Hello all!
It's Monday night in Spain (only 3 in the afternoon for Iowans--that's still crazy to think about) and I'm chilling in my room. Today our group of 10 went with Toni, the director of our program, to the university (UEX) campus. We have bus cards but it's not free like at ISU. We toured around our "facultad" of education, which is the department where we'll have our Spanish classes. Each facultad is in its own set of buildings, and students take all their classes there. So we'll get to know the students in that major (in fact, we exchanged emails with a few today! Yay!) when we go for classes, or study in the library, or eat something in the cafe, etc. Toni is a professor in this Facultad also.
So even though I'm not taking conversation class, we all sat in the first hour and met the professor and talked about what we've seen of Caceres so far. Then Alfonso came to lecture. Alfonso is Toni's helper for this group, a 22 yr guy who is student teaching English. He is also our city guide/friend/cultural teacher/flamenco guitarist, so we hang out with him alot and it's very informal with him. Unfortunately, we all agree that his accent is the hardest to understand since he hardly ever uses consonants... After class, he rode with us back to the center of town (UEX is about a 20 bus ride from town), to "ir de can~as" (I can't make spanish n's on this laptop), which is going out for a light beer and appetizers, not to be confused with tapas. Alfonso could probably go out for can~as until tapas begin.... you get my drift. :-D
I start my actual classes tomorrow, and I have a light schedule Mon through Thurs, especially until I figure out how my internship works at the School of Languages elsewhere in Caceres. I must call my internship director tomorrow, but calling a Spaniard on the phone will be tough...
Getting lost today was fun! My roomie and I needed some supplies, so we experimented with catching the bus after siesta today. Um... let's just say we took the wrong route and ended up in the bad part of town... haha, so we just stayed on longer until we thought we could walk to our destination (which wasn't really that far from our apartment). The whole experience wasn't stressful, but kind of funny, because when I asked for directions from another lady on the bus, she looked at us like we were crazy and I could hardly understand. She was helpful in the end though. And I'm a pro with the euro money now.
Ah, I know there's way too much to tell but things are good. Except, perhaps, that I don't sleep well, since it's hot (no AC) and noisy (garbage trucks collect at night!). I am wondering if i'll ever feel culture shock, because i still feel pretty secluded with my American roommate, classmates and nightlife-mates. I'll give that some time though. I'll make friends eventually.
One suggestion to Americans: try wine with lemon, ice and lemon Fanta. It's good, refreshing, and here a cheap drink. It's called "calimocho."
Anyway, I should go to bed, especially since I was getting lost while I should have been taking my "siesta" this afternoon. Ah well! Hasta luego, Ellen
It's Monday night in Spain (only 3 in the afternoon for Iowans--that's still crazy to think about) and I'm chilling in my room. Today our group of 10 went with Toni, the director of our program, to the university (UEX) campus. We have bus cards but it's not free like at ISU. We toured around our "facultad" of education, which is the department where we'll have our Spanish classes. Each facultad is in its own set of buildings, and students take all their classes there. So we'll get to know the students in that major (in fact, we exchanged emails with a few today! Yay!) when we go for classes, or study in the library, or eat something in the cafe, etc. Toni is a professor in this Facultad also.
So even though I'm not taking conversation class, we all sat in the first hour and met the professor and talked about what we've seen of Caceres so far. Then Alfonso came to lecture. Alfonso is Toni's helper for this group, a 22 yr guy who is student teaching English. He is also our city guide/friend/cultural teacher/flamenco guitarist, so we hang out with him alot and it's very informal with him. Unfortunately, we all agree that his accent is the hardest to understand since he hardly ever uses consonants... After class, he rode with us back to the center of town (UEX is about a 20 bus ride from town), to "ir de can~as" (I can't make spanish n's on this laptop), which is going out for a light beer and appetizers, not to be confused with tapas. Alfonso could probably go out for can~as until tapas begin.... you get my drift. :-D
I start my actual classes tomorrow, and I have a light schedule Mon through Thurs, especially until I figure out how my internship works at the School of Languages elsewhere in Caceres. I must call my internship director tomorrow, but calling a Spaniard on the phone will be tough...
Getting lost today was fun! My roomie and I needed some supplies, so we experimented with catching the bus after siesta today. Um... let's just say we took the wrong route and ended up in the bad part of town... haha, so we just stayed on longer until we thought we could walk to our destination (which wasn't really that far from our apartment). The whole experience wasn't stressful, but kind of funny, because when I asked for directions from another lady on the bus, she looked at us like we were crazy and I could hardly understand. She was helpful in the end though. And I'm a pro with the euro money now.
Ah, I know there's way too much to tell but things are good. Except, perhaps, that I don't sleep well, since it's hot (no AC) and noisy (garbage trucks collect at night!). I am wondering if i'll ever feel culture shock, because i still feel pretty secluded with my American roommate, classmates and nightlife-mates. I'll give that some time though. I'll make friends eventually.
One suggestion to Americans: try wine with lemon, ice and lemon Fanta. It's good, refreshing, and here a cheap drink. It's called "calimocho."
Anyway, I should go to bed, especially since I was getting lost while I should have been taking my "siesta" this afternoon. Ah well! Hasta luego, Ellen
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