When it was time, I took my shower, dressed, and went to breakfast. On my way out the front door of the dorm, I saw that both of the doors were closed, and so I opened one carelessly and stepped outside. Of course, at 7:30 in the morning, I picked the door that had a fire alarm attached to it which of course I knew nothing of. Before I was even able to set a single foot outside an ear-piercing alarm was heard by all throughout the dorm. I just stood there in panic, not even thinking enough to close the door. I just stood there like an idiot for what seemed like an hour but was really only 30 seconds or so. One of the assistant deans came charging down the steps in a full on sprint like I've never seen before yelling "cierra la puerta!, cierra la puerta!" meaning "close the door, close the door!" but by the time I could actually understand him, he had already passed me by and closed the door himself. Once the door was shut, he practically scolded me, in love of course, saying "siempre esta puerta" pointing to the other door. It was just then that I realized that the door I opened to wake up the whole dorm had a big bright red handle and the other door had a smaller gray handle. What can I say? I will never make that mistake ever again.
After I got out of that mess, and the dean left, I started walking towards the cafe, and a girl came out onto one of the balconies close by and I am pretty sure she flipped me off in Spanish, even though I don't know how it's done. At this point, I am asking the same question you are, what on earth was a girl doing in the boys dorm?! And in the morning no less!
When that little fiasco was over, I walked quietly and very solemnly up to breakfast; very solemnly. I was thinking I should apologize to every guy I saw that day, but then it hit me, that girl and the dean were the only ones who knew it was me; everyone else was either still asleep, or at breakfast. The dean wouldn't tell anyone, and I am pretty sure that girl didn't get a good enough look at me to recognize me later, so I just decided not to speak of it again, and I didn't.
At breakfast, there was cereal, fruit, and toast. One of the sides was dates. I actually put dates in my granola this morning! Oh, did I mention they were SEEDLESS dates?! I have never seen that before, but that is the coolest thing since sliced bread, especially to a Californian who has made Hadley's one of his homes over the years.
After breakfast, we took our placement test, which I didn't feel very good about, but to be fair, even those who are better than me at Spanish didn't feel very good about it either. The test was composed of 100 multiple choice questions, and a short conversation with a teacher to see how well you could talk. For all of the times I have been very eager to talk in my life, today I evened those out. I was dreading my turn, because I have always had to think about the whole sentence I want to say before I say it; all the nouns, verbs, conjugations, tenses, feminine and masculine, and how to pronounce worlds all before anything leaves my mouth. I need time to process information; I am like a windows 98 computer with dial-up in a modern fiber-optic world when it comes to speaking Spanish. My turn came, and I am not going to say that I spoke perfectly, but of course I was trying to speak as fast and as clearly as I could while including all of the vocabulary I possibly could. My instructor had such a strong accent, that I had to ask her to repeat herself several times, but of course each time I asked, I asked a little bit differently including as many words as I could that I knew. My little "interview" wasn't exactly as smooth as jazz, but I was able to communicate to my heavily accented teacher fairly well, and I think it will all be all right.
After the test, we began orientation. Basically, it was like church on a Friday morning. Four or five different speakers got up, yammered at 100 miles per hour, then sat down and let someone else have a turn. I am very proud of myself because even though they talk much faster here in Spain, and have a very strong accent sometimes, I was able to follow probably 80 percent of what they said. The other 20 percent I didn't get was when I lost focus for a few seconds, which happens surprisingly easily, and when they were lisping.They all lisped.
After orientation, we got a campus tour, which was surprisingly short. My tour was led by a well-loved professora named Chelo. I know she is well loved because Casey Bartlett has instructed me to tell them that he says hi and hugs and kisses etc. The tour lasted a whopping ten minutes, then it was over and we returned to our rooms.
I don't remember when exactly in the day, but at some point, Josh's long lost suitcase arrived from wherever they lost it from, and Josh was much peppier the rest of the day. Eric, on the other hand, has a helmet, biking jerseys, and even a GoPro camera attached to his helmet, but still no bike. We now have a very happy Josh, and an even more antsy Eric.
At lunch, I met a new friend who, it turns out, lives right across the hall from me. I'm talking directly across the hall; a hop away, literally. He introduced himself to me with some really long Romanian name that i can't remember, but then thankfully he told me to call him Eve [evay]. Easy enough. Eve and I talked in Spanish, and about Spanish for the whole lunch period, and I was enjoying myself so much, that I forgot to eat, so when the calf closed, I had to smuggle a few things back to my room to finish later.
After lunch, they took us to the French Target. That's right, Tarcheau. No, just kidding, it is called Carrefour. I was kidding about the Tarcheau thing, but I wasn't kidding about it being French...in Spain. Oh well, the point is it is a really nice store about ten minutes by school bus from the campus. It was actually a fairly decent sized store, with a fairly descent size selection. It is about the closest thing to Target we are going to get here. I bought a pad of paper just in case I need it, and Jensen and I chipped in to by a fan for our room. The paper I bought was graph paper because that is all they had. We looked long and hard, but I guess Spain must be known for its scientists and not its poets.
After Carrefour, they took us to the beach. Mmmmm, what can I say about the beach? The water was crystal clear, and probably in the high 70s, the sand was soft and white, it was absolutely gorgeous, and there was hardly anyone there. Oh, but forgot to mention one thing; a few of the women who were there... well, let's just say they didn't get the memo that this isn't a nude beach that anyone knows of. Yep, a few women didn't wear tops and they weren't even trying to be discrete about it. They sat up, looked around, and even walked around. Next time I go to the beach, I will need to bring darker sunglasses so that i won't be blinded by the sun's rays, and the little complementary show we get just for going.
On the bus ride to-and-fro Carrefour and the beach, I talked with Eve and another fluent resident, Andres, who is from Ecuador. I talked with Andres the whole time we were in the warm, clear water together, and on the bus, and while we were just waiting around in the sand. We talked for probably a solid two hours total, IN SPANISH! Mine was no work of art, but we were conversing in another language, and he was understanding me, and I was doing my best to understand him! I felt liberated; like maybe I just moved on up to an XP with DSL or something. One of the most frustrating things when learning any language for me anyways, is not you not being able to understand them, but when you are trying to make them understand you, and they give you that universal look of confusion. Today, I can honestly say there wasn't a whole lot of that.
We got back, ate dinner, and went to vespers. Before we went to vespers, though, I asked Eve if I could see the view from his balcony, since his was across from mine; I figured that it must have a view of the Mediterranean. I was totally right. I am not going to say that I don't like my view, but look at the picture on top and tell me you wouldn't want his balcony.
In vespers, it was literally one of those times when my eyelids start drooping, and my head starts going down until my eyes pop back open and my head jolts back up into position after a few seconds. It happened the whole time. Yet, as tired as I was during vespers, I am still wide awake now writing my blog. That's Murphy's law for you.
Now is time for some sleep, and maybe some balcony time.
Hasta el proximo vez...
(I bet you are just dying to put this into your google translator if you don't already know what it means)
Loved your Blog today! (they have all been great, but today really made me smile)
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