Here's an email I sent out to my family explaining my first couple days in Spain... My brother suggested I write here instead, so that anyone can read what I write but I guess the whole blog thing is just unusual for me... I'm much better at email.
Sorry to send a mass email but I've been away from my computer for awhile and I wanted to communicate with everyone as quickly as possible... I found a cafe close to my home called Namaste- right down the street that has free Internet. I asked the woman in Spanish if she could help me with it and she responded to me in English, which is a little disappointing but that is definitely where I have the most trouble is in stores and with people who are not students or professors because of their accents and also my vocabulary in that department is a little lacking but I did manage to buy a notebook completely in Spanish. Another minor culture foible I made, is when I was being introduced to one of my host sister's friends. She asked me what my name was and I told her but then she moved closer, so I thought she couldn't hear me, but in reality she was going in for the Spanish double kiss on the cheek greeting, not that bad overall.
Overall things have been really good but quite busy. On an ordinary day, I wake up around 8 and my host mother will leave some bread, jam and orange juice out for me. Sometimes she is there seeing her younger daughter off, so we talk a little bit. She is super nice and she is really good to talk because I tell her about my day and she really seems interested. Then I take the number 11 bus down to the center of town. Most of the people from Dickinson live around this area so we all end up on the same bus so I will usually see 4 to 6 people on the bus that I know and we talk, usually in a mix of Spanish and English. Overall in the group, which is 13 people, the boys seem less inclined to practice their Spanish and the girls seem more into talking in Spanish outside of class. We take the bus to the last stop and then we walk for about 10 minutes to the building, which is basically a building for people from different countries who are taking classes at the university. We have two different sections to our class, one that is split into three sections, history, art and culture and then a language section. We have history first and then we have about a twenty minute break where we either go to a cafe for coffee and juice or sit outside in the sun. Then we have our language class which is split into two sections based on skill. I really like this teacher a lot because she is very good at explaining what words mean in Spanish, without using English, just actions and other words. She is ok when we joke around and tells good stories that relate to our learning.
Then we are done with classes and recently we have been doing things like getting Spanish cellphones (we did it as a group and they are basically pay as you go phones and you put euros on them, but for us it's only .06 cents to talk to the group and about .60 to call the states after eight, so it's perfect for meeting up and keeping in touch with each other, although it's been a little difficult to set up- one of the girl had family from Puerto Rico and she's been handling it but I don't know what we would do without her.) I'm glad we did that because the two times I've tried to meet people on the beach I couldn't find them and had no way of getting a hold of them. Today I went to the store and bought some shampoo, soap and body wash and then a notebook for my classes and I went with a friend which was great because it was muy barato (very cheap) only 4 euros for the hygiene products (as opposed to someone who paid 12 euros because they bought them at the mall where we bought the phones.
Then I go home for lunch, which is always super tasty. I always get a salad, with different veggies in it and today I had garbanzo beans, sausage and rice in a broth. Then I will either nap or go walking around. Around 6 we usually have been meeting up as a group again and either meet with our turtoritas, university students who take us around the city or with our professora, who will take us to a cultural site of Malaga. We also do things on the weekend- this weekend we're going to Granada on Sunday and me and my friends are going to a market on Saturday.
The transition has been up and down because on the one hand it is so amazing here. I literally live on the beach, and my house has an amazing patio where I sit and write in my journal. Both my host family and my Dickinson classmates are really nice- my older host sister offered to let me use her computer when I could not connect to the Internet at their house and she was super nice to me on the first day I was there when my Spanish was totally broken and she was hanging out with her friends. My host mother is also really great and she makes me feel super comfortable, not like I am in some strangers house and I try to make an effort to tell her about what's going on with me and I think she really likes this. They also have a cute little dog named Bender, who has the happiest looking face and will stand on his hind legs and snuggle against me when I pet him.
On the other hand, the language difference seems overwhelming and sometimes I get frustrated because I have a thought and I literally have no idea how to express it, not even using the vocab I know. There is also a lot to learn about navigating the city and I find that to be incredibly stressful, although now I know where we meet so that is easier but I really don't see a lot of the city and I feel afraid to explore because the streets are super confusing, not at all gridded and the street names are very long, usually people's names and they are hard to remember. I also find it difficult that I can't communicate with all of you guys!! Before I met up with the group I felt very isolated and had my only moments of "I want to go home." The first night I had trouble sleeping, because I had so many things on my mind but now most of those problems like Internet, getting my computer to charge (my converter was so heavy it was falling out of the wall) and communicating with people is solved. Now I am very happy but also very tired, we've had a lot of activity in the past couple days.
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