(no subject)
Buenos dias de España!! This little internet café on the same block as my flat has computers for .80 an hour, que barata! Now, if I could only figure out how to navigate this keyboard, with all the extra keys, I´d be doing great!
Arrived very early Saturday morning and was dismayed to see that the sun doesn´t come up here until 8AM this time of year (It was weird to leave for school yesterday morning a. at 7AM and b. in the dark). Survived the ride to the hotel with an overly-friendly cabbie...seriously, why does EVERY cabbie in the world feel the need to comment upon my marital and/or dating status?? "¿Tienes novio (boyfriend)? ¿No? ¿Por qué?? Hombres españoles son muuuyyy guapo. Mañana, tienes novio!" And then he moved in for the kill. Hand to god, the guy asked if I was a virgen (virgin, duh. Spell in English, Renée.)
Anyway, I crashed hard when I hit the hotel, and slept until ::gulp:: 5PM. Got up, cleaned up, and went out for a walk and something to eat, and then went to bed at 11. Must've been tired!
Sunday I needed to pick up my keys to the flat, and navigated the metro with no problem. Fetched my bags from the hotel and cabbed to the flat with a blessfully silent cabbie this time. The flat is...well, nothing to write home about, but it's relatively clean, and if we get the fridge cleaned out and the kitchen light fixed (it blinks horribly, so no cooking after the sun goes down), it will be just fine. There's a supermercado right in the neighborhood, so it's easy to shop, but never having lived in a big city, it's a bit foreign to me (along with the strange brands and the strange money, and the eggs that are not refrigerated...) But it's been fun, and I haven't made too much of an ass out of myself, except when I asked some lady at Starbucks if the chair was a book (¿Está libro este silla?) instead of if it was free (¿Está libre este silla?). She looked at me funny, and I ran away :)
School is harder than I expected it to be, but it's good. I have class from 3PM to 7PM every day, plus an optional 1-hour cultural lecture from 7-8. My group is Ana (Italian who lives in London), Celia (family is Scottish but she lives in London), and Ellie, who's from Atlanta. All are very nice, and we're getting along great. We have a teacher called Maria for the first 2 hours--very bubbly and exitable, and speaks quite quickly, but a lot of fun--and a teacher called Rafael for the 2nd hour. He's the hard one, eep. Frankly, he scares me a bit, but he's very good, and I think we'll learn a lot from him. Yesterday was just the first day--we had to be there at 8AM for testing, which was both written and oral, and then they took us for a 2-hour hike through central Madrid while they scored the tests. Ay. If I had known it was going to be un paseo muy largo, I´d have left my bag at the school. NOT fun lugging it through the streets that whole time, but the guide, one of the teachers called Espe, was great, and spoke at a nice moderate pace, so I understood everything she said--always a plus!! When we got back they divided us into groups, and since my classes are in the afternoons, I had some time--enough time to go back to the flat to buy toilet paper (un emergencia!) and get some lunch, but not enough time for a siesta, sigh. I had't slept well the night before, so class was difficult to concentrate through, but I made it, barely, and rallied a bit to enjoy the first night dinner that they throw for all of the new students. Tapas y vino, wheee! Los viejos staggered back to the flat and collapsed into our respective beds not soon after. It was a very long, exhausting day, but I´m feeling better today, and ready to take on Rafael, grrrr!!
Flatmates. I've got 3 this week, although our flat could accommodate 2 more. There's Noah, a kind of strange dude from Orlando who thinks his Spanish is better than it is (I was gratified to find that he was a bit humbled in his class yesterday, which is really mean, I know), there's Ingrid from Germany, and there is Harvald from Sweden (although he's actually Norwegian). We all must've been put together because not one of us is a day under 35, and I actually think Í'm the youngest, at 36 and 2 months :) There's another school flat full of kids who are all very nice, but I don't think I'd be wanting to live there, so I'm grateful for the flatmates I have. Ingrid is only here for 1 week, so we'll see what happens on Sunday. We may get 1, 2, or 3 new flatmates!
Vale.<--my new favorite Spanish word, it roughly means, "OK." Time to go. I need to get something to eat, take a shower, and get my butt to school. Hope all is well...look for more reports later :)
Arrived very early Saturday morning and was dismayed to see that the sun doesn´t come up here until 8AM this time of year (It was weird to leave for school yesterday morning a. at 7AM and b. in the dark). Survived the ride to the hotel with an overly-friendly cabbie...seriously, why does EVERY cabbie in the world feel the need to comment upon my marital and/or dating status?? "¿Tienes novio (boyfriend)? ¿No? ¿Por qué?? Hombres españoles son muuuyyy guapo. Mañana, tienes novio!" And then he moved in for the kill. Hand to god, the guy asked if I was a virgen (virgin, duh. Spell in English, Renée.)
Anyway, I crashed hard when I hit the hotel, and slept until ::gulp:: 5PM. Got up, cleaned up, and went out for a walk and something to eat, and then went to bed at 11. Must've been tired!
Sunday I needed to pick up my keys to the flat, and navigated the metro with no problem. Fetched my bags from the hotel and cabbed to the flat with a blessfully silent cabbie this time. The flat is...well, nothing to write home about, but it's relatively clean, and if we get the fridge cleaned out and the kitchen light fixed (it blinks horribly, so no cooking after the sun goes down), it will be just fine. There's a supermercado right in the neighborhood, so it's easy to shop, but never having lived in a big city, it's a bit foreign to me (along with the strange brands and the strange money, and the eggs that are not refrigerated...) But it's been fun, and I haven't made too much of an ass out of myself, except when I asked some lady at Starbucks if the chair was a book (¿Está libro este silla?) instead of if it was free (¿Está libre este silla?). She looked at me funny, and I ran away :)
School is harder than I expected it to be, but it's good. I have class from 3PM to 7PM every day, plus an optional 1-hour cultural lecture from 7-8. My group is Ana (Italian who lives in London), Celia (family is Scottish but she lives in London), and Ellie, who's from Atlanta. All are very nice, and we're getting along great. We have a teacher called Maria for the first 2 hours--very bubbly and exitable, and speaks quite quickly, but a lot of fun--and a teacher called Rafael for the 2nd hour. He's the hard one, eep. Frankly, he scares me a bit, but he's very good, and I think we'll learn a lot from him. Yesterday was just the first day--we had to be there at 8AM for testing, which was both written and oral, and then they took us for a 2-hour hike through central Madrid while they scored the tests. Ay. If I had known it was going to be un paseo muy largo, I´d have left my bag at the school. NOT fun lugging it through the streets that whole time, but the guide, one of the teachers called Espe, was great, and spoke at a nice moderate pace, so I understood everything she said--always a plus!! When we got back they divided us into groups, and since my classes are in the afternoons, I had some time--enough time to go back to the flat to buy toilet paper (un emergencia!) and get some lunch, but not enough time for a siesta, sigh. I had't slept well the night before, so class was difficult to concentrate through, but I made it, barely, and rallied a bit to enjoy the first night dinner that they throw for all of the new students. Tapas y vino, wheee! Los viejos staggered back to the flat and collapsed into our respective beds not soon after. It was a very long, exhausting day, but I´m feeling better today, and ready to take on Rafael, grrrr!!
Flatmates. I've got 3 this week, although our flat could accommodate 2 more. There's Noah, a kind of strange dude from Orlando who thinks his Spanish is better than it is (I was gratified to find that he was a bit humbled in his class yesterday, which is really mean, I know), there's Ingrid from Germany, and there is Harvald from Sweden (although he's actually Norwegian). We all must've been put together because not one of us is a day under 35, and I actually think Í'm the youngest, at 36 and 2 months :) There's another school flat full of kids who are all very nice, but I don't think I'd be wanting to live there, so I'm grateful for the flatmates I have. Ingrid is only here for 1 week, so we'll see what happens on Sunday. We may get 1, 2, or 3 new flatmates!
Vale.<--my new favorite Spanish word, it roughly means, "OK." Time to go. I need to get something to eat, take a shower, and get my butt to school. Hope all is well...look for more reports later :)