Lift-Offs Revisited

Note: Written yesterday, ran out of wi-fi

Today is Monday and currently I am finishing the remains of what once was a coffee beverage while sitting within an open aired cafe named El Beit. The warmth of the drink to my right has nearly lost all of its temperature and a pair of middle aged foreign women are sitting to the side of me speaking in some unknown European dialect. Views of Bedford Street can be seen as I take in a gradual sip of dark espresso mixed with water.

For the past three days I have been rummaging around alongside a close friend named Jack with hopes of taking in the diverse flavors of New York City. Jack lives in the trendy neighborhood of Williamsburg which is located in the heart of Brooklyn and despite only being in town for a few days we managed to accomplish more than should be admitted. Shifting from midnight pizza slices, enormous pastrami sandwiches, rooftop brews with friends, free concerts in Central Park and a lot of laughs this trip to the East was one that I am truly thankful to have experienced. Hopefully I will be given an opportunity to pay back the hospitality shown to me during this visit sometime in the near future.

The duration of stay in Williamsburg, like the coffee in front of me, is reducing right before my very eyes. Within a handful of hours I will be hopping a subway train towards John F Kennedy Airport to catch a plane destined for a place located a great distance away, Madrid, Spain. 

After flying to Madrid I will board a second flight to Alicante which is a southern Spanish city, then take a bus to Murcia. Murcia is the capital city of a province in Spain that bares the same title and once unpacking my bags it will become my home for at least the next 8 months. 

The purpose of this move will be to work as an Auxiliar de Consejeria which means I will be working as an English teacher's assistant in various schools close to Murcia. The first day of school is this upcoming Wednesday and there was a good chance due to delayed deliveries of necessary documents that I would have had to wait a few more weeks for the Spanish Consulate in San Francisco to process my Visa application. Marta is the person who interviewed me and I'll forever be indebted to her because she managed to get the paperwork done in half of the normal time. Rather than sit home waiting for what could have been a few more weeks I luckily find myself ready to start the journey. 

With a Visa for Spain newly obtained a series of concrete travel plans became officalized via the purchasing of plane tickets. There was very little time to savor the moment with family and friends before leaving but I feel truly grateful for short yet equally important moments we were all able to share together. 

Once inside Murcia I will be temporarily living in a backpacker stopover called Cathedral Hostel and try to get some rest before starting orientation on Wednesday. Hopefully this week I will be able to find a more permanent living situation, buy a local cell phone, open a bank account, and begin the final stages towards obtaining a Student Identification Card.  

More updates are coming soon ;)

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this blog, for your support and for your friendship. Without you this blog probably would have never left the airport and stay grounded for unwarranted amounts of time. 

Finishing this post I realize that time is becoming less available and that the moment to prepare for departure is nearing arrival. Standing up I feel a wave of fear, excitement, curiosity, terror & utter happiness. The only thing I don't have racing through my now speeding mind and imagination is regret. It's time to catch a plane.

The time for lift-off to parts unknown is approaching faster than I could have ever imagined and like the saying of my favorite comicbook, it's a wonderful world out there so let's go exploring :)

Take good care of yourself, much love, biscuits & some gravy.

Day Dreams

Today is Thursday and for the first time in many weeks the sky looks like a blended mixture of whites and grays rather than a clear tint of blue. Outside of a wall-sized window visible trees on the corner are swaying with gentile perplexity and a rising steam of warmth from a freshly brewed coffee slowly evaporates into the air of a local cafe named Cibo. While leaning the top half of my body towards a slightly tilted laptop computer screen as it sits upon an ivory colored table the numbing bass of a pre-selected song is being fed into my eardrums via a set of miniature earphones.

Half of my attention is focusing on the synchronized arrangement of black tinted words and the other half is completely scattered like the rolling of coins from a shattered jar. Time is crawling. A tiny internal spark is beginning to ignite itself within of the back hallway of my mind and a notion of escaping towards home rather than sitting here partially puzzled inside the bright natural lighting of a nearby cafe is sounding like a good idea.

The coffee tastes delicious and after recently ordering a second round an imaginary bucket of water is swiftly extinguishing any temptation for leaving. I came here for one reason, well maybe two. The first was to get a much needed buzz of caffeine. The second was to finish a two page essay relating back to a Teach English as a Second Language (TESOL) course that I was fortunate enough to complete less than a month ago in San Francisco.

The deadline for finishing the essay is tomorrow sometime in the afternoon however the director of the school whose name is Carrie has been extremely generous and granted me an open-ended due date. Yet there is some degree of urgency because once completed I will be officially TESOL certified, which in other words means that I can legally go to a different country and teach (or at least pretend to teach) people my native language.

Outside a young couple is walking their baby stroller to some unknown destination, cars are aimlessly cruising with some undetermined intention, and the aroma of some randomly savory smelling bread product is being served behind me to a person whom I haven't met before. My eyes return to the artificial rectangle of light.

A few more word combinations later and the view of someone eating what looks like a vanilla ice-cream cone comes into direct eyesight. I'm starting to feel hungry. Screw this paper I think to myself. But I have to finish it. Despite the difficulty I find myself having in completing this two page odyssey of paragraphs there sits a pleasant cloud of freedom over my shoulders. For the first time in what feels like a ages this is something that I have complete control over and it's oddly comforting.

Up until this essay the entire process of moving to go teach English in Murcia, Spain has been a game of waiting. Currently I am waiting to have a Student Visa application get processed by the Spanish embassy in San Francisco. Before submitted the application I was waiting for a document from the Secretary of State. Before waiting for the Secretary of State I sat for two months waiting for the FBI to process a Federal Background Check. Before the Background Check I had to wait for fingerprints to get taken. While sitting around for those items I was also waiting within the confines of a string of emails between various English professors in Murcia and also the director of the exchange program (North American Culture and Language Ambassadors). During this entire length of time I was waiting for a letter from my doctor granting medical clearance to move overseas.

I could be getting my Visa next week but then again maybe I'll get it in three weeks. Unfortunately nothing can influence how quickly or slowly the Spanish government will be able to process the Visa needed in order to move to their country. If the Visa arrives next week then I'll be flying to Europe no later than September 29th in order to make the move on time for the first day of my contract, October 1st. If the document of entry doesn't come next week then all I can do is wait a little while longer.

Someone just ordered an iced-tea and it looks pretty thirst quenching, however the piece of pie that had just been served to his friend might take the prize for most delicious looking presentation. A quick snap back to reality and a painfully short sequence of letters has just formulated yet another sentence on the emotionless computer gauntlet in front of me.

This essay is taking longer than I expected. Maybe it won't be finished by the "deadline." Maybe it will.

As the ticking of time passes without patience, as another song vibrates into my ears, as lush green leaves from the outside trees shake in accordance with some unseen breeze, and as tribes of other caffeine wanderers continue to sip away the afternoon around me, I sit here focusing on everything but the essay that is supposedly due tomorrow.

I know inside that this paper will eventually be done by tonight. I'll take my time with it though. It's one of the few choices in this journey of teaching English that is entirely mine and I'm going to take it for a joyride.

Buckle your seatbelt.


To be continued...