Settling in

Hello hello. Yesterday we met and moved in to our home stays. I live with a woman who I would say is probably around 60 years old and her son Manuel who is 15. On my paper it said his name was Jose Miguel, but I think that she calls him Manuel, so that’s what I’m rolling with. They’re very nice, but it’s just hard to understand them sometimes between the fact that I don’t know all of the everyday vocabulary that they use and because they talk much faster than most people I usually speak Spanish with.

Today we went to Italica which are some ancient ruins of a Roman city that is in Spain. It was really cool because they had a amphitheater that was were they would persecute Christians and Jews. I suppose it wasn’t cool that they persecuted people, but rather that the theater is still there. It is still a little cold here but I try to remember that if I wasn’t in Spain I would be in Michigan, where I’m sure there is plenty of snow.

The schedule to eat is really different, and although I didn’t know if I could do it, I think I will actually be able to adjust. We eat cereal and fruit when we wake up, although I think I’m fortunate because most people say they just get toast, and then lunch isn’t until like 2:30. Then you take a siesta, or I’ll probably have classes when they start, and dinner isn’t until 8:30 or nine. My senora cooks so much food, and I am so stuffed every time I finish a meal, but I suppose I prefer that to being hungry.

I think that the time difference is still confusing my body because today I went to take a nap at like 3, but I didn’t wake up until 8:30. So ridiculous, but I really am tired. I mentioned eating a lot before, but I’m hoping that all of the walking we do balances that out. My legs are seriously still sore just because we walk everywhere all the time.

I am finally starting to get a feel for the city and the streets. It’s very frustrating because the streets definitely don’t follow any sort of grid system, so they jog and veer a lot, and they’re just kind of hard to navigate.

My living situation is nice though, because I’m pretty close to the CIEE center where I will take most of my classes, and because I live in “el centro” I’m close to a lot of the cool and important things downtown. Although I don’t have a roommate, there’s a girl from my orientation group who lives across the street from me, so we have so far been walking together and such. She’s very nice and she’s much better at navigating than am I.

One last thing, in January/February, all of the stores have what they call “rebajas” which are just big sales, some up to 70% off. I slept through the time I was going to go shopping today, but I think maybe on Sunday if stuff is open, I’m going to hit it up then. Apparently the cool thing to wear here is flat tall boots that kind of look equestrian to me, so clearly I’m going to pick up a pair of those.

We start classes on Monday, but it’s only a two-week intensive session where we take one class, so I don’t anticipate it being too difficult. Until then, that’s all I wrote, yo.