Placement test, Host family, and My new HOME for the next 4.5 months!!

Hi everyone and sorry for the longish break in between my posts. I'm still trying to play catch-up with all that has happened in Spain, so stick with me!

Okay, so the day we took our placement test, I was pretty tired but still tried to listen when we were addressed in SPANISH by some of the professors from the university. It was difficult to pay attention to them as they spoke because I was tired and was sitting in a COMFY chair in an auditorium. (All of us were now international students and this included students from a few universities in the Midwest and from the East Coast.)

Nevertheless, after being welcomed to the university, we then moved to new seats so as to sit every other person as we took the placement test by hand. I didn't know what to expect until the papers were in my hands. After I got my copy of the test, I just began filling out what was required and was finding it to be difficult and yet simple at the same time. The last part was the essay portion, and I was pretty sure after messing up and then trying to improvise with my answer so as to not start all over again, that I may have really messed up! We wouldn't find out our placements until the next morning (we would either be in Intermediate 1,2,or 3 or Advanced 1,2,or 3), so now that that portion of the experience was over, we all went back to the hotel Isla de Cuba so we could wait for our families to come and pick us up.

The greeting in Spain when you either meet someone for the first time, greet someone you haven't seen for a while, or just flat out greet someone, is to give each other two kisses. It is such a fun greeting...if you feel comfortable with who you are about to greet. But remember this, you first kiss to the left and THEN to the right. Be careful!! There haven't been any problems on my end yet. Let's hope it stays that way! I saw several UNI students being greeted in this way by their host mother's and I was so excited to meet mine! (During our prep class for study abroad, I actually got to request the family my sister lived with two years ago and guess what??? I got them as my family!!) Okay, so as I was waiting and getting excited to meet my family, I saw this smallish woman walk in with a long fur coat on and in her sweet Spanish accent she asked for Jan Lauren. THAT'S ME!!! I thought it was cute since she addressed me by my first and middle name, but I double checked she was looking for Jan Byrd...just to make sure I understood her correctly. As it turns out I did, so now I was going to begin walking with her to our piso (apartment).

My host mom's name is Albi, short for Albina. She asked me where my luggage was and so I had to tell her that it was lost but that the people at the airport had my information so they could get in touch with me when my luggage arrived. She just kind of laughed (which you will find she does a lot with me), and then we were on our merry way. She has a kind of walk that is one of confidence and leisure, and I just felt like such a BIG DEAL as I walked the streets of Oviedo with her in her long fur coat.

haha! But really, as soon as I met Albi, she was so good about speaking in a way that was not too fast and she had good diction. However, since I haven't spoken Spanish since I was born, this was the beginning of me practicing my comprehension of the language with her. As I would try to listen to her and she would see that I understood, our conversation moved smoothly. However, as soon as she saw a look of confusion across my face(which was a lot the first day we were together), she would throw her head back, give a little giggle, and then start again so that I could try to understand her. What I absolutely love about Albi is her patience with me as I try to understand what she is saying and then form my own answer to share with her.

Well as we were walking, I was trying to take notice of where we were going and I thought to myself, "I don't think I'm going to remember all of these turns." Well it just so happened that I really had no need to be paying too close attention to where I was walking because it was the long way home and not the way I would walk in the future. As we continued on our journey home, she let me know we were going to meet up with her husband, Miguel, and walk home with him. I was so excited because I didn't remember what he did for a living exactly; but then as we approached his store, I saw him sitting in his BARBERSHOP reading a newspaper. It was sooooo cute and perfect for him and his Spanish self. He locked the door and now we were a little closer to my new home. As we were walking, Albi told me Miguel was going to pick up a map for me so that she could trace out the best way for me to get to school. I was happy to hear that!!

Something that just cracked me up as we were walking was that Albi would send Miguel to do some errands for us like getting the map for me or running into a market to buy something we would need for lunch. We still kept walking as opposed to going wherever Miguel went, but then he would rejoin us and Albi would send him on another errand. It was so funny to me because no matter where Miguel went, he was always able to catch right back up with us. (Something to know about Albi is that she can walk either pretty quickly or pretty slowly when she has no rush, so this was one of those moments where we were walking pretty slowly.)Since I am a fast walker, I was definitely adjusting to her rate of speed, which is a lot less than mine!

So after walking in the city for about 30 minutes I'm sure, their piso was finally in sight;

and when we got to the door to go inside the building, I understood exactly what Miguel said which was, (it was in Spanish of course) "this is your new home for the next few months." He said it with a smile as he bent over to unlock the door and I was so excited to be with him and Albi!! It was so comforting for him to call their home MY home as well. I knew I had been blessed by God in being able to live with this family after they had already hosted my sister in the past. She loved them, and so I knew from the start that I wouldn't be unhappy with my new family. God is so GOOD!!

Hasta Luego!

LOST luggage, MANY courses for dinner, and a little bit of a NEW taste...

Welcome back! I'm glad you stuck with me and hope you enjoy your next view of my time in Spain.

Well, after my plane landed, D, A, and I discovered that unfortunately, our luggage was LOST. Our friends T and M had success in seeing their luggage, but we weren't so lucky. All the passengers kept grabbing their luggage one by one and before we knew it, there was no more luggage for us to hug with glee and claim as ours. This was a disappointment, but nevertheless, I prayed that we would only have to go a few days without the rest of our belongings. Thankfully I made sure to pack some essentials in my back pack so I wasn't at a complete loss!! Good advice from my big sister C. (Her luggage had been lost for a week when she came to study in Oviedo two years ago.) Anywho, the reunion we had with other UNI students at the hotel Isla de Cuba was marvelous and you would have had no idea that we weren't in IA. It didn't feel like we were thousands of miles from home at all now that we were seeing more friends.

Not long after speaking in ENGLISH with each other (lame I know!) did we find that we had to figure out where the five of us were going to stay since there wasn't enough room for all of us to stay with the rest of the UNI students. After being in the little cafe for a few minutes, the immersion into the Spanish language began! The owner was telling us where to find the other hotel and that we could pay the same rate as we would had we been able to stay in the hotel Isla de Cuba, but I was SO LOST because he was obviously speaking in Spanish!! Thankfully he wasn't talking to just me. Well, our expedition to finding the other hotel was supposed to be a pretty short walk, like about 5 minutes or so. I'm pretty sure we walked for about a half hour but with M and T's luggage which made the trek a little more burdensome. Now I was REALLY thankful that I didn't have my two big suitcases to haul around in the streets of Oviedo. So after asking for directions from a few natives and trying to use our handy map, we finally found our home for our first night in Spain: el Hotel Carbayón. It was so cute and wonderful to think about the idea of getting to sleep in a bed after all the traveling we had done. We were all super pumped to shower as well!! Not that we were dirty, but we were just in great need of feeling CLEAN after our many hours of travel.

Finally after we ventured around the quaint hotel and saw where the each others' rooms were, we got ready for our night out with P and L (our non-academic advisors from Spain) and headed back to the hotel Isla de Cuba. Our walk was about 10 minutes and the night air was so refreshing. This was the night we were going spend as a larger group, have dinner together, and share a little about ourselves so we could learn more about each other since most of us didn't know each other very well. There are 21 of us in the UNISIS program, (UNI Semester in Spain) so this took a little time. But hey!! We spoke in Spanish!! YESS!!! It was so fun to catch a glimpse of peoples' personalities and see who we would be getting closer to while we are so far from our families and friends back home.

Now it was time to eat, and in Spain, people don't eat until around 9:30pm sometimes. Well it was probably about 10pm and we were all VERY ready to eat but also VERY tired. There were so many courses of food that we were beginning to wonder when it would stop!! It was all delicious and thankfully I didn't see many things that I was too afraid to eat. Hooray!! Now it was time to pay for dinner but in euros. The money feels so fake that I still look at it and wonder how real it is. It totally feels like Monopoly money. Don't worry!! I know it is real because I have converted my U.S. dollars into euros and don't want to lose that money.

So after our dinner as one big UNI family, we had the opportunity to go out with P and L and head to a bar for just a little time to chill. (It was only going to be our group, so it was reassuring to know that we wouldn't have to see any sketchy people.) In Spain, the drinking age is 18, so I knew that I could partake if I wanted since I'm 20. At dinner, I actually tried something called "sangria" but didn't really like it. It was kind of exciting to take my first sip of alcohol in Spain because I knew it was LEGAL, and so I was only hesitant to try it initially because I had never had any before. After arriving to the bar, I chose to drink some juice because I like the taste a lot more, but it was fun to taste what other people got to drink. By the time we left and headed back to our hotel, we were all so ready for bed. The morning was going to come early because we had our placement tests waiting for us and had to take what luggage we had back to the hotel Isla de Cuba before we went over to the university. Be prepared to hear about the first day at the university in my next post!

Hasta luego...(until next time!)

Adiós Iowa. Hola España!

Hola dear friends and family. It is hard to believe that I'm in Spain but it is indeed the case.  Week one has already passed, but I will catch you up on all that has taken place since my departure from the U.S. until now...and hopefully in as few words as possible so as to not make this insanely long.  And so it begins...

On January 7th, my parents dropped me off at my friend A's house because her parents were going to drive three of us girls to the O'Hare Airport in Chicago, IL the next morning.  Upon arriving to A's house, I gave her full warning that I would need help repacking my luggage because my suitcases were just a LITTLE too full.  Our de-packing (I may have just made that up.) of my suitcases began at a semi late hour and A was a fantastic example of what it looks like to have someone tell you that you have to get rid of about half of your luggage before you can leave for Europe.  Well, by the time we were done, she had helped me to fill 3 plastic bags full of items that I really wouldn't need to have with me while I was in Spain. That is what I call a job well done!

Then came morning...my alarm went off at 6am and I don't know the last time I got up that early! We ate breakfast at A's house, and then were on the road by 7am in order to pick up D. All of us were so happy to be together and stoked to finally be getting on a plane in a few hours to begin our journey to Spain. A's parents were our lovely chauffeurs for the 4-5 hours it took to arrive to Chicago, we made our goodbyes and then went into the airport all by ourselves. I felt like such a young adult!! We were alone, without our parents to guide us, and ready to check in and get our tickets. Dropping off our luggage was a cinch and I couldn't believe how quickly we went through security! There were two funny and yet awkward things that took place though. First my belt set off the metal detector and so I had to take that off, and then I had forgotten to empty my water bottle...I had to pour it out in a nearby trashcan and then the security guard had to basically wipe a little cloth over my hands to check for alcohol or something. I really didn't know what she had to check for but it was hilarious nevertheless.

Luckily, after we got into the boarding area, we checked to make sure our flight was on time; it was but then the sweet man behind the desk told us that we could leave on the earlier flight if we would like. We jumped on that idea in order to beat any bad weather that might be coming our way. During the flight, I took the time to rest my eyes and also spend a little time praying about what adventures I would have in Spain. There was only one girl that I was sitting by, and I was really wanting to talk with her but of course, since I didn't know her, I was hesitating. The next thing that happened was clearly from God because the girl began reading a book called God on Campus. He made it clear to me by that time that He wanted me to have a conversation with this girl before our two hour flight ended. So after I rested my eyes, I couldn't sleep any more because I was putting off God's clear command to talk with the girl and He wasn't going to let me sleep any longer. After a few times of opening my mouth and not saying anything, I finally just started talking and asked her about the book she was reading. She explained it and then asked why I was curious about it. As the conversation progressed, we discovered from each other that we were both believers in Jesus Christ and then we spent some time finding out about each other: our names, where each other was from, and then we each shared our testimonies (the story about how God has changed our lives for His purposes). The openness that we had with one another was wonderful and so fun. I found out that she was going to be heading to Italy later this month to study abroad and after exchanging information AND after she gave me the book she had been reading, we said our goodbyes. I might even get to see her when I travel to Italy sometime this semester!! How sweet would that be?!?!

Now we were in the Philadelphia airport, we met up with two more UNI students, and then grabbed some dinner. It was a pleasant surprise to run into M and T and so we had a great dinner together. Chick-Fil-A was my personal choice and it was sooooo yummy! After dinner, we began practicing speaking Spanish with one another and were more than ready to head to Madrid, Spain. Pretty much everyone on the flight sounded like they were native speakers, so the 5 of us were semi intimidated but totally pumped to go! I had the opportunity to watch Inception on my own little personal screen and really love that movie, but then unlike A and D, I had no luck getting ANY sleep on our 7 hour long flight after it was over. We got to eat dinner and breakfast on the plane, and I thought that was one of the coolest things ever! In my opinion, the food was delicious. hmm hmmm good!

Now we had about five hours to kill in the Madrid airport, and I was so exhausted and ready to take a nice long nap. We were surrounded by natives of Spain and it was our first time to see the classy and fashionable people of Spain all around us. I was in love with the culture already!! The Spaniards are so B-E-A-U-tiful!!!!! It was great to actually fall asleep in the airport and not even be self-conscious about the fact that I was asleep with my head on a table in the middle of a public place where people were grabbing a bite to eat or just spending time chatting with their friends.

When it was time to board our 3rd and final plane, the five of us were all so slap-happy that we were probably coming across as being a little crazy. However, we were all really sleep deprived and yet super hilarious to one another. I sat next to a Spaniard on the plane and chatted with him before we took off (we actually spoke English though). He told me a little about Oviedo and where to find the bus after the plane would land since we would be outside of the city. Soon after talking, I could feel how tired I was and let him know that I needed to rest. I slept for the entire one hour we had on the plane and was still pretty worn out, BUT we were finally in Spain! There is more to come...stay tuned.

Hasta luego!