Happy Birthday AnneTerese

About a month before Kate and I set off on our epic 8-month, 21-country honeymoon, we discovered Global Freeloaders. The concept of the site is simple - to put travelers in touch with like-minded people who might possibly host them in their house/flat for free thus accumulating good karma, hopefully to be repaid when the hosts themselves go traveling at a later date. It was through this website that a lovely French couple let us use their flat for two days in Nantes, while a Basque couple let us park Sheena in their drive and use their bathroom. Sadly, what with living in a campervan and then flat sharing with three others, we haven't really been in a position to host people ourselves and restore the Karmic balance. Until now...



Today is AnneTerese's Birthday and she's 23. Feliz cumpleaños! AnneTerese is from a small town in Oregon, in the USA, and this is her first trip to Spain, somewhere she has wanted to live for a while. After many plane delays she finally arrived on Tuesday night and was initially somewhat dismayed to discover that without a work permit she wouldn't be able to find an official English teaching job here - she had been misled by the TEFL course she did - and that getting a work permit would take about 2 years. However, she was not to be denied and with admirable determination AT started trawling newspapers and websites for au pair and governess work, thinking that if she could get accommodation sorted for free, then she could probably do a few private lessons on the side, to keep her hand in. She's also signed up for Vaughan Town next week to try and broaden her contacts here, as well as getting to see a bit more of Spain for free. Hers is a wonderful example of that "never-give-up" attitude we've so often come across in Americans and she's clearly a hit with the friends we've introduced her to so far. We're pretty sure she's going to fall on her feet!