ESPAÑA!!

Hola mis amigos!

I am sitting in my new room writing my first blog post. I'm too wiped to take pictures, but I will do so later, I promise.

The whole time I was flying here, it didn't hit me that I was really going to study in another country until I got off the plane in Paris and saw the obvious Europe-ness of it. I wasn't scared really, but it was just kind of a weird feeling. Like, what on Earth am I doing?

It wasn't the going abroad part itself that scared me, it was the people part. I was terrified that I would get to Pamplona and meet Carmen, my host, and that she would hate me. Well, luckily, she is extremely nice. She does not speak a word of English, so our conversations involve a lot of pantomiming and "Repite, por favor"s from me.

Her daughter, Aran, is also really nice. She speaks a little English but we don't really talk in English unless I'm having a translation issue. She can kind of help interpret sometimes. I've embarrassed myself, though, because I keep saying "araña," which means spider, instead of Aran. Whoops. Of course, that's not the only time, but it happens.

Going back to my trip over, when I arrived in Barcelona, there was a protest in front of the check-in gate for the airline I wanted to use. I asked the lady at the desk what the protest was about and she said that there "are a lot of problems with this airline." Great, just what you want to hear before boarding a flight. It made me realize how little I know about contemporary Spanish culture. I will need to learn.

Sorry that I'm jumping around, but that's how my brain is working at the moment (although it actually is a literary technique). I began my trip at the Savannah airport. My flight left at 1:00pm for Atlanta. From Atlanta, I had an eight hour flight to Paris (it was so fun to say that "I'm flying to Paris"). In Paris, I had to wait in a very long line to get through customs. Once I got threw customs I had to race to catch my plane to Barcelona. Once I got to Barcelona, I thought I had to reclaim my suitcase and then recheck it because they didn't print me a boarding pass in Savannah for Pamplona. Anyway, I learned that it tells you on the luggage tag which flights the bag goes to. How simple, yet so unclear. So I had to go back through security and everything. That's when I saw the protest I mentioned.

I still had 3 hours until my flight to Pamplona, so I went to my gate and took a nap in the chairs with my carry on and purse as my pillow. The Spanish don't announce when flights leave so I slept through another group's flight. I didn't dare nap again after that. They also decided to change the location of the gate and not announce it. Good thing I double checked the board. The flight was also late which they didn't announce. When it finally got there, I saw people get in line so I got in line. It was very strange. Other European countries announce the flights normally.

Today, I took an oral test to check my conversation ability. Carmen walked me to school, which was so nice because I wasn't completely sure how to get there. I kind of felt like my mom was walking me to my first day of school. After that, I worked out some technical issues with using the computers at the school. It's all so different. Then I went to a Spanish class. After that, I had orientation.

I met so many different people from different countries. I only met a few from the U.S. I met a lot of Germans, which made me happy and I could even understand a little from what I remembered in the time I lived there. I also learned that English is the main language in Singapore, which I didn't know. I met people from Ireland, Belgium, China, Singapore, Austria, Quebec, Mexico, Argentina, France, and so many others! I'm going to learn so much. Everyone was very friendly and easy to talk to.

I was surprised at all the English I spoke today. All of the international welcoming stuff was done in English. Many of the international students are taking English classes in economics and business. I didn't meet anyone else who was only studying Spanish. When I told people that I'm a Religion and Spanish major, I felt like I didn't have a real major. Ah well. Some people even came here to improve their English! That really surprised me. If I hang out only with the other international students, I won't learn Spanish. Good thing I'm living with a Spanish family.

We went on a tour of the city after an information session. After the tour, we went to a pinchos bar. Pinchos are like tapas, little appetizers. At the bar, everything was very cheap. You could get a pincho with a drink for 2.50 euros.

All in all, I've had a very busy few days. I don't have class tomorrow so I think I'm going to relax and try and figure out some things. For instance, I believe I can buy a SIM card for my iPhone and it will work here so I'm going to look at those options. If that's too expensive, I'll buy a cheap phone. I'll probably explore the city some. I've already gotten lost several times. Luckily I can understand enough Spanish to be told directions.

It's amazing how much Spanish I understand and how bad I am at speaking it. However, I'm already improving. I'm very excited to see how my Spanish ability progresses. I felt very inferior talking to the other foreign students because English is not their native language, but they speak so well and often speak more languages in addition to English, their native language, and however much Spanish they know.

I'm excited to see what the semester brings. I know it will be over all too quickly. This weekend, I'm going with the international student group to San Sabastian, which is a beach town not far from Pamplona. That will be fun.

I'll try to update this again soon!