Orientation: Week 1, Monday

One of the classrooms

This morning we woke up at 7:00 because our orientation was at 8:30.  My bed is extremely comfortable and the temperature is nice with the window open.  Mercedes gave us "café con leche" (into which I put a bunch of sugar) and one piece of toast (cooked on the stove) with peanut butter.  I got hungry very quickly after that but I'll have to get accustomed to it because Sergio (professor) explained to us in orientation that having any breakfast at all in Spain is rare and lunch is the big meal.

El Museo de Valladolid

In orientation we were given information about where and when the classes were.  Also, we got maps of Valladolid (YAY!) with points of interest on them, which will be very useful.  Sergio then talked to us individually and gave us our classes.  I have conversation, history, and literature.  They are from 8:00-11:00 and 12:30-2:00 (2 classes between 8 and 11).  During my break between my second and third class, I go to the computer lab to do my homework.  I didn't have conversation this morning because of the orientation, but history and literature were very good.

Sergio teaches both of them.  There's also two other women that teach classes.  I understood everything Sergio said, and the level of the classes is consistent with my classes at UNK.  I have to pay a big compliment to the UNK professors because I feel like I'm very well prepared to be here.  Literature is a little more difficult, as is the homework, but it's definitely still manageable.  I think there's about twenty total students in our program.  Some of them (maybe six) are only staying for three weeks though.  I believe they're all from the U.S.  There's four of us in history and six in literature.

Iglesia San Benito

When we got out of class at 2:00, we showed Jon and Zou where the beach was.  They told us they're sharing a room, and a woman and her two grown sons live there.  Their walk to school is about twenty minutes, so we feel even more lucky to be where we are.  J&Z (Jon and Zou, from now on) are our new friends.  It's nice to explore new places with a group of people.

We made it home for lunch at 2:30.  We had a sunny-side-up egg on top of a mound of rice, on which we put tomato sauce. It was a strange combination but still good.  Also, there is bread and bottled water at every lunch and supper, so I won't include them anymore.  We also had watermelon.  There are foods I've already had that I wouldn't have at home, like coffee and watermelon, but I'll eat anything here because it's part of the experience.  Who knows, maybe it'll teach me to be less picky :)

Random street in Valladolid

We eat on a small table in the living room in front of the television, which is always on.  Today at lunch, a show about touring Spain was on, and Mercedes was pointing out her favorite places like the cathedrals and theaters, and she would tell us things like "It has a beautiful beach but it rains a lot there" (in Spanish of course).  She does a good job of rewording things if we don't understand her.

After lunch I finally unpacked and did more homework while Bailey took a nap.  Businesses here are normally open 8-2 and 5-8 or 9.  They're closed for "siesta," and all of the stores are dark with gates pulled down over their fronts.  You can't even tell what some places are until they open back up and pull up the gate.  I will use siesta time to either nap or do homework.

La Plaza Mayor

At 4, we went to sit outside the school (for the internet) to post blogs and do homework.  J&Z joined us at 5 to go exploring.  We walked by Mercedes' clothing store and she came out and met the guys and told us how to get to the Plaza Mayor.

My ice cream and Iberra in the background

The Plaza Mayor is a huge square with shops around the outside and on the streets around it.  Mercedes recommended an ice cream place, Iberra, and we all got some.  It was yummy.  Bailey also bought sunglasses and [a gift] in the plaza.  We also found some nice clothing stores with really cheap clothes, and decided we'd have to go back to some of them without the guys; we didn't want to bore them too much.  One of the most impressive stores we went to was El Corte Inglés, which is a huge department store.  I think it was six stories.  Later, Mercedes told us that there is an even bigger one on the other side of "El Campo Grande" (the big park).  The boys went home, and Bailey and I got lost, but it wasn't a bad thing; we saw more of the city that way.  We couldn't find ourselves on my map by the street names, but we found a map in a plaza with a "you are here" sticker on it.  We went back home, our feet hurting really bad.

The view from the top floor of El Corte Inglés

For supper we had "tortillas patatas," which Mercedes says is everyone's favorite meal in Spain.  It's like an omelet with potatoes in it, and other spices I'm not sure about.  It was very good.  We also had a salad and more watermelon, and watched the celebration and parade in Madrid welcoming the soccer players back home.

After supper, at almost 9, Bailey and I went yet again to the school.  Mercedes told us we are free to come and go as we please (except for meals, unless we notify her ahead of time) and we have our own keys.  We stayed at school until about 9:45 when it was getting dark and a man told us nicely that we had to leave because he was locking the plaza.  So we went back home and went to bed.  Wow... that all happened in one day?  Hopefully these will be shorter in the future.



 P.S. Don't pay attention to the time it says I posted these.  I believe it's set on U.S. mountain time for some reason.