obtaining my visa

For those who are interested, I thought I would post a little info on how the whole process of getting a Spanish visa went down. Because this is a grant from the Spanish government, they have a loop hole for their participants. Although I graduated from college in June, they still consider us Auxilliares students. It is done this way in order to get us a student visa which is easier to obtain than a work visa. Plus, it IS an extension of our studies REALLY.. when you consider that most participants are Spanish minors or majors and are using this as a way to take their Spanish to the next level.

Requirements for a student visa are as follows.......

• get a physical and a note from the Doc saying that you are free of contagious disease in accordance with some International Health Regulation of 2005 thingy..cost $105
• get a background check (soon to be upped to an FBI background check)..$10
• get the background check notarized and appostiled by the Secretary of State..$15
• 2 passport sized photos with white background (had my sister take them against a white sheet)
• get a passport if you don't already have one..cost $90
• your original, official letter from the school where you've been placed
• 2 visa applications filled out
• money order for $100
• pre-paid express envelope for them to return your stuff including the visa...cost 18.30

Got all that stuff in about 3-4 weeks ago. It was a real pain in the rear, especially when you work full-time during business hours. And for some reason I assumed that it would take quite awhile before I recieved the Visa in the mail. I had even taken a gamble and went ahead and purchased the plane ticket, which you are not recommended to do until the Visa is in hand. Ticket prices usually rise as you get closer to the date of departure and the prices were already over $1000 from Seattle to Madrid. So, 2 weeks ago I made the purchase for $1090 round trip leaving Sept 15th for Madrid and returning home June 9th, 2011. Craziness!!! Today I was shocked and ecstatic to see that pre-paid express envelope waiting for me when I got off work. Its official ya'll. I'm headin to Espana. 4 1/2 weeks and counting....follow me through my adventure.......

Change of plans

At the end of fall quarter some of the Spanish profs at Central introduced my Conversational Spanish class to a program called Cultural and Language Assistants in Spain. Basically its a grant from the Spanish government to have native speakers of English from the U.S. and Canada come and assist teachers in their public schools. The profs handed out fliers with more information about how to apply. It was quite an extensive application process but thanks to Prof Lee and Kasselis-Smith, I was able to get the application process done very quickly and before nearly anyone else had applied. Mind you, it is a first come, first serve basis once you meet the basic requirements. I applied in early December 09 and then didn't think too much about it.

Soon it was April and I am still having trouble communicating with the powers that be in Ecuador. They said I would be teaching there next year and even asked me if I would coach baseball there. I was super-excited and had my heart set on Ecuador. Luckily though, I had applied to the Spain program as a backup plan. I got an email in May saying that I was accepted to the program and had 5 days to decline or accept. Immediately I shot an email off to the woman I had been corresponding with in Ecuador to find out if they really wanted me for sure, as I had not recieved the contract that was supposed to be in the mail yet. She let me know that with building their new school they were not able to hire me, were very sorry and were glad to hear about my backup plan. At that point, I went straight to the Auxilliares website and accepted. I was a little disappointed about Ecuador but it still felt great to accept the position in Spain.
So, now 4 months later I am preparing for my 10 months living in Spain.....