España
I haven't used livejournal is a looong time. But I'm gonna keep a journal here of my time in Spain.
So. It's May 7th, our third day in Spain. It feels like a week since I was sitting at the Orlando airport on May 5th! I spent a grand total of 24 hours in transit from my parent's house in Seminole, FL to Salamanca. The flights were both fine. I thought the flight from Newark to Madrid would be awful, but it wasn't so bad. Erin says that we hit some pretty rough turbulence somewhere in the 3 hours that I was asleep, so I'm glad I missed that. We arrived in Madrid no problems. Security here is a joke compared to the U.S. We pretty much walked off the plane into the city. Paulo from Sampere Madrid drove us to the train station which we were pretty excited about. Erin slept through most of the 2 1/2 hour train ride, and I probably slept for 30 minutes. The train ride was really very beautiful. We finally got to Salamanca at 4:15pm, May 6th (10:15am eastern time). I had left the house at 10:30 the previous day.
Our host is Ana, a very nice retired (divorced?) Spanish woman. There are 4 other people living in our apartment, here to learn Spanish. They are all Europeans. Erin and I are the only English speakers, so everyone communicates through our second, common language, Spanish. It gets frustrating at times.
That first night, we went out to an Italian restaurant. It was expensive. The food was okay. It was genuine Italian, but I didn't really care for it. After that, we all (including Ana, who is probably in her 50s) went bar-hopping. Erin and I just wanted to go to bed, but we followed the group. We each had a chupite (a small shot of I don't know what) at the "Chupiteria". It was pretty good. I didn't drink anything else. We finally went home.
FUNNY STORY: When we got home we accidentally locked our bedroom door. Lucas (the student from Switzerland) knocked on our door to give us directions to the school. Well, everything is different here, including doors. We couldn't figure out how to open the door, so it was like, a good 60 seconds before we unlocked the door and let him in. So I'm guessing that looked pretty bad from the other side, lol. xD
Today, I woke up and took a cold shower. There's no hot water here. It sucks. We walked to the school and took our placement tests. Erin got placed a level higher that me, which is fine. Her grammar and vocabulary are a lot better that mine. I think we both should have been a level higher though, our books both look really really easy.
We left the school to go home for comida (lunch, except at 2:00). We usually take the stairs to the second floor, but this time we decided to take the elevator.
FUNNY STORY: We got it the elevator and pressed "2". We got to the door of the apartment and tried to find the light switch cause the hall was dark. Light switches and doorbells look very much alike, so we rang everyones doorbell and had to apologize several times. Then after trying for like 30 seconds to get our door open, someone very unfamiliar opens it from the inside. Turns out that the ground floor doesn't count as 1. The second floor is 1. So we were on the third floor, and trying to key into the wrong apartment. So now here I am, finally back home, waiting for Ana to get here and make us lunch. Whew.
The culture shock is freaking me out. Everything is soooo different here. EVERYTHING. I really, really just want to go home right now. But, I know that I'll prolly adapt in a few days and feel much better about it. Also, if I can improve my Spanish, things will get much easier.
K well bye for now!
So. It's May 7th, our third day in Spain. It feels like a week since I was sitting at the Orlando airport on May 5th! I spent a grand total of 24 hours in transit from my parent's house in Seminole, FL to Salamanca. The flights were both fine. I thought the flight from Newark to Madrid would be awful, but it wasn't so bad. Erin says that we hit some pretty rough turbulence somewhere in the 3 hours that I was asleep, so I'm glad I missed that. We arrived in Madrid no problems. Security here is a joke compared to the U.S. We pretty much walked off the plane into the city. Paulo from Sampere Madrid drove us to the train station which we were pretty excited about. Erin slept through most of the 2 1/2 hour train ride, and I probably slept for 30 minutes. The train ride was really very beautiful. We finally got to Salamanca at 4:15pm, May 6th (10:15am eastern time). I had left the house at 10:30 the previous day.
Our host is Ana, a very nice retired (divorced?) Spanish woman. There are 4 other people living in our apartment, here to learn Spanish. They are all Europeans. Erin and I are the only English speakers, so everyone communicates through our second, common language, Spanish. It gets frustrating at times.
That first night, we went out to an Italian restaurant. It was expensive. The food was okay. It was genuine Italian, but I didn't really care for it. After that, we all (including Ana, who is probably in her 50s) went bar-hopping. Erin and I just wanted to go to bed, but we followed the group. We each had a chupite (a small shot of I don't know what) at the "Chupiteria". It was pretty good. I didn't drink anything else. We finally went home.
FUNNY STORY: When we got home we accidentally locked our bedroom door. Lucas (the student from Switzerland) knocked on our door to give us directions to the school. Well, everything is different here, including doors. We couldn't figure out how to open the door, so it was like, a good 60 seconds before we unlocked the door and let him in. So I'm guessing that looked pretty bad from the other side, lol. xD
Today, I woke up and took a cold shower. There's no hot water here. It sucks. We walked to the school and took our placement tests. Erin got placed a level higher that me, which is fine. Her grammar and vocabulary are a lot better that mine. I think we both should have been a level higher though, our books both look really really easy.
We left the school to go home for comida (lunch, except at 2:00). We usually take the stairs to the second floor, but this time we decided to take the elevator.
FUNNY STORY: We got it the elevator and pressed "2". We got to the door of the apartment and tried to find the light switch cause the hall was dark. Light switches and doorbells look very much alike, so we rang everyones doorbell and had to apologize several times. Then after trying for like 30 seconds to get our door open, someone very unfamiliar opens it from the inside. Turns out that the ground floor doesn't count as 1. The second floor is 1. So we were on the third floor, and trying to key into the wrong apartment. So now here I am, finally back home, waiting for Ana to get here and make us lunch. Whew.
The culture shock is freaking me out. Everything is soooo different here. EVERYTHING. I really, really just want to go home right now. But, I know that I'll prolly adapt in a few days and feel much better about it. Also, if I can improve my Spanish, things will get much easier.
K well bye for now!