estoy aqui
i moved to salamanca yesterday and ended my first day there by wandering through its streets at 5 a.m. with a puerto rican and two dutch men in their 30s, singing "raspberry berret" at the top of our lungs. the dutch, it seems, love prince.
salamanca is not a small town. it's actually pretty urban, with high rises and buildings that are thousands of years old. it also has 1,700 bars--the most bars per capita in the world. it's said that there's one bar for every 100 people. the street i live on apparently has more bars than the entire country of norway does, and i hear that norway isn't low on bars.
i haven't met my roommate, nicole yet. she's hawaiian. but i mostly hang out with alex who was in my group. the nine of us went through orientation in madrid. we saw toledo, el escorial, the prado, etc. alex and i live on this floor of the residencia that has all americans, except for carlos, the bilingual puerto rican whose computer i'm on right now. there's a spaniard here, too, but i haven't gotten to talk to him a lot.
the residencia de la torre is pretty communal. we leave our doors open and have breakfast at 8 a.m., lunch at 2:30 p.m. and dinner at 9 a.m. alex is having a hard time adjusting to the eating schedule so jenna took us to the supermercado where i bought fruit and he bought everything. he finished a whole box of granola bars yesterday.
all of my clothes are dirty and the housemaid, nani washes, dries and folds them for us. she's from the dominican republic.
alex and i try to talk in spanish as much as possible. but the other americans don't even try and it's really frustrating.
the others are having trouble with their host families. they're overwhelmed. there's no sense of personal space here, and kristin and tisha are having problems with that. i'm used to it because it's the same way with an indian family. tisha's host family also can't say her name because they all have lisps.
but the residencia is the party place. last night, a bunch of spaniards brought their friends and eduardo took a giant 1.5 L emptied bottle of water and filled it with cheap vino tinto and coke and sugar. it was great. carlos made jello shots and when we brought the dutch guys over they were impressed.
i cannot keep up with the partying. we stayed out until 5:30 a.m. i just can't do it. my body is breaking down, i'm too tired. i dont even drink. i need to utilize the siesta so that i get enough sleep. i'm already starting to feel sick.
after lunch we all go into the tv room and watch cheesy game shows. they have family guy in spanish, which is hard to follow, but because i've seen the episodes, it's even funnier. the peanut butter jelly time episode was a riot.
i'm not going to lie, hispanic guys are my absolute weakness. and before i got here, i really feared that i'd fall in love with a spaniard. it's, of course, a possibility, but a stupid idea because they're only out to get american girls, it seems. but really, i'm so numb to guys right now. girls chase after alex and i laugh because he's like my savior in this crazy house. but i'm absolutely not attracted to anyone right now.
i'm too depressed about damien. he's never called and rarely answers. i slowly am giving up on calling him because i'm setting myself up for disappointment. when we were driving to salamanca from madrid, john matt let me listen to his ipod (i really, really regret leaving mine at home) and i listened to "last goodbye" by jeff buckley and bawled thinking about the last time i got to see damien. he had his uhaul in the parking lot and we took pictures with goldschtein.
on the phone
long long distance
always through such strong resistance
at first you say
you're too busy
i wonder if you even miss me
salamanca is not a small town. it's actually pretty urban, with high rises and buildings that are thousands of years old. it also has 1,700 bars--the most bars per capita in the world. it's said that there's one bar for every 100 people. the street i live on apparently has more bars than the entire country of norway does, and i hear that norway isn't low on bars.
i haven't met my roommate, nicole yet. she's hawaiian. but i mostly hang out with alex who was in my group. the nine of us went through orientation in madrid. we saw toledo, el escorial, the prado, etc. alex and i live on this floor of the residencia that has all americans, except for carlos, the bilingual puerto rican whose computer i'm on right now. there's a spaniard here, too, but i haven't gotten to talk to him a lot.
the residencia de la torre is pretty communal. we leave our doors open and have breakfast at 8 a.m., lunch at 2:30 p.m. and dinner at 9 a.m. alex is having a hard time adjusting to the eating schedule so jenna took us to the supermercado where i bought fruit and he bought everything. he finished a whole box of granola bars yesterday.
all of my clothes are dirty and the housemaid, nani washes, dries and folds them for us. she's from the dominican republic.
alex and i try to talk in spanish as much as possible. but the other americans don't even try and it's really frustrating.
the others are having trouble with their host families. they're overwhelmed. there's no sense of personal space here, and kristin and tisha are having problems with that. i'm used to it because it's the same way with an indian family. tisha's host family also can't say her name because they all have lisps.
but the residencia is the party place. last night, a bunch of spaniards brought their friends and eduardo took a giant 1.5 L emptied bottle of water and filled it with cheap vino tinto and coke and sugar. it was great. carlos made jello shots and when we brought the dutch guys over they were impressed.
i cannot keep up with the partying. we stayed out until 5:30 a.m. i just can't do it. my body is breaking down, i'm too tired. i dont even drink. i need to utilize the siesta so that i get enough sleep. i'm already starting to feel sick.
after lunch we all go into the tv room and watch cheesy game shows. they have family guy in spanish, which is hard to follow, but because i've seen the episodes, it's even funnier. the peanut butter jelly time episode was a riot.
i'm not going to lie, hispanic guys are my absolute weakness. and before i got here, i really feared that i'd fall in love with a spaniard. it's, of course, a possibility, but a stupid idea because they're only out to get american girls, it seems. but really, i'm so numb to guys right now. girls chase after alex and i laugh because he's like my savior in this crazy house. but i'm absolutely not attracted to anyone right now.
i'm too depressed about damien. he's never called and rarely answers. i slowly am giving up on calling him because i'm setting myself up for disappointment. when we were driving to salamanca from madrid, john matt let me listen to his ipod (i really, really regret leaving mine at home) and i listened to "last goodbye" by jeff buckley and bawled thinking about the last time i got to see damien. he had his uhaul in the parking lot and we took pictures with goldschtein.
on the phone
long long distance
always through such strong resistance
at first you say
you're too busy
i wonder if you even miss me