOMING in Spain right now, and it's pretty much the only thing that is. Spain wants English teachers.

Subjunctive clause comes up way more than you think in practice doesn't it? 

It's really beneficial to do this too because you learn about the words/tenses which you will tend to want to use in normal conversation rather than just learning the ones that crop up in the audio-course.



halydia said:


> Instead of, or in addition to, the ads in the students union you can start your shared apartment search at Alquiler Habitaciones, Piso Compartido, Compartir Piso . I've had good luck with them in the past! Also, on idealista.com — casas y pisos, alquiler y venta. anuncios gratis you can choose "habitación" to find just a room wherever you want.
> 
> Best of luck!


Thanks for the links Halydia.

For other people - here's the list of resources I've collected myself.

Language schools in Valencia

English Teachers Wanted :: TEFL jobs 
Contacto 
ingles verano Madrid | Languages 247 
Teach English in Spain 
Languages school 

Jobs listings

Laboris.net- Bolsa de empleo más eficaz. Ofertas de trabajo, búsqueda de curriculums 
InfoJobs.net - Bolsa de trabajo, ofertas de empleo 
jobs and employment in 
Miles de trabajos y ofertas de empleo | Infoempleo.com 
Anuncios gratis de Empleo 
Búsqueda de ofertas de empleo en Oficina empleo 
Bolsa de trabajo y Ofertas de empleo - CompuTrabajo España 

Accomadation resources (gum-tree clones)

anuncios clasificados en València - Segundamano.es
Loquo Valencia Community | classifieds for apartments rooms jobs personals for sale events
idealista.com &#151 casas y pisos, alquiler y venta. anuncios gratis


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Glad everything seems to be working out for you. I suppose all you need now is a job!
Having just come back from Valencia I can say it looked like a great place to live, but summer temperatures are difficult to live with IMO. Well, the hot humid temperatures were too much for me having lived in the dry heat of Madrid for 20 odd years so make sure you get a place that's extremely shady or that has air con!


----------

