Hello everyone! I feel bad that I haven't had time to write about my experience so far. Here is a ginormous post I started last Saturday. It's long, but oh well! I want to catch you up on everything I have been up to. Hopfully after this, I will be able to post stories and thoughts about current happenings. Enjoy! (Disclaimer: I am not using accents because it is too difficult when I am typing fast. Also, I feel like my English is fading... is that bad? Soon my English and Spanish will be on the same plain....)
Started on Saturday:
Yes, I am in Spain! I arrived yesterday. I just finished unpacking my 2 enormous suitcases (only one was overweight!!), and as I type, my host mother is in the kitchen with Spanish radio blasting throughout the small apartment. The first song on the radio was Save Tonight. Now Lazy Song is playing... Oh Spanish radio.
I have yet to describe the program I am doing here in Alcala for my blog. I am doing the Tufts-Skidmore in Spain program in a suburb of Madrid, kind of like the size and distance relationship of White Plains and New York City. With the program, students stay with a Spanish family and attend the historic university. The program also has a center and offers classes. I will be here for four months. I depart on Dececember 23rd.
I feel my English writing is a little strange. I just spent several hours talking with my host mother. Excuse my poor grammar. I am super tired and just writing...
I arrived in Spain yesterday after much anticipation. I have been so excited for this program since my acceptance this past spring, but I had an action packed summer, so this semester crept up on me, especially with the hurricane. We didn't have power for three days! I almost thought I would be bringing dirty clothes to Spain! It was a hectic and sad goodbye at the disgusting Delta terminal at JFK. Only part of my family came for my departure. Melissa is in DC and Christina is still in Turkey. I always have a hard time leaving my family, but this was especially difficult knowing there is no chance of driving home when I feel homesick. I felt homesick before I went through security, although up until then I was able to keep my cool and viewed the coming semester as any other. Thursday was a crazy day, and I appreciated my family's patience. Emotionally, I was a trainwreck, but I was lucky I flew with a friend of mine from Skidmore, Bridget! I would have been crying the whole way if it weren't for her.
Later on Saturday:
I was just interrupted three times. The first by my older host sister's return from a trip to Istanbul with her husband. The second was (I think) a ding dong ditch. And the third was my host brother in law (hehe) bringing me turkish delight from Istanbul! I actually think they got the names mixed up. Christina, correct me if I am wrong, but turkish delight is like sticky stringy sugar. I think this was more like baklava.
Back to my departure. It was loco. I was lucky to have Bridget because she made me think about other things than missing my family and being scared. Thank you, Bridget. The flight was very uncomfortable and super cold, but at least it was nonstop. Also, I was in the middle seat, but I was next to a skinny woman in her late twenties. No overflow, if you know what I mean. She is in Spain for a friend who just broke off an engagement. Kind of awkward... And she has family here.
We arrived in the airport in one piece and were greeted with smiles, signs, hugs, and of course many dos besos (two kisses) by several of the program people (that is how I will refer to the people who work for Tufts-Skidmore in Spain). They immediately threw us into Spanish, which was good and bad because I didn't know how to express my gratitude for their friendliness and for picking us up at the airport. Also, they knew exactly who I was! Every time they say my name, it takes me a minute to know they are talking to me because they call me Elisabeth, and they say it with a Spanish accent. After waiting a while for everyone to get through, we finally headed out to the shuttle. I was already regretting not disciplining myself enough to pack one suitcase, and lightly. I am d-u-m dumb!! They took us to a hotel in Madrid. We checked in but could not go to our rooms yet because it was the early morning. We were allowed to have breakfast in the hotel, continental style. We ended up sitting there for quite a long time (I lost track of any sense of time). They we had to wait while they figured out who was where and with who. The day had started with a lot of waiting. I passed out once I saw the bed. I was rooming with a girl from Tufts whose suitcase was lost, and so I lent her my shampoo and conditioner, and later shorts. Then we ate lunch, which was paella, but not so good hotel version with vegatables,chicken with frenchfries, and icecream. In Spain, la comida, lunch, is the biggest meal of the day and is usually spent with family at home.
I am continuing this post on September 4. Right now, I feel pretty awkward because my host sister is crying to her mother in the living room about her break up.... I feel bad but what can I do?
:( big sad face
During lunch at the hotel, we met the Spanish student who work with the program to help us get oriented and help us integrate into the culture. They offer advice, tell us where to go for food, and give us any help we need. They are a little older, maybe in mid twenties. Two of them took us for a walk in a new park in Madrid afterwards, which was really fun. I was struggling to udnerstand them with their slang and fast speaking. Also, I have a hard time coming up with responses and things to say because I get so absorbed into listening. The park was really dry and fairly new, but there were these awesome slides we all went down. Super fun and broke the tension of the pressure to talk.
Then we were told to dress in activewear for activitdades de ejercicios for orientation. They didn't explain anything else, so I wore shorts and a t-shirt. Sergio, who works in Alcala, ran the orientation activities. He is a theater guy and (i think) is part of a theater company. He also teaches a movement class in Alcala, which I am thinking of taking. He is a very funny guy! Surprisingly, his bonding activities were a success! I knew everyone's names in both programs!! Afterwards, I napped again, and then we went out to dinner with the Spanish students. We had tapas, and most had sangria or canas, which are little cups of beer from the tap, but both Bridget and I knew if we even had a sip we would be sleeping on the table. Instead, we both had Fanta Limon! Which is EXCELENTE! It's like fizzy lemonade. Then we returned to the hotel, took a shower, and passed out.
The next morning, yesterday, I actually had forgotten that I was in Spain... It was very strange... I thought I was going to be playing Halo with Sara and Jonny. A sad moment indeed. We had breakfast in the hotel at 10, and then the rest of the morning we sat through various presentations about the program website and safety throughout the semester. After we had lunch, and I was much more awake for that than I was for breakfast. I sat next to Cristina, a student a the law part of the university in Alcala. She is SO COOL. And super patient and fun to talk to. She wants to become a police officer. She has an exam on Monday that will determine if she graduates or not... kinda scary! She seems extremely nice and kind natured, and wants to get to know the program students. She said she would help me with anything I need, and she gave me a few stores to go to to shop! She said that she wouldn't be around the program for the next few days because she had to study, but would definitely see me after the exam. After that we left for Alcala!
Written today, September 6:
I was SO SCARED to meet my family. After hearing good and bad stories about families, I was worried. Also, I was so tired, I didn't know how I would carry my suitcases. I kept thinking of Sarah Newman's story of having to lug all of her luggage herself. AHHH! The city is absolutely gorgeous. We met the families at Plaza de Cervantes, which will become a key place to meet up with people. I felt so bad because I couldn't recognize my host mother! She was calling my name, but I didn't know it was her! I must have had an old picture and she changed her hair. She very kindly took the smaller of the suitcases (I wouldn't let her take the overweight one). I never felt so exhausted in my life. She lives within walking distance of the plaza, like it would be weird to take a taxi, but it's just far enought that with a suitcase, it was loco. She was totally judging me. She kept wondering what I had in my suitcases. Nicely, but still... Looking back on it now, she was probably just asking because she was curious. Spanish people are super direct.
We got to the apartment, and it is absolutely spotless. En serio. Like the cleanest place I have ever been. The complete opposite of what I expected. I was expecting a place like Jonny's host family, where their house was wonderful, but dirty. And my room is perfect! My host mother kept saying, it's very small. It's perfect for the amount of people who live here, which is two normally. She was so nice and showed me the apartment. And then she gave me a phone!!!! She is so sweet. We chatted for a bit ,but I was so tired and sweated through my clothes, so she left me to unpack. I was difficult because there isn't a lot of room for stuff. I had a little freakout... Now we are where I began, with the radio blasting and my host mom making dinner. My fam gave me an electronic picture frame for my birthday for this trip. I set it on my desk, plugged it in.... but the frame said I needed to load the pictures... and then I remembered shutting my suitcase in my room at home and putting the memory card in my suitcase... I couldn't find it! I started crying and compltely fell apart, quietly... It's the little things that will set me off. I did find it in the end! And later my host mom saw it just in time for freak pictures... AWKWARD!! A little embarrassing, but whatever.
Now that I caught up a bit, I need to leave...:( I want to catch up to today to be able to write more about what's happening now! En serio, this program is the best program out there. No joke.
¡Hasta luego!
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