Year Abroad 2: Money Matters

As I am going abroad to Spain as a British Council Language Assistant I will be paid a wage, around 700 euros a month.  The kicker is that this money will be paid into a British bank account meaning that I have to have £ but pay and live in €.  Oh the dilemmas this is causing.
But I seem to have found the solution.  After visiting many banks and asking their advice one seems to have solved this issue.  Santander, my hero.  Now this may seem an obvious solution, the bank is owned by a Spanish company, but it is still a slightly convoluted route to this answer.  I have opened a student account with Santander (I didn’t previously have one) which gives me free worldwide gadget insurance for my phone, my laptop and two other gadgets - I’m probably going to insure my iPod and my Kindle.
Now this is only part one of the solution, the second is to ask for a Santander Zero credit card.  This credit card is conversion charge free, atm fee free and it allows you to access your money for free.  According to the advisor it is the only high street bank to do this.  He also said that if you set up a direct debit with your main bank account then there is 0% interest.  So basically it is working like a debit card but the money all comes off at once.    
This is the only way that I have found to access my money for free whilst in Spain.  Other than this banks have all been telling me about conversion fees and flat rates of withdrawal.
The next cheapest way I have found is to use Nationwide.  They have a flat rate for withdrawal of £1 and a currency conversion of only 1%.  This will be the preferential option for some of you.
I hope this helps.  

Review: Avenue Q

The hit Broadway musical that taught us what the internet was really for (porn), told us that everyone’s a little bit racist and revealed that it sucks to be me (and you) came to Glasgow this week and I was overjoyed to be able to go and see it.
I have known and loved the songs from Avenue Q since around the age of 15 when one of my close friends and I listened to the Original Cast Recording whilst mucking around in the music department.  There have been almost six years of love and anticipation for me surrounding this musical, and I have to say it lived up to every one of my expectations and managed to exceed them.
The opening half is the more interesting and driven as it sets up the plot points which will be resolved by the end of the show.  The young Princeton puppet arrives with his B.A in English to the cheap-looking street in New York.  He is broke and is trying to find his purpose in life.  The best songs are also in this half and my highlights have to be It sucks to be, If you were gay, and Fantasies Come True (which is one of the more heart-braking songs as the kicker at the end reveals).  The story deals with the tribulations of entering adult-hood as Princeton and the other characters struggle to pay the bills, find love and have a life.
There are two maniacal teddy bears who encourage drinking, debauchery and eventually suicide as an option for Princeton and the absurdity of seeing a teddy bear holding a noose is a sight to behold.  
As previously mentioned the second half is slightly weaker than the first as we resolve the messes created in the first act.  But it quickly picks up pace again as we race towards the finish.  The end song For Now is about the transience of problems as everything, apart from death and taxes, passes.  You may feel like life has dealt you lemons but eventually those lemons will turn into apples.
The humour in this show comes from the worries and stress of entering adulthood, the realisation that you aren’t that special and just muddling on through anyhow.  The show being set in New York contains a lot of American pop-culture references but they are mainly widespread enough on this side of the Atlantic to be funny to a non-US audience.
I love this musical.  I urge you all to see it at some point, or just to listen to the songs.  You’ll laugh all the way through.

First Act: 5/5
Second Act: 4/5
Overall Rating: 9/10

Year Abroad: 1 - Intro :)

I'm jetting off in late September to start what should be one of the most exciting/terrifying/awesome/terrifying/ican'twaittogoomgwhyisitsolongaway times of my life.

I'm going to be going abroad as a language assistant, but as my school teaches a lot of subjects in English this means I will be teaching in many different subjects providing the 'native' English tongue.
 
The town where I'm headed is seemingly in the middle of nowehere in the Jaen province of Andalucia, Spain.  It only has a population of 16,000 people but it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its history and architecture.

This post is basically to say that I will be trying throughout my time away to write a truthful account of my time in Baeza, with all its ups and downs.