It’s cold in my apartment. Sure, it’s only November and it’s only going to get colder. That means I turn on my brasero, the heating unit under my kitchen table. I first turn on the gas, then I hold down a couple of buttons for the gas to start flowing and the flame to ignite. This then heats up the area under the table with a blanket on top to trap in the heat. I then sit under the blanket over my table. I sometimes feel like finding a way to sleep under or heck, LIVE under my kitchen table. I’m so cold, but only the newer apartments in Jerez have central heat. I don’t even want to take a shower, while I could take a hot shower, the in between time is so uncomfortable. A previous assistant recommended sleeping with the next days clothes in bed with me so they are warm. Not a bad idea.
I am scared to light my oven. It really shouldn’t be that hard, but with the gas going, I feel like I’m going to blow up everything if I do it wrong. My landlord showed me how to do it when I first moved in, but I didn’t pay the necessary attention for this task. Youtube helped me to a certain extent but didn’t give me confidence. Thus, this leaves me to cook a pizza on the oven. It worked.
There are advantages and disadvantages to living alone. It took me ten minutes to open a bottle of Lambrusco. This is a bubbly, wine tasting drink that has a “pop” when opened. Normally, I would just turn to my roommate and we would try it together and laugh about the experience, but eventually I heard the magical pop. I sometimes can feel lonely, but I do like living alone. It is pretty fun to do whatever whenever, but on the Saturday where I stayed here and didn’t talk to anyone all day (minus Skype), I may have not felt entirely that way. Since that Saturday, I have met a good number of people, taken up some activities to keep me busy in the afternoon including private classes and aerobics (Yes, aerobics….THAT will have to be a separate post). I have started conversation partners to share the time between English and Spanish and have embraced living here. Two other Americans have arrived and it’s been fun getting to know them as well. While I like living alone if I have an option to move in with them, I might take it. No oven though, so I might have to continue to cook my pizzas on the stove.