Sorry for the delay! I've had this post written since I the first day that I got to Spain, but as I'm quickly learning WiFi is not nearly as readily available as it is in the United States.
And 11 hours later… Spain! As I walk off the jet way, I’m greeted not by the familiar murmurs of English, but by the somewhat unfamiliar murmurs of Spanish. I know this should be expected, I mean I’ve been preparing for this trip for years, but now it’s real. As everything starts to sink in, I realize that I understand more than what I let on, granted the signs that are written in English first and Spanish second help. I find myself understanding the side conversations and the signs before I have the chance to read the English translations. Not as scary as I thought.
I have my housing assignment, I will be living with a single 45 year old woman who is a bio agriculture student and has ambitions of delivering organic food to people’s homes. There will also be one other student living with us; she is a senior from the University of South Dakota. We will be living in an apartment. The apartment is a 75 minute walk from campus, which is intimidating compared to my 5 minute walk to campus in Fort Collins. Thankfully, the apartment is located near a bus stop and campus is only a 15-20 minute bus ride. Needless to say, I will be taking the bus.
I’m sure this will be the first of many, but I experienced my first cultural difference. I entered my hotel room in Madrid and the first thing I did like always was flip the switch to turn on the lights… except this time I flipped the switch and nothing happened. Frantically I walk around the dark hotel room trying to turn on any light without success. I walked back to the door thinking that I’m going to have to tell the front desk that their lights are broken, when I see a contraption on the wall that looks much like the card reader you would insert your card to enter the room. I spend several minutes inserting and removing the key while flipping the switches and am frustrated at the fact that the lights keep flickering on and off. As I soon learned, you have to keep the key inserted in this card reader in order to turn on anything on in the room. This is to ensure that you are not wasting energy when not in the room. Who knew?!
