It´s been really hard to find internet access so I´m going to blog to make up for the past couple of days. I´ve been writing in a journal since I can´t blog so I´ll just do my entries for Sunday and Monday. Today is Tuesday so Í´ll blog about today tomorrow or when I get the chance.
Sunday:
I have had one busy day. I woke up this morning with jet lag that finally set in. I did not want to get up at all. A group of 8 of us went to breakfast at Futbol Cafe. I had churros con chocolate. I asked for milk later and the waitor brought it out in a saucer type thing instead of a glass because he thought I was going to mix the cup of thick chocolate syrup but I really just wanted a drink. I´ve been so thirsty since I´ve been here. Then at the hotel we had a quick orientation thing and then our head director, Veronica, said, "Ok, ready to meet your host families?" The nervousness hadn´t set in until she said that. I´m still in a surreal state and that was kind of an eye-awakening statement. I do have a roommate/housemate, luckily. Her name is Roseanna from Buena Vista. We live with one old woman who is a grandmother of atleast 1 and has at least 2 daughters. One of which was there to pick us up from the hotel. We live on the first floor (technically 2nd because they start at 0) in a small apartment. There are 3 small bedrooms, so Roseanna and I get our own, there is only 1 bathroom, a family room, a living room, and a kitchen. The apartment comes together in a circlish with how the rooms connect. We got here, unpacked and had lunch. We had pasta =) , bread, and an orange. Fruit and bread are served at every lunch and dinner so far. Then we had our siesta which was great. It was a 3 hour nap and it could have been longer. We woke up to go meet another family to walk to the school so we knew where it was for tommorow. This is where my day got interesting (NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART- mothers should stop reading here). Two girls from another program here in Granada were supposed to direct us to our school, but she had plans for Tapas at the same time. We all met up with 2 more of their friends, but we weren´t hungry and we thought it was rude of them to make plans when they were supposed to escort us to the school. So we were going to go on our own to find it. One girl said she felt bad because she told out host moms that she would show us. So she took us to the school and led us back to the cafe where here friends were waiting. From there she circled our map to approximately where we lived. Now keep in mind that us three (my roommate, and our new friend Tessla, and I) have only gone to our apartments once on a car ride. It was a new area of town and we were expected to know how to get back? On our journey home we made it to the right area but couldn´t find where we lived. None of us brought the paper along with all of our address because we were under the impression that our host mothers and these other girls were going to escort us the whole way. We got lost in Granada for a good 2 hours. Just what a mother wants to hear, right? We had a map, but what good is a map when all you know is what street you live on- not even the street it crosses with. We circled the city twice around our area, pretty soon everything started to look the same. I thing we covered a 3 mile radius for our cirlce. The way that we ended up finding our apartment is kind of like in the movie The Hangover. We used our clues that we remembered, like common places, monuments that we passed on our car ride, and the final clue was a picture that Roseanna had taken on her camera from her window. It was of a Coca Cola store and we passed it twice but didn´t recognize where we lived. Finally we went inside and asked if there was another store just like it close by and that our apartment was near it. He took us infront of the store and pointed to some apartments around and we finally found it across the street. I felt confident that we would find it, until it got to the last half hour. After circling and circling the same places I dídn´t know what else to do. I had €10 in my pocket, no passport, no phone, no phone numbers to call, and no way for a hotel room. Back at the apartment our host mother called Tessla´s host mother and we met her halfway. Not to mention during all of this it was cold (around 34 degrees F), raining, my clothes got all wet and my sneakers and socks soaked because I didn´t have an umbrella. Then I showered and had dinner and watched a little Batman Begins in Spanish. Another long day in the books, tomorrow I continue orientation and go to school. A hard day, but a happy ending.
Monday-
Today we had our first orientation at the school. We had to be there at 10:45, so I got up at 8:20 had hot chocolate for breakfast after I told my host mom that I don´t like coffee. Then we met up with Tessla to get to school by 10. We have a good solid 25-30 minutes to walk to school. So we go to school, come back for lunch, then go to school for class at 4, then back home at 7. That´s a minumum of 140 minutes of walking everyday. For class at 4 we took a level test to get an idea of where we are at with the language. I think I did very poorly on it. It was half writing and half multiple choice of vocabulary/fill in the blanks the make the sentence correct. I don´t know what level I will get, because honestly I feel border line between Intensive (beginners) and Cultura (intermediate). So I far I seem to be struggling. After class I got my wifi password so I am praying that it works tomorrow. I can´t stand not being able to communicate with everyone back home. After classes, Tessla and I went to get phones with her host mom so she could communicate for us. I have a cheap flip phone that doesn´t have a lot of minutes and it would be easier to skype with people than to call. So we´ll figure that out at another time. I changed the phone to English but I´m still not sure how to operate it. I also bought an umbrella after the first two days of rain, and imagine that today (Tuesday) it is absolutely beautiful and clear skies. I hope to soon mail something home to see how long and if it works properly. I have seen some scratch offs for my Dad and Angela, and some cute Spanish dresses for Brianna. That might take awhile to find out how everything works. I found a post office but it´s like a newspaper stand type thing so I´m not sure how to approach it yet or how to say what I need/want.
Speaking of mail if you want to send something to me, which I don´t really suggest you do. It´s expensive and what would you need to send? a letter? email will do just fine: uhla1@central.edu
But to those stubborn people out there, you have to send it to the school:
Amy Uhl
[Veronica Garcia Montero]
Centro de Lenguas Modernas
Placeta del Hospicio Viego s/n
18009 Granada
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