First Impressions

Sunday:

After a really crummy night’s sleep because of the stifling, intense heat, Angi and I decided that our mission for the day would be to find some fans! I found a Corte Ingles that was on the other side of Salamanca and thought for sure they would be open on Sunday (their website said they were open from 10:00-22:00, nothing about being closed on Sunday!!). I directed us all the way over there, which I’m hoping Matt will be proud of. For the past two weeks I had relied on his good sense of direction and affinity for maps… every time  I asked him, “Are you sure we’re going the right way?”, he was leading us in the correct direction (even despite the Madrid map with only about a quarter of the street names on it). So, we got to El Corte Ingles, and as I’m sure you’re guessing, it was closed, as was everything! Matt and I aren’t much for shopping and I guess didn’t notice it last Sunday—as long as we had something to eat we were happy! Mission buy-a-ventilador: failure…. BUT, we had a huge victory when we found (on the other side of Salamanca) an amazing vegetarian restaurant: El Grillo Azul. Normally when I order something off a normal menu, I’m very wary of words I don’t know. In Spain, unusual words usually mean some sort of meat thing. Here, we weren’t worried about it at all… I got an asparagus risotto, Angi an amazing salad and we split some vegetable paté. We lingered in the air conditioned bliss for as long as we could!

After a (HOT!!!!!) wander back to the dorms, I attempted an unsuccessful nap until our informational meeting. It was nice to finally get all the information we had been wondering about, i.e. when and where our classes would be, what field trips we would be taking, grading policies, etc… Angi and I (and other students I’ve talked to) were under the impression that this was a small program—that they only accepted up to 40 students a summer. No. There are about 40 students in each group and there are 4 groups of us in the first year. There are a whole other slew of second year students, which means that there are a lot of us! 

After the meetings we (and everyone else) decided to go get our first meal at the comedor (included in the price of the program). Oy. What a line! We had to wait a good 20-30 minutes before we got served a meal full o’ carbs: pasta salad, bread, tortilla espanola (or fish), and French fries. Dinner left a little to be desired.  By the end of the whole series of events of a chaotic informational meeting, long dinner line with disappointing food, all while being surrounded by native Spanish speakers, I was done. I thought about writing a blog post last night, but decided it would be best for everyone until I waited until I was in a better place of less self-doubt, frustration, exhaustion, etc… I thought a good night’s sleep was all I would need, so I took a Tylenol pm, put in the ear plugs and waited. And waited. And waited. But deep sleep never came to me; I think my mind was processing way too many things and was in the middle of transitioning into full-time Spanish and I was beyond uncomfortably hot.

Monday:

I woke up trying to be positive, but really just feeling overwhelmed and questioning what I had gotten myself into and whether or not I was up to this challenge. It’s extremely intimidating being surrounded by native Spanish speakers; there are just a small handful of us who speak English as our first and primary language. In addition to sleeping like poo, I also discovered that the mosquitos had found my open windows and tasty-self in the middle of the night…arggg!

Because of the long dinner line, we tried arrived to breakfast even before they started serving it… Unfortunately there were at least 100 people that got there before us. We waited in line at least 45 minutes before being served, grabbed our (again disappointing) food and ate it on the way, and were late to class (along with a number of other people).  They only had one person working to restock the food and take our food vouchers. The cafeteria opens at 7:30 and our classes start at 8:30… We’re going to try it again tomorrow, but we may be going to a café every morning to get our café con leche and tostadas. It was not a good start to the day…

But, my first impressions of my classes and teachers are really positive! The teachers all seem very knowledgeable and passionate about their subjects. Classes are 50 minutes long and go from 8:30 until 2:00, with only one 30 minute break. At 2pm, we get to go have our lunch. A little different from my 10:55 lunchtime at Jesuit! Angi and I didn’t even bother with the cafeteria lunch today, instead opting for a few tapas at a restaurant a few blocks away.

I tried to take yet another unsuccessful siesta. I’m really not sure how I’m functioning on so little sleep and haven’t turned into a major grump yet. Almost every afternoon, after lunch & siesta, we have another class, movie, tour or some activity. Today I had a class on la Cultura Popular de Espana that will meet every Monday afternoon. That was from 4:45-6:45, when I was finally done for the day.

So Angi and I went on Mission #2 buy-a-ventilador and were successful!! The fan is a cheaply-made piece of work and needed a screw driver to assemble (which of course my Swiss army knife doesn’t have), so I improvised MacGyver-style and part of mine is held together with a hair band. We also got anti-itch cream and bug spray (I didn’t think I would need either; those are things I bring to Costa Rica, not Spain!). I’m hoping I have everything needed to (finally) sleep!

It's an overpriced POS, but it works.

I know there are some fellow nerds out there that are probably curious about my class schedule:

8:30-9:30: Gramática de espanol

9:30-10:30: Literatura espanola contemporánea

10:30-11:30: Evolución del español

12:00-1:00: Historia de Espana

1:00-2:00: Recursos para la ensenaza del español como lengua extranjera

4:45-6:45: Various Daily Cultural Activities