In an effort to prevent my family from calling the SWAT team (as was previously threatened last time I left the country and failed to make contact due to my lack of international cell service), I have decided to continue my blog. For those of you who may have been out of the loop, I am spending ten weeks in Spain this summer in order to fulfill part of my International Plan (IP) requirements through Georgia Tech. I will be staying in Cádiz for four weeks, Madrid for four more weeks, and either Sevilla or Madrid for two additional weeks in order to complete research.
After narrowly evading a major crisis due to the cancellation of the first leg of our first flight to Chicago, we embarked on a direct flight to Madrid from Atlanta. And thus, the endless day of traveling began. I’ll spare the details of our journey, but as you can imagine, it was full of heavy luggage, travel information in another language, and screaming babies. After traveling a few hundred miles and a couple time zones, we finally reached Cádiz, a port town right on the ocean and just north of Morocco. As the bus pulled away, we were left on the curb, trying to find our host mothers.
I eventually made my way to where I would be saying for the next few weeks, and entered the little three-bedroom, two bathroom apartment, which I was to share with my roommate, the family of four, and their Chihuahua, Pipo. I tried my best to be polite during dinner (which turned out to actually be lunch), but two sleepless days and jet-lag are not conducive to communicating in a different language. Eventually, my roommate showed up, and was much better equipped for the job, having been in Europe for a week already. The host family laughed at my lack of decent Spanish.
We wandered around the city for the evening, locating our school, the beach, and other important landmarks. When we returned, I was hoping to be able to sleep, but this dream was crushed when it was bright as noon outside until ten o’clock at night. When the sun finally set, yet another meal was waiting for us. After eating our real dinner, it was off to bed at last.
Eight o’clock came all too soon. Today was our first day of classes. Unlike in Atlanta, we cannot roll out of bed and go to class. Here, you are expected to look presentable. I begrudgingly put on my skirt, attempted to look as non-touristy as possible, and traipsed off to school. Classes spanned from 9 a.m. -1:30 p.m., and luckily did not include an afternoon session today. Although I only caught about 80% of what was said, our topics somehow covered everything from the usual introductions to the pronunciation of Thyssen-Krupp in Spanish. I’m not sure when exactly that will be useful, but if you were wondering how to say the brand of a popular elevator and escalator company, glad I could help.
We returned home, ate lunch, and began to work on nuestro tarea, which brings me to the present. Unfortunately, the siesta that I was so looking forward to seems to be a myth. Since Cádiz doesn’t get very hot, with highs in the seventies this time of year, siestas are not as wide spread. What a disappointment. But for now, back to homework, and hopefully running on the beach later…just like back home!
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