After all the flights, I had to take the train from Barcelona to Camallera. I was a bit nervous about this, since I didn't actually know which trains went to Camallera (only the regional trains do, but telling a regional from a non-regional is more difficult than it would first appear). I also hadn't slept other than a 10-minute nap in Charlotte, NC, and the flights together were about 16 hours long. First I had to find the train station (not too bad), and then buy a ticket. It transpired that there were actually two stations I had to visit; at the second, at first it looked like I was in for a 2 1/2 hour to get on a regional train but then somehow a completely different train was found that would go to Camallera in the next four minutes. I scrambled to get on that one, and did. Then I spent the next couple hours of transit time falling asleep on the train, waking up, hoping I hadn't passed Camallera but also thinking that it was a ways away so I should be fine but not even being entirely sure this train actually did go to Camallera, and so on. As I got more and more uncertain, I finally found a list of the stops of the train on my smartphone, and then in six more stops, I was in Camallera!
The residency is about a 20-minute walk away from the station, but the day I arrived my host and the art director of Nau Côclea, Clara, was there to pick me up (no one wants to drag their luggage 20 minutes when sleep-deprived and uncertain of end destination). The residency itself is a small grouping of buildings in the midst of hay fields on the outskirts of Camallera. The town is inhabited by only about 500 people, but the train station means it actually has a fair amount of services for such a small town. It also means that travel to nearby towns is pretty easy.
I have my own small house to myself and it's kind of a hybrid between the Peruvian housing situation and a more Western one. The kitchen is reminiscent of the one in Peru - a stovetop range fueled by a gas canister, a fridge, and a sink. Unlike in Peru, though, the water is safe to drink right out the tap and the bathroom has a water-based toilet and a shower - and all the water can be heated. However, the rooms have no air conditioning and rely on windows and airflow from outside to cool them off, so just like in Peru, the insects come in with the breeze. I acquired about seven new mosquito bites in the first day before I remembered to start applying mosquito repellent every eight hours or so.
The first day I had a tour of the land, a snack, took a long nap, and then ate dinner with Clara while getting acquainted with her. I'm the only resident here at this time, so she's going to be inviting me along to some of her social/arts events so that I don't get too isolated.