My First Day of School!

Hello everyone! Thanks so much for all your emails and facebook posts! I love getting updates on your lives too! I have been having difficulties with my microphone on my web cam so I apologize if you were looking forward to Skyping with me sometime...I'll let you know when I get it working right again.

This weekend was very relaxing but VERY RAINY. They usually don't get rain this time of year but it has rained the last 3 days or so. Very wet. The sewers aren't prepared for this much water running through it and there are a lot of floods in the parks and streets.

Saturday afternoon my roommate and I wanted to find La Plaza de Espana on our own, but, unfortunately, we forgot a map...would have been very useful. We were able to find our school and explore around La Catedral and Giralda but once we set off on our own...our orientation completely left us. We walked around for 5 hours before we finally found it, after asking numerous times for directions. We had been directly next to it at one point and had no idea. We thought we were very far away. Anyways, we got there in the end and I still don't think we know where we walked to. It was a fun experience and we found some great icecream and pictures so it was well worth it.

Tomorrow is our first day of school! We have a 3 week intensive language period before we start the rest of our classes. It will be all the grammar I have learned over the last 4 years or so, combined into 3 weeks. Dios Mio! But it will be a great refresher to have at the beginning remember the usage of all the tenses. They also have a "Solo en Espanol" rule meaning that we have to speak Spanish at all times. A great rule because you are forced to speak Spanish but also frustrating when you just can't figure out how to say something except for in English. I feel like a lot of the people in my program don't force themselves to speak Spanish together because they feel silly. I do a little too but that is a part of getting better at the language and stepping outside your comfort zone. I think that once we get going in school, it will be more comfortable to speak Spanish with my roommate and not feel silly. My professors also say (in Spanish of course), when they catch us speaking English in class, "You don't need to practice speaking English, you already know it just fine, you need to practice speaking Spanish!" They are very true. It is hard learning a new language and it is fun in the classroom, but speaking it outside of the classroom and consistently for everyday life, it definitely a change.

Speaking of differences, Pepe and Marilo (my homestay parents) are currently out of the house (by the way its almost 2am). We have no idea where they have been all day, but they haven't been here and Pepe came back from watching futbol at around 10 but then left again. My roommate and I feel silly since we are the college students coming back to the house around 10pm to go to bed, and our 68 year old homestay parents are out until the early morning hours! Very different and we are very confused about other norms, especially around eating. People go home to eat during certain meals, and eat together for certain meals, but others they just assume its fine to not be there and to go out to eat. We still haven't found a schedule or common pattern of eating, but it will come with time. I am excited to see how much easier it gets in a few weeks once the social norms become more apparent.

My roommate has a friend in Alicante right now and we might go visit her this coming weekend. Alicante is on the eastern coast by the Mediteranean Sea. It should be fun if we can go! My program is sponsering some other fun weekend trips. They cost extra but there is a flat price that covers all costs for the whole weekend. I am excited for those and will sign up for them tomorrow when I get to school.

I must go to bed since I have my first day of school in the morning! My roommate and I can walk to school in half an hour but it is supposed to be raining all day tomorrow again so we need to take the bus. One of the last modes of transportation that I haven't experienced here yet! Should be interesting navigating.

Hope you are all well and your favorite team wins the Superbowl! Keep sending me emails about your lives and check out my pictures on facebook if you can!

Miss you all!
Besos y Abrazos!
Betsy