Saturday, January 23, 2010

I saw Jesus!







Hola todos!

Wow...it seems like I've been here a week already, but really only two full days! I feel like I've already gotten to experience Spain in an amazing way, and I'm starting to make friends too! Yay! :) Did I already mention that my roommates are from Latvia? Angelica and I speak mostly in Spanish, and it's really nice to speak to someone that I can actually understand. People here speak so fast, and I'm not really used to it, so I usually look at the person next to me with confused eyes when I need a translation. I guess that means it can only go up from here?

Yesterday after our ISEP orientation, a few of us went to El Corte Ingles to get phones, so now I can be connected to everyone in Spain and rejoin the technological world. We had a really fun adventure, and then we took the bus to IKEA...another fun adventure. Every time I walk around I see more of the city that is new to me, and it is such a fascinating place! Tons of little shops, old buildings, twisting streets, and tall buildings. I have a few observations so far.
1) I notice pregnant women here more than in the states because every one I've seen so far only has a belly. You couldn't tell they are pregnant from looking at them anywhere else, but they have their baby bulge.
2) PDA is very prevalent and apparently well-accepted here. Enough said :)
3) Cars can drive anywhere. Roads, sidewalks, alleys...really, anywhere. So, watch out for cars.
4) Buses are sweet, but since we still don't have maps of the entire bus system, we do a lot of guessing and walking even extra.

We definitely have done a ton of walking, which I definitely don't mind at all. Although I must say, I wore my gold flats all day yesterday, and by the end of the night I really couldn't walk one more step. My feet were happy that they were able to experience tennis shoes for today's excursion. Last night I went out for tapas with some of Lara's friends. There is a group of ISEP exchange students from the US, and there is also a group of ISEP direct students who don't take classes with us, but they've been here for two weeks already and I've met quite a few of them through friends. Tapas are restaurants where you go with friends and people order a bunch of different dishes and then you talk and share all of the food with the table. It was SO much fun! The Sangria is really good, and I also tried shark for the first time, as well as calamari. They were both really good!

Today a pretty big group of us went to the outskirts of town to see a huge statue of Jesus that overlooks the city. We got to climb up to see it, and it was so amazing! I love to climb anyway, and the view from the top was unbelievable. It was exciting to find a group of people who are up for adventures too. I decided to make it an early night and I bought a delicious chocolate something or another for my way home, and made some dinner. Tomorrow - church with some other students, and then...? Explore, explore, explore!

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