Obsession: (noun) fixation; consumption with belief, desire

It's official: Lenny, Sarai and I will be living and teaching in the Benalmádena-Costa in Málaga, Spain! The three of our schools are all within walking distance from each other! I guess the Junta did receive our e-mail requests to be near each other! I didn't think they'd even considered placing us so close to each other as none of us received a response e-mail saying yes or no - but they most certainly honored our request! So far during this whole process I have found the recipients of my e-mails to be very accommodating, polite and gracious! Definitely a good sign.

And so, these past few days I have spent surfing the web; and googlemaps has become my most valued resource!

So far the main issue that I have faced was actually pinpointing the schools on a googlemap.  On my nombramiento letter it gave me an address (which I needed to look up how to read, since the street name comes before the building number, and the postal code is the first number on the second line, before the neighborhood)

                           As a quick reference:

                            • Top line: Full name of the recipient, or company name
                            • 2nd line: Type of street, name of street, building number, flat number, entrance number.
                            • 3rd line: Post code and town name
                            • 4th line: Name of province

                          E.G.

                            CEIP El Tomillar

                            Avda. de la Constitucion, 30

                            29631 Arroyo de la Miel (Malaga)

So when I put this address in it did not show me the precise location of my school: it merely showed me the roundabouts area of Arroyo de la Miel.  Once I discovered this I had to do a lot of searching to find the actual street location.  

I may be a little ambitious (or obsessive) but I did this so that I could 

A) quickly and easily navigate through the neighborhood with a firm grasp on where my school is located so I'm not wandering around like a headless chicken days before the first day of school

B) look up local transportation so that I can start browsing through apartment listings in reasonable locations.

So I made my own googlemap with my school, Lenny's and Sarai's along with the train stations and where IKEA is (because I'm sure there will be a necessary trip there to buy sheets and other homely goods once we've found a place to live)

View 3 schools in a larger map

(never thought knowing how to make a googlemap would actually come in handy!)

And so the apartment search has begun! I've mostly been using yaencontre and enalquiler because they are the simplest and most straight forward sites to maneuver.

I realize that the apartments I browse through now will most likely not be available when we get to Malaga in September, but it's a great way to get familiar with listings + what's included + factors that I want but may have forgotten about + average price range for areas.  My plan is to e-mail a few potential landlords before leaving the States so that when we get there we will immediately have places to look at (so we don't waste time and money living out of our suitcases in hostels).

This whole process has consumed my mind! I have to force myself to focus on work these days - because I know I will need the money!

Gosh, I can hardly contain my excitement about it all!