tours. meetings. orientations. signatures. back 2 school.

July 1, 2010

after falling asleep at 1 a.m. and being awoken several times from crazy people yelling in the streets and dogs barking, and being ridiculously hot- you would think i would have been my normal self in the morning- not ready to wake up. but no. for the first time probably since my last trip to europe 2 years ago, i woke up before my alarm. so it was 7 a.m. and i was up and ready to go. its crazy what jetlag can do to someone who usually treasures a good nights sleep. ;) i wondered why in the heck it was soooooooooo hot and it was only 7 a.m.! i went over to the heater/air conditioner that i was messing with the previous day, put my hands over it and oh..... "hey monica.....the heater was on during the night.....ha...ha...ha.....?" "what! katie! no way!!! no wonder it was sooo hot! turn it off!!!" i tried to. it wouldnt turn off. i was burning up, our heater was on, my mouth was dry and it was only 7 a.m. as phoebe from friends would say, "oh no..." - thats what i thought when the fear of me coming to spain and dying from heat stroke came over me. ;)
monica and i got ready and headed downstairs for our filling breakfast. NOT. we walked into the kitchen to find bread, bread, some other bread, and oh, more bread. hmmmmmm. ok. so i toasted my bread in the weird european toaster thing and then went to see what i should drink. i saw milk, yummmmm. but.... there were 3 types. one whole milk, one lowfat and one skim. now.... i dont know about you spanish speakers, but i was never taught spanish milk vocabulary. so i took the one i thought was the lowfat and poured it in a glass. i was of course soooo thirsty, and when i drank it, i realized it was almost as warm as the room i was in. ewwwwwww. warm milk. :/ ok, dear spain, why are you giving us poor americans warm milk? (k schroe- add this to our notes to the world ;) whatever. i dumped it out and put the milk in the freezer to cool it down. why not try that? ;)
i went over to get my bread out of the weird toaster and it was so hot that i dropped it on the floor. shoot!!! i put another one in. after a few minutes, went to take it out, slip! dropped it again. UGGGGGGGGGGGH. (that was the first time monica saw me get frustrated. she just stood there and didnt say anything. hahaha). finally, i figured out how to pick up toast and put it on the table. yes.
ate my toast, went to get the milk out of the freezer, it was still warm, ugh, forget it. had some water and left for the day.
we met our tour group at the "correos" building. correos is "post office" in spanish. its our meeting place for the trip and its across the street and you have to cross 2 major streets to get there. of course monica ignores the scary red hand that tells you DO NOT CROSS and just goes for it. i hate ignoring that red hand so i stood there while she stood across the street and laughed at me for not wanting to cross, especially when there were no cars around. i finally just ran across like a loco american girl. ;)
we met with the group and walked over to our school that we will be attending for the summer. its about a 10 minute walk from our room. not bad. we got there and had our orientation for the summer. basically they told us about culture shock, pick pocketers, safety, the heat, etc. i looked around the room during this and monica was about to fall asleep. so were the others. we were beat and not in the mood to hear about why spaniards find it entertaining to stare down american women. :/ we just wanted to have our siesta!!!! ;)
we signed some papers, and finally got out of there. dont get me wrong, im excited to learn more, but i must say, i wasnt quite ready to be sitting in a classroom again....hehe.
we walked back to our room for an AMAZING lunch where we met more americans. i talked to a guy named Quinton (who turned out to live on our floor and yes, indeed, he shares a bathroom with us!) from kentucky and i asked him how many tornadoes he has seen. hehehehe. he laughed and told me how he has seen tornadoes, ice storms AND that his county is right on the second biggest fault line (behind CA's) in the U.S. so then i said, "so why the heck do you live there????" sometimes i wonder if i have a filter.
we went upstairs and monica was about to die of exhaustion. we laid down and we were quite thankful for the spanish tradition known as the siesta. :)
we snoozed for a bit and hung out and then got ready to meet the group again for a trip down the street to the "wellness center!" what the heck is the wellness center? i asked monica. well, we were going to find out. we walked down the street, i got to know some of the other american students in my group (we represent all the corners of the U.S.! amber from maryland, brett from jersey, aileen from pittsburg, monica from CA, hillary from tennessee, mackenzie from colorado, eric from north carolina and then ayla, j.d. and i from where????? WWU!!!! (yes, there are 2 other WWU students in my group! :)
we got to the wellness center and whoa. come to find out wellness center must mean "the coolest work out place you will ever go to." it was super modern and had glass windows as walls and of course the american music blasting (ugh, Lady GaGa, please go away!!!!). our tour guide didnt speak any english but she showed us around and it was a neat place. we got in for free that night and we were told to bring our suits. so after walking around and seeing the HUGE work out room, the indoor pool and jacuzzi, the outdoor pool, tennis courts, indoor yoga rooms, we were quite impressed. we went downstairs to change into swimsuits because we were ready to get into a cold pool. (temp still rising- now nearly 40 degrees celcius. yeah- hot). we went outside and all jumped in the pool. YES. BEST. FEELING. EVER. we were in a little american circle and i was listening to someone talk when all the sudden i feel a tap on my shoulder. i turn around and this little old grandma is swimming the most uncoordinated backstroke i have ever seen and must have been moving about 1 m.p.h. the funny thing was, she was so in her swim zone that she just kept moving those arms and slapping me on the back. well, i didnt want to interrupt her from her intense work out regime, so i kindly moved aside as she zigzagged across the pool minding her own business. i couldnt help but chuckle. i wanted to join her! ;)
we got out of the pool beacuse believe it or not, we were getting a little chilly. so we went inside to try and use the jacuzzi but brett pointed out that something was different. he said, "well.... do you think we can go in? everyone is wearing caps.....is it like some swim class??" well, i didnt see any instructors so said we should go for it. we went to try and get in and the life guard simply said to us, "no no. must have cap." ohhhhhhhhhhhh. so apparently the next time you are all in europe and want to go indoor swimming, bring a cap, or else you cant go in! that even goes for the baldies! ;)
so we went back outside and layed in the sun. it was sooooo warm out there. it was about 8 p.m. and the sun was still high in the sky and heating us up. didnt mention this before, but here, the sun stays out until about 10:15 p.m. which i was fascinated by..... because in seattle, the sun sets later than it does in CA because we are more north. but spain is more south than seattle....how does that work? hm.... whatever. i loved it!
we walked back home and hung out a little more then had another awesome dinner and met up with some of the other people from our group. we walked around in search for a "tappas" bar. if you have never heard of tappas, well, thats too bad. basically a tappas bar is a bar where you can go in and order ANY drink, even bottled water, and get FREE (YES, FREE) appetizers with your drinks! the tappas range from rice and sausage to pork and mashed potatoes. yummy yummy yummy. what a great deal! get with it U.S.!
so we walked around, of course the lights were lit up :) and after a while we gave up on looking for a tappas bar (because they are not on EVERY street corner. you gatta find them) and settled for an outdoor bar beneath the spanish stars. :) i didnt know what to order being as i am still not a fan of the taste of alcohol..... so i didnt order anything and i told monica i would try her drink and see if i liked it and then i would order it if i did. well, the waiter didnt understand, so of course he brought me a drink too. "ummmmm... gracias!" i said. :)
the drink was called "tinto de verano" which means red summer. the drink consisted of red wine (great, i HATE wine) and then this lemon juice-like stuff. :) ok..... i gatta try this. so i did and wow.... katie actually liked it! success! i was actually really happy. it tasted really good and for once in my life i didnt have to down a drink while giving my natural "ewwww!" face with it! now i know what drink to order in spain :)
of course the waiter brought me another one when i finished. i didnt ask for it. "ummmmm..... gracias!" i said again with a girly smile. why the heck did he keep bringing me drinks when i didnt even order them???? haha. luckily brett took the drink and had it for me. 1 was good for me for the night.
we finally left around midnight and got back to our place. monica and i got ready for the night, brushed our teeth and crawled into bed. "nighties!!!!" i said to her. "well, i dont want to stop the roommate tradition, so nighties!!!!!" she said back. it made me smile and miss my manettes back home ;)
it was another restless night of sleep as i have yet to adjust to time here. whatever. at least there is always siesta to look forward to, right? ;)