Hello! Thus begins a new adventure. My name is Jordan Miller and I’m a 2018 graduate of West Virginia University with a bachelor’s degree in English – Professional Writing and Editing with minors in Journalism and Women’s & Gender Studies.
On March 18th, 2019, I received an email announcing that I’d been awarded a J. William Fulbright Scholarship to Andorra to work as an English Teaching Assistant for 10 months. This blog is intended to chronicle my time abroad and serve as a home for reflection, memory, and everything I learn along the way.
For more information on my background, my application process, and my interest in Andorra, read this article from my hometown of Wheeling, West Virginia.
The first few weeks here have flown by more swiftly than I originally thought possible. We began our second week here with orientation in Alcala de Henares, Spain, and spent the weekend before in an Airbnb in Madrid.
TJ and Mackenzie (The king and queen of Spain, obviously) with fans bought from a street vendor near El Retiro Park.
To get to Madrid from Andorra, we took a bus from Andorra to Lleida, and a train from Lleida to Madrid Atocha. After that, a few more metros and we had acquired the keys and dropped our things, ready to explore the city. Our weekend in Madrid included the following:
El Prado art museum (feat El Greco, Velazquez, Rembrant, Rafael, etc)
The Royal Palace and adjacent Almudena Cathedral
3 types of paella in a tourist trap restaurant
lovely brunch in a vintage-themed cafe
A building made entirely of glass (Palacio de Cristal)
infinite placas and puertas
a run in with casual practicing opera singers in the park
a Eurovision themed gay bar
Tapas that are actually included with the price of your drink a seven-story dance club
a stressful trip to the Madrid apple store when my phone display broke completely!
Sunset from Puerta del Sol, shortly after an emergency appointment at the Apple Store.
After a busy weekend (and over a dozen miles trekked through the massive city, we took the bus from Madrid to Alcala de Henares, a UNESCO World Heritage site and birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote.
Orientation was a whirlwind full of informational sessions, mandatory mingling, handshakes and repeated questions, and far too little sleep.
Mackenzie and I, Fulbright folders in tow, exhausted from travel and waiting for our hotel room to be ready so we can collapse (aka change and do our makeup in the now 20 free minutes we have before mandatory mingling)
However, amidst the craziness, I gained a realization of what it means to be a part of this incredibly vast and resourceful Fulbright network. As I met mentors and grantees alike who were headed for Barcelona, Galicia, Sevilla, the Canary Islands and more, I couldn’t help but feel immeasurable lucky to be a part of this program.
Fulbright is a unique and interesting program in that it brings together Americans from all over with a wide variety of backgrounds to serve as cultural ambassadors and English-language resources in a myriad of different types of communities.
Mackenzie and TJ pose for another personality pic.
Though the Andorran Fulbrighters were a special case at this conference as the only 5 not technically a part of Spain (and thus, luckily, excused from a number of sessions) every step of the way we were included and reached out to. Overall, I met more new people than I can count, and I am thankful for the lingering commitment of many to Facebook usage so I can keep up with their new adventures between now and our mid-year conference when I will be able to reconnect with them.
Also notable that among the 200+ cohort, though I found people from states as wide-reaching as Alaska, Kansas, California and Maine, is that I seem to be the only one from West Virginia. This was fun in a sense, but also left me with a strangely seeded longing for my WV peeps. Overall, I feel lucky we got to attend all these sessions and that I can finally say I’ve been to Madrid!
Monument to Miguel de Cervantes in the City Square.
My last week at home was lovely, as I got to spend time with my entire family, including my parents, my brother and sister (and favorite new lil niece!) grandmas, aunts, etc!
I said my goodbyes to friends, and between only a few misty eyes, packed my bags and watched as my final hours in America dwindled away.
Monday 10.26 – I spent the day running last minute errands with my mom, and then went to the Pittsburgh airport with her and my dad, meeting my brother in Washington, PA along the way for a final family dinner. They dropped me at the airport and I waited for my first flight to Frankfurt. No movies, no wine on this flight unfortunately, but landed in Germany and got through passport control mostly smoothly, barring a small hiccup with a blocked terminal route on the way to my connecting flight to Barcelona.
Tuesday 10.27 – I did sleep for a few hours on my second flight, eventually landing in Barcelona around 3pm on Tuesday and then taking the metro to my Airbnb near Placa Espana. The airbnb was strange but fine, smaller and less private than I had originally expected, but ultimately doable for two nights. I slept on and off, went out to grab some snacks (and of course, consumed an entire liter of Catalan-made Cacaolat chocolate milk).
Mist traveling up the mountain in Andorra la Vella after a brief rain shower
Wednesday 10.28 – Jet lag got me good and I slept most of this day, but did manage to eventually awaken and meet my old roommate Eric for coffee (and some pan amb tomaquet with jamon iberico) before spending a few hours meandering through the streets of Barcelona as we did during my semester here in the fall of 2017. after we departed, I returned to the airbnb and got a decent nights sleep before check out the next morning at 11.
Thursday 10.29 – Upon awakening and showering, I packed up all my things and lugged my baggage (metaphorical and literal!) back to the Barcelona airport to meet new roommates TJ and Mackenzie at Terminal 1, where we would take the Andbus up to Andorra. I found TJ first and we got acquainted over coffee, with Mackenzie arriving shortly after. We took the 2:00 PM bus, a small, clean shuttle with leather seats, air conditioning, and by some blessing — complimentary wifi. The three-hour ride went more quickly and smoothly than I had expected as I stared out the windows in awe of the mountains, valleys, rivers and towns we skirted through. Finally, we arrived in our new country and city: Andorra la Vella, Andorra.
The property manager of our apartment, Mingo, (SO kindly) picked us and our baggage up from the bus station and took us first to our Realtor, Xamari’s office, where we reviewed our lease and paid our first months fees and security deposit. As she spoke swift Catalan, I deferred to TJ to make conversation in Castillian, and Mackenzie in French, but was relieved that I could at least mostly keep up and understand the implications of everything I was signing.
Giant snail friend on Avinguda Carlemany, Andorra’s pedestrian-only shopping street.
After the paperwork was taken care of, we went to our beautiful new home, a 3.5 bedroom apartment with a terrance facing perhaps the largest mountain I have ever seen in person. Terra Vella is clean and modern, fully furnished with eclectic furniture and decorations. We randomized named for first pic of bedrooms, then began to unpack. After a lovely first dinner together, we headed home and I settled in to my new bed, relieved to have a comfortable space of my own after several exhausting days of travel.
Overall I feel incredibly lucky to have had safe and smooth travels over the past few days, and to be paired with two other members of a cohort who are kind, smart, and interesting. I can’t wait to see whats to come in the next few weeks, with the addition of the other two scholars and our program director.
Catalan words of the weekend:
Bon dia / Molt be / Moltes Gracias
First Brunch with Roommates: Cappuccinos and Croissants at L’alta Grandalla
Appalachia to Andorra 