We finally made it to our new home. On Monday we woke up and put our bags in a room in the hotel and ate breakfast. This breakfast was 100 times better than the ones before. There were different types of bread, cereal, yogurt, scrambled eggs and sausage as well as ham. It was so delicious. We then walked to the University and went to Part 1 of Orientation. We got a couple maps, some information and a really long repetitive presentation. After that we took a placement test. We are supposed to be in track II because of the amount of Spanish credits we have taken but after taking the written (85 questions) and oral test we figured we would be doomed to be placed in track I. This would mean no Spanish minor for Tara and both of us having to find another class to take instead. Putting this out of our mind we headed for our apartment. The hotel called a cab for us and when we got in we said our street and the apartment number. The cab driver looked at us blankly and said "which hotel?" We kept trying to tell him no, not a hotel, an apartment on our street. He was super confused until we said Parte Vieja, which means old part of town. He began driving and then dropped us off on the main street in town. We walked down our street and passed shop after shop until finally we saw apartments. Our number is 8 and all we saw were 7, 9, 11..etc. Across the street is just a giant building that is definitely not an apartment so we kept walking for another block and then finally we saw the 8 across the road. Figuring out how to open the door with our key was another story. To open up and lock doors here you have to turn them all the way around twice and then usually another little bit to really unlock it so you can push it open. There aren't numbers or anything on the doors in the halls so we had no idea which door was ours. We stuck our keys in a door before finding our door. When we walked in we were amazed! The first thing we saw was a bedroom and a really long hallway. Our apartment is huge! We have four bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and 2 full bathrooms. (One is a full bathroom, one has just a shower and one has just a toilet.) Our kitchen is where are washing machine is, but we don't even have an oven. Just a stop top, a giantly tall fridge and freezer and a microwave. We have three other roommates. Dylan who goes to school in South Carolina. She is really cool and people think she looks like Hermione Granger. Our other two roomates share the bigger room and their names are Andres and Rob. They both go to school in New York. Andres speaks Spanish already and Rob is just a beginner. Andres really helped when our landlady came and talked to us. She is really nice, her name is Pepa. She brought her daughter with her and another USAC student who is her homestay son, Michael. She showed us the ropes of how to work the washing machine and the heater and gave us all her families numbers and email incase we had a problem. We paid her and she left. Her and her daughter were the first people that we got to do a proper European hello with. A kiss on each cheek. It was weird. Slash it made us feel like we were getting to know the culture better.
Today was part two of our orientation. When we woke up the wind was whistling through our apartment and my (Taryn's) balcony doors opened. It was pouring rain. Since we didn't have any food yet we went to a little bakery and got some breakfast. Between all five of us we had some bread, an eclair, a scone, some sandwiches, and we all got cafe con leche. Coffee with milk. Everyone drinks coffee here so we decided we better do it to. As our director always says, "When in Spain, do as the Spaniards do." It was actually pretty good once we added some sugar to it. It will probably become a daily thing for us. We then walked over to the bus stop. The first bus that came for us to get on told us we couldn't get on with our coffee so we had to chug it and wait for the next bus. It helps that the cups we get are only about 6 ounces. We got on the next bus and asked a man where to get off. We were disoriented at first but found the USAC building just in the knick of time.
After another hour of orientation we were free to go until it was time to meet for the walking tour. We went to the back of the room to check what track we tested in to. We walked up hesitantly, both prepared to see our names on track I. There are also two different groups in each track so we were hoping to be in the same one. At first glance our names were not on the list for track II, but as we looked harder we realized we were both placed in track II and in the same group. We could breathe again! Excited and relieved we walked upstairs into the USAC office and grabbed every single paper we could. We signed up for our intercambios. Intercambios are Spanish speaking partners to practice your conversation skills with.
Our walking tour was at 2:45 and when we left the university it was about 1:00. We decided to walk back because it wasn't raining anymore. Without looking at the map we headed in the direction we figured would have nice scenery and busy streets to walk through. It did have scenery, a lot of trees, but no busy streets. We basically walked on the highway until we were so lost we had to go into a hotel and ask how to get downtown. Thats when we realized how far away we were. Just so you know, walking from one side of the city to the other takes 45 minutes. We had already been walking for an hour. We took some curvy roads. Finally, when we only had 15 minutes until the tour and we were still nowhere close, we asked someone at the bus stop how to get to downtown. She said to get on bus 28. So we did. We asked someone on the bus which stop to get off at. She went on and on in Spanish that we were on the wrong bus. We were still supposed to be on bus 28, but just going the other direction. We got off this bus and walked across the street to the other bus and paid another couple dollars to ride to downtown. By the time we finally made it to our meeting place it was 3:00. They were gone. No group walking tour for us. Defeated, we walked to the same bakery we had breakfast and grabbed some pizza and fanta and sat in our apartment and ate. We hung around our apartment for a few hours until our roommates came home, then decided to try and go shopping.
We first went to the cellphone store and bought a cheap pay as you go minute phone. It is probably the coolest thing ever. It is so light and has the teeny tiniest screen and we had it put in Spanish so we have no idea what we are doing when we click on buttons. After that we went to the underground supermarket and went grocery shopping. After about an hour of wandering the aisles we got bananas, oranges, yogurt, eggs, milk, chips, chicken, fanta, (orange and lemon), cotton balls, conditioner, and lettuce. All of this only cost 25 euros! We hope that is actually a good deal...
We then had to walk home in the pouring rain carrying four bags of groceries. It was super super fun. We love being sopping wet when we finally arrive home. We reorganized the kitchen with our groceries and our roommates and now we have food for the week!
This weekend is a festival so all the stores will be closed! Since it is a festival weekend, the marching band has been practicing everynight somewhere relatively close to our apartment. It is very festive.
Our adventurous day is coming to a close as we make our first home cooked meal together as roommates, get ready for bed and prepare for our first day of school tomorrow. Did we mention class doesn't start until 1:30 tomorrow?
Until next time,
Tara and Taryn
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